Sunday Bookends: Unexpected caregiving, autumn leaves, and new Agatha books

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.

What’s Been Occurring

I  usually try to be upbeat on my blog, but the past few weeks, especially the last week, have not been easy at all and I’m emotionally and physically beat down.

My dad has been in the hospital for a week and with him being my mom’s main caretaker, my son and I have had to take over those duties, especially at night.

Mom is fine mentally (thank God) but physically she can not transport herself to the bathroom so we push her in a wheelchair. That includes twice a night in the middle of the night and while we have a pretty good system, it is very tiring.

It has thrown off everything for our entire family and add to that trying to line up caregivers (after the last one bailed/lied etc.) in a very rural area where there are very few options has been exhausting. Added to all of it is that my brother has also been in the hospital with major pain and health issues, I have a chronic pain condition and my left knee is flared up, and our car just died. So I am not doing well  some days, but I am still trying to find some normalcy by writing and reading blog posts when I find time.

My son and I have been switching off nights to hang out with my mom, which is the fun part. The less fun part is getting up at night and just not being in our own beds and environment and also having my mom cry and tell us she’s sorry we have to do all this.

One thing that being away from your home does is make you really appreciate the little things about being at home — the slower wake up, feeling like you don’t have to be on all the time, the pets, the quiet mornings where you can just think, and late night reading.

Hopefully we can all get back to that soon but it doesn’t look like it will be that way again for the rest of the year.

What’s nice about staying with my mom is waking up to this view:

What I/We’ve Been Reading

Recently Finished

I had a hard time finding time to read or concentrating when I did find time but I did finally take some time for me to finish And The Plot Thickened by P.G. Wodehouse.

That one was a very fun escape. I have no idea if this book exists anywhere but on used sites, since it was given to me by my friend Erin and she picked it up at a used book sale. I looked to see if the book was on Kindle so I could read it when I shut my bedroom lights off, but I couldn’t find it anywhere.

I’m glad I had an old library edition then!

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 now reading The Pink Motel by Carol Ryrie Brink (a middle grade book) and Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie.

Up Soon

I’ll be reading The Two Mrs. Abott’s by D.E. Stevenson soon. Also coming up is Storm in the Village by Miss Read and Cloud of Witness by Dorothy Sayers

What The Family is Reading

Little Miss and I are reading Rascal for school. I forgot to ask The Husband what he’s reading and he was asleep when I finished this. I’ll update later.

New arrivals to my bookshelf

This past week I added Murder with Mirrors, Five Little Pigs, and The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie, The Best of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton and The New Bedside, Bathtub and Armchair Companion to Agatha Christie.

What I/We’ve Been Watching

With Dad in the hospital I stayed with my mom and we watched some old shows like Bob Newhart and Two’s Company (which she announced was stupid), Psych, and Murder, She Wrote.

During one of my breaks at home I watched How To Kill Your Wife with Jack Lemmon, One Body Too Many, and Straight Talk with Dolly Parton and James Woods.

What I’ve Been Writing

Last week on the blog I shared:

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?


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.


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.



Discover more from Boondock Ramblings

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Thank you so much for stopping by! I love to hear from my readers!