Days Off, Movies, and More

I loved that today I had the day off and could catch up on at least one Hallmark movie – and one traditional one. White Christmas.

And that movie happened to be on my mind this season since my loving twin got me a sweatshirt from that movie last month when we had our sister gathering. Love it!

Then, since I was in the Haynes sisters and White Christmas movie mode, I got Raylene and I matching... puzzles! Did I mention this was one of our Sister Weekend opening acts??

Yup. There is a company to match every Christmas wish. And in this case, I got to order a puzzle with our fun Haynes Sisters White Christmas theme and match Raylene's and mine hairstyles plus include our names. 

I put mine together Thanksgiving week to make sure it worked. Not sure if Lene has had time or not. But it felt good to watch White Christmas this afternoon via Amazon Prime.

I also happened to get garbage bag #5 full of clothes to donate too. I only point that out so I don't feel guilty admitting I'm going to get at least one more holiday movie – traditional or otherwise – viewed and knocked off my list tonight.

Hope you're having and equally productive (aka relaxing) week as well!

You Wanna Piece of Me?

It's always fun to start your daily commute following a logging truck in a construction zone who just happens to kick up some big rock. Right into my windshield.

It looks like a big diamond here – and it's actually about a quarter-sized chip (er, missing piece!). Thankfully it didn't spread into a crack during the day and thankfully I should be able to get it fixed at minimum cost.

My work day didn't necessarily get better but I did have the trifecta of bee-bopping after work.

So I knew hubby was golfing and I had no plans for tonight so I just bee-bopped around Point and Plover, hitting my 3 favorite spots.

JoAnn Fabric, TJ Maxx, and Hobby Lobby!

My goal was to find something to go with this blanket I crocheted for a raffle basket...

I had a few different thoughts, but then realized I could make a "Piece-ful Night In" basket.

Yup, throw in a puzzle and a puzzle roller-upper mat. I almost want to try to win this basket since I don't have any of these things! Ha.

Either way, I've got a few places I can shop for these "essentials" if I don't win it! 

Fin-ished

To take short stress breaks at work, my team works on jigsaw puzzles. You might walk by and find one piece and mosey back to your desk. Or get excited when you find one right away and stay 'til you've put another in place. Either way, you are NOT thinking about work at all.

Today we put this fin-tastic, uniquely shaped dolphin puzzle to rest. It took a few days, that's for sure! And what did we learn besides patience?

Dolphins have wicked sharp teeth! In my mind, I just picture them as these cute mammals we can wave to and they'll fin-wave back. Now I'm a bit concerned how close I might get to them when we go on a dolphin tour next week! Hmmm... 80 degrees and sunny on the Gulf... I'll be brave!

The other thing that was fin-ished today... the boys regular basketball season. They had a tough loss to Stratford to finish up the season. Playoffs start this coming Tuesday at home! They'd have to win so I could potentially see them next Friday night. Otherwise, that's that for shooting this fun team.

Since I need to fin-ish packing – 95% there – I'm not sure I'll get to editing all the photos until my return. I gotta be bright-eyed and bushy tailed (or finned) in the morning so I can hit the road at 8 a.m.

I'll try to keep you posted on what I fin-ish each day!

Silly Goals

My new goal in life is to be as excited about eating my bowl of Fiber One cereal as Sylvester is waiting for me to finish – and leave her a few drops of milk in the bowl. You'll notice I threw in some Pumpkin Spice Cheerios in the bowl to add a bit of flavor to my cardboard.

It helps a bit. Healthy eating sucks sometimes.

My other new goal is to solve the Wordle puzzle each day. If you haven't heard of it yet, no worries. I apparently was living under a rock for the first few months it existed. 

Wordle is an online 5-letter word game that was invented by somebody in the U.K. It's actually only accessible by visiting the website here – it's not an app for your phone.

Each day a new word is released and you have six attempts to guess what the word of the day is. No clues, just guess a 5-letter word. If you're a Wheel of Fortune fan, you probably know the common letters to guess. After your guess, the tiles will change color to yellow if the letter is correct and green if the letter is correct AND in the right place in the word. Then you guess again and hope you get close enough you get the word in 6 tries. Word nerds like me love this.

And word nerds love getting it in 2 guesses and bragging about it! Yup. That won't happen again but it sure is fun to try! (Oh and the 230 is the puzzle number, not any type of score. You just get bragging rights.) My only advice for newbies is to pay attention to your "used letter board" so you don't waste guesses. 

