Book Review: Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorenson

On March 4, 2024 By Lisa R. HowelerIn book reviews, books and reading, everyday musings7 Comments

The cover of Miracles on Maple Hill caught my attention at a used book sale so I grabbed it up to read with my 9-old daughter at some point. There are actually two covers to the book – the original and the updated one I have.

When a friend mentioned she was reading the book and then I saw someone else online mention they were reading it, I decided I would read it for fun as well. I read it in February but it is timely that I am writing about it during Middle Grade March, which is when some readers pick up middle grade books to read or read again.

I don’t usually read middle-grade books at any time but last year I read When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr and enjoyed it so decided I’d try another one. I now, incidentally, have a stack of them I want to read.

The story follows Marly and her family as they visit her mother’s grandmother’s house in rural Pennsylvania. The family lives in the Pittsburgh area but decides to visit Maple Hill to help Marly’s dad who is dealing with PTSD from being a prisoner of war and presumed dead. The book doesn’t specify which war but the book was published in 1956 so it could either be World War II or the Korean War.

Marly’s family includes her mom, dad, and brother Joe. When they arrive in Maple Hill, Marly’s mom hopes that the time at the farm, even if it is only weekends, will help her husband feel better and less hopeless.

When they arrive they meet neighbors of Marly’s Mom’s grandmother, Mr. and Mrs. Chris. It’s a little confusing is Chris is the man’s first or last name since the wife calls him both during the book, but it doesn’t really matter. They are a sweet older couple and when Marly first meets him he is tapping maple trees for sap.

According to information online, Sorensen based the book on her real-life experiences while visiting Edinboro, Pennsylvania.

Someone I follow (though I can’t remember who) had mentioned that this book took place in Pennsylvania but I completely forgot that until I started it. The fact that the book begins and ends during maple syrup collecting and cooking season was interesting to me since that is the season we were in when I started the book.

My husband, in fact, had just come back from a demonstration at a local farm where they collect the sap and make maple syrup. He had attended it for work as a reporter/editor at the local paper and I suggested he use a quote from the book for his story. He ultimately rejected that idea even though he liked the quote.

“The sap running gives me a feeling I can’t describe,” Mr. Chris said. “Like it is the blood of the earth moving.”

Mr. Chris has a lot of great quotes in the book including: “Everything has its own sap, I guess,” he said. “It’s got to rise, that’s all. Nobody knows why. It’s like the sun in the morning.”

There was one disturbing scene in the beginning of the book that made me almost abandon it. In the scene Marly finds a nest of baby mice. Her mother is disgusted and tells her husband to do something about it. He tells Joe to throw the nest into the stove downstairs where they have just started a fire.

Marly is horrified but the rest of the family doesn’t understand what her problem is. The mice can carry disease, they argue. They needed to go. To Marly the mice were alive – they were potential pets and she decides she can never just accept that a life can be snuffed out because it is inconvenient. She is comforted when Mr. Chris agrees when he discusses the mice living in his sugar shack and how they have become his friends.

I’m glad I didn’t give up on the book based on that scene, however, because it is a pivotal motion that launches off changes in the family as the book progresses. We go from a dead and dark feeling inside the father where baby mice don’t matter to him to a place in his life where life becomes bright and enjoyable again. I won’t spoil how we get there or the incidents that show that but it is very heartwarming when it begins and continues.

I sobbed through much of the last three chapters of the book. Things became tense, the family had to rally together, and I wasn’t sure who would be left when it was over. I knew this was an older book and they didn’t always end on a happy note (hello Old Yeller) so I read it with trepidation. I will not ruin the ending for those who never read the book but I will say I was not disappointed with the ending and felt a sense of hope based on it.

According to Wikipedia, the Hurry Hill Maple Farm Museum in Edinboro features an exhibit dedicated to the book and the author.

The book won the 1957 Newberry Medal and was illustrated by Beth and Joe Krush.

Sorensen, who was born in Utah, was called a Mormon writer but once said she did not have a great deal of interest in Mormons or the faith. Despite that, she wrote several adult books tying her faith into life and is considered by most to be a Mormon author – even though most of her books had nothing to do with the Mormon life. She wrote seven children’s books and nine adult books.

I enjoyed Maple Hill and will be looking for other books by her to read in the future.

Have you read this or any of Sorensen’s other books?

Saturday Afternoon Chat: Stormy weather, my daughter’s stuffed animal beds, and missing photography

On March 2, 2024March 2, 2024 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Saturday Afternoon Tea11 Comments

Today it is pouring outside. It is yucky, stinky, miserable weather. Inside it is warm and cozy, even though we have not lit a fire today.

I am sipping hot cocoa and getting ready to read a book when I am done writing this blog post.

Then we are planning to visit my parents later today and have a dinner of homemade pizza with them.

The weather was, once again, the big event of the week this past week as we were given warm temperatures only to have them snatched away violently with a rain storm and then temperatures that plummeted about 17 degrees in a day.

It looks like we are going to get our early spring, however, as next week we are set to have more warm temperatures.

The day the temperatures dropped my dad and I had headed 20 minutes away for appointments. I had an eye check up so I could have my glasses replaced (the anti-glare coating is coming off the lenses) and Dad got his taxes done. Yes, very exciting appointments.

While I was in the eye doctor’s office, the wind and rain started whipping around. I had to sit and wait for Dad (who luckily didn’t chat as long as he usually does) so I was able to watch sheets of rain fly by. When we headed home there were broken tree branches across the road in some areas and right before we reached Dad’s house there was a car off the road, half into a ditch and up an embankment.

I was glad I was able to get home and make some tea and just stay in the warm house the rest of the night.

Warmer weather coming will mean I will be leaving the house more, which is something introverts don’t necessarily enjoy. Mainly I will be visiting playgrounds with my youngest and even though I don’t like leaving my cocoon of blankets on my couch I will because Little Miss absolutely needs to get outside more.

She’s been spending far too much time inside playing games on her phone while video chatting with her friends.

I’m glad she can hang out with her friends through the phone but she really needs to get out and interact more with people.

