2024, Family, Games, Health, home, Mysteries

I Will Not Finish the Puzzle….

46 Comments

I will not finish the puzzle today.  I will not finish the puzzle today.  I will not finish the puzzle today. 

I have an obsession problem when it comes to jigsaw puzzles.  I have trouble stopping once I sit down in front of a puzzle.  There have been times that I have not walked away for hours.  I’ve skipped meals, I’ve been late to work, I’ve lost sleep.  YA has inherited this from me.  During the pandemic holidays, we worked 8 hours on a puzzle, taking turns picking movies to watch on tv.  Sad (although we DID finish before bed).  Because of this, sometimes I shy away from starting a puzzle if I have things that need getting done.

Over the holidays I did an Advent jigsaw puzzle.  It was 24 little boxes of 42 pieces; one little puzzle a day that made one big puzzle at the end.  It was wonderful… it was a fun and relaxing start to my day throughout the season and the fact that each day was in its own box kept me from jumping ahead.  I will definitely do it again.

So when I started a new puzzle last Thursday I told myself that would have a two-hour limit.  I figured if I set a boundary, like the little boxes had been boundaries, then I could avoid sitting at the table for hours and hours on end.  I even wrote it down on my daily “to-do” list.  Thursday turned out fine; it took me right about two hours to sort out all the edge pieces and put them together.  I spent 2½ hours on Friday; aided and abetted by having my Zoom book club for close to three hours. 

On Saturday, I was making good progress and watching tv and I felt myself sliding down the slippery slope.  The two-hour mark came and went.  “I’ll just work until this tv show is over”.  Then the next show.  As the next show started, I began my mantra.  “I will not finish this puzzle” today, I will not finish this puzzle today”.  This worked; I stood up from table after a little over five hours.

You know how this is going to end.  I spent 5 hours yesterday and finished it as it was started to get dark.   And just what happened to the two hours yesterday?  I excused myself from the rule because I was feeling sorry for myself… still coughing a bit much to hang around with healthy folks.  I can  come up an excuse with the best of them!

Do you ever have to set limits on yourself?

(Thanks to Jacque for the puzzle!)

46 thoughts on “I Will Not Finish the Puzzle….”

  1. I believe this puzzle is missing 1 or 2 pieces thanks to our late, great dog Lucky–who ate them! Dogs will do this. Phoebe, the pup ate Lou’s upper denture 2 weeks ago.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

        1. They are all BC cookbooks, yes. Surely the Mill City Museum has most of these. Some of these my mom had when I was a kid, and there is a kid’s book in there that I used as a child.

          Liked by 2 people

  2. I’ve been trying to read less news. Last year I only read 40 books as compared to the 65 in 2022. I put the blame partially on the fact that I follow Heather Cox Richardson, plus I have online subscriptions to the StarTribune and the New York Times. The StarTribune subscription came as a premium for our membership in the Science Center of Minnesota. Every morning I have been slogging my way through all of that before I take up my current book.

    The news isn’t doing me any good; I need to abbreviate it.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  3. i got sucked into farmland the telephone game app and plant and harvest crops and sell them at the marketplace. you can do 5 minutes stints but…i found myself doing it between everything and driving down the road and in the bathroom
    my daughter gave me her apple watch to view my heartbeat when i was having problems . she asked what were yo doing this morning between 9 and 10 your heartbeat relaxed to normal? my response was farmland
    it’s therapy you see
    easy non consequential choices that end in varying degrees of reward
    i suspect unless work the same way
    i suspect a puzzle with a daily goal/limit is a very marketable concept
    yes puzzle is still the mission but break it down into 30 two hour bags for a months zen practice . i love it

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  5. Oh, the chocolate. After evening dinner, if I get it out, two squares allowed. However, there are some evenings when there is another trip for two more squares…

    Our standing puzzle station helps limit me, at least, on how long I’ll stay there. Husband is more addicted and will sometimes spend a couple of hours, but eventually you get tired…

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    2. Yeah, Barb, we do our daily ounce or so of dark chocolate too. 70+% cocoa, which makes it healthy. Great marketing idea. 🙂

      The problem for me is milk chocolate or other sugar-laden chocolates. I could still eat a dozen chocolate chip cookies at one sitting, no sweat.

