I am both excited and nervous to announce that the two books in my Gladwynn Grant Mysteries are now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo and that soon all of my books will be available on those retailers.
Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing and Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage are no longer available on Kindle Unlimited but they are available on Kobo Plus and for purchase on any of the three sites.
On Kobo you can purchase the book in ebook form and on Amazon and B&N you can purchase both paperbacks and ebooks.
In June all nine of my books will be available on all three sites.
A Story to Tell and A New Beginning are being rewritten for a new release in late June and they will also be available on those three sites.
Cassie, which releases in August, will be available on Kindle Unlimited along with the rest of the Apron String Books series, which is being written along with ten other authors. There are five books out in that series now and you can learn more about it here.
The books for the Apron Strings Book Series keep releasing and this month it is Joann by Donna Stone.
The series features books about women in each decade from 1920 to 2020 and they are connected by one recipe/cookery book, but otherwise the books can be read individually.
Today I am interviewing Donna about her writing and her book, which releases today. See the bottom of this post for a link to the book.
1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I’ve always loved the written word and books. The bookstore or library is my favorite hangout. Growing up, I used to climb up into a tree in search of a quiet spot to read a book, away from my siblings. I’ve given up tree climbing, but still enjoy a bit of peace and quiet with a book.
Writing has been a big part of my life for as far back as I remember. During the years my children were young, I wrote for magazines and for fun—when I could find time. We homeschooled and were very active in the homeschool community, with church, and with dance and theater.
A few years ago, I started writing novels with the intent of publishing. This was a different world than writing short fiction and nonfiction! I entered a few writing contests and to my surprise did quite well, which encouraged me to think I might be able to make a go of this novel writing thing. Right now, I have five completed novels that are scheduled to be published in 2024 and 2025. I regularly contribute to Almost an Author, a site for writers about craft.
2. What is your latest book about? Who are the main characters and when and where does it take place?
Joann is part of the Apron Strings series. The story takes place in 1965 in the small rural community of Pecan Grove, Louisiana. Joann works in her family’s store and it’s her dream to one day share proprietorship with her younger sister and continue a long family legacy. She has a deep loyalty to the family business and believes serving her community in this way is her true calling. Joann’s father would rather his girls got married. In truth, Joann wants both, but during the 60s a married woman rarely had a career or business. Then there’s the not-so-small matter of whether or not Nathan, the only guy she’s ever loved, is serious enough about her to commit to marriage. Besides romance and Joann facing all the challenges of her expected role in society, the story explores family relationships, especially between Joann and her younger sister.
3. What is the overarching message of your latest book?
Because of past abandonment and her personality, Joann struggles with letting others, including God, take the lead. This causes her unnecessary heartache, even as she tries her best to seek God and understand what it means to “lean not unto your own understanding”.
4. Did you learn anything about writing or yourself as you were writing the book?
When writing, I often use music to inspire me, and with this book, I found out I know a lot of the lyrics to songs of the 60s! The music of the times was all over the place, reflecting the changes and issues of the day. Listening to those songs from the 1960s definitely gave me a feel for the era.
On the spiritual side, writing Joann reminded me of truths I already know, but all to often lose sight of. In the busyness of tending to a family with special needs, I’m called on to smooth out the bumps, which can feed into a reliance on self. That’s not a bad thing, as long as it doesn’t become my go-to so much that I forget to lean on God make space to listen to Him. In our culture of hurry, the practice of waiting and listening is hard to nurture.
5. Where can readers find out more about you and your projects?
Hello, how was your week? Can I make you a cup of tea?
I need that warm cup of tea today, not only because the temps are a little on the chilly side this week, but because I feel slightly cold and numb inside these days.
I try to be fairly perky on my blog but right now I do not feel perky.
I feel pretty down about a lot of things.
In better news, this week we had some very nice weather and on one of those days with nice weather Little Miss and I visited the library for the first time in months. We have not been going to the library because we have so many books to read already. We are overwhelmed.
We mainly went to the library because Little Miss was very indignant when she found out her friends had gone to the library and immediately flocked to the computers to play the games they could play at home.
“They should be playing or picking out books at a library!” she declared. “Not playing video games!”