I don’t need to interact with people anymore because I did enough of that when I was younger. I’ve reached my people interacting quota so I sit in the car while she plays on the playground.

I have been trying to encourage her to do art more during the week so she is doing something a little more creative than online games – though her friends do makeup stories together as they play and are using their imagination.

I keep an eye on the games they are playing and she only has permission to talk to two friends on a private message app, in case you were wondering. You probably were not, but regular readers know how I over explain.

One way Little Miss has been entertaining herself this winter is to place her little stuffed animals in various boxes and cover them with “blankets” which are actually my dishtowels, dishcloths, and washcloths.

I thought I was missing dishcloths one day and it finally hit me that is what she was covering her animals up with.

When The Husband saw my old Teddy bear in an old Aldi box on top of our daughter’s dresser he asked if we were now doing stuffed animals funerals.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

That’s when he told me that Little Miss’s set up looked like an open casket. He had a good point so I mentioned it to Little Miss and she set Teddy up on his side instead. He looked much more comfortable then.

It is sort of creepy how all the animals are bedded down for the winter all over her room.

I took some photos so you could also feel the creepiness – er – coziness.

Speaking of photos, I hope to take more photos with my big Nikon camera soon.

I walked by it the other day and realized how much I miss it.

I miss photographing natural moments of my children’s life. I miss just having fun editing photographs and looking at other photographers’ work and just being a part of that world.

Photography was such an escape for me during some very lonely years and as I enter a stressful season of getting old and watching my parents get old, I think it will help me get through again. Writing also helps during these seasons so I will also continue to write.

I really hope to finish writing the book for the multi-author project this week. I’d like to get the first draft out of the way so I can start tightening it up and then begin to work on book three of the Gladwynn Grant Mysteries.

Writing and visiting playgrounds will probably be mainly what I do for the upcoming week.

How was your week last week? Do anything exciting or interesting?

What are your plans for this week?

Fiction Friday: The First Chapter of Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage

On March 1, 2024March 3, 2024 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings1 Comment

Today I thought I would share the first chapter of Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage. This is the second book in the Gladwynn Grant series.

Both this book and the first book, Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing, are available on Kindle Unlimited on Amazon until April 18^th.

After that, I am pulling the plug on KU for a few months and allowing the ebook to go up on other services as well.

For now, the ebook is in Kindle Unlimited and available for purchase on Amazon and the paperback is on sale on Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

You can learn more about my books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Lisa-Howeler/author

Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage

Chapter 1

Sitting on a lounge chair on the back patio with a book in one hand, an iced tea in the other, Gladwynn Grant had an excellent view of the lilacs and roses blooming in her grandmother’s garden.

She also had an excellent view of the two cats her grandmother hadn’t wanted but had let Gladwynn adopt anyhow. The black and white one was sprawled on her back on the end of the lounge chair fast asleep. The all black one was sleeping in a tight ball on the wicker rocking chair that her grandmother usually occupied.

This lovely, quiet Saturday morning was one of two days off she had from her job as a reporter for the Brookstone Beacon. After two hours of reading, sipping iced tea, and scratching the heads and bellies of the cats, the closing of a car door signaled that her “alone time” was coming to an end.

Voices inside the house a few moments later let her know that her grandmother had returned, along with their neighbor, and Lucinda’s friend, Doris.

“We’ll need a list of all the characters.” Her grandmother’s voice carried from the kitchen. “That will give us a better idea of how much fabric we’re going to need for the costumes we have to make. We should be able to pick up some of the dresses from Second Hand Rose and the Salvation Army store.”

“I think we’re going to have to make the dress Matthew buys Anne, though.” Doris’ voice joined Lucinda’s. “Puffed sleeves are not a thing anymore, even for those who wear vintage clothes for fun.”

Gladwynn heard the opening of cupboard doors. “Let’s try that tea Louise gave us.” Then a little louder. “Gladwynn, hon’. You out there?”

“Yep.”

“Come in and try this tea Louise McIntosh gave us. It’s from India.”

Gladwynn stood from the lounge chair and yawned, stretching her arms above her head. “India? Whose been in India?”

“Louise’s son and daughter-in-law were missionaries there and brought it back with them.”

Gladwynn’s eyes slowly adjusted from the bright sun to the dimly lit kitchen as she walked inside. For several seconds Doris was simply a small figure sitting at the table. As she came more into focus, though, Gladwynn could see her usually long silver hair had been cut into an attractive bob that brought her hair down to just below her ears.

“Doris! I love your hair! What does Bill think?”

Doris touched a hand to the bottom of her hair, bouncing it against her palm. “Why thank you. He seems to like it. Said it makes me look ten years younger, so I took that as a compliment.”

Doris had a small, round face, and bright brown eyes with a hint of gold in the irises. She was petite, or what Gladwynn would call dainty. When she smiled her entire face lit up, making her look at least a decade younger than she was.

She and Lucinda had been friends for more than 50 years, meeting when Lucinda and her late husband Sydney had moved into the three-story Victorian home next to Doris and her husband’s similarly lovely Victorian house. Lucinda and Sydney had moved into the home when Sydney returned from the seminary to become the pastor of Covenant Heart Church. They had lived in the rectory for several years until Sydney’s father passed away and the family home was left to him.

Lucinda set three delicate teacups with red roses on the side on the counter. “At least he put the golf clubs down long enough to notice this time.”

Doris clicked her tongue. “Now, Lucinda. Behave. I told you he’s been better lately.”

Lucinda opened a small box of tea and placed the loose leaves in a small tea ball, which she sat inside her ceramic teapot, a match to the teacups. Sydney had given her the set for their 50th wedding anniversary.

“I know. I know. I’m sorry. You know I struggle with a sarcastic tone. You think at my age I’d have that under control.”

Doris’ smile was warm and full of amusement. “If you didn’t have that sarcastic tone, I’d worry you were sick, Lucinda Grant.” With a laugh, she turned her attention to Gladwynn. “I hear you’ll be at our rehearsal tonight to write an article about the show.”

Gladwynn dropped a piece of homemade bread in the toaster. “Yes, ma’am. I care so much about you ladies I am even coming in on my day off.”

