The Weekly Ramble 12/18/23

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Racing to the end of the year, time picks up speed.

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I don’t know why that is. But, it seems to be the case. The days are flying by, giving me whiplash.

Sometimes I yearn for calm and slow. To be honest, I often yearn for that. There have been seasons, to be sure. This is not one of them.

It’s interesting to me that our home has gotten busier as the kids grow. That is not the case.

Our house, except during work hours, is bustling and loud. The acoustics of all tile floors amplify it even more so.

Since our two most social butterflies don’t drive, there’s a lot of to and fro, driving hither and yon for church activities, classes, birthday parties, hanging out with friends.

I yearn for calm and slow, but this is not the season for that.

I say that not to complain. One does not have six children and rationally expect things to stay the same — or go according to expectations. Or be silent.

I remember when the boys were little, people would ask me what it was like to have FOUR LITTLE BOYS. My answer was always something like, “My toilets will never be clean, my house will always be loud, and I’m okay with that.”

Thankfully, said little boys have grown into men who know how to clean bathrooms.

It’s been a loud, bustling week. That’s where I’m going with this. I had computer issues and noise and interruptions. Surprise! That’s why you’re getting the Ramble on a Monday morning instead of a Saturday night.

amazing december sunset.

But, it’s been a good week, over all.

  • FishChick17 finished up her first community college course AND was accepted into the Biology program at the local Cal State. Yay! The (homeschool) experiment is working.

  • FishChick15 completed a crocheted “popcorn and cranberry” garland that I requested for the tree and got the tree decorated for us. It’s been up for weeks, but the garland was the thing we needed.

  • FishBoys19 and 21 finished their college semester. The deathly chemistry class was passed, praise the Lord.

  • My new computer came and after 36 hours of processing, I was able to transfer 9 years of files from my old one. Of course, that ended up using up almost the entire 1TB hard drive, so I spent many hours deleting old files, redundant photos, and unused apps, hoping all the while that I would not regret it. I still have much more digital clutter to deal with. My hope is to have it sorted by Christmas.

  • The house got cleaned and bathrooms (huzzah!) got scrubbed in time for our Open Game Night with the kids’ friends.

  • It was learned that 10 pm is too late for game night for me and Bryan as well as some of the kids’ friends. Next month, we’ll start earlier and figure out a way to handle the dinner hour without spending a fortune when we never know who’s coming.

  • Tetris has successfully created a multi-person board game that works! I was a Tetris addict once upon a time, and enjoyed the different tactile, group play.

  • I had a fashion crisis of outdated clothes coupled with my ever-changing menopause body so I have almost nothing to wear. In a panic I ordered $300 of clothes in too big sizes so now everything has to be returned.

  • The sunsets have been amazing!
  • Bryan and I visited a new-to-us church where we were excluded from the Lord’s Supper because we don’t “belong” to a church. That was a new one for us and prompted MUCH theological discussion in house as well as with the elder who followed us to our car to see what we thought of the service.

  • I planned out the entire year of recipes and blog plans for Good Cheap Eats. It’s gonna be good!

  • My sourdough starter almost died from neglect. I was able to bring it back to life but started baking with it too early in the process. It needed several feeds to be in fighting shape. I baked one batch of bread that was a flour brick. Seriously. Zero holes, just a big gummy mass. The second batch I forgot about in the oven, but somehow the oven turned itself off and the bread baked in the residual heat and it was delicious. Yes, I have menopause brain, and it shows.

  • I made one of the BEST dinners that was so weird to begin with – rice, these potatoes, roasted carrots and sweet potatoes, chicken sautéed with this seasoning, and this slaw – all piled in a bowl. It was an amazingly delicious combination of flavors and textures. Bryan was still talking about it at bedtime!

    I think those are the highlights of the week. This week promises to be loud and busy, but I’m planning a jammie day/baking day for mid-week, so here’s hoping it happens!

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