Hello There
Well! Here we are, 2026. We made it! Are things gonna start getting better? Yes! But also… no? I mean, idk, I can’t predict the future, but I can hope. Seems it’s definitely gonna be another year of “check the news before you go talking about ‘good morning!’,” so.
I picked up a little head cold somewhere this past week. Sure, I had a full-blown case of flu/norovirus a mere month ago, but this is somehow worse. Perhaps because I am fully conscious. The norovirus I slept through, albeit feverishly. A head cold exists purely to torment you, as though it is personal. Who’s father did I kill to deserve this? Revolving illnesses is not quite the hero’s journey I had planned for myself, let alone the start to 2026 that I desired.
On the plus side, I’m well enough to still cook for myself. I busted out my beloved 16qt. stock pot, broke down a cheap rotisserie chicken, and chopped up a handful of veggies that were lurking in my fridge. And yes, of course I saved the chicken bones for a future stock; I’ll talk a bit about my homemade soup stock process below. Last night I made myself a spicy ramen with a miso-gochujang base and miscellaneous things I had in my fridge; I like eating spicy foods when I’m sick because it feels like it really gets the blood flowing during a time when I’m quite sedentary. Make sure you’re stocked up on tissues first though, to handle the inevitable sniffles that follow a spicy meal.
While I usually like to set up my monthly bullet journal spreads on the 1st of the month, this has yet to happen. To be fair, in addition to being sick I’m also still recovering from lapsing on my bujo practice through the latter half of 2025—I kept up with my daily logs, but in the Notes app instead of on paper. 😅 It’s not nearly as satisfying, I can tell you that. Pen to paper feels like a sacred act. Thusly, I do have a fresh journal for 2026, and some ideas of what I want to track for each month and week and how I want to track it. That’ll probably be my main project this weekend (she says on Saturday), but I’ll need to troll around on Pinterest a bit more for inspiration and research (“research”…).
But enough about me! How are you? How was your new years? A lot of the folks I’ve chatted with this week opted to stay in and have a chill evening, which I wholly respect. That was my plan too, but someone offered to watch Irma for me so I could go out, so that’s what I did. I need to rebuild my tolerance for socializing in larger groups, anyway.
🗓️ Week in Review
Ramen with leeks, onion, a soft boiled egg, soy sauce breaded salmon, and a miso-gochujang base.
I’m meltinnngg…
Good ol’ chicken noodle soup! One whole rotisserie chicken, leeks, carrots, potatoes, onion, lentils, and orzo pasta.
☑️ Done and Done - Had to take a day off for rest and reflection post-holidays, oof. Rallied myself and had a productive week of work across multiple platforms, which was good. Had a chilly but sunny walk with Irma, stopped in at the stationary store to get their very last(!) Bullet Journal-edition Leuchtturm notebook and a new bottle of ink. Trimmed my bangs, trimmed my hair, got my nails done up proper again. Partied my way into 2026. Then rested, sniffled, and coughed my way through the early days of January as I slurping on soups. Also renewed Irma’s license with the county, sorted through a bunch of loose paperwork, and made some loose plots for the rest of the year.
📋 Coming up - Assembling my Bujo for 2026 and HOPEfully finishing with transcribing my notes from 2025 into my old journal. Trekking out to IKEA with a friend once I’m fit for public appearances again. Having a big cleaning day (first Tuesday of the month, recurring). Then the usual amount of works across the usual spread of platforms and socials, voice allowing!
There was a good smell on the ground…
… so she had to roll on it.
🌝 Vibe Check
Awareness is step one, then, naming the thing. Step 3… do the work to evict it. Time to get to work.
I mentioned last week that I have some ambitious goals in my year. And while I’m holding some of those close to the chest still, lest I jinx anything, I think it’s reasonable to talk about what has to happen first before any of us can welcome in a big change in our lives: we have to be prepared to receive that change.
