Stockholm is a 1000-piece puzzle from eeBoo, and the artist is Uta Krogmann. I was in the mood for an eeBoo puzzle the other day, so I pulled this one out of my stash. I love building/city puzzles, and Stockholm isn’t one you see repeated too much, so that made it even more enjoyable.
My favorite part was the buildings, of course. I love the colors and the variety in the architectural style and the windows. The boat was also a lot of fun to put together. I also really like the details like the swans with their babies and the festive bunting on the buildings.
I read Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library shortly after it came out in 2020 and absolutely loved it, so when he wrote The Midnight Train, a novel set in the same world, I jumped at the chance to read it.
I am not kidding when I say I devoured this book. It has been a while since I read a book this fast, but I did not want to put it down. In this book, we meet Wilbur, who has just died and is now experiencing his life flashing before his eyes. But the form it takes in a train that speeds through his life, stopping at important moments so he can watch them happen and understand them better.
I loved the philosophical nature of this book, as well as the twists and turns it took as Wilbur sees things he wished he had done differently. It was a powerful story, and the ending had me in total tears (which rarely happens to me).
Loving Kindness is a 300-piece puzzle from Buffalo Games, and the artist is Lisa Marie Thalhammer. I love how bright the colors are in this one. This was a super fun, easy puzzle that I got to celebrate Pride Month. It was so satisfying to pick out the colors one by one and assemble. One of the light blue pieces was damaged, but overall the quality was great.
This week has been pretty eventful. I am still in the process of switching the meds that the psychiatrist changed for me. The new one was delayed by insurance. It normally comes in a capsule, but I have trouble swallowing those, so she prescribed a tablet. They wouldn’t approve it, but they said if I have swallowing issues I could get the liquid. That seems kind of stupid to me, but I’m just hoping it doesn’t taste terrible. I have been feeling better just with the lowered dose of the original med, so that’s progress at least.
My friend Renee and her boyfriend Chris (pictured above) came over on Friday to hang out, and we had a really good time. I overdid it on the carbs and afterwards I was feeling a bit off. It felt different from when I have high blood sugar, so I checked my sugar and it was only 75! I looked it up and it sounds like it was reactive hypoglycemia, which is when your body keeps making insulin longer than is needed after a high amount of carbs. I ate some candy and checked again in 15 minutes and it was up to 130. Later on it started getting low again, so I had some more candy.
The whole incident was pretty scary, but the really interesting thing was that my cat was climbing all over me and nudging me until I woke up fully and got up to check my blood sugar. I had heard about dogs that can smell low blood sugar, but I didn’t realize that cats sometimes do that too. I am so thankful that he was persistent!
I have been puzzling a lot. My follower count on Instagram has been slowly growing, and I just hit 2000 followers, which I am happy about. I took a screenshot to commemorate it:
On Saturday, I went to the puzzling group at a local library – the one I tried out last month. There were about 7 of us there, so we split into 2 groups. Our group did two 500 piece puzzles in the time we were there.
Here are the puzzles we did at the library:
Musical Mermaids by Bonnie White, Bits and Pieces, 500 pieces
Niagara Falls by Eric Dowdle, Dowdle, 500 pieces
Sunday I am planning to go to church and then in the evening Renee is coming again so we can go to Shakespeare in the Park. This year they are doing As You Like It. I am looking forward to both outings, which is a big improvement for me. Hopefully, I will enjoy them both and not be overstimulated.
Magnolia has a bunch of sets that include 4 puzzles which are each 260 pieces. Each set features work from one artist, and I recently purchased 2 sets of Kat Fedora images. The one in the lower left, Nightfall, had been on my wishlist for a while and I actually was able to purchase it in the 1000 piece size through a private sale around the same time that I got the sets. I’m going to hold onto it to see if I feel like doing that size later on.
I loved this whole set of puzzles. I love the mix of fantasy with books; they are so magical and enchanting. The piece count was perfect for the images, and they were challenging enough that they felt very satisfying to complete. I think some of them would be very intimidating in a larger piece count, actually.
Dr. Emily Nichols is a former eco-crusader who has ended up in academia and is not sure how her life got so bland. Her best friend, Liv Bennett, is a real estate agent who is a chronic people pleaser and is not living her best life because of it. When they witness an attempted robbery at their local coffee shop, they are impressed by the bravery of a yoga mom who confronts the thief. Through this experience, they end up in a mysterious class called Fearless, Inc, where the instructor Zeus wants to help them overcome their fears.
