The Weekly Ramble – August 28, 2026

Oh my word. Is it Friday already? It’s been a whirlwind of a week! We packed a lot into our 2.5 days of staycation and then the boys came home from Spain, the girls came home from Sacramento, a handful of kids got sick, and here we are at the weekend!

I didn’t really get into a groove at all this week, but the grandparents come tomorrow and classes start on Monday as well as the two new Bible studies I’m joining.

The groove will come next week.

Thanks for all your well wishes; we had a fab staycation! Things we enjoyed included but were not limited to:

• homemade apple turnovers
• Philz coffee
• a walk along the Coastal Rail Trail
• breakfast burritos at home
• a long nap for Bryan and a long reading session for me
• snack boards every day
• Ben and Jerry’s as well as Haagen-Dazs
• breakfast at the Naked Cafe – the Harmony Bowl, always
• a walk along the Carlsbad wall
• a minor binge of Mademoiselle Holmes
• homemade pizza
• texting the kids to find out how to use the Xbox because I wanted to watch blu-rays
• all three movies in the LOTR trilogy which reminded me that we had, in fact, had a staycation when the boys were little and watched LOTR for the first time back then
• two kinds of wine, including orange wine (it’s grapes, just orange colored; not a fan)
• the discovery of Baron’s Market
• a walk through Carlsbad Village as well as Hosp Park

It ended with Bryan’s 6-hr round trip to LAX to get the boys home from Spain. We really enjoyed the down time and actually packed a lot into 2.5 days!

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

What I’m Learning

I can’t wear the same clothes I could always wear. I do dream of getting my skinny back, but I don’t know how realistic that is. It’s currently too hot to stir myself into a workout frenzy.

On Tuesday I picked the girls up from the airport (San Diego, because I booked those flights, thank you very much) and we had an outing. It was also Miss18’s bday so she got to pick out a birthday dress, just like in the old days.

One of our fave things is to browse Marshalls and Hobby Lobby so that’s what we did. Since fall is when I get the motivation to upgrade my wardrobe a little more, I tried on 16 items! I found this really cute dress in Large which I assumed would fit.

It did not.

Thanks to google’s gemini, I was able to discern that said dress probably runs small — and for a different target market than 54-something women. It’s actually a great color and the style works with my bust, but a little too short and too tight.

I remember learning to dress for the body I have back in my original frump-fighting days, and so here we are again. My body has morphed a little bit more in recent years and to feel good in my clothes, I need to adjust some more.

What I’ve Been Doing

This week, I’ve been going along for the ride. It was a bit of a bumpy reentry, coming off the heels of a completely quiet and clean house to life with seven people.

Each of the boys has been sick this past week, so while I haven’t exactly babied them, I haven’t asked a lot of them either. The house was really clean for last week and this week it’s been a bit of chaos.

One good thing about them all being gone was that previously I was convinced I was a bad housekeeper. The house was practically spotless the fewer people were home, so it might not be me! That is reassuring.

What I’ve Been Eating

I’ve not been fretting too much about what to eat. I indulged over the weekend and ate tons of ice cream. But, I’m slowly paring down portions.

Except for yesterday’s lunch out. I’ve been going out to lunch with one kid a week and this week was Mr 25’s turn. We went to a local Japanese restaurant and it was fantastic. Super-Japanese-level clean and delicious food. Will definitely go back.

I’m down about 4 pounds since I stopped pounding all the protein. I’m still in search of the elusive, sustainable habits that are good for me.

What I’ve Been Listening/Watching

I watched most of season one of Mademoiselle Holmes. It’s kinda dumb but once I got going it was like, “I can’t look away from this train wreck.”

I also watched all three extended version volumes of the LOTR trilogy. It’s always the shot in the arm I need to face hard things. Not that my life is all that hard right now, but some days just feel like a lot of work.

What I’ve Been Reading

I finished the Bible late last week as well as one of those Amazon First Reads that they pawn on you for free. The Bible was excellent, of course.

The other book simply had me firmly in story grip. Even if I didn’t like the book, I wanted to know how it ended. It could definitely get made into a movie. For Hallmark.

I started The Pilgrim’s Progress, but that, like Christian’s journey, is slow-going. I’m up to 11 books read in August which feels like a great accomplishment!

Okay, that’s it for me. Be sure to leave a comment and let’s chat!