Sometimes you need to change your methods...

I have been a Sudoku fan for a long time, and always carry a small puzzle book in my purse for those unavoidable waiting in line times, and I always have a puzzle magazine in the bathroom (easy ones that get done quickly). I admit I do not like the hard ones -- no patience for the long time they take to solve, but I enjoy the medium difficulty ones a lot.

Last summer when I was in Alaska I taught my friend Evie how to do Sudoku puzzles. I showed her my way of going through the numbers one at a time like I show my students when they want to learn how to do the puzzles I have in my "Spare Time" box in the classroom.

... and recently I realized my own solving method had morfed into something different from how I taught other people how to play. I find there is a combination method to solving the puzzles that takes them a box at a time rather than just by numbers in order that works better for me -- no earth shattering news but it seemed like a metaphor for other things in my life that maybe needed to change.

Why? Well as I look around at my messy art room and messy house I see that my old ideas of how to keep things in order no longer work for me.

Time to do something else.

I have had to change how I work with my kids at school lately because a lot of the old methods we could use when the kids actually followed directions don't work anymore. Short attention spans maybe, lack of manners definitely (group work turns into gossip or yelling fests), and so I have had to change my methods.

And I am realizing with a great epiphany this morning that how I approach so many things are going to need a revamp.

Time to do something else.

Maybe it is because in 9 short weeks I will be retired, or maybe I am just tired of my old ways of not cooperating with myself (it is all me of course, I am my worst critic and worst plan derailer)...

No other answers here really, just the call out to myself to start rethinking my methods of living my life and being happy about it...