The Weekly Ramble – November 14, 2025

Wow! November is flying by! Let’s chat holiday plans, paying better attention, and counting macros.

As much as I love sharing my sunrises with you, those are few and far between these days. For whatever reason we’ve been inundated with coastal fog this fall and most sunrises are humdrum.

So, I’ve moved my morning time to be in front of the tree. Yes, we did that.

FishChick19 (today’s her birthday!) usually requests that I wait until after her birthday, but seeing as she’s very rarely home, I took a risk and busted out the tree on Sunday. She very maturely and graciously expressed her opinion but then acknowledged I could do what I want.

The girls worked together to assemble the tree, now going on its 9th year with us. I still have the Facebook update where I shared how finally gave in and ordered a fake tree.

I think it’s lovely — and yes, the best way — to have a real tree, but San Diego County really is not the place for a real tree. And… you can’t put up a real tree this early!

We’ve not yet hung any ornaments, but we’ve fussed with the lights a fair bit. One of the pros to setting up your tree early is that you remember what you threw away last year (broken lights) and couldn’t find on clearance (new lights) so that you can buy replacements when the selection is great and the prices (40% off at Target) are almost as good as after Christmas.

I ended up replacing some warm white lights as well as some twinkling multi-colored lights. FishChick17 did the stringing for me while I sat and drank tea. Another joy of having big kids live with you!

In addition to digging out the tree, I dug out the Christmas cards I bought last year so I could send out my recipes for the Art of Home podcast recipe exchange. Apparently, I need to pay better attention at the store…

Do you see what’s wrong with this nativity scene?! There are TWO Marys. Ugh. Hobby Lobby low balled their designer last year apparently.

I was so disappointed. I bought them in January most likely and was already thinking about Easter. Two Marys at Easter is appropriate, only this isn’t an empty tomb, but the baby Jesus.

Anywho, I was getting up against the deadline and ended up splashing out some money on Amazon.

In the end, I’m happier with what I bought than I was with my original plan. I got old school Christmas recipe cards and this cute assortment of Christmas cards.

Doing an old school recipe exchange is wild — especially the bit about handwriting the recipe! I realize how much I rely on Canva or my iPad for so many things.

It was a good exercise, both mentally and physically to write out the cards. And it was fun to see who and where I got to send them to, throughout the south and even to Lockerbie, Scotland! Remember when we went there?

Slowly but surely, we’re getting in the spirit. What I’ve found over the years is that it takes longer to gear up and then it’s over. Starting early works for me, plus you get your best choice of things you might need or want to add to the celebrations.

It’s been really special to have Miss 17 to myself these days. While I don’t anticipate our nest emptying any time soon, the college kids are all really busy.

Miss 17 and I have a good time in the car talking and we love to shop together. This week we bopped into Dollar Tree to get the party and gift items we know we’ll want later.

Experience tells me that even though they’ve raised their prices, Dollar Tree is still the best place for disposable-type items. We got pretzels for Pretzel Berry and Rolo Turtles as well as some carriers and tins to gift food.

This entire cart was only $20! You know I would have spent a heckuva lot more at Target, Walmart, or even ALDI.

We went into Marshalls as well, on the hunt of fun candles and mugs. We’d discussed it, looked at the budget, and agreed we could make those purchases IF we found ones we loved.

It was hilarious to go through the store picking up mugs and sniffing candles and even though it was totally permissible to buy, we put everything back! We didn’t love anything, and so we spent nothing.

I was raised in a frugal but hoarding-type home, so this felt like a personal victory and to share it with my daughter and model a better way? Well, it felt really good.

This cart, however, cost decidedly more than $20. It was about $217 with all the paper products. But the deals were excellent.

Miss19 wants bulgogi for her birthday dinner on Sunday and while many cuts of meat were $12.99/pound, I was able to score a markdown for much less. I bought what we needed to make Cheese Corn, and she requested a few other specialty items.

(Yes, I could have gone to 88 Ranch, but that was a bit of a drive and not a guarantee that it would be cheaper.)

Slowly, I’m buying all the ingredients for our holiday meals so that I can be OUT of the stores when everyone else is in them. The freezers are officially full.

Bryan is going to start counting macros so we’ve been discussing what to add to his daily protocol. He already eats the same thing for break time, lunch, and after work. I found a ton of the really good chicken marked down to $2.99 so he can grill that when he gets home today.

And I bought every variety of cottage cheese they had. Kroger used to make whipped cottage cheese which had the perfect taste and texture. I bought it often because it was always marked down. lol

I wonder why they discontinued it? 😉

So, we’re going to do a cottage cheese tasting so see what we like the best. Hopefully I’ll remember to film it because it could be epic.

Speaking of macros, here’s the graph of my eight loss; I started counting on the first of November and weighing more regularly after a few days.

Yes, in the past I had good success with the 2BMindset, however, I know that I lost a lot of strength and muscle that year. I used the macro calculator from Rebellion Body. The Macros Cheat Sheet they sent was really helpful in understanding it. I also purchased Denise’s Dumbbell to Go program when it was on sale for $15.

I’m not fully up to speed on the workouts because I’m still doing PT every day for my frozen shoulder. I can move it so much better now. I’m so thankful.

What’s NEW on Life as Mom

Check out these recent posts, including some fun crafts and activities you can do with the fam on these upcoming holiday weekends!

What’s NEW on Good Cheap Eats:

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