Sunday Bookends/Chat: Losing a tree friend, giving Dorothy Sayers another try, and getting ready for Springtime in Paris

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 19 Comments

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

Yesterday I wrote on the blog about our “exciting week” which involved the huge maple in front of our house being cut down.

It was quite the event for us boring folk who never do anything exciting. First, the tree was over 100 years old and it was hard (but necessary) to see it go. Second, watching it be cut down was fascinating. I have seen a tree be taken down but not one this large.

Watching the man tie ropes onto the larger branches and trunk to make sure it fell gently to the ground was mesmerizing. I accomplished very little that day.

You can read more about my thoughts on the tree in my post from yesterday, but I will say that I am adjusting to the tree’s absence better than I thought I would. It was nice to sit out on the front steps tonight (I’m writing this part Saturday night) and watch Little Miss and Zooma the Wonder Dog jump up on the stump and look out from it and the cats jump up there as well. It was also nice to look up and see the stars of the sky instead of just tree branches. The street seems so much wider and more open now. It’s an odd change, but it’s not as rough as I thought it would be.

Saturday’s weather was amazing. Seventy degrees, mainly clear skies. Little Miss and I went to the playground and then played outside our house as well. Temps will be warm again today and tomorrow and then storms are set to come in Monday and the temperatures will drop again for a while.

This will be the norm in Pennsylvania for a while – warm weather, then cold, then warm, rain, then sun, then snow, then rain, then finally it will be actually spring. You know, right when summer is set to arrive.

My sinuses are seriously suffering from the up and down and will probably continue to suffer for the next month. Such is life in Pennsylvania.

I also wanted to mention really quick that we did receive an apology from the local library over the incident that has left my daughter and I uncomfortable with going there again. We did not receive an apology from the staff member but we did receive one from the library director. At this time we have found a couple of other libraries to visit for our book-lending needs but the apology was appreciated and we will find other ways to support the local library.

I am reading the same books this week but making progress.

I’ll probably finish Whose Body? by Dorothy Sayers this week. Thank you to Cat from Cat’s Wire for recommending this author.

I’ve mentioned before I sometimes read a few books at a time — sort of anyhow.

I will read whichever book I am in the mood for each day but as soon as one captures my attention more than another I will continue reading that book instead. This week my attention has been captured by “Whose Body?” and The Two Towers, book two of The Lord of the Rings trilogy the most.

In between I have been reading The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke and A Boy and His Horse by C.S. Lewis.

I’ll probably focus more on The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder once I finish the Dorothy Sayers book because I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read of it so far.

Little Miss has been listening to The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis at night before bed.

During the day we are reading The Littlest Voyageur by Margi Preuss.

This week I’ve been binge watching a British show called Great Canal Journeys, which follows an elderly couple as they travel on the canal systems of England.

The Husband and I also watched The Barkleys of Broadway with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, which I enjoyed more than I thought I would when it first started. It was a lot of fun seeing Ginger’s dresses in color.

Later this week I will be rewatching Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris for the first movie for the Springtime in Paris movie event that Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are doing through April and the beginning of May.

I wanted to leave a note for anyone who is participating in the event on where you can find the movies streaming:

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris: Amazon, Fandango, GooglePlay, Apple TV (this one was also on Peacock when I originally chose it.)

How to Steal A Million: Amazon, YouTube, GooglePlay, Fandango and Apple.

Paris Blues: YouTube for free (just search for it), Tubi, Amazon, Google Play, PlutoTV, Fandango at Home, YouTubeTV

Hugo: Amazon, Fandango at Home, Pluto TV, AppleTV

The Intouchables (warning this is an R movie and no, I don’t know why, but I’m guessing some language): DisneyPlus, Amazon, Fandango, Plex, YouTubeTV, Google Play, AppleTV, and Hulu

Charade (pretty much everywhere): Crackle, Tubi, Plex, Amazon, AppleTV, GooglePlay, YouTube, YouTubeTV, The Roku Channel, Fubo.

