Saturday Afternoon Chat: Fourth of July, swimming, and a lot of running around (in my mind at least)

On July 8, 2023July 8, 2023 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Saturday Afternoon Tea10 Comments

I don’t know about you but I really need a cup of tea today, even if it is warm outside.

It’s been a very busy week. Well, busier than it normally is for us. Part of that busy included a fireworks show during which I felt like I was having bombs dropped around me at the end. I’ll share more about that later on in this post. It’s a hilarious story. More hilarious to The Boy than to me, but at least he had a good laugh.

We are off to yet another event this afternoon – this time for the birthday party of a friend of Little Miss’s.

We spent last Sunday at my parents and Monday at home but I spent the day putting the finishing touches on my book that comes out soon and working on promotional material for that. On Tuesday we were back at my parents where we enjoyed a brief swim in the pool and some lunch. Then we attended a fireworks show near us that night.

Wednesday was another break day, partially because it was so sweltering hot outside. Thursday we were back at my parents for a swim (again because of the sweltering heat) and then some friends stopped by unexpectedly for a fun visit. Yesterday I did some running and then I spent all day either trying to fix the cover for my paperback book because Amazon kept saying the size was wrong, or developing promotional material for my social media.

I already mentioned today’s party. Tomorrow we may have lunch with my parents or I may just fall over. I’m not sure yet.

Honestly, we really didn’t do that much but it felt like I was buzzing around a lot trying to catch up and in some ways my brain was busier than my body. I kept thinking about some personal worries, my parents and their health, and also some more exciting things like upcoming ideas for books, my newsletter, and journal designs.

The Tuesday fireworks show came at the end of a day where I made a dinner of fries and bacon-wrapped chicken and helped clean the kitchen and also went into the pool a while with Little Miss. We didn’t spend very long in the pool because the chlorine was high, which was very frustrating to my dad who had been working to get the chemicals just right for a couple of weeks.

He has also constructed an entire partially solar, partially electric-run heating system to keep the pool warm, which we fully enjoyed on Thursday when we went swimming for part of the afternoon.

When I went to the fireworks I was tired and, quite honestly, cranky. Yes, I know. The readers of my blog could never imagine me as cranky. *snort laugh*

But, yes, I was tired and worried about a lot of things, and flat-out tapped out mentally. I didn’t even want to be there and initially sat in the car while the rest of my family spread out a blanket under a tree in a field along with other viewers. The fireworks were put on by members of a local fire company, but not the fire company itself. I didn’t know what to expect but when the first few were fired off, I knew the show was going to be spectacular – and it was.

The Boy is a teenager so not much impresses him, but he really did seem quite enamored with the fireworks. This was confirmed on the way home when he told me it was the first time in a long time he had experienced childlike wonder. I think how close we were to the fireworks was part of the reason.

They were literally exploding over our heads. At the end I experienced sheer panic when they set a series of them off and flashes and explosions fired off repeatedly, making me feel like I was in a war zone. I decided it was not a good idea to be so close at that point and wanted to move further up the hill in case fireballs started falling on us, but I found when I tried to stand up the ground kept moving in fast-paced light and shadow so I kept falling over. This was amusing to my son who later said he wondered how many times I was going to try to stand up and fall over before I stopped. I eventually just hunched down, squeezed my eyes shut and prayed for it to end without killing us.

For your amusement I am sharing with you my moment of panic and my son’s amusement. I have spared you the four minutes of darkness where you can just hear me saying, “No. No. I need to get out of here” and “That was way too much. Way too much. We’re not sitting this close if we come here next year.”

I’m grateful no fireballs fell on us and we very well might go back again next year – but I will be either staying in our car or sitting much further away!

We could only spend part of the day on Thursday swimming because Little Miss had gymnastics that night. She missed gymnastics, however, after she fell on a makeshift platform my dad set up by the ladder and bruised her – well, bottom – and her shin. She was too sore for gymnastics but was able to play with her friends later. She paid for jumping with them on the trampoline by letting me know as she crawled into bed that her bottom still hurt quite a bit.

Yesterday the only thing I did was run out to buy a few groceries at the local store, but after being on my feet much of Thursday, even that tired me out.

This upcoming week may be a little busy as well. Tuesday Little Miss and I have an event in the evening with the local library for Summer Reading. We have another one Wednesday morning at a park 15 minutes away. Thursday is The Husband and my anniversary so we are going to lunch and then taking Little Miss to gymnastics that evening.

