Okay, I know it’s lazy, but the days are also flying by and I wanted to get this update posted before it became the March update! I’m skipping doing this one off-site in HTML and just doing it the old tried-and-true way. It’s faster, and it gives me less opportunity to break something (as I somehow managed to do with my amateur HTML and the January post, lol).

In general, January was . . . well, as January usually is. The winter hasn’t been too bad, overall. It started off pretty rough, snowy and cold, right from the start. But then it mellowed out and we had milder temps and lots of freezing fog. We just finished another cold snap, and now the last few days have been hovering around freezing (which is awesome, for here). The days are already getting longer, thank goodness, which helps with my mood. Spring is still a long way away, though. Six more weeks of winter? Nah, try twelve to fourteen. Camping season reservations open this month, though, so I can cling to that bit of joy to get me through.

Updates on the odds and ends of life:

Speaking of camping season, I pulled my sourdough starter out and it’s still alive. So we’ll be able to make lots of delicious breads during camping trips (about the only time I cook anymore)!

I started on the bedroom project, but that’s being slowed down due to supply chain issues. I have the adjustable base for the split king, but the mattresses are being hand-made by Oompa Loompas, or something. I’m not sure which will arrive first: North Dakota spring or my mattresses. I also bought curtains . . . spur of the moment, in-store, without measuring. They are about eight inches too short, and I would need at least another set to cover the whole window. Lesson learned!

My current sewing project is still half-finished and being worn by my dressmaker’s mannequin. It looks awfully nice on her, but hopefully, someday I’ll finish it and I can see how it looks on me.

My HTML and programming lessons have slowed a bit now that regular class is back in session. I still haven’t figured out what I’m doing wrong with this site when it comes to mobile formatting, but I’ll get there, eventually. Y’all will just have to bear with me in the meantime.

The new job is going great, I really enjoy what I’m doing, and I’m loving working from home. It was scary to make such a big change, but it looks like I made the right choice!

The glitch with the introductory level communication class was resolved, so now I have to decide if I’m going to take a summer class just for kicks, or if I’m going to take the summer off to focus on some of my independent studies or perhaps even (gasp) actually GETTING BACK TO WRITING!

And that’s the fifty-million-dollar question, right? Hey, how’s the writing going?

Well, I don’t want to jinx it, but some progress has been made. I actually moved some of my writing files off my old (retired) laptop and onto my new computer. That’s huge. Until recently, my (two) new computers didn’t even have any of my writing files on them!

But here’s where it gets really exciting. I’ve started a brand new short story. Will it go anywhere? We will see. Writing has been such a touchy subject for me for at least a year-and-a-half. Hubby says he feels like it’s trying to get a deer to eat out of your hand: he doesn’t want to push too much because he’s afraid I will get scared and spring away. The human psyche really is a funny thing, isn’t it? You can plug away for years at something, and then one little bad experience can make you so averse to it that you can’t even stand the sight or thought of it.

So, it’s going to be an uphill battle. But it’s a good little story so far. I’ll let you know how it’s going next month.

_{(The view from my workplace on a freezing fog day in January)}