Today marks a full month since I moved to Laura’s yard. It feels like a lot longer than that!

I took the summer too easy work-wise and now it’s time to make up for that. I’ve been applying like mad for contracts and, bizarrely enough, I’m suddenly getting tons of positive responses! I still need to dot a few Is, but it looks like I finally have as much as I can handle without going completely cross-eyed. The income isn’t great, but at least it’s steady. Most of the work is transcription, though, and that leaves me very little mental energy or desire to do any other sort of typing work. I’m now trying to get into a semblance of a routine that will give me a moment in the day when I can say, okay, enough for today!

I’m nowhere near that point yet, though. It’s 9PM and I have a couple of hours left to do today in order to make tomorrow manageable, although it will be more of the same.

Yesterday, C&C asked me to come help them finish insulating the inside of the addition, so I took half a day off to do that, although I’m paying for it now, hence the very long work day! But that was a good example of my making an effort to fit living back into my schedule.

I’d say all aspects of my life are going well, including the weather! Oh, we’ve had a few cold days and nights, but nothing that was unbearable, and the forecast for the rest of the week has us on a warming trend. In fact, tomorrow is supposed to hit plus 9 and if it does, I have to squeeze the emptying of my holding tanks into my schedule.

The new thermostat is definitely helping in that it’s getting me out of bed earlier in the morning, no small miracle! It was great yesterday to be able to set the thermostat for 55 while I was out all day but have it come up to 65 in the evening before I got home!

I’ve also modified my diet slightly to include more (good) carbs, which are making a big difference in how many fewer layers of clothing I need to wear! I’m still watching what I eat and am always surprised (and pleased) when I look in a mirror. It’s been a year of wonderfully positive changes!

The only thing that isn’t going so well is that the rig feels so empty. 🙁 I try to play with Laura and C&Cs cats, plus C&C’s wonderful dog, but it’s not enough. Yet, I know better than to recommit to a pet at this point. If I was near a larger city, I would try to get into fostering, but that’s not an option out here.

And of course it’s hard to be reading Croft who is in Salem, OR, right now, en route to Texas and to chat with my friend L about his impending departure for the Lone Star state, too, but c’est la vie and I’m not going to mope about it. Every decision I’ve made has led to this being the option for this winter and I’m not going to have a pity party about it!

Well, I’d better get back to work. Sleep would be nice at some point. 🙂