Anyway, that's my random fun. Not like I'm setting Olympic goals here, people. Just normal middle-aged lady attainable ones!

Have a safe and fun weekend – whatever your version of fun is!

Feeling Puzzled?

If you're feeling puzzled about all the conflicting news about COVID-19, I found a solution. Put a puzzle together!

After doing the kitty one last week, I decided I'd do another one. It just happens that there are 3 more in the game closet – all with lighthouse themes,  of course. I figured I could do this one in a few nights since it was only 500 pieces. Instead, I sat down about 4:30 and worked on it until I was done.

Did not think about work once. Did not think about the virus once. Did not even think about supper. Now you know I was deep in concentration!

How freeing!

Obviously, I'm not the first one to turn to jigsaws in this time of lockdown. Puzzle shelves are basically empty at Wal-Mart and many brands are out of stock on Amazon, too. Unless you really want to pay $40 for a puzzle you might get delivered in mid-May. Crazy times. Normally, I'd hit up Goodwill, knowing I've donated a few puzzles there myself. But, of course, that's closed, too.

So I'll do the next biggest one – a 504 piece, legitimately, not missing pieces stolen by my hubby. The other one is a thousand pieces. That might take me up to our "release date," ha. Assuming we're probably sitting ducks until May sometime.

Of course, at some point, spring will arrive and stay. None of this temps in the 20s with wind. I'll eventually be able to clear my mind outside. Eventually. For now, piecing together peaceful pictures works for me.

Hope you're finding some fun distractions, too!

The Missing Piece

After a week of putzing on my 750-piece puzzle a little each evening, I finally completed it after supper! I was admiring my work when I realized one of the pieces was missing. What? It was new out of the box! How could they only include 749 pieces?!

I searched around in case it was on the floor (which I had swept earlier and didn't see it then) or under a rug or chair cushion. Nope, no, and no. Then, remembering who I'm married to, I texted hubby and asked: "Are you holding my last puzzle piece hostage?"

Sure enough. I found it right where he hid it! What a stinker!

But you know, it still looked beautiful even with the piece missing. The table color helped it blend in and you might not have noticed if I hadn't pointed it out.

That's how I've been trying to handle my days during this lockdown. Even if one little thing is off – like accidentally waking up for the day at 7 this morning (yowza) – it doesn't mean the whole day is ruined.

By getting up early, I got started in the basement before church, then watched Palm Sunday service on Facebook Live, then headed back downstairs. Two more garbage bags full and that quadrant of the basement is done. We're talking impressive organization and open spaces. I'm pretty proud of myself.

Of course, there's a big pile in the area I cleaned last weekend because it's waiting to go to Goodwill. I suspect that won't be open for another month at the rate things are going. So it'll sit there in waiting. But it's still progress.

Just like my puzzle. A little each night so I can appreciate the progress.

Right down to that last missing piece!

Clutter Jams

I've been looking for motivation and today I finally found it. Thanks in part so some old '90s mix CDs of mine that I've now dubbed "Music to De-Clutter By." And it was.

About mid-morning, I headed down the to basement and came up at 5 p.m. – only taking breaks to eat and refill my water bottle.

I hit the "main room" of the basement with the goal of going through bins of Carter's clothes and toys and eventually hitting the closet. Instead of just throwing things in the donation pile, I did post photos of several items as part of a Giveaway Saturday! I like to give stuff to people I know if they can use it. The rest will go to Goodwill.

At end of day, I did have a trunk full of stuff – not even clothes yet – but I probably won't add any items to the backseat. Who knows how many weeks I'll be driving around with junk in my trunk (ha) before Goodwill opens again!

I did go through the games part of the closet, but have to drag out stuff from the other side, which seems like a bunch of craft bins – books and material, etc. I'll do that tomorrow while I still have my motivation. Crossing fingers it doesn't drift away while I sleep!

Part of fun was discovering favorite clothes Carter used to wear and items from his childhood – like his bouncy ball collection! I assured him I wasn't getting rid of that. Quite valuable, I'm sure.

I also came across some puzzles I didn't know we had. So tonight after supper, that was my treat. I'm doing a kitty puzzle! I didn't get very far but, hey, I'm not going anywhere anytime soon so I can pick at it when I have a few free moments or just need to escape from the day's headlines.

It will be a true test of willpower to get back downstairs tomorrow and hit that closet, rather than trying to finish the puzzle border. Maybe I should go back out there before I go to bed!

Just for a minute.