Puzzling

I've always loved to study human nature. I remember in high school, I wanted to do a study on whether your personality type determined whether you dipped your french fries in ketchup or poured ketchup over your fries. Now, as I observe my family tackling a jigsaw puzzle, I wonder the same things.

I have always enjoyed jigsaw puzzles, but generally don't have the tenacity (patience?) to finish a big one. Riley has ALWAYS loved puzzles. Every year we graduate to a more difficult level with his puzzles, and now he has surpassed what I'm willing to tackle. Ashley and Troy don't have much use for puzzles. Around Christmas we always get a new puzzle for something to work on while the kids are out of school. I also like having one set up as family comes in and they can help as they like -- or not!

Today we started our new puzzle. Poor Troy -- he cracked the whip and cleaned the glass and swept the floor in anticipation of family arriving. So, as soon as he went to the gym to work out, I set up a card table in the middle of it all to work the puzzle. We got all the pieces dumped out.

I spend A LOT of time getting ready to put pieces together. First, I have to flip them all over right side up. Then, we need to separate edge pieces from interior pieces. Then, the remaining interior pieces need to be grouped by what part of the puzzle they seem to have on them. Lots of preparation, not much actual work. Riley finds the first piece he sees that resembles something you can make out. In this case, a box of shotgun shells (a hunting dog puzzle). He immediately sits down to dig through all the pieces only for any piece that will go with that one item. He stays hyper-focused on that until he has it mostly completed -- then he moves on to the next thing. Ashley will walk by every once in a while and pick up one piece and search and search and search for where it goes. Generally, she'll eventually lay that one piece down and walk away. Troy will occasionally wander by with his hands in his pockets and glance at the progress. About 3 times in a 1,000 piece puzzle he will walk by, notice the piece in my hand that I have been trying for 30 minutes to place and say, "That piece goes right there." Another set of eyes are always good.

I love that the puzzle gets put together in bits and pieces, everyone doing their own thing in their own way, using their gifts or knowing what their gifts are not.

Stay tuned for puzzle updates -- and painting updates. Tomorrow we start painting Ashley's walls! Christmas/birthday present!