Lucinda patted her on the shoulder. “And we appreciate it, honey.”

“Just keep in mind we are only in the planning stages right now,” Doris said. “We still have to figure out costumes and set design and no one even knows their lines yet.”

Gladwynn knew the Willowbrook Retirement Community had chosen to perform Anne of Green Gables for their summer play. What she didn’t know yet was who was playing the parts and who was directing it.

Most of her grandmother’s friends, others than Doris, lived at Willowbrook Retirement Community, which was a collection of approximately 40 mini-condos that all looked the same, inside and out. Willowbrook provided independent living for local seniors, while also giving them a community of neighbors. A recreational center on the condo property provided them with a place for swimming, aerobic classes, as well as musical concerts and dramatic performances put on by the residents.

Lucinda set the kettle on the stove. “We’ve got plenty of time for all of that. The show isn’t until August.” She glanced over her shoulder and winked. “Plenty of time for us all to have a mental breakdown.”

Lucinda’s long white hair still featured flecks of the golden it had been when she was younger. It was pulled into the usual bun tight on top of her head. Two signature dimples popped up on each of her cheeks.

The toast popped up and Gladwynn began to butter it. The smell of homemade bread filled the air. She and Lucinda had cooked it together a couple of days earlier.

“Who all is in the play? Do either of you ladies have a role in it?” She looked at Lucinda with a mischievous smile. “I could totally see you as Marilla, Grandma.”

Lucinda’s eyes narrowed as she set the teacups on the table. “I’m not sure if that is a compliment or not considering how grumpy and uptight that woman is in the beginning.”

Reaching around Lucinda for the shaker with cinnamon and sugar, Gladwynn kissed her grandmother’s cheek. “But later she becomes a sweet, doting mother-figure for Anne so I think that fits you just perfectly.”

Lucinda pinched Gladwynn’s upper arm. “Nice save, young one, but, no, Louise is going to play Marilla. Doris and I are simply on costume duty this year and I am totally fine with that. Floyd Simson is going to play Matthew, Summer Bloomfield is playing Anne and Ashley Donnely is playing Diana. The part of Rachel Lynde will be played by Beatrice Farley, which is completely fitting for her.”

The chirping birds outside reminded Gladwynn she’d left the cats on the patio where they were probably awake from their naps now, ready to pounce on a blue jay or cardinal feasting at her grandmother’s bird feeder. She opened the patio door to let both cats inside. Scout darted inside while Pixel took her time, rubbing against the doorframe several times, walking in a circle, and then finally returning to walk through the door.

Gladwynn rolled her eyes at the cat and sighed, then reached down and scratched Pixel’s head. “Who is the director of the play?”

Steam rose from the kettle as Lucinda dropped the tea ball into the teapot. “Samantha Mors. She’s the community center’s new recreational director. She’s magnificent.” She poured hot water into the teapot and sat it in the center of the table. “She’s brought so much life to Willowbrook.”

Doris placed a cube of sugar in her teacup. “I agree. She’s brought so much to our community at large, not just Willowbrook. We now have craft fairs and talent nights at the retirement community hall, in addition to the activities she’s added for the residents. There are nights for crafts, a book club, art classes, aerobics and Pilates classes, shuffleboard competitions, and, once a month, there is a dance.”

Gladwynn was impressed with the list of activities. The woman sounded like a true gift to Willowbrook.

“She sounds wonderful. I can’t wait to meet her. For now, though, I’m going to finish this toast and tea and head out to meet Abbie and the kids for a picnic at the lake.”

Lucinda lifted the teapot lid, steam rising up in front of her face as she looked inside. “Oh my. Doesn’t this smell wonderful?” The smell of tea wafted from the teapot. She began to tip tea into each of their cups. “Before you head out, I thought I should let you know that your father called this afternoon.”

Gladwynn’s shoulder muscles tensed. She kept her gaze on the tea leaves swirling in her cup, waiting for Lucinda to continue, but not wanting her to at the same time. It was rarely good news when William Grant called.

Lucinda cleared her throat as she sat at the table and began to tip some cream into her tea. “He asked how you were.”

Good for him, Gladwynn wanted to retort, but didn’t. “Mmm. That’s nice.” Gladwynn blew on the tea. “And what did you tell him?”

“That you were doing well, but that he had your phone number so he could call and ask as well.”

Gladwynn snorted out a laugh. “And what did he say to that?”

Lucinda dropped her voice into a deeper range. “Well – well, mother. I know that, but – well, you see, I just figured it was easier to call you and – you know I’m late for a meeting so I – uh.”

Gladwynn burst into laughter at the impression of her father. “That was way too accurate.”

Lucinda reached for a homemade sugar cookie on a plate she’d sat next to the teapot. She broke the cookie in two. “Teasing aside, I know he’s not the easiest to get along with, but he does love you. He’s just not very good at showing it.”

That was an understatement in Gladwynn’s opinion.

“I also know you won’t want to hear this.” Lucinda dipped half of the cookie in the tea. “But he says he will be visiting in a couple of weeks. He has a law conference in Philadelphia and would like to stop in to visit on his way back.”

Gladwynn wondered what the deal was with everyone she knew from her old life stopping by on their way to conferences. Two months ago, her ex-boyfriend Bennett Steele had done the same thing. That hadn’t ended well, but he seemed to have got the message after their talk and hadn’t tried to reach her again since then.

“That’s fine. I hope you two have a nice visit. I’ll probably be at work most of the time.”

Other than reading a lot, she and her father seemed to have very little in common. He was all about work — making connections for work, reading about work, and then going to work as a high-end corporate lawyer in Manhattan during the week.

On the weekends he was home in Upstate New York. When she had still lived across town from him in a rented apartment, which had only been a short six months ago, he’d spoken to her briefly a handful of times. Those times were usually to let her know that he and her mother didn’t feel she was living up to her potential. That speech had intensified when she’d been laid off from her job as a research librarian and the local college—as if the layoff had been her fault.

She drank the last of the tea in the cup. “That was amazing tea. Thank Louise for sending some home with you.” She stood and kissed Lucinda’s cheek. “I’ll see you two tonight at the theater.”

