Saturday Afternoon Tea

Saturday Evening Chat: Bad weather, Christmas “recovery” and a recovering kitten

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 13 Comments

Sleet was slamming against our windows and had been doing so for close to 90 minutes when I started writing this Friday night. It continued for another couple of hours until our driveway and streets were a thick layer of ice.

The first alert about a winter storm said we might receive up to eight inches of snow but then we were told we would get more ice than snow. It appears the report about the ice was right.

This unexpected storm scuttled our plans to go see a big Christmas light display Friday, so we stayed inside with the tree still lit, the fire burning in our woodstove, and an old movie on TV. Actually, we watched three old movies Friday — The Thin Man, Meet Me In St. Louis, and – uh-oh, a mystery one from the 1930s with William Powell that I don’t want to look the name up of now. I’ll do that for tomorrow’s Sunday Bookends post.

Today we are inside again as the leftover from the storm has made travel a little dicey or at least unpredictable. Little Miss has a friend over and they were looking forward to the light display but we feel safer hanging out at home. Luckily we still have a few more days to see  the display.

We might say we are recovering from Christmas, but we really aren’t. Christmas wasn’t too big of a challenge since the kids, husband, and I simply headed over to my parents for pizza and wings on Christmas Eve and Christmas dinner on Christmas. We provided the pizza and wings and the dinner but none of it was too hard to make.

The Husband has more reason to be tired since he worked part of the week. Luckily, he is now off until January 5.

Earlier in the week, The Husband drove our new cat (Cass) to the vet to be neutered, and we went up in the afternoon to pick Cass up. It’s about a 45-minute drive to the clinic. Our son (The Boy) drove up and then we both became a bit overwhelmed with the Christmas traffic in the town we used to live in – which is much bigger than the town we now live in.

The worst was the Walmart parking lot, where we went to wait for a pickup order that included a new iPad for my dad.

I believe social media can be very evil, but Facebook has given my dad a way to connect with friends and family. His old iPad has been dying for a bit, so it was time for a new one for him.

He didn’t exactly act surprised when he opened it but he did act appreciative.

I’m sure he overheard Mom making the suggestion to me a couple of weeks ago. It’s funny because I had a similar idea about that being his gift this year.

My brother and his wife helped with it as well (a lot actually), it was my mom’s idea, and we drove to pick it up after I ordered it, so it was a joint gift.

Back to the cat — he is recovering well from his surgery, but has been desperate to get back outside. He cried and cried and yowled for the first couple of days, but then he got very quiet and kept lying on the floor looking sad as if he had given up hope of ever being let outside again. I decided to let him outside a bit today to cheer him up, and I think he was very happy at first — until he realized how horribly cold it was. He didn’t last long, but I think it was a relief to him to realize he had the freedom to come in and out again.

Now he’s back inside, curled up and happy to be in the warmth as he continues to heal.

When I let the cats out, I try my best not to worry about them being hit by the cars that sometimes fly by our house to take a shortcut to the local garden store.

Sometimes I would prefer to keep our cats inside all of the time, but they love to explore and hunt and mainly stay close to home. I have a feeling they won’t want to be outside much next week since we will have a stretch of days with temps that won’t even reach above 18!

Totally off the subject, but today I watched White Christmas by myself on my laptop and noticed things I don’t normally notice about the movie. For one, I never noticed how when Bing and Rosemary’s characters meet and start to argue, they keep inching closer to each other instead of farther away. The body language is so subtle yet makes it clear that the two feel a pull toward each other but are both stubborn and want to be right.

I noticed a lot more little details this time around that I don’t normally notice, maybe because I had the laptop so close.

I’ve been doing this a lot lately – watching movies on my laptop with a blanket and my heated rice pack. I pull the blanket up over my head and laptop and have a little heated comfort cocoon. The only days I don’t do it are when we have the fire roaring. Then it is too hot. I find this little cocoon very comforting and a chance to recharge mentally. Maybe I need to buy one of those heated igloos that restaurants use so people can sit outside on the patio in the winter. I could just sit in it while my family does whatever they do around me.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Let me know in the comments how it went or if you received anything special as a gift.

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

On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.

I also post a link-up on Sundays for weekly updates about what you are reading, watching, doing, listening to, etc.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Saturday Afternoon Chat: Cozying down for winter and protecting my peace

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 19 Comments

What I like about winter is that it forces me to slow down and really focus on the things that bring me joy.

“Winter?” you might say. “Isn’t it still fall?”

Technically, yes, but this week in addition to our temps falling, we had snow on the ground, which to me is the sign that winter is really here. Because of our steep driveway that tends to get slippery, I spend a lot of time at home in the winter.

When I am home, I try to keep things as cozy as I can, which means watching movies and reading books I find comforting and that aren’t full of dark subject matter that will remind me of dark moments of my past.  This past week, the little bubble I usually create around me this time of year was punctured against my will, so this week I will be doubling down on creating a cozy atmosphere around me.

This is even more important this week as our family lost a very close friend on Thursday.

