It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

This week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Deb at Readerbuzz, and Kathyrn at The Book Date.

What’s Been Occurring

Today I sit here as a parent amazed I didn’t spend most of yesterday in the emergency room after my 10-year-old daughter took fall after fall while riding scooters and playing with her friend.

The first one I saw (more may have happened before) was her coming off a steep hill, full speed, on the scooter, hitting the side along the road, and flying off the scooter, meeting the ground with her face. I actually didn’t fully see that one. I was recording the ride and saw the aftermath of her holding her wrist and saying, “That’s it. I’m done.”

She wasn’t done though and an hour or so later she and her friend were back at it and this time she swerved to avoid our cat and ended up on her knees on the pavement.

That incident was after she’d been rocking back and forth on a stool she was sitting on to eat her supper and the stool tipped and she landed on her arms on the legs of it. That time I was certain she’d broken her arm because a long red mark spread up her skin.

“This is it,” I said to myself and then did the mental gymnastics of how I would drive my husband’s big, ridiculous truck up to the ER since he’d taken the car to work, and tell the mom of Little Miss’s friend to meet us there, while explaining it wasn’t her kid this time. Her kids have a history of breaking bones. Her one son broke both his arms in the span of a month.

“I’m okay,” Little Miss said after a few minutes of rubbing the arm.

And back she went to eating her supper.

Later they rode the scooters, she skinned her knee, and when it got so cold we were all shivering and so dark I worried any cars coming up our street would run over them we went inside where she promptly tripped over the dog and almost fell into the coffee table and then turned on a lap and while walking away from it it fell and almost hit her in the head.

At that point, I felt like we should invest in bubble wrap and wrap it around her several times.

She was so tired last night she fell asleep in the middle of reading Harry Potter which was nice because usually I have to argue with her and tell her to put her book down and go to bed.

Zooma The Wonder Dog was also exhausted after having a long walk earlier in the day with The Husband, chasing the girls up and down the street, barking crazily at our neighbors, and almost getting run over by The Husband while he was backing out of the drive to head to work.

Today Little Miss is limping and sore. Luckily, she doesn’t have to do anything or go anywhere.

We are staying home as a family since The Husband actually has a day he doesn’t have to go anywhere.

Next week we have to go somewhere at least once place every day and The Husband has meetings or play rehearsals every single night. On Monday we have an appointment at the vet for our dog. On Tuesday we have art class. On Wednesday night Little Miss has Kid’s Club at a local church. On Thursday – oh, wait. I think we don’t have to go anywhere on Thursday. On Friday we have art class again and grocery pick up, or I might pick the groceries up on Saturday to avoid as much running since I did the art class and pick up this past Friday and it made it a very long day.

By the way, if you are new here, I call my husband The Husband for the sake of the blog as a joke. I nicknamed my son The Boy for the blog because The Husband jokingly calls him that sometimes so then I thought I’d call my husband The Husband to be funny. He does have a real name, of course, and since my name is the domain of this blog, anyone could find it out if they truly cared to know. And everyone who knows us knows his name and that I don’t walk around calling out, “The Husband, where are you?”

What I/we’ve been Reading

I’m juggling three good books and finding it hard to switch between them because I am liking each of them.

The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood

The Maestro’s Missing Melody by Amy Walsh

Grime Doesn’t Pay by Jay Larkin

 Two of them are mystery books – one involves murder, the other doesn’t (or at least not yet). The Maestro’s Missing Melody does have a mystery in it but isn’t hard hitting or a strict mystery book.

I’ve decided to share a description for each in case you are interested:

The Marlow Murder Club:

Judith Potts is 77 years old and blissfully happy. She lives on her own in a faded mansion just outside Marlow, there’s no man in her life to tell her what to do or how much whisky to drink, and to keep herself busy she sets crosswords for The Times newspaper.

One evening, while out swimming in the Thames, Judith witnesses a brutal murder. The local police don’t believe her story, so she decides to investigate for herself and is soon joined in her quest by Suzie, a salt-of-the-earth dog-walker, and Becks, the prim and proper wife of the local vicar.

