I don’t participate in book challenges very often but this month I am participating in Middle Grade March.
This is the month when adults read chapter books that were actually written for children. Sometimes, they are so good that we don’t even realize they were written for children.
I read a lot of these books throughout the year because I have a middle-grade child. She and I have already read many of the books other readers have on their lists each year.
This year I decided I wanted to read Miracles on Maple Hill with Little Miss since I read it last March and really enjoyed it. I like that it takes place in Pennsylvania around maple syrup season which is this time of year. I also just like the overall story.
I also decided to read The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis because I haven’t read all of the Chronicles of Narnia since I was about middle-grade age myself.
Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery is one that has been recommended to me a couple of times so I also put that on my list.
I hope to also get to Violet Jenkins Saves The Day by Stacy Faubion and The Moffats by Eleanor Estes. I will at least get to Violet by April since I’ve been meaning to read it for a few months now.
Do you participate in Middle Grade March, or have you?
If you have, what did you read or if you are this month, what are you reading?
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
I finished Grandma Ruth Doesn’t Go To Funerals by Sharon Mondragon last week and really enjoyed it. I could see this one being a movie. I will write a longer review later but I loved the characters and the story overall.
In case you are curious about it, here is a description:
In a small town where gossip flows like sweet tea, bedridden Mary Ruth McCready reigns supreme, doling out wisdom and meddling in everyone’s business with a fervor that would make a matchmaker blush. When her best friend, Charlotte Harrington, has her world rocked by a scandalous revelation from her dying husband P. B., Mary Ruth kicks into high gear, commandeering the help of her favorite granddaughter, Sarah Elizabeth, in tracking down the truth. Finding clues in funeral condolence cards and decades-old gossip dredged up at the Blue Moon Beauty Emporium, the two stir up trouble faster than you can say “pecan pie.”
And just when things are starting to look up, in waltzes Camilla “Millie” Holtgrew, a blast from P. B.’s past, with a grown son and an outrageous claim to Charlotte’s inheritance. But as Grandma Ruth always says when things get tough, “God is too big.” With him, nothing is impossible–even bringing long-held secrets to light. Grandma Ruth and Sarah just might have to ruffle a whole mess of feathers to do it.
Next up I am continuing The Real James Herriot: A Memoir of My Father by Jim Wight. So far it is very dry and dull so I may toss it aside but I’d love to get to the years where he worked as a vet and some of the behind the scenes stories first. We will see how it goes.
I also started The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien, which will be my slow read for the next couple of months. I am loving it so far, even if we lost one of the team on the first page. *sniff*
I started The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis the other night for my Middle Grade March read. I also hope to read Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery for Middle Grade March. Little Miss and I are reading Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorenson for school, which is a re-read for me.
Once those are done, I hope to start Whose Body? By Dorothy L. Sayers. I’ve never read anything by her so we will see how I like her.
The Husband is on his 25th book of the year. Sigh. He reads fast but has also had some extra time to read this year so that’s cool for him. Or whatever. *wink*
He is reading Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned by Walter Mosley.
I have been watching more historical farming shows this past week and not a ton else. I actually read more than watched things.
This upcoming week I hope to watch more Murder She Wrote and a couple of old movies.
I started writing book four of the Gladwynn Grant series this past week.
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.
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.
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 Ramblingsshares 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:
A little about the blog and its author Jill:
Doused in Pink is a fashion-focused lifestyle blog where you’ll find posts about fashion, non-toxic beauty, healthy lifestyle articles, DIYs, and decorating ideas. I want to inspire other women to embrace their personal style, feel confident, and love what they wear. I started Doused in Pink in 2014 as a creative outlet to document my everyday outfits when I needed some inspiring myself.
I’m a budget-savvy shopper and love sharing how to have that put-together look without breaking the bank by building on classic pieces with a few seasonal trends and remixing what you already have in your closet.
Thank you for being part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, Jill!
Now for some highlights from me taken from our links last week:
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-friend
This winter I watched Douglas Fairbanks Jr. movies for fun.
This week for the last movie of the series, I watched The Sun Never Sets (1939) starring Douglas, Basil Rathbone, Barbara O’Neil and Virginia Fields.