I won’t be on social media much, and I will only be reading books and watching movies I feel comfortable with. Today, for example, I am reading a Nancy Drew book for my Nancy Drew in November. Nancy Drew books can sometimes be silly, but that is totally fine with me.

My family has asked me to turn off all news sites (not that I was on them much anyhow), social media, and even refrain from visiting a lot of blogs, so I can get some peace back before the next depressing thing in my life hits.

What depressing thing?

Who even knows?

They just keep coming, so I am actively searching for those little pockets of peace I once wrote about on the blog.

 That means that even if I only have an hour, half an hour or even a few minutes, I work to do something that will bring peace to my soul.

I do allow some cozy mysteries during this time because they’re usually fairly clean and light without super dark subject matters- other than murder. Ahem. However, even if a person dies in a cozy mystery, they don’t show or describe it or linger on suffering and I appreciate that these days.

Some might call me a prude or unrealistic or whatever they want to call me when I choose not to watch films with certain subject matters (cancer deaths, r*pe, suicide, incest, etc.) but quite frankly, I have hit the point in my life where I no longer care what others think.

I face enough sadness and heartbreak in my life, I sure as heck am not going to choose “entertainment” which offers the same.

This will sound selfish but this weekend, members of my family will have to figure out their own ways to get places or do things, or be entertained.

I am making a cup of cocoa, warming up my rice packs, putting on a favorite show and pulling my blanket around me in an attempt to keep my peace tight against me.

I know I can’t keep it all out.

There could be another tragedy, another sad call, another family member who isn’t feeling well or my husband’s former boss trying to get him fired yet again (two months from now,  Imma gonna let  loose on this subject.).

Those will be things I won’t be able to control.

For the things I can control, though?

Oh yeah — I’m going to control the ever-living heck out of those things. Because my soul doesn’t need to have any more sadness dumped on it – at least not by choice. I hope you all have a great weekend, and I’ll see you tomorrow for Sunday Bookends!

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

I also post a link-up on Sundays for weekly updates about what you are reading, watching, doing, listening to, etc.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Saturday Afternoon Chat: What comments on a semi-viral post about Angela Lansbury tell me about today’s society and specifically men

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 8 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, I uploaded a clip of Angela Lansbury becoming emotional when talking about the cancellation of Murder, She Wrote.

The show was canceled in 1996 and this interview was conducted that same year. Maybe six months later.

It was on 60 Minutes and Leslie Stahl was the interviewer.

I showed maybe 30 seconds of that interview on a reel on Instagram and it also posted to Facebook.

Before I knew it I had thousands of views and hundreds of comments on both platforms.

Most of the comments were extremely sweet and reflected on pleasant memories of the show. Men and women remembered watching it with their grandparents, watching it themselves, or just starting to watch the reruns now.

Many expressed sadness that the cancellation hit Angela Lansbury so hard. It was hard for them to see Angela crying.

Murder, She Wrote ran for 12 seasons on Sunday nights CBS before being moved around a few times in its last season.

There are different theories as to why the show was moved, but whatever the theory, it essentially killed viewership, as loyal fans no longer knew where to find the show.

After 12 years, Angela, who was now a producer of the show and the star — playing mystery writer and amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher — had been told her show was over.

No amount of letter writing from fans would help. The production ended and Angela, doing an interview very shortly after the cancellation, was still emotional.

In the 30-second clip I showed, Angela teared up talking about it and had to reach for a cup of tea and then a glass of water to keep her emotions in check.

While most comments were supportive of Angela, there were other callous, unsympathetic, and downright rude comments left, and I couldn’t figure out why. Those who commented actually seemed angry at Angela for crying.

Many of those comments focused on how long the show ran.

Almost all of them had poor punctuation so they read like this: what’s her problem? it ran 12 years come on get over yourself lady

It ran for 12 years lol nothing to be sad about

12 years. Over 200 shows. Get a grip woman, you had a good run

And this one was the worst I got out of more than 20 comments like the ones above: She was an aging hag. And all her alcoholic actress friends were on the show looking rancid.

Another horrible one I deleted very fast called her a classy lady who was “being classless by crying.”

There is one thing every single one of the mean, nasty, and rude comments had in common.

They were almost all written by men or people with profile photos that showed they were men.

These men had a very big problem with a woman showing emotion.

It was so uncomfortable to see chauvinism happening right in front of my eyes.

Something about a woman over a certain age crying just set them off.

There were a few semi-rude comments from women on both platforms, but most of those comments were more encouraging like they felt bad she was sad, but it was a good run.

I was surprised, though, by the men who felt the compulsion to stop their scrolling, pause on this reel, and take the time to comment something ignorant.

Yes, 12 years is a long time for a show to run, and Angela knew it. It was the way the show was cancelled that hit her so hard.

The show had become special to her and beloved by millions. It was a wonderful escape from life on a Sunday night.

I  mentioned these comments and how many of them were men to my friend Erin, and we agreed that they were misogynistic comments, one, and that, two, people can no longer handle emotion because so much of our world is fake, even the emotion.

