Puzzles

We haven't had a puzzle in the house since we had a dog that ate any puzzle piece that fell on the floor, quickly and without remorse.  We haven't owned that dog for the last four years.  I stumbled across a particularity charming one that would appeal to several of my children. I popped it in my cart without considering that the last puzzle we did had about a hundred pieces and this one had a thousand. Grace and Sam helped me find the edge pieces, and everyone joined in fitting the edges together. Then they all got bored and wandered off. Over the next several days Michael and I found ourselves staying up late, fitting pieces together. The kids put in a total of 3 pieces (that may be a slight underestimation, but it feels accurate).

After three days, it looked like this.

We had made decent progress but now that all the words were put together, I found myself frustrated. The kids didn't even care anymore. Michael and I continued to work on it, but were getting bored with it, even though we had now managed to complete 75% of it. One evening Ethan had a couple friends over while Michael and I went out. They ate most of the triple batch of banana bread I had made (despite the fact I forgot to add any type of leavening) but they also sat and worked on the puzzle. We came home to a puzzle that was only missing sky. Bless those boys. Teenagers are good for something after all!

The extra boys went home, our kids went to bed, and Michael and I sat down and finished the puzzle. It took a week from beginning to end, but we had persevered. I thought Sam was going to cry when it was time to put it back in the box. I'm not sure we are a puzzle family, but we did one, and sometimes that is just good enough.