Category: everyday musings

Randomly Thinking: A few random thoughts about spoons and other things

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Randomly Thinking8 Comments

I have no idea why it has taken me so long to write a Randomly Thinking post but here I am, finally compiling my random thoughts and happenings into a blog post.

Enjoy the randomness.

A few months ago, my mom called to tell me that one of the women at physical therapy had noticed something black in my dad’s ear and felt he needed to get it checked for cancer.

My dad set up an appointment because he has had skin cancer removed in the past.

As he was getting ready to go, he took a shower and was trying his face and ears off when he noticed black on his towel. That’s when it hit him. He didn’t have some sort of new growth in his ear. It was the charcoal soap he’d been using to wash with but it apparently didn’t come off very well.

Crisis averted.

***

Sometimes I mumble my starting word count over and over when I am using a writing sprint program in Discord so I can remember it when I write it down. Later I put in how many words I have when I finish writing and it tallies how many words I wrote in a certain amount of time.

When The Boy hears me mumbling my word count, my teenage son asks if I am whispering my activation code for the chip in my head.

***

Little Miss and I were watching Mary Berry one night and she was cooking duck. The Husband said he wanted to know where we could get duck locally and decided to Google it. He didn’t find a local provider but he found a bucket of duck fat for an insane amount of money.

In response to our shock, Little Miss said, “Well, yeah…it’s a delicacy.”

I have no idea where she learned that word but probably from Mary Berry. I think we’ve watched too much Mary, honestly. My child is picking up her lingo.

***

One day I mentioned the book/story “I Once Knew A Woman Who Swallowed a Fly” and Little Miss called out, “No! I don’t like that book! I don’t like the perspective of being in her stomach. It’s gross.”

Again – is this a normal 8-year-old thing?

***

I told Little Miss one day that I didn’t know how she was still awake after staying up late the night before and getting up early that day.

She widened her eyes, pressed her fingers together and wiggled them.

“I’ve been stimulating my brain all day to stay awake,” she said in a silly, high-pitched voice.”

***

One day The Boy was explaining something to Little Miss and I, then realized we already knew what he was talking about.

 “Sorry,” he said. “I know I don’t need to explain that to you guys. You’re not dumb.”

Little Miss tipped her head sidewise toward me and said, “Well, I’m not. I don’t know about her.”

I said, “excuse me? I’m not dumb.”

“You do dumb things sometimes,” she said.

“Well, we all do that,” I said. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You swear and that shows you’re not very smart.”

Ouch.

I mean. …. She’s right but … ouch.

***

My kids have very big vocabularies and people have told me that they sound like little adults. I’m never sure if that’s meant as a compliment or not. Here is the thing, though, my husband is well-read – much more so than me (I feel dumb around him) and we never talked baby talk to our kids (which isn’t a bad thing). We just talked to them in regular adult speech (within reason) and they just picked up those words and meanings and went from there.

It can backfire, though. One time around 6 years old my son had a friend over and he was talking about Venom from Spider-Man and said that Venom was a symbiote. The little friend scrunched up his face and said, “What’s that?” My son said, “It means he needs another living creature to live off of. Geesh, you really need to broaden your vocabulary.”  

***

The Boy has a job now and has been thinking a lot about his future and about what he will do after he graduates. One night I had to calm him down because he thought next year was his last year of school. I had to tell him he has two years of school left, not one.

This calmed him some and then he said, “I don’t have to have a life goal. I’m 16. Right?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m 45 and I still don’t have a life goal. My goal is just to survive I guess.”

***

Every once in a while my teenage son will have himself a rant about how my mom, and me, tell him to use the regular, everyday spoons when he sets the table and not the soup spoons.

“There is no difference! They are just spoons!”

I reminded him that every day spoons are smaller than the soup spoon.

His response was, “The larger spoon should be the default spoon for all spoons! If you want a fancy spoon for your fancy dinner then make it the same size but less bent!”

I was like, “Honey, one is a one is a teaspoon and one is a tablespoon.”

“They are just spoons!” he screamed. “When our ancestors were carving the spoons from wood they didn’t say this is a soup spoon and this is a regular spoon. They said this is a spoon! An all-purpose tool for putting food in my mouth! There is a smaller spoon and a big spoon. That’s a giant spoon even better for shoveling more food in your mouth!”

He literally ranted for four straight minutes about the spoon drama.

I decided not to mention that there are also serving spoons.

