Sunday Bookends: It’s cold. No. Really cold. Reading the same books but planning for others. Crafternoon Again! And some podcasts I want to listen to.

/ Lisa R. Howeler

Due to the illness of children or the cold of the northeast I have not left my house in two weeks and though I am a homebody, I must admit it is becoming a little depressing.

And based on the fact I feel like I am starting to get sick and dangerously cold temps are set to hit the area Monday through Wednesday this week, I have a feeling I will be in my house at least another week. At this point I’ve told my parents, who only live seven minutes from us, that I might not see them until after the spring thaw.

Our house is located on a hill, has a steep driveway, and we are down to one car, so that also makes winter travel difficult.

Yesterday I was alone for much of the day because Little Miss was at a friend’s house and The Boy was sick upstairs, while The Husband was at work. This was a strange situation for me because I’m rarely alone. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I eventually decided to work on a blog post (the second part to my Civil War letters posts), start watching Gunga Din, and read a chapter in my Agatha Christie book. I also was very brave and went out into the cold darkness of our backyard to retrieve a couple pieces of wood for our woodstove.

Then it was back inside where I realized I should cook some dinner for me and The Boy.

He’s had a horrible headache and watery eyes and no appetite, but he was finally able to eat a little bit around the time the mom of Little Miss’s friend brought her back home.

Today we are seeing how the weather is since we were supposed to get a snow storm but now it looks like it’s moved further east (I see you Poconos and NJ…good luck!) and I might visit my parents or … again…tell them I’ll see them in the spring thaw.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are bringing temps where we are expected only to reach about 11 as a high. Lows will be below zero due to windchill and other factors. I asked The Husband to bring some wood from our pile behind the garage into our laundry room so we don’t have to go out into the bitter cold to replenish the supply we have in our living room by the stove.

We do have some heating oil but do our best to use as little of that as we can because of how expensive it has been the last couple of years.

A quick reminder that we are having another Crafternoon Zoom Call next Sunday (the 26th) at 1 p.m. If you are interested in being a part of it, you can email me at lisahoweler@gmail.com or Erin (from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) at crackercrumbs@gmail.com.

If you don’t know what that is – it is where we all get together and chat together while doing crafts or other projects. We’d love to have you join us and stave off the gloom that can come with winter sometimes.

With all this cold and being trapped inside a lot you would think I would have plenty of time for reading and I do, but I also have other projects I am working on, so alas, this will not be an exciting section, because I am still reading the same books.

Christy by Catherine Marshall is a super long book and so I am taking breaks and reading A Body in the Library by Agatha Christie (do I really need to type her last name?) for something “lighter”.

I also hope to get back to Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography by Laurie Woolever this week.

If you are not aware of what Christy is here is a description:

The train taking nineteen-year-old teacher Christy Huddleston from her home in Asheville, North Carolina, might as well be transporting her to another world. The Smoky Mountain community of Cutter Gap feels suspended in time, trapped by poverty, superstitions, and century-old traditions. But as Christy struggles to find acceptance in her new home, some see her — and her one-room school — as a threat to their way of life. Her faith is challenged and her heart is torn between two strong men with conflicting views about how to care for the families of the Cove. Yearning to make a difference, will Christy’s determination and devotion be enough?

After these books I have a couple of books I want to get to including Frankenstein by Mary Shelly (for English with The Boy) and Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade by Janet Skieslen Charles, but I also want to read a Nancy Drew. Oh my gosh! Why does there have to be so many good books out there to read?!

Little Miss and I are reading The Sign of The Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare for school and listening to Peter Pan by J.M. Barie at night.

The Boy will be starting Frankenstein this week.

The Husband is reading The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson.

(For anyone new, The Husband is just a joke nickname for my husband since he jokingly calls our son “The Boy”.)

This week I’ve watched three old movies I had never seen before — The Prisoner of Zenda, which I wrote about on the blog, The Stranger, and Gunga Din.  I’ll be writing blog posts The Stranger and Gunga Din soon.

