How I Quarantine | Weekend Whatevers

Entering into week three of quarantine; I finally feel like I starting to find my rhythm. It is interesting to think how every day we live is making history, but somehow I think these recent days, in particular, are going to be quite memorable ones years from now when we look back. I want to live long enough to be able to look back on these days, God willing (#stayhome), and I want to remember these days as good ones! How about you?

Hey friends! How are you guys doing? I'd love to know what you guys are doing to survive your time of social distancing!? Even though I am an introvert, it still took me a few days of adjusting to figure out how to use all the free time I now have on my hands being stuck at home. I've started teaching some online virtual ballet classes which has been fun. I have yet to sit down with my sewing machine, but I have been SO longing to, with so many new leotard designs floating around in my head. My goal before the end of this quarantine is to bring those designs into existence. Here's hoping I have enough supplies on hand being that all non-essential shops are closed. Do you have anything you'd like to accomplish during your time in quarantine? I hope you had a great weekend and have a wonderful week ahead! Below is a list of other things floating around in my head that you might find interesting. Enjoy these "Weekend Whatevers" I came up with.

1. Have you guys heard of the movie "I Still Believe"? I feel like everyone is talking about it and heard that it is really good. I hope to see it soon. IMDB describes it "The true-life story of Christian music star Jeremy Camp and his journey of love and loss that looks to prove there is always hope." It available for stream online on many platforms! 
2. One thing I've been doing a lot of is baking during this quarantine! Banana bread, black bean-avocado brownies, 3-ingredient peanut butter cookies. What should I make next?
3.  For some reason I've been really taken by this song lately. I even think it is considered a Christmas song, but I love it so much, bringing me much comfort in this season.

4. Something else I've been really into lately is cleaning my house. Fun fact: Mixing Hydrogen peroxide with Windex is my favorite cleaning solution for cleaning carpet and fabrics! It's a thing! You should try it! It works!

5. One so of my favorite ways to stay in shape during this time of quarantine are doing these videos. I think this girl, Cassey Ho of Blogilates, is my new favorite Youtube workout coach.
6. If you don't already know about "Proverb 31 Ministry's" First 5 App  you need to go download this daily devotional app right now! I just finish a study on Leviticus and Hebrews and it was SO good. I'm sad it is over but good thing they have tons of other studies. They never let me down, 

7. Speaking of apps, I downloaded this new, money-making, survey-taking app call Zap. Deparate times call for desparate measures. I actually really like it! I don't know if my opinion or voice really makes a difference taking Zap's surveys, but the surveys are all  great, easy enough, and not to long. I've only had the app for three days and have already racked up $8.30!

8. I am really missing my "London Fogs" from the Roosted Roaster at the Kitchen Kettle Village, so I decided to start making my own and are delicious!

9. You guys, I really want to own this book. Thats all. :)

10. So doing online virtual ballet classes from home is becoming a thing! Dance educators are exploring a whole new territory when I comes to technology, but I've really been enjoying the process and am enthusiastic to share my knowledge of dance to the world through these classes regardless of us all being confined to our homes. If you are interested in recieving a special private ballet class from me during the month of April contact me via email or any of my other social media platforms!

I’ve been temporarily out of employment due to the corona outbreak, so I’m taking $10 donations via Paypal for Live private classes, but I’d be happy to provide a class for any amount or free, to meet you wherever you are at. I know I’m not the only one in a tight position and I just really want to bless the dance community with this. I want to hear from you if your interested! Thanks for your consideration! :)

ALSO,  one of the studios I teach at, Cavod, will be offering dance classes online! If you are looking for online dance classes of all kinds (and your studio is unable to offer you classes online - please check with your home studio first), Let me know and I'll get you connected to the right people! #Keepdancing

Working on proper body alignment and posture with the help of my toilet paper roll. 

😊

Thanks for stopping by! Have yourself a great week! Chin up, stay healthy and safe! #Stayhome Comment, follow, subscribe, and don't be shy!