***

The Boy and his friend were recently watching a video that showcased the top one songs through the decades. They were into it, all the way up to the 2000s when my my son says “Aw man it sucks. Those generations got that cool music and we got Cardi B.”

I can’t help but agree.

Here is a random photo of my cat:

And one of my dog:



So there are a few random thoughts.

Tell me one random fact about yourself today.

Spring of Cary: An Affair To Remember

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn classic movie impressions, everyday musings, Spring of Cary8 Comments



I am watching Cary Grant movies with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs this spring. I picked movies of Cary’s I had not seen before.

I love this graphic Erin designed!!

Today we are discussing An Affair to Remember from 1957, which was nominated for four Oscars.

In this movie, Cary plays Nick Ferrante, a “international playboy”. He is a man who likes to date rich women – as many as he can at a time it seems.

As the movie starts, though, it appears that he is finally settling down. It’s worldwide news when he becomes engaged. He’s on a cruise, though, where there is a lot of women available to him and it’s there that he meets Terry McKay portrayed by Deborah Kerr.

He can’t seem to break himself from the habit of picking up women,so he starts with picking her up as well.

“You saved my life,” he tells her. “I was bored to death. I didn’t think I’d find one attractive woman on this boat. . . . I said to myself, ‘Don’t beautiful women travel anymore?’ And then I saw you.”

Then he proceeds by essentially trying to get into her pants. Excuse me for being blunt but he suggests they find something fun to do and he is her cabin. She, however, lets him know that she is romantically involved with someone. He keeps trying to get her to cheat and, well, eventually, that will happen with a few kisses, but nothing beyond that, as far as we are shown anyhow.

We see from the beginning that the connection is real, but then I did find myself wondering how real it was with two people who were willing to cheat on their romantic partners, especially the one who is used to moving from woman to woman. That’s the cynical side of me, of course. I mean they weren’t actually married yet.

They do try to stay away from each other on the ship but no matter where they go, they seem to bump into each other.

It is a literal bumping incident at the pool that leads Nick to invite Terry to meet his French grandmother during a stop by the ship in France. His grandmother adores Terry and Terry adores her and her beautiful villa. Terry learns more about Nick that makes her fall for him even more. He’s an artist, but he always destroys his paintings because they are never good enough, his grandmother says.

It’s at his grandmother’s that Terry breaks out her singing voice and shows she has hidden talents as well. But the ship horn is blowing, and they have to leave the grandmother, much to the grandmother and their sadness.

Terry clearly doesn’t want to love the grandmother because then she has to admit she’s falling for man who is not the man she has been romantically involved with and if she can’t have Nick, then she can’t have the grandmother either. But she does love the woman and  . . . yes, Nick.

An additional challenge for the now blossoming couple is that Nick is a famous socialite and everyone on the ship is watching them to see if they really are a couple so they can gossip about it.

Soon the cruise will be over, though, and they need to decide what they are going to do about their newfound love for each other. That’s when Terry decides they need to get their lives in order in the next six months and then if they both want the relationship, they will meet at the top of the Empire State Building in July.

They each go back to their lives, and we follow their journeys there until July. They both pursue their real passions in life during this time – art for Nick and singing for Terry. They both also change during this time, finding out what is real and most important in their lives.

You’ll have to watch the movie if you want to know if they meet or not, but if you’ve ever seen that one scene in Sleepless in Seattle, you probably know what happens. Or the gist of it. It really is a classic ending and I have my opinions on it, but I don’t want to share so I don’t ruin the ending for anyone who hasn’t seen it. All I know is that I wanted to yell at the screen a couple of times and that I had to wipe my eyes a bit.

I enjoyed this movie a lot more than My Favorite Wife. I did not expect Kerr to sing two or three songs in it, since it wasn’t a musical, but the songs were very nicely done. Overall, I felt the movie was well done. I did feel the ending was a bit rushed and would have liked to have learned a little bit more about what happened after it.

This movie was directed by Leo McCarey who also directed Cary in The Awful Truth, which, if you remember from my previous blog post about The Awful Truth, was a director that Cary clashed with originally. Cary didn’t understand McCarey’s style of directing, which included simply telling the actors the gist of the scene and then having them improvise. Cary eventually warmed to McCarey’s style and even expressed disappointment that he was not in McCarey’s movie Love Affair from 1939. He was so disappointed he talked McCarey into remaking the movie, which is what An Affair to Remember was, according to Wikipedia.

Cary and Kerr did improvise many of their lines and many of those were what appeared in the film according to trivia on IMBd.