This week on the blog I shared:

Now It’s Your Turn

What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

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

Saturday Afternoon Chat: It was more than just a tree

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 23 Comments

This week the absolutely mammoth maple tree in front of our house was cut down and it knocked me for a bit of an emotional loop.

The tree has not only been here since we moved in, but it’s also been on this street, right in that spot for over 100 years.

Since we’ve moved here, though, my neighbor and I have looked at that tree, especially the top of it, and watched the branches blow in the wind and wondered what would happen if the top of it snapped off.

For the most part I was comfortable in knowing I wouldn’t have to make a decision on the tree because we didn’t have the money to have it cut down. I liked the shade from it in the summer and watching the colors change on it during the autumn.

Sure, I worried some if the winds were high, but it was a sturdy tree. It’d been there for 100 years. The base was actually huge. It wasn’t going anywhere. Not the whole tree anyhow. Ahem. Hopefully. Insert cautiously optimistic worried grimace here.

This winter, though, a couple larger limbs fell off into our yard and I wondered what would happen if an even larger one broke off and hit either our house or the neighbors.

Then we had more than one wind advisory over the winter. I found myself looking up at the top of the tree (as far as I could look anyhow) several times over the last few months, hoping I wouldn’t hear a crack at some point. One day a limb did come down and that’s when the fear started to become more of a reality.

I knew we still didn’t have the money to have it taken down. Two years ago we were quoted a very high amount of money to have it removed. Our neighbors offered to go in halfway with us, but I still didn’t know where we would find the money to do it.

To make a long story short, the neighbors ended up talking to a tree cutting company who offered them a great deal to bring the tree down so they took the deal after they consulted us.

We couldn’t turn the opportunity down.

I no longer had my excuse of not having the money because the neighbors offered to pay for it. I had to face the fact that the tree would really have to come down and though I knew it was necessary, I didn’t want it to happen – well, in some ways. In other ways I did want it to happen.

I am someone who hates change and this would be a very big change. That tree had sheltered us from the sun, winds, snow for the five years we’ve lived here, but it has also sheltered other families for 100 years.

Imagine all it has seen over the years. The invention of cars, or at least better ones, men marching off to war, new houses going up, the street in front of it being paved. A couple of years before we moved here it even survived a tornado that ripped up many trees around it and tore part of the steeple off the church the tree overlooked.

As a Christian I don’t believe trees are alive, but I do believe God created them. As far as I know this tree was planted by either the town or the residents on the street since there was  row of them perfectly aligned up the side of the street. God created trees and from them came saplings to be planted though.

View of the street about 1920.
Not sure the date of this one but you can see the maple trees are bigger here.

This tree brought beauty and personality to the view out our front window these past five years. Shielding us from the sun was one of the most helpful features it offered because our house has stayed very cool even without air conditioning because of the shade of the tree. Installing air conditioners is not easy in this house because we have roll out windows. We  have to use portable air conditioners.

This change is something we will have to simply adapt to this summer. Sitting on the front porch to read a book might not be as nice because the shade of the tree is now gone.

But . . .  again  . . . the tree was extremely tall and if some of the limbs had broken off from higher up it could have taken out a front porch or one of our cars at least, if not more. Someone could have been very hurt or even killed.

As an aside, I don’t remember ever seeing such a tall maple in my life. If some of those higher limbs broke off and came crashing down? Yikes! I hesitate to think of the damage it would have caused.

So, Wednesday night the neighbors let us know that the tree cutting service would be there the next day to take the tree down. It was a very fast turn around from when they suggested the plan to when it was implemented. I barely had time to adjust which might have been good since I probably would have ruminated and stressed over it all for much too long.

The company arrived at 7:30 a.m. and started cutting at 7:40 a.m.

I watched the process for the entire day – fascinated with how it was taken down chunk by chunk. I wasn’t terribly sad when I watched it come down because the process was mesmerizing. The sadness came later in the day and I did let myself cry some — even though my family seemed to think I was being silly.

