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

What I/we’ve been Reading

I laid my Anne of Windy Poplars book down somewhere and have not been able to finish it, so I picked up Anne’s House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery. It is the fifth book in the Anne of Green Gables series.

I’m not usually a girly girl but for some reason this book is making me act like one, complete with giggling in delight at some of the scenes and lines. I’m really enjoying this one, maybe a bit more than Windy Poplars. I have been taking little moments of respite to read a chapter or two from it a day and it’s like having a mini-vacation in the midst of the mental chaos I’ve been dealing with.

On my Kindle, I am reading The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner, which brings me to confession time.

I’ve never actually read a Jane Austen book. I’ve started them, read excerpts, and seen the movies, but I have never completed a Jane Austen book. If you have, recommend one for me in the comments and I’m going to try to read one in March.

Anyhow, The Jane Austen Society is about a group of people who get together to save Jane Austen’s cottage in England. So far, it’s okay. Nothing stunning but interesting at least and maybe that is because I’ve never read her books.

Toward the end of the month and February, I have the following books up to read:

Midwinter Murder: Fireside Tales from the Queen of Mystery by Agatha Christie

All That Really Matters by Nicole Deese

Hell is Empty by Craig Johnson

By March I hope to be reading:

Banderidge by indie author Anne Calvert

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Love and the Silver Lining by Tammy L. Gray

This list could definitely change. It usually does.

Last week, Little Miss and I read Sarah, Plain and Tall and Skylark by Patricia MacLachlan. They are short and beautiful books. Little Miss wanted to go back to Paddington last night but I hope to continue the Sarah series with Caleb, which I bought recently in paperback and then More Perfect Than the Moon and Grandfather’s Dance.

Have you ever seen the Hallmark movies that are based on the books? They are as beautiful as the books and shot almost scene for scene from Sarah, Plain and Tall, Skylark and Grandfather’s Dance.

Even the dialogue is the same.

We first saw Sarah, Plain and Tall when I was in high school and still living at home. It must have been on regular TV. My mom and dad cried through almost the whole movie, and I kept teasing them about it. My mom even tried to hide behind a newspaper but the newspaper shook with her crying.

“You just wait!” she declared. “When you get my age, these type of movies will make you cry too!”

It didn’t even take me that long. I cry every time I watched the movie after that and still do.

The movies star Glen close and Christopher Walken.

The Husband is reading Racing the Light by Robert Crais.

The Boy got delayed in finishing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn this past week, but he will finish it this week. I finished it last night. I will need to plan for a new book for us to read for English by February.

What’s Been Occurring

I rambled a bit about what’s been going on in a blog post I posted yesterday and you can catch up there. Spoiler alert: not much has been going on that’s worth blogging about. Ha!

What We watched/are Watching

This past week we watched a Brokenwood Mysteries and are almost done with the last season they have put out. That will make me sad because I love the characters of the show. I hope they are making a ninth season.

I watched a few episodes of Miss Scarlet and the Duke and I like the show but a lot of these period mystery shows are starting to feel the same. Not only that, but they continue to push modern ideas into historical shows and I find that annoying. People in 1890 did not embrace homosexuality, prostitution and cheating like it was run of the mill and it would be nice if a period drama actually showed that more instead of subtly preaching at viewers about how they think it “should have been.”

All that being said, there was only one episode of this show that I felt did that and it was not overly done and not overly preachy. I hope other shows do not do that, but even if they do I’ll probably still watch the show because it is well written and the male lead is quite good looking, as well as Scottish. *wink*

This week I also watched the two episodes of All Creatures Great and Small’s third season that are up on PBS Masterpiece via Amazon video. I’m looking forward to the rest of the season.

Last week we watched episode six of the third season of The Chosen. It was excellent, but episode five was still my favorite. The last two episodes of the season will be shown in theaters on February 2 and February 3 and then streamed on February 4^th and 5^th (I think those dates are correct). We considered going to the theater to see them but will probably just watch them at home.

My nerves have still been on edge lately, so I also watched quite a bit of The Andy Griffith Show this week.

What I’m Writing

I will be starting two books this week if all goes as planned. One is my Biblical fiction book and another is a book I am writing with a group of other authors. I’ll keep you posted.

On the blog I shared:

• An afternoon chat and a cup of tea: More Mary Berry, rainy weather, cuddly cats, and molasses milk
• Do you hear it?

What I’m Listening To:

I am loving this new song by Matthew West:

https://youtu.be/VrSh2xtZHdQ

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.