Another bit of trivia on IMBd that I found interesting:

“Deborah Kerr plays Terry McKay, previously played by Irene Dunne in Love Affair (1939), of which this film is a remake. Both were directed by Leo McCarey. The year before this film was made, Kerr played Anna Leonowens in The King and I (1956), also a role that had previously been played by Irene Dunne in the black-and-white classic Anna and the King of Siam (1946). “The King and I” is a musical based on the same book.”

Next up for our Spring of Cary feature is the movie Holiday with Cary and Katherine Hepburn.

After that we have:

Operation Petticoat (May 11)

Suspicion (May 18)

Notorious (May 25)

To read Erin’s impression of An Affair to Remember, hop on over to her blog.

A Photo A Day in May and looking back at April’s photos

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, just photos, Just the Photos Ma'm10 Comments

April isn’t all the way over yet, but I thought I’d look back on some photos from the month and talk about a project I hope to do in May.

I have decided to take on a photo project for May and take at least one photo a day. If anyone knows me, taking one photo is like being able to eat only one potato chip – it isn’t easy for me. What I’ve done in the past when I do these projects is choose one photo to represent the day.

I’m hoping this will encourage me to be creative even on the days I don’t feel like being creative. I’ve been a creative slug in many ways over the last several years and I’m trying to pull myself out of that rut.

I’ve even started a photography-related Instagram account again, if you would like to follow it:

https://www.instagram.com/lisahowelerphotos/

I don’t think I’ll post the photos on here every day – I’ll probably post them at the end of each week.

Stay tuned!

(Also, most of you have seen these photos already and they aren’t super exciting but I figure sometimes we need something not very exciting in our days.)

Little Miss’ Reading Corner for April: Books about Rose Wilder, animal books, and a chapter book we had to abandon

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn books and reading, everyday musings, little miss reading corner7 Comments

Little Miss and I have been reading a lot of different books in the last couple of months.

We’ve read some picture books and a couple of chapter books.

We abandoned one of our chapter books – Soft Rain, which was a book about the Trail of Tears – part way through. It was a bit too heavy for Little Miss right now so we read it almost to the end but then I noticed there was a bit more tragedy than I felt Little Miss could handle at her age. We’ve decided we will try it again when she is older.

We were reading it as part of our history unit on Native American history.

If you think you might be interested in it for your older child or grandchildren, here is a quick description:

It all begins when Soft Rain’s teacher reads a letter stating that as of May 23, 1838, all Cherokee people are to leave their land and move to what many Cherokees called “the land of darkness”…the west. Soft Rain is confident that her family will not have to move, because they have just planted corn for the next harvest but soon thereafter, soldiers arrive to take nine-year-old Soft Rain and her mother to walk the Trail of Tears, leaving the rest of her family behind. 

Because Soft Rain knows some of the white man’s language, she soon learns that they must travel across rivers, valleys, and mountains. On the journey, she is forced to eat the white man’s food and sees many of her people die. Her courage and hope are restored when she is reunited with her father, a leader on the Trail, chosen to bring her people safely to their new land.

A book we did finish recently was In The Land of The Big Red Apple by Roger Lea MacBride. This book gave us a glimpse of life in the Ozarks (Missouri) during the 1890s through the eyes of Rose Wilder, the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder. This is a fictionalized account of Rose’s life as a child based on stories she told MacBride, her adopted son. I kept calling the book The Land of the Big Red Apple because the library covered part of the title with their labeling. Ooops.

It is part of a series of eight books about Rose’s life as she grew up, including her as an adult.

Description:

The third book in the Rose Years series, the story of the spirited daughter of the author of the beloved Little House series.

Eight going on nine, Rose Wilder is beginning to settle into her new life in Missouri, the Land of the Big Red Apple. Her father is building their farmhouse and she dreams of the day they’ll have their own bright crop to harvest. But before that can happen, she has a fierce ice storm to contend with and her first real Christmas in the Ozarks to enjoy.



We are now reading On The Other Side of the Hill, which is the book right after In The Land of the Big Red Apple.

Description:

The fourth book in the Rose Year series, the story of the spirited daughter of the author of the beloved Little House series. 

On The Other Side of the Hill continues the story of Rose, Laura, and Almanzo as the young Wilder family struggles to overcome a series of natural disasters that beset their little farm.

We had picked up The Little Town in the Ozarks, which is also part of the series, from the library at one point but we didn’t get a chance to read it and sent it back because I didn’t know when we would get to it. We will get it again later, probably this summer, now that we know we like the series.

