Relearning Mandarin Chinese

I used to know a fair number of words and characters, but have forgotten them without having an outlet for using them day to day. But since I love the language and find it an absorbing activity, I'm relearning and hopefully will add much vocabulary. I'm using A Chinese Crosswords puzzle book as my main text, ha ha, since it's really a matter of relearning what a former employee taught me back in the 1980's.