I shared this with her in an Instagram chat: “What people don’t seem to get is this interview was held shortly after it all happened. Her emotions were raw. She was sad. It is called human emotion. The issue is that we now live in a world where we watch videos all the time where people use fake emotions to manipulate people, so when somebody is faced with real emotions, they don’t understand it, and they recoil from it. They think it’s another manipulation attempt. That’s the real big problem with technology and social media. It has warped our humanity. It has made us question human visceral reactions that are real in a way that we start to hate the people who have legit emotions.”

And hate is an accurate word based on the comments. These people were angry about a woman crying. Not just confused or questioning. Many of the comments, which I couldn’t quote here, were legit full of rage over an older woman with tears in her eyes, experiencing real sadness.

I started deleting the comments, not because I don’t support free speech or do support censorship, but because the comment section was full of people connecting in a positive way through nostalgia about a show that had positive memories for them.

Many commentators remembered watching the show with their grandparents or parents, many of those people now passed on.

Many agreed that 12 years was a good run, but they related to Angela’s sadness at how it all happened, at how moving the show was a horrible way to end the show and marred its legacy.

Of course, we know now that it didn’t really ruin the legacy of the show, which is still popular in reruns. At that time, though, Angela felt it was a horrible ending for a wonderful time in her life.

I’m going to keep deleting those horrible comments, whether from men or women, not because people aren’t allowed to have an opinion but because these comments were meant to strike at the pleasant memories of others and inject negativity into positivity.

I just don’t have patience for that anymore.

Saturday Afternoon (Evening) Chat: Winter has come early and everything is 45-minutes away

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 13 Comments

*This was supposed to publish this afternoon, but I forgot to hit…yes…publish. Hahaha!

Winter is coming early to Pennsylvania, it seems.

Temps have dropped into the mid-to-high 30’s at night and aren’t reaching much above 55 most days.

We have been inside a lot, bundled up under blankets and sweaters, with The Husband determined not to turn the main heat on until November 1.

I, however, have been turning our electric heat on in the hallway upstairs at night to try to chase away some of the chill. Shhhh.. we will keep that our little secret.

I am a fan of curling up under blankets and tossing a warmed-up rice pack at my feet so I don’t  mind keeping it cozy in the house but having it just a touch warmer on some nights would be nice.

This past week was fairly non-eventful. The Boy visited his grandparents most days, helping them with various household chores and projects.

On Thursday, Little Miss and I visited them and helped around the house.

Yesterday we stayed home and did some school and housework of our own. Tonight, I will be taking the kids downtown for a trunk-or-treat and then trick-or-treating around town if they want to do that.

I don’t usually walk around, but instead sit in the car, sipping hot cocoa and reading a book. I am hoping The Boy will go with us and walk around with his little sister and her friend so I don’t have to. I am not a huge fan of trick-or-treating or walking around a small town in the dark with a knee that sometimes gives out.

I think we will probably have lunch at my parents tomorrow and Monday night The Husband and I have to drive . . . can you guess how long of a drive to pick our car up from the mechanic?

If you guessed 45-minutes, you were right.

I swear everything is 45-minutes away from us now.

This is a mechanic we used when we lived up that way and was able to fix something on our poor, war-torn car that mechanics in our area couldn’t. The Husband hit a deer — again — with this car two weeks ago. We have now hit a deer with it every fall for the last three years. The last time, Little Miss and I were with him. Each time the deer has smashed in the hood and kept going. I’m not sure if they made it any of those times, but they weren’t along the road afterward. Those creatures are a lot more solid than they look out in our yard or fields. They are all muscle and that makes even more of an impact when you are going along at 40 miles per hour, which is about how fast he was going the last two times. Not sure about that first time.

On Tuesday, The Husband and I might go to a theater to see Pyscho on the big screen. Guess again how far away the theater is….

This past week I received some used books in the mail from Thriftbooks which I will talk about more tomorrow in my Sunday Bookends post, but I also received some book and reading related stickers.

I am such a nerd — I couldn’t wait to open them up and look through them and then decide where to put them. I placed them in my reading journal which is much messier than I intended for it to be. I always think I’m going to  keep my journals neat but instead they become a bit of a free for all of all my notes about books and movies and blog post ideas.

I was also excited to receive some magnetic bookmarks earlier in the week.

Yes, my life is very, very exciting. You should be jealous.

This upcoming week promises to be just as “exciting”

The Husband ordered a special book for me that came today too. I was so excited to see a hardcover copy of My Beloved by Jan Karon. It will probably be the last Mitford book so I am excited to have it in my hands. I don’t even care if it is awful, though I doubt it will be. To read more of Tim and Cynthia’s story is just so exciting for me. And an update on Dooley and Lace too? Squeal! I can’t wait.

So how was your week last week? Do anything exciting? Let me know in the comments!

Saturday Afternoon Chat: Teaching my kids about Whitney Houston and a shared moment with strangers

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 18 Comments

Good afternoon! Care for a cup of tea?

Which one would you like to try?

Simply Cinnamon Apple?

Salted Caramel?

