You know, you would think with all the extra time I am spending at home these days due to COVID-19, I would have made a lot more progress on this puzzle than I have. ?

But, alas that is not the case. Both Randy and I are still holding down our full-time jobs, which we are extremely grateful to have right now, while also trying to help our two boys navigate a whole new way of learning. It has been challenging at times to say the least, but I know we are far luckier than a lot of others right now so I won’t complain.

Even though I have finished 95% of all the signs that I initially sorted there hasn’t been a lot of progress in other areas yet.

As you can see here, the signs are mostly complete now with just a few pieces missing here and there. These are pieces that likely got sorted into other buckets because they mostly had other “non-sign” looking elements to them like trees or buildings, etc. I am not worried though. I know they will show up in their own good, sweet time.

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Once those were completed to the best of my ability, I moved on to the Statue of Liberty. As I was initially sorting, it took my brain a little while to zone in on those greenish pieces and realize they were part of her so therefore I am pretty sure I am still missing quite a bit. At first I was very excited that I had managed to pull out her face. And, it was only when I finished putting it together that I realized…

Doh! That is not the Statue of Liberty’s face! LOL Turns out it actually belongs to another statue, the Freedom Monument, in Riga. Who knew!

Progress on Lady Liberty has come along well and I have been able to assemble most of her upper torso and part of her long robe.

At last, I have also made my first connection of two unrelated picture elements – the Statue and the Washington D.C. sign. To say this is exciting is an understatement. I yelled woo hoo to no one in particular when I first realized I could connect the two big pieces. Don’t you just love it when that happens in your puzzle? I know I sure do! ?

Just this week I have dug into another small sorted bucket of animal pieces. I have been trying to piece together anything that I can distinguish. I have discovered trying to determine an animal based on a piece that is nothing more than dark fur is NOT EASY! Thank goodness for the butterflies which are easy to spot, and I cannot believe I am saying this, but the rattlesnake has been pretty easy to dig out too….yikes!

So happy puzzling to all my friends out there as you learn to live in your new normal and enjoy getting a little more healthy puzzling time. It is certainly time well spent.