Sunday Bookends: Calming my nerves is an everyday challenge but reading, worship music helps.

January 18, 2026 / Lisa R. Howeler / 14 Comments

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. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

Latey I’ve become even more diligent about calming my nervous system and one way I am doing that is by choosing when I see or hear national or international news.

Previously, if I logged into my Chrome app on my phone headlines popped up at me and I was hit full in the face with some horrible headline about some horrible thing going on in the world.

Two days ago I found a way to change the home screen so there are no news headlines slamming me in my face first thing. I didn’t know I could do that before but it has been so helpful. Now all that pops up are sites I visit the most and none of those are news sites.

If I do visit news sites, I am trying to do it briefly on my laptop and for only about two minutes.

I have also been trying to read more and watch TV less. If I watch TV it is usually All Creatures Great or Small, an old detective show, or old movies.

I listen to light, older/classic books and even childrens’ books (like Winnie the Pooh) while doing dishes or housework.

Worship music a few times a week has been a must lately but I have not always been doing that like I should.

I feel much calmer when I listen to worship music at some point during my day but the earlier the better because then the song is stuck in my head throughout the day and I can sing it when I feel stressed.

I have a couple of devotionals in my kindle I want to start but I also want to get some hard copies of devotionals so I can underline and write in the margins.

This past week was fairly calm with me visiting my parents a couple of times to visit and help clean up and with doing school with Little Miss. Our most productive school day was Thursday because we discussed the end of the Civil War and other historical subjects.

The other days of the week we focused on math, trying to figure out what book we want to read next for Literature, and Little Miss attended the four classes and two clubs she has online.

What I/We’ve Been Reading

Just Finished

This week I finished Miss Read’s Village School by Miss Read and The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie.

They were both very good and made up for my first read of the year, My Beloved by Jan Karon, which I did not enjoy (unlike her previous 14 books, which I did very much enjoy).

The Secret of Chimneys was more like an international mystery than her normal mysteries, but I liked that even more.

I do have to say — a lot of rich people get murdered in her books. Ha! She was a member of the upper class in England, but I think she had a grudge to,o because she was frequently killing off the richest or the people who wanted to be the richest. That wasn’t the actual case in this latest one, so I didn’t spoil anything, but the mystery does involve rich and powerful people who want things kept a secret.

In Progress

I am now reading Miss Read’s Village Diary, which is similar to Village School. It follows Miss Read, a teacher at a small, rural school and the mix of characters around her. It is just a simple, calm book, without a deep plot. It’s perfect for what I want to read right now.

I’ve also started The Blue Castle for a re-read.

Up Soon

I hope to continue The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham because I started the first few pages to see if I liked it and got pulled right in.

After that I am going for lighter fare with a Murder, She Wrote book, but I am not sure which one yet. I have one that takes place in Hawaii and that might be a good one to help me forget about how cold it is right now where I live.

What The Family is Reading

Little Miss and I are starting The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy.

The Husband is reading The Housemaid is Watching by Frieda McFadden.

What I/We’ve Been Watching

This past week I watched a movie called It Happened Tomorrow about a man who receives a newspaper that tells him the future, and it changes his entire life. It is a lighthearted film, and I would guess it was movie behind the idea for the show from the 1990s with a similar plot. The movie starred Dick Powell and Linda Darnell.

I also watched The Million Pound Note with Gregory Peck. It wasn’t too bad. A bit strange, but cute and fun. I originally was going to write that this was only the third Gregory Peck movie I have watched, but then I did a search to remind me the name of the one movie and saw others of his I had watched, starting with The Guns of Navarone, which my mom really likes. The second was Roman Holiday. Then it was To Kill A Mockingbird a couple of years ago and then this movie.

I watched the first episode of the sixth season of All Creatures Great and Small Friday night at the end of a very relaxing time of reading and cuddling under a warm blanket with a dog next to me and a cat on my chest.

Little Miss and I also watched the first episode ever of Little House on the Prairie, at her request.

I also watched “10 ways to live like a Grandma in 2025” On the Real Vintage Dollhouse YouTube channel.

What I’ve Been Writing

What I/We’ve Been Listening To

I’ve been listening to Winnie the Pooh while I cook and clean. I’m enjoying it.

