Saturday

 Just a few random things that happened on this fine Saturday - 

1. I got all the dishes done for the first time in at least a week.  Then everyone woke up and ate breakfast and a whole new mess started over by the sink.  But for a few minutes it was beautiful.

2. Wes made soap out of deer fat in my kitchen.  I looked over my shoulder from washing dishes and saw that he had attached one of the beaters from my hand mixer to a drill and was mixing something in a metal bowl.  It was deer fat soap.  I guess deer fat + water + lye = soap.  Who knew?  Not me.  The boys want to call the soap "Deer Stank".  This is where we are after almost 20 years of marriage.  I saw the beater in the drill and found out it was being used to make soap out of deer fat and just thought "wow, that's kind of weird" and went back to doing the dishes...

3. Danny's fish died.  His name was Jazz.  We called him "Little Jazz" for some reason.  But.  He's down the toilet now.  So Wes brought Danny to buy another fish.  He is bright red and his name is "Jazz Junior" and will probably end up being called "JJ" (Even thought that is what Faith calls Jeremiah, but only when she is saying goodnight to him.  It's so sweet and cute.) I hope the new fish lives a long time.  

4.  I spent probably an hour reading a cookbook that I got for my birthday.  It's Jen Hatmaker's new one.  I just sat and read it like a book.  And it was worth it even if I cook exactly zero things from it.  But I think I will try at least a few of the recipes and hope my family with very Scandinavian taste buds won't revolt.  But they ate the minestrone soup I made the other night without much fuss, so maybe they'll really surprise me and like new things. (Three years ago none of my boys would eat soup at all.  Not even chicken noodle.  Weirdos.  But food battles are not battles I will fight.  I don't have the energy for that.)

5.  After reading said cookbook for said amount of time, I didn't even cook anything for supper.  Wes ate leftover soup, I intended to have leftover tator tot hotdish but apparently someone (Danny!) had that when he wasn't super keen on the soup but only ate the tator tots off the top.  So I actually ate ground venison and mixed veggies.  But that's ok.  I think Faith made herself an English muffin pizza, Benj is currently eating a bag of microwave popcorn, and I hear Jeremiah rummaging around behind me getting food now.   (So maybe if I keep this "I'm not cooking, just forage for your food" gig long enough they will be so happy when I do cook they'll eat whatever new things I make with great gusto just because they are so glad for me to be making food for them.  ha!  I say this like it's been weeks since I cooked.  Not true.  It's been one day.)  

So about ramblings....

I'm finally doing this.  Post #2.  I basically talked myself out of everything that came to mind to write on here last week and over the weekend.  I second guessed the choice to blog again about a million times.  And on top of that I took Faith on a little "girls day trip" last Saturday and then felt icky on Sunday so I slept most of that day.  Monday and Tuesday that kids were off from school so there was a lot going on in our home.  We didn't travel or do anything big.  But we had a blast at home not having to go anywhere for those two days.  A household of 6 solid introverts is nice that way.  We can find lots of fun things to occupy our time right within the walls of our home.  Blessings upon blessings...

So back to the reason I sat down to write this one.  Ramblings.  After that opening paragraph, this is just going to make so much more sense.  I'm a rambler.  (See previous paragraph if you don't believe me.)

I actually looked up the word "rambling" in the dictionary.  Not even an online dictionary.  The red one hard cover with real paper pages one that sit on my bookshelf.  It was a high school graduation gift from the lady who was my boss at my first job in high school.  My only job in high school.  I worked at the grocery store in town and I loved it.  Still probably one of my favorite jobs I've ever had.

Back to the dictionary.  Back to definitions.  Back to rambling.

Ramble, rambled, rambling - 

1. To move aimlessly from place to place or to explore idly 

2. To talk or write in a desultory or long winded wandering fashion

3. To grow or extend irregularly

Yes.  The name of this blog is appropriate.  I do all of those things.  I kind of am all of those things.  So if you're looking for a focused, linear, one directional purposeful blog.  Move on.  This isn't it.  

I had to look up the word "desultory" because I didn't know how to say it, I don't remember ever hearing it before, and I certainly didn't know what it means.

