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.

My husband has been rehearsing for a couple of months now for a community theater production of Little Shop of Horrors and yesterday the kids and I were able to see the result of his and the cast and crew’s hard work.

He did an amazing job as Mr. Mushnik, the shop owner, if you are familiar with the play/movie.

Everyone else did as well. The singing, acting, the effects, and the Audrey II puppet made by a local college student. Most of the cast were college age, except for my husband.

This was the play version so the ending was quite different than the movie ending (different = sadder), but it was …. Sort of okay.

I got attached to the girl who played Audrey and, let’s just say, I shouldn’t have.

The girl who played Audrey is so talented.

You can see her performance (complete with my horrible videography) here:

And I hope my husband doesn’t mind but here he is performing his song, which he was so nervous about doing.

This is now the fourth or fifth production he’s done with the local theater group and he gets better every time.

What I/We’ve Been Reading

Just Finished

I finished Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck earlier in the week and will have a review for it later this week.

I enjoyed it and thought the last two or three chapters when he was down South witnessing the desegregation of schools was the most well written and interesting of the whole book.

In Progress

I am slow reading Stillmeadow Daybrook by Gladys Taber. Since each chapter is a month, I plan to read a chapter a month for the rest of 2026 and into 2027. I’m also reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.

I am reading two D.E. Stevenson books right now — Celia’s House and Miss Buncle Married.

I am doing a buddy read of Miss Buncle Married with Cat from Cat’s Wire.

Miss Buncle Married is the sequel to Miss Buncle’s Book, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I’m focusing on these two books only for now and expect to have Celia’s House finished halfway through this week.

Up Soon

I’ll be reading By The Pricking of My Thumbs by Agatha Christie after I finish the Stevenson books, for the August pick for the 2026 Christie Reading Challenge.

What The Family is Reading

The Husband is reading Tell Me What You Did by Carter Wilson.

The Boy is listening to The Flight of the Eisenstein by James Swallow.

Little Miss and I … well, still reading Heidi because we’ve been distracted by other summer things. I hope to have it finished this week so we can jump into our reads for school, which I am starting in two weeks.

New arrivals to my bookshelf

Recently, I added Cagney on Cagney by …. yes, James Cagney, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, Miss Buncle Married by D.E. Steveson, Nancy Drew: Mystery of the Moss Covered Mansion, Nancy Drew: The Message in the Hollow Oak, and Murder, She Wrote: The Queens Jewels by Donald Baine (and Jessica Fletcher).

What I/We’ve Been Watching

This past week I watched a few movies including:  Without Love (Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy), The Mark of Zorro, It Should Happen to You with Jack Lemmon and Judy Holliday, Love Crazy (Myrna Loy and William Powell), The Fortune Cookie, and Little Shop of Horrors (1986).

What I’ve Been Writing

I worked on Gladwynn Grant Goes Back to School this week and was able to write quite a bit! I’m excited to keep moving forward on it.

This past week on the blog I shared:

• A Good Book & A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party Link Up for August
• Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot July 31st!
• Book recommendation: Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie
• Top Ten Books I HAD to have But Still Haven’t Read
• Sunday Bookends: Autumn in Summer, mysteries, and classic movies

Some Housekeeping

Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs), Cat (Cat’s Wire) and I host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea.  This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!). Each link party will be open for a month. You can find that link up for this month here.

Each week, I host the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot with some great hosts. It goes live Thursday night, but you can share any kind of blog posts (family-friendly) there until Tuesday of each week. You can check my recent posts on the sidebar to the right for the most recent link party.

Now It’s Your Turn

What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing?

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

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Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

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