The Weekly Ramble – September 12, 2025
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Hey friend! Another week experiencing life. Let’s chat thankfulness, praising God, and instant protein oats.
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Hey there! I see you.
Ignore the smirk, I was texting my hair dresser a picture of my roots because I’m terrible at determining when they need a touch up. Thoughts?
But, seriously. I see you. The Weekly Rambles are the most popular posts on Life as Mom. And I know your time is precious, but I would love to know how YOU are.
Be sure to leave a comment today and let me know what’s up with you, the 100s of you who are reading. Not sure what to say? Tell me something you’re thankful for this week.
I’ll start.
I’m thankful for the freedom to study God’s word. FishChick17 and I started our CBS season yesterday. This year Community Bible Study is studying Psalms.
I’m enjoying digging into a book that I honestly don’t know much about. One thing that stood out to me in this week’s commentary is that the Psalms, which means praises, is primarily composed of songs of lament.
Now praises means “a heartfelt expression of reverence, adoration, and thanksgiving to God for His person and works, a response that is both a declaration of His greatness and a form of worship.”
What a gift that we can pour out our sadness and lamentations on a God who cares, who listens, and is more than Big enough to handle it all!
This week’s current events, the killings of Iryna Zarutska and Charlie Kirk as well as the shooting at Evergreen High, are sobering tragedies. I know our God cares about these things.
I don’t want to say too much because I’m not sure I can add anything beneficial to the conversation. Our world and our country need Jesus desperately.
Personally, I’m asking God to make me more obedient to Him and to give me wisdom in being a witness to what He has done.
Praise the Lord, all nations!
Extol him, all peoples!
For great is his steadfast love toward us,
and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
Praise the Lord! – Psalm 117
In other news…
What I’ve Been Doing
We celebrated my mom’s 80th birthday last weekend. I was able to hang out with her and three of my siblings as well as my sister’s family.
We also got to say goodbye to my niece (pictured here when she was a wee one) before she left for a semester in Scotland. I was so chuffed to be able to dig out some leftover pounds from our England trip to give her as a farewell gift.
It’s so nice when I can follow my own advice!
What I’ve Been Eating
I finally perfected my instant protein oats recipe! When I last mixed up a batch in a bowl, I made several batches in plastic bags.
Turns out that putting it in the bag and shaking it all around distributes the protein powder better than stirring it in a bowl. That’s interesting!
Anyway, it has been a delicious breakfast. I plan to make many batches this weekend.
Pro tip: The glass dish with the lid is a perfect vessel for instant oats. Add boiling water, secure the lid, and wait. Plus, it’s pretty, too.
What I’ve Been Listening/Watching
All our channels subscriptions expired and I found myself needing some noise in the background. How I landed on a rewatching of Bones, I do not know.
I first watched this in 2018, after the series ended. It’s wild to watch something filmed in the early oughts because things that were “conspiracy theories” are now actually true. lol
It’s got a range of topics, some more uncomfortable than others. I’m skipping episodes that I remember not liking.
Funnily enough, Mr.23 suggested we watch Bodies last week, but the gore from the autopsies was too much for me. I guess I do better with skeletons?
What I’ve Been Reading
I finally finished Eve in Exile, not because it’s not excellent; it is. I just haven’t had the focus for reading.
My next book to finish is On Writing Well by William Zinsser. While I appreciate the effort to update an old book, somethings just can’t be updated. The man wrote it when I was 4. You can only update so much.
Still, it’s been helpful, especially since this is a guide to writing nonfiction, which is my strong suit at the moment.
Speaking of which…
What’s New on the Blogs
Thank you for sharing my work with your friends and family. The internet is a wild place, and your support means the world to me.
Anytime you can pin a post or share on social, it helps me out. Thank you!
Here’s what’s NEW on Good Cheap Eats:
- 5-Minute Easy Gravy Recipe
- What to Serve With Soup
- Easy Stone Soup Recipe
- Alphabet Soup
- Serve Soup for Dinner to Save Money
- Best Kitchen Tools for Making Soup
And here’s what NEW on Life as Mom:
How was your week?
What’s up in your world? Leave a comment or a prayer request. We’re all in this together!