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No Frother, No Problem! - Making a London Fog

I think I've found my drink! I've never been much of a coffee drinker. Coffee dates were something I always looked forward to for the visiting, but being the frugal person I am, it always killed me to have to resort to paying so much money for a tea bag (since I don't drink coffee), when the cost of one bag at a coffee shop usually equates to the same cost of a pack of 12 from the grocery store. I would always try to get the cheapest drink offered UNTIL a friend of mine introduced me to the fancy London Fog tea latte that I am now currently obsessed with. It is such a cozy and comforting drink, but again, with my heart for living frugally and not wanting to become addicted or sell my soul to Starbucks, I decided to learn how to make it myself in the comfort of my own home and so this is what I want to teach you how to make today!  

...Featuring my very favorite mug from Powell's Bookstore in Portland Oregon. #PrayforOregon

Homemade London Fog

Ingredients

• An Earl Grey tea bag which can be stretched for two cups of tea. Consider making things more interesting with a flavored Earl Grey too! Vanilla or Lavender for example, yum!
• Anywhere from a 1/2 teaspoon to a whole teaspoon of honey, as desired
• about 1/4 tespoon of vanilla extract
• Water and Milk, I did about a 1/3 cup of water to a little more than 2/3 cups of milk 

I was never one huge on caffeine. I do love sugar but what I love most about fancy drinks like these is the lightness of the milk and its bubbles which are usually created by a frother or french press which are things I do not own. I was determined to work around my lack of owning cool kitchen gadgets, on a mission to find a way to get the same effect. What I learned that if you take your milk after it is heated and shake it in a glass jar or bottle for a couple minutes you get what resembles frothed milk! I was so excited about this! I tried it, shaking my hot milk inside one of my swell bottles and I was very impressed with the results! the milk froth was lighter and less dense but still achieved the desired effect earning my satisfaction!

Directions:

1. Bring water to a boil.
2. Allow tea bag to steep in your shallow amount of water for about 5 mins to allow for maximum flavor to be unleashed.
3. Add vanilla to tea.
4. Heat milk not quite to boiling; hot and steaming but not bubbling.
5. Froth milk. See above for frothing alternatives for those who do not own a french press or frother.
6. Add honey and frothed milk to tea while still hot.
7. Enjoy!

Inspired by: This Youtube video on making a London Fog

Is excellently paired with this Banana bread recipe! 😋

Buen Porvecho!

Give this delicious recipe a try, 
and then please let us know how yours turned out!
Thanks for stopping by! Happy Baking!
comment, follow, subscribe, and don't be shy! 

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Delicious Banana Bread Muffins

Nothing like a good ole' banana bread recipe to whip out during a rainy weekend, a hot summer where your bananas are ripening fast, or during a boring season of quarantine such as this one that the world is currently undergoing. Make banana bread! I feel like banana bread is such a staple. If you don't already have a good banana bread recipe to call your own, I am happy to share this one with you that someone shared with me! Honestly, I am not much of a baker, but this recipe is so simple and easy to follow and results in amazing deliciousness in no time at all! This recipe would essentially work for muffins or also as loaf too!

Cinnamon Banana Bread Muffins

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup of oil
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup mashed banana (about 2 small bananas)
• 1-1/2 cups of flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Optional Streusel Topping

• 3 tablespoons of melted butter
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

but the bread is SO good even without it! I am usually a sugar person but this streusel isn't really even necessary, just optional!

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grab your pan. I sprayed my pan down lightly with cooking spray and didn't bother with muffin liners or anything.
2. Mix together sugar, oil, eggs.
3.  Whisk in bananas and vanilla. I don't even have a whisk but simply aggressively mixed with a fork. Ha.
4. Add in flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, mix well.
5. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups about 3/4 the way from the top. 
6. Bake 17 to 21 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Remove and let cool.
8.  For the optional streusel: Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Put melted butter in a separate small bowl. Dip muffin tops into melted butter and then into cinnamon-sugar.

As seen at: https://togetherasfamily.com/cinnamon-banana-bread-muffins/

Is excellently paired with this delicious homemade London Fog Tea Latte!

Buen Porvecho!

Give this delicious recipe a try, 
and then please let us know how yours turned out!
Thanks for stopping by! Happy Baking!
comment, follow, subscribe, and don't be shy! 