Peppermint Bark?

Pumpkin Spice?

I personally liked the peppermint bark, but not as much as plain peppermint.

The last couple of days we have been celebrating Little Miss as she turned 11 on Thursday. We didn’t mean to celebrate her for four days but that’s how it worked out because activities we wanted to do with her were spread out a bit.

On Thursday she wanted to have pancakes at a diner downtown so her brother and I took her down. She had chocolate chip pancakes and a fresh fruit cup. The owner sang happy birthday to her.

The diner was decorated very nicely for fall. This diner always does a very nice job at decorating, from what I understand, but I have only visited there twice. My dad and son have visited there more.

After breakfast, we hung out at home for a bit and then Little Miss and I headed to my parents’ for some pizza and to celebrate her birthday with them.

We played a board game called Aggravation and Little Miss won (with a little help from Grandma and me this time, but usually she wins outright on her own). What was funny was my dad was going to play but sat down in his room for a few minutes and drifted off to sleep. I decided I would play for him and for myself until he woke up, but in the end, he didn’t wake up until the game was almost over.

Dad usually wins at this game, and he almost won this time, even though he was asleep. He was three spots from winning when my mom sent him home again because she didn’t have any other moves she could make.

After we played board games, Little Miss had an animal club meeting on Zoom and then she went home and rode bikes with her brother and then …. Yes, there is more… they watched two Disney movies. She really wrung every last minute out of her birthday and crashed pretty hard that night.

The Husband had to work on her birthday but yesterday he took the day off and we all went out to dinner at a nice restaurant and then they all went in Walmart to pick out a new dog bed and a gifts for the dog because that is what Little Miss wanted to do for her birthday. She also picked out a gift for her friend who is coming for a sleepover today because that little girl’s birthday was this past Monday.

I stayed in the car due to a sore leg and read my book. It was very cozy.

Tomorrow we are headed to a reptile zoo called Reptileland because Little Miss loves reptiles.

We are already fairly tired from celebrating already. By tomorrow night The Husband and I will be virtually comatose. We will be this way because we are, as Little Miss has reminded us a few times this week — old.

She’s been watching YouTube Shorts making fun of life in the 1990s and early 2000s and asking us if that is what it was really like “back then.”

It is hard to accept those years are so long ago, so I just pretend they aren’t and ignore her. Ha!

To show how old I am and how I have failed at educating my children about the 1990s — I learned yesterday that neither of them knew who Whitney Houston was. They sort of rolled their eyes when I mentioned her. There was some meme that mentioned her and my almost 19-year-old son said, “I don’t even know who that is.”

I was horrified and pulled up YouTube to educate them. They did recognize “I Want to Dance With Somebody” and “I Will Always Love You,” but I also made them watch her doing the Star Spangled Banner and The Boy was blown away.

“Okay, yeah, she was amazing,” he told me.

I went to tell him how she threw her life away and it was so heartbreaking to me and started to cry. She shouldn’t have died so young. No matter her talent and her beauty, she never seemed to feel worthy enough to enjoy her life of happiness and health and that always broke my heart. Now all we have left of her is her music and memories and we should have had her for so much longer.

Thank God we still have her friend and my favorite female singer CeCe Winans.

I am going to have to show them videos of CeCe this week too.

Earlier in the week I saw a beautiful sunset and even though I’m having an issue with my sciatica and leg, I made it outside to take a photo. While I was there, two guys (probably about my age) riding bikes came by our house. We do have some bike or foot traffic on our street but it is a back street so we don’t as often as some streets.

I was startled a little by them but had to laugh when the one guy looked at the sunset, pumped his fist and yelled out “’Merica!”

The other guy, with a shirt or something wrapped around the top of his head, looked up at me smiling and said, “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

I said it was, and they kept going while smiling and left me smiling.

Later, Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) told me she thought it was cool that we’d had that shared moment together. I hadn’t thought of it that way, and her comment made me think.

After weeks of anger, hatred, and just all out sadness in the world, it was nice to have that shared moment of joy while admiring a gorgeous sunset.

The photos do not do it justice.

How about you?

How was your week last week? Anything exciting coming up for this week?

Saturday Afternoon Chat: Birthday celebration, Supernatural, and changing leaves!

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 10 Comments

Good afternoon! How are you all doing?



Glad you stopped by for a chat and thanks to my sister-in-law’s gift of some new teas, I can offer you some different varieties.

She even brought them in a very cute little basket that Little Miss had fun rearranging yesterday. She plopped my jar of honey right in the middle of the teas.

I have never tried the cold tea brews before so I am excited to do that later this week.

The Boy has already tried the pumpkin spice one and has loved it.

Yesterday was my birthday and The Husband took me to a very fancy restaurant in our area that he’s been saying he wanted to take me to for a long time.

Every time we would drive by it on our way to cities southeast of us, he would say, “I’m going to take you there for our anniversary one day.”

Well, he didn’t for our anniversary, which was totally fine with me, but he did for my birthday, and it absolutely lived up to the hype.