I think it’s true what they say, that change doesn’t happen overnight. You can’t just say keep adding and adding changes to your life and expect them to stick. They usually come hand in hand with a change in mindset, or routine, something subtle that we don’t always consider part of The Change, but which enables it. A sort of manifestation, if you will, to show the universe that you can handle this. A metaphorical cleaning out the closet to receive new clothes.
Over the last five years, I’ve said goodbye to a lot of toxicity that had accumulated in my life. People, patterns, environments. Some of this change was hoisted upon me rather suddenly by the greater upset of the pandemic, but other, smaller changes crept in, a slow realization that something wasn’t right. The sands of time shift and things no longer align. It can be difficult to walk away, especially if you’re a people-pleasure type who’s used to being put in the position of leadership (whether you want to be or not), but your life will be better for it. That good ol’ hindsight will always be 20/20, and then once you get over the grief of loss you will see, in time, that what you lost was an anchor, not a ship. And then you’ll wonder why you thought carrying that anchor was so important, when what you really needed was to be on that ship, heading somewhere new.
I think back to my life in 2019 and it seems like a different person. How did she not see what was going on around her? How was she not aware of what was happening in her own life? Equal parts wishful thinking and optimism, I think. Yet at the same time I was incredibly jaded. And now? Optimism without the blinders. I’ve become much more willing to name the toxic patterns I’ve let govern so much of my life. I can name the thing that is no longer serving me, name the things that no longer align.
But that Step 3… that one’s a doozy. It’s going to require planning, dedication (to myself), an almost stubborn commitment to making sure these changes stick. A little secret project that only I know the details of. Because I’m no longer willing to leave these changes to chance; I want the satisfaction of doing it myself. My life, my rules. And I’m ready to do the work. 2026, lfg.
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🎧 Currently Playing
👾 Gaming - (Above: Penelope continues to sit DIRECTLY in front of my monitor while I’m gaming.) Still no TV means still plenty of Diablo IV. I didn’t play a TON this week, but enough to make it into Season rank 5 and Torment tier 3. The difficulty is finally enough that I actually die upon occasion, though unfortunately that often happens from some random environmental thing and not from direct damage from a monster. Still, it’s nice to feel challenged. No mythics yet, and it’s hard to fathom how I’m going to survive into Torment tier 4, but I’m trying!
☕ Drinking - Tea. So much tea. I’m alternating between Triple Leaf Tea’s Cold & Flu Time tea for something very neutral and herbal, and Mulberry Creek Traditional’s Fuzzy Blanket tea when I’m up for something with a bit more zing to it. Both served with plenty of honey.
🎵 Listening - One of my favourite dungeon synth labels is Heimat Der Katastrophe (or HDK) out of Italy. They lean toward publishing very classic music that’s as suited to an 80s low-budget fantasy movie as it is your average DnD group’s basement lair. The latest issue of their “magazine”, HDK Adventurers Magazine #6, is a mixtape cassette that’s curated to accompany the included one-page dungeon campaigns. But it was a fun listen even without any dice. Last October, they published the soundtrack to my friend Dillon’s RPG, Bloodsport Gambler. If you’re on Bandcamp, give HDK a follow for regular adventures in classic synth!!
🍲 Cooking - All good soups begin with the soup stock. Or broth. Whatever you want to call it. I’m sure those terms mean different things, but I don’t care; that’s the freedom of being a hobbyist and not a trained chef! Below I’ve outlined my own veggie stock journey so you can give it a try yourself, because after all, it’s always soup season.
