January Tradition

During the years I was a stay at home mother of kids in school (at least 20 of them)  I worked a jigsaw puzzle every January. It was a good time.  All the hoopla of the Christmas season was over, the tree put away, the kids back in school.  The house was quiet, there was no yard work to do and it was my chance to relax.  I always liked the puzzles with 1,000 pieces.  I would dump the box out on either the pool table or the dining room table and go into a world of my own...until the kids came home to help.  I would work after they went to bed or while they watched TV.

But in 1998, my youngest went away to college, my mother got very ill and I opted to spend my free time with her. I'm so very glad I did.  Although her memory was getting poor, she still knew how to play Scrabble and occasionally would beat me.  Every day when I went to visit, she would perk up and dad would quickly leave to catch his breath.  He was her caretaker and it had become a hard job.  He never complained, but he did relish that break each day.  When she was buried  late that same year, my mother-in-law  was diagnosed with a quick spreading cancer and died within six weeks.  Things were never the same for some reason. I never did puzzles even though I would buy them occasionally.  

This year, with a closet stuffed with unopened puzzles, I brought one out, since I wasn't feeling well.  But I wasn't up to a challenge. I grabbed a 500 piece one that seemed fairly easy with it's large print and bigger pieces.  However, it did tease my brain a little.  The pieces were not the conventional cut, but very different. One couldn't search for a familiar shape. It would turn out to require two  pieces for what seemed like one space.  But all in all, it was relaxing. I did it fairly quickly.   And so with the snow outside, it was warm and spring like with these flowers in the dining room.

I am trying a new configuration for my layouts...in order to conform better with the pages in MyPublisher books.  It should make it easier to submit my books for publication.

Something needs to be easier, so I can spend even more time concerned about the future of our fine country.

 It is my opinion that I must end this blog on an upturn, yet we cannot drop our guard.  Don't know at present what can be done by us.  But I do know God loves his people and will hear their  united voice. Please pray for our safety and protection.