I don’t know about you, but there is something about doing puzzles that seem to give my mind a break from all the hustle & bustle around me. A cup of tea and a half-hour break from the action seems to do the soul some good.

For me, a puzzle is a combination of Where’s Waldo, shape perception, and math. I like to pick up a piece and look at the picture to find the exact location of that piece. If that doesn’t work, I look at the piece to determine if there is a skinnier side, a larger hole, a funny shape, etc. If all else fails and I’m working on an area that is all the same color like the sky, I line up the pieces according to their geometry; 4-outies, 2-outies / 2-innies that are opposite each other, 3-outies, one innie. Well, you get the idea.

Some puzzles I find more enjoyable than others. I prefer distinct objects, shapes, and colors. If it’s a watercolor painting from some french artist in the 19th century, it’s just going to stay in the box as far as I’m concerned. But, if it’s a photo of a farm scene with a John Deere tractor, brick house, kids playing in the yard and wash on the line, count me in.

Then there’s that whole puzzle etiquette thing. When you re-box the puzzle after your finished, do you bag the border separate from the rest of the pieces? What do you call the parts of the puzzle? Keys and locks, Knobs and holes, Tabs and blanks, male or female (do puzzle pieces have gender?), and my choice, as you’ve already read, Outies & Innies (probably not proper for body-conscious people)

Here are a couple of fun facts about puzzles, 1000-piece puzzles don’t contain exactly 1000 pieces; most are 1008 or 1026 to make the correct shape. And January 29 is National Puzzle Day, there’s a day for everything.

From the photo above, you can see we recently did a puzzle with beer labels, this was all Suzanne’s choice . . . . NOT! When we purchased it, I thought it would be fun to do and then to see if I had ever had any of the beers. Well after counting the number of labels six times, I finally came up with the same count twice so here are the stats about the labels in the puzzle

• Of the 109 individual beer labels:
• 45 are no longer in production, It was interesting seeing these old labels and looking up about them. One of the many I never heard of was Bruck’s Beer of Cincinnati, which was in production from 1933-1949.
• 64 of the beers are still in production with familiar names like Budweiser, Sam Adams, and Corona.
• Of those still in production, I have only had 27, I guess I still have some work to do.

Suzanne and I do puzzles only in the winter months, we take a break from what we are doing a couple of times a day to sit and work on one. By the time I sit down at puzzle time, the only seat left is on the side of the puzzle that sees everything upside-down. Generally, we take turns deciding what puzzle we do next, but either one of us has veto power.

Puzzles work especially well for us now as no one has to ever talk except to say “What part are you working on?” or “I think this piece is yours” or “Hey, I was working on that!” Actually, it does give us time alone to share if there is something on our mind, planning meals or considering an upcoming trip. Most of all, it’s precious minutes together that may not have been.

Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.

Psalm 116:7