The Weekly Ramble – February 20, 2026
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Have you noticed that I’m in my home decor era? I realized that this week how much the season of life has changed.
Once the house was full of little people so I never dared to set out cute little ceramic ducks, let alone throw pillows. There was no time or mental space for aesthetics.
And while we don’t have a cute powder room or guest bathroom like some homes do, I know that time will come. We are in the functional, but some things can be pretty era.
This week the rain and cold weather finally hit us at the same time as the first inklings of spring. A friend brought me potted tulips and I succumbed to the cute duck in the Target dollar spot.
(I’m compensating for the ceramic purchase by reading library cookbooks. Ha!)
It’s the first time in many months that I’ve been able to wear long sleeves and sweaters just as the rest of the world is planning for spring. Such is the weather of Southern California.
Also, this week I busted out my 3-year old, brand new bread maker. It’s been in the box since we lived at the old house. I bought it for cheap right before we moved and then it didn’t make sense to unbox it until after the move. One thing led to another and it was stashed in the Room of Requirement (aka the linen closet) until this week.
My family was a little surprised to learn that we own a bread maker. Ha!
This is the 5th I’ve owned. Bryan bought me my first one for Christmas 2001. It was my desperate wish because I wanted to make homemade bread but I didn’t like the feeling of dough on my hands.
(I’ve since learned that it’s the actually feeling on my skin that I dislike and I’m able to remedy that with plastic gloves.)
Regardless, the counter top bread maker was my gateway to all kinds of baked goods. I often just used it as a dough machine. Then after burning through 4 bread machines, I learned how to use a Kitchen Aid stand mixer.
And now, I’ve delved back into the world of the bread machine. I’m pleased to report that my first loaf was a triumph. As I knew it would be because I used a tried and true recipe from this cookbook.
I think it’s safe to say that I got my money’s worth out of this purchase:
This book was a splurge for me 25 years ago, but I learned so much about baking bread from the front matter of the cookbook. It really was a key part of my baking education and enabled me to create my own bread recipes.
As I work through the older recipes on Good Cheap Eats, there are a fair number of them that are bread machine recipes, so I purchased that new machine in order to reshoot those recipes. This Cinnamon Raisin Bread is on the docket for tonight.
Anywho… here’s what else I’ve been doing, eating, listening/watching, and/or reading this past week:
What I’ve Been Doing
It’s been a homey kind of week since Miss 17 didn’t have class on campus on Monday and CBS didn’t meet this week. I love being home!
I’ve mostly worked on the food blog, editing older posts and looking through reports to see what recipes are still helpful to people and which get no traffic. I’m pleased to say that I’m finding a groove with Good Cheap Eats. Every post on the site has received some traffic in the last 90 days.
Unfortunately, that is not the case for Life as Mom. I’m having a hard time figuring out how to clean it up. Conventional wisdom says to delete anything that doesn’t have eyes on it.
That advice falls hard since this space is a history of our family as well as a space to share what’s worked over the years. I quit scrapbooking when I started this blog, because LAM was our family scrapbook.
Anywho, I hope you’ll take the survey in today’s newsletter to help me figure things out. Don’t get the newsletter? You can subscribe here.
What I’ve Been Eating
Last week I shared that I was contemplating a sugar fast. I’ve done it a number of times in the past, either with the kids or on my own.
I decided that what could be more beneficial would be to focus on what I’m putting in not taking out. I know that I feel the best when I’m eating loads of veggies, so that seemed like the best place to start.
My eating habits have been pretty wild and free since Christmas, so getting back on the vegetable wagon is a good call. I’m shooting for 800 grams a day. This breakfast bowl of potatoes, peppers, spinach, and pico de gallo was at least 300 grams of veggies, so it shouldn’t be crazy hard.
As long as I don’t stuff myself with bread machine bread. 🙃
What I’ve Been Listening/Watching
I’ve not done much listening this week after my massive audio book binging of last week. Instead the girls and I watched Roman Holiday on Valentine’s Day. We’ve seen several modern renditions of a similar theme, so it was fun to watch an original.
Weirdly, I’ve been building back our DVD collection. Now that Amazon is making us watch commercials again. (Annoying!) If I’m gonna rent something, I go ahead and buy the DVD since they’re fairly cheap.
Miss 17 and I have also watched episodes of Endeavour and Vexed. We’ve also got episode 5, etc of the current All Creatures season to watch tonight.
What I’ve Been Reading
I had every intention of reading more this week, but I’ve been at my computer working a lot. I have kept steady with the Chronological Bible, though. That’s been good.
Next week I have jury duty so I’m hopeful I’ll get more reading done. We shall see!
That’s it for me. Have a great week!
How was your week?
What’s up in your world? Leave a comment or a prayer request. We’re all in this together!
Hi Jessica,
I have not taken your survey as I am not subscribed to your newsletter. Hmm.
I have learned so much from you over the years as my family has followed yours through stages. Recently I have received compliments on various things I have baked or cooked and I have to give a lot of credit to the cooking blogs I have followed over the years (including yours) where I have learned so much!