Little Miss does play some online video games with her friends so she’s not being judgmental of video game playing, but for her that day she was expressing how she feels the library is a place for reading and not for playing on the computer.
The next day, however, she was letting things slide a bit on that front, saying it would be okay if they picked out books first.
I, however, told her that she would not be playing video games on computers at our local library when we go. The library is for unplugging, for reading, for relaxing, for quieting the mind from all the online mess.
I simply will not allow her to play video games in a place I feel is sacred for readers. I know, I sound like a strict parent and I would be if I didn’t let her play any online games at all with her friends (games I keep an eye on) while they chat through a private message service. I don’t think it is strict to have rules about treating the library as a place to seek out peace instead of chaos.
The children’s librarian said her children play on the computer but only because they are there so much with her on certain days and I said that I would understand. I mean, how many books can they pick out while there waiting while Mom works? So, sure, they would spend some time on the computer.
Anyhow, Little Miss enjoyed playing with Lego’s and blocks while I picked some books out for her – okay, I picked up a couple of middle grade books for me as well and then sat and read the one book – Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes – for a while.
While there I did learn that if you like a book and want others to have access to that book you need to check it out once in a while, otherwise libraries remove it from the shelves after a certain amount of time. The librarian told me if no one checks out a book for whatever amount of time the library sets for it to be checked out (I think she said a few years, but I can’t remember), then it is removed from the shelf – classic or not.
After we arrived home, I made spaghetti and meatballs and we headed to my parents for dinner.
Later in the week, my mom had an exciting night when a bear showed up on my parents’ front porch. My mom suffers from fibromyalgia so lying in a bed has been hard for her for years. She now sleeps in a recliner at night and her recliner is next to the patio door. She was returning from the bathroom around 1:30 when she saw something move in the dark on the patio/deck. She figured it was an opossum or racoon or maybe a skunk since those create visit a lot. Then she saw the bear rise up on its hind legs to grab for the bags Dad had created to look like a hornets nest to try to trick the hornets into thinking there was another nest there.
She said the bear dropped down and sniffed a while and then went up on it’s hind legs again. When it dropped down and rose up a third time, putting its giant paws on the glass of the door to both look in and get to the bags, she called for my dad.
Dad came running from his room with his iPad so he could try to get a photo of the bear. *Facepalm* By that time, though, the bear was making his way off the porch so Dad only saw its backend as it was walking back into the darkness.
Later that day Dad learned that a bear had been hit by a car or truck sometime in the morning along the highway near their house, but we don’t know if this was the same bear or not. My husband said someone had cut the bear’s head off, maybe to take home as a trophy. He wasn’t sure but the State Game Commission is apparently investigating the incident.
Last weekend I wasn’t feeling well because of extreme sinus pressure so we didn’t do much. Today I am having a “lady issue” that I thought I was done having so I am again home and under the covers.
Tomorrow we will have lunch at my parents for Mother’s Day.
Hopefully, my attitude and depression will improve later this week.
As an aside, I heard there is an effort going around the internet to “out” people who support Israel in any way shape, or form – or Jewish writers in general. They are listing them as Zionists, which I don’t see as a bad term. I just think there are a lot of people who don’t like Jews who don’t tremble in fear and walk into the gas chambers for them anymore.
Since I think all of this smacks very heavily to what happened in the 30s and 40s in my opinion I am hoping to get a hold of that list and buy directly from the authors any of the books that interest me.
If anyone reading this doesn’t like that I want to buy books by Jewish authors, you are more than welcome to stop following my blog.
It won’t bother me one bit.
I don’t have a lot planned for the week but I’m sure I’ll be making plenty of cups of tea or cocoa and finishing some books I have started.
I thought today I would reshare the first chapter of Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing for Fiction Friday since I don’t have anything new to share right now.
You can find the full book in paperback on Barnes and Noble and Amazon and in ebook on Amazon. It is also in Kindle Unlimited.
Chapter 1
“Hey, new girl. Grab a notebook and let’s go. We’ve got a one vehicle MVA on Darby Hill.”
Gladwynn Grant heard the voice but when she looked over her shoulder, her new boss had already disappeared back into the hallway.