The first definition really made me laugh.  The dictionary said "of a circus rider who leaps from horse to horse".  First thought that came to mind was about a circus - not my circus, not my monkeys.  Except, this IS my circus and these ARE my monkeys.  Or I guess horses, not monkeys. If a circus rider jumping from horse to horse isn't a picture of how I do life, I don't know what is.  I really do love my circus even if I have to spend lots of time leaping from horse to horse.  

(Example: the children came home from school while I was writing this.  So I have stopped typing to be a psychologist to a 7th grader, cut up an apple, remind all children to eat something, help a child start up my new wax melting good smelling thing that I got for my birthday yesterday, and probably other things that I don't actually remember.)  Horse, to horse, to horse...

The next definition of desultory was "marked by lack of definite plan, regularity, or purpose".  Preach.  That is me.  With most everything.  The next was "not connected with the main subject".  I have a feeling that could happen a lot here as well.

Welcome to my rambling, desultory blog.  

Here we go.

This might be a bit of everything from book reviews to random deep thoughts to Scripture verses and lessons to real, funny, maybe hard or sad stories of life to recipes (But if I do post recipes I promise to just post them.  No videos.  No life story intertwined with the whole mess while you are just actually trying to find out how much flour to put in and how long to bake whatever it is.  Just ingredients and directions.) 

Rambling.  It's how I roll.

(The last listed definition of desultory was "disappointing in progress of performance, sluggish".  If I'm being honest, that is sometimes what this blog is going to be, too.  But I'm just going to do my best.)

A New Beginning

Well. Here we go. I’m not sure exactly what I am doing. I mean, I’m writing. That is the point. I like to write. I feel like I need to write. But here’s the thing. Technology isn’t my friend. I have no idea what I am doing on that end of this adventure. A friend helped me get set up this far. We met at a coffee shop this morning after I texted her to ask for her help in setting up a blog. She brought a computer, her phone, all she knows about setting up a blog, and a pen and paper. I brought a water bottle. That’s kind of what I mean when I say I’m not sure exactly what I’m doing. But I guess I’ll be hydrated while I’m doing it. So we’ll count that as some kind of win.

I thought we had it all set up.  Then I came home and tried it on my own.  (Have a mentioned technology isn't my thing?)  I was totally lost.  I used to post on another blog from years ago.  I guess I could have gone back to that one.  But something in me just wanted to start new.  I don't even know why.  When I couldn't figure out the other blog, I decided to hop back on here and see if it was any more familiar.  Turns out, it was.  And I got this far instead of having someone else's posts about their artwork and a random paragraph about 3 generations of names smack in the middle of what was supposed to be my blog.  I tried several ways to get rid of that stuff and couldn't figure it out.  So I  just jumped ship.  Maybe I should have persevered.  Tried harder.  Googled it.  Asked my teenagers.  But instead I just jumped ship.  I have limited energy and that issue wasn't worth using up any more of it.

So.  Here we are. 

Baby steps, I guess.

I was happy to find some kind of background (template?) that has red on it. Because even though this blog is called “Rebekah’s Ramblings” it was almost called “Red Robe Ramblings” since one of the things I like most is my red robe.  And the red robe did sneak into the web address, because there is some other Rebekah who already called dibs on just her ramblings for her site title thing (I know. I'm blowing you away with how techy I am.)  Whoever she is, I bet she isn't wearing a red robe while she types.  But I am.  So I’m happy that I found red for the blog. And it makes me giggle that my red robe made the cut for this launch into the internet world.  I mean, I do wear it every day.  Sometimes I wonder if because I wear it so much, it will just be superimposed into every memory my kids have of me.

At any rate, me and my red robe are typing this out together right now. It’s 2:31 pm. I’ve been awake since 6:15 am. I did shower. I am dressed. I have been out of the house today. Twice. But here I am with my red robe on over my clothes clunking away at a computer trying to figure this thing out. 

Water, a red robe, and lots of words. It’s what I’ve got. And I guess we’ll see where it goes from here.

(Just for full disclosure, after I hit the "preview" button I about fell over because of the red background.  That might need to go.  I think I need to find something a little less red....  But for now we're going to just leave this be.)