Sunday Bookends: Finished Books, More Cold Weather, Lighter Show for a Heavy Week

by Lisa R. Howeler, posted in Sunday Bookends

Welcome to my weekly post where I write about what I’m reading, watching, listening to (sometimes), writing, and what I’ve been up to lately. Spoiler alert: I’m not usually up to much at all, but sometimes I read some good books or watch a good show or two.

What I’m Reading

This week I finished two books (which is unusual for me). I finished ‘Til I Want No More by Robin W. Pearson early in the week and you can find the review for that HERE.

I finished Harriet Beamer Takes The Bus by Joyce Magnin yesterday and I enjoyed it even though it was not the best “written” book. It read a little bit like a list of what Harriet did and said instead of a book. It was an interesting premise and story, though so I kept going simply because I wanted to find out if Harriet made it to her son’s in California.

The description of the book:
Aging and recent widow Harriet Beamer insists she’s getting along fine with her dog Humphrey in Philadelphia … until she falls for the fourth time, injuring her ankle, and causing her son and daughter-in-law to cry foul. Insisting Harriet move in with them in California, they make a bet that her ankle is broken, and she foolishly promises to move if they’re right. Four x-rays later, Harriet’s ankle—and her heart—are broken. She packs up, ships her huge salt and pepper collection to California, and prepares to move away from the only life she knows. The only catch? She’s doing it her way. Just wait till her daughter-in-law hears Harriet will travel cross country only by public transportation and alternate means. What follows is a hilarious, heartwarming journey by train, metro bus, ferry, and motorcycle. Along the way, Harriet discovers that although her family thinks it’s time for her to be put out to pasture—God has a different plan.


I don’t know if I will review the book for the blog but it did give me some ideas for future blog posts about life, what our callings are, and the fact we often need to just go for it more in life than we do.

For this week, I plan to keep reading Sweeter by Jere Steele, an indie author I met on Instagram.

I also hope to start at new Longmire book by Craig Johnson (this is so different from what I normally read. I always imagine someone reading my blog would be like, “Really? You read light Christian fiction or Christian romances and then you read Longmire?” Yeah. I’m odd sometimes. I’m probably more comfortable with the Christian fiction, but I have a soft spot for Walt too, even if his partner has a pottymouth.). I’m on the second book in the series, Death Without Company.

I am also going to read some of How to Destroy America in Three Easy Steps by Ben Shapiro to lighten up the mood a bit (har. har.).

My daughter and I are reading Stormy: Misty’s Foal by Marguerite Henry every night before bed. She’s so excited to hear the story she’s even started asking to go to bed early so we can read it. I read it to her from the Kindle.

And of course my son and I are still slogging through Lord of the Flies and getting more depressed by the minute as it reminds us of society today and how given similar circumstances we are very certain adults would slaughter each other the same way these boys are about to.

What I’m Watching

My husband and I started And Then There Were None, a mini-series from the BBC based on Agatha Christie’s book by the same name this week.

Actually, the book was originally called Ten Little Indians and before that it was called Ten Little N-Word. I kid you not. My husband found out that bit of trivia this past week. No idea how that lady hasn’t been canceled by the “woke mob” yet but glad she hasn’t been because her stories are very intriguing . The book was called Ten Little N-word because that is the name of a poem the book is based around. The text has since been changed to say the poem is called Ten Little Soldiers. I read this week that the idea behind the use of the word that we find very offensive in this country was used to convey that the British had a fear of other races and the unknown, not necessarily to show that Christie herself felt it was right to have a poem about killing black people. I have completely digressed, however, so back to rambles about what we are watching.

We took a break from the episodes because it is a pretty heavy storyline and we needed some lighter things to watch this week after stressful news in the world and at my husband’s job.

Lighter fare for our viewing pleasure included The Muppets, which are now on Disney Plus, Murdoch Mysteries, and Still Standing, which is a non-fiction show about small towns in Canada that are struggling financially but thriving on heart. I aslo started The Moonstone, another BBC Miniseries about a stolen jewel and Victorian people and swooning and yadda, yadda. It’s pretty good so far.