It won’t slow down much the following week as we have more summer reading programs and a church program each day of the week. We, luckily, don’t have events all day, every day, however.

I was so busy this week – or, again, my mind was – that I even forgot to watch my Marilyn Monroe movie and write about it. I will have to take the time to do that this week.

I enjoy warmer weather where we can get outside, swim, grill, etc., but I really do like it when it all slows down in the fall and winter and I can take my time a bit more. I have to admit that I become spoiled by not having to go a lot of places in the cooler months. I prefer watching my slow-living YouTubers, reading books, writing my sometimes silly books, washing dishes while I listen to an audiobook, and making cups of hot cocoa or tea.

How was your week last week? Was it super busy? Super slow and easy? Let me know in the comments.

Sunday Bookends: Horowitz, overly descriptive mysteries and swimming weather

On July 2, 2023 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends2 Comments

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing, and some weeks I share what I am listening to. This week I’ve also decided to join up with Kimba at the Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

What I/we’ve been Reading

I finished A Novel Disguise by Samantha Larsen his week. Well, sort of. I more like skimmed the last half because I was exhausted with the tedious descriptions of the main character getting dressed as her dead half-brother. The plot was hanging by a thread as it was but then add in three-paragraph-long descriptions of the clothes she had to dress in to look like her brother and I was pretty much over it. I enjoyed the writing style but the further I got into the book the more it felt like the author was trying to show off the research she’d done about colonial clothing instead of getting to the point of the story.

It was fine when she explained what clothes she needed to put on to look like her half-brother in the beginning but to keep doing it, complete with all the terms for each piece of clothing, each time she got dressed really dragged the book down. The book was 40 chapters long and I think she could have written the book in half that many chapters and it would have been much better. I did like the characters and the mystery, though, so I’m not saying I’d never read anything by this author again.

To cleanse my pallet (though the book was not horrible. Truly!) I am reading a Nancy Drew book – the first in the original series – and I’m about to start a Anthony Horowitz book – The Word is Murder (A Hawthorne and Horowitz Mystery Book 1).

This series of books is unique because Horowitz has written himself into the books.

I’m starting his book because I picked up my husband’s library book — The Twist of A Knife — and got hooked. The only issue is that The Twist of A Knife was the latest book in the series and there are three others before it that The Husband feels I need to read first. So I am starting with The Word is Murder.

Little Miss is reading The Boxcar Children: Surprise Island. I haven’t been reading to her at night the last couple of nights because she’s been so tired she’s been passing out before we can get to the reading.

The Husband read at least four books on his vacation, including the Horowitz book and a Janet Evanovich book.

What’s Been Occurring

I wrote about what we’ve been up to in my post yesterday and nothing worth nothing has happened since then. We have a fairly relaxed week upcoming with one event for summer reading at the local library and gymnastics, but not much else, thankfully.

What We watched/are Watching

This past week The Husband and I watched a Midsomer Murders, a Shakespeare and Hathaway (which was not very good but none of them from the Covid area were), and a lot of Newhart. We also watched the movie Niagara with Marilyn Monroe, which I wrote about on the blog.

I’ll be watching Some Like It Hot this week.

I watched a lot of Just A Few Acres on YouTube as well.

What I’m Writing

I am still working on Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage and finished up corrections on Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing so I can get that ready for release the week after next. I’m so close to the release date! I’m excited to release Gladwynn into the world. In August I will be sharing some of book two on my Substack for paid subscribers.

This week on the blog I shared:

Now it’s your turn

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

Saturday Afternoon Chat: Donkey farm visit, first jump in the pool, the smoke is back, and little country churches

On July 1, 2023July 1, 2023 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Saturday Afternoon Tea8 Comments

Is it too warm in your neck of the woods for warm tea or coffee?

I have to say that is warming up here but I still enjoy some warm tea in the morning shortly after I wake up. I have not tried any new or exciting teas lately.

Today I am sipping water with lemonade mixed in. I mix the lemonade with water because this lemonade, which we pick up from Aldi, is very sour and acidic for my stomach, but I still like a bit of the flavor of it and it is also a sure way to get me to drink more water.

As I am writing this the sky is darkening up and it definitely feels and looks like we have a storm coming through or at least rain. That may put a damper on our plans for later today.

This week was both a slow and busy week.

It was mainly slow, but we had some events earlier in the week, including two library events that made it a little bit busy.

Both events were related to rescued donkeys and part of the local