The story of women who are stuck in some way and need to find a way to speak their truth and stand up for themselves is not new, but the way the theme is addressed in this novel is so fun and engaging that I found myself eager to pick the book up again each time. There were a lot of humorous moments along with the opportunities for growth that Emily and Liv experience along with the other members of their class.
I am a big fan of the artist Josie Lewis and have collected several of the puzzles that feature her artwork. I recently completed these two and loved them. They are both 500 pieces and from Buffalo Games.
The first one is Colorful Diamonds. This one was really enjoyable and is just so pretty with the gradient.
The second one is Geometric. This one was quite a bit harder than I thought it would be. The greens and blues were especially difficult since they appear on both the left and right sides of the image. I did have to sort by shape to finish it up. I still really enjoyed it and love the way it looks finished.
The Midnight Train by Matt Haig (The Midnight World #2) – This is billed as a magical, time-traveling love story from the world of The Midnight Library (which I loved).
What I Recently Finished
Lies and Other Love Languages by Sonali Dev
The Wedding Setup by Sonali Dev (short story)
In Your Dreams by Sarah Adams (Rome Kentucky #4)
Lift Me Up by Milly Johnson (short story)
Jigsaw by Jonathan Kellerman (Alex Delaware #41)
The Anti-Heroes by Jen Lancaster
Emma of 83rd Street by Audrey Bellezza (For the Love of Austen #1)
What I Added to my TBR
A Wind Turned Dark with Burning by Mercedes Lackey (Elemental Masters #19)
The General Hospital by Anne Buist (Menzies Mental Health #3)
The Slow Cooker Supper Club by Sue Heath
A Bookshop Summer by Stephanie Butland
Sari, Not Sari by Sonya Singh
Zoe Brennan, First Crush by Laura Lee Piper
The Next Best Fling by Gabriella Gamez (Librarians in Love #1)
Kiss Me, Maybe by Gabriella Gamez (Librarians in Love #2)
TBR Stats/Goal Updates
I currently have 177 books on my TBR. Of these, 8 are nonfiction and 169 are fiction.
I have read 31 books so far in 2026. My goal is 100, so I still a bit behind. It’s okay if I don’t meet my goal, though. My reading ebbs and flows depending on my mood and circumstances.
I have not finished any nonfiction books so far in 2026. My goal is 6.
I ended my Kindle Unlimited subscription. I read 15 books and had 1 DNF during the time I had KU.
Princess on the Pea is a 1000-piece puzzle from Enjoy. I believe their images are all AI generated. I was drawn to this image because of the colorful bedding and the story it is associated with, the fairy tale The Princess and the Pea.
As I was putting the easier sections together, I noticed that the image was a bit fuzzy, but that became really apparent when I got to all of the green pieces. They took forever! An earlier me would have given up at that point, but current me decided to push through. I put a good show on the TV and spent a couple of evenings painstakingly trying the pieces one by one, and eventually it came together.
I do really like the finished image, even though close up it is fuzzy. This one is going in the swap pile instead of on the shelf, however, as I do not want to do it again!
As Mental Health Awareness month comes to a close, I wanted to share an update on my own mental health. For those who do not know, I have Bipolar 2 and I am also autistic.
I have been going through a difficult time the last few months. I started to feel easily overstimulated by social events and to feel restless when working or even sometimes relaxing. It got to the point where it took all of my energy to get through my workday, and I had to force myself to keep appointments for myself and my son. I stopped doing anything outside of what was absolutely required, even switching to watching church online.
After some research, it seemed I might have been experiencing autistic burnout, which is usually the result of spending years masking to fit in with neurotypical people. Not everything fit this explanation, but a lot of it did. After allowing myself a lot of time to rest, I started feeling like I wanted to be involved in social activities again, but I still had the sense that it would be too much for me.
Earlier this week, I met with my psychiatrist and I shared with her what I have been dealing with. She asked a lot of questions that didn’t make sense to me at first, but then she shared her suspicion that my symptoms might be related to a medication I was taking. We talked about some options and decided to gradually switch over to a different one and see how that helps.
I am still tapering off the first med, but I do feel a glimmer of hope that things could get better. I am thankful for a mental health professional that understands autism as well as mental health issues and can help figure out what is going on and offer a path forward.
In So Many Words 