MVA?
Wait. What did MVA stand for again?
Gladwynn racked her brain, trying to remember the meaning of the acronym.
She fumbled through her top desk drawer for a reporter’s notebook and pen, wincing when the edge of a paper sliced into the skin of her index finger.
The M wasn’t murder, was it?
Mayhem? No, that wasn’t it.
“New girl, come on.”
She looked up, but, once again, he had disappeared.
“Be right there.”
Messy? No. That wasn’t it.
She stood, slammed her knee off the metal drawer of the desk and bit her lower lip to keep from crying out. Outside the window to her right snow flurries swirled against a dark gray sky.
M was for motor.
The rest came to her as she reached for her winter coat on the back of her chair.
MVA. Motor Vehicle Accident. That was it.
“Chop. Chop.” The editor was standing in the hallway. “This will be good training for you.”
Right. Good training for the job she hadn’t even wanted but needed.
“Beggars can’t be choosers,” her mother always said, a line she hated hearing growing up and detested even more as an adult.
Training for her new job in the middle of a snowstorm wasn’t exactly what she’d expected when she’d accepted the job as a reporter at the Brookstone Beacon. She thought she’d be shown the ropes slowly, over time – maybe handed a few lightweight stories to write first. Instead, it was clear she was to be thrown into the deep end right off the bat.
She quickly yanked on her red, 1940s-style coat, flipped up the hood, and shoved the pen and notebook in her large inside pocket. Snatching a pair of red leather gloves off the top of the bare desk, she rushed to follow editor Liam Finley down the dimly lit hallway toward the back door. A gust of frigid wind smacked her in the face as it opened.
Biting the inside of her cheek, she stepped out into the cold.
It took two of her steps to keep up with one of the steps of the man in front of her.
He looked over his shoulder as snow whipped around them. “We’ll take my car. Did you grab a camera?”
“Oh. No. I’ll —”
“Go back and grab one. I’ll meet you up front.”
Darting back through the snow she pulled the hood tight in front of her face, icy flakes still managing to bite at her skin. She was out of breath when she rushed back into the office, weaving through cubicles to retrieve the camera she’d been given the day before. She didn’t make eye contact with her new co-workers as she rushed back out the back door.
“Good luck, newbie,” a man’s voice called after her.
She was even more out of breath by the time she reached the parking lot, the camera clutched against her chest. Snow fell in sheets around her. Opening the passenger door of the tan BMW, she flopped into the front seat, breathing hard as melting snow dripped from her hair into her eyes. The windshield was a blur of white.
Liam shifted the car into gear and yanked it out onto the empty street. “I hope it’s a fatal. We need a centerpiece.”
Wiping snow from her face she looked at her new boss with wide eyes. His unshaven appearance made him look older than he probably was. Dark hair hung long across his forehead, just above dark brown eyes framed by dark, and remarkably long, eyelashes. Small lines creased the skin next to his eyes.
He glanced at her and lifted his shoulder. “What? We don’t have any art for page one.”
“Art?”
He shifted the car into a lower gear as snow piled up on the road. “A photo or graphic for the centerpiece.”
“Centerpiece?”
He sighed. “The main story on the front page. What are they teaching in colleges these days? I thought you’d have learned this stuff at the college newspaper.”
He seemed to have forgotten the part of her interview where she had admitted she hadn’t worked at a college newspaper for almost seven years.
Liam was driving at what she felt was an unsafe speed considering, one, the conditions, and two, the fact they were on their way to an accident caused by those same conditions. He reached over and tapped a couple buttons on the dashboard as the town whipped past them in a blur. Warmth rushed up under her and she let out a small gasp, then realized the seats were heated.
“You okay over there?”
Her cheeks burned with embarrassment. “Yep. Totally fine.”
Liam flicked the high beams on. Even though the sun hadn’t set yet, the snow was making it seem darker out. “When we get there, you take the photos and I’ll do the talking. Watch what I do so you’ll know what to do next time.”
She nodded.
Next time.
On her own.
That should be interesting.
She didn’t know what she’d been thinking of taking this job. It was nothing like she’d expected.
