Looking back at October ahead to November, reading and otherwise

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn books and reading, everyday musings, Sunday Salon, What I'm Reading

I actually managed to finish a couple of books in October and start a couple more.

I don’t read as fast as others who share and link up on Readerbuzz’s Sunday Salon and Caffeinated Reviewer’s Sunday Post and The Book Date’s, What Are You Reading post, but I enjoy the books I do read so I figure it’s all good. I read them in between working on my own stories, homeschooling a 12-year old and 5-year old, cooking dinner, editing photos for stock photography, and occasionally cleaning the house (being a housewife is not necessarily my calling).

I won’t have as much time for reading this month since I’ve decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month and hopefully finish the sequel to A Story to Tell and maybe even make progress on Fully Alive.

I’m ahead of the game for NaNoWriMo since I already have 27,000 words for A New Beginning and about 14,000 for A Fully Alive but both books need a lot of work, plot and character development.

But I do plan to read some books this month and on the list to either start or finish include:

  • The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (to finish)
  • Light from Heaven by Jan Karon (to finish because I just started it)
  • The Misadventures of Tumbleweed Thompson by Glen McCarty (starting. It’s a middle school book for my son’s homeschool group book discussion).
  • The Hobbit (I know! I’m still reading it! I’m pathetic!)
  • All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot (to finish)
  • The Dog That Whispered by Jim Kraus (to start)
  • Just Me On This by Donald Westlake (to start)
  • Leota’s Garden by Francine Rivers (to finish)

Books I finished in October:

  • In this Mountain by Jan Karon
  • Memphis & Me by Diane Moody
  • The Runaway Pastor’s Wife by Diane Moody

I’m also reading Paddington Marches On by Michael Bond and Stuart Little by EB White with my 5-year old daughter at night. I love when she asks me to read to her to help her fall asleep, though it is frustrating when she falls asleep in the middle of the story and I want to know what happened. I can never figure out if I should wait to finish the story with her the next night or finish it. (Both books are broke into individual stories.) Sometimes I just go ahead and finish it and read it again the next night.

Our autumn leaves were pretty much completely annihilated by heavy wind and rain this week but we found these cool leaves I have never seen in my life in Pennsylvania at a playground near us.

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I have no idea what tree they are from but they were awesome. My daughter wasn’t really into throwing the leaves up in the air for me to take photographs but my son helped a couple of times.

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We had stopped at the playground after a funeral for my husband’s great aunt, who passed away at the age of 90 last Sunday. I was ready to go home since when I drove to the funeral I realized I had forgotten some photo albums my husband’s cousin had wanted and had to drive 15 miles back to my house and 15 miles back down to give her the albums. But my children don’t play at playgrounds as often as they used to so I took some photographs of them and then sat in the van reading Jan Karon while they played with a couple of little girls who had come to the playground as well.

Coming up this month my son and husband both have birthdays (my son will be 13 on Thursday and my husband will be … a certain age .. later in the month) and my brother and his wife celebrate their 23rd wedding anniversary (on the same day as my husband’s birthday). We don’t have anything super exciting planned for November beyond recognizing those milestones. We will be plowing forward on homeschooling for both children and hunting for a house closer to my husband’s job and my parents during the month as well. I am planning a post later about house hunting. The post will be entitled “The soul-sucking process of house hunting.”

As for what I was watching in October, I watched a lot of a British sitcom called One Foot in the Grave (but Amazon only offers up to season three thorough Britbox so I may look for a DVD collection that can be played on American DVD players) and also watched Paul: Apostle of Christ, which I rambled about here.

On my blog in October, some of the subjects I rambled about were: autumn, a little about books and movies, and a bit about writing fiction.

I also blogged about:

For Fiction Friday in October I shared:

On my blog this month I’ll be continuing to share A New Beginning, the sequel to A Story To Tell, for Fiction Friday every week, or at least every other week. I’m sure I’ll ramble some more about my children and I’m sure I’ll share more photographs of whatever I see throughout the month. I’ll probably blog about what I’m reading or lessons learned during NaNoWriMo and maybe even some insights on God (because, you know, I’m someone people turn to for thoughts on God. Har. Har.).