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Quarantining like a Pro / Memes / I'm so Over It

Hi Ya'll! I wonder how your time in quarantine is going. 

(What am I even saying?!?! To think our 2020 has come to this?!?!)

Public school districts have closed,  the sounds of traffic coming through my windows of the busy main street I live off of has lessened, and it seems like the infamous, microscopic, trouble-making viral organism we have on our hands (no pun intended),  has subjected all of man-kind to staying home. Aside from the fact that because of Covid 19 I am now unemployed indefinitely with next-to-no income, at the top of week-one with the new mandate from our government to stay home, I was kinda excited about the idea of it. My thought process was, "With no binding work schedule or social engagements filling my week, maybe this is exactly what I need to reform my poor sleeping patterns, catch up on life, and reestablish better time management!" Not to mention, as an introvert, staying home comes easy!

 I've always been a glass-half-full kind of gal (obviously). 

But I gotta say, week one has proven quarantine to be more of a challenge for me than I initially expected. Boredom wasn't the issue. I am intrinsically wired for keeping busy, and ALWAYS have projects lined up to work on. If I've ever had a "productivity issue" it'd be planning TOO MUCH to do in one day. But No! My issue during my first week in quarantine was 
LAZINESS!!!  
Yes; laziness, a lack of motivation, and to my surprise, some emotional instability. I know I can be hard on myself sometimes, but trust me when I say things were a little out of control there for a hot minute. I think you'd agree that sleeping in until 2 PM for multiple days in a row is a little excessive. One of the challenges of living alone is having no accountability for things like that. I believe in taking a good sabbath rest, but I know in my heart that things were a little off-kilter.
It didn't take very long for feelings of sadness and purposelessness to set in. It didn't help that when I wasn't sleeping I spent most of my waking hours the first couple of days glued to my phone, taking in one bad report after another concerning the corona virus, and numbing myself with social media and silly memes. Nothing against the memes. I think all the people responsible for creating them are FANTASTIC hilarious geniuses. I am always one for comic relief, but I'm not okay with how almost over night life on earth began being reshaped by panic, fear, and confusion. The memes were only entertaining to me for a short bit before finding some of them distasteful, as I observed that their mockery only began to feed select peoples'  frustrations and bitterness, disguised as comic relief but more so serving to only further magnify the grim situation. 

My life left solely to waking up to take care of myself and to get things done for myself very quickly began to feel two dimensional, void of the third dimension; waking up to take care, invest in, and love other people. I have never realized until now just how much I live for that third dimension! I wonder if all people do? And this, my friends, is the exact reason for why this social distancing thing has been much harder on me than I anticipated.

Lessons  Learned :

• In the short time span of this past week I've had to teach myself a new way to care for, invest in, and love other people, relying heavily on technology to help keep me connect with others, giving me a new found motivation in this new way of life. I'm not sure if the whole idea of "needing to be needed" would define the complex I have as I'm still trying to process through my thoughts and emotions, but through this I have also realized that aside from the fulfillment I get from helping others, without connecting with others, I myself can feel deprived of being cared for, invested in, and loved, which can make all the difference in how I go about my day and in how I feel emotionally.

• I also was reminded of the power of God's Word which was what helped me shake off the heavy emotions and laziness, and helped me feel like myself again by the end of the week!

•   God used the tangible experience I underwent this past week of starting off the week in peace with my mind stayed on thee to then finishing it in turmoil feeling hopeless, to show me just how impressionable our minds are. I can see now how I allowed too much of the "doom and gloom" on social media to impact my mind, derail my faith and security in Christ, and distract me from the eternal perspective I was so determined in the beginning to maintain. Our minds truly are a battle field. I so desire for Christ to rule and reign in mine; to see our present circumstaces as they are, but to view them through a lense of faith! The lesson that I learned here is that just as my mind can be transformed into that of Christ's, so too can it be transformed into that of the world's if I'm not careful, requiring that I take the utmost caution deciding what to fill my mind with! The following scriptures helped to clear my cloudy mind this week.

 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your MIND. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. 

~Romans 12:2

Those who live according to the flesh have their MINDS set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their MINDS set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. 

~Romans 8:5-9

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. ~Philippians 4:8

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Drop a comment down below and let us know how your doing.