There was a team of about six people but the owner of the company did all the cutting. He worked almost consistently all day with only a small lunch break. His arms had to be killing him at the end of the day.

We were told at the end of the day the center of the tree where it branched off was rotting and there were ants living inside. There was also water running through the base. It was a necessary removal for sure.

Now our house is much brighter (almost too bright for me) and we have a totally different view of the town. The leaves haven’t come back on our trees yet so it’s a little sad and brown outside our window at the moment but we are seeing some buds pop out on the branches. I’m trying not to remember how the buds were coming out on our maple too and how it would have been blooming soon, it’s canopy spreading over our house, our street, and our parking space across the road.

The view of the tree cutter from his bucket.

(The view of our small town from the bucket)

I try not to think about the animals or birds who might have made the tree their home.

I try not to remember how I could see that tree from the  main highway as we came back from our parents or how I often took it for granted and didn’t take the time to look up at it’s towering branches.

For me the tree was more than a tree. It was a symbol of normalcy, of comfort, of the expected.

I don’t like unexpected things. I don’t like change. I don’t like remembering that much more than losing a tree is changing in our lives these days.

My parents are getting older, my health is sometimes wonky, my son is about to graduate high school, my daughter needs to make new friends and I feel like I need to find them, and the world is absolutely crazy.

With the tree gone I feel like my normal world is no longer normal in some ways. I feel like a piece of me has been taken away, as odd as that sounds.

The day after the tree was removed I looked out in our backyard at another towering maple and whispered to it, “Don’t worry, I won’t let anyone take you.”

And I won’t. I’m going to be very protective of the trees in our backyard now.

Yes, I know the tree had to be taken down before it came down without our permission, and I am so grateful to great neighbors who were so generous to help us all out, but still . . . I miss our tree, I miss my normal routine of looking out at it while I sipped my tea in the morning, and I miss the feeling of normalcy having it there gave me.

I’ll adjust. I’ll be okay. I’ve (almost) already accepted it.

I won’t, however, feel guilty for taking a little bit longer to mourn it.

Join us for our Springtime in Paris movie event!

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 6 Comments

Next week Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I will be watching movies that take place in Paris and you are invited to join us.

We’ve done these movie features before but let me explain how they work.

The dates listed on the graphic are the dates we will share our thoughts on our blogs. Erin and I watch the movie one week and then share our thoughts about the movie on a Thursday on our blog.
Then we offer a link for other bloggers to share their thoughts on the same movie. You do not have to watch the movies at the same time as us or even put your link up for a particular movie on the week we watch it. Just drop a link whenever you watch whichever movie. And you absolutely do not have to watch every movie to participate.

You do not even have to blog about the movie to watch with us.

Here is our schedule:

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (April 3)

How to Steal A Million (April 10)

Paris Blues (April 17)

Hugo (April 24)

The Intouchables (May 1)

Charade Group Zoom on May 4 – this is where you can all join us for a watch party! (writing about it May 8)

I wanted to leave a note for anyone who is participating in the event on where you can find the movies streaming:

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris: Amazon, Fandango, GooglePlay, Apple TV (this one was also on Peacock when I originally chose it.)

How to Steal A Million: Amazon, YouTube, GooglePlay, Fandango and Apple.

Paris Blues: YouTube for free (just search for it), Tubi, Amazon, Google Play, PlutoTV, Fandango at Home, YouTubeTV

Hugo: Amazon, Fandango at Home, Pluto TV, AppleTV

The Intouchables (warning this is an R movie and no, I don’t know why, but I’m guessing some language): DisneyPlus, Amazon, Fandango, Plex, YouTubeTV, Google Play, AppleTV, and Hulu

Charade (pretty much everywhere): Crackle, Tubi, Plex, Amazon, AppleTV, GooglePlay, YouTube, YouTubeTV, The Roku Channel, Fubo.

Erin and I hope you will join us for this fun feature!

