My Good, Good Boy

On October 21, 2021October 20, 2021 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Miscellaneous14 Comments

My sweet Buddy

This past few years have truly sucked, and Monday the 11th of October added to the grief. My good boy had to leave us and my heart is broken. He is no longer suffering or in pain, but that doesn’t help the sorrow much. We all wish he was still here with us.

The picture above is how I will remember him, always happy and wanting to play and right in your face about it. He wasn’t a snuggler, and when you showed him any love, tried to give him tummy rubs, or even just wanted to pet him he would get so excited and go find the nearest toy and bring it to you. He wanted to share his favorite toys and activities with you; cause you cared about him and he cared about you. Unless he was tired he didn’t really like hugs or snuggles; for him, love was action. I have found that to be true as well, my Buddy was a very wise pup.

Waiting on momma to get out of bed…

Isn’t that the sweetest face ever? He always kept me company whether I was doing puzzles or in bed watching tv. Here he is with me in bed while I was resting; patiently waiting, keeping me company, and watching over me when I wasn’t well. We don’t deserve dogs, they’re so full of unconditional love.

Buddy loved to make a little nest in all the pillows on the bed, and sometimes I’d walk by and his little head would pop up to see what was happening and whether or not he’d want to get involved. The cutest, bestest boy ever.

I felt the need to put a puzzle in this post. This is from the Ji-Ga-Zo puzzle that mom found at the thrift store. You put a picture into the software and it gives you a “map” to complete the puzzle – so of course we had to put in that gorgeous face – his picture was the first one we assembled. He looks so serious, and so handsome too. There are references to my puzzling companion all through this blog. I talked about him keeping me company, making me take breaks to play with him, and there are more than a few pictures of his adorable face too. He’s all over the place here, as he should be.

Half the pictures in my phone are of Buddy, I spent so much time looking through them this past week. Remembering that sweet face, his silly antics, how his eyes would bug out when he was excited to play, and how much he meant to our entire family. Losing him was so hard on all of us. There’s an emptiness in the house now. In our hearts too.

I’ll leave you with one last image, one my oldest son had commissioned several months ago (art credit to @Zooophagous on Twitter). It’s our Buddy, looking dapper and happy – how he’ll always be remembered.

He was the happiest dog, full of kisses and excitement, love and patience, and he was a good, good boy. 🐾💔🐾

Benefits of Blogging

On October 18, 2021 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous6 Comments

My darling (sometimes frustrating) husband dragged my butt out of the house yesterday to shop for a couple of things we needed. I truly despise shopping – unless it’s for puzzles. Knowing that, the first place we went was to a store that had puzzles, so I’d at least be a little happy to have gone shopping.

After a year in the sunken place with pretty much zero puzzles assembled and none blogged about, my memory of which puzzles I’ve assembled is shaky at best. While the hubs was “helping” me pick out puzzles there were times when I couldn’t remember whether or not I’d assembled a puzzle. Mostly these were collages, I’ve done so many and sometimes they look so similar that honestly there was no certainty whether or not I’d already assembled it. Sometimes I was certain, I’ve definitely done that one – many times I was clueless.

Here’s where the title of today’s post comes into play….one of the benefits of my blog is that I post about every puzzle I assemble. All that was needed was for me to take out my phone and search the blog. If the title isn’t there, it hasn’t been assembled by me. What a lovely resource!

I know there are plenty of people who use apps or lists to keep track of assembled puzzles, and that’s awesome. If it works for you then that is what you should do. For me though, it’s completely unnecessary. A benefit of being a puzzle blogger that I hadn’t even thought of. 😎

Another benefit I hadn’t realized is the memories of people and loved ones found in my writings. My mother is all over the place here, and re-reading through my old posts the past couple of weeks has been sweet/lovely/sad/funny and many other adjectives I cannot put into print due to my lack of coherent thoughts about it and also a lack of sufficient amounts of caffeine this morning. The gray cells aren’t completely awake yet today.

I’ve truly been enjoying reading through all the old posts. I just got through Christmas 2019 and the debacle of the 12 Days of Christmas puzzle advent calendar. I find I’m still pissed at Ceaco about it, and also when I’m ticked off I tend to be quite funny. Some of those posts really made me laugh!