I also watched the first episode of season five of All Creatures Great and Small and am so excited that it is back for another season. I can’t wait to see Tristan again.

I watched a few episodes of my favorite YouTuber farmer, Just A Few Acres Farm, while I waited for him to release a new episode.

The Advanced Readers Copies of Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree have been sent out to my advanced readers. I pushed back the release date to give them some time to read the book and me some time to tie up some loose ends.

It is available for pre-order here:

I am working on a monthly writing update and some movie impression posts for my Substack, which people can subscribe to for free or pay about $3 a month to receive exclusive posts I plan to offer in 2025.

This week on Substack I shared:

|| Classic Movie Impressions: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir ||

This week on this blog I shared:

Podcast I listen to daily:

Our Miss Brooks – rebroadcasts of the old radio show. I listen to these as I go to sleep.

Podcasts I am occasionally listening to because I don’t seem to just put them on since I am doing other stuff:

Little House 50 for 50

Pop Culture Preservation Society

True Drew: A Podcast for All Things Nancy Drew

Podcasts I want to listen to this year:

The Matthew West Podcast

The Life Without School

Lisa Harper’s Back Porch Theology

Now It’s Your Turn

What have you been doing, readin’, watchin’, and listenin’ to this past week? Let me know in the comments!

This post is linked up with The Sunday Post at  Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Stacking the Shelves with Reading Reality, The Sunday Salon with Deb at Readerbuzz, and Book Date: It’s Monday! What are you reading hosted by Kathyrn at The Book Date.

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25 thoughts on “Sunday Bookends: It’s cold. No. Really cold. Reading the same books but planning for others. Crafternoon Again! And some podcasts I want to listen to.”

  1. Pingback: Sunday Bookends: Cold weather (still), planned reads for February, and a lot of Edwardian Farm – Boondock Ramblings

  2. Staying inside here too because of the frigid temps – it was -8° this morning. The only good thing about that is the cold weather is making me use up some of the overwhelming tea stash I have with different kinds of flavors. So I’ve been reading a lot and in between cleaning out stuff to discard unneeded items (like I found magazines from 2019 in the family room magazine rack — good grief!)

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    • I haven’t got to the episode where Tristan is back yet because they are putting them up on Amazon as they appear on PBS Masterpiece but i can’t wait to see him!

      And our house is so cold no matter what we do it seems. I had to put extra logs on the woodstove tonight, wear a coat, and warm up a rice pack to put on my feet and get warmed up. It’s supposed to warm up by ten degrees tomorrow and I’m excited!

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  4. Brr! I hope you and your family are able to keep warm this week. It’s been chilly where I live, which is weird because we’re also on fire, haha. I’m ready for the spring to get here. Stay warm!

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    • That is weird weather for you. And yes, we are staying warm, but barely. We live in a very old house and it’s lovely but it is also hard to keep the heat everywhere it needs to go! We have oil heat downstairs, supplemented with a woodstove and upstairs we have electric heat. They are all working overtime right now!

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  5. I hope everyone is feeling back to 100% soon! We got some snow last night and we’re supposed to have really cold temps this week too but we loaded up our wood racks and got the plows ready. I have to actually go out today and drive Alec back to school so I’m hoping the roads aren’t too bad by this afternoon. I’m down to just 4 books right now and am not sure what I’ll be reading next as I don’t have a huge pile waiting to be picked up from the library like I usually do.

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    • Hopefully your trip went well and it hasn’t been too cold. Remembering your trip to Hawaii is probably keeing you a little warm! Ha!

      I am someone who doesn’t do well in super cold or super hot temps. I need it to be just in the middle to feel the best it seems.

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  6. I wish I could join the next Crafternoon, but it’s my granddaughter‘s birthday so I will have the occupied with celebrations. I really feel like I should take some time to watch All Creatures Great and Small. It seems to have quite the following! I hope you get to visit your parents before the spring thaw. Have a great week!