We use our bread machine, which I’m pretty sure was a 2002 wedding present, weekly to mix pizza dough, and sometimes for mixing breadsticks or pumpkin crescent rolls or cinnamon rolls. We have replaced the pan once or twice when the seal failed. Just last week I had a batch of dough fail (didn’t rise) and I was fairly sure I had added the right ingredients
So the next time, I moved the bread machine to the island to keep an eye on it. Well, it ended up walking off the counter and hit the floor. Seems to still work! Crossing my fingers…
My husband and I enjoyed watching Roman Holiday on the flight home from Rome a few years ago. And we really enjoyed this latest season of All Creatures, although the final episode disappointed a little.
In a very busy season of life right now with work and volunteer commitments. Appreciate your weekly updates and continued encouragement for my own “life as mom”.
Thanks for chiming in, MH. I love to hear what you’re up to. Thanks so much for the encouraging words.
Yes, All Creatures was lacking a bit. We were struck at how much they had taken God out of the final episodes. It was kind of shocking.
Hi Jessica,
I took the survey but wanted to share that I needed to be able to pick 2 answers but was only allowed one in regards to kids at home. Also, I would have loved to be able to rank the choices for content because I am a fan of your organization tips/ tricks but ended up selecting the family option. I love reading about your family’s travel adventures and how you make space for adult kids to visit and hang out. I loved your advice around the holidays too. Thank you! Have a great week.
Thank you, Heidi. I realized recently, I owe y’all some Japan posts!
Hi, Jessica. I took the survey, but I really wanted to choose two things. I like to see the posts that you link there, so maybe I should comment on them going forward to add to your numbers. Never thought about that.
Bread machines: I went through that same phase of burning a few of them years ago too. Since my daughter has to eat gluten-free, I made bread often and got burned out myself. Lol. Now that it’s just the hubby and I here and I’m focusing on ingredients more, we’ve been enjoying a simple flatbread recipe when we want bread. But I was just thinking this week that I would like to start baking bread loaves again. I’ll have to delve into GCE recipes and see what’s there again. And I’ll write down the name of the book too.
I hope your jury duty goes well!
Thank you, Cheri, for being so active in the comments. I appreciate it so much!
I think that the bread machine is turning out to be a great tool for a quick bake. The slices are huge and you could easily freeze half a loaf if you guys didn’t want a lot.
In the interests of de-lurking: I have a moment to comment, as my youngest (just turned 3) is napping on my lap, while I supervise the conclusion of a school day with the older five.
I love the duck and daffodils and pretty mug. And yay for the freedom to decorate more! Congratulations, also, on the bread and further baking/re-tooling of recipes.
I am trying to adapt to baking less and usually gluten free, hoping it will help one of my kids, but it is still more of a wistful process than a fun endeavor (and often expensive in comparison to what I would otherwise do).
In good news, though, I heeded your advice to get a bottle of (supposedly dye-free) Valentines sprinkles and we had a glorious teatime with homemade gf/vegan brownies with sprinkles, rice krispy treats with sprinkles, and flourless peanut butter cookies topped with dark chocolate hearts. I pulled out a Valentines runner and a red teapot, a garland I got on clearance last year, fake roses from a couple of years ago, and printed out vintage Valentines for each family member. It was humble and frugal, but very cozy and joyful, too.
We had a few days of what felt like summery weather, after a very bitter December and January, but the temperature is dropping rapidly, today. I was out in the morning, and it was incredibly windy and snowing (after rain, yesterday).
The stack of books by my elbow feels sky-high, and I would love nothing better, especially in this weather, than to dip into them all, having made make another big mug of tea. (Devotional books for Lent, history books for school, cookbooks and mysteries, are what’s there, currently.) Bit by bit, eventually….
Hopefully my daughters will watch Roman Holiday with me, sometime soon! Both the 90s version and the 50s one were lots of fun, and I watched them repeatedly, when I was young. It’s good to be reminded of them.
Thank you for delurking, Julie. I love hearing what you’re up to. I haven’t seen the 90s version of Roman Holiday, so we’ll check it out.
I have that same Bread Machine cookbook! I haven’t tried a bad recipe from it yet. I do like to form my own loaves rather than the awkward shaped loaf pan my bread machine makes. So I make dough a lot! I form it into buns, cinnamon rolls, breadsticks, bread loves, italian bread loaves, pizza crust, etc. I love using it for that. However, when I’m in a pinch and can’t fiddle with a second rise, forming and then baking, I do it all the machine and it works out great. There are only two of us so I tend to freeze a lot. I use your recipes for pizza crust and hamburger/hot dog buns.
The machine really is handy, isn’t it? Love it!
Your breakfast bowl looks delicious and although I enjoy vegetables, I struggle to get enough in. I’d love to hear how you make it! Thanks for an enjoyable ramble~
I often use leftover veg or just saute them. I have loads of recipes on Good Cheap Eats.