A Puzzling Obsession

My youngest daughter loves puzzles. For her 5th birthday (this past December) a friend gave her a beautiful, but very difficult puzzle. It has 750 pieces, and no straight edges. The puzzle has a fancy, almost lacey edge. She's tried several times over the last several months to put the puzzle together, but has never been successful. Part of the problem is we just have one table, so everything must be put away for meals. I've often wished we had a puzzle table so we could leave it up for a few days and work on it here and there.

Last week my daughter asked me to help her with the puzzle. We worked on it for a while, but before long it was time to put it away. I got the idea to separate the pieces into their own baggies. All the pieces of Snow White went into a baggie, the bunnies went into a baggie, the gray squirrel and brown and blue raccoon went into a baggie, the blue birds had a baggie, and the purple birds had a baggie. Part of the problem was the bunnies fur is the same color as Snow White's skin, and the raccoon's blue mask and rings were the same color as Snow White's dark blue hair. So some pieces got put into the wrong baggies, but for the most part we got it separated. All of the background was just left loose in the bottom of the box. At that point we put the puzzle away for the rest of the day.

Last Thursday my daughter again asked me to help her with her puzzle. It was almost lunch time, so I told her we'd work on it after lunch. My husband was meeting a friend for lunch that day, so as soon as we were finished eating my girls got to work on the puzzle while I cleaned up the kitchen. When I was finished I sat down at the table and worked with them. Having the different sections separated really helped, but it was still a long process. When my husband came home we recruited his help on the puzzle. After a while the girls grew tired of working on the puzzle; but I was hooked. We were making progress, and I couldn't stop! A little after 5:00 our oldest asked, "So... what's for supper?" Supper? Time had flown so fast while working on that puzzle that supper completely slipped our minds! At that time it was too late to fix what we had planned, plus we didn't want to put the puzzle away. We were making so much progress! I suggested we eat out someplace cheap, then go to the store and look for something to put the puzzle onto, so we could continue working on it without taking up the table. We had a coupon for McDonalds, so we all got into the car and went out to eat. Then we drove across the street to Walgreens and looked for some poster board. What we found was even better... a large sheet of foam board, like what you would use for mounting posters. We bought that and headed home. My husband and I got right back to work on the puzzle. We very carefully transftered it to the foam board, and continued working. After a while my husband decided he needed a break, so it was down to just me. I couldn't stop! My back ached from being hunched over the table for so long, but I just couldn't stop! I did take a short break around 7:00 to get my girls' baths ready, and another quick break around 8:00 to put them to bed. But then I was right back at the puzzle. Around 9:30 my husband said he was going to bed. I told him goodnight, and continued working on the puzzle. I guess I was obsessed with finishing it! At 10:00 I decided I'd just work another 15 minutes... then before I knew it I heard the clock chime 11:00. Where had the time gone? I knew at that point I needed to call it a night, if I was ever going to get up the next morning.

The next morning I moved the puzzle to our bed, then brought it back out after breakfast. It's a good thing we are finished with school for the summer so I had the time to work on the puzzle. I was going to finish this puzzle, no matter what it took! :-) I knew there would be some missing pieces. The puzzle has been all over our apartment... the dining room, the living room, the girls' room... so I knew after 7 months the puzzle would be missing some pieces. I was just hoping it wouldn't be missing too many pieces, and that they would turn up.

I moved the puzzle at lunch time, and at that point it was almost finished! My husband helped me after lunch. It was so cool to see the pieces taking shape! We decided we'd let our youngest daughter put in the last piece, since this was her puzzle. And our oldest daughter could put in the second to last piece. Finally it came time to finish the puzzle! We were missing three pieces, but other than those three, the last two pieces were ready to be put in. Our girls put those two pieces into the puzzle, and we all sat back and admired the beautiful puzzle. I decided at that time that I will never ever take this puzzle apart! It is not going back into the box! *lol*

