Weekly Ramble – January 25, 2025

Hello and Happy Weekend! I wish I could say that we’re cozy and warm here, but it’s 66 in the house and I am resisting turning on the furnace.

Let’s warm ourselves with this picture of the sunrise I took earlier this week. 🌞

Last winter I was on the balcony almost every morning watching the sunrise. This year, I’m just not into it. Honestly, the view is rarely as stunning as it was last year. Not sure why.

Instead, I lie huddled under the covers scrolling on my phone when I should be doing something constructive like yoga or Bible study or journaling. I know this, and remind myself of it almost every morning.

Why don’t I do the things I know are good for me?

That is a 5 million dollar question, isn’t it? One that Paul was asking almost 2000 years ago, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”
(‭‭Romans‬ ‭7‬:‭15‬ ‭NIV‬‬)

Now, he’s talking specifically about sin and I’m talking about social media…. but is there’s such a fine line there sometimes. Yikes!

While social media isn’t sin itself, I wonder about our inclination NOT to do the things we know are good for us. Or the way social media can influence away from what we want to do. Hmmm….

Bryan and I have both been listening to the audio book of The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. Since it’s an audio book and I can’t search it, I don’t have an exact quote… however the notion of “risking what you have and love for something that you don’t have and don’t need” runs people into debt and disaster.

As I apply this to my time, I realize that I have a mind and body that work and could work better if I devoted more time to exercise and study. But, I trade this time for fleeting entertainment and distraction on the internet.

I wonder if it’s time for another great unplugging? I did this last year, starting on Valentine’s Day and going far past Easter. I tell myself I can’t because of blogging, that the business will fail if I do.

I wonder if that’s true. And even if it were, is it worth my peace and health?

Peace, true peace, is something I realize is incredibly important to me, but it’s only in the last couple years that I was able to identify that. What is that?

I think it has to do with knowing I’m aligned with the work that God has provided for me to do. I haven’t always been sure about what that is or I’d find myself in a season of transition where that was changing.

So pretty much always wondering, but I think I might have a grasp on it:

• to support my husband and kid and enjoy being with them
• to care for our home and the resources God has granted us

These opportunities/works have been really clear to me over the last year. This winter I’m figuring out another vocational layer: blogging.

I just saw a poll on Courtney Walsh’s instagram where she asked who read blogs. It was a very small percentage of people who replied yes. This makes me sad.

But, also thankful for you! Thanks for not letting me talk to myself!

Folks have warned that blogging was dead for years, but I kinda refuse to believe it. Last week I spent some time praying about my job and that led me to search for an official definition of blogging.

So that’s pretty much what I do and have done for awhile now. Sixteen years! But, it certainly has looked different. And then brings me back to the whole social media question.

What do you think? Is social media required for a blogger to do her work?

In other news, I had a really great grocery store clearance haul this week. It was nice to load up on things that we use at reasonable prices.

I’ll admit. I don’t like that chicken. We call it “hot dog chicken” because it tastes a little like hotdogs. But, the girls like it and since they’re responsible for their lunches and Thursday night dinners, so it’s a quick fix.

This month’s Pantry Challenge hasn’t really been like it was in year’s past. It’s much less entertaining with most of the family gone during the day. And since we eat so much at dinner to feed 7 adults, I can clean out the freezer fairly quickly.

Also, really good deals have been thin on the ground.

I’m now up to 8 books completed in January. My RomCom count is up to 3 out of 8, so it’s time to balance it with some headier, more intellectual stuff.

Since I’m behind on planning our trip to Japan, the Japan travel book needs to jump to the top of the stack. And I have 13 books started from my To Be Read 2025 list, so I’ve got my work cut out for me.

I guess that’s it for my week.