We sat out on the patio overlooking a creek and a tiki torch, as well as the walking trails. The weather was absolutely perfect, even if the trees had not changed as fast as the ones near us are changing.

The food was much fancier than what we would normally eat and absolutely incredible. I’ve never tasted steak like that. It was like butter in my mouth it was so tender. I mean, it tasted like steak not butter, but I think you get what I mean.

I gave my daughter a sample when I got home and she said she had no idea what I meant by the butter comment and sort of looked annoyed at me, but for me it was amazing.

The Husband had chicken marsala.

We both had potatoes with a fancy name, which the waitress explained was simply mashed red potatoes with the skin on. Ha! Fancy name or not, the potatoes were insanely good.

It was very relaxing to sit there and look out over the small creek that runs on the property. They have a botanical garden somewhere but we didn’t find it. They also have a garden on the property where they grow food for the restaurant. So, it is essentially farm to table.

The restaurant is also an inn and it’s a gem in the middle of nowhere really. It’s not in a bigger city near us — it’s a little bit away from a small “city” near us but there really isn’t anything else around it.  I will say I felt a little out of place there, since I would say most of the clientele is in a different financial bracket than my me and my husband. I ignored those feelings, though, and made up stories in my head about the people around us as I waited for our food.

I decided the man sitting behind my husband, who did look a bit tired and unshaven, though well dressed, was a businessman who hadn’t yet told his wife that things were falling apart. He was also a closet gambler and alcoholic.

The young waiter who looked about 16 but was probably older, was a rich kid made to work there after his family kicked him out because he was an entitled brat who felt he didn’t have to do anything to contribute to his family, alone society. (Of course I didn’t really think this about the kid, despite the weird side eye he gave me on the way by — these are just stories I made up!)

Then there was the group of friends all in their 50s or 60s who were sitting in chairs along the creek, sipping their various alcoholic drinks.

I definitely knew they could be the basis of a murder mystery and tried to choose which one might get knocked off first. I chose the one man in white shorts and blue polo holding his cocktail, looking annoyed as everyone else pulled chairs up to sit next to him. I also imagined he used the word “insufferable” a lot in every day conversation, especially when referring to some of the women around him.

Most of the men and women in the group were wearing blue tops and white pants. I don’t know if that is a rich person thing or just a style choice. Either way, they all looked lovely and like they were having a good, yet slightly annoying time. By “slightly annoying” I mean none of them were really smiling much. They seemed somewhat annoyed at each other. Gosh, looking back, maybe they had come from a funeral or something. Like the funeral of their murdered friend….

Okay, yes, I need to stop reading and watching so many murder mysteries.

The man behind us was in the middle of an interview for a job at State Farm with a guy who made a lot of dad jokes, so I don’t think he needed a made up story. He just needed an escape. I didn’t hear the first comment, but I did hear when the older man said, “Because we’re always there. Get it? Like State Farm is there…”

There was some nervous laughter that trickled around the table and then the sales pitch to join the team started after that.

After dinner, we headed to where all birthday girls around here go — Walmart. Ha! Actually, The Husband ran in to grab some bottled water my parents. We made a quick stop after that and picked up a treat for the kids.

At home I watched a couple episodes of Supernatural with The Boy, but don’t know if I will do that again. I enjoyed them to a point, but they were also quite disturbing in parts.

It was hard to see Jared Padalecki as anyone but Dean on Gilmore Girls and it was confusing that his name was Sam in this show, but his brother was Dean. I kept getting confused.

Speaking of The Boy — he got his driver’s permit yesterday and we were so happy for him. He was a little nervous about the test but it turned out to be much easier than he thought. Though he has waited a bit to get his permit, he has been driving grandpa’s tractors and truck around his property for a couple of years now, so he knows what he is doing.

Right after he passed the test my dad actually took him driving around some backroads for a couple of hours.

We are definitely having fall weather and fall vibes in our  neck of the woods right now. The trees are changing fast and falling down on the ground. It seems like we got our color much quicker than I thought we would and I am trying to enjoy it as much as I can before our trees are bare.

When even more of the trees have changed we plan to go leaf peeping and admire the views.

I hope to post some photos for all of you of the leaves on here but I am having an issue with WordPress,, who says my storage is almost full and they want me to pay even more than what I do so I can add more storage.

I’m rejected the idea of paying more by backing up some old posts, deleting them from this blog, and moving them to a backup blog. These are posts from seven or eight years ago, not recent ones.

I’ve also been combining photos on collages I’ve made in Canva to help cut down on how much storage space I am using.

Another blogger friend of mine, Mama’s Empty Nest, has been struggling with this for months now. She’s also been struggling with a lot more as her husband had to undergo an emergency surgery and her daughter was admitted to the hospital after going into labor way too early. I don’t know if she has mentioned this on her blog yet, but the baby did not make it and I just ask that you pray for that family right now. This would have been her daughter’s second child, as she has an older daughter. The little girl is around the same age as Little Miss and was really looking forward to a sibling. Just please pray for their healing and comfort at this time.

