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| 2000-Piece Puzzle |
Matt and I love to puzzle. I have always liked it, but being married, it slowly became our thing to do together. We would puzzle and talk. It was a way to engage our minds and have the freedom to discuss anything we wanted. It has been a building tool for our marriage. Puzzling is definitely our therapy together.
When Matt was laid off in 2020, he came into our room to tell me that he had lost his job. We were totally shocked. We also both kinda shut down that day. We had a puzzle already on a table in our bedroom, and we sat there for hours puzzling together and trying to cope with what was happening. It took the edge off for us, and it was soothing to talk out the pain while doing something.
We have had to live with Matt's parents twice because of unemployment. It is hard to be unemployed and live with family. While our situation was the absolute best it could have possibly been, it was still hard to feel so uprooted. No money, no home, it was a hard time. We really got into puzzling at this time. It was a kind of solace at the end of the day to sit and puzzle. Sometimes we would watch a movie, listen to music, or just talk. At this time, my mother-in-law's co-worker found out we puzzled and would give us her puzzle she had already done. She was a lifesaver, keeping us going with new puzzles in a really difficult time.
We actually do puzzle outside of depressing experiences as well. We genuinely do like it! It fits us and our personalities. It's a fun, calming way to spend time together. I love the challenge of it. It'll seem hopeless while you look over the many pieces, but all it takes is finding where one goes, and then you're refreshed to keep looking for that next one. Talk about a quick dopamine hit. It feels like you're accomplishing something every few minutes.
I had only done 1000-piece puzzles up until I started my 40 goals. I decided I wanted to stretch myself and do a 2000-piece puzzle. Honestly, it wasn't a whole lot different than 1000 pieces; it just took longer. There is something about breaking a barrier that feels good. To just try a bigger puzzle really wasn't that big of a deal, but at the same time, we weren't trying anything bigger till I made it a goal. Now we know what we can do. We actually just did a 3000-piece puzzle. Once we learned we could rock a 2000-piece, it seems like we can do any size. Well, maybe.
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| All four of us worked on this puzzle |
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| 3000-piece puzzle |
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