Recent Blog Posts I Enjoyed

|| Christian Fiction Reading Plans January Through June 2026 by Carla Bruns ||

|| Which Classic Crime Novel Should be Reprinted Next by Cross Examining Crime ||

|| My Memoir is Published by For His Purpose ||

Some Housekeeping

Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) 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? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

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

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot: Yummy treats, help for depression and much more (January 16)

January 16, 2026 / Lisa R. Howeler / 6 Comments

Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, where we offer a place for bloggers to link up and get a fresh set of eyes on their posts. We also feature one blog a week, letting our readers know about the blog and providing a link so readers can learn more about it. Please feel free to post new blog posts or old ones you want to bring attention to again.

Look for the post to go live about 9:30 PM EST on Thursdays.

The cold returned this week, so we’ve mostly been at home, warming up with the fire and blankets. There has been time for reading, watching old movies, and, for the youngest, school work. I hope you’ve been having a good week.

Now, let’s introduce our current hosts for the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot:

Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!

Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household – The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings shares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.

Cat from Cat’s Wire is a bookworm, movie fan, crazy cat lady, armed with beads, cabs, wire and a very jumpy brain which loves to go down rabbit holes!

Rena from Fine, Whatever writes about style, midlife, and the “fine whatever” moments that make life both meaningful and fun. Since 2015, she’s been celebrating creativity, confidence, and finding joy in the everyday.

We would love to have additional Co-Hosts to share in the creativity and fun! If you think this would be a good fit for you and you like having fun (come on, who doesn’t!) while still being creative, drop one of us an email and someone will get back with you!

WTJR will be highlighting a different blogger each week this year! We invite you to stop by their blog, take a look around and say hello!

This week we are spotlighting: Esme Salon

A little about Esme:

My goal is to provide the best homemade recipes that are healthy for all families to enjoy. I also endeavor to showcase and share other bloggers and promote them on my Blog.

Thank you so much for joining us for our link-up!

And now some posts that were highlights for me this past week:

5 Healthy Habits to Combat Seasonal Depression

Honey Almond Bites

A Day at the Eagle River Cranberry Festival

Wear it like Beckham (Victoria)

Seven Reflection Questions that Made Me Think!

December 2025 Reading Wrap Up

Important things to know about the link-up:

This link party is for blog posts only. All other links will be deleted.

Please link only blog posts you created yourself.

Please link directly to the URL of your post and not the main address of your blog.

Please do not add links to videos, sales ads, or social media links such as YouTube videos or Shorts, Instagram or Facebook Reels, TikTok videos, or any other “social media” based content.

But do visit other blogs and give the gift of a comment.

Notice: By linking with Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, you assert that content and photos are your own property. And you give us permission to share said content if your post or blog is showcased.

We welcome unlimited, family friendly content! This can include opinion pieces, recipes, travel recaps, fashion ideas, crafts, thrifting, lifestyle, book reviews or discussions, photography, art, and so much more! Thank you for joining us!

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.

Winter of Cagney: Strawberry Blonde

January 15, 2026January 14, 2026 / Lisa R. Howeler / 6 Comments

I am watching James Cagney movies this winter.

This week I’m writing about Strawberry Blonde (1941). Some listings add a “The” to the name, but the original title was just Strawberry Blonde.

Here we have another Cagney film (like Yankee Doodle Dandy) that isn’t a gangster film but does show him as a bit of a rough guy. Rough, but ultimately good.

This movie, told in one long flashback, shows a slow transformation of Cagney’s character and leaves you wondering throughout the first part of the movie whether you like him or not.

By the end, you’re rooting for him and maybe for him to get a bit of revenge on some people too.

James’ character is Biff Grimes, a young and scrappy dental student with a good heart who lives in New York City. He’s obsessed with a strawberry blonde named Virginia Brush played by Rita Hayworth, who likes to walk past the barber shop each day and rile up all the men. I’m going to say upfront that I didn’t recognize Rita in this movie at all. First, I’m used to her as a brunette, second, I actually haven’t seen her in that many movies. (Summer of Rita? Hmmm….good idea! Spring has been reserved for Bette Davis.)

The only problem with this obsession is that his friend Hugo Barnstead (Jack Carson) is also interested in Virginia.

Hugo and Virginia work to push Virginia’s friend, Amy, a nurse and women’s rights activist played by Olivia de Havilland, on to Biff, especially after Hugo promises Virginia a wealthy life if she elopes with him.