Together, they are the Marlow Murder Club.

When another body turns up, they realize they have a real-life serial killer on their hands. And the puzzle they set out to solve has become a trap from which they might never escape….

The Maestro’s Missing Melody (this is part of a series but there is no reason to read them in order. I’ve read two so far and they are not connected in any major way):

For aspiring musician and college student McKay Moonlight, winning a summer internship with Scottish master fiddler Huntley Milne was a dream come true. When a last-minute change moved the internship program from the Scottish Highlands of her ancestors to a village she’d never heard of along the River Deben, McKay was determined to make the best of it. However, she didn’t expect to make such a terrible first impression on her summer mentor.

Hosting a bunch of college students was the last thing Maestro Huntley Milne needed. He was already up to his ears in problems, with Aunt BeeBee being placed in a care home, resulting in him having emergency custody of his tween nephew and niece. Then he met McKay Moonlight, and the chaos really began.

Grime Doesn’t Pay:

Fired from her boring office position, Jenny lands her dream job at Aunt Audrey’s Angels cleaning agency, where she pursues her twin passions of cleaning houses and solving mysteries.
Inquisitive, resourceful and persistent, the cleaner-turned-sleuth stumbles across mysteries wherever she works, including theft, extortion and fraud. Along the way, she enlists the help of a police detective, a private investigator and an attractive lawyer.
When Jenny herself is framed for a jewelry heist, she needs all her courage and tenacity to outsmart the criminals and reveal the truth.

I didn’t finish anything this week. I’ve just been reading along. A couple of weeks ago I finished one called The Case of The Innocent Husband, but I don’t think I mentioned that here. It was pretty good.Up

I have a tentative November TBR list that includes finishing the books I am currently reading and then adding The Secret of the Wooden Lady (A Nancy Drew Mystery), The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Miracle in a Dry Season by Sarah Loudin Thomas, and Christy by Catherine Marshall.

Will I get through all these? Eh, probably not but at least The Hound of the Baskervilles, which I am reading with The Boy for our British Literature class.

This week Little Miss has been reading Harry Potter, The Sorcerer’s Stone. The Husband is reading a book by Michael Connelly that I forgot the name of. The Boy is going to be starting The Hound of the Baskervilles with me this week.

What We watched/are Watching

This past week I watched Dracula for the Comfy, Cozy Cinema and wrote about it on the blog. Up next for Comfy, Cozy Cinema was supposed to be Skylark. Big problem. It has been removed from all streaming services when I thought it was still there! Oops! That was my mistake. So Erin and I decided to watch Bringing Up Baby with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn, which I have watched a couple of times and enjoyed. My dad is not a movie watcher but even he sat and watched this one and laughed so hard during it. This one is streaming on various services.

I’ll put up a post later today or tomorrow to let people know we’ve had to switch movies.

The other day I watched a movie called The Rage of Paris. I don’t know if the name matched the movie, but it was so funny and just fun to watch. It was made in 1938 but it really held up great.

I also watched a movie of Detective Kitty O’Day. That one was interesting and only about an hour long. It was released in 1941.

What I’m Writing

I will be finishing up Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family tree this week and I am so excited! It has been a loooong haul on this one but it has also been a ton of fun. I’m already brainstorming ideas for book four.

This week on the blog I shared:

• Goodbye, October. Hello, November.

• Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot! Come Link Up With Us!
• Comfy, Cozy Cinema: Dracula
• Top Ten Tuesday: Top ten musicians to listen to while reading that also might put you to sleep.
• Book review/recommendation: Nancy Drew Mystery, The Secret at Red Gate Farm

What I’m Listening to

I am not listening to much of anything right now but I want to finish the audiobook of Ever Faithful soon!

Recent Blog Posts I Enjoyed

Hello November by Still Life With Cracker Crumbs

Look Back, There is Hope by Becoming His Tapestry

Autumn Ballet by Mama’s Empty Nest

Ten Ways My Reading Habits Have Changed Over Time by Carla’s Book Crush

Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.