Jobs and school and getting by

Things are crazy busy. And yet I managed to find enough time this morning to poke around my Cityville game. It's suitably brainless and if I walk away the only bad thing that happens is crop whither. Ah, Cityville, you forgive me always.

Man is looking at training through a program called LeaderQuest. The VA will pay for the training. He's been to at least three job fairs in the last month and hasn't gotten a single phone call despite the federal resume building classes. He's gone through vocational rehabilitation to try to find a job and nary a nibble. So, when he starts this training we'll be working with his disability check, a stipend from voc-rehab and unemployment benefits. All three of those should get us by, as long as we're pretty careful. The end result of these training courses will be all of the certs he needs to get a job in computers... or, at least that's what they're telling us. Regardless, I have 6-10 months to get my certification with some fairly good job potential. His training is supposed to take about four months, so he'll have two months to look for a job before I start looking. I'm trying not to feel depressed about the whole situation.

Tag is now in scouts, so we're working on that stuff and his Faith in God program. Princess also has Faith in God, but the requirements for both of them are the same. I've got it figured that we can do all of the Faith in God stuff this summer pretty easily, and then we can knock out his whole Bobcat, a good chunk of his Wolf, and at least one arrow of light before Tag heads back to school. In the fall Princess wants to do volleyball and Tag wants to do soccer. He had so much fun with basketball that he may do that after soccer season as well. Between Man's new callings (assistant scout master + young men's second counselor) and mine (assistant Webelos leader), Tag's scouts, Princess' activity girls, and the potential for each of them to have a sport complete with Saturday games, and my school starting next week, I'm feeling a little queasy.

Pebbles is learning to read one baby step at a time. Freida inexplicably has the whole alphabet memorized and can recognize most letters even upside down. We honestly have no idea how that happened or whether it will lend itself to reading.

Oh, and I've started the South Beach Phase 1 yesterday. Day one wasn't too bad. I was feeling a little under-sugared and headachey by dinner, but made it through. I've heard it's the third day that knocks you on your butt, really. I was doing weight watchers before the move but I became somewhat disenchanted with the idea of continuously digitally inputting my food choices for the rest of my natural life, and weekly meetings are right out. So, South Beach it is. I've given up on trying to get Man to quit bringing ice cream and related stuff into the house since it's such a big part of his coping system. As long as I've got broccoli and mushrooms to munch on, I don't feel deprived. Yet.

But I can't really argue with caramelized onions and mushrooms in scrambled eggs for breakfast. It feels like a treat. Yesterday was onions and bell peppers in the eggs, with a big salad with broiled chicken for lunch. Dinner was more chicken with mushrooms, onions, and bean sprouts. I figured I needed to get the first week over with before school started and life really took a turn for the busy.

Who knows? I tried moderate carb last summer and lost 20 pounds... but only with the use of Alli, a fat blocker. So the weight came right back when I quit taking the pills despite continued moderate carb intake. A wee spot of Googling has informed me that insulin resistance, as diagnosed by my dietician, is also known as metabolic syndrome, Syndrome X, or pre-diabetes. Yeah. No strokes or heart attacks for this girl.

Now I need to start putting food storage by that has whole wheat products instead of the normal white. Which is more $$$ but then, strokes and bypass surgery can be pricey as well. And apnea is already expensive, not to mention Lane Bryant clothing and my back hurts. So, that's enough of that.