The Weekly Ramble – March 28, 2025

Hello and How are you? The year is 1/4 over as of this weekend. How did that happen?

While some people dread the passage of time, I relish it. The end of Q1 is a time to reflect and see what you’ve accomplished, what you still want to do, what you can celebrate.

This is a great weekend to review the year so far! Check out these tips for Things I Do at the Start of a New Month; they work for a new quarter as well.

I’m pleased to report that I’m still standing, that I’ve kept my ear infection at bay (you may remember that last year was quite dreadful on the otology front), and I have discovered an affinity for lemon-flavored Oreos.

Besides those milestones, I’ve also booked our next family trip overseas. Longtime readers will remember that we took the six kids for a month to France and then a month to the UK. We took five kids to Hawaii.

This spring, we’re taking four to Japan. This has been in the talking stage for close to two years, and I’ve dragged my heels a bit. Japan is way outside my comfort zone when it comes to knowledge, language, and food.

But, my kids are all over it. Like white on rice, as they say.

I’ve been watching plane flights rise steadily over the last six weeks, wondering if most of our trip budget was going to go toward just getting there. Thankfully, this week I found a reasonable fare and after much jumping of hoops with the airline seating software, I booked our tickets.

We’ll see as much of Japan as we can over a three-week period. We’ve got 2/3 of our budget left to spend.

I’ve also been putting the finishing touches on the new resource pack from my e-store.

We’re all hungry for connection, especially in these days since the Before Times. So, April’s theme is Hospitality, something I’ve been personally working on for the last year or so.

When you purchase the pack (or get it free as a member of the Good Cheap Eats Club), you’ll receive four instant party kits and two party guides — all full of recipes and easy to-do’s to make it easier to have people over.

This will be available ON SALE starting on Tuesday. In the meantime, check out this month’s featured resource, Freezerpalooza.

This week the community college had a spring break, so I wasn’t spending time on campus or in traffic. This translated into some extra home cooked meals!

The weather has been delightful since the time change, so we’ve been eating on the back patio whenever we can. It’s so nice!

Our dinners have included:

• Grilled Cajun Chicken, Caesar Salad, Roast Potatoes
• Quesadillas with Sausage and Chicken options
• Easy Slow Cooker Chili, Cornbread
• Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce with Sausage, pasta, green beans
• Ground Chicken Tacos
• Grilled Pizza (as always)

Clearly, many of these meals are non-recipe meals, my favorite kind.

Since I’ve been enjoying this week of hunkering down at home, I haven’t been in the car to do much listening. I’m not currently working on an audio book on the treadmill, either.

FishChick16 and I are slowly working through Perelandra, but we haven’t been in the car much.

I have listened to a few podcasts here and there, and have several in my queue to listen to, including:

• Stories are Soul Food
• Come Over for Dinner – I can’t wait to listen to the Easter edition
• What Have You – FishGirlfriend is working through the 2018 archives, so I’m listening along so we can chat about them.
• the new season of The Art of Home

Did I tell you about the MFA program that had me in tears? As I mentioned a month ago, if not for the money….but really?

I did some googling and some internet espionage (aka find students in the program on social media to see what they’re doing) — and I came to the realization that I’m not sure I want to do school.

I’m somewhat akin to the person who wants to know how to play piano versus the one who’s willing to learn to play piano.

I love the idea of learning all these things, but am I willing to put forth the effort and cash that an MFA would require? I realized that I could at least read the books.

Except for the ones on poetry because I hate poetry.

So, between my internet stalking and books I remembered from my own master’s program, circa 1994 and books that will help me write the kinds of books I’d like to write, I’ve got a huge new list of books to read, quite different that where my To Be Read Pile started.

That’s a lot of books, eh? Some are for learning the craft of writing, some are for reading to enhance my brain and vocabulary, etc.

I’ve currently got two read and am halfway through a third.

Save the Cat Writes a Novel – took me longer than it should to read since I thought I needed to memorize it all. Also, I was familiar with few of the books that she used as examples, so the lesson didn’t hit as well.

Wordsmithy – plowed through this on a Sunday afternoon and was incredibly encouraged in many ways, particularly in regards to having permission to read quickly and not memorize as well as making sure that I write with love for the reader.

On Writing by Stephen King – I’ll finish this weekend. Not a horror fan, so I’ve never read any of his books nor watched the movies, except Stand By Me. I’m a little disappointed because he’s an amazing writer. But, I’m still not going to read creepy books, so there’s that. Regardless, the wisdom packed in this book is gold.

Already this month, I’ve read 16 books, and will likely end with 18 at least.

I was very pleased to discover Becky Wade’s books. I like them a lot. We are about the same age and both grew up in Southern California. We must speak the same language.

Regardless, I was impressed with the Christian themes she weaved through the love stories — without being cheesy.

Going forward I’m trying to alternate between writing books and fiction, fun fiction and serious fiction. Not that serious fiction isn’t fun, but it takes more brain power.

And since Stephen King has given me permission to read or write for 4 to 6 hours/day, I’m good!

I have put my fiction writing on hold this past week as a result of my reading about writing. I plan to get back to it with a renewed enthusiasm this weekend, working on a daily schedule per King’s recommendations.

These last two weeks of reading have been good for me to have a sort of guide to my writing. I am thankful for that.

I’m also grateful that cookbook royalty checks still find their way to my house. Hallelujah!

These checks aren’t huge; in fact, quite the contrary. But it’s gratifying to get paid for work you did over a decade ago, especially since only 1/3 of books earn out their advances.

Thank you to those who’ve purchased my books. I appreciate you so much!

You are those who have believed in my ability to write, past, present, and future. Thank you for that!

I think that’s all I got for you this week. What’s up with you?