I didn’t write down the names of all the picture books we signed out at the end of March and the beginning of April,l but we did read a few I remember, including a book about John Audobon called The Boy Who Drew Birds. This fit in nicely with our science unit on birds. We enjoyed learning how Audobon studied and drew birds even as a young child.

For picture books this week, we are reading, or have read:

The Umbrella by Jan Brett

This was a really cute book with amazing artwork. Little Miss didn’t want to read it at first but it turned out to be very creative and entertaining. It was the story of a young boy who went into the jungle to find animals but then . . . well, I won’t spoil the ending.

Verdi by Janell Cannon

This was a cute book about a snake accepting who he is becoming as he grows up and then who he becomes. It is very funny and entertaining and the artwork is beautiful.

Cubs First Winter by Rebecca Elliott

As I am writing this, we haven’t yet read this book but it looks so sweet so I’m excited to read it with her tomorrow.

And Little Miss picked Grumpy Monkey by Susan Long again.

This is a very creative book about a monkey who is grumpy and who decides that sometimes it is okay to be grumpy or sad as long as you aren’t mean to other people.

Little Miss also has two books to read on her own this week for Reading Time:

Backyard Wildlife: Wolves (by Blastoff Readers)

And

I Can Read: Paddington’s Prize Picture

Later this week we will be reading a book about Claude Monet as part of our Art unit on him, but I still have to go pick that one up.

What have you been reading with your kids or grandkids or just what are you reading?

Sunday Bookends: Slogging through a couple of books, warmer weather, and old TV shows

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Sunday Bookends3 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, and some weeks I share what I am listening to.


What I/we’ve Been Reading

I’m reading a book called Expired Hope for a book tour. In my head, I call it Expired Drama. There is a lot of drama. Like too much drama. It’s a romantic suspense book listed in the Christian Fiction genre. I am probably not going to read another one by this author (Lisa Phillips) even though she is a good writer. The crisis scenarios that keep happening in every chapter are simply too much for me. It’s a bit overdone for my taste, but I’m sure others enjoy that type of escapism. I think I need it to make a little more sense for me to enjoy it.

I am also still reading Fellowship of the Ring. I feel bad I keep saying that I’m still reading it. It’s a good book. I just keep getting interrupted by either the children or phone calls or life in general when I try to read it. Then I get distracted with other books or writing because fantasy, or at least older fantasy, is not always my thing. I do, however, really enjoy Tolkien’s style of writing and when I sit down and focus on it, I do find myself getting carried away into the world of the Hobbits. I do sometimes wish that Tolkien would get to the point. I didn’t think anyone could write that many times about their characters being lost in the forest and drag that fact out for ten pages of talking about rows and rows of trees, but somehow he managed it.

I will be finishing Anne’s House of Dreams by the end of April. That is my goal. I stopped that one because it was a bit more depressing than the previous books I have read in the series.

I started a Walt Longmire Mystery and oh wow – after reading mainly light and fluffy books for the last few months, it was simply too dark and gritty for me. I had to put it aside for now, even though I love Craig Johnson’s writing.

I’m reading a chapter or two of The Lord God Made Them All by James Herriot before bed.

Little Miss and I are reading On the Other Side of the Hill by Roger Lea MacBride. It is part of the fiction series based on the childhood of Rose Wilder, daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

In the evenings we are also reading Mrs. Piggle Wiggle: A Treasury, which is the story of an eccentric woman who helps teach children to have fun when they have to do work around the home or other things they don’t want to do. It was written in the 50s so there are, at times, some old-fashioned ideas – like 8-year-olds having to do all the housework instead of the parents. Of course, the book also exaggerates some of the situations for the sake of the silliness of the stories.

We also signed out a pile of picture books from the library last week that we will be reading this week and I’ll be sharing about them in a Little Miss’ Reading Corner post.

What’s Been Occurring

I wrote about what’s been occurring in my post yesterday if you want to check it out.

My only update is that the temperatures did drop after our rain yesterday and I was glad to have it cooler so I can cover myself with a blanket while I write this and later while I read.

Also, after the rain, the blooms on the tree next to our house opened even more, so that was pretty cool.

I think the forsythia bush bloomed even more too.

Later today we will head to my parents for some lunch.

Tomorrow, we have gymnastics for Little Miss and a guitar lesson for The Boy and Tuesday it is an eye doctor appointment for them both. After that, the week isn’t too busy for us other than The Boy working at his part-time job.

It isn’t too busy for me at least. Ha.