I also want to mention that we are hosting Drop in Crafternoons which are crafting sessions Erin had the idea for over the winter. We all meet together on Zoom and chat while we craft or do art of some kind and you can pop in for just a little visit or longer that day during our time. Whatever fits your schedule.

If you are interested in joining our crafternoon sessions, email Erin at crackercrumblife@gmail.com and she will add you to our list to be emailed about dates.

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot! Come link up with us!

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 6 Comments

Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot where we offer a place for bloggers to link up and get a fresh set of eyes on their posts. We also feature one blog a week, letting our readers know about the blog and providing a link so readers can learn more about them.

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

I am going to have to be short and sweet today because I spent all  day watching the tree cutters remove a 200-foot tree from in front of our house today and almost forgot to finish my  post!

Watching the tree be cut down was bittersweet. I loved that old tree, but it was getting a bit old and we didn’t know if it could topple on to our house or our neighbor’s house so the neighbors (who are amazing) paid to have it removed. Watching it be cut down and up was so cool and I’ll be writing about it on my blog for Saturday. They are, in fact, still finishing up as I write this.

Your hosts for the link up:

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

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

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

Sue from Women Living Well After 50 started blogging in 2015 and writes about living an active and healthy lifestyle, fashion, book reviews and her podcast and enjoying life as a woman over 50.  She invites you to join her living life in full bloom.

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

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

This week we are spotlighting: Moo is Van Me

Here are some posts I enjoyed this week (though I really enjoy so many posts from this link up!!)

|| How I Did With My Winter Bucket List by My Slices of Life ||



|| Eye of the Storm Photos of Paul McCartney by Adventures in Weseland ||

|| Exciting Things to Do Before Turning 65 by Deb’s World ||

|| A Drapery Trick: More Stock Up On What I have by Debbie Dabble Blog ||

Thank you so much for joining us for our link-up! Please remember that this is a link-up where you can share posts from the previous week or posts from weeks, months, or years ago. All we ask is that they be “family-friendly.”

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
https://fresh.inlinkz.com/js/widget/load.js?id=c0efdbe6b4add43dd7ef

Discussing The Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries Show episode, The Mystery of the Haunted House.

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 9 Comments

A few months ago, I wrote about the first Nancy Drew-centered episode of the Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries show from the 1970s — The Mystery of Pirate’s Cove.

The show featured 46 episodes from 1977 to 1979 on ABC.

For those who aren’t familiar with the source material for this show, it was based on The Hardy Boys books by Franklin W.  Dixon and the Nancy Drew Mystery series by Carolyn Keene. Both series were ghostwritten by a number of different authors and created by Edward Stratemeyer in the 1930s.

For the first season of the show, the episodes switched back and forth each week with one week featuring The Hardy Boys and the next week featuring Nancy Drew. During the next season they began combining the two so that The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew were in the same episode. This had to do with falling ratings – especially when it came to the Nancy Drew episodes. Somewhere in there the original actress —  Pamela Sue Martin — also left and was replaced by Janet Louise Johnson.

Overall, this series is a bit cheesy and cringy, but I do have to say I don’t think they did too bad for the first episode. I mean – it isn’t award winning and the special effects are bizarre, but it is an interesting plot and the acting isn’t the worst I’ve ever seen.

The show starts with the brothers — Jo and Frank Hardy — in town and spotting their father walking out of a hotel. We aren’t told if the brothers were just driving by or why they are outside the hotel when their dad walks out but through conversation between them, we learn that their dad said he was going fishing. They can’t figure out why he would lie to them.

They plan to ask him but then a car pulls out behind their dad’s car. This makes them realize that their dad is being followed so they rev up their trusty little motorcycles (helmets firmly in place first, of course) and decide they are going to follow whoever is following their dad and find out what is going on.

We are then at a cemetery and the boys’ dad is shining a flashlight on a tombstone with the name Will Bronson engraved on it. Bronson has a death date of the year 1974.

