What We Cooked and Ate (Week 4)

This Week's Eats:

Easy five minute gravy (Karissa's Vegan Kitchen)

Sourdough chicken and dumplings (The Rose Homestead)

Sourdough applesauce muffins (Sourdough Surprises)

Sourdough pancakes (Sugar Geek Recipes)

Noteworthy Repeats:

Big-batch Instant Pot white beans (Epicurious)

Homemade ranch dressing (with Greek yogurt) (It Starts With Protein)

Shredded chicken (365 Days of Crockpot)

Freezer Pull-Outs:

No knead pan pizza (Budget Bytes) with homemade pizza sauce (Budget Bytes)

Simple potato pizza (Lockrem Homestead) on thin and crispy pizza crust (Budget Bytes)

Afghan 89

I tend to start a new afghan when I travel, so this is actually the most recent afghan I started. (I have two more in progress.) I started it over Thanksgiving and finished it in the new year. It worked up pretty quickly, and I cannot complain about the ease of a slip stitch edging! All in all, I am very happy with this blanket. It goes out to the very special third little boy of my sweet cousin!

Hook: Size I placed into a Boye ergonomic crochet hook handle

Yarn: Red Heart soft navy

Pattern: Simple vintage blanket (The Purple Poncho)

Finished size: 33 by 38 inches (Not exactly the 30 x 35 inch baby size I was going for, but close enough!

What We Cooked and Ate (Week 3)

This Week's Eats:

The best healthy tuna salad (Calla's Clean Eats)

Chickpea vegetable soup (Running on Real Food)

Greek chickpea soup (The Plant Based School)

Lentil potato soup (Nibble and Dine)

911 Gravy (Fat Free Vegan)

Savory sourdough cheese herb quick bread (The Healing Slice)

Skinny cheesy potato casserole (Recipe Runner)

Sourdough cornbread (Homestead and Chill)

Sourdough oatmeal muffins (Everyday Homemade)

Noteworthy Repeats:

Big-batch Instant Pot white beans (Epicurious)

Homemade ranch dressing (with Greek yogurt) (It Starts With Protein)

Shredded chicken (365 Days of Crockpot)

Freezer Pull-Outs:

No knead pan pizza (Budget Bytes) with homemade pizza sauce (Budget Bytes)

Simple potato pizza (Lockrem Homestead) on thin and crispy pizza crust (Budget Bytes)

Real Life Marriage: Unexpected Blessings

My husband said for a long time that we needed to find a hobby to do together. I wasn't hip on the hobbies he suggested, and he wasn't interested in mine either, at least then. And then suddenly, this past fall, he started running with me. 

In all the years we spent together, we have run three 5Ks: one while we were dating, one the year we got married, and one we put on for ourselves during COVID. In the last three months of 205, however, we went to four different running events: OhSo2Sole, the Night Run, the Foster 5K, and a turkey trot. We ran the Night Run entirely together as a dating anniversary activity, and we finished the Foster 5K together. Yes, I invited my husband to these events, but he came, willingly. He went on to recently run a 5K all by himself

Of all the things I have prayed for in our marriage, this is not one of them (or at least a current prayer request). Before I met my husband, I think I thought it would be ideal if my future husband was a runner, but I was not set on it. Throughout most of our marriage, running has been my thing. My husband has supported me, and it has been good. Slowly over these past few months, however, running has become more of our thing. What a blessing!

I have prayed for many things in marriage. I have labored and strived and stressed. Most of them have not come to fruition during my periods of striving. If at all, they have come when I have given up, when I have decided to pray for my husband's character, instead of for something to change in him, or in our marriage. I think that is the way God works sometimes. God wants to change me when I pray, not just give my what I ask for.

God is not a vending machine. He is the source of "every good and perfect gift, however" (English Standard Version, 2019, James 1:17). He is the author of every blessing. Sometimes those gifts just do not come when or how I expect. Will future hard times come in our marriage? Certainly. Will I labor in prayer for things I want in our marriage, rather than what God wants? I am a sinner, so I probably will, but I hope I also grow in my joy in the Lord, in acceptance, and in contentment. 

