January and Recovery

In the past month I have had an entertaining struggle.  My boss quit on 1/3, unexpectedly and under questionable circumstances.  Then I got a new boss 2 weeks later.  She may or may not be fired within the next few days due to other circumstances. How many people can supervise a human in a 2 month time frame and expect productivity out of that employee is beyond me.

I have been reeling from hormone drops with the miscarriage.  I have tried to adapt.

This first week of February has given me some hope.  I took the past 3 days and spent some time trying to put my world back together.

Getting back on track sure looks messy. 

I made 20 lbs of sausage (15 lbs cheddar-beer bratwursts, 5 lbs country sausage).  Recipes?  Easy - go to Hi-Country and purchase their kits and follow the instructions.  I used the Bratwurst one with beer as the liquid and added about 1 cup of finely shredded cheddar to every 5 lbs worth of sausage.  I used the country sausage for the country sausage - no changes.  I LOVE making my own food - having control over the process and while my legs and back ache from the manual labor, it feels so good to be able to feed my family with my own hands.

I ordered school books to cover language arts and math for both the boys and ditched the online curriculum that isn't working.  We're still homeschooling with me working 50+ hour weeks.  I had them in a rather popular online curriculum but, as usual, it is not working well for them.  So we threw that out the window and have switched to book learning again.  Both boys are VERY excited to get back on track and I am praying it goes far better than our most recent attempts.

I made a sourdough starter that isn't wanting to start...I think it needs more water.  I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong - but I'm going to add another 1/2 c water today and see if I see some action tomorrow.  If I'm wrong, I'm out 1 cup of flour.  If I'm right, well, I fixed it!

I bought myself a new laptop, sleeve, and bag for it. The bag is big enough to haul all the "stuff" I need for work AND the laptop OR go without it if I don't need it. Kind of stoked about it since it was only $20. The laptop, well, I've been writing to you on the same one for the past 3 years and it has definitely seen better days.  It will be passed to the boys and when they prove they can use it responsibly I will consider replacing it with a newer Chromebook for them.  By ditching the online curriculum INSTEAD of the cost of the Chromebook I was able to purchase the curriculum they needed AND...

I purchased 2 bags for the boys for their new schoolbooks. I can't expect them to keep it together if they don't have somewhere to put it. Trying to think ahead. They are struggling to keep things together and school needs to be a priority for them to have access.  Midget has a collapsible desk to work on but needs a place to store his books.  J3 won't use a desk anyway - but he still needs somewhere to keep it all together.  1 "inbox" for completed work and we will be golden!

Speaking of which, I need to figure out a suitable "inbox" for completed work.  I have GOT to figure out how to stay on top of this AND work AND take care of my family AND keep all the balls in the air. 

But I love my life.  I just have to figure out what on earth it is...