What We Watched/are Watching

Last night we watched the first episode of season nine of Brokenwood Mysteries. We had missed watching the show and had finished up season eight a couple of months ago, so we are glad it is back for a new season.

Little Miss and I watched a lot of Mary Berry this week. Most of the episodes we had already seen a couple of times before but we still really enjoyed them.

Earlier in the week I watched The Awful Truth with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne and this week I am watching My Favorite Wife with the same actors. This is part of The Spring of Cary that I am doing with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.

We also watched some Newhart last week (all of the seasons are now on Amazon), Hogans Heroes, and I watched a couple episodes of Madame Leblanc Mysteries until it started toward preachy themes about the lifestyles of people.

We also finished an episode of McDonald and Dodds and watched a couple episodes of a British sitcom called My Family.


What I’m Writing

I am working hard on Gladwynn’s first book and hope to have it done by the end of the month, if not before, and out to beta readers. This reminds me: I’m taking applications for both beta readers and launch team members.

If you want to sign up to beta read the book and give me your feedback on the characters and the story, etc., then you can do so here: https://forms.gle/WzSJe2pP71MBWbfn9



If you want to be on the launch team that is just where you get an ebook copy of the book and then help me promote it by letting people on your social media, blog, etc. know about the book, you can sign-up here: https://forms.gle/rfqE8oWqfQzhnrhQ7

On the blog last week I shared:

What I’m Listening To

I did not listen to a ton of music this past week, but I did listen to Fellowship of the Ring on Audible.

Now it’s 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.

Living our dreams for the people whose dreams were cut short

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings4 Comments

Once again this week I found myself thinking about how I am living out dreams that many others I knew or knew of couldn’t do.

No, I’m not a famous author or photographer or a famous anything. I don’t have throngs of fans or tons of money. I’m a simple homeschooling mom who writes some stories and self-publishes them (and sometimes feels a bit silly doing it.).

But I’ve started to try to look at it as I have been given the opportunity to write and blog, take photos of my family, and teach my kids at home. I “get” to do all this. I don’t “have” to write or teach my kids – I’ve been given the gift of being able to do so.

I’ve been given a gift that many others never had the opportunity to have.

Saturday afternoon I was at a memorial service for a woman who spent a large part of her adult life in a nursing home – not because she was old but because Lyme Disease stole her life from her.

She wasn’t there of her own free will.

In fact, someone essentially incarcerated her there because he didn’t want to take care of her.

She spent the next 20 years deteriorating physically and mentally. Her mother tried to get doctors to care for her, to find out what was going on and why this was happening and eventually, doctors did feel they found the cause. The only problem was they had no idea how to stop it.

What was happening to this young woman also happened to her brother. Both of them suffered from damage to the brain from Lyme Disease, but doctors couldn’t figure out why they were the only family members it had affected this way.

Genetic testing was even done and not many answers came from that.

The brother, Gary, passed away a few years ago. He was in his 40s. Mechelle passed away a month ago in her early 50s. She caught an infection that her body couldn’t fight off.

She spent most of her life in a bed, watching her children grow up and have children of their own and then eventually she didn’t see much of at least one of those children who refused to see her before she died or come to her memorial service. Any dreams she might have had for her life were gone even before her life was physically gone.

It was heartbreaking to hear about it because I never visited Mechelle in that home. I feel awful but she was older than me, I didn’t know her well, and there was a lot of family drama that left me unsure of what I should be involved with and what I shouldn’t.

Mechelle and Gary had their lives cut short. They couldn’t live the way others could.

Their stories make me think of my great aunt who had mental issues and was placed in a mental home in the 1940s and never allowed to come home.

I’m not sure what my grandmother’s sister actually had but some said it was schizophrenia. She wrote letters begging to come back home but the family didn’t know how to care for her. They were also afraid she’d hurt my dad, who was a baby at the time. Not that she would hurt him on purpose, but when she had her breaks, I would guess, she didn’t think clearly and may have accidentally hurt him.

I believe having their daughter committed was very hard on my great-grandparents and maybe it was a guilt they lived with for their entire lives.

My grandmother’s sister died in state care sometime in the 1990s. I can’t even imagine it. Over 50 years living in a mental hospital, then a care home when the state shut down the mental hospitals – not with family or those you were familiar with and definitely no chance to live a somewhat normal life.

My grandmother and the rest of the family did visit Onieta and my aunt was there when she died, holding her hand, but my heart breaks when I think of the life she didn’t get to live – either because of actual mental illness or because doctors simply didn’t know how to help  her back then.