What I’m Writing

I am writing blog posts but haven’t shared them yet and I am also writing The Farmer’s Son for the blog and simply to write it. I’m also adding more to The Librarian and this week The Farmer’s Daughter releases on Kindle and Barnes and Noble.

What I’m Listening To

I listened to part of a sermon by Robert Morris from Gateway Church in Dallas, Texas live last night and hope to hear the rest of it on the rebroadcast today.

I’ve been listening to a political/Christian podcast by Allie B. Stuckey called Relatable, but usually can’t get through it because all the political news is so depressing and overwhelming.

Music wise I’ve been hopping all over. One night this week my husband and I shared all the music we listened to in the 90s and early 2000s, which included a mix of Christian and Country music. We took turns casting YouTube videos to the TV while our son looked rather horrified at some of it.

Here is a sampling of a few of the artists we watched:

What’s Been Occuring

It has been another week of not leaving the house thanks to more snow and ice. We still have about a foot and a half of snow on the ground and received about six inches more this week, but not the 18 inches more we originally thought we might get.

The kids ventured out a couple of days to go sledding and attempt to build snowmen, but they ended up not staying out very long because the temperature was so bitter cold.

It is supposed to warm up some this next week so either this snow is going to melt off nice and slow or it’s going to fill up our basement with water. We will see which happens. All I know is that under the snow is probably four to five inches of hard ice so this should be interesting.

Hopefully it doesn’t sound like I am complaining about the snow and ice. This is the North and we know we will have tough winter weather at times. It has been difficult to have the snow around for so long but we are grateful we are better prepared for it than some, like those in Texas. Please pray for the people of that as they start to recover from the horrible cold and ice.

So that’s my week in review. How was your week? Read any good books? Watch anything good? Listen to anything good? Let me know in the comments.you can’t his

Published by Lisa R. Howeler

Welcome to my blog! I am a wife and mom from Pennsylvania who also happens to write. I have been writing for 25 years, fourteen of those for smalltown newspapers in rural Pennsylvania and upstate New York. When I'm not writing about love, faith, and family life in a small town, I'm taking photographs and homeschooling my two children and also writing and publishing fiction. I blog a little bit about a lot of things on my blog Boondock Ramblings at www.lisahoweler.com.

17 thoughts on “Sunday Bookends: Finished Books, More Cold Weather, Lighter Show for a Heavy Week”

  1. I love watching Ben Shapiro! Not all the time though, some times he gets to be a bit much. My week was good, but I’m definitely looking forward to this week because the temps here are finally rising above zero!!! (Celsius… I’m Canadian k??) Love your snow pictures, you’ve got some cute kiddos 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  2. My goodness the original name of that book!! That’s crazy..I’m with you, surprised the ‘woke mob’ hasn’t been all over that!
    Stay indoors and warm!! You guys get a wild amount of snow!!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  4. Been a crazy week and month so far with our family. First part of the month we got bombarded with hate calls because my husband shares a name that is exactly the same name as a politician here that voted against his party that had something to do with an audit to check out our votes here in Maricopa county, which is our county. My husband started answering the calls to explain to people calling, with all kinds of anger towards him, that he was “Not that guy”. We were getting calls from both parties hating that other guy, the politician that has the same name as my husband. Freaked my daughter out, local news channel showed up at our front door to interview my husband with the mix up (felt like that movie The Terminator where the machine is looking for Sara Conner and gets the wrong ones at first. ) my husband politely turned down being interviewed because now days that just gets more hate headed your way it seems. The real politician that everyone was looking for got 24 hour police protection because of all the hate calls we started getting so him and his family are safe now. At least this is how our neighbor reported it back to us because we hate watching the news. We didn’t get threats but there were some very angry voters out there swearing and leaving not so nice messages to us. It was scary for awhile but no police were protecting us, we just were on guard for awhile and I am still telling my husband to not say his name out load because Arizona hates this politician right now. Other then that, been a pretty quiet week. At least we still have our humor.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Wow!!! That is insane!!!! Politics has totally infiltrated our lives anymore and has made people completely crazy! I’m so sorry your family was put through that. It’s really scary out there anymore. Please be careful and maybe you should tell the police you want protection too!!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. I was waiting for a real threat. A car did drive by and slowed down some then drove off really fast after stopping for awhile in front of our house the second day. Our home here in the city does not look like a home a senator would live in. The grass needs cutting and we have too many cars right now, with one we are trying to get rid of that our neighbors gave us when my husband was in that truck accident and his was totaled. The car is old but it runs and the neighbor does not want it back.