Seeing puzzles I’d forgotten that I’d assembled, the ones I hated and the ones I loved, the posts where hubby had ticked me off about something, or my Buddy made me smile or laugh, seeing all the fun pictures, reading through the comments – all of it – it’s been lovely for me to help me in trying to get back to my former self as the Puzzle Goddess. (My mom named me that, I would never presume) I wouldn’t say The Puzzle Goddess is 100% back, but she’s on the road home and will hopefully be here soon. 🧚‍♀️

In no way am I trying to get anyone to start a blog – about puzzles or anything else. This weekend of reading through My Jigsaw Journal and having to leave the house to go shopping have brought into focus for me the two unexpected benefits of my blog. There are plenty more (again, just for myself) but these two reasons presented themselves to me this weekend and I thought I’d share them with you.*

*Partly because I find them to be two awesome benefits that showed themselves recently, and partly because the posts where I was more “chatty” about life and the goings on here at the My Jigsaw Journal household were more interesting and fun for me to re-read.

A Break…Hopefully a Short One

On August 18, 2020August 18, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Miscellaneous23 Comments

I won’t be posting for a bit. Somewhat similar to what happened last year, someone I love is in the hospital, and my focus is required both there (where I cannot be) and here at home taking care of my family.

My husband is the one in the hospital right now, but unlike last year I cannot be with him or even visit. My hope and prayer is that he will be home very soon. Until he is home and we know that all is well, I will be taking a break.

Here’s hoping it’s a short one.

Such a Struggle!

On August 12, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous13 Comments

man using laptop on table against white background

I’ve been trying for an hour to set up my new computer and get myself onto my blog, and I gotta tell ya – frustrated isn’t quite a harsh enough word for my feelings. My struggle to get myself to the place where I was logged in to WordPress and able to get onto my site has probably caused quite a rise in my blood pressure. My cardiologist would not be happy.

Anyway, I’m finally here and ready to get today’s post up, and afterwards I cross my heart that I will – at last – get my butt back to the table and start a new puzzle. I need to get myself there for many reasons, not the least of which is lowering my blood pressure back to acceptable levels. 😉

Since I finished the Wizard of Oz puzzle I have not put together any puzzle pieces at all. Anxiety, depression, pain, exhaustion have all played their roles in keeping me out of the puzzle room. And I now find myself overwhelmed by the thought of starting any puzzle larger than 300 pieces.

When I finished the Oz puzzle I chose a 1000 piece collage that was to be next; it sat on the board for a couple of days, then my daughter and I spent the weekend making masks, and then I spent Monday and Tuesday doing absolutely nothing. Now, the thought of starting that collage I’d previously chosen makes me uneasy. I don’t know how to describe it to those who haven’t dealt with anxiety, but it feels awful; racing heart, taking deep breaths and taking them too quickly, a sense of dread, a pressure in my chest, etc. – in short, it really, really sucks.

And so, because of that, the next puzzle will be a 200 piece kids puzzle, and then, perhaps a 300 piece; and we’ll see how it goes from there. You might want to get used to seeing smaller piece counts for a while, because that seems to be as much as I can handle at the moment.

So here’s to hoping I can get used to how this new computer works, and happy puzzling today for all of us!

So Very Tired….

On August 9, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Miscellaneous6 Comments

Sorry everybody, yesterday was another day of making masks – I never even opened up my laptop! I had a puzzle on the board ready to start sorting it, but my daughter came over early in the morning and wanted to make more masks for herself (and me), and we spent HOURS at it.

When she left, I’m not gonna lie, I laid down on the couch and took a nap. I got up, ate dinner, and promptly went back to sleep until 2:00 am. Yikes. I was tired y’all!

She’s coming back over today to finish up a few more masks – girls’ gotta have some choices – so the only thing on my board at the moment is the serger (sewing machine) and a bunch of fabric. Tomorrow, hopefully, I’ll have enough energy to sit and start a new puzzle, because it is definitely not happening today.