She’d applied for it after the college had laid her off from her job as a research librarian at the library. She’d needed the money to pay off her college loans, which she was still paying off at the age of 27.
Well, the loans and the cute red convertible she’d bought when she thought the library job was going to be long term.
The ad on the job site had caught her eye, not really because of the job itself, but because of where it was located.
Brookstone, Pennsylvania – where her grandmother lived alone in a massive Victorian house. Two hundred miles away from where she’d grown up with her parents and, more importantly, 200 miles away from Bennett Steele.
“You’re a quiet one, Grant.” Liam’s voice broke through her thoughts. “What’d you do before you came here again?”
Clearly, he had not read her resume at all. She had a feeling all he’d wanted was a warm body to fill the vacancy.
She rubbed her gloved hands together and blew into them. “Library assistant for Brock College. They laid me off a couple of months ago.”
“From librarian to a reporter. This must be cultural shock to you.”
She glanced at him then back at the steadily growing whiter road in front of them. “Yeah, a little. I’m sure I’ll get used to it.”
She doubted her own words.
In the last week, every idea she’d had of what a reporter actually did had been shattered beyond recognition. Sure, she knew she’d be expected to attend municipal meetings and community gatherings and write a story about them. Now, though, she knew they also expected her to take the photographs, proofread her co-workers’ stories, and sometimes answer the phones at the front desk. Small town newspapers were nothing like the larger ones portrayed in movies and books.
She hadn’t interacted much with Liam yet, other than her brief interview and a brief staff meeting a couple of days ago. She’d already pegged him as someone who lived mainly for his job and wasn’t afraid to push the envelope when it came to succeeding at it, though.
Flashing red and blue lights cut through the fog and snow up ahead. Emergency vehicles were parked in the middle of the road and off to the side, near the guardrails.
Liam smoothly pulled his car behind a black truck with a blue flashing light on top. Through a space between a fire truck and an ambulance, she could see a maroon SUV on its roof and, behind it, a blue sedan dented in the front and partway off the road.
A state police trooper turned as they approached the scene, hands at his waist. “You need to stay back.”
His voice was deep and made Gladwynn, who had never considered herself timid, want to say “Yes, sir” and dash back to Liam’s car.
Liam, however, didn’t seem bothered. He tipped his head in a curt nod. “Of course. My reporter here just needs some photos. She can stand back here to get them. I heard entrapment on the scanner. Can you confirm that?”
The trooper merely held up his hand. “You’ll need to step back, sir. Only emergency responders past this point.”
Liam ignored the trooper and raised his hand to greet one of the firemen walking toward them. “Justin! Hey! How you doing? Bad night out here, huh?”
The firefighter nodded solemnly, and Gladwynn noticed the word “chief” emblazoned on the yellow helmet he was wearing. “It is. I can’t talk now, but call me later and I can give you some details. One injury so far.”
“And I’m sure I can call the barracks later for a report.” Liam smiled at the trooper as he walked around him toward the ambulance. “Right?”
The trooper’s eyes narrowed, jaw tightening, but he didn’t move to stop Liam. “Sure.”
Liam raised an imaginary camera to his eye, making a motion with his finger as if clicking a shutter. Gladwynn took the hint and began taking photographs, glad she’d kept up her photography hobby over the years. When her foot slipped after a few shots, she thought she was going down, but a hand under her elbow steadied her. She looked up at a firefighter with practically translucent blue eyes and a broad, friendly smile.
He let go of her elbow and looked at her feet. “Not the best shoes for this weather.”
His accent was thick. Clearly Irish. What was an Irishman doing in Brookstone?
She glanced at her high-heeled boots. Her grandmother had also commented on their impracticality this morning. “Yeah, I need to start carrying winter boots with me.”
The firefighter winked as he turned to walk away. “It’d be a good idea.”
Liam stood next to the ambulance talking to the fire chief. Radio chatter and the purr of engines served as background noise to the voices of the responders and eventually a call for a backboard. Gladwynn stepped back, lifting the camera to snap a few shots as the firemen kneeled next to the car.
A dark green glove blocked her view. “No photos of victims.”
A different, less friendly, and less attractive, firefighter stood before her with a scowl.
She swallowed hard. “Yeah. Sure. No problem.”
