The Weekly Ramble 3/9/24

Hello and hello! It’s been awhile since I wrote a Weekly Ramble on Life as Mom. As I closed up my Substack last month, I realized how much I enjoyed writing this column each week. It’s a good debrief for myself.

As I read through the archives, it makes me happy. Wow! I’ve grown a lot!

It seemed natural to bring the Ramble back to this space. The archives will take awhile to get up to date, but you can take a peek into what life was like last summer.

Our whole family had the flu for two weeks in February, so this week was the first week of feeling somewhat back to normal. I’m not quite at full speed, but ramping up. I went back to the gym a few times and am working toward my ideal week.

(I’ve got a post in drafts about the Ideal Week concept. Wait for it…)

One of the things that I did every weekday this past week was my Bible study of John. It’s technically a BSF study, though I’m not doing it with a group. I just answer the questions and read the commentary on my own. Though not how it was designed, it’s still been really good.

To “catch up” after months of doing it haphazardly, I decided to do one lesson a day. That’s a lot (about an hour each morning), but it’s been good. And since it’s the book of John and since Easter is approaching, the timing is proving to be really good.

While we don’t observe a strict Lenten tradition in our home, I have somewhat, sorta, unplugged for this season and that also has proven to be really good.

It’s been good to have my own thoughts, and hopefully some of God’s, too.

This year I’ve been trying to share sourdough bread with people. I took some to the neighbors across the street in January and that was a great way to meet them. We’d been so busy in the fall moving and then the holidays, that I hadn’t met them.

This week we watched their cats while they were on vacation. lol

Last month I caught up with my oldest childhood friend, Stephanie, and brought her a loaf of bread. Last week I took her some sourdough starter and showed her how to bake a boule. This weekend we’ve been texting and Marco Polo-ing while she bakes her own.

Bread is a really good way to meet people and build friendships!

In addition to bread, I’ve been working on heart-healthifying my diet. Right before the flu hit, I got massive bloodwork done. The results included high cholesterol and high risk Apo(b).

Knowing already what my cardiologist will say, I’m moving toward a more Mediterranean-style diet, increasing fruits and veg, decreasing meat and sweets. This week I tested and shot a Tuna Pasta Salad that is uh-mazingly yum! The recipe will be on Good Cheap Eats next month, so stay tuned.

I’m a little bit disappointed that I can no longer eat whatever I want. In fact, I regret ever having read anything about whole 30 (the one fad diet I succumbed to in my 30s and 40s). In fact, I wish I’d never done a lot of the food reading I’ve done in life. Turns out what I did intuitively as a new mom (lots of salad, fruits, and veg, and a little meat) was exactly right all along.

Of course, I did have a very high sugar and caffeine habit in those early years, so it’s good I quit those.

I’ve been in perimenopause for 7 years now. I just found out that my mom never had a peri-season. Menopause hit her at 45 while I’ve just had all kinds of ups and downs since that age. Oy!

Regardless, I’m glad to know what I know, to be able to make some changes, and to have the resources to do it. Vegetarian/Mediterranean is cheaper than all the meat we’ve been eating, so probably a good thing I’m leaning that way anyway.

My contribution to our household income has dropped almost to half what it was a few years ago and our rent has doubled. This has Bryan and I reevaluating a lot of things, including more daily frugality, DIYing, and MacGuyvering.

We chose the Habit for date night because it was cheap but forgot to check the app before we ordered. We both had discounts available to us. Our penny-pinching ways have got a bit rusty, but we shall polish them up! Speaking of old habits die hard…

This is the Dutailier glider we bought in 1997 when I was pregnant with our first child. In 2017 after the first 20 years of use, I replaced the cushions. They weren’t cheap, but the structure of the chair was amazingly sound. I ordered the cushions made to order from the original manufacturer, and they’ve been good.

Last month, the base fabric fell apart, much like a bottom would fall out of a chair. I hemmed and hawed about the project, knowing I should just go ahead and fix it, but really feeling out of my element.

I wondered if Bryan was wondering when I’d ever get around to it. Last week I explained to him my plan of taking the broken piece to Hobby Lobby and having them help me identify the right replacement fabric, thread, and needle.

I did work in House of Fabrics once upon a time, but it has been 30+ years. I mean I can sew, but it’s been awhile.

Wonderful husband that he is, while I was in LA last Saturday, he went to Hobby Lobby and did all the procuring for me.

Today was the day to get it done. I dug out my 1991 White Jeans Machine, had to wind the bobbin by hand because the mechanism was broken, and fumbled my way through the project. There was more than one snag, but I did it!

It was wild to see what muscle memory came back after all these years. I used to make a lot of my own clothes!

Bryan still had to fiddle with awls, screw gun, and vice grips to install the piece, but it’s done and ready to function for another 27 years. I wonder if they still make these gliders like they used to? (They no longer make replacement cushions.)

Both girls expressed desire to learn how to use a sewing machine, but we decided we may get a new machine first. This White wasn’t that great in the beginning and it’s now 33 years old?! If you’ve got a solid sewing machine recommendation, lay it on me!

Anywho, that’s it for my week. How was yours?