It was directed by Rowland Lee.
Before I launch into my feelings about the movie, here is the plot, without spoilers, copied from Google:
Two British brothers (Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Basil Rathbone) squelch a radio-made dictator on the Gold Coast of Africa.
Oh. Well, that wasn’t much of a description.
A little more for you: This movie is about a brother (Douglas) who doesn’t want to go into the miliary like the rest of his family but is shamed into it by his grandfather who says what an honor it is to fight for the empire and by his brother who says there is no greater love than to leave ones family to fight for the empire.
Even his fiancé (Virginia Fields) begins to feel like her future brother and sister-in-law’s love is enviable because their relationship was strengthened during their time together on the Gold Coast.
So poor John Randolph (Douglas) is broken down and signs up for the military to take his brother, Clive Randolph’s (Basil Rathbone) place in Africa, which Clive’s wife hated. Once John agrees to capitulate and follow in the footsteps of all his family members, risking himself for the Empire, Clive is then called up for a secret mission and also has to return to the Golf Coast. He tells his wife she can’t come because she’s pregnant but she loves him and is determined to be with him.
Her pregnancy becomes a source of stress for poor ole Clive who must choose between being there for his wife when she gets sick from walking in the rain (because everyone knows that walking in the rain automatically means you get sick) and capturing a bad guy who wants to (I kid you not) take over the world.
For me this is a British propaganda movie similar to the American propaganda movies that actors like Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart were in around World War II.
My overall view on the movie: It is about restoring ones reputation for the sake of the Empire when you choose to help your family instead of completing your mission for the British Army and furthering their take over of African nations.
The movie does touch on the difficulties of serving one’s country while also being there for their family but by the end we are reminded how important it is for a British man to have a reputation as a fine soldier even more so than having a reputation as a weak man who cares about his pregnant wife.
There is forgiveness between the brothers for the failings of one brother that cost Clive being able to capture a criminal and that was nice. Not sure if the forgiveness had been there if he had failed yet again though.
“Failing the empire twice?! My God, John! Once I can understand but twice! You’ll have to work as a dirty businessman and get rich and stand on the heads of poor people in another way now!”
One review online said this movie was more focused on family relationships than anything else and I suppose that is true. But it was also wrapped up in making sure the men were loyal to the Empire, the King, etc. while also having a family.
I was absolutely baffled by the one part where a brother chooses to bring the other brother back from a mission because his wife is dying and then the first brother is ostracized by the sister-in-law he saves. Apparently, she’d rather be dead than go back to England with a husband shamed for failing his military assignment. Just … what?!
So, this movie really wasn’t my favorite of those I have watched as part of the Fairbanks Jr. marathon, though I didn’t hate it as much as I hated Gunga Din. This movie still made sure to remind us that the British were all-knowing and that the natives of the land wouldn’t have survived without them (har. Har.) but at least refrained from calling them all savages like they did in Gunga Din.
There are a couple of movies of Douglas’s that I wish I had chosen instead of this one but I’ve seen Rathbone in Sherlock Holmes movies so figured it wouldn’t hurt to see him in something else. He is a very good actor so saying I don’t like this movie is not a slight on him or any of the actors. They did a nice job. I just didn’t enjoy the movie overall. It was somewhat like an infomercial for British military recruitment.
The author of Basilrathbone.net enjoyed the movie and was able to overlook the flaws.
“While I can point out several flaws with the film, the fine performances by the cast brought the characters to life, making them very real. I really cared about what happened to the characters and I was so caught up in the drama, that I hardly noticed or cared that the plot was rather contrived. Rathbone and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. have some great scenes together.”
This was essentially a military recruitment film, though, the writer admits.
“Universal had high hopes for this story of the British Colonial Service. In 1939, when this film was made, the British civil services administered to more than 500 million people over territory that covered 13 million square miles all over the world.”
Time Magazine did not like the film at all based on this review:
“Only slightly more agonizing than young Mr. Fairbanks’ throes in putting this subversive two & two together is the sight of middle-aged Mr. Rathbone, as a sort of Imperial Rover Boy, lashing about the jungle in bush jacket and shorts, caught barekneed between Love & Duty.” —Time magazine, June 19, 1939
Ouch.
