The Weekly Ramble – February 21, 2025
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Back with the latest on what I’m doing, eating, listening, reading, and writing. This week let’s chat the virtue of Prudence, the importance of meal prep, what makes a good love song, the romance genre, and being meaningful.
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The week has just flown by. Monday was a holiday for some of our regular activities but not all so it kinda threw me off the groove I was finally getting into. Here we are on Friday already!
Here’s a quick update:
What I’m Doing
What am I doing? I think I’m trying to ground myself.
I have always been an “all-in” kind of person, getting engrossed in a project so much that I forget to do other things, even eat. I get in a zone and am able to block out a lot. This was fine in high school and college, not so much as an adult with a family and responsibilities.
(I suppose it’s probably how I wrote four cookbooks in five years with little kids around, though.)
Overall, I think that having these types of focused projects is good for me once I figure out a rhythm so as not to shirk my responsibilities.
I started doing some research into the Christian virtues, starting with prudence. It gets such a bad wrap, sounding all uptight and everything. (If you’re of a certain age, your mind may immediately go to the Church lady or the first President Bush.)
But, the more I’ve been digging into the meaning of prudence, the more I crave it. It started with this Bible verse:
I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion.
Proverbs 8:12 ESV
I love learning and I love to think about being wiser. But all these words sound so similar. What’s the diff?
In my research what helped me most was a list of the integral parts of prudence, paraphrased here from my notes:
- an accurate picture of reality and willingness to learn from experience (memoria)
- a willingness to be open to other’s opinions and to apply their experience and authority (docilitas)
- an understanding of general truths (intelligentia)
- an ability to think on one’s feet, cleverness (sollertia)
- an ability to research, compare, and reach a logical conclusion (ratio)
- foresight and a capacity to estimate if a solution will work or not (providentia)
- an accounting of relevant circumstances and possible outcomes (circumspection)
- an ability to weigh and mitigate risk (caution)
In some ways, prudence is a knowledge of the world combined with self-knowledge in order to make the best decisions, ultimately those that God would have you make.
Prudence has been called “the driver of the other virtues”. The Greek philosophers, Thomas Aquinas, and CS Lewis have all written about this extensively.
Having the above abilities makes it possible for you to be temperate, just, and strong and to have faith, hope, and love/charity. Prudence is the foundation that all the others are built on.
So, I guess that’s what I’m doing right now, trying to learn prudence.
What I’m Eating
The protein journey continues. I haven’t lost any more weight, but I’ve stayed in the 3-5 pound less-than-I-was range. Calling that a win.
Observations to learn from:
- Last weekend was so full with game night prep that I didn’t do my own meal prep and I felt it throughout the week. I missed having my muesli prepped ahead of time.
- For date night, Bryan suggested we go to Pelly’s Fish Market and Cafe instead of Pizza Port. We spent the same $50 but our nutrition was much higher with salad, fish, and rice. Plus he got to watch the hockey game.
- If there’s chocolate around, I will eat it. FishChick16 hosted her life group on Wednesday and made a Chocolate Charcuterie Board. There was a lot left over. I just need to say no.
Ya win some and ya lose some. You can bet that I’m doing a 1-hr meal prep this weekend!
What I’m Listening to
I can’t remember if I told you about one of my favorite podcast discoveries last fall. Have you listened to the Art of Home podcast?
The host, Allison, is just delightful. I got a chance to speak with her this week in an interview and I seriously could have talked with her all day long. If you haven’t discovered her podcast, give her a listen soon!
I love her mission to “provide encouragement and inspiration for women to practice the occupation of homemaking as an art with confidence, skill, joy and creativity.”
However, most of my listening this week was in the car with kids so I treated us to the 100 Best Love Songs of All Time. Ha!
I was surprised at how many of the songs I knew. And even more surprised when one of my kids informed me which toxic 80s and 90s films they were from. 😱
I don’t think I agree with the man who created the list. Let me know what you think!
What I’m Reading
If you haven’t gathered by now, I’m trying to make sense of my conflicting opinions as well as the varying definitions of the romance novel genre.
Pride and Prejudice is considered a romance novel, but so are Harlequin novels. Some have happy endings and feel good emotions. Others, like Anna Karenina (yes, a romance novel) do not.
There’s a huge range in terms of writing quality, tropes, and sexual content. A big range. Wow.
Lately, I’ve been reading more in the genre, trying to find the space that feels like a good fit for me as a writer. (Spoiler: it’s decidedly NOT at the bodice-ripper end of the genre.)