We did a lot of searching for those missing puzzle pieces. My husband did find one of them, so now we are down to just two missing pieces. We went through all the other puzzle boxes, and although we did find some puzzle pieces in the wrong box, these two particular pieces have not yet turned up. We are hoping to move this Fall, so I'm guessing they will turn up at that time, if not before. Although I'm really hoping we find the missing pieces sooner than that! When it's complete I want to get some puzzle glue so we can glue the puzzle together. Then we can hang it on the girls' wall. There are several pieces that are supposed to come out to create an even more decorative border, but I won't remove them until we have the puzzle completed. Hopefully one of these days I will have a completed picture to show you. But until then, here is our puzzle.

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The Roach

This morning my youngest daughter was looking at a book with a picture of a colorful beetle. It reminded me of something from several years ago. I'm not sure where I got them, but when I was still living at home, somehow I acquired 2 very realistic looking rubber cockroaches. When I was a kid I startled my Mom with them a couple of times. She had a certain kind of ice cream she especially liked. One day I put one of the rubber cockroaches in the small tub of ice cream. I think it was one of those small Ben & Jerry packs, or something like that. When she opened the lid, out popped the cockroach. It was great fun, as I have rarely heard my Mom scream. She got me back though... one day she stuck the rubber cockroach up into the faucet of the bathtub, so when I turned on the water, the roach came out with the gush of water, giving it the appearance of swimming for its life. The favor was returned; Mom got to hear me scream.

Recently when I was going through a box of memorabilia from my childhood, I came across the rubber cockroaches. I stuck them away for just the right moment. Today that moment came.

When my daughter was examining the colorful beetle in her book, I rather nonchalantly mentioned I had a cockroach. Both girls were instantly interested; Really? Can we see it? What's its name? How come we've never seen it before? I told them when I was finished with my coffee, I'd show them my cockroach. But be forewarned, he doesn't like being out in the light, and he gets nervous around people. My kids couldn't believe I'd have a pet cockroach, and my oldest was very skeptical. They could hardly wait for me to finish my coffee. Then I went into my room and shut the door. I cupped the rubber cockroach in one hand and covered him with the other. Then I went out into the living room. Both girls were very interested to see the cockroach. I gingerly opened my hands just enough for them to get a glimpse, then quickly covered him again. My youngest was a little nervous, but my oldest said, "That can't be real!" I told them he was tickling my hands because he was moving around. Then I pushed his head out between my fingers with my thumb, and both girls screamed. "It's real!" I was having great fun with this. I don't normally play pranks on my children, but this time it was just too fun. After this I let the cockroach "jump" out of my hands, towards the girls. My husband had the camera and was recording, so I thought I'd share the resulting video. Hopefully I don't appear mean for doing this, as it was all in fun. And after it was over, my girls were able to laugh about it. They loved watching the video, too. And I eventually let them know this was not a real live cockroach. :-) Enjoy the video!

Edit - I've decided to remove this video due to a couple of "visitors" that have left me a bit uncomfortable. I think I will have to rethink posting videos in the future, especially when they deal with my kids. I am a Momma Bear, and protecting my children is my highest priority. :-) The visits in question are probably completely innocent, but I've decided it's best to err on the side of caution.

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Under Construction

I've decided it's time to choose a new layout for my blog. When I picked this template it was Autumn, and I was ready for Christmas. This seemed to fit. Now that summer is here (I'm behind the times!) I decided something new is in order. Of course the template I've decided upon will not work with everything in my side bar, so now I have the fun task of trying to get everything to fit. So if this blog starts looking a bit odd, hopefully I can get it back in gear! And I really hope I don't make the whole thing go *poof*! :-) If you see a new background to my blog and everything seems to be in place, then I will have succeeded! :-)

Edit... I seem to have everything figured out, except my mp3 player of my girls singing. For some reason I just cannot get that to work in this new layout! So now I need to decide, to I change to a new layout, continue to work on the problem, or leave out the mp3's? I think they'd be disappointed if their songs were no longer here, I've put too much effort into this silly thing to quit, so I guess that means I keep at it. Which means it's after 10:00 and the laundry still isn't folded. Ah, such is the life we lead in this technological age! :-)

