diff --git a/.github/workflows/changelog_test.yml b/.github/workflows/changelog_test.yml
index 07225b5ca5..67a149f425 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/changelog_test.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/changelog_test.yml
@@ -11,18 +11,11 @@ env:
 jobs:
   changelog_update:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    container:
-      image: alpine:3.14
 
     name: Is Changelog up-to-date ?
     steps:
-      - name: Install latest git
-        run: |
-          apk add --no-cache bash git openssh
-          git --version
-
       - name: Checkout repository
-        uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        uses: actions/checkout@v7
 
       - run: |
           git config --global --add safe.directory ${GITHUB_WORKSPACE}
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.rst b/CHANGELOG.rst
index 124576d127..163eaeb13b 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.rst
+++ b/CHANGELOG.rst
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ Since last release
 * Users can specify for random seed to be created for random number generation (#1950)
 
 **Changed:**
+* Absorb back to respect manual decay mode and the logic of the decay conditional (#1918)
 * Modified cycpp.py to fix a few whitespace-related bugs, and allow cyclus vars to be initialized (#1954)
 * Changed the epsilon (eps) in Material::Decay to 1e-4 allowing 1 day decay of tritium (#1946)
 * Changed the schema for recipes to require oneOrMore instead of zeroOrMore (#1940)
diff --git a/src/material.cc b/src/material.cc
index 0670266fc5..fcb9358ebe 100644
--- a/src/material.cc
+++ b/src/material.cc
@@ -103,29 +103,34 @@ Material::Ptr Material::ExtractComp(double qty, Composition::Ptr c,
 }
 
 void Material::Absorb(Material::Ptr mat) {
+  
+  bool tracked = HasContext();
+  bool mat_tracked = mat->HasContext();
 
-  // Handle absorb-specific decay rules
-  int common_decay_time;
-  if (HasContext() != mat->HasContext()) {
+  if (tracked != mat_tracked) {
     throw cyclus::Error("Cannot combine a tracked and untracked material!");
-  } else if (!HasContext()) {
-    // both materials are untracked
+  }
+
+  if (!tracked) {
     if (mat->prev_decay_time_ > prev_decay_time_) {
-      throw ValueError("Cannot absorb a material that is more decayed than this one");
-    } else {
-      common_decay_time = prev_decay_time_;
+      throw ValueError(
+          "Cannot absorb a material that is more decayed than this one");
     }
-  } else {
-    // both materials are tracked
-    common_decay_time = ctx_->time();    
-  }
 
-  mat->Decay(common_decay_time);
-  this->Decay(common_decay_time);
+    // Synchronize the incoming material with this material.
+    mat->Decay(prev_decay_time_);
+  } else if (ctx_->sim_info().decay == "lazy") {
+    // NOTE: Absorb will only Decay materials like this if the decay mode is
+    // set to lazy. If more decay modes are introduced in the future which 
+    // want Absorb to decay, this will need to be changed
+    int common_decay_time = ctx_->time();
+
+    mat->Decay(common_decay_time);
+    Decay(common_decay_time);
 
-  // manually update decay time in case the change was so small
-  // that no decay was invoked
-  this->prev_decay_time_ = common_decay_time;
+    // Decay may return early when the change is below its threshold.
+    prev_decay_time_ = common_decay_time;
+  }
 
   // these calls force lazy evaluation if in lazy decay mode
   Composition::Ptr c0 = comp();
diff --git a/tests/material_tests.cc b/tests/material_tests.cc
index 48442fa58b..e7cd5aefa8 100644
--- a/tests/material_tests.cc
+++ b/tests/material_tests.cc
@@ -454,6 +454,12 @@ TEST_F(MaterialTest, TransmutePrevDecay) {
 
 TEST_F(MaterialTest, AbsorbPrevDecay) {
   FakeContext* fake_ctx = new FakeContext(&ti, &rec);
+  
+  // FakeContexts get generated with "manual" decay by default,
+  // so we need to set it to lazy to get Absorb to decay.
+  SimInfo lazy_si(100, 2015, 1, "", "lazy");
+  fake_ctx->InitSim(lazy_si);
+
   TestFacility* fake_fac = new TestFacility(fake_ctx);
 
   double untracked_qty = 1.0;