When I get down about my life and think things along the line of how boring or plain it is, I try to remind myself of Onieta, Mechelle and Gary, and even my aunt Dianne who suffered from heartbreak, rejection and health issues for her entire life.

I think how I’m lucky and how I’m able to explore and pursue my dreams, despite some health and financial limitations.

I may never be famous (gosh, I hope I’m not. I like my quiet life.), rich, or popular, but I’m blessed and lucky and I have the freedom to pursue what I love to do in life.

I have to stop squandering that opportunity – the gift God has given me.

No, not the gift of writing or creativity, or being a parent, but the gift of freedom that others either didn’t have or didn’t have for very long.

Sunday Bookends: He Has Risen! And other less important stuff

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Sunday Bookends3 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, and some weeks I share what I am listening to.

First: Happy Easter! He has risen! He has risen indeed!

Now on to the less important stuff.


What I/we’ve Been Reading

This past week I finished Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie and would definitely recommend it. I loved the witty comments from Miss Marple and the humor woven in throughout the book. I don’t know if the ending was my favorite, but it was definitely an interesting way to be led to the guilty party.

The rest of the week I read a few chapters of The Lord God Made Them All by James Herriot and tried to decide what other books I might want to read from my TBR. I think I’ll start Little Women this week.

Other choices I have for later in the month and May:

Hell is Empty: A Walt Longmire Mystery by Craig Johnson (I did start this one so might continue reading it)

Midwinter Murder by Agatha Christie (I was supposed to read this during the winter. Oops)

Deadly Ever After by Eva Gates

The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz

Death by the Seaside by T.E. Kinsley

All That Really Matters by Nicole Deese

I tried to read a little of Anne’s House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery, which I started months ago, but the old way of writing is a little annoying to me right now, especially when it is used to tell horribly sad stories about the characters in the book. The one girl’s father committed suicide and she found him. Her brother also died being run over by a wagon and she saw that too.

It was like Montgomery just wanted to throw in as much sadness, depression, and drama in there as possible and it is just a bit much. I may skip ahead and read other parts of the book but I guess I don’t like this book as much as I hoped. There is too much about the other characters in the little town Anne and Gilbert moved to and not enough about Anne herself so far. I will probably still try to finish the book, however.

I am still reading The Fellowship of the Ring and I feel like I will never finish it because it is so dense,   and I keep getting interrupted when I try to read it.

 Little Miss and I will be finishing Land of the Big Red Apple this week because it is due back at the library and we’ve had it out long enough and simply because we’ve been working on it so long.

The Husband is reading a collection of novellas called Standing by the Wall by Nick Harrington.


What’s Been Occurring

I didn’t have time to finish my Saturday Afternoon Chat post yesterday because I attended a memorial service about 45 minutes from our house for a family friend. The day before I went grocery shopping and then worked on Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing, forgetting that I had a blog post to finish. So, I will include what I was going to share in that post in this section of this post this week.

This past week we finally had warmer weather. Sure, we had two days of rain, but at least we had some sun before that.

I thought Tuesday would be a more relaxed day than my Monday, but it actually turned out to be a busier day. On Monday, Little Miss had a gymnastics make up class and The Boy had a guitar lesson 45 minutes north. My dad took The Boy to his guitar lesson, and I took Little Miss to hers since they were one right after another.

On Tuesday I was ready to work on my book, read, do homeschool lessons and just hang out but the day became busy when Little Miss asked for glue to make slime and we headed to the dollar store. Then from there we came home, and I did a little writing and prepared homeschool but then my neighbor called and told us to come down and see her daughter’s new boxer puppy. Little Miss was very excited to do this, so we headed out the door into the sunshine and warmth.

After that visit we returned home to do our homeschool lessons and then it was time for me to cook dinner. Little Miss wanted to go back outside again so we went into the side yard and I burned our trash. The other neighbors walked by with their little Shih tzu dogs, so we visited with them a few minutes. My bacon got a little overcooked, but not burned while we were doing that. After that, we had some dinner, listened to the Family Hour on our local radio station (Adventures in Odyssey and Lamplighter Theater, The Pond, and other such programs), and I folded one load of laundry from the four loads I needed to fold.

The Boy also headed downtown for his job that afternoon.

And I already mentioned that on Friday we went grocery shopping.

The funeral service was sad and difficult since it was a younger woman (in her 50s) who had been a nursing home for many years because of Lyme that attacked her brain.

What We Watched/are Watching

This past week I watched Houseboat to write about on the blog.