      Chris

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  6. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    After my mother’s final illness and her demise January – June, combined with my long planned retirement, then my uncle’s illness and death soon after, I was so exhausted emotionally and physically. I got into the habit of just sitting for a long time after I woke up in the morning. I gave myself 6 months to recover and allowed myself to just be still. At the end of January, the 6 months lapses. So I am limiting my games and puzzles in the morning while I listen to the radio. My body is recovering and I am working on allowing the grief to pass. I finally have the orthotic for my shoe so I can increase my walking time. So now I am limiting the just sitting and getting myself to be more active.

    The dog helps a lot. She wants attention and activity, of course, so that makes me move on. I have been working with her to allow me to brush her. She is a shedder and will need a daily brushing which she resists with all her might.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  7. I play phone solitaire, and need to restrict myself to playing only in the morning before work and just before bed. I am home today with a bad cold and a fever. The dog is ecstatic and thinks that I can tug with him even though I am in bed. He feels no need for self control, but what terrier does?

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  9. I have played phone solitaire too, but it’s too easy to play too long. I try to avoid it because I will waste my own time. I only play it when I’m just sitting somewhere now and I don’t have a book to read.

    Maybe I should work on putting some limits on myself. I know I sit too much. I like to read and crochet and these are sedentary activities. I tell myself that they’re life-enriching activities, but I need to exercise more. Pippin and I will return to our walking routine later this morning. We’re going to a nearby riverside walking trail to see how far we feel like walking today. Pippin’s enthusiasm for our walks has diminished a lot in the past couple of years. He doesn’t want to go as often as we used to. Sometimes I notice that he limps after a nap. I think he might have some arthritis. I don’t push it if he’s not feeling like it, but I need to do it on my own if he doesn’t want to.

    Our bodies do need rest. I like to believe that we have a cyclical nature and that this is hibernation time. I give myself a break in January. I like to read extra and try to learn something new. This year I’m learning to knit and learning about Ireland. I don’t limit myself when I’m learning.

    Probably the most important way I could limit myself is with food portions… ugh.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  10. The NYT food app is too appealing for me, and I need to limit my downloading recipes since we will never be able to cook all the recipes we like.

    OT- I finally got the caramel roll recipe from the Cowboy Cafe in Medora, ND reduced to bake 1 pan of rolls instead of 26. The author’s niece immediately baked them, and only had to adjust the recipe for more caramel. I gather there are several family members waiting for this recipe, which I don’t quite understand since I am sure their aunt, the author of the original recipe, could have done it, too, but perhaps she is touchy about sharing recipes.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  11. Well, and ice cream! I’ve probably already related how I just keep any ice cream in the basement freezer.

    And there’s Facebook. I’ll get really busy and not get on FB for a couple of days, and then just sort of binge, share anything remotely funny or wise or beautiful, and stay on too long. I’m trying to be more selective…

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  12. As for snacks, I really just can’t have them around. I won’t binge eat them all at once, but the only way to avoid them is just not to have them in the house.

    But ice cream; My friend Jerry can’t understand how I can have a pint of Ben and Jerry’s (get it?) in the freezer for months. If they buy a pint, it’s gone that day. Nope, just a few bites for me, then more a few days later.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. Oh, we are Häagen-Dazs fans here. Butter pecan is my favorite. Given the outrageous price, we havevit on hand but we don’t eat it in one sitting.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  13. i am lucky maybe to have the opposite of a sweet tooth

    aldis original kettle chips are my nemesis

    in florida today on my way back to debs folks house i stopped to get my chips at aldis and ran into deb who was stopping to get me some chips

    it’s nice to be looked after

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

Leave a comment