Well, first of all, I think taking a break from Anki even for a short while is always dangerous. Even if you are busy, taking the time to do the Anki reviews every day, too, should take priority. But now that you do have a build up of reviews, I suppose all you can do is to go through them all in Anki(as soon as possible so no more reviews are added) and be honest when you evaluate how easy/difficult they were to remember. I’m not sure there’re other ways about it.

There will be (much) more practice on verbs in lessons after the one you’re at. Every time something new is introduced on TextFugu, practice follows not only in the current but also following lessons.

Also remember that things you once knew never really go away. So while it might feel like you’ve forgotten it all after a break, it won’t take much reviewing to get back on track again.

> The huge anki deck is overwhelming

Timebox it. Over on the study thread, I recently wrote about a setup I used to resolve a large backlog. No matter how large the backlog is, you will eventually get through it as long as you are learning the cards.

http://www.textfugu.com/bb/topic/the-study-thread/page/30/#post-26625

> I’m extremely disappointed that Textfugu is incomplete

It is what it is. Take advantage of what’s there, and don’t worry about what isn’t.

> I just need to know how to start back up again, and where

This time around, fun should be your priority. Find something fun to do that involves Japanese. It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as you enjoy it. Do it every day, even on holidays and weekends. Probably the easiest, most entertaining thing to do is watch Japanese TV shows or movies. You have to start making Japanese a part of your every day life, one way or another.

Now if that is all you are doing, you aren’t going to learn new words very quickly. So after a few weeks of just doing fun stuff every day, add some focused study to your routine. Maybe that means using Anki. But whatever you do, keep it short. Anki is effective, but it wears you out. At the beginning, do maybe 10 minutes at the most. Seriously, don’t try to be a hero. It’s better to do 10 minutes a day for a year than 60 minutes a day for 6 weeks and then quit.

So after a few months of watching some Japanese TV and doing some flash cards every day, you are probably going to want to add other kinds of things. Maybe you want to try writing practice, or even calligraphy. Or maybe you want to read some explanations of grammar in a textbook. Or maybe you want to join a conversation group, or start reading Mangajin or Pera Pera Penguin, or something else. Great. Add that to your routine.

To sum up, don’t think about your progress in terms of how many words you know or your comprehension level. You don’t really have any direct control over that. Like a kid sitting in a shopping cart in a store, your brain will grab a hold of whatever it wants to. You can push the cart down the aisle, but that’s about it. Instead, focus on cultivating a lifestyle that involves Japanese. Think about how you can spend more time with Japanese, and have more fun doing it.