Biff has no interest in Amy, who annoys him and says solicitous and suggestive things to him to show him that women are just as good as men. We get the impression, however, that Amy doesn’t believe everything she’s saying. She simply likes to shock people.

Eventually, though, love blooms in a very authentic way between Biff and Amy, but not without some mix-ups, difficulties, and trials along the way, culminating when Hugo reveals even more of his crooked ways after he hires Biff.

You’ll have to watch the movie to see what happens.

I love Olivia de Havilland’s character in this. She wants to be bold at the same time she doesn’t want to be. It’s like how James’ character wants to be a tough guy but yet doesn’t.

The movie is ahead of its’ time in my opinion, with so many suggestive (yet not crude) subjects raised, and witty banter exchanged back and forth between James and Olivia. I was very charmed by this movie, which I watched before I officially decided I was going to do a marathon of Cagney movies.

Each time I watch one of his movies I fall more in love with him as an actor. He was witty, charming, and that grin was so infectious.

The movie is based on a Broadway play called One Sunday Afternoon by James Hagan. It’s a bit of a musical, comedy, and drama, but not a super, super heavy drama. It was first made into a non-musical film by the same name as the play in 1933. That movie was directed by Stephen Roberts and starred Gary Cooper. Unlike the earlier picture, Strawberry Blonde was a hit.

Director Raoul Walsh remade the film again as a full musical in 1948, according to TCM.com, changing the name back to One Sunday Afternoon, but Strawberry Blonde still remained the more popular version.

The part of Viriginia was originally supposed to be played by Ann Sheridan, the Oomph Girl from Warner Pictures, (No, I have no idea what or who that is!) but instead Rita was loaned to Warners by Columbia for the role. Sheridan was in a contract dispute with Warner at the time and refused to do it.

All the better for Rita.

Felicia Feaster wrote for TCM.com, that Hayworth “brought her typical enigmatic, frosty perfection to the role. Her fortuitous securing of the role in The Strawberry Blonde helped establish her sex queen status as the “Love Goddess.” Though a confident mantrap on camera, Hayworth was just a shy, reserved girl off, causing Cagney to marvel at how, after her scenes, she would just “go back to her chair and sit there and not communicate.’”

Olivia was also praised for her role in the film.

Many critics commented on her gift for comedy and said it matched Cagney’s perfectly in this movie and I have to agree.

A bit of trivia about the movie:

Hayworth received $450 per week for the film

She also dyed her hair for the movie to fit the title name.

This film marked the first time Hayworth was seen as a redhead and the only time that audiences heard her real singing voice.
When Warner Bros. released Strawberry Blonde on February 21, 1941, “the studio knew it had a hit on its hands.” Walsh considered it his most successful picture to date, and he called it his favorite film.
Cagney looked at the movie as a way to break out of playing tough guys and it was his brother William Cagney who suggested he take the project on as a gift to their mother Carrie, “who would only live a few more years.”

Jack Warner (of Warner Bros) screened the 1933 film and wrote a memo to his production head Hal B. Wallis telling him to watch it also: “It will be hard to stay through the entire running of the picture, but do this so you will know what not to do.”
James Cagney was past forty at the time of filming but was playing much younger, and was in fact only seven years younger than his on-screen father Alan Hale.

The TCM print ran 99 minutes; the extra two minutes was due to a ‘follow-the-bouncing-ball’ sing-along after “The End”, to the main song “The Band Played On.”

In March 1941, Warner Brothers distributed this film on a double bill with another comedy, Honeymoon for Three (1941) starring Ann Sheridan and George Brent.

Even though IMDb and some other websites use the title “The Strawberry Blonde,” the Warner Bros. collateral at the time of release and the Warner Archives DVD do not include “The,” leaving the title as simply “Strawberry Blonde.”

James Cagney and Olivia de Havilland previously co-starred in The Irish in Us (1935). They both also appeared in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935).

So, have you ever seen this one? What did you think of it?

If you haven’t seen it, I really would recommend it for a fun, lighthearted (for the most part) watch.

Next week I am watching Mister Roberts.