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  7. I’m bingeing “Vera” at the moment (nearing the end), have started on my “Gunga Din” blog post (once again wondering why I have to go from one rabbit hole to the next which means my posts always take me forever, even if they are not that long), I started reading “Peyton Place” (which I had never heard of before), but now it’s Monday and I’m back to work and struggling with my VPN work connection.Fingers crossed for no more sickness!Cathttps://catswire.blogspot.com/

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    • I want to start Vera next and I do the same thing with the movie posts. I have to be honest, this one irked me this week so I may fall of into a rabbit hole seeing if others agree with me or not.

      My husband has the cold now but I can’t figure out how I haven’t had it yet since my one kid coughed in my face accidentally. Maybe I’ll have it this weekend. Will have to see. I’ll update you Sunday if you are able to come to the Crafternoon! lol

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      • My Gunga Din post is up now, it will be interesting to read yours!
        I think I’ll be able to do the Crafternoon and hope you will too without being sick!

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  8. Oh, I think we are getting that cold weather first. It’s been brutal here after a day near 50 either Thursday or Friday. I usually turn the heat down to 60 at night because we sleep under so many covers, but Jack only has his coat to keep him warm. So, I turned the heat up just for my dog, I guess! He does sleep in a kennel and not with us so I want him to be warm.

    I’m still reading Tea for Two and a silly rom com kinda book, Summer Romance. Sometimes, you need something a little mindless, right? I’ve been watching the third season of a series about a little girl from the Ukraine (I think) who was adopted multiple times by people in the US. The strange thing is both of my sons worked for the man of one of the couples. It’s a very strange series. The first season was called something like “The Strange Case of Natalia Grace.” We’ve also been watching “Younger” which is the dumbest thing ever, but, again, it’s good to watch mindless occasionally!

    I hope you all are well and stay warm! I’m not sure if I’ll make this week’s crafternoon or not. I have so much I need to get done in the coming weeks.

    https://marshainthemiddle.com/

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    • The pets all pile on our beds and my daughter covers the dog with blankets. I’ve even found myself doing it!

      I have heard of that Natalia Grace case but didn’t delve too deeply into it. It seemed so sad!

      And yes on the mindless books. They really are needed at times!

      If you don’t make the crafternoon we will hopefully see you in February!

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  9. I hope your family is soon all well again, Lisa. I had my grandson last week so got very little reading done. This week is also a busy one so, again, there’s not going to be a great deal of progress on the reading front. We have been watching the New Zealand leg of the SailGP. I have a few series I need to catch up on and with wet weather over the next day or so, I might get a chance to watch an episode or two.

    Have a great week. 💐

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  10. I’m sorry that sickness is at your home. Praying for healing.
    We are well. It’s cold but a clear sky.
    I had choir practice and church this morning. My husband and I got out a little bit ago for a trip to Dairy Queen. Their burgers are pretty good.
    I have not read at all today. I read for several hours yesterday. I’m reading Roots, Pride and Prejudice, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, The Brothers Karamozov, and The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore.

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    • Whoa! You’re juggling a lot of books! That’s great! I’ve read one of those books and have a couple others on my TBR.

      Do you know there are no Dairy Queens near us? Not a one. I think the only place I ever saw one was a suburb of Philly years ago.

      The illness is already passing by, luckily. still wondering if I will fully get it. My sinuses were apparently my issue last night. I’m doing better today thankfully.
      I hope you have a great week.

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  11. We discovered that our library has DVDs of ten seasons of Vera, so we just started that, and then we learned that the new season of All Creatures has dropped…so we will be torn.

    I’m sorry you’ve had sickness at your house. Everybody seems to be sick right now. I know that’s no consolation.

    I don’t have any crafty things going on right now, but I still might try to join in Saturday.

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