I read four books this week:
- How to Be Free From Bitterness by Jim Wilson – Not a romcom, in case you were wondering. I enjoyed most of this book, there are some great points about bitterness and anger. Chapter 8 on Parents felt like it came out of left field. He writes his suggestions as if they are gospel, which they are not. Otherwise, an interesting book.
- This Time Next Year by Sophie Cousens – This was a popular read from 2020 that was recently made into a movie for Roku. The book was good, a quick read, nothing terribly deep, but entertaining and fun. The movie was not as good. The depth of the book was mostly eliminated in the film. No surprise.
- The Berlin Letters by Katherine Reay – I loved her earlier contemporary books, but I’ve largely skipped her historical ones set during World War 2. However, I figured I’d give the Cold War era a go. I really enjoyed this book and learned a ton about the Wall coming down. I remember when it happened, but I was a clueless 17-year old at the time. This book has sparked my interest in those world events, to be sure.
- Home Run Heart by Hailey Gardiner – I’ve started an IG account for my fiction writing and have followed some bookstagrammers and authors there. This author, Hailey, passed away during emergency surgery earlier this month. She was pregnant with her third child. So heartbreaking. It’s been humbling and inspiring to watch the romance community on IG rally around the family and support her by promoting her books. I grabbed one on Kindle Unlimited and found myself lost in the world she created. It’s a good solid book.
I’m up to 20+ books read in 2025 during the first 8-ish weeks of the year, but again, I’m conflicted. Does the book “count” if it’s not deep and meaningful? Is there a place for light reading? I think I’m trying to get over my book snobbishness.
What I’m Writing
This month I started writing fiction, crafting a series of characters who I’ve really come to love. (Read more here.)
And yet, I find myself in a quandary as to how to proceed. I want their stories to carry meaning and not just get lost in the sea of rom-com’s. I’ve swum in that sea and it’s easy to get lost!
Since I’ve turned toward “trying to be meaningful,” the flow of words has slowed down. Bryan chided me about that, saying I need to go where the creativity leads me.
I basically have the first story drafted. I know the concepts and have the beginning and the end all written. It’s the “meaningful middle” that has me bogged down. Pray for me! I really want this to be an accurate reflection of God’s personality and truth, goodness, and beauty.
I attended a virtual writer’s event on Thursday featuring Courtney Walsh. It’s clear I have work to do. She gave good advice about learning the craft of writing and tips about indie v. trad publishing. Again, my list is long, and I can’t forget my day job. 😉
Alrighty, that’s it for me. I’m posting these on Fridays now so that the link can go out in Friday’s newsletter. Don’t forget to check out new posts on the blog here:
How was your week?
What’s up in your world? Leave a comment or a prayer request. We’re all in this together!
Thanks for the podcast recommendation. I’m going to check it out. Very interesting to hear your thoughts on prudence. I love rom-coms and always have.
I read so much for work every day as an editor for court work that it’s really hard for me to want to read anything besides devotions and bible reading. I do like to read when we go on vacation though.
I know what you mean about feeling lost if the meal planning/prep work doesn’t happen too.
I’m so curious what an editor for court work does!
Hi again. I work with court reporters all over the country and sometimes live at the same time if the attorneys want the proceeding at the end of the day. I listen to the audio and make sure that it matches what they say and make sure that the homonyms and spellings of proper nouns and terms are correct, researching where necessary, and also adding in or correcting punctuation. I also check the formatting of it as well. We all work in the same CAT system. That’s a quick summary of my job. I love it and have been doing this for almost 17 years now. Thanks for asking!
Interesting! Thanks for explaining that.
Light fiction absolutely counts as a book read! I even include picture books!
That’s cool that you were part of Courtney Walsh’s writer’s conferences. I think her book, The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley is a perfect example of what it sounds like you’re trying to achieve. Light, fun stories with life skills built in.
There’s nothing wrong with a well written romcom. What is the appeal? Well, for some people that’s just the genre they like to read. For others, they read looking for a happy ending because maybe something in their life is going wrong and they are hopeful that it will have a happy ending. I was that person when my husband lost his job. Now I’m reading police procedurals. My friend is reading romcom now– her husband is seriously ill.
Neither of us did this consciously. It is my analysis looking back in time. Both of us are lifelong, serious readers who also belong to bookclubs that read literature.
So my advice is to write as best you can a good story that you would like to read!
Yes, and amen!
Great points!