“Have fun and don’t forget your sunscreen,” Lucinda called after her. “And say hello to Luke if you see him there. I heard he was camping out there this weekend.”

Gladwynn paused in the doorway of the kitchen. What were the chances that she was going to the same place today that her grandmother’s pastor— the man her grandmother had been not so subtly trying to set her up with for the last few months —was camping?

Was it possible that Abbie and her grandmother had combined forces? She briefly glanced over her shoulder at Lucinda, who seemed to be innocently sipping her tea as Doris started to talk about a problem she was having with a flower in her garden.

Shaking her head, she continued toward the stairs, refusing to believe that her friend and grandmother were conspiring against her.

Lake Henrietta was about a thirty minute drive from Brookstone and took Gladwynn through fields that stretched out to the bottom of tree-covered hillsides and then faded into forests of tall Eastern pine trees, maples, oak and dying ash trees. The ash trees had been attacked by the ash borer years ago and the bug had finally succeeded in eating through them all. The ash borer had been brought in by the state to chase away the Japanese beetles which had been brought in to chase out an infestation of – well, Gladwynn couldn’t remember. All she could remember was that the government always seemed to be offering solutions that made the original problem ten times worse.

Taking a deep breath through her nose she reveled in the smell of pine and blooming wildflowers. A deer stepped out into a meadow between groves of trees, followed by a fawn. She smiled, a sudden rush of gratefulness rushing through her at being able to live in an area where such scenes were commonplace. So many who’d lived here for years took it for granted, while here she was driving to a state park and wondering like an awe-struck child what wildlife she might see today.

Moving to this more rural area from an urban one had been an adjustment for sure, but it was an adjustment she had been enjoying so far, despite the fact there had been two attempted murders within a couple of months of her living here. She’d ended up helping to investigate both cases because of her reporting job.

Hopefully, life in Marson County would be a little calmer now. Gladwynn was now back to covering elementary school field days, mundane municipal meetings, and library fundraising events and she was fine with that.

Abbie Mendoza stood outside a blue minivan in the parking lot of the beach entrance of the park. The mother of three was wearing a pair of light blue shorts, flip flops, a white tank top with blue stripes and her dirty blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Canvas bags, beach toys, a cooler, and an enormous inflated pink swan sat around her on the ground. A small boy jumped up and down next to her and an older child, who was a younger version of Abbie, was leaning against the side of the car, reading a book. Hannah, Abbie’s middle child, was walking along a log laying in the woods near the parking lot, her arms out to her side for balance.

Gladwynn smiled as she pulled into the space next to Abbie, remembering the first time she’d met her and her children.

Abbie was the part-time barista at Gladwynn’s favorite coffee and bookshop, Brewed Awakening. The coffee shop featured a used bookstore in the back and had become a frequent place of peaceful respite for Gladwynn. She and Abbie had become fast friends after meeting, even though it seemed in some ways that they didn’t have a lot in common. Gladwynn was single and Abbie was married with three children she homeschooled.

“Need some help?” Gladwynn asked as she stepped out of her car. She reached for the bag Abbie had picked up and hooked it over her shoulder, then held her hand out to Logan, Abbie’s 3-year-old son.

Logan grinned, stuck a finger in his mouth and took her hand.

Gladwynn looked down at him and smiled. “Ready to see the lake?”

He nodded and gigged, bouncing up and down. “Ake! Ake!”

Abbie sighed and rolled her head from side to side as if working out the kinks. “He’s been driving me crazy all morning, running around and chanting “Ake! Ake!” She looked over her shoulder. “Isabella, grab the other bags, honey. We need all the help we can get.”

Isabella didn’t respond, her head still bent over the book.

“Isabella!” Abbie’s voice was sharp. “I’m asking you to help us carry this all down to the beach. I’m glad you’re reading, but we could use your help.”

Isabella looked up quickly, her expression a mix of surprise and indifference. “Oh. Sorry.” She shoved the book in the bag over her shoulder and picked up a folded beach chair and cooler. Looking up she managed to give a half smile to Gladwynn, who thought about how she was so glad she wasn’t a teenager anymore. That had been a confusing and awkward time, and it had to be even worse in the day and age of the Internet.

Hannah skipped along behind them as they made their way to the beach, a man-made space covered in sand that had been hauled in from somewhere else but provided a soft space to walk and sit next to the 245-acre lake.

Lake Henrietta stretched out toward a hillside of green pine trees, the blue sky with a few clouds reflecting in its surface. Gladwynn had visited the lake one other time before this with Abbie’s family and planned to visit again soon by herself. She was looking forward to setting herself up under the weeping willow along the far shore, away from the beach, with a book and a tall glass of lemonade.

Today, the beach was full of children building sandcastles and running into the water and families picnicking at tables in grassy areas next to the sand.

Abbie and Gladwynn spread a blanket out on the warm sand. They set the bags up around it, then propped a large umbrella up to protect them from the blazing sun.

Abbie slid a small white bottle from a canvas bag and shook it. “Let’s get some sunblock on before you all run away.”

Gladwynn lent a hand and once the kids were slathered to Abbie’s specifications, they took off for the water, Logan doing his best to drag the inflated swan across the sand.

Sitting on the blanket, Gladwynn reached inside her bag for her own bottle of sunblock and began to rub it onto her bare arms, shoulders and legs. She’d chosen a sleeveless shirt that hooked behind her neck with two strings and left the top of her back exposed, a pair of vintage-style blue shorts with white stripes, and brown sandals with blue flowers tacked to the top straps.

“Need any help with your back?”

The deep voice startled her, and she looked up quickly to see the mischievous smile of the very attractive man she’d been doing her best to avoid for the last couple of months.

Faithfully Thinking: It doesn’t matter what they say about you if God already spoke over you

On February 28, 2024June 2, 2024 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Faithfully Thinking9 Comments

Have you ever had someone suggest you can’t do something you want to do?

I don’t mean you are a 4-year-old child and you want to touch the light socket and you can’t.

