This week was brutal . . . Let me example.

First, I think it’s okay to say a little on the ‘life event’.  Mostly because the legal stuff is over and I’m going to remain neutral.  You see, the custody schedule for my son changed this week.  I won’t say how, but it’s been rough on him.  Some days he’s used to being with one parent are now with the other and he will spend more time away from each of us at a time than before.  Needless to say, he’s been lashing out and I’ve had a preoccupation with his mental health.  His grades aren’t slipping and he’s getting his work done, but the stress is certainly there.  I’m glad we have a break coming up soon and I have him next weekend, which will include a visit from his 3-year-old cousin.  Fingers crossed that things smooth out.

The other upheaval is that my work assignment changed.  For a variety of reasons, I was moved to a different special education class.  Previously, I was put with the students who were able to go into the community to work.  You could hold long conversations with them and reason them out of issues.  Now, I’m with those who are learning to reach that level and I haven’t worked with students like this before.  I’m figuring stuff out as I go, but my body is aching because it’s a lot more active and physical.  This was a shock too, so I’m still trying to wrap my head around everything.  My evenings ended early to allow my body to get extra healing time with sleep or because calming my son down took what little energy I had out of me.  This will be my life for a while.

Sadly, I couldn’t get to Darwin & the Fate Bracelet editing.  My free periods were either getting ready for work (I have 1st off) or eating lunch while recovering (6th).  I couldn’t get myself to focus at night since I had a heating pad on.  I’m hoping to get through at least 2 chapters this weekend.  Maybe next week will give me chances to edit on the nights I don’t have my son.  This is frustrating because I was making good time and had a great plan for getting it done before this weekend.  Then, everything feel apart and I’ve had to scramble to rearrange my life.

One victory I had was finishing a puzzle and this cleared a stack.  Check out the slideshow below:

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Finished the blog posts for March too, so I’m starting in on April.  This is something I can do a bit on the nights that I can’t write or edit.  Good thing I’m not trying to tackle Darwin & the Joy Path because that would suffer terribly.  Maybe I’ll start that up over the summer and just edit for the rest of winter and all of spring.  Will give me a good overview of the series so far.  Anything to keep me imagination from evaporating completely.  It’s already difficult to conjure the creative thoughts like I used to, which is worrisome.

My assignment change also means I’m not going out in the community, so my two days to buy lunch are gone.  I have to bring and chopped salad 5 days a week won’t do.  The amount I make can only last 3 days anyway, which covers Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  What about Tuesday and Thursday?  Well . . .

I bought a small rice cooker, which can make 2-4 portions of rice.  Has a steamer for veggies as well.  Gave it a test run and tried making rice bowls for work.  I went too far with the additions on Tuesday, which included tofu, roasted corn, sugar snap peas, and pickled ginger in a honey teriyaki sauce.  The rice was clumped and hard too.  I did better on Thursday by removing the sugar snap peas and heating the rice at home with two ice cubes.  They didn’t completely melt in the microwave, but they slowly did while the container sat in my lunch bag.  Most of the rice was good after that, but I might try three next week.  Tofu will be the main protein and I’ll just switch around the veggies with edamame being the next one.  Not sure what else can work.  Might try rice balls with something inside too.

This weekend is about editing and finishing the first season of ‘Highlander’.  Not sure what to watch after that though.  Maybe a short anime before tackling season 2.  The rest of the week is filled with appointments, work, and Pokémon Go events.  I promised my son that we will do as much as we can with Pokémon, so that’s what I’m going to do.  Might do some editing while he’s working on his own stuff though.  I know, my life is so exciting and riveting.

Goals of the week:

1. Edit Darwin & the Fate Bracelet.
2. Take care of my son.
3. Rest when I can.
4. Start a new puzzle.
5. Finish ‘Highlander’.
6. Handle work stuff as best as I can.
7. Work on April posts if possible.
8. Improve salad and rice bowl making abilities.