Luckily, Mr. Empty Nest is doing fairly well after his surgery, but I just can’t imagine how hard it was for him and his wife with him recovering and their daughter suffering as she lost her little one in the hospital.

I would say that I am ending my post with some sadness, but there is also joy in the story. This little one has gone back to Jesus where her family will meet her again one day and her grandpa is getting healthier by the day and will be able to spend more time with her older sister. There is some joy in the midst of heartache, thankfully.

This upcoming week isn’t yet a busy one for us, but we will see how that goes.

Do you have anything interesting planned for next week?

Did you do anything interesting last week?

Let me know in the comments. I’d love to know.

Saturday Afternoon Chat: An escape from it all if you will….Do you remember The Monkees?

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 14 Comments

This past week was super rough emotionally-wise for a lot of people for many reasons.

I almost didn’t write anything today because when I started to write, I felt a lot of anger and absolute rage at the callousness of people when it comes to the death of others.

I wrote an entire post full of anger and ranting. Then I deleted it all because I remembered a verse my mom has recited to me time and time again when I am angry or down about events in the world.

Paul, writing to the church of Phillipi said, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.”

Whew. Yeah. I needed that reminder this week.

I have not been focusing on things that are just or pure or lovely at all this week.

I am going to try to change that this weekend and next week, though.

I almost wrote an entire post about the many sad events of last week, but I think today I’ll leave this space as somewhere that we can connect on the lighter, happier things. Bettie Gilbert from BettieG’s RA Seasons helped change my mind when she wrote on the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot post yesterday: “Thank you for this resting space to connect, Lisa. It really has been such an intense week full of so many prayers.”

Don’t we all need a bit of a resting space right now? Or an escape if you will?

So, just as I was sinking more into depression yesterday, I saw a post about how The Monkees aired for the first time yesterday (September 12) in 1966 and thought, “I’m going to share that on my blog instead.”

Now, I am not old enough to remember this but I did watch reruns of The Monkees on Nikelodeon on my friends’ TV in the 1980s.

I was obsessed with the show and absolutely over the moon when my brother (I believe it was him) found one of their records. Like a real record. For a record player.

I played that thing all the time.

I was probably about 8 or 9 at the time and even though my brother tried to explain they were old now, I just ignored him and skipped around the house singing their songs.

I had the biggest crush on Davy — or the young Davy. Of course, by the time I was watching him, the dude was like in his 40s or 50s. I must say that when I got much older, I realized he had aged very well.

The show was ridiculous but actually quite funny. Last night I watched one of the episodes which I found on YouTube, and it really did hold up well!

I am considering writing a full blog post on the band after I do some more research, but I can say already that I know that the band was formed for the show and their popularity and touring continued after the show ended. I also know only one band member is still alive — Micky Dolenz.

Many of their songs are still heard on the radio today —  or at least the oldies station with the most popular probably being “I’m A Believer”, written by Neil Diamond. The song was covered in 2001 by Smash Mouth and featured in the movie Shrek.

Personally, I really liked Daydream Believer and even found myself singing along to it last night. After a week from hell that left me reeling and sleeping very little, it was a healing balm to my soul.

I’ve linked it here for your enjoyment:

I found it interesting that at the end of the one full episode I found, there was an interview with the band about some “demonstrations” going on in L.A. about curfews that had been put in place for teenagers, or those under the age of 21 at least. I clipped that for you and thought I’d share it here too.

Bettie told me that when she likes to read and watch garden journals when her heart is overwhelmed.

She also wrote, “God’s nature soothes my soul.”

For Bettie and all of us, I thought I’d share the photos I took on a drive to take my husband’s truck to a mechanic in the middle of nowhere. They aren’t the best quality but I was struck with the insane beauty of the area.

 And Paul said to mediate on what is lovely, so I did that.



I hope you can focus on lovely, just, and noble things this week as you work on healing from whatever might have been hard for you this past week.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Saturday Afternoon Chat: I don’t like change and changes are coming

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 18 Comments

This summer has brought a lot of changes, and I am not a person who adjusts well to changes.

Some of these changes I can’t write about because they aren’t my changes to talk about. One of them I can’t talk about because it hasn’t been made public in our area yet.

I can say that the changes and adjustments have involved employment situations, my aging parents’ health, and my own health.

Some of them are serious and scary, but I’m hopeful that my own health issues are something I can deal with by making even more adjustments to my diet and supplements.

One thing I do know with my health so far is that I do have some autoimmune issues going on. Doctors just aren’t sure which issues yet.

As for my parents, they are getting older and struggling with some issues, including whether they want to stay in their house or not. Their health and age is a big part of that decision. 

As Summer draws to an end, though, I am looking forward to some cozy days this fall. I enjoy the weather when it is cooler. I function better physically and mentally on cooler days. I don’t function great on super cold days unless I am inside under a blanket with my warm rice packs.

I’m actually looking forward to those days. I get more writing done for my books in the fall and winter, which is probably why book four of the Gladwynn Grant Mysteries is going so slow.