He turned his back toward her, standing more squarely in front of her as if to get his point across. Lowering the camera, she stepped to her right and looked over the man’s burly right shoulder in time to see Liam walking toward her, hands shoved in his coat pockets.
He nodded his head toward his car and walked past her. She assumed that meant he wanted her to follow him. At this point, she’d rather be at home curled up under a blanket with a book and a cup of blueberry tea sweetened with a healthy helping of honey.
“No fatality, but still good art with that SUV on its hood,” he said as she fell in step with him. “Did you get some good shots?”
“Um, yeah, I think so.”
“Bart tried to stop you, didn’t he?”
“Well, yes, but I —”
“Big buffoon thinks he can tell us how to do our jobs. Those state police don’t help matters either. They cover all the little towns and townships without a police force. That’s most of the county these days. They act like they are the gatekeepers of all information at any emergency scene we show up to.”
He slid into the driver’s side and slammed the door closed.
She pulled the passenger side door closed gently and blew into her hands again. The gloves were stylish, but definitely not warm. “Does Brookstone still have a police department?”
He shook his head. “Not anymore, no. It was disbanded maybe six years ago, from what I understand. I’ve only been here for four.” He tapped the heater button again. This time Gladwynn was ready. “First lesson, Grant — we work for our readers. It’s our job to get the story, even if you have to push a little to do it. If we have to go through a couple of arrogant volunteer firefighters or cops to do our jobs, then so be it.” He looked at her. “Got it?”
She nodded slowly, wishing she felt the confidence he obviously had.
He took the camera from her and flipped through the photos on the screen. “Not bad. We’ve got at least four good shots.”
Handing the camera back, he backed the car up until he could turn it around and head back toward the office. He held his phone to his ear as he drove, but didn’t slow down, despite the fact even more snow had fallen since they’d arrived on the scene.
“Tom, hey. We’ve got a centerpiece shot for the front. Horizontal, four columns.”
He slid his finger over the end button and tossed the phone into the center console. “We should be able to craft a story together when we get back. I’ll have you contact the state police in about half an hour and see if they have some information for us. You can send me what you find out and I’ll add it to the story.”
He moved the car into the opposite lane, shifted the car into a lower gear, and passed a car moving slowly along the snow-covered highway. Gladwynn gripped the door handle, closed her eyes, and pressed herself back into the seat.
In that moment, wondering if she’d be the next person being pulled from an upside-down vehicle, she desperately missed her previous job where she’d spent most days inside a building, searching the online catalog for books for college students.
Now it is your turn to link up your favorite posts. They can be fashion, lifestyle, DIY, food, etc. All we ask is that they be family-friendly. You can link up posts from last week or even from years ago.
Also, please take the time to visit the other blogs on the link-up and meet some new bloggers!
Today I am sharing four YouTube Channels I watch to relax. Now, I thought of writing about this subject two weeks ago but didn’t get around to it. Last week my friend Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs wrote a similar post. Her post was about booktubers she watches. I want to explain that I did not steal the idea from her. If I had, however, she wouldn’t care a bit. Ha! Anyhow, go check out her post too.
Just A Few Acres
I’ve mentioned this one before but this is a channel run by a farmer in Ithaca, N.Y. His name is Pete and he opens a lot of his videos by just saying, in a calm voice, Hi, I’m Pete.
His videos mainly focus on whatever he is doing on the farm that particular day or him working on his Farmall Tractors. They farm a small head of cattle and brooder chickens.
Sometimes Farmer Pete worries about the purpose of his channel and a couple of months ago he was lamenting over the fact that he didn’t think his videos were contributing anything to society. His viewers commented in droves, letting him know how relaxing they find his videos and how watching them helps their thoughts quiet.
I had to agree. Watching him conduct his every day business and then share about it in his calm, methodical, and relaxed way is very relaxing and grounding for me. Maybe it is because I grew up in a farming area or just because he’s pretty laid back no matter what life throws at him and I wish I could be like that.
The Cottage Fairy
This channel is run by a young woman who lives, I think, in Washington State. She lives in a small house in the middle of the woods with her young husband and her videos feature some deep thoughts about life and also her life as an artist and working in a small bookstore in the town near her.