If you would like to follow along with my Winter of Cagney and watch some of the movies yourself, here is my schedule for the winter:

Yankee Doodle Dandy

Taxi

The Strawberry Blonde

Mister Roberts

Angels With Dirty Faces

Public Enemy

Love Me or Leave Me

White Heat

Man of A Thousand Faces

Bonus: The Seven Little Foys

Additional sources:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034236/trivia/

https://www.tcm.com/articles/25791/the-strawberry-blonde

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Strawberry_Blonde

If you want to find clips and thoughts about vintage movies and TV, you can visit me on Instagram on my Nostalgically Thinking Account (https://www.instagram.com/nostalgically_thinking/) or on my YouTube account Nostalgically and Bookishly Thinking here: https://www.youtube.com/@nostaglicandbookish

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Anticipated Mysteries and Cozy Mysteries for the first half of 2026

January 13, 2026 / Lisa R. Howeler / 19 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week’s prompt is Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2026. I decided to instead bring that topic down to focus specifically on ten anticipated mysteries and cozy mysteries for the first half of 2026.

I don’t know if they are my most anticipated, but I am looking forward to at least checking them out. I should mention that Cozy Mysteries can be hit or miss for me, which, yes, I find ironic since I write them.

A Very Novel Murder by Ellie Alexander (January 20^th)

Opening a detective agency above her beloved bookstore seems like the perfect business plan—until Annie Murray’s first case involves a suspicious death right on her doorstep.

June Munrow, an elderly resident of Annie’s hometown, Redwood Grove, is convinced that young Kelly Taylor’s recent drowning wasn’t the tragic accident everyone believes it to be. Despite the police ruling, June is determined to prove there’s more to the story and hires the Novel Detectives to uncover the truth.

As Annie delves into Kelly’s life, she discovers a tangled web of secrets involving Kelly’s complicated relationships, a peculiar landlord, and her mysterious roommate. Everyone connected to Kelly seems to be hiding something, and the deeper Annie digs, the more puzzling the case becomes.

With her trademark blend of curiosity and compassion, can Annie piece together the clues and solve her first official case—before she gets into deep water herself?

Death Wasn’t Invited: A June’s Journey Mystery by Carlene O’Connor (March 3, 2026)

Based on the hit mobile game, a cozy murder mystery set in 1920s Paris by a USA Today bestselling author, perfect for fans of Richard Osman and Agatha Christie. June’s friend has been brutally murdered and the police have the wrong man, can she solve the case before the killer catches up to her?

Paris, 1922. The marriage between the Auclair and the Picard family is the talk of the town. June can’t wait to attend the engagement party with her friends, Nate and Jack. But Nate has an ulterior motive: he’s there to stop the wedding. Before he can complete his task, he’s stabbed in the chest with Jack’s knife. Jack is arrested, but June knows he wouldn’t hurt a fly.

In this throwback to the classic whodunnits of Agatha Christie, June must find the real killer and clear Jack’s name. As she becomes embroiled deeper and deeper into a corrupt web of Parisian old money, high society and politics, she uncovers deadly secrets. Can June solve the case before the killer strikes again?

A Sip of Suspicion by J. New (January 8)

A summer garden party, a book club full of secrets, and one deadly cup of tea.
Meet Lilly Tweed – former agony aunt, proud purveyor of fine teas, and accidental sleuth.

It’s the height of summer in Plumpton Mallet, and Lilly has been asked to host her very first event: a tea demonstration for the local book club. The guest list sparkles with the town’s elite – a titled aristocrat, a wealthy heiress, and plenty of polite rivalries simmering beneath the surface.

When the heiress is found dead before the evening is out, tension turns to panic. As a prime witness, Lilly is drawn into the investigation and soon discovers that everyone had something to hide. With secrets steeping and motives bubbling over, she must separate truth from gossip before the killer strikes again.

A Sip of Suspicion is the second novel in J. New’s delightful The Tea Leaf Mysteries – perfect for fans of charming British whodunits, red herrings and a perfectly brewed cup of tea.

The Mysterious Affair of Judith Potts: A Novel (The Marlow Murder Club Book 5) (July 7)

Two dead celebrities. One village full of secrets.

Someone is killing celebrities in Marlow. First, it’s a famous soccer player. Then, a bestselling thriller writer. When two shocking deaths rock their quiet riverside town, Judith, Suzie, and Becks—the unstoppable Marlow Murder Club—must untangle a dangerous web of blackmail and scandal to catch a killer.

But with their trusted police ally DI Malik suddenly suspended, and Judith’s own past threatening to resurface, the women are on their own. Suspects are multiplying like tabloid headlines, secrets are stacking up, and time is running out.

Can the Marlow Murder Club crack the case before the killer strikes again—or will this be the end of their crime-solving adventures?