The Husband and I watched the last episode of season one of Miss Scarlet & The Duke.

Then we watched a couple episodes of a British sitcom called My Family. This is the show that Kris Marshall from Death in Paradise and Beyond Paradise got his start on.

We also watched an episode of Yes, Minister.

On my own, I watched episodes of Forgotten Way Farms on YouTube.

What I’m Writing

This week on the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening to

Little Miss and I have been listening to a lot of Matthew West lately and I just heard this song and loved it:

And today I’ll be listening to this at least once:

Blog Posts I Enjoyed This Past Week

Fuel for the Race, Our Millstones

Mama’s Empty Nest, What’s So Good About Good Friday

Now it’s 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.

Saturday Afternoon Tea: Book sales, good food, and impatiently waiting for spring

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Saturday Afternoon Tea7 Comments

Good afternoon!

I’ve pulled out the mugs and the electric kettle and the new jar of honey for you! I also have a couple different teas to choose from – peppermint, cinnamon, elderberry, peach, and a lemon chamomile mix. I also have a sleepy-time tea but it’s the afternoon so I would hold off on that until this evening.

Which tea can I get you?

And can I offer you one of the cupcakes Little Miss made with her grandparents yesterday? They’re unicorn colored so lots of pink and light blue and some purple inside.

What kind of snacks do you like on a Saturday afternoon while you are reading or relaxing (if you’re able to do that)?

I like to munch on dried cherries from Aldi and sometimes I pour milk over frozen blueberries. The milk crystalizes around the blueberries making a cold, sweet treat. This snack isn’t the best thing to have when it is cold out, but I still eat it when it is cold.

So, how was your week? Ours wasn’t super busy until Friday, thankfully. Part of that was because Little Miss was recovering from her sinuses trying to adjust to the weather change. We thought it was a cold last Saturday but based on the fact none of us got it (and I get everything she gets) and she has this reaction to the weather change at least once every year, if not twice (since Pennsylvania likes to toy with us and have it be warm for a couple days, then cold, then warm, then cold and … you get the idea), we are now pretty certain it was because of the weather.

On Friday, The Husband and I had a date afternoon. We visited a library near us that was having a huge book sale, attended a groundbreaking The Husband had to take a photo for his job as a small town newspaper reporter, and then had lunch at a cute little restaurant in the middle of nowhere.

I didn’t find as many books as I hoped I would at the sale, but I did find a few classics I had been wanting to read.

I was most excited to find Little Women because I have been determined to actually read it this year. I also picked up A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens, Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park by Jane, and A Red Badge of Courage. For the non-classics, I picked up the Mark of the Lion series by Francine Rivers and a Hamish Macbeth Mystery.

The restaurant was very small and cozy featuring rustic décor.

I kept taking photographs of the walls and set up. The food was delicious and delivered on simple paper plates, which I’m sure saves them a lot of money.

After we left there The Husband showed me the outside of the little village’s tiny library but didn’t let me go in. I think he figured we have enough books right now. Next to the library are the cutest little houses that were built for seniors. I don’t know what has happened to me but when I saw the library I said, “Oh! It’s so cute!” And then when I saw the little houses I said “Oh! They are so cute!”

I looked at The Husband and said, “Good grief! What has happened to me? Why do I keep saying things are so cute?”

But, well, they were cute. So there.

No April Fool’s jokes here. Spring is indeed taking its time to get to Pennsylvania and I am a bit impatient. We haven’t had much more snow but the other night we had snow squalls and freezing temps, it rained all day yesterday, and today it is supposed to get up to 68 and then drop fast to 27 after thunderstorms! It’s nuts but this is Pennsylvania weather, I guess.

I am writing this with our windows open to soak up the warmth and sun before it all goes to Hades in a handbasket around the time my son goes downtown for his job, which is only a couple of days a week for three hours a day right now. He was so excited to get the job, though. He went around town a few months ago putting in applications but not receiving any calls back.

He received a call last week from the owner of a local deli/diner/restaurant, asking if he would like to work part-time as a dishwasher.

Our town is super, super small if I haven’t told you before. The census says there are 600 people in our town, but I question if it is even that many. I guess there could be since we have a large apartment building in town. That small size means there are only about nine businesses in town and part of them do not hire anyone under the age of 18.  

The Boy doesn’t have his license yet, but he is studying for his permit.

