The Workings of Puzzling

Well, Several months have gone by now, and I have been putting puzzles together, and having a great deal of peace doing it, but I think I must be one of a few.  I look up puzzling, and I see Soduko puzzles, or crossword puzzles, and even jigsaw puzzles, but corresponding with others who sit and put a jigsaw puzzle together... well, You must be out there!
When I was a young girl, probably back in the 60's, when I'd visit my grandmother, I noticed she always had a puzzle going.  It must have had a subliminal effect on me, because, I didn't really start my puzzling until my kids were old enough to leave the pieces alone.  I mean, who gets to the end of a puzzle to find that all the pieces aren't there?
So, for a long period of time, I didn't think about it.  My kids were too young for me to explore the puzzling arena.  And life was far to busy with the aerobic field just hitting the state with full force in the 70's and 80's.  I gave it my all.  I was thin and svelte, I was at peace, healthy, and very much encouraged raising my young children.  Now I am telling my age, but the movement to eat healthy and exercise hit like a tidal wave, and I was first to be in that movement.  The way it made me feel made me want more and more until I became too ill to walk.  The doctors called it Fibromyalgia.  This was in the 80's, and from that time to date... I have used walking as a tool to keep me from feeling poorly.
But I digress, Puzzling was a tool I used in my life when all the kids left home to explore their own futures.  I have been taking care of my granddaughter most of her life, so I didn't puzzle again, until she became old enough to go to grade school.  And since that time, I have put puzzles together.  Now, it's great as a form of therapy, since I cannot get out like I did when I was younger.  And I know that there must be others out there that puzzle.  Whether it's crossword, forward thinking puzzles or puzzle boxes, I am sure that people are using puzzles to exercise their gray matter, and remain sharp in our technologically advanced society.  I intend to bring puzzles back, because you don't get courage watching the Television and finding other people do odd things on those reality shows.  But you do get courage by starting a project and completing it.

Writing to Live, Living to Write

SUCCESS!

What does success mean to you?  A lot of money?  a Job that You Love? Happiness with your familial relationships?  To me, success is being at peace with myself and the world around me.  I cannot control the cost of groceries or gas, but I find there's a sense of peace at having the foods that I need to keep myself and my family nourished.  There's a peace when the grandchildren laugh.  There's always a peace at accomplishing something better.  And I try everyday, to accomplish something better.
This past weekend the garage sale, it was successful, i managed to unclutter the house, i managed to put a little change in my pocket, and I managed to be at peace with myself. after the work that's involved in cleaning out some of the cabinets and closets.  As I continue the road of finding out who and what I want to be and do from home, I know now that it's actually possible to work from home without having to pay my money out for another scam.  I hate being scammed.  And trust me, I have paid out more money that the law allows, with no retribution to get my money back, because online, people find ways to separate you from your dollars.  But I am finally on the right path to actually working from home.

Living to Write, Writing to Love.

Rain

Finally, after a long hot spring/summer, we have been listening to the sound of rain for over 24hours.  It's amazing how peaceful you can feel, while sitting and listening to the rain.  Of course, I don't believe this is anything new, people have known it for years, but in our current state of the nation, it helps to be provided with peace, where the calm of the earth glistens and allows you to escape the stress of smog, consumption, and discontent.  It's a gravity that happens in the winter when the snow falls for the first time.  You look out your window and can actually feel alive.  What is our life without these moments?

Writing to Live, Living to Write

Puzzling

Working a puzzle lends itself, as a form of meditation, and peace of mind.  All of the important things that are going on in the world disappear, and the only important thing becomes putting in the next piece, and along with that next piece are the prayers sent forth to God through Christ Jesus, who shows me the way, and as i pray, I pray for my children, for my family and friends, and for an answer to the most burning question I've had for more than 50 years; why do I live?
My son is going to be incarcerated for the next 4 years or so, I don't even know the charges... I told my kids when they were young, if you get caught up and end up in jail, don't expect me to come visit you, because all my youth I explained to them the difficulty in the world, and how to avoid it, and if they went against that, then what can I do?  You do a crime, You do the time... rule of the streets.  Who's going to serve that time, well my son is for sure, but there are tears on my face that just never dry, because as he suffers that time, i most certainly do also, praying continually that God will keep him, and that he'll remain healthy and spiritually uplifted.
The other day, Amanda Knox was released from an Italian jail system, and it bought tears to my eyes as I watched her heartfelt words for those who supported her, but today on the internet, it's not the front page news any longer.  The stories just keep coming, and the internet, just keeps spinning around the world, with millions, like myself, putting words out there to be read by who ever happens in.  It's my life, and the commonness we share is that we love writing.
So, puzzling is how I continue my love.  I would love to write my stories down, like a narrative, but day by day, journaling is more my style.  Until I can find gainful employment, it's most constant.
Yesterday I watched a movie called, "Everything Must Go" with Will Farrell... a different role for him, but a good story.
After having a garage sale just last weekend, I guess you could say I relate.  I've been unemployed now for nearly 2 years, and I was never the CEO of anything except this house, and unemployment doesn't help. 
Last weekend my granddaughters flushed something down the toilet and caused the system to back up, and so the money that I made from selling old things went right back into getting the plumbing fixed.  And why didn't I think to become a plumber?  They get paid very well.  Roto Rooter coundn't have been her for more than 15 minutes, and it cost a bill.  $100!!!
That's just crazy right?  But that the way it is.  I must accept it and move on.  Back to puzzling...
The colors run together so much I don't even make areas, I am building this puzzle from the ground up and it's coming out find, as you can see from the previous puzzle, "Time Well Spent" by Henry Lee Battle, it' deserves a frame, and a place on a wall.
I think it's the least expensive way to get wall art right?