Booking for Trouble (A Library Lover’s Mystery Book 16) by Jenn McKinley (February 24)

Just off the shores of the coastal Connecticut town of Briar Creek are two small islands, which library director Lindsey Norris visits with her new book-boat, inspired by the bookmobiles she’s seen traveling across the country. Nothing, not even the infamous feud between the families who own the Split Islands, can stop Lindsey from getting books into the hands of readers. But when Lindsey and her boat captain husband, Mike Sullivan, discover a body on the rocky outcropping of one of the islands, Lindsey’s new library venture quickly becomes a murder investigation.

At news of the crime, hostilities between the two families are reignited. Long buried secrets are revealed, tensions spark, and suspects abound. As Lindsey navigates treacherous waters (both literal and metaphorical), she must use her research skills and community ties to solve the murder and bring peace to the islands before her book-boat dreams are sunk.

Conspiracy by Coleen Coble (July 7)

Conspiracy, the third book in USA TODAY bestselling author Colleen Coble’s Sanctuary series (following Ambush and Prowl), delivers exactly what her fans want: the ideal blend of suspense that keeps you on the edge of your seat with just the right amount of romance. Perfect for fans of Laura Dave, Allison Brennan, and Lynette Eason.

Fifteen years of secrets. Once chance for justice.

Just as wildlife veterinarian Paradise Alden begins to envision a future with Blake Lawson, the ghosts of her past return with a vengeance. The murder of her parents has shadowed her for fifteen years, but a new threat brings the cold case into the terrifying present. A trained leopard–a chilling embodiment of Paradise’s deepest fears–is now stalking her.

Haunted by resurfacing memories, Paradise, Blake, and her newfound brother, Drew, follow a trail of clues that leads them into a web of dark family secrets. The deeper they dig, the more shocking the connections become, linking their families to a dangerous conspiracy that someone is still willing to kill to protect.

With every step closer to the truth, the killer becomes more desperate. Paradise, Blake, and Drew must race to expose a murderer who has remained hidden for fifteen years, but this time, they are the ones being stalked. If they can’t unmask the killer, the past will destroy both the fragile future Paradise and Blake are trying to build and the family she has finally found with her brother.

A conspiracy of lemurs is a family. But a conspiracy of people can be deadly.

Chilled to the Bone (A Mabel McCoy Mystery Book 3) by Lilian Hart (June 23)

Fifteen years ago, three paintings vanished from Grimm Island’s Historic Society during Hurricane Delilah. The theft was written off as opportunistic looting during the storm’s chaos.

When the Silver Sleuths stumble across one of the missing works hanging in a mainland estate sale, Mabel realizes the heist was far more calculated than anyone suspected. The stolen pieces—a valuable Winslow Homer seascape, a Civil War-era portrait, and a rare botanical illustration—weren’t random targets.

As Mabel digs deeper, she uncovers a network of art dealers, insurance adjusters, and society members who all had reasons to want those specific paintings to disappear. But when the estate sale dealer turns up dead with a paintbrush shoved through his heart, it becomes clear someone will do anything to keep this cold case buried.

The Silver Sleuths think they’re hunting for stolen art. What they don’t realize is that the art thief has been hunting them.

With Bea wielding a magnifying glass like a weapon and Sheriff Dash ready to lock Mabel in protective custody, the race is on to catch a killer who’s turned murder into their own twisted masterpiece. Because on Grimm Island, some secrets are more dangerous than hurricanes—and this one is about to make landfall.

The Lies We Trade by Kristine Delano (January 20)

Meredith Hansel should be having the best week of her life. After establishing herself as a portfolio manager at a prestigious Wall Street firm, she’s in the national spotlight for the innovative funds she created. But as Meredith prepares to celebrate, the plates she’s kept spinning for years begin to crash: Her strained marriage reaches a breaking point. Her conscientious teenage daughter acts out under mysterious pressures. Someone vandalizes her home with disturbing graffiti. And Betsey, her most trusted ally at the financial firm, goes rogue, and Meredith is forced to sign a restraining order against her.

Then her worlds collide when she receives a thumb drive and a cryptic note from Betsey threatening to reveal a secret that could have devastating effects on Meredith’s family . . . unless she can figure out what Betsey wants and deliver it in time.