Her videos feature soft music and beautiful scenery in the deep woods as well as flowers and bookshelves.
She has recently put posting on hold as she prepares to have a baby and I have a feeling she will post very little once she has her baby because she seems the type of woman who will want to focus more attention on her child than social media.
Forgotten Way Farms
I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this one before too but this is run by a woman who films herself making wonderful homecooked meals for her large family, homesteading, thrift shopping, and sharing about books.
It is a very calming channel and, of course, this is only one part of her life, but I appreciate she keeps her channel focused on calming and everyday simple living. It is a nice distraction from the craziness of life.
Intentionally Bookish
This one is a new one for me. I found her while looking for cozy mystery recommendations. I like how she loves cozy mysteries and lets you know why and how she’s just so bubbly and happy on her videos. Again, I know that the videos are only a part of her life so I know she isn’t happy all of the time but I appreciate the excitement she brings to her reviews and her recommendations. Plus I’ve found a couple of really good recommendations from her so far.
I have read almost all of the 29 books in The Cat Who series by Lilian Jackson Braun and there have been hits and misses and a couple all out duds – like any series.
Originally, I had skipped The Cat Who Talked To Ghosts because when I started it it seemed to be written in first person point of view and while I read books in first person POV, all of the other The Cat Who books are written in third. I wasn’t sure I would like the change.
It turns out, however, that only a section of the first chapter of the book is written in the first person point of view. The rest of the book is written in the third person.
I opened the book on my Kindle one night after a particularly hard day when I needed a comfort read. I’m glad I needed that type of read because this turned out to be one of my favorite books in the series.
For those who don’t know about this series, it features former big city newspaper reporter Jim Qwilleran (most commonly referred to Qwill in the series), now a small town newspaper columnist living in what I believe is Northern Michigan, though it’s never really said where the fiction town of Pickax in the fictional county of Moose County is.
Braun simply says Moose County is “north of everywhere.” According to the site Novel Suspects, “Though fictitious, Pickax is generally assumed to be based on the town of Bad Axe, Michigan, where Braun lived for many years.”
The series starts with Qwilleran living in the city (probably Chicago though it never really says), writing for a newspaper, and falling into a murder investigation or two. He ends up adopting two cats during that first book – a cat named Koko Kao Kung (Koko for short) and Yum-Yum. Koko is the one who has some mysterious skills that help Qwill solve crimes. Some of those skills include opening books, knocking things off shelves, or alerting Qwill to unsavory characters who look like nice people.
This installment deals with the murder of Qwill’s former housekeeper. She calls Qwill in the middle of the night, saying she has been hearing weird, ghostly noises at the apartment she lives in at the county museum, which she is the caretaker of.
Qwill heads out for the 20-minute-drive to her apartment but by the time he arrives, Iris Cobb is already dead on the floor of her kitchen, apparently frightened to death. Qwill wants to find out who killed her and the museum also needs a temporary caretaker so it works out perfectly when the chairman of the museum board asks if he knows anyone who can fill in temporarily. Qwill packs up the cats and moves into the museum himself to see if he hears the ghostly sounds Iris said she was hearing.
During the stay, Koko does his best to lead Qwill to the killer, including literally sniffing out clues and knocking particular books off shelves. In the process of trying to find Iris’s murderer, Qwill meets some interesting neighbors – a couple from the south who have a three year old daughter and a young woman living alone on a goat farm.
Qwill is thrown into a secondary mystery when another murder occurs but seems to be separate from the first. In all honesty, the first death very well could have been an accident since the woman had a heart condition and some health issues. Qwill will have to figure it out.
One thing to know about Qwill is that he is not a huge fan of children. He has no children. He doesn’t want children. The fact that a child was written into this story and he had to interact with said child offered a new layer to his character that was both funny and endearing.
This installment turned out to be one of my favorites even though one of the regular recurring characters in the series was the victim this time. There was a totally different feeling to this book than others. There seemed to be an actual focus on the mystery while in other books there is a lot of wandering around and rambling side stories that have nothing to do with the main mystery. That can be both a comforting and annoying aspect to the books.