In the Summer I feel like I have to be busy and do things because “it’s nice out”. This Summer whatever autoimmune condition I had got worse, though, so I couldn’t do that as much as I wanted. The symptoms that go so bad were mainly the exhaustion and achy legs, the dizziness and the anxiety. I learned I have to put more salt on things, drink electrolyte drinks, and simply eat more regular meals. I have this tendency to eat a protein but not add carbs or veggies to it. By the afternoon I feel like a wet noodle.

In the last couple of weeks I’ve cut out gluten, reduced sugar, and added more vegetables, though I’m still not at the level of veggies I should be at.

I’m reaching for grapes or apples instead of chocolate, but still have a square or two of the Aldi brand chocolate, which tastes so much better to me than most of our American brands. I’m taking four supplements — Iron (with B12, b6, and vitamin c), garlic, probiotics, and an elderberry gummy with elderberry, vitamin D, and vitamin C.

I’m noticing small changes. I still don’t have a ton of energy, but I do have a little bit more. My weak legs aren’t quite as weak on some days. My achy legs are a bit less achy. The anxiety was still there and intense at the beginning of this week but by mid-week it had actually faded some and on Thursday when I had a doctor appointment to discuss all his it had actually gone away. Praise the Lord!

Even without knowing what autoimmune issue I have (pretty sure it is thyroid related since I already have hypothyroidism), the diet change is helping immensely.

Shifting gears a little….

Have you ever watched those reunion videos with mothers hugging their sons or grandparents with their grandchildren after not seeing them for a long time? It’s always a surprise and everyone is crying and then I’m crying.

Sometimes I’m crying because it is so sweet and sometimes I am crying because I think about how wonderful it would be to hug my grandmothers or aunts again.

I think about how wonderful that feeling must be for those people and how wonderful it would be to feel the same. I know why the relatives of the soldiers who return are crying so hard. They thought that soldier might not return alive. They don’t say it out loud, but it is tucked there in the back of their mind and then when they are finally holding them in their arms it all breaks loose. They aren’t injured. They aren’t dead. They are here in their arms and all those worries and fears just rush out in that moment.

Shifting gears again…

Did I mention that the weather is cold right now?

Like, for instance, while I am working on this post at 11:30 in the morning it is 61 degrees out! In August!

I know that summer weather isn’t done with us yet, though. Pennsylvania has been known to drop temps in the 80s on us right up until October and sometimes into October so we are going to enjoy these nice cooler temps but not plan on them staying.

I can tell you, though, I am already gearing up for hot cocoa, apple cider, leaves crunching under my feet after they’ve fallen off the trees. The leaves are actually already falling but they are just brown and dead, which makes me nervous that we won’t have pretty fall foliage. We will just have to wait and see but even without it we can have all the fall feelings.

I’m definitely an autumn person. I love the chill in the air, the smell of the leaves, hayrides (or watching others go on them at least), reading books under a blanket on the front porch while colorful leaves fall around me.

I’m not a fan of pumpkin spice anything or Halloween, however. I don’t hate either but they aren’t what I look forward to most. However, I might actually try something with pumpkin spice this year just for fun.

This next week Little Miss and I will be doing school every day after Monday, so while we were easing into it before we are fully immersing ourselves this week.

We are studying Paleontology for science for the first half of the year. In English, we are reading The Good Master and will be tackling parts of speech and sentence diagramming.

In History, we are reading about the early days of our country, but later will begin moving into some more modern history through historical fiction. I’m not sure which book we are reading first but there is a list of them that I am looking forward to.

Math is being studied through CTC Math, an online program out of Australia, for now. Art is going to be fun this year since I purchased Little Miss a huge art set with all types of paint and canvases. I hope we will be able to take a few online classes.

It looks like we might not be joining a co-op this year since the co-op that was local might have dissolved, but I am still looking into that and 4-H classes.

How have you been doing? Have you done anything exciting to finish out your summer if you are in the northern hemisphere? If you are in the southern hemisphere, are you planning anything exciting for your spring?

Let me know in the comments. I love catching up with you all.

Saturday Afternoon Chat: I finally saw a black bear — right on my back porch!

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 29 Comments

This past week was interesting if only for one thing that happened to me — something I knew would happen one day, but luckily it wasn’t as dramatic as I worried it would be.

I don’t have any photos, but it finally happened — I went out to my back door to get my cats in, and there was a black bear on the back porch. A black bear. Yes.  Maybe three feet away from me but luckily there was a glass door between us.
 
I thought I was seeing a reflection on my door or just a shadow, and then the shadow moved! It hopped off the porch and took off across the yard while my cat watched from the other side of the yard, apparently amused by how I gasped, slammed the door shut and locked it (because the bear was clearly going to open it again) and then tried to get Little Miss to come see it by gasping. “Bear. Bear. Little Miss. See. Come.”

It was gone before she got there, sadly.

The Husband and The Boy were both upstairs so I couldn’t call for them.

(I want to say that the bear was as big as the one on the left, but it was actually probably more like the one on the right.)

We are now investing in a ring camera so I can get a better look before any of us step out there from now on.

