Share Four Somethings November 2023

Oops, I totally missed putting up this post last Saturday. The last few weeks have felt like a whirl wind with Thanksgiving feeling so early and I didn’t realize until a few days ago that this coming Saturday was actually the first weekend in December!

Loving

Well I haven’t loved my husband being out of a job (He’ll hopefully we starting a short-term contract position shortly), I have enjoyed having him pitch in on more of our daily life. He’s always been very involved a wonderful husband and father, but he has been more handson with the kids’ school work as well as helping with transport. That transportation help has been especially important because the highlight of November was seeing our daughter in her first full length play production! She played the Ghost of Christmas Present in a Christmas Carol at a local school.

She was amazing to watch! She definitely played the character a bit more intimidating than jolly but her stage presence was excellent and it was a joy to see her come to life on stage.

Reading

Thanks to my Kindle unlimited trial, I’m doing quite a bit of reading. I read a couple books I won’t mention because I found the characters unlikeable but that’s not entirely the author’s fault. I’m on the last book of the Sweater Weather series and I’m halfway through the Love Stories in Sheet Cake. (The same author wrote the first book in the Sweater Weather series). But I’m ready to start moving on to some Christmas books shortly.

In the past, I’ve enjoyed reading cozy Christmas romances or Christmas books with HEA endings. I think I’ll read a few new ones while also possibly rereading some old ones I’ve liked too.

Learning

Just when I think I’ve learned to trust in God’s provision, I continue to be amazed. A board gaming acquaintance of my husband gifted us 10 lbs of grass-fed ground beef that he raised himself (apparently he keeps beef cattle as a hobby, his in-laws have a farm and extra land they let him use). When he heard my husband had lost his job, he wanted to be supportive. It’s been a huge blessing to our family and we’ve been making it last.

While the employment situation isn’t entirely resolved, we are seeing in all kind of small ways that God has everything under control, even if sometimes we don’t have any idea what’s going on.

Eating

Since we’ve been continuing to weather a low income month, we’ve gotten creative with our groceries, especially with using what’s already in our freezer and pantry.

We made a tasty lowfodmap chili with ground beef from the freezer, a can of lentils I had in the pantry, a can of tomato sauce leftover from when my in-laws were visiting (and my mother in law cooked us Puerta Rican food), a bag of frozen corn and some frozen tomatoes from my garden. I made rice and cornbread from scratch. Almost all the ingredients were a sunk cost and it lasted us several days! Now that the weather has taken a turn for the colder, I’m looking forward to doing it again.

I’m definitely gravitating towards lots of soap and stew this time of year, which is unfortunate because two of my three kids won’t eat soup at all! But that’s not going to stop me from enjoying it.

Well that’s November and December arrives tomorrow, so not a moment too soon! I’m looking forward to trying to take it a little easier this month despite the DIY phase of our home renovation coming up shortly. We’re saying no a lot this season so we can prioritize things we love doing as a family and find moments of rest in an otherwise busy season.