Today was not the very best of days.

They laid off 13 more people across the company, on top of the 11 that they laid off earlier in the year. One of those people was from our office, and since we’re a very tiny office, and we’re all very good friends, that was particularly hard to handle. But along with the layoffs, they’ve also instituted some reductions in hours for some of the staff – and that includes me.

The pay cut / furloughs for Richard’s company kicked in last month, so we’d already been seeing a slight reduction in our total take-home pay, but this one’s going to be a much bigger hit. Tomorrow we’ll sit down with a big spreadsheet and take a good, hard look at our finances – what comes in versus what we owe – and figure out ways to make this work, while still continuing to keep our 401k contributions and the regular transfers to savings at the level they currently are.

I am telling myself that it is important to look for the silver lining. I’ve been toying with the idea of putting in a winter garden, so I guess this is the little kick in the pants that I needed to make that happen. Plus, hey, an extra free day each week, at least through the month of November, means plenty more time to write. And I am sure the cats won’t mind in the slightest having one extra day a week with someone home to give them all the attention they feel they deserve.

I came home from work and I set my stuff down and went immediately into the kitchen. I peeled and chopped the last of the (slightly rubbery) carrots and the last onion and a pile of potatoes and tossed them into a pot with some water and simmered them until they were soft, and then pulled out my immersion blender (I LOVE MY IMMERSION BLENDER!!) and blended it all until it was creamy, and then stirred in a little cheddar cheese and let that sit on the stove on low. And I did all this *before* I pulled out butter and brown sugar and peanut butter and eggs and chocolate chips and made cookies, because I knew that if it was done, then we would eat something healthy for dinner, but if I waited until after I made cookies, the soup just would not happen.

Richard, coming in the door and sniffing the air: “Are those stress cookies I smell?”

Me: “Yes. Yes, they ARE.”

He knows me so well.

Nanowrimo update: Just a bit over 7,000 words. Not even a nasty financial upset can keep me from writing. Go me.