The Weekly Ramble – April 24, 2026

If you don’t look out the window to catch the sunrise, you might miss it. Somedays the sky lingers in its dressing gown of multi-colors, but most days it’s fleeting. So much of life is like that, isn’t it?

As we hit the countdown to Miss 17’s graduation and another summer of transition, I realize how quickly this homeschool season has gone. It’s a little odd to be calling 24 years, “quick”, but I remember that first day like it was yesterday.

My eldest had just turned five. I had a newborn (maybe just a week or two old!) and a 19-month old. And we started school.

I suppose some people might call that crazy. And it probably was. But, as a first born girl, over performing, perfectionist, I didn’t think that.

In my mind, the baby was gonna sleep all day and I had two kids to entertain, so let’s learn something!

This was taken a few months into our homeschool journey, and now it’s come to an end. A lot has changed in 24 years. Yikes!

Anywho, I’m getting all bittersweet about it, but my day-to-day has already been in transition for a couple years, probably since I brought back the modern day Weekly Ramble. That’s when our homeschool dwindled down to one student, we moved out of the 14-year house, and I had to unload most of our homeschool library.

I still miss those books!

So, while my day-to-day isn’t going to be hugely different at the end of summer, this next month does mark the end of an era. I’m keenly aware of two things:

1. It’s been really hard.
2. It’s been really good.

You’ve likely heard the saying, “Just because it’s hard, doesn’t mean it’s not good.” I have been stretched in so many ways and faced so many failed expectations over the last decade in particular. Mostly of myself. I’m the adult in this homeschool, after all.

But, it has been really, really good. The Lord has been gracious beyond my dreams and certainly beyond what I deserve.

My kids have turned into responsible, kind, intelligent adults – what an honor to have played a part, albeit a flawed one.

What I’m Learning

If you haven’t figured it out by now, humility is one of those things I’m learning currently. I so appreciate having the ability to study the Bible. I’ve been reading through the Chronological Bible – currently in Psalms – and studying Psalms through Community Bible Study.

One of the key thoughts I got through both this week was the caution to: stay humble and stay thankful. Most of the life experiences that have drawn me closer to God and grown my faith have been “bad ones”.

I don’t want to be in a place where I forget His goodness, pull a Nebuchadnezzar, and then have to be corrected. I want to stay humble.

Every good thing I have is from God, whether that’s my kids, our ability to homeschool all these years, the ad revenue that the blogs bring, or anything else. The victory is the Lord’s.

I don’t want to forget that.

Here’s what else I’ve been doing, eating, listening/watching, and/or reading this past week:

What I’ve Been Eating

In that light, I’m trying to work in lots of veggies into our meals. I thought this plate looked so funny. To me it’s a very 1970s dinner plate, but it’s 3/4 veggies and 1/4 protein so it kinda fits the bill!

I’ve actually stuck to the salmon 3x/week thing for almost a month now. I made the mistake of prepping tuna salad and salmon salad on the same day in the hopes that the family wouldn’t notice a difference and I could include salmon into their diets as well.

Unfortunately, all that did was reduce MY contentment with salmon salad. Tuna is so much yummier! lol

But, on the night when Bryan grilled both chicken and salmon, he tried some of mine which he previously didn’t think he liked, and he liked it. So, where there are downs, there are ups!

What I’ve Been Listening/Watching

Have you listened to the latest episode of The Art of Home Podcast? Allison and I did a ramble on air! It was so fun and we cover a lot of ground, so I hope you’ll take time to listen.

We’ll be doing them once a quarter, so if you have things you want us to talk about, leave a comment here!

In other news, Miss 17 and I have been watching Seven Dials on Netflix. That’s been pretty good!

What I’ve Been Reading

I’d really been looking forward to The Setup Man, the third in a series by Kate Watson. The first two as well as the adjacent series were good, not overly romantic, but definitely introspective into common issues people face.

She’s always handled the popular romance tropes well, but “forbidden dating” is a little ehhh. I mean, I had my reservations.

Unfortunately, this third book didn’t go as deeply into the issues and felt a little too much in the lust category. You can have “clean” romance and it still fall in the danger zone with lust and objectification. I was disappointed in this one.

I started Making Sunday Special by Karen Burton Mains but haven’t gotten very far. I know nothing about the book or author in the way of recommendations except that the topic interests me.

And I’m about 1/3 of the way through Was It Something I Said? by Allison Cheperdak. It’s been interesting but not exactly applicable to my life. It is perfect for a college student or young adult, though.

Have you joined the Club yet?