Veggie Stock & Bone Broth
The end results of a bone and vegetable stock that is ready for straining
Years ago a friend introduced me to the concept of saving vegetable scraps—all those trimmed ends and veggies that are perhaps a bit past their Best By date—and freezing them for turning into stock later. Simple but brilliant. I save everything from onion peels and papers to carrot tops, broccoli stems, weird parts of potatoes, corn cobs, squash rinds, etc.* and put it all in a big freezer bag. (*But don’t add leafy-type greens to the bag, like broccoli tops or spinach or cabbages; this will make your broth stinky and brown.) When the bag is mostly full, I dump it into a slow cooker, maybe review the fridge and pantry for any end-of-life veggies, add water, and set it on the lowest temp. I usually let this go for at least 12 hours, often up to 24, but YMMV. You are looking for the liquid to appear a warm, clear brown colour. Then strain in whatever way works for you: a colander set in a large bowl or pot, or layered cheesecloth, or even just fishing out the veggies with a slotted spoon.
You can do the same thing with bones! But! I keep my bones in a separate freezer bag, because I like to cook them longer. So any frozen bones from ribs or chicken legs or whatnot get there own bag, and are added to the slow cooker and set on a medium-high heat for a full 24 hours, then I fill in with the veggie scraps, turn the heat down to low, and go another 12+. If you cook the bones too long they will literally melt and add chalky bone dust to your stock, so try not to go past 48 hours of cooking time.
Frozen veggie scraps added to an in-process stock in the slow cooker.
Fresh vegetables are always an option too, as well as fresh bones, if you don’t cook enough to amass enough scraps in time; the process doesn’t change much with fresh ingredients. Many butcher counters will even sell you a bag of soup bones for cheap! Which is a fun and witchy thing to do. If you go this route definitely roast the bones first, which will result in better, less metallic flavour and that lovely warm brown colour we’re after. I don’t personally think you need to roast the veggies, but you do want to cut them into large-ish chunks.
Now, something to keep in mind for the immunocompromised baddies in the audience/household: cooking stock for long hours like this is guaranteed to create a stock that is high in histamines, which could cause health issues. I only recently learned this! Since it’s not a problem that I seem to have, I can’t speak from experience of how to navigate this, but it sounds like the less you cook the stock the better. I found this very thorough article on making low-histamine broth that is a good starting point.
Once you have the stock made up, what’s next? If you keep it in your fridge, try to use it within the week, or freeze it for later like I do. I used to pour this stock into those ubiquitous quart takeout containers to freeze which is very effective (just don’t fill to the brim; the liquid expands as it freezes), but I’ve recently switched to gallon freezer bags for saving space in my tiny freezer. Then you’ll always have high-quality stock on hand for soup season! Stocks keep well in the freezer for ~6 months in my experience, so make sure to write the type and date on the container (“spicy veggie” or “pork & veg”). You can also use the stock for various recipes, like one-pot pasta or rice bakes, casseroles, or even making a pot of rice (it’s amazing!).
A close-up of the shimmering results of a perfectly brewed bone and vegetable stock.
The veggies that you use in your stock will effect the flavour and colour, so feel free to be picky but also experiment. Sometimes I’ll make a batch with trimmings from red peppers, jalapenos, and poblanos, and that’s delightful for a future posole soup. Or a stock made with lots of onion and potato and leek is great for your basic chicken noodle. Anothe reason why labeling is important! Something to play around with on your soup stock journey, as you amass a little stock library in your freezer.
Overall it’s a very easy to learn cooking project that minimizes food waste and maximizes flavour, and you’ll lock in your own preferred, perhaps secret recipe in no time.
Let me know how it goes!
👋 Okay bye
I realized this is my first head cold in 5+ years. I hate them. Remember when everyone was going around doing “hygiene theater” and practicising “an abundance of caution”? Remember how nobody was getting colds or the flu, for years? We could go back there, you know. It shouldn’t have to take a whole global pandemic of a lethal virus to care for your community. So do me a favour, and the next time you get sick, mask up, and keep masking for a full week after you think you’re better. Wash your hands regularly. Et cetera. We can model that good behaviour for others; it’s a form of kindness that is indeed worth spreading.
Irma and I both wish you a happier, healthier 2026. Let’s care for ourselves first, and once our cup is full, let us share our health and happiness with those in our communities. Onward!
xox,