As Meredith begins to dig into the data, however, she begins to suspect that it’s no coincidence her life is crumbling. That maybe what’s happening to her family is connected to what’s boiling beneath the surface at her investment company. Soon Meredith realizes there’s only one way to avoid taking the fall, and it all hinges on Betsey’s true motives. Was she really threatening Meredith or trying to warn her?

Murder by the Book by MRG Davies (January 23)

When the manager of The Quaint Bookshop is found slumped between the shelves, the four members of the shop’s reading group decide to put into action all the skills they’ve picked up from their favourite fictional detectives.

If anyone knows how to solve a killer of a crime, it’s a team of murder-mystery superfans. The police might be investigating but the reading group are on the case…

My Grandfather, the Master Detective by Masateru Konishi (March 17)

A Japanese The Thursday Murder Club, taking healing fiction for a mystery-filled spin with this Japanese bestseller that has sold more than 200,000 copies in Japan. Steeped in references to classic crime from Christie to Chesterton to Poe, My Grandfather, the Master Detective plays with the genre, capturing readers’ imagination in this Tokyo-set escapist mystery. Its charming characters and affectionate focus on relationships echo heartwarming Japanese titles such as Before the Coffee Gets Cold.

So what books are you anticipating in 2026? Let me know in the comments…

If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin and I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.

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.

You can support my writing monthly or on an individualized basis.

January 12, 2026January 20, 2026 / Lisa R. Howeler / Leave a comment

If you enjoy the kind of content on my blog and all that goes into it, you can support my writing for $2.99 a month or a single donation.

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Sunday Bookends: Injured cats, comforting books.

January 11, 2026January 11, 2026 / Lisa R. Howeler / 16 Comments

This past week we took our newest pet edition — our cat Cass — to the vet for a cut to his leg and paw. I don’t know what he did. The cat is crazy. Luckily the cuts were not yet infected but he is on a preventative antibiotic just in case.

I had a stressful week for several reasons, so I looked for the small things to calm me and make me happy during the week (and distract me from national news).

What I/We’ve Been Reading

Just Finished

I didn’t finish any books this week.

In Progress

I am enjoying Miss Read’s Village School by Miss Read. It’s a slow, easy-going read and I really need that right now. It’s about a teacher at a small school in a small English village in the 1950s and it is about as quaint and low-key as it sounds.

I am also reading The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie. This one is like an international mystery, so different than her normal mysteries. I’m really enjoying it so far.

Up Soon

I will probably start Return of the King by Tolkien once I finish The Secret of Chimneys.

What The Family is Reading

The Husband is reading The Return of the Maltese Falcon by Max Collins and just finished Anxious People by Fredrick Backman.

He is also planning to read Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carre, as well as the other books related to that one.

Poor guy thought something I wrote on Instagram meant that I didn’t like when people planned what they were going to read in the new year or set goals. That’s not what I actually said but he read too fast, I think. What I wrote was that I am not setting a numerical goal of books to be read this year because I just want to read and not worry about numbers or goals of any kind. I’m doing this because there has been a lot of stress with my parents’ health and other life things so I just want to take the pressure off this year.

Of course, I probably will set a personal goal of how many books I’d like to read but I’m not going to be strict about it or make an announcement.

I do, however, enjoy it when others announce or talk about these goals and I admire anyone who sets them and reaches them.

I usually do set and try to reach them. I just don’t want to this year.

The only challenge I will probably do is the Read Christie 2026 Challenge, which involves reading at least one Agatha Christie book a month for the entire year. That’s a challenge I can totally handle.

What I/We’ve Been Watching

This past week I watched, Taxi a James Cagney movie from 1931.

I also watched a few episodes of Cagney and Lacey and it might replace my Murder, She Wrote obsession but I’m not sure yet. I am enjoying the series so far.

I also watched The Lemon Drop Kid with Bob Hope. It was a totally goofy, crazy, wild movie.

Tonight I hope to watch the first episode of season six of All Creatures Great and Small on the PBS channel on Amazon.

What I’ve Been Writing

Last week on the blog I shared:

Recent Blog Posts I Enjoyed

|| How Do You Read Your Books by Cat’s Wire ||

|| Small Things That Make Me Smile by Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs ||

Some Housekeeping

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.

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.

Saturday Evening Chat: Small things that make me happy

January 10, 2026January 10, 2026 / Lisa R. Howeler / 14 Comments

The world is absolutely insane right now, I think many of us can agree on that.

