Puzzle 71 - Themeless #55

Well, we're back! I decided to delay last week's puzzle by a day or two, that turned into a few, and soon just felt like it was time to move on & come back on the 18th. Life has been very busy over the past few months, from COVID, to moving our youngest from the toddler room to the preschool room at daycare, to me coaching 6u baseball (an absolute blast - sheer joy from the kids & it's an honor to get to share in that with them!). Been so busy that I'm taking a couple days off work this week to just...not do much of anything & I can't wait!

When I started this blog a couple years ago, we had a 3 year old who was (and continues to be...knock on wood) the world's best sleeping kiddo. Brush teeth, read a few books, lights out, head on pillow, and we're snoozing within 5 minutes almost every time. Our youngest was almost 1 and was in that "wake up Mom once in the middle of the night to feed" stage. In short, we were getting very good sleep for having two small children. Nowadays...not quite the case. Between them just aging & staying up later, baseball & swim lessons & other activities, and our youngest being - how do I put this - very, very far from the world's best sleeping kiddo, we are no longer getting extremely lucky with sleep schedules. I used to be able to get to bed around 8 with my laptop on pretty much whatever night I wanted & puzzle away for an hour or two. That's no longer the case & as much as I love making puzzles, it's absolutely not as high of a priority here.

So that's a lot of words to say that I don't feel sorry, or guilty, or anything whatsoever regarding missing last week's puz. Nor did I feel any in May when I skipped a week either. And I think that is going to be the new normal around here - every few months or so we'll just skip one & come back 10 days later. We'll see what happens as the kids keep getting older & older, but don't worry, this blog isn't going anywhere right now. I've got a couple more great puzzles already lined up for the 28th & early August - and I certainly hope you enjoy this one!

PUZ - PDF - Solution