They weren’t alone in their dislike of the film based on the reviews posted on this article on Basilrathbone.net.
By the way, I enjoyed reading the article about this movie on this site. There is a ton of information about Basil and his other movies there as well so I will be exploring it more.
This ends my Douglas Fairbanks Jr. marathon. If you want to read my impressions of the other movies I watched you can find them here:
Up next in April, Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I will be watching movies set in Paris. We will be announcing our movie list at a later date. Stay tuned!
I decided to join up with Joyce this week for the Hodge Podge, a feature I like to do but haven’t done in a long time.
What do you love most about March?
March has never really stood out to me as a month I like for any reason other than I know it will lead us out of winter and toward Spring. I have to be careful saying that, though, because there have been some months of March over the years where we have gotten nailed by a snowstorm — sometimes at the end of the month even! One year we got a couple of feet of snow on March 30th!
What I do like about March is that usually we start to see flowers like Daffodils blooming and we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with food they don’t actually eat in Ireland, but we like anyhow. Ha!
2. Hey! Did you know March is National Celery Month? Do you like celery? What’s something you make (or like to order out) that calls for celery?
I did not know that March is National Celery Month. I do like celery. I don’t like that it is sometimes stringy and gets stuck in my throat. I love it with peanut butter.
My mom used to make an amazing chicken salad for chicken salad sandwiches and it required celery. I mean REQUIRED. It had to be in there. It just tasted so much better with it. For a long time, we didn’t make this chicken salad because I couldn’t find a mayonnaise I could eat because of my allergy to corn (don’t ask. It’s a long story.) and because my mom simply stopped making it.
I have discovered that I can eat Duke’s Mayonnaise now so I can make chicken salad again! With celery! I should get on that! Also, if you are going to eat chicken salad, I highly recommend eating it on potato bread. So good. We ate chicken salad on potato bread all the way to North Carolina one year while we traveled to my grandparents.
3. _______________ is the soundtrack to my life right now. is the soundtrack to my life right now.
Victorian Farm and all the other historical British farm shows (Edwardian Farm, Tudor Farm, Tales from the Green Valley) is the soundtrack to my life right now. I swear I always have an episode running in the background to distract my racing brain, even when I am writing blog posts. I found Tales From The Green Valley on YouTube and started watching it today.
4. Share a favorite motivational quote for overcoming challenges.
“I have learned to kiss the waves that throw me up against the Rock of Ages” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
(I have not actually learned this lesson, but I really do like the quote)
5. The Hodgepodge lands on Ash Wednesday this year. Do you participate in Lent in some way? If so tell us more.
I don’t really participate in Lent other than to recognize that we are getting closer to Easter. I absolutely love the idea of Lent and giving up something for it, though, and in the past I have participate by giving up sugar, social media, news, or similar things.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
My cats are inside/outside cats. They absolutely love being outside and exploring, but at night they usually come in to eat, sleep, and get their pets in. In the winter they aren’t very interested in going outside at all and this winter they have definitely not been interested because it has been so bitter cold. I thought our younger cat, Scout, would venture out despite the cold but even she has preferred laying near the woodstove or curled up on a blanket to exploring and hunting outside.
Our older cat, Pixel, loves to be outside during the warmer months but doesn’t hunt as much as the younger one anymore. She mainly sits on the back porch and looks out over the backyard, watching what I am not sure.
She and the younger cat don’t really get along. She slaps Scout whenever Scout walks near her. At the end of this past summer, though, I started to notice that Pixel wanted to stay outside if Scout was still outside. She would sit on the porch, looking out into the darkness, as if waiting for Scout to come home.
My parents have a pair of cats and the female cat does wait for the male cat to come before she will eat. They are not siblings either. Sometimes, the female cat will even call for the male cat.
Pixel doesn’t call for Scout, as far as I have ever heard, but she does seem to wait for her. I always think they will bump noses and rub against each other when Scout does come, but instead, Pixel just slaps her again as if she’s angry at her. Maybe she’s scolding her for being out late since Scout has been known to stay out all night at times, leaving me inside, awake in the middle of the night hoping a fox didn’t get her.