What bible verses have been your source of hope lately!

Ciao! 

💗

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Hope Amidst the Pandemic

SO  this is what it is like to experience a pandemic (the worldwide spread of a new disease). I never would have imagined experiencing something like this in my lifetime, but as I often say, there is a first time for everything! Needless to say, I will be happy when this is all over.

The Coronavirus COVID-19 has everyone out of sorts! I will look forward to the day when all the toilet-paper-shortage jokes stop, and the struggle to moisturize my hands as much as I wash them will be over.

ANYWAY,  here are my two cents on the situation... I couldn't help but chime in on this. In a world full of gloom and doom where we are constantly being inundated with facts, opinions, numbers, fears, and the like, I hope you will be refreshed by the eternal perspective and hope held out in the following points shared below. Call it optimism. Call it religion. I see it as me having faith in proven, life-changing, timeless, imperishable truths.

#1 From a place of gratitude, I will start by saying I am thankful for this season of life (dare I say for the virus itself) because, for one thing, It is a reminder to us that this earth is not our home.  

#2  I am thankful for this season of life, two: because it is an affirming reminder to us that God's plans cannot be thwarted and that they will and are coming to pass. Feeling oddly unphased by it all, I ponder, how could I allow myself to freak out or be alarmed by the chaos, fear, and confusion taking place in our world right now when the foreknowledge of all this happening has been so clearly presented to us in the prophecies of scripture. I'm not necessarily saying I believe we are experiencing the end of the age (Matthew 24:36, 2 Peter 3:10), but just saying that as a Bible Believing Christian, when I've learned from scripture that these sorts of events are to be expected and will culminate in the end times, how can one be surprised? I'm also NOT saying I'm devoid of any emotion or concern, but I digress.

#3  To continue off of the idea that I am not devoid of feeling, emotion, concern, or sensibility, Thirdly (...and my most favorite point), I am thankful for this season of life because it is a reminder to us that GOD IS GOOD. And this good God is sovereign, in control, and worthy of our trust;  by which knowing that, PEACE is produced in me, the "feeling" in me that is currently and undoubtedly supernaturally outweighing all others at this time. It's simply unexplainable. 

I do hope dear readers, that the verse above would be made true for you, as it has been for me. Worry and anxiety have proved never to do anything good for our bodies or immune systems, if anything, affecting them negatively which is the last thing we need. So in conclusion, Yes, keep washing hands, and yes, maybe social distancing isn't an entirely bad idea, but also check out this outstanding hymn I discovered listening to Wretched Radio the other day. Thanks to Todd Friel for sharing it! The remarkable, ever so timely lyrics have been ministering to my soul ever since I read them. Hymns are amazing like that. I encourage you to marinade in the truths buried within each verse of this hymn that you to may be equally blessed by them too!

   What God Ordains Is Always Good
By: Samuel Rodigast What God ordains is always good:
His will is just and holy.
As he directs my life for me,
I follow meek and lowly.
My God indeed
In every need
Knows well how he will shield me;
To him, then, I will yield me.

What God ordains is always good:
He never will deceive me;
He leads me in his own right way,
And never will he leave me.
I take content
What he has sent;
His hand that sends me sadness
Will turn my tears to gladness.

What God ordains is always good:
His loving thought attends me;
No poison can be in the cup
That my physician sends me.
My God is true;
Each morning new
I trust his grace unending,
My life to him commending.

What God ordains is always good:
He is my friend and father;
He suffers naught to do me harm
Though many storms may gather.
Now I may know
Both joy and woe;
Someday I shall see clearly
That he has loved me dearly.

What God ordains is always good:
Though I the cup am drinking
Which savors now of bitterness,
I take it without shrinking.
For after grief
God gives relief,
My heart with comfort filling
And all my sorrow stilling.
What God ordains is always good:
This truth remains unshaken.
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
I shall not be forsaken.
I fear no harm, for with his arm
He shall embrace and shield me;
So to my God I yield me.

Feel free to comment down below what your reaction and/or response to this is. I'd love to know all of your thoughts. Let's start conversation!  Signing off for now- Health, Peace, and Blessings,

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