The boys don’t see this part with the tombstone, but we the viewers do. What the boys see is that their dad Fenton Hardy, is being followed.

They go back to their dad’s office the next morning and ask their dad’s secretary what she knows. She says she booked a hotel for their dad for  his fishing trip. They, however, find out their dad checked out that day. The secretary shrugs and assures them their dad will be home later in the day then and he will fill them in.

The problem is that Fenton has been cornered and essentially kidnapped by two men. These same men want to know who hired him on his latest case but won’t tell him who they are. We still don’t know who they are when they break into Fenton’s home late that night looking for his client’s name.

They are also very loud for two men who are trying to secretly break into a home, but let’s not quibble with such minor ridiculousness. It’s just TV and there are many more ridiculous moments to come.

Eventually we learn that Fenton’s client was a government agent suspected of stealing government secrets and selling them to a foreign entity. It’s not as cut and dry as it seems because he may have also suffered some sort of amnesia and he’s wandering around the countryside, trying to get away or hide or something or other.

This mystery will have the boys looking for clues in some pretty strange places, including a “haunted” mansion that isn’t what it seems.

As always when I watch an episode with the actors who play The Hardy Boys — Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy – I am fascinated by their fluffy hair. It’s so luscious and soft looking. Ah, the ‘70s, a time when both men and women had impeccable hair.

Anyhow, I digress… during this episode poor Aunt Gertrude, Fenton’s sister (I believe), is beside herself with worry. No one will tell her what is going on and she must be the go between the boys and their dad as they both chase each other all over the place. She keeps asking all three “boys” to be careful and they just scoff and say things like, “Yeah. Yeah. Okay, Aunt Gert,” like she’s the most annoying thing ever. They might as well say, “Whatever you crazy old bat.”

I just think these “boys” should be grateful they have someone to look after them and who cares enough to be worried.

What was with all these books killing off the mothers and having live in housekeepers or aunts anyhow? Nancy Drew’s mom was also dead, and she and her dad had a live in housekeeper named Hannah. Yes, I know I mentioned this in my last post about the show. Yes, I will probably mention it again because I am becoming an lady who forgets what I already wrote about and tells the same stories over and over again.

Also, Fenton’s secretary is about the boy’s age and seems to be a minor character but at the end of the episode, we get the idea she and Frank are dating when she gives Frank a kiss on the cheek. For whatever that tidbit is worth.

I won’t go into too much detail about the episode’s plot because I know so many of you are just dying to go look this series up and binge watch it, *wink* but I will say that you should brace yourself for the creepy scenes in the haunted house and the scary “monsters.”

Someone put the whole series up for free on YouTube and you can find the playlist here:

In my next post on this topic (not necessarily my next post on the blog), I will be writing about The Mystery of The Diamond Triangle, which was an episode that featured Nancy Drew.

Do you remember this old series or have you heard of it at least? It was not something I ever heard of before last year and now I’m a bit hooked.

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten books I did not finish (DNF’d)

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 22 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

Today’s prompt is: Books I Did Not Finish (DNFed) (feel free to tell us why, but please no spoilers!)

My reasons for not finishing a book are rarely because the book is bad or not worth reading. Most of the time it is completely related to the fact the book and my personality don’t mesh. Also, in some cases I don’t finish a book at one time but go back later and finish it. That’s most likely going to be the case with many of the books here, so if you loved one of these books on my list, know that adding them to a DNF list doesn’t mean I hated them.

  1. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

I tried! I tried! I wanted to read a Dickens. It about killed me. It was so wordy! Worse than I expected. I read part of this book in high school and enjoyed it but for some reason I could just not get into it now that I am an adult. I do want to try again someday, however.

2. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

I don’t know if it is fair to mention this one since it was just a DNF for me and I might go back to it but for now it is a DNF and I’m reading some other books. I wanted to read this with my son for his British Literature class but…it was just so heavy. I couldn’t get into it. I have an audiobook with Dan Stevens and I’m really enjoying his narration so I am going to try to get back into it.

3. Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography by Laurie Woolever

I wanted to like this book. I did. It was just so choppy and dull as watch sap harden in the winter. The stories about Anthony could have been interesting but they were all chopped up and some of them were from people who truly didn’t know him that well. I skipped to the end and read a couple quotes from his daughter but for the most part this was just a chopped-up mess of stories. I didn’t get it at all. I have heard there are other, much better biographies out there so I will try them in the future.


4. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

I did not hate this book. I just couldn’t get into the style of writing, the tiny little chapters, and the bouncing back and forth between character in every other chapter.

5. Little Men by Louisa May Alcott

I will go back to this one but it just didn’t pull me in like Little Women did. I am a mood reader so I think I was simply not in the mood for it when I tried to read it.

6. The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency Alexander McCall Smith

I think this one just didn’t catch me at the right time. I could not get into it at all but I am willing to try again sometime in the future.

7. A Fatal Footnote by Margaret Loudon

I didn’t even make it through five pages of this one. The author kept changing the name of her character and repeating the name over and over. She’d write, “Penelope didn’t know why Millie was looking at her that way but Penn was uncomfortable with it.”

What? Why keep changing her name and in the same sentence or paragraph? She seemed allergic to using pronouns instead of the names she kept using too. It would have been one thing if a character said to her, “Hey, Penn!” instead of Penelope but for the author to be changing it in the prose….it was weird.

8. Anne’s House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery

This was just not my favorite book of Montgomery’s. It was so sad and depressing to me. I might go back someday and finish it but it was a slog for me. I skipped ahead to the end but really didn’t go back and read the rest so I consider it a DNF.

9. What’s the Worse That Can Happen by Donald Westlake

My husband is a huge Westlake fan and I read one book by him, Call Me A Cab, and liked it but so far I haven’t really been able to get into the rest of his books. I do plan to try this one again at some point.

10. Death At A Scottish Christmas by Lucy Connelly

    I know we cozy mystery readers have to suspend belief at times but this one…well, it was a bit too much suspending belief. I couldn’t finish this one at all. I don’t plan to try again.

    What books have you not finished? Will you ever go back and try them again?

    Sunday Chat: Last week was a disappointing week in many ways.

    / Lisa R. Howeler / 18 Comments

    It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

    Last week was a disappointing week in many ways.

    I am not going to go into a ton of details on my blog but we had a bad experience with a staff member of our local library and have decided that we can no longer attend the place I fell in love with reading.

    It was heartbreaking and hurtful and a bit shocking, so I spent the second half of the week and this weekend in a deep depression over it all. I’m still very, very down today. It was so surreal and it’s still hard to wrap my mind around how my daughter and I were treated. This is one of those times I did not read into what happened or misunderstood. Not at all.

    My daughter was also very hurt, and it breaks my heart she will not have the same experience I did with this little town library that I did when I was growing up.

    Maybe this week things will be better. We are looking for a new library to patronize and new places to participate in activities.

    It will be colder than last week it looks like, and that isn’t going to be fun but we will take it one day at a time.

    I am so down this weekend I barely had the mental energy to write this post today at first.

    I will say that we had a crafternoon link up on Zoom yesterday and that did lift my spirits. There were three of us and we had fun discussing crafts, books, libraries, and all things in between. Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I hope to hold our crafternoons once or twice a month and will be changing them to “drop-in crafternoons” so even if a person wants to drop in for a half hour to chat and do some crafts they can. Email me at a lisahoweler@gmail.com or Erin at crackercrumblife@gmail.com if you want to get on our list for the Zoom link!

    These chats and opportunities to just relax and craft have been so nice and needed. I know that sometimes I don’t take the time to do things that relax me and take my mind off of the stresses of life. The virtual meetups are a way I “force” myself to slow down and take some time for me. I am so grateful to Erin for having this idea. It’s been such a boost to my mental health.

    Last week I finished The Case of the Clueless Kitten by Erle Stanley Gardner. It is not about kittens (not really) and it is a Perry Mason mystery.