I did a search on Facebook in a group that focuses on bear sightings in our area to see if anyone had seen our bear and learned that bear sightings are up. One reason they are up is because the state game commission has changed the weigh-in locations for bears when they are hunted. This means hunters aren’t as interested in hunting bears. They have to drive them too far to weigh them. Since the bears aren’t being as hunted as much, there is more of them. More of them means more of them are wandering into backyards and small towns.

Hopefully, we can keep ourselves and the bears safe. In most cases bears leave as soon as they see a person and we’re lucky that black bears aren’t like their grizzly bear cousins who sometimes do attack people (but probably rarely).

This week we lost three celebrities. I’m not a huge celebrity follower but these three were connected to my childhood. When the second one passed away I told my son there would be a third and on Thursday there was.

First,  we lost Malcom-Jamal Warner who used to be on The Cosby Show. He sadly died in a drowning while on vacation and his 8-year-old daughter witnessed it. That made me flat out cry. That poor child. I can’t imagine the trauma she experienced and will experience from here on out. My heart goes out to her and his family.

Credit PEOPLE Magazine.

I have positive memories of Malcom on The Cosby Show. I know a lot of people today want to forget anything that Bill Cosby was involved with because of what he was convicted of but I can’t toss the baby out with the bathwater on that one. That show was part of my formative years and helped shape a view of black people for me that fought against the ideas that many TV shows and books focused on at the time that said that black people were only “former slaves” and “lived in poor neighborhoods” or were “members of gangs.”


The Cosby Show starred (clockwise from top left) Tempestt Bledsoe as Vanessa Huxtable, Malcolm-Jamal Warner as Theodore “Theo” Huxtable, Lisa Bonet as Denise Huxtable, Phylicia Rashad as Clair Huxtable, Keshia Knight Pulliam as Rudy Huxtable, and Bill Cosby as Dr. Heathcliff “Cliff” Huxtable. (Credit AP)

 I didn’t even know about these stereotypes until I was much older because my parents never spoke about other races based on stereotypes, and because I watched shows like The Cosby Show. Bill was a doctor and Claire was a lawyer and they lived in a very nice house in the city and their kids were smart, pretty, and fun. That’s all I know about black families before my teen years, when others I met tried to suggest black people were inferior. I knew they weren’t because my parents taught me they weren’t and because I’d seen shows like The Cosby Show. They weren’t any different than me other than the color of their skin and the fact the Huxtables were rich and I wasn’t. I sometimes got a bit jealous of all they had but one thing I had that they had was a loving family.

I absolutely loved that about the show. There was so much love in that family. Unconditional love too.

I know Malcom was an actor but to me, he was part of my family, in some ways, back in the 1980s. It was so hard to hear of his passing, even though I hadn’t kept up with him a lot over the years. He seemed so sweet and nice when I saw interviews with him. It must have been so hard for him and the other actors to lose parts of their past because of what Bill Cosby did. The show was taken off the air and it was as if it was blacklisted in a way because of one man’s actions. Plus, finding out much of your childhood was a lie because the man you worked with was living a double life has to be very traumatic too.

In 2023, he told People magazine, “”Regardless of how some people may feel about the show now, I’m still proud of the legacy and having been a part of such an iconic show that had such a profound impact on — first and foremost, Black culture — but also American culture.”

The second celebrity death was Ozzy Osbourne. I’ve never been a huge Black Sabbath or Ozzy fan, persay, but I did watch The Osbournes off and on when I was younger. Despite all his drug issues and his effort to be “the prince of darkness”, Ozzy was a softy. He cared about people. He loved his family. My heart breaks that he was never able to come to know God and his love for him, as far as I know. There was a lot of trusting in self for him and his family, and that has to be a very hard way to live life. Only God knows his heart, though.

I won’t lie that I cried some looking back on videos of him and his family. I wish they all could have had more time with him.

Thursday afternoon my husband texted me to let me know that the wrestler Hulk Hogan had died. My husband has a lot more of a connection to Hulk Hogan than I do. He grew up watching him when he was a kid. I grew up seeing his toys and gear and even a match or two, but I really didn’t know much about him. I was playing with Barbie and My Little Ponies.

My husband sent me a few matches from his past to watch on YouTube last night to honor him, so I will be doing that today.

He seems like a complex person with faults, but one who a lot of people also cared about despite those faults.

The rest of my week was fairly mundane. Today I am supposed to go to my parents to take Little Miss swimming, and tomorrow we are going clothes shopping for the kids. They truly need new clothes, especially Little Miss who is growing so fast.

Next week we will be starting school a little more, easing into it, but otherwise it is another fairly mundane week planned.

How was your week last week?

This week’s encouraging verse:

“May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble; May the name of the God of Jacob defend you; May He send you help from the sanctuary, And strengthen you out of Zion; May He remember all your offerings, And accept your burnt sacrifice. May He grant you according to your heart’s desire, And fulfill all your purpose. We will rejoice in your salvation, And in the name of our God we will set up our banners! May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.”

Psalm 20: 1-5