Living to Write, Writing to Live

The Garage Sale... Success

Sweet Success, OK, it's been a long time, and I didn't have any SMC items to sell... but all in all, I found out that, you can make a few dollars to help with the cost of food and gas from your home doing a garage sale.  But get this, the city only allows 2 (two) a year.  Are you kidding me?
I have spent a lot more time than that at the god of the mall, and the god of other garage sales, trying to find those cute little things that will make me happy.  And selling some cute things was impossible.  I think I priced them too high, and I also noticed that my home is decorated with African American Art.  So, I didn't sell any of my African American figurines, and i also didn't sell any of my stemware, but what the heck, I bought it all back in the house and placed it all back into the china cabinet.  Which also didn't sell... but it gives me a place to put those things that my granddaughters and grandson can't touch.
So, thank you Donna Partow, I have found your book to be very enlightening, and like a road map to make a home business.
Making my something better is taking on a whole new light.  And I am not mad about that.

Living to Write, Writing to Live

GARAGE SALE

It's come to the time, tomorrow I start selling off old books, coats, shoes, clothes, children's things, and my heart, my knitting magazines and books.  Now, it brought tears to my eyes when I put a price on my knitting books.  I've spent a lifetime reading about knitting, knitting, and learning various styles of knitting.  So, whether the knitting books sell will depend, because I am not parting with them cheaply.,  I have gone online to Amazon.com to find out what those books would be worth were I to buy them used, and priced accordingly.  Some books I will give away, FREE, and some of the old shelves, and knick knacks around my house I will part with for a song, but my crystal champagne glasses, crystal clocks and figurines are things that I have because over the years you collect stuff.  And those stuff, I love, so parting with some of them will be difficult, but I will for the right price.  I don't want to price too high, but I also don't want to devalue my years of collecting.  

So... it's going to be a wonderful experience since I haven't had a garage sale in years, but it's also going to be a pleasure to get some of this stuff just cleared out. I was once a dressmaker, now I use my computer practically 3-4 hours a day.  Once I knitted sweaters, and crotchet aftghans. now I put puzzles together.  While the kids were young and I spent time reading childrens books, now I take my grandchildren to the library and borrow their books.  Once I spent long hours in the kitchen cooking being inspired by music on CD, now I have a iTune and it's quite compact.  Once I played with my childrens organ, now it sits in a closet collecting dust.  The things we collect over periods in our life truly gets out of hand when we don't go through it when we are done with those things.  And I am sure you've heard the phrase, "one mans junk, another man's treasure".  So, while the things i once cherished, are now dust collectors, they might fit just right in someone else's life.

I am hoping for the best.  Wirting to live, living to write.

Preparing for my Garage Sale

After more than thirty years of marriage there are bound to be things that need to be gotten rid of.  Especially when you are a professional at garage sales, and second hand store things.  In a consumer driven industry, when you don't have a lot of money, the second hand stores and garage sales provide you that release you need, shopping for something without spending a lot of money, and finding beautiful things that someone else owned, but discarded or lost, or maybe even passed on to the next life, and left.  Where it all comes from, doesn't even matter.  It's the idea that if you can't afford the mall, you go to the second hand store and you are destined to find something.  
Once I went out looking, and i mean searching, for a 'podium'.  I wanted a place to place my bible, so that whenever i got the mind to, i could just open it up and read it.  Like when I get on my soap box.  Or when I get a feeling of dread, or loneliness, the bible is my word, the living word.  Who wouldn't want a podium?  Right?  Well, believe it or not, i found one, but it was sold to a minister who wouldn't part with it.  I don't blame him, I wouldn't have either. 
But that didn't stop me from finding something of use that day.  Clothes for my granddaughters.  I love trinkets, and anything shiny things like champagne flutes, or wine glasses, or coffee mugs.  I even once went out in search of a desk, to place my sewing machine on, because the vibrations rattled the little 36" table that I picked up from (of all places) Walmart.
Well, it's time to get rid of things and possibly earn a little cash on the side, and going through all those things, brought up many memories.  I found pictures of my kids, when they were born... my oldest son being more than 30 years, and I thought I had all my pictures in one place, but I have more pictures than can be counted.  And there's something about going back and looking at photos, something about actually seeing them, turning the pages of the photo album that gives one a feeling indescribable.  The digital age makes a lot of things like pictures in albums obsolete, but I don't ever believe that a photo album gift isn't something that will always be cherished by the receiver of said gift.

So, while I continue to go through my house preparing for my garage sale, i know that there are a few things that i must do to make it successful.  It's important to advertise in a local paper.  And with Craig's List, it makes it more successful to advertise even there.  

 Now with all my things, I hope to make this day something better.  Living to Write, Writing to Live.

Everything must go!