I don’t mean you’re 21 and you want to drink until you can’t see anymore because you are upset about a breakup and someone rightly tells you that you can’t.

I mean you wanted to be an art teacher and someone told you that you weren’t good enough or smart enough.

Or maybe you wanted to be a writer or a pastor or a church leader and someone told you – “Sorry. Not possible. You’re a mom/too young/too old/not Christian enough/not smart enough/not experienced enough. You can’t do that.”

I’ve been there.

I was told once that I should be happy and content to be a mother and only a mother. That was all I was meant to be. The idea I could be a professional photographer and a mother was ridiculous to this person. It turned out to be ridiculous to me as well since I had (have) no business sense and the business failed. That’s another matter for another day, though.

During that same conversation, I was told another friend of ours should also be content to be a mother and stop trying to find other jobs to do. Her identity was a mother. Period. That’s where God wanted her and me to be, this person said.

Oddly, though, this person was a mother and teaching art at a private school. Somehow, she could be two things in life but we were only allowed to be one. Not sure how that worked in her brain but . . it did.

I was very confused by that conversation. It never made sense to me. Maybe she thought she was encouraging us and I misunderstood the conversation.

What I do know is that we should do what we feel God has spoken over us, not what someone else says God has spoken over us.

The other person may be well-intentioned. They may very well feel God has told them something about you and they think it is the right thing to tell you.

My advice is to always check their suggestion with what you feel God has spoken over you.

Another friend recently told me she heard the words “put it down” when she thought about me. We both knew she was talking about how hard I’d been striving to grow my social media to promote my books. I felt that advice truly was an encouragement from God and took it is such. I started picking up a book more than my phone and began to feel less stress.

In his sermon this past Sunday, Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church said, “What people say about you only has the power over you that you give it. If your father spoke something over you, it doesn’t matter what they say.”

This doesn’t mean that fellow Christians won’t confirm something to you that you feel God has been telling you. It also doesn’t mean that someone really did feel like God told them something about you and your life they think you should know. They may very well be right about that specific thing.

Double check it, though. Don’t just go with it because they said God told them.

Pastor Steven urged those listening to him to remember that it doesn’t matter what someone told you that you couldn’t be. It matters what God has always known you to be.

Furtick says he has to say often to himself, “Christ is in me. I am enough.”

That’s a hard one for me to say, but I’m going to try.

I don’t ever feel enough.

Even writing this blog post I have these constant thoughts running through my head:

“This is stupid.”

“This is going to offend someone.”

“I probably shouldn’t have brought up that story about the former friend. It makes her sound worse than she probably meant it even though it is something that still puzzles me.”

“I’m not good enough to write stuff like this.”

“Someone will probably read Steven Furtick’s name and tune me right out.”

We are never going to be perfect.

We are never going to get it all right all the time.

We are never going to please every person all of the time or even some of the time.

What we can do despite all of that is step into who God says we are – not who we or others say we are.

If we are taking a step that is wrong, God will correct us and turn us on the right path again.

In Jeremiah 1:5, God spoke to Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

This was a message for Jeremiah but it can also be a message for us. He knew before we were born what the purpose of our life was and what we are capable of.

Who are we to question what God has spoken over us?

Sunday Bookends: Relaxing in front of the fire, middle grade books, disappointing mystery books

On February 25, 2024February 25, 2024 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Sunday Bookends11 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.

This week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Deb at Readerbuzz, and Kathyrn at The Book Date.

The weather was 22 degrees (F) with a wind chill of 12 and the fire lit on the first try for me. I was thrilled and since I couldn’t feel my toes at that point because I hadn’t wanted to turn the heat up and use up heating oil, I stuck my feet out toward the woodstove, opened the book I started this week – Miracle on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen – and proceeded to read for the next 90 minutes. I also made myself some hot cocoa and a type of Chex Mix concoction with sugar, cinnamon, and maple syrup, baked in the oven.

After I read some, I worked a bit on my novel, cooked some steaks and roasted potatoes for me and my daughter since The Boy was at a friend’s house and The Husband was at a work event. It was a very relaxing day and it was mainly relaxing because I shut social media completely off and was more intentional about doing the things that help to relax me.

My week wasn’t super busy this past week. I had dinner with my parents on Wednesday when my mom made dinner for Little Miss and I because we were borrowing their car to take Little Miss to Kid’s Club at a local church. Our headlights are still out on the car that hit a deer ran into in October.

On Thursday I planned to take them sone dinner I had cooked and return the car but as I headed out, the rain we’d been having all day turned into snow. No warning. Just snow and it started piling up. I thought it would be a brief snow, but instead, the roads became slick and I ended up staying home.

I took them lunch the next day instead when I took their car back, grabbed my car, and headed 20 minutes north to pick up the groceries from Aldi.

It looks like Saturday will be the last super cold day for the week, even though night temps will be low. Day temps, however, will be in the mid-40s to mid-50s starting Monday.

Today we are all staying home and having a family day because my husband has been working so much. We plan to make pizzas. usually visit my parents on Sunday but the kids and I will see them tomorrow most likely. I have been having Little Miss interview her grandma for history and I think we will do that again this week and add her grandpa in as well.

What I/we’ve been Reading

I finished Hell is Empty by Craig Johnson and while Craig is a great writer, I will be taking a break from his books for a while. I was very annoyed with this one and how I had it figured out way before it finished. I’m not a fan of books where part of the characters are ghosts and I know they are but the author tries to pretend I don’t know. Plus, almost the entire book was “in Longmire’s head” and not really action, like the other books have been. That was disappointing because it was almost like Johnson ran out of things to write about and it was only the seventh book in the series. I will read other books in the series later, but for now, I need to read some books that are a little less dark and … well, strange.

Saying the above sentence may be fairly ironic when I say that the next book I am reading, at the urging of a friend, is about World War II, but it’s a different kind of dark, okay?

I am reading All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr because a friend read it and wants to know what I think. It’s not my usual read, but I’m giving it a try. It’s interesting so far but it is a little jarring because you only read about a character for about two pages and it switches to another character or place and it does that throughout the whole book.