Pixel likes to look in the kitchen window when she wants to be let in. She stands on the back of our deck chairs.
I can just imagine Pixel saying to her, “What are you doing? Worrying Mom like that? She loves you! And you’re out there gallivanting around like a stupid little kitten.”
That’s my Hodge Podge for this week. How would you answer some of these questions?
Today I am joining up with Jen from My Joyful Life for the Currently post. For March, Jen is asking what we are loving, craving, pinning, planning, and appreciating.
This month I am loving that the temperatures are getting warmer, slowly, but surely. I am not a fan of hot weather but I am also not a fan of super cold weather and this winter the weather was terribly, dangerously cold. I can not wait for the weather to warm up at least a little bit but not too much because I am still loving being curled up under my blanket with my warm rice packs while reading.
I am also loving my latest read, Grandma Ruth Doesn’t Go to Funerals by Sharon Mondragon.
It is very cozy and fun, with lovable characters. It was a nice surprise because I am never sure what I am going to get when I pick up a book I see a lot of people recommending on social media.
Craving
I am craving more peace in the news these days. I am craving being able to go on Facebook and not seeing everyone arguing over politics and politicians who do not care about us. I am craving an awakening where people realize that all politicians, no matter their party, are all about power.
They are all about keeping us at each other’s throats so they can continue to maintain that power. Most of them do not care about how much your groceries are costing you or how much you are struggling to make ends meet. They pretend they do so they can do their best to make the other party look bad (go back to the power thing), but in the end, all they are going to do is tell you what they will do without actually doing it.
That’s as political as I am going to get on this blog, so do not worry that I am going to go political all of a sudden. Nop.e Not at all. I prefer to just ramble about books and old movies and protect my peace in this space. Thank you very much.
Pinning
If we are talking about Pinterest pinning, I just got back into Pinterest again and have been pinning some of my posts but also saving vintage books I want to read. Those books include cozy mysteries, general fiction, and romances.
I can say I judge a book by it’s cover in these instances because if I looks like it might be cozy and clean, I pin it.
I am also pinning ideas for journaling because I have got back into some journaling again. I am not journaling as often or as extensively as I used to but I am having fun with designing a reading/watching journal and a junk journal.
Do you journal at all?
Planning
Right now I am planning the last three months of homeschool for my kids.
My son is in his senior year so I am a bit overwhelmed and nervous with that, but he is attending a technical school and getting a foundation for future employment so that helps calm me some.
A fun course I am planning for these last three (what??! Three??!) months is a film study course. We are going to watch some classic films, and he will write a bit about each one, sharing what he thought about it. So far, on our list to watch is:
The Stranger (1946)
Citizen Kane (of course)
The Third Man (1949)
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
and
L.A. Confidential (1997)
What movies would you add to the list?
I am also planning a course on Shakespeare and we will probably read King Lear later this month and into April.
Appreciating
I am currently appreciating people who support my writing by telling me they read my books or buying my books or even selling my books in their stores.
I am also appreciating books in general. They are a wonderful escape from life these days. I love to be able to curl up with one and just lose myself inside it, which is why I often choose more lighthearted books or light mysteries.
How about you? What are loving, craving, pinning, planning, and appreciating currently?
Today’s prompt is: things Characters Have Said (Maybe a character said something really profound or romantic or hilarious or heartbreaking. You could share witty one-liners, mic-drop moments, snippets of funny dialogue between multiple characters, catchphrases, quotes that have become a part of pop culture–like “May the odds be ever in your favor.”, etc.)
I decided not to pick one theme but instead just share quotes of characters from the various books I’ve read as part of my eclectic reading habits.
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
Saturday, the family and I got out of the house for an outing for the first time in months.
We drove about an hour south to attend a gathering at a pottery studio with the local homeschooling group.
The group leader had set up a chance for our students to visit the studio and paint pottery. It was a gloomy day to travel on, but it was still nice to get out. We didn’t stay as long at the studio as I hoped, with Little Miss declaring she was done and over it all within a half hour of arriving.
