The Weekly Ramble – October 9, 2026

I survived another heat wave without whining too much — and I even kept up my step streak! (Currently at 181 days.)

Those are a couple wins of the last week. We had 100+ temps for multiple days in a row, something that is norm for many places, just not here.

Next week the forecast includes rain and a low of 52, so I hereby dub this “Whiplash Season.” The high will fluctuate from 66 to 80, so yeah, I called it.

However much I complain about the weather — I must be technically “a grumpy old lady” now — I do have to concede that this area of life is all God. Like there’s really nothing we can do about the weather. It is clearly God’s job so even in this, I gotta trust Him.

Which is a really nice segue…

What I’m Learning

Sometime in the last couple weeks in talking with a new friend, I realized that my miscarriage year was where I started to understand the Sovereignty of God. There was nothing I could do to achieve different outcomes in those pregnancies. It truly was in God’s hands.

And I had to sit (and whine and cry and grieve) in the tension that God was not giving me my way, yet He still loved me. The fact that God didn’t answer my prayers the way I wanted Him to did not mean He was ignoring me.

This week I’ve been reminded of that afresh. I don’t know how much you know about the career called “Content Creator,” but that’s where I find myself. For most people, I just say “writer” when asked what I do, but for all intents and purposes, that is my job.

And it hasn’t been going as well as I hoped.

Content creators earn their income through sponsorships, affiliate marketing, advertising, publishing, and product sales. In my best year (2022), I made about double what I’m currently making. What a difference 4 years make.

Thankfully the free fall has slowed down. I hope we’ve already reached the bottom and things are on their way back up. But there’s no guarantee of that.

Now, I’ve gotten some good opportunities lately, but not what I was hoping for. And while I was sitting (whining, crying, and grieving) in that reality, God reminded me of the deep observations CS Lewis makes in that fever dream of a book, Perelandra:

You could send your soul after the good you had expected, instead of turning it to the good you had got. You could refuse the real good; you could make the real fruit taste insipid by thinking of the other….that it is I, I myself, who turn from the good expected to the given good. Out of my own heart I do it. One can conceive a heart which did not: which clung to the good it had first thought of and turned the good which was given it into no good.

Lewis does not speak in good quotable sound bites (how 1940s of him!), but I think if I were his social media manager, I might paraphrase him like this:

Don’t waste your life pining for the thing you wanted, however good it may be, but embrace the good that God has chosen to give you. You’ll degrade the value of the Given Good if you don’t.

I’ve spent time this week repenting of my ungratefulness for the Given Good. He’s granted me so many good things.

And honestly, I don’t actually want fame or (that much) fortune, but I would like to know these good ideas He’s given me aren’t wasted. That I will have to trust to Him, too.

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

What I’ve Been Doing

Every day I’ve tried to get up early enough to read 15 to 20 minutes of Bible and then get outside to get my steps. I don’t see any visible or tangible progress in the effort, but I’m plugging away.

My pedometer app is all kinds of green, and while my stated goal is 7500 steps minimum, this month I’m trying to get higher than that. I haven’t lost a ton of weight since I shifted my habits, but the scale isn’t going up anymore so that’s good.

Getting outside every day has been nice in other ways. One day I tried listening to my Bible reading but Exodus is hard to pay attention to that way. Now I listen to music if I don’t have a good podcast in the queue.

What I’ve Been Eating

Did I mention that forcing myself to hit the protein goal and the fiber goal for so many months seems to have contributed to way too many calories? That happened when I did a Whole 30, too. Trying to hit a health target actually had the reverse effect.

I’ve laid off trying to hit a certain target and I’ve even given Gemini a rest. All of a sudden it was giving me bad information, so I am back to using my own brain.

My tongue is burning like crazy, so I’m not sure what that’s about. I had to downgrade my patch by half because CVS is out of them, so I am wondering if that’s the issue. (Vicki, I completely forgot about the Riboflavin, but am going to start giving that another try.)

Anyhow, I’ve made an effort at simple protein options like the turkey rolls up in the photo as well as avoiding added sugar when I can. I may have an obsession with Coke Zero. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not.

What I’ve Been Listening/Watching/Reading

Nothing much has struck my fancy lately on the listening, watching, or reading front. I was hoping that Prime channels would go on discount for Big Prime Days but that didn’t happen.

Every once in awhile I will turn on a live channel for New Tricks or Acorn Mysteries. Earlier this week Miss18 and I watched an episode of the newer Hawaii 5-0. I was a little hooked on that back in 2019 before we went to Hawaii for the first time. It was as fun little blast to the past.

I just went down a rabbit trail on Acorn TV. It looks like there are some good things, so maybe I’ll consider subscribing over Christmas break.

I did finish Exodus in my Bible reading, and while I have a few options in my Kindle, none of them are enticing me too much. Got a good rec to help me get my reading mojo back?

And no, I haven’t read Emma M Lion. I’m avoiding it so far. Probably to be ornery. Probably because I could get obsessed/sucked in. Possibly because I’m jealous of the author’s success. 🤓

Okay, that’s it for me. Let’s chat!