It is a Pulitzer-winning book and was recently made into a movie on Netflix, though, so what might be a bit jarring to me apparently didn’t matter to a lot of other people.

I mentioned above I am also reading Miracles on Maple Hill, which is a middle-grade level book but something I feel like I needed this winter.

I liked that the beginning of the book featured a story about collecting sap and making maple syrup because we are in that season in Pennsylvania right now and my husband just visited a large maple syrup operation at a farm near us. Oh, and I forgot to mention that the book’s setting is Pennsylvania. Because the family comes to the rural area from the city it makes me think of the many people who visit our area from Philadelphia.

Up Next (or soon):

Blessed Is the Busy Body by Emilie Richards

Fields of Fire by Ryan Steck

I know I’ve mentioned before that I am a mood reader so I like to have a couple of books going so that I can pick whichever one my mood fits at that time. I have to say that I am finding it a little stressful to have more than two books going at a time so I have decided to only switch between two books – one a little lighter and one a little heavier.

I am not a fast reader and do not usually have a high read count at the end of the year but I am proud of myself that I have read nine books so far this year. I think that is the most I have ever read in two months. At least one of those was a carryover from 2023 and two of them were middle grade reads, but still, better than other years and I’m glad I’m reading more and watching things less.

What We watched/are Watching

This past week I watched a lot of Lark Rise to Candleford. I also watched a couple of YouTubers, but I read more than I watched this week, which is an unusual thing for me.

This week I hope to catch up on All Creatures Great and Small and Miss Scarlet and The Duke.

What I’m Writing

I made a lot of progress this week on Cassie, which releases in August.

On the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening to

Little Miss and I are listening to Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink on Audible. I am listening to In this Mountain by Jan Karon (A Mitford Series book) and crying through it. I’ve read this book before but somehow having it read to me by an amazing narrator (John McDonough) makes it even more emotional. It is also emotional because since I first read the book something happened in my family that makes it easier to relate to Father Tim’s tragic situation. There is nothing like standing over one’s dirty dishes and sobbing to make that person (me) realize how much I’ve shoved down over the last decade of my life.

This week I will set In This Mountain aside and start listening to A Tale of Two Cities because The Boy and I are reading/listening to it for English. We set it aside for a couple of months but are going back to it.

Photos from Last Week

I haven’t touched the Nikon in more than a month but I hope to change that as the weather warms up. Here are a few photos from the new cellphone instead.

Your Turn

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.

Weekly Traffic Jam Reboot February 22 and my daughter likes my book!

On February 22, 2024February 23, 2024 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Weekend Traffic Jam7 Comments

Welcome to another Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot hosted by Marsha in the Middle, Melynda from Scratch Made Food & DYI Homemade Household, Sue from Women Living Well After 50, and me. Look for the link party to go live on Thursdays at 9:30pm EDT.

What: Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot – a chance for bloggers to link up their posts that are related to fashion, DIY, food, and anything else that is family-friendly.

When: The link goes live Thursday nights at 9:30 PM EST/United States time.

Why: To connect with other bloggers and bring more traffic to your own blog.

My 9-year-old daughter wanted me to read my book—Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing to her a couple of months ago and then again this weekend. Since it is a very clean book, even with the mystery element, I started to read it to her. I didn’t think she’d be interested but she asked me to keep reading so I did.

This week she asked if she could use my old Kindle and she downloaded my book and began to read it on her own. I thought she’d get bored fairly fast but 20 minutes in she ran to me from where she’d been sitting on the couch in the dining room and declared, “I just got to Lucinda and I love her. She is my favorite character.” She then quoted something Lucinda had said and, in the most adult way, said “She is heeelarious.”

I can’t lie – the whole situation made me weepy. I imagined other people reading my book and enjoying it and always thought that would be so amazing but I never thought about how amazing it would be to have my own family like what I write.

Some might say that it is normal to have family and friends say they like what you have written, but I have not had one friend from high school, college, or in my adult years read my books or say one thing about them to me over the last five years I have been writing.

I have not been able to gush with them over my characters like I hoped I would be able to.

My mom and my husband have both read my books so I can gush a little with them, luckily.

My daughter is only 9 and I really didn’t think about her reading my books or even caring about them, but I am grateful that my books are clean so she can read them and not be shown things she shouldn’t be shown or exposed to at her age.

My dad is not a reader but he has now read both of my Gladwynn Grant books. He literally took the time to read a couple of my chapters of my books each night and that means the world to me. If you could see me right now you would see me with tears in my eyes, knowing that my non-reader dad took the time out of his day to read my books and even left me a review on my Facebook. Dad has not always been a supporter, exactly, of me writing fiction so I was shocked when Mom said he was reading my book.

Dad felt like I needed to have traveled more and experienced more to be able to write fiction and he may be right in some ways, but his comments were somewhat discouraging to me when I started writing fiction for fun in 2018.

Here is the review my dad left me:

I am not much of a reader at all and very seldom read fiction and I watch very few movies.

Like who wants to read about something that is not . Lol Evidently a lot of people.

Anyway I got into the first Gladwyn mystery and found it intriguing and starting this one I find it more so.

Sometimes I think wow, I never knew that lol ; you see Gladwynn Grant,a mixture of intelligent, ditsy curious, and almost cunning, was my mother’s name.

Okay off to store a few more clues and along the way of the town theater find out what happened to Samantha.

Well, anyhow, I just thought I’d share all that today because it was on my mind as I started to write this post today.

Let’s move on to our top post this week:

Friends and Pasta by Thrifting Wonderland

And now three of the posts that stood out to me this week:

Hiking Photos from Last Friday by My Slices of Life

Finding Peace in Pain: Exploring Christian Mindfulness For Pain Management by Grace Filled Moments

Valentines Hutch Tree and More by Debbie Dabbleblog

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!

Mid Week Catch Up: The weather, homeschool update, books, and other ramblings

On February 21, 2024 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings9 Comments

The fire in the woodstove just would not cooperate Monday morning when I tried to get it to light. I am convinced something is wrong with our draft, like maybe it is stuck or something. I gently wiggled it a few times and the fire finally started to take off after burning up a ton of cardboard, papers, and even the box for some caffeine-free Diet Pepsi my son picked up the other day.