So, how about you? What are you reading, watching, or up to?

 

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20 thoughts on “Looking back at October ahead to November, reading and otherwise”

  2. You will finish The Hobbit. You will finish The Hobbit. You will finish The Hobbit….

    Good for you in working on another book for NaNoWriMo. I wrote last November every day for a long time, but this year I decided to focus on writing a story each day. Today is day 4 and so far I have written nada. Oh well.

    Love those leaves! There is a free app called iNaturalist that will help you identify plants and animals. Maybe that can tell you what you see. You can upload the photos you have already taken; you don’t have to go back.

    Have a lovely week!

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    Reply

    1. Yes on The Hobbit! I will chant that and will do it. I actually am enjoying it, even though I’m not a huge fantasy fan. I’m a little bit like that dog in Up! I get distracted easily. Squirrel!

      Writing a story a day sounds like a great idea. I’ve written maybe 3,000 words so far – only about 780 today. We will see how it goes. I’m doing these stories for fun. They aren’t literary genius and I’m fine with that.

      And I am totally checking out that app because I have another leaf and a tree outside my house I want to identify.

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  4. So much goodness in this post! I love Jan Karon and James Herriot. 🙂 They are cozy reads for me. And seriously, I never thought it about why I love winter so much, but you hit the nail on the head, it is the perfect introvert season. LOL.

    Those leaves are gorgeous!! They look a bit like ginkgo leaves?

    And read at your own pace – reading is for fun not competition. 🙂 I did actually lol for real at this though “occasionally cleaning the house”. SO me! We have milestones this month too – our 19 year wedding anniversary is today! And then my something or other birthday is coming up this month as well. 🙂

    Thanks for sharing!

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    Reply

    1. This is so weird. I replied to you like three times but my phone apparently ate it. So if another comment shows up in your notifications..just ignore it I guess. Ha! Anyhow, someone else just mentioned to me about the ginkgo leaves and I think it is so weird I have never noticed them before. I’ve been to that playground a few times, but I guess never in the Fall. And yes, I am not good at cleaning house. I guess I’m too artistic sometimes…my head is in the clouds. My mom always said “I don’t get how you just walk over that mess in your room..it’s like you’re telling stories in your head or something.” Turns out, I was. I just never sat down and actually wrote them 😉

      And on the cozy reads – I’m finding I am needing them more and more with the news out there and with the fact my husband works at a newspaper and sometimes has to write about the saddest things.

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  8. Your kids are beautiful, they look so happy playing with God’s confetti. I started watching the series Poldark, which is beautifully shot. Sometimes I will watch movies just for the cinematography. I am still trying to finish up that book called Martha Inc. I am only a couple chapters in but so far I have learned she wasn’t very nice to some people. That is only one side of the story and you know what they say, there are three sides to every story…yours, mine and the truth. It’s an entertaining book though.
    Congrats on the books, that is amazing. I don’t know how you do it with two younger children and home school on top of everything else. Can’t wait to see your future photos, have fun out there taking them.

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    1. So, I knew someone who worked in the Hamptons. She was a nanny for the family who owned some place called Chelsea Piers or something. Anyhow, not only did my friend almost kill Chevy Chase by running over him with her station wagon (my husband said he wished she had because it could have saved us from all his whining in later years), but she also said she used to go by Martha Stewart’s place and she had an entire staff of people who did everything for her. and she figured that half of the stuff Martha said she did, she never actually did.

      As for the books, I would actually have more time to read if I got off Facebook and wasn’t so depressed some days. Reading is my unwinding time at night and sometimes I’ll even keep myself awake just to have that time. Once I get into a book I’m so glad I did because it takes my mind off of things.

      My son can pretty much take care of himself for school work..the challenge is the 5-year old, who thinks she’s in charge. At the end of the day with her, I’m ready to crawl back into a book ! lol! Just kidding. She’s really wonderful, but some days she is a challenge to teach.

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