Yesterday, Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs wrote about combating all the stress from national/world event by focusing on some small things that make her happy and I thought that today I would copy her.

First, I have to agree with Erin wrote about enjoying oranges lately. My parents’ neighbors gave them some oranges called Cara oranges the other week. They are pink inside and so delicious. We picked some up from Aldi for ourselves and now opening one is like having a moment of respite in the middle of a crazy day.

*This is not my photo…I didn’t have any of the oranges left to take a photo of! Ha!*

I love the smell of them, but I’ve always loved the smell of citrus things. I have an essential oil called Energy and it is full of citrus essential oils — lemon, orange, etc. It’s such a mood booster for me when I sniff it. Sadly, I haven’t been able to find my bottle, so I’ll have to get another one soon.

Another small thing that is making me happy these days is reading Miss Read’s Village School by Miss Read.

It’s an easy-going book about a teacher in a small school in a small village in England. There are quirky characters and interesting storylines throughout, with most of the chapters set up as their own little stories, but with the same characters.

Reading it helps me feel like I can escape the craziness of my life and the world right now, if only for a half an hour or so. I read and I step from Little Town, Pa. to Faircare, England.

Another small thing that is making me happy is finding Cagney & Lacey on Amazon Prime and starting to watch it for the first time.

For those who aren’t familiar, it’s a show about two women cops that use to air on CBS back in the 1980s.

The main characters are Christine Cagney (Meg Foster for the first six episodes and then Sharon Gless) and Mary Beth Lacey (Tyne Daly). The show is surprisingly pretty good, though there are some cheesy 80s moments. It’s similar to Murder, She Wrote in that it is good and addictive but sometimes it must be made a bit of (affectionate) fun of.

I’m also finding happiness in the journal The Husband gave me for Christmas. It’s a journal in the front with an agenda in the back. It has a pretty front cover and nice lined pages inside with a place to write the date as the month, day, and year.

I am using it to get back into personal, daily or at least weekly journaling. I hope to record the good as much as the bad because when I was younger, I recorded mostly the bad, which made me look either super depressed or super cranky all of the time.

If I don’t write a full entry, I am trying to at least list three things I am thankful for. Let’s see how long that lasts.

Another small thing that is making me happy is warming up my rice pack in this cold weather (which is starting to return), sticking it under my blanket near my feet and either writing, reading, or watching something.

I’ve already shared that sometimes I then pull my blanket over my laptop and head and create a makeshift heated dome/tent for myself.

It’s very cozy and feels like shutting out the world in a small way.

My neighbors have not taken all their Christmas lights and displays down yet and I love looking out my window and seeing them. They started taking them down today but I told the wife I’d love if they at least leave the ones up on their front porch (they’re white and blue) to perk up the darkness of January and February.

I could probably list a few small things that are making me happy, but I think I’ll save those for another day because I have a feeling I am going to need to make my world smaller again to feel less overwhelmed.

Winter of Cagney: Taxi (1931)

January 9, 2026January 11, 2026 / Lisa R. Howeler / 9 Comments

This winter I’m watching movies with James Cagney.

This week I was supposed to watch Man of Many Faces but, but unfortunately, I didn’t check to see if it was streaming anywhere before I decided to watch it (at my husband’s suggestion) and I couldn’t order a Blu-Ray, which seems to be the only format available to watch it on, before this week.

I am hoping to get a copy of it before the end of this feature so I can watch it and write about it.

What I ended up doing was just moving up my movies I had scheduled and placing Man of Many Faces at the end of the list.

Taxi was one of Cagney’s first breakout films, right after his actual breakout film, The Public Enemy.

This is the movie where he almost says the words everyone has always tried to say he said: “You dirty rat.”

What he actually says in the movie is, “”Come out and take it, you yellow-bellied rat! Or I’ll make you take it through the door!”

If you want to know why he said those words, you’ll have to watch the movie.

This is also the first time Cagney showed us he can dance as he participates in a dance competition during the movie.

According to TCM.com, “To play his competition on the dance floor, Cagney recommended his pal, fellow tough-guy-dancer George Raft. The scene culminates in Raft winning the contest and getting slugged by Cagney for his trouble. Within a year or so, Raft — uncredited here — would emerge as a Warner Bros. star in his own right.”

The story of this hour-and-nine-minute-long movie is pretty simple.

Cagney plays Matt Nolan, an employee of an independent cab company in New York City during a time when a large cab corporation was trying to push independent cab companies out of business.

