Week 1 (With Pictures)

 January 1 - 

Monthly goal is to work on more puzzles and to play games. 

I would consider today a success as I worked on a puzzle for about an hour and a half. I now have the border and some of the sky done on puzzle #1 for 2024. It is a 1000 piece puzzle, so it may take a bit to get done. It is one puzzle in a box of 4, all of which have 1000 pieces. When the puzzles are done, I will likely rehome the box of puzzles somewhere else as I don’t really love the puzzles and I think that others would really enjoy the set. However, that may change. I may decide that I don’t want to do puzzles that I don’t love and pass it along after I finish the first. We shall see how that goes.

Amanda came over for a few hours this evening. She, Adam and I all played a trivia game. We didn’t really keep score and played through almost the entire deck. We had a really good time together. I’m glad Adam wanted to begin playing games as a family on a weekly basis. 

I also started the first of many books. I like to call them my thick boy books. They all have 450+ pages in them and I believe there are 10 in the stack. My biggest reading goal is to complete all 5,000+ pages of those books, in addition to any other books I desire to read this year. The book I started is Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. 

January 2 - 

Another successful day, in my humble opinion. I played a game with the little one, which we quickly realized he has outgrown. I also got a lot of work done on my puzzle. Perhaps I’ll be able to finish it over the weekend.

I also listened to Outlander a lot today. It’s a 32 hour audiobook, so I have a lot of hours to go. LOL! At this rate, I’ll finish at least one book out of my thick boy books. :D 

I think tomorrow I’ll go through some stuff in my room. It’s feeling a little cluttered and making me uncomfortable. Oh, I also have a box that I can start collecting my finished physical copies of books in. This year, I am going to save the physical books I finish and wrap them up to gift as an advent calendar to at least one friend. I think this is a great way to pass on some books and treat a friend to a big surprise. 

January 3 - 

Another successful day! Woo hoo!!!! While I didn’t play a board game with the little one, I did help him build his most recent Lego set. I worked on my puzzle, which I believe I will finish it tomorrow. I don’t think I will do any more puzzles in the box. I will have to find a new home for it. I hope the person who receives it loves it.

I had to return to work today, though there were no students. Because of that I managed to listen to my audiobook almost all day at work. :D I’m about 9 hours from being done. Since I’ll likely be done in a day or so, I think I’ll have to figure out the next book. I will likely take a 1 book break from the thick boy books. After the break, I’ll likely return. The local library is doing a winter reading program, where you can enter drawings for stacks of books by reading. I love participating each year so I will be picking books that I can count toward the reading program.

January 4 - 

In regard to the two goals (puzzles and books), today has been another success. I finished the puzzle I started earlier this week. It is now packed back up and the box of puzzles will be going to a new home as I do not wish to spend my time doing the remaining puzzles in the box. I don’t really know how to explain it, but in doing the one puzzle, I felt it was okay to let the others go. I knew they weren’t the kind of puzzles I wanted to spend my time on in the coming month and since my focus is to complete puzzles, I don’t want to spend my time this month with puzzles that don’t bring me joy. It was almost like a relief. I then went to the basement and looked through the remaining puzzles I have (which is more than I’ll admit in a public forum, LOL!) to pick the one that I thought would bring me the most joy. I started it only to discover that I mismeasured my puzzle board so I’ll have to move the completed part of the puzzle to the regular table and finish it, hunched over. It will be okay though, because the photo is from the 1995 photos taken by the Hubble telescope. It’s absolutely breathtaking.

As for my thick boy book goal, I’m getting closer to finishing Outlander. I can see why so many people enjoy the books, but thus far, I’m not invested enough to continue reading them. I know I have others that I want to read more. But the joy of reading a series (for me) is that I can usually pick up additional books in the series and pick up where I left off, regardless of how much time has passed between finishing book 1 and picking up the next book.

I entered events onto my calendar for the upcoming month and next week looks like it’s going to be cutting into my puzzle time a lot as there are a variety of activities that I have agreed to participate in, so I may not be able to finish the puzzle next week. Oh, and I’ll have a full week of work, too. BOOOOO! LOL!

January 5 - 

Today was not a success in puzzle world, but that’s in big part to giving my kids time to hang out together. They watched movies in the living room, which is where the puzzle table is located. I started a new puzzle last night, but discovered that it is ONE puzzle row too tall for the puzzle board I started it on. So, I’ll need to move it to the table and start filling in the center. 

I am almost done with Outlander. I’m not as enamored with it as I have been with other books in the past and look forward to finishing it in the next day or so. Then it’s on to a smaller book for a bit. :) 

I did spend a decent chunk of time in my room tonight while the boys watched movies. I straightened up some stuff and combined all of the clothing that my little one has outgrown into two boxes. I plan on posting them to the Facebook Marketplace tomorrow. I also made a short list of things I would like to accomplish tomorrow. Here’s hoping I am successful with a good chunk of them.  Well, I’m off to bed for this chilly Friday evening. Sleep well friends!

January 6 - 

No puzzle work today. But that’s okay, because I’ve decided to read pretty much all day! LOL! I’m getting bored and kind of annoyed with Outlander so I picked up a book called Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey. I’m almost 70% done with it. I’ll probably finish it tonight, because the weekends are mine for the taking!

Did I do anything on my list that I wrote up yesterday? That is a resounding, sorta. I took my little one to lunch with a friend of his. Oh, and I started laundry.