The Husband took Little Miss to an Easter egg hunt today. It was funny because the weather forecast said it would be very rainy and windy today as storms move into the area. About two hours before the egg hunt was supposed to start, though, the sky opened up and it became a beautiful sunny day with hardly any clouds at all. It looks like the sun is going to stay out until after the hunt is all over, which is good for the little community that holds it because The Husband says they go all out and put a huge effort into the hunt, even offering other activities afterward.

Little Miss’s friends live near the little town it is being held in so she will be able to see them. (As I write this I have received a text from The Husband and apparently one of the friends is coming home with her. I’m guessing The Husband caved into that request because he had a bad night of sleep last night and is delirious.)

 As we look ahead to spring maybe, someday, possibly coming to Pennsylvania, Little Miss and I have already decided we want to try our hand at a garden again this year. Wish us luck because she and I both often get excited about such things in the beginning and then lose interest as the months go on.

As I wind down here, I thought I’d mention how I’ve been feeling a little guilty lately about that rant I had on here about dentists a few weeks back. I know dentists can be good people – but then why aren’t they? *cymbal clang* I’m kidding, of course. That last part just popped into my head, and I had to write it down even though I really know there are good dentists. I’ve just had some bad experiences and that’s tainted my view more than a bit.

Tomorrow in my Sunday Bookends I will share what I’ve been reading and about some ideas I have for my newsletter (there will be a new feature I’m going to offer, but am a bit afraid to do so), and also about some Youtube channels I am watching and what else I watched during the week.

Let me know what snacks you are enjoying this fine Saturday and what tea you are drinking – or whatever other beverage. I’m sure we will all be drinking cooler beverages as the weather warms up soon. I mean, if that little rodent in Punxsy ever stops holding spring hostage!

Saturday Afternoon Chat: Dog grooming, visit to a museum, and annoying cold thwarts our plans

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Saturday Afternoon Tea4 Comments

I’m back to peppermint tea this Saturday for our afternoon chat.

I’m glad you could come for a visit. I really needed some adult conversation after a week of mainly being inside and working with children. Okay, one child. My eight-year-old who isn’t a fan of homeschool right now.

I had planned on adult conversation yesterday during a homeschool gathering, but Little Miss woke up with a sore throat so that was out. I spent my day trying to get her to eat despite her sore throat, writing a little, doing a little bit of school work with her, doing some dishes, cooking dinner, and only talking to adults online through Discord.

It isn’t that I like being super social. I can take about an hour or two of being social with other people and then I’m good for a few more days, sometimes a week.  

On Tuesday the kids and I traveled 45 minutes north to have Zooma the Wonder Dog groomed. While we waited for her, we visited the local library, which has a museum of local artifacts upstairs. To turn the day into a little bit of an educational field trip, the kids walked upstairs to visit the museum.

Little Miss and I have been studying Native American culture and history so it was fun to see some actual Native American artifacts that the museum has.

She was more interested in the fossils of animals they had, however. That and the star fishes and shark teeth.

The building was built in 1897 by Jesse Spalding in honor of his son. He asked for the building to become a library and museum.

It was renovated in 1927 but as far as I know, the marble staircases and impressive high windows are the originals. There is something both comforting and creepy about the building. I don’t know how to explain that.

Like most libraries these days, they have a permanent book sale out front, and I couldn’t help picking up a couple new books – a cozy mystery and a Christian fiction book by Bodie Thoene.

After we picked up Zooma we headed to the playground, which was packed since it was the first nice day our area has had in weeks. That may be where Little Miss picked up this little virus she’s got going on now.

Zooma and I wandered in the parking lot while The Boy and Little Miss played on the playground equipment.

Thursday it was raining so we didn’t do anything, and we were grounded again yesterday because of Little Miss’s sore throat.

I felt like I was washing dishes and cooking meals all the time this week, which left little time to write blog posts or read or even work on my latest book. I hope I will have more time for all those things next week, since, so far, we don’t have any big plans.

It looks like our plan to see Jesus Revolution tomorrow might be canceled because my parents were going to watch Little Miss for us since The Boy is staying at a friend’s house.  I don’t want to expose my parents to something that might be mild for Little Miss and major for them.

For now we will plan to stay home and watch movies like we did today. Little Miss said the movies we watched were too dramatic and after I cried through Brave she said, “well, I’m proud of you. You’ve had an emotional breakthrough.”

Hopefully we will all be well by Friday because I am looking forward to going to a book sale at a library near us.

Because I need more books I’ll never read. Ha!

So how was your week last week? Any big plans for this week? And what are you drinking while you was this? I have a list of teas I want to try thanks to all of you now.