The Puzzle Life

For a long time, I've had the desire to have a puzzle sitting out in our home during the holidays. I think Scotty and I tried doing a puzzle once when Nicky was a toddler, and we learned quickly that we were several years out from being a puzzle family.

During Christmas, we were at the game store in the mall, and I was looking at puzzles and thinking about my puzzle family dream. We've reached a point where our older two are compatible with the puzzle life, but our younger two are far from it. There were some puzzles at the store that I fell in love with, though, so I decided to tempt fate and buy two of them. 

We set up a small table in the living room and built the Little Mermaid puzzle by Thomas Kincaid while Eva was asleep. It turned out... our kids weren't very good at puzzles.

But we got through it!

Then a few days later, we started our 1990's puzzle. Scotty cut a piece of cardboard so we could build it on the cardboard and then put it up high during Eva's waking hours. The puzzle life has been all about hiding things from Eva.

We loved the 1990's puzzle, and so did our kids. They had so many questions, like what is a Tamagotchi? Who is Weird Al? And can we watch Beavis and Butthead?

("No" to the Beavis and Butthead question).

The puzzle ended up being a fun history lesson, and our kids actually started developing some puzzle building skills.

After we finished the 1990's puzzle, we felt a void in our life. We needed more puzzles! So we bought a Thomas Kincaid four-pack.

(We are missing a picture of the Lion King).

Then we needed a break from Disney, so we bought a Harry Potter puzzle.

But then we missed Disney, so we bought another Thomas Kincaid four-pack. Last night we finished the first... and for the first time, we ended up with a missing piece! We scoured the house, and it never turned up. We think Eva might have eaten it. No joke. She kept stealing puzzle pieces and putting them in her mouth (our own fault for working on the puzzle during waking hours).

We've done a puzzle or two every week since Christmas, and it has been really fun. I didn't know we were puzzle people, but we totally are! Scotty and I usually do most of the puzzles, but the kids pop in every now and then and place a few pieces. Our kids have gotten much better at them. It's amazing to see how they have improved, especially Daisy. Even Scotty and I feel like it has sharpened our minds a bit. 

Lately, I've been studying happiness (remember my New Year's resolution? It has now become my topic of study for a research proposal in my research methods course) and I've been learning about the concept of "flow," as researched by the psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (note that famous researchers are never named "Smith"). 

Flow is when you lose yourself in time while doing an activity that is challenging, but for which you have adequate skills. It's the state of being "in the zone," and it's a legit experience! People who are able to regularly experience "flow" generally report higher levels of happiness. 

Puzzles have been a great flow activity for us. We are challenged but not overwhelmed, and it's quite satisfying to get into the zone and watch the image progress. It's been a great way to utilize our Sundays and to unwind after stressful school assignments.