God has given us marriage. He has given us for now, a shared hobby, and I am sure he will give us other unexpected blessings in the future. We just need to be open to receive them.I hope I also grow in looking for and seeing God's blessings, whatever they may be. To God be the glory!

Reference:

English Standard Version. (2019). Bible Gateway. https://www.biblegateway.com/versions/English-Standard-Version-ESV-Bible/#copy

What We Cooked and Ate The Last Two Weeks

Week 1:

Banana pancakes (Jessica in the Kitchen)

Buddy the Elf's breakfast spaghetti (Popcorn Pairings)

Brown butter and asparagus risotto (The Instant Pot Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook)

Chickpea veggie soup (Oatrageous Oatmeals)

Princess Diana's overnight oats (Eating Bird Food)--seriously some of the best overnight oats I have made and eaten in a long time!

Simple potato pizza (Lockrem Homestead) on thin and crispy pizza crust (Budget Bytes)

S'mores sourdough bagels (Sourdough Jesha)

Sourdough applesauce muffins (Pantry Mama)

Sourdough cinnamon muffins (Pantry Mama)

Sourdough oatmeal breakfast cups (Pantry Mama)

Steel-cut oat sausage crumbles (Oatrageous Oatmeals)

Triple chocolate protein pop tart (Hayl's Kitchen)

Noteworthy Repeats:

Big-batch Instant Pot white beans (Epicurious)

Easy hummus (Inspired Taste)

Homemade ranch dressing (with Greek yogurt) (It Starts With Protein)

No knead pan pizza (Budget Bytes) with homemade pizza sauce (Budget Bytes)

Shredded chicken (365 Days of Crockpot)

Sourdough discard protein bagels (This Jess Cooks)

Whole wheat bread (Sally's Baking Addiction)

Week 2:

Chickpeas and dumplings (How Sweet Eats)

Easy gravy (Recipe Zazz)

Sourdough discard pancakes (Pantry Mama)

Sourdough oatmeal muffin bread (Fermenting for Foodies)

Less

Faithful followers may have noticed that I took a bit of a break from the blog and social media here at the beginning of the year? Why? I'm trying to re-evaluate. My husband pointed out that although I enjoy a lot of things, the stress of doing so many things outweighs the joy in doing them. So I am trying to do less. In fact, "Less" is my word for 2026.

Less is not the word I wanted for 2026. I had other contenders:

Dream

Joy
Margin

Priorities

Try

But what I settled on was, "Less." I don't really know what that looks like, but I am trying. May the Lord be my guide!

For now, I am experimenting. I am unsubscribing and unfollowing. I am trying to purge excess items (though not going minimalist, because that is more work in and of itself!). I am trying to scroll less and read more. I am trying to stop accumulating (even if it is just more books on my to be read list, or more podcasts on my too listen list). I am trying to keep myself more accountable and put less pressure on myself at the same time. I am trying to have less priorities, so I can focus more on the main one(s). 

Am I doing great? No, honestly, I am not, but I am here for it. Maybe in less, I can learn to be more present, even if that does mean being present for some of the stuff I'd rather not acknowledge.

Top Ten of 2025

Whew! This year has flown by. Praise the Lord for all that has happened in it, and how He has carried us through it!

This year, yoga once again won the attention on Instagram:

My top blog posts this year were mostly past ones, but these 2025 ones also made the cut:

1) Eats and Empties (Week 4)

2) I enjoy running, but...

3) Everything I Read in January

4) Girls on the Run 5K

5) Real Life Marriage: I Want You to Have Nice Things!

(This seems like such a strange group of posts. Why certain blog posts take off, I will never know!)

Over on Facebook, these were the top posts for the year:

1) Real Life Marriage: The Honeymoon Year (Six Years In)

2) Grieving the (Maybe Not So Little) Things Anew

3) Eats and Empties (Week 17)

4) Nationwide Children's Columbus Half-Marathon

5) Celebrating National Pumpkin Day (Year Five)

To all my faithful readers, thank you. Lord willing, see you for a round of writing in 2026!