January has been a busy month. I haven’t blogged as much as I’d like. I’ve had two court dates for the divorce and now I’m putting together all of the paperwork and documentation I’ll need to move forward. Work has been crazy and stressful and never seems to end.

We went to see my Dad and brother a few weekends ago. Northern Wisconsin is not the warmest places to visit in January. The wind chills were forty below zero and neither dog wanted to stay outside longer than they needed to. I worry about my Dad a lot but he seems to be getting along quite well. He’s always busy helping someone or doing something. He added a wood burning heating system to his trailer last year and I was amazed at how well it works. My little brother is doing well, despite his recent and continued medical problems. It’s difficult and frustrating to see him in pain and knowing that there’s nothing that can be done to help but he’s still in good spirits.

It’s been a fairly mild winter so far. The temperatures themselves haven’t been bad but the wind has been killer. I’m looking forward to the spring and getting the yard cleaned up and maybe putting up a fence so the dogs can run freely. Dora, the border collie/blue heeler mix, seems much happier when she gets her exercise. She loves being outside and playing. The flatulent boxer, Perl, on the other hand, wishes we lived somewhere warmer — like the equator.

Otherwise we’ve been keeping busy at home. I dusted off a couple old tables I had sitting in the basement. Now I have a nice little workbench for working on models and miniatures and Andrea has a desk and computer to play games and write at. We’ve been taking turns at the cooking and doing fairly well at it.

I’m a little behind on the writing I wanted to get done but not badly. I’m working on my Steampunk fable entry for Shimmer and I have a new story almost ready for submission. We both have upcoming writing deadlines and story ideas running amok. Now we just need to iron out a consistent schedule for writing.