    I really enjoyed it and plan to share a review of it. I love Gardner’s writing.

    This week I am reading:

    Chocolate Chip Cookie Murders by Joanne Fluke (am I the only one who has never heard of putting egg shells in coffee grounds before brewing them!?)

    Whose Body by Dorothy Sayers (not sure why I abandoned this before. I must have been tired and not tracking. I am enjoying it so far.0

    And before bed some nights I am reading All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot. This one seems to be a retelling of some stories mixed in with stories of his time in the RAF.

    My “long” read (or the read I am taking my time on) is The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien and I am really enjoying it.

    Little Miss and I finished Miracle on Maple Hill, which we listened to on Hoopla.

    We will be starting  The Littlest Voyageur by Margi Preus  tomorrow for school and for fun.

    The Husband is reading When One Man Dies by Dave White.   

    The Husband and I are making our way through Castle.

    I started A Touch of Mink. I didn’t finish it yet but not really sure what I think of it…Not my favorite Cary Grant, even though it is somewhat funny.

    I also watched Just A Few Acres Farm on YouTube to try to relax from the stressful week.

    Next week I will be getting ready for Springtime in Paris, the next movie event with Erin.

    We will be watching movies that take place in Paris. Erin and I watch the movie one week and then share our thoughts about the movie on a Thursday on our blog. So the dates listed on the graphic are the dates we will share our thoughts on our blogs.

    Then we offer a link for other bloggers to share their thoughts on the same movie. You do not have to watch the movies at the same time as us or even put your link up for a particular movie on the week we watch it. Just drop a link whenever you watch whichever movie. And you absolutely do not have to watch every movie to participate.

    Here is our schedule:

    Last week on the blog I shared:

    I am listening to the podcast True Drew Podcast about all things Nancy Drew and will be listening to Sabotage at Cedar Creek by Janice Thompson on Hoopla later this week.

    Now it’s Your Turn!

    What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

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

    In addition to my blog, I write fiction, and you can learn more about my books here: https://lisahoweler.com/my-books-2/

    I also have a Substack where I share about my writing journey or books.

    Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot! Come link up with us!

    / Lisa R. Howeler / 4 Comments

    Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot where we offer a place for bloggers to link up and get a fresh set of eyes on their posts. We also feature one blog a week, letting our readers know about the blog and providing a link so readers can learn more about them.

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

    It is the first day of spring! I am so excited for spring! Our week was okay but there were some cruddy days, especially this one, so hoping for a better weekend and week next week. It is going to be colder next week, though.

    Your hosts for the link up:

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

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

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

    Sue from Women Living Well After 50 started blogging in 2015 and writes about living an active and healthy lifestyle, fashion, book reviews and her podcast and enjoying life as a woman over 50.  She invites you to join her living life in full bloom.

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

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

    This week we are spotlighting Krafty Planner!

    Marie says of her blog:

    I’m Maria—a blogger, writer, planning + journaling expert, and creator. With this blog and supporting online courses, I help multi-passionate women, like you, establish systems & routines that will help you achieve your goals and become your best self. 🙂

    P.S. Not that it matters (too much), but I do enjoy designing and creating all of the printables myself. I take pride in designing each piece from scratch, ensuring they’re unique. No templates or PLR here – just genuine creations crafted exclusively for you. 😊
    Thank you for being part of our link up!

    Some posts I highlighted from last week’s links:

    || Silent Movies Thief of Bagdad by Cat’s Wire ||

    || Camo With Teal For Spring by Chez Mireille Fashion Travel Mom ||



    || Cabbage New Potato and Onion Skillet by Scratch Made Food Hungry ||

    || Hello Friday 12 by Elevated Nesting ||

    Thank you so much for joining us for our link-up! Please remember that this is a link-up where you can share posts from the previous week or posts from weeks, months, or years ago. All we ask is that they be “family-friendly.”

    You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

    Click here to enter
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