Life Update

It has been a month!

Dale and I had a number of events shake our life and rattle our hearts recently.

1. Our eldest is in the midst of a major life transition. Their health is in flux as well as a change in job status. As parents, Kit's struggles are hard to watch. But as a capable adult, the cascade of changes are being managed. Our job now is to give Kit space, support the progress, and keep from offering unwanted advice.
   
   
   
2. The entrance into the world of our first grandson was heightened by some challenges in utero. Born full term but two weeks before expected, Gabriel is tiny and beautiful and thriving now. Our daughter Jodie is recovering well from the surgery of helping her baby out the "sun roof."
   
   Unfortunately, the baby shower I was hoping to host was cancelled.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Dale felt unwell for a couple weeks, then became a resident of the North Springfield Resort and Spa (aka our local hospital) for 8 days. Throughout his stay, he charmed every member of the staff with his sincere kindness, cooperation, and patience.
   
   He came home two days ago with a drain in his side and a likely life-changing challenge. We hope to get a firm diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment plan next week. His tenderheartedness and gentle humor never flag. Though he is the patient, he remains my rock and steadying force on this path.
   
   
   
4. With a change in our Medicare plan in January, I'm having difficulty procuring one of my prescriptions which helps me manage my mental health condition. That condition is currently under stress (understatement). Dale's forbearance, persistence and diplomacy with our providers is helping to solve that problem. It's a waiting game.
   
   
   
5. Then on January 25th, I learned that my favorite co-worker and friend from my years working in the children's library in SoCal died last December. The news took my breath away. I grieve that loss.
   
   
   
6. Yesterday we smelled natural gas in our home's entryway. A kind, efficient, capable and professional young man from the gas company found a leak in our furnace. We'll be without that heat source until February 12th. But the gas technician got the fireplace working so we can stay warm through these frosty, foggy nights.
   
   
   

So!

It's been weeks full of challenges with more hiccups ahead of us. Our mantras?

"Follow the science"

"Look for the helpers"

"Be kind to yourself"

"Better together"

Through it all, our sympathetic, thoughtful, gracious neighbors became better friends. They each use their gifts, knowledge, talents, and compassion to help us with particular problems. We so appreciate their generosity and ongoing support. It seems we've become the neighborhood grandparents now, receiving the help of the next generations.

Any kind thoughts you can breeze our way are most appreciated. Please know that even if we don't acknowledge your messages right away, we are touched by them. It's simply ... we're a bit distracted right now.

In between doctor visits, Dale and I plan to continue sitting side-by-side with Puzzles and Podcasts, taking country rides in the convertible with the top down this Spring, short visits to parks, an easy geocache or two, and stopping to appreciate the sunsets each evening from our backyard vantage point. We still get to live some of our small dreams.

All in all, it's a good life.

~ Margaret

Puzzle Season - 10

A few months ago Dale and I bought a dozen used Wysocki puzzles from someone in town. I think they were decluttering after the Covid years when jigsaw puzzles were all the rage. So over the weekend we put another one together.

It's unusual for a Wysocki image because it's primarily a single building rather than an entire town. It's called Pickwick Cottage. Dale did the original sort, put the border together, and constructed most of the cottage.

I jumped in then and concentrated on the sky and water. I enjoy doing the gradients.  Then we both put the road and greenery together. This illustration has many of Wysocki's charming details, including an American flag, of course.

This artist usually has neighbors greeting one another, and a dog, and a cat. This puzzle was not an exception.

Wysocki added in a random gal sitting alone in a rocking chair on the front lawn, watching the world go by. (And look! No cell phone in her hand!)

It wouldn't be a Wysocki without at least one prancing horse pulling a carriage.

Dale said he'd like to do one puzzle per week during these wet months, so expect many more Wysocki's - and other puzzles - to come.

Play Like a Two Year Old

Our granddaughter received some Play Doh for her 2nd birthday. With her encouragement, I started playing.

I even bought myself my own set of dough and some implements. I never had a set like this as a kid. I figured it was about time.

On my own, I only played for a few minutes while backing up my computer. Predictably, I made a heart

with some details:

It's good for me to stretch this "creative play with no specific end in mind" muscle. I rarely engage in messy, unstructured play. Even before I started, I checked Pinterest for some ideas and a jumping off point. Confession: I literally had to mess up my tools before I took this photo because I tend to line things up in rows.

Somehow, little Abby doesn't need to do that.

Puzzle Season - 09

This last puzzle Dale and I finished to date is another illustration by Charles Wysocki. As distasteful as the last one was for me, the opposite is true for how much we both enjoyed putting this puzzle together.

This Americana scene is called Devilstone Harbor. Like so many of Wysocki's images, it's in three parts: The downtown street scene with the commercial shops, the outskirts of town with countryside in the background, and the horizon scene that has the waterfront.

There are always lots of character in the details:

And as usual, an American flag flies proudly over the town.

In troubling times, it's nice to take a break from "real life," put a puzzle together, and think of the kind of America we long to have.

View from Above

I climbed the hill behind the lighthouse for an alternate point of view.

Puzzle Season - 08

The second puzzle Dale and I put together in January is called All Good Things are Wild & Free. It's a quotation from Henry David Thoreau's essay, Walking. There's a lot to like about this puzzle.

It's manufactured by Flow, an international brand that celebrates mindfulness, creativity, and the simple pleasures in life. The illustration is by Dutch artist Valesca van Waveren.

The little camping and bug vignettes are sweet.

But one thing about puzzles made by smaller companies is that their quality can be lower than the standards of more established puzzle makers. Here, the cardboard is nice and solid, so the pieces feel good in your hand. But the quality falls apart a bit on the cut.

There are a lot of false fits ... meaning that pieces that are not meant to go together do go together "almost." But they don't come apart very easily. So the tabs get stuck and no matter how gentle we tried to be, they twisted, so the plies of cardboard pull apart. Unfortunately, by the time we found where the pieces do fit together correctly, the pieces became lumpy and bumpy. Note the few examples below.

For that reason, I doubt I'll put this puzzle together again. It's a shame because I do so like the image.

Shoreline

 

Rocky Oregon Coast