I’m playing catch up with reading your Rambles, which I really like reading! We are otw back from TN, a conference that Charlie and Erika Kirk were supposed to speak. It was a wonderful conference – Culture & Christianity at the World Outreach Church. Highly recommend. We attended last year too. So, I am thankful to live where I can worship my Lord & Savior.
I’m thankful for walks with a friend, that my adult children are doing well, hot tea and coffee, books!, and time with my family.
Oh such good things to be thankful for!
I am thankful for the kind nurses that aided my mom in the hospital this week. Always enjoy your posts!
Thank you. Here’s hoping your mom recovers well!
It’s a heavy time! I’m thankful that there are people like you that aren’t afraid to say they are a follower of Christ. THAT is going to be the key to changing this crazy world!!
Yep. Christ or Chaos. There is no other option.
Love your rambles! 😊
You are going to love studying the Psalms. They are such a helpful tool for times like these especially—teaching us to bring ALL of our feelings to the Lord, no matter how ugly, and that He can handle it and He is sovereign over everything!
Some of my favorite Psalm related resources:
1. Shane & Shane Psalms Albums vol1&2, esp vol 2.
2. James M Boice commentary is so good! 3 volumes
3. My Bible study teacher friends, Belinda and Amber, have a podcast series on Psalms called Conversations in Psalms. I’ve been a guest on a couple of episodes (ps 27 & 34). They are walking through the whole book, 1 each week, for as long as it takes.
Hmm, I’m wondering if N and I would like Bones. 🤔 It’s not cozy British genre, but it still might do. I’ll check it out. We are just about finished with Inspector Gently and I’m very sad. It’s not “cozy” but it’s so well written and acted. Takes place in Northern England 1960s.
As usual, I have a half dozen or so books I’m working through. 🤣
1. The Hobbit, for book club
2. A-Typical Woman …almost done
3. Life in the Fasting Lane…have been listening on and off all summer
4. The Sisters of Sea View by Julie Klassen—-historical Christian fiction. Her books are nice chick lit for me.
I also am feeling a serious mid-life urge to purge things from my house and I actually got rid of a bunch of books 😱 this week, some I hadn’t even read! 🙈
And I polished my copper pots yesterday! ✨
That’s my weekly rambling. 💕Allison
Love your weekly rambling, Allison! Thanks for those resource recommendations! I found that both Lewis and Bonhoeffer wrote books about the Psalms. Bryan requested them from the college library, so I’m looking forward to talking a deeper dive. I’ll look for those podcast episodes, too.
Bones is kinda dark and the show (2000s to early 2010s) pushed the envelope at the time, in my opinion, but may seem tame nowadays. I’ve been skipping a fair number of episodes – I remember the plot and go eww. The characters do talk a lot about casual sex so that is a downside of it, as well.
As far as cozy British, the last season of Professor T was particularly well done. The first few seasons were annoyingly too close to the Belgian original, but this last one we liked. We’ve not watched Gently, though we’ve watched A LOT of British TV. I thought we had exhausted our options. Will see if that one’s free!
And yes, my TBR is huge and it seems I’ve run out of reading time. Watching fewer bone reconstructions might give it back. lol
And yes, I, too, have a big pile of donations I need to deal with.
Im thankful you continue to do this blog and inspire me to be more intentional.
It has been a rough week, thanks for reaching out and pointing us all back to the Father.
Many blessings!
Thank you, Anita. Have a restful weekend!
This week leaves us with heavy hearts. I’m thankful to know you likely feel much like I do and that we have the Lord to lean on.
We have nothing but the Lord, really. ❤️
#1 I see you – did you happen to read this this week? https://joynicholas.substack.com/p/the-people-we-meet-on-mountains
This moved me, and also encouraged me to tell each kid who came to the middle school pasta party we hosted last night – “I’m so glad you are here”.
#2 I am thankful to exercise (run/bike/walk with a weighted vest) outside and appreciate the beauty of God’s creation in the natural world. Outdoor exercise is so good in so many ways, good for body, mind and soul. And I appreciate being able to exercise.
#3 Thanks for the link to the pretty glass bowls. Our youngest is 11 and we were just talking about the fact that maybe it’s time to switch out some of our unbreakable Ikea plastic bowls and plates for some glass/ceramic/able to be microwaved dishware.
Thanks for sharing that link. It was really good, as were a couple other posts I got sucked into reading. I am glad you’re here. ❤️
Upgrading from plastic plates is so fun!