I had gone to the car to get a drink of water and The Husband and she had stayed back to finish her project, which was very small and not terribly exciting to me, and when I looked back up after a few minutes of being in the car they were walking toward me.
They were done and ready to get lunch, The Husband said.
Little Miss chose a small paw print to paint. If that’s what she wanted, that was okay, of course, and it was one of the cheaper items available so it worked out well but I still thought she’d really want to paint a larger piece of pottery.
I thought she might choose something larger which would give us longer to interact with the other children there. Unfortunately only four families showed up and there were only about six kids there, including mine, and three of them were boys and Little Miss had no interest in talking to them.
I had these grand visions of introducing Little Miss to the fellow homeschooled children casually by asking the children what they were working on and then telling them what Little Miss was working on and how old she was, etc. etc. but Little Miss has a mind of her own and when she’s done with her art or project, she simply likes to leave.
(I am editing my original post here to make it clear that I love Little Miss has a mind of her own so this isn’t a complaint. As the comments came in I realized I hadn’t really clarified that.
It just cracks me up that I always have these plans to try to encourage her to step out of her comfort zone and she’s like, “nope. This is how it’s going to be..” and is not swayed one bit. I think it’s going to really pay off as she gets older to be that aware of what she wants and not compromise…. Though it would be nice if she stepped out just a bit so she can meet some new people but that will come organically over time.)
At lunch at a local restaurant we found online, Little Miss also said she thought my plan sounded creepy.
“Hey, little girl,” she said in a creepy voice, I guess pretending to be me. “How old are you?”
The Husband and The Boy thought her impression was pretty funny, but that is not how I was going to ask. I was going to attempt to engage them in conversation so Little Miss could also engage them in conversation. These attempts of mine pretty much fail every time. We will have other opportunities with events going on with the local 4-H and homeschool groups this spring as well.
The hamburger I ordered was the largest I have ever seen circumference-wise!
Yesterday Little Miss and The Husband went to see Paddington 3 and The Boy and I stayed at home and did our own thing. He played a video game (Skyrim) and I doodled in my reading journal, colored in some Nancy Drew illustrations, worked on blog posts (including this one), snuck a couple spoonfuls of some ice cream we’d picked up the day before, and watched some YouTubers.
This week we don’t much planned, other than me going to my parents at least once or twice to help clean.
I finished Every Living Thing by James Herriot and Nancy Drew: The Sign of the Twisted Candles by Carolyn Keene this past week.
Now I’m reading Grandma Ruth Doesn’t Go To Funerals by Sarah Mondragon and really enjoying it. I found it for free on Hoopla and I can only read it on my phone, which is terribly annoying. Hoopla doesn’t allow it to be sent to a Kindle and I don’t have a notebook to read it on. It can be read on my laptop but that isn’t very comfortable for me. I don’t want to pay full price for it until I am sure I like it and it released in February so..this is my only option at the moment.
Little Miss and I are reading Miracles on Maple Hill for school after finishing The Sign of the Beaver last week. I’ve read Miracles on Maple Hill before but wanted to read it with Little Miss this time of year (maple season in Pennsylvania) and it will fit with Middle Grade March.
I’ll also be reading The Moffats by Eleanor Estes and Violet Jenkins Saves The Day by Stacey Faubion for Middle Grade March. I may try to squeeze in Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry but that might have to wait until March.
The Husband is reading The Maltese Iguana by Tim Dorsey.
The Boy is reading Frankenstein.
This past week I watched All Creatures Great and Small’s season finale and cried through it. I also watched Edwardian Farm, which was more of a rewatch because I watched it before but missed a ton of it because I kept wandering out of the room or family members talked through it. Ha. Family. I tell ya.
I also watched The Rise of Catherine the Great as part of my Winter of Douglas Fairbanks Jr., which finishes up this week.
In April and May, Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I will be watching movies that take place in Paris. We will update you more on that and our choices when it gets closer to the start date.
I am working on making all of my ebooks of my fiction books available for purchase through my site so you can “own” the ebook (or the license to read it) and read it where you want to.
I started brainstorming more of book four of the Gladwynn Grant Mystery series as well.
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.