        The calls only lasted two days thank God and we had some friends that offered to let us stay at their place if things got bad. My husband said he would just pack up and head up north to Our Little Red House if that was the case. That town only has two ways in and out and you have to drive down a huge cliff either way to get into the valley, traveling down a dirt road for miles…not for the faint of heart. There is a hidden back way to get in but you need the right kind of vehicle to drive in that way. We have that vehicle but still it would be a rough drive and way out there so dangerous if driving alone.

        At first I was really mad that this happened because we never get involve in politics or confrontations, we have our beliefs of course but anymore it is like people are bullying and pushing confrontations. When you walk away from people like that, which we have, they just up the hate level.

        Then I started realizing that once my husband picked up the phone to explain he was not the senator and they had the wrong number most of these people calling just needed another human to talk to. They needed to vent, they are scared, they are upset, and very angry.

        One man called and said he was a Democrat and just wanted answers to the election results here in Maricopa and that he was on his way to work when he just had to get into contact with the senator. He at first was swearing and angry but my husband calmed him down and the guy seemed relieved to finally have a real person to talk to. He ended his phone conversation with “I am worried for my son and his future.” and this kicked me in the gut when I heard that. My husband answered him back that he is worried for his son and daughter as well. What kind of a world are we leaving them.

        Another woman called and left a message saying she just had two questions ” Were you threatened?” or ” How much were you paid to be bought off?”. My husband never picked up that call, it was one of the earlier calls. Then my husband answered out load to us…”Can’t it be both.”

        Anyway, it was a mess and the calls stopped thank God. I was praying they would and I realized that some of those people that did get in contact with the wrong Paul were meant to, that God directs people everyday to meet, to see things…every day. Those strangers that called with hate from fear and frustrations in their hearts were able to speak to my husband for a little while and be talked of that ledge of hate the evil one wants us all to walk on. Everything happens for a reason.

        As for that politician Paul…he is a coward to me. He should be speaking to people and calming them down. But then what can you expect from a career politician. Probably somewhere under a rock hiding out for awhile. He needs to reassure people, to give them confidence that he will take care of things when they get bad…it is why we vote politicians in, to take care of things, while keeping every human being safe.

        Like

        Reply

  5. Hooey that is some serious snow!! It is hard when the weather is so cold it can’t be enjoyed, that is no fun.

    I remember visiting Chincoteauge as a kid, it was one of my favorite trips. I was actually just telling my husband we need to start planning that dream trip east. And I feel inspired since you talked about that book making you feel like sometimes we just need to go for it! I can at least plan it even if we can’t go yet. 🙂

    It sounds like you read a lot of great books. 🙂

    And I knew that about And Then There Were None, but I didn’t know the history behind all of it. Very interesting, thank you for sharing!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  6. I remember the Misty series fondly. We have at our library too, I’m glad to say. Of course, most of the copies are from way back…and probably need to be replaced. But the first one, we did, because we didn’t have…and I helped correct that when a patron asked for it.

    I heard that song by Dwight in a store the other day. Still love Dwight. Always have, always will.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

So, what do you think? Leave me a comment! I love to meet new people and chat with ones I already know!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.