I love reading about the quirky characters in Moose County but in some books, I think Braun forgot she was supposed to be writing a mystery.
Luckily The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts was not one of them. It revealed more of Qwill’s character as someone who cares more for children than he realized and who actually grieved more over a victim than in other books, most likely because he was so much closer to this victim than other victims.
This was also the book where we are introduced to Bootsie, Qwill’s girlfriend Polly’s cat who is hilarious referred to as a beast of a cat in future books.
The Cat Who books really do not need to be read in order since Braun briefly catches the reader up to who Qwill and the regular characters are in each book. I would highly recommend this one for any lovers of cozy mysteries.
Thank you to Erin at Still Life with Cracker Crumbs for this very nice review of Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage. Be sure to follow Erin for book reviews and chats about everyday life and stories about her family and adventures in Michigan!
For once I can report that the weather was lovely this past week in our neck of the woods. There was sun, not too much heat, and only one day where it rained.
Today, however, the weather is going to get cold again, but not as cold as it was in early April, so I’ll take it. I don’t mind a few days of cuddling under a blanket with a good book and a cup of tea.
Last week I had one day where I could have tea but otherwise, it was cooler drinks like lemon in water, juices, and anything that would help keep us hydrated as the temperatures rose.
I mentioned last week that The Husband’s truck fell apart a bit and that it is in the shop, probably for quite a while, so we were without a car here at the house. That meant we found things to do in our yard instead of going to the playground. Little Miss was able to go to the playground at least one evening and also found a way to ride her bike down the grassy hill behind our house which was fun for her.
I spent more than one night on the back porch reading the cozy mystery I’ve been reading and that was very relaxing and nice. I plan to have the book finished today.
The Boy had a bit of a weird week. I forgot to mention in my post last week when I was talking about all the weird stuff happening in our family that The Boy was zapped with an electric current while working on installing a light at my parents. A switch accidentally got left on. He was fine but hadn’t been feeling well that week already and thought he was coming down with a cold.
On Saturday afternoon when The Husband called about his truck catching fire under the tire (we now know the ball bearing broke), I let The Boy know he’d need to watch his sister while I drove up to get a car to The Husband so he could continue on to his job. He said, “Oh, well, that’s a lot more serious than what I was going to tell you, which is that I can’t hear out of my right ear.”
We decided to wait it out a couple of days and see if the ear opened and drained on its own or if it was definitely an ear infection. I felt it probably was, but he wasn’t in a lot of pain. By Tuesday he was in more pain, so it was off to the doctor. The Husband took him, and it was about to become a full-blown ear infection so he was placed on an antibiotic.
The antibiotic isn’t making him feel very good at all – he’s extremely dragged out on it, so he hasn’t had the best week. His ear really hurt at the trade school he attends when they had a fire drill one day and he was standing near the fire alarm. In the end he missed a couple days of school and is just looking forward to when he’s done with the antibiotic.
I feel for the kid. In one week, he was electrocuted, developed an ear infection and then a side effect from the antibiotic. Despite all that he was fairly perky most of the week, so I was grateful he wasn’t completely knocked down.
School is almost over for the kids, and they are certainly looking forward to that.
We are taking it fairly easy for the last month by focusing on the arts – such as art and music and then some history and English.
We will have to finish up some math, but for the most we are done with science and math for the school year.
I am as excited about that as the kids.
We will be homeschooling next year as well, and I have to admit I’m already making plans for what we will study and hope to start some of it in July – easing our way into full-time school by mid-August. The Boy will be a senior next year. I haven’t yet wrapped my mind around that.
Today Little Miss is having some friends over to play. They’ve been looking forward to seeing each other in person after chatting with each other online most of the time since we live 45 minutes from them.
Tomorrow we will most likely have lunch with my parents like we do most Sundays. So far, I don’t have a ton on tap for next week. I’m hoping to work on my book, write a couple blog posts and book reviews, and hopefully have the sinus pressure I developed yesterday goes away and I’m not the next one on an antibiotic.
How was your week? Let me know in the comments or if you have a weekly catch up type post you can leave a link in the link up. You don’t have to share about your week the same way I do to link up, of course.
Boondock Ramblings 