Matt wants to date Sue Riley (Loretta Young), the daughter of his boss who gets sent to jail after he shoots the man who trashed his cab in the cab war.

Nolan is a complex man with a temper but also a deep love for those who mean the most to him. A lot of the movie is him courting Sue and her telling him that he needs to get his temper in check.

I spent a lot of the movie telling Matt to chill out and telling Sue to dump Matt.

I won’t go into too much detail about the plot, but something tragic does happen part way through the movie, which will make Matt have to decide if he will let his temper rule him or not. You’ll have to watch to see what happens.

This movie was made before the Hays Code came into play. What is the Hays Code, you may ask?

Let Wikipedia explain: “The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Will H. Hays, president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) from 1922 to 1945. Under Hays’s leadership, the MPPDA, later the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Motion Picture Association (MPA), adopted the Production Code in 1930 and began rigidly enforcing it in 1934. The Production Code spelled out acceptable and unacceptable content for motion pictures produced for a public audience in the United States.”

Loretta Young later confessed to having a crush on Cagney.

“I admired him so much, though I could never tell him so,” she revealed. “I remember having this romantic dream about him…in which I was drowning and he rescued me.”

She recalled that Cagney had “complete control over expressing the whole gamut of emotions with his eyes. He could accomplish with a glance what other actors need a whole bag of tricks to put over.”

I found this tidbit of information in the TCM article shocking: “As in The Public Enemy, several scenes in Taxi! involved the use of live machine-gun bullets. After a few of the slugs narrowly missed Cagney’s head, he outlawed the practice on future films.”

Have you ever seen this one?

What did you think of it?

If you would like to follow along with my Winter of Cagney and watch some of the movies yourself, here is my schedule for the winter:

Yankee Doodle Dandy

Taxi

The Strawberry Blonde

Mister Roberts

Angels With Dirty Faces

Public Enemy

Love Me or Leave Me

White Heat

Man of A Thousand Faces

Bonus: The Seven Little Foys

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot January 9

January 8, 2026January 8, 2026 / Lisa R. Howeler / 5 Comments

Look for the post to go live about 9:30 PM EST on Thursdays.

Let’s introduce our current hosts for the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot:

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings shares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.

Cat from Cat’s Wire is a bookworm, movie fan, crazy cat lady, armed with beads, cabs, wire and a very jumpy brain which loves to go down rabbit holes!

WTJR will be highlighting a different blogger each week this year! We invite you to stop by their blog, take a look around and say hello!

This week we are spotlighting: Melody Jacob

A little about Melody:

My name is Melody Jacob, and I am a travel and lifestyle blogger in Scotland, United Kingdom. I take trips at least one to two times every week to nature reserves, castles, hiking spots, tourist attractions, and other places that catch my interest.

I love being in nature because it is the balm of the soul. I also love looking good, which is why I share my style preferences on the blog. I share tips on mental wellness too, and I am discovering more practical approaches as I travel and explore every day.

Another part of this blog you might enjoy is the inspirations section, where I write about real-life situations I have faced, as well as challenges others have faced. It is always refreshing to learn and share experiences. This blog also publishes reviews of items I have personally used. Every post is handwritten and plagiarism-free because I only share authentic content.

I am redefining travel in my own way. I love travel gear and wear it often, but nothing stops me from looking like a beautiful fairy in the wild, standing on top of mountains in a lovely dress during a day trip. I enjoy looking good, so I review lots of outfits and also publish business-related posts. You will also find book reviews, skincare products I have tried, and more.

Thank you so much for joining us for our link-up, Melody!

And now some posts that were highlights for me this past week:

A Splash of Red on a Snowy Day

The Best of 2025: Worn, Loved, and Learned

Share 4 Somethings in December

Bethlehem Walk

5 Winter Activities to Elevate Your Mood

Important things to know about the link-up:

This link party is for blog posts only. All other links will be deleted.

Please link only blog posts you created yourself.

Please link directly to the URL of your post and not the main address of your blog.

Please do not add links to videos, sales ads, or social media links such as YouTube videos or Shorts, Instagram or Facebook Reels, TikTok videos, or any other “social media” based content.

But do visit other blogs and give the gift of a comment.

Notice: By linking with Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, you assert that content and photos are your own property. And you give us permission to share said content if your post or blog is showcased.