We will have to light a fire all week with the cold temperatures but soon we will be able to light a fire less and still turn the heat down. Having the fire helps us not to have to use as much heating oil and kept our heating oil usage down from mid-October through last week.

It is actually progress that my son purchased that soda I mentioned above since in the past he wouldn’t pick it up because it reminded him too much of his great-aunt, my aunt Dianne, who he loved immensely. She passed away in 2018. Talking about her was very painful for years but now he’s able to talk about her more, sharing the good and happy memories he has of her with his sister.

Buying the Pepsi was a chance for him to show Little Miss a version of Dianne’s favorite drink. Dianne drank Pepsi for years, partially because it was what she was used to since my grandfather worked for Pepsi in North Carolina for 30 years.

It’s Monday when I am starting this post and I have given Little Miss the day off from school since her brother had it off from the technical school he attends for President’s Day.

Tomorrow we will be back to our regular lessons.

This year she and I have been studying a lot of history through a variety of different ways, including a textbook through The Story of Our World. Like last year we are learning about history through historical fiction as well.

This week we will be starting a historical fiction book about Pocahontas.

I actually have two books about Pocahontas but decided that the one book may be for older children so have decided to go to one written by Jean Fritz, who we have read books by before, including The Cabin Faced West, which we finished a couple of weeks ago. The other book is written by Joseph Bruchac, who wrote Children of the Longhouse, which Little Miss absolutely loved, but seems to be written for teenagers. I am sure it is a clean book but it just seems a little older so I decided I am going to read it this spring and see if it is something Little Miss will like.

Reading historical fiction books helps us to branch out into other topics that are brought up in the stories, including information about historical figures or events. The textbook provides us with fairly dry facts only.

The subject I have struggled with the most this year for Little Miss has been science because I’m never happy with the science curriculum we have. I also never have the supplies we need for experiments. I always feel like I’m not teaching her enough science or the right science. She, however, has learned a lot of science from the educational shows she watches so I often find her correcting me when I am teaching her science from a book.

We really liked The Good and the Beautiful science but it is a bit expensive so I have decided to wait until we have that extra money to purchase curriculum and will probably purchase from there toward the end of our school year and then finish up the curriculum in our next school year. While their sets are expensive, they are nice and thorough.

We have used their energy, birds, and ecosystem curriculum and enjoyed them all.

Homeschool for The Boy is more stressful for me these days because he will be a senior next year and I feel like I have taught him nothing this school year.

For him it’s English where I feel like I have really dropped the ball. We have bailed on almost every book we have started this year because it has either been too wordy, too old-fashioned, or just didn’t hold our attention. That will change next week because I have decided we are starting A Tale of Two Cities and plowing through the difficult beginning and flowery writing to get to the story.

That way I can at least feel like I have exposed him to some more classic writers.

We have already read books by George Eliott, J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen Crane, William Golding, and Mark Twain.

I hope before I am done with him (so to speak) we will read books by Dickens, Steinbeck, and maybe George Orwell. I’d really like to add Austen in there as well but we will see. We will be starting, or re-starting, A Tale of Two Cities next week.

For history I decided to purchase a book called A History of the Twentieth Century by Martin Gilbert. This has a comprehensive list of facts that will provide us a look at history that we can then use to jump off from with videos and further study.

The Boy will be a senior next year as I just mentioned and I’m having a hard time wrapping my mind around it. He’s already checked out of schoolwork pretty much but I’m not ready to let him go. How is it possible he will be 18 in November? The thought has me weepy beyond belief these days. How does the time go by so fast? I should probably stop thinking about it or my computer screen is going to be soaked with my tears in a moment.

This is totally a topic shift again, but do you ever find yourself without a pen and paper or your phone and you have to remember something for like, say, your grocery list and you keep repeating what you need to add to the list because you’re afraid you’ll forget it?

Well, I have because for about half an hour this morning, I found myself repeating “maple syrup and hot dog buns” as I did other tasks around the house. I didn’t have my phone next to me to add it to my Instacart list.

I finally added it to my list but now I’m still singing “maple syrup and hot dog buns” to myself.

What I should probably add to that list is mouse traps, but I am hoping our hunter cats will finally get all the mice out of our house this week. A few months ago Scout (our youngest) had a mouse pinned in our heating vent but never got to it. This weekend The Boy reported a mouse ran across his feet while he was playing a video game because both cats were chasing it. He then watched them double up on this mouse with one of them hiding under the couch to scare it and the other one waiting at the end to grab it. Then they batted the thing around for a while and apparently lost it because they were more interested in toying with it.

Sunday we left them in the house together while we went to visit my parents and when we came back I joked with them that they had better have caught that mouse. I was saying all this while I was reaching for the light. It was dark in the kitchen and when I felt something squish under my boot while joking, I thought, “Oh, Lord, let that be a grape we dropped earlier in the week.”

It was not a grape and I was very glad I hadn’t kicked my boots off yet because it was indeed a dead mouse and my foot on it made sure it was even more dead – let’s just leave it at that.

That wasn’t the end of the story though, because yesterday Scout was chasing another mouse and it came running toward me, resulting in a lot of screaming from me because I didn’t want it to scamper across my bare feet like it had my son’s the other day.

I can’t believe it but the intrepid huntress lost this mouse too and as far as I know it is now hiding under our stove and The Husband has declared he’s searching the house this weekend to “find where these creatures are coming from.”

As I write this, the sun is pouring in our windows and the temperature outside is the warmest it has been in a week, but still at a chilly 40 degrees.

I’ll be lighting the fire before I get ready to take Little Miss to Awana at a church 20 minutes away to try to stretch what wood we have left into March, since Pennsylvania doesn’t believe in early springs no matter what the groundhog says.

So how is your week going so far?

I hope it is going well.

Let me know in the comments, even if it isn’t going well.

February Favorites: movie impression of Amelie

On February 15, 2024 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings6 Comments

Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I had planned to write about our favorite movies this month and then she took a blogging break and it was a break that I realized I needed to because I’ve been spreading myself way too thin lately.