Final Edit... I think I've found a work around! I've found a customizable mp3 player, that I can adjust the size of the player. I can only put one song in it, so I just made one player for each song. Now maybe I can go to bed! :-)

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The "S" Word

This Sunday, my oldest daughter and I are going to have a very special afternoon and evening. We've arranged with her grandparents to keep her younger sister for the night, and my husband will be at work. I have told her we'll have that time together, just the two of us, and given her just a few hints as to what we're going to do. She's growing up too quickly, so I want to have a time for the two of us to talk, do girl things (like paint our fingernails and eat chocolate), and just have fun together.

Tonight at the table she turned to me and said, "Mommy after supper I need to talk to you. It's private, just for the two of us. It's about the "S" word."

The "S" word? I could only think of one "s" word that would require privacy to talk about. What question should she possibly have that was so urgent? She's EIGHT! We have been open and answered any questions she's had, but so far her questions have been very simple and basic, nothing requiring secrecy.

After supper we went to her room and sat down on her bed. I was trying to prepare myself for any question she might have. Taking a deep breath, I asked what was on her mind.

"Mommy, on Sunday if it's nice, can we sit outside when we go to Starbucks?"

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Starbucks" was the "s" word. She was being cryptic because she didn't want her little sister to be jealous of the fun day we had planned. I guess my little girl is going to stay a little girl for a little while longer. :-)

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I did it!

Ok, I believe I have added an mp3 player with 2 songs to my sidebar. It seems to work on my computer, hopefully it will work on others, as well! :-) I just picked one song my 8 year old is singing and playing on her ukulele. My 5 year old wanted to do something too, so she sang one of her favorite songs, from one of her favorite movies. I'm not sure how to put titles into the MP3 player, so it's just the link name. When I listen to the song, a little popup comes to the top of my browser saying I need some plugin for it to work, but I didn't download it, and it works fine for me to listen. If anyone has trouble with the player, let me know and I'll see what else I can find. Thanks! Also, I don't know if I'll change the songs in the future, but I put today's date in the title of the mp3 player. If I ever update it, I'll put the current date in there, so it will be easy to see if I've added any new songs.

(Update... I just checked to see what plugin it tried to install, and it's apple quicktime. I don't particularily like quitime, and I don't want to install it on my computer. It doesn't seem like you actually need it to work, but if it doesn't work for you without the plugin, let me know, and I'll look for another player. Thanks!)

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My Ukulele Gal

My oldest daughter has been taking ukulele lessons for a few months. I love to listen to her play and sing! One of these days if I can figure out how to do it, I'll try to put up one of those music players in my side bar, and put her mp3's into it. That could take a while, though. I'm not that tech savy. :-) It's one of my goals, though. Maybe I can work on it this summer, during our break from school.

I seem to have been in a blogging rut the past couple of weeks. And even though now I have my computer in front of me, I can't think of much to write. So I guess I'll put the blog away for a few more days, and hope inspiration strikes! :-) Or maybe I can use this time to try and figure out how to put my daughter's mp3s into my blog. In any case, I'll try to have something more of interest in the next few days.

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Next Year's School

Even though we're at the end of our school year and I'm sooooo ready for summer vacation, I'm anxious to get next year's curriculum. We'll begin our 2-year study of American History, and it looks really exciting! Some things we'll be learning (taken from Sonlight Core 3):

• We'll start with archeological information from hundreds of years before Christ
• We'll accompany Columbus on his journey across the Atlantic
• We will

  discover which state was founded on the loot of smugglers and pirates, and which state (then a colony) was founded by men who believed the Bible taught them never to offer military or police protection when their citizens were attacked.

• We will meet Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Lewis and Clark, and many others
• In Science we will study physics, human anatomy, biology, and taxonomy...

This is definitely going to be a fun year! I can hardly wait to start!

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