Erin has mentioned the movie Amelie a few times in the last year or so as being one of her favorite movies so this past weekend I suggested that I watch it since she was already watching it with her hubby and that we write about it today.

She, of course, readily agreed.

Amelie, for those not familiar, is a French film – so yes, I had to read subtitles because I am not fluent in French. It is about a young waitress who was raised by introverted parents who thought she was sick as a child and kept her inside most of her life. It was released in 2001 and the full name of the movie in France is The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain. Audrey Tautuo plays Amelie. It is directed by Jean Pierre Jeunet.

When she grows up she is very imaginative and begins to work behind the scenes to improve the lives of others. In the process, she might even improve her own. She begins to help others to combat her own loneliness.

This is a very quirky film with quirky camera angles and quirky writing and acting. Quirky is not a bad term in my book, in case you are wondering. I am a fan of quirky.

What is quirky about the film?

The writing, the camera angles, as I mentioned above and in how the narrator talks in present tense for part of the movie and then Amelie breaks the third wall to talk to us about her life in just one scene and then it is back to the narrator. I love when movies break “the rules” so to speak and breaking the third wall is one of those ways. If you don’t know what breaking the third wall means, it is when a character looks directly at the camera and speaks to the audience.

The movie features beautiful, vintage scenery throughout. The backgrounds are picturesque in an urban art style and the entire movie has a slight yellow tone like vintage film to give it a warm feeling. The main colors in the film (green, yellow, and red) are inspired by the paintings of the Brazilian artist Juarez Machado, according to IMDb.

Stories weave in and out of the main narrative of Amelie’s life, starting with her search to find the owner of a small box of mementos she finds in the wall in her bathroom and continuing when she works to return a book of photos from photo booths around the city so she can meet the man who collects the photos.

Each story is a life that Amelie touches and improves and each time she feels more alive and less isolated. Each character she interacts with is also strange and a bit eccentric, and the camera angles exaggerate these facts and the intricacies of Amelie’s imagination. She works to improve the lives of everyone around her, including her father who she encourages to travel the world by sending him photographs of his gnome in different locations around the world.

Eventually, helping others will inspire her to bring happiness to her own life.

There is only one person whose life she sort of messes with as revenge, but he deserves it. Trust me. And harassing him helps to improve the life of another person so it sort of evens out.

According to a couple of sources online, Jeunet said he originally wrote the role of Amélie for the English actress Emily Watson. Watson didn’t speak strong French, however, and then she started shooting Gosford Park instead. Jeunet then rewrote the screenplay for a French actress. The film was shot in Paris for the most part with some studio shots filmed in Germany.

Tautou was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Actress for her role. She was 24 when the film was released.

Trivia on IMbD states that graffiti and trash had to be cleared from shots in Paris to keep the film’s fantastical feeling. This was sometimes a difficult task for staff.

Amelie has a 90 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is a good thing if you don’t know. People love it, in other words. The movie was made into a musical on Broadway in 2015 and it was rereleased this year in theaters for Valentine’s Day. I have no idea if the musical was any good or not.

The movie is definitely fantastical – and a bit bizarre in places, to me, but not so bizarre that it’s creepy. More like whimsical bizarre. Not sure if that makes sense to some but it does in my brain.

One review I read of this on Rotten Tomatoes summed up some of my feelings about the movie: “I feel like it’s a beautiful love letter to the introverts out there with wonderfully magical imaginations who find it hard to connect to people in real life.”

This was a unique film that I don’t think I would have watched on my own, or discovered at all if it wasn’t for Erin’s suggestion. I will warn anyone offended by some sex and language, that this is a rated R movie. Neither is extreme but it still resulted in a R rating.

I know Erin will have a lot more to share about it in her post, which you can find here: https://crackercrumblife.com/2024/02/15/february-favorites-movie-thoughts-amelie/

Have you ever seen Amelie? What was your impression of it?

Remembering Blockbuster

On February 13, 2024 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings11 Comments

The year was probably 1994 (I don’t know. I’m a bit old. I can’t remember.) when my brother took me to the Mecca of video rental stores – Blockbuster. It was actually amazing we had one near us since we grew up in a very tiny town in Pennsylvania. It was about half an hour from us, but not such a bad drive really. It was located in a strip mall that now has seen better days with most of the stores gone and the parking lot a pothole haven.

If I remember right, I wanted to find a romance and he was probably looking for an action movie or maybe a foreign film. He watched a few foreign films and made me watch them at times. They were pretty good but I wasn’t a fan of reading subtitles back then. I’m better with it now.

Back then we would never have imagined we’d one day be able to download or stream our movies right from our TV. I mean, we didn’t even have cable at our house because the cable company refused to come to us since we were “in the middle of nowhere.” We had four channels brought into our TV by an old-fashioned wire hanger-style antenna on the back porch that Dad had to shift sometimes to get a better signal.

Yes, I am that old. Okay, I’m really not, but we were that poor.

Walking into Blockbuster back then was a bit overwhelming for this sheltered country girl but I loved walking up the rows and looking at all the different movies.

I’m not definite about this but I think the first time I watched the Irish movie Into The West was from a Blockbuster rental. Did you ever see that movie? It’s about two Irish boys who travel with a horse across Ireland after their dad, who is grieving their mother, hits rock bottom and tells them they have to get rid of this horse they found. That’s a very short version of what the movie is about, of course, but it is very good.

I also think it might be where my brother rented The Princess Bride for us to watch for the first time.

The movies weren’t the only thing that was tempting at Blockbuster. They had candy, sodas, and stuffed animals. I’m sure I bought some candy but never the stuffed animals because my mom always said I had enough and my brother said I was too old for such things by then. Little did they know that even as an adult I was buying stuffed animals and still cuddle many of them to this day.

Blockbuster sold all its corporate-owned stores in 2014. It no longer grants franchises to anyone but at one time there were 50 privately-owned stores. As of today, there is only one official Blockbuster store left open in the United States and it is in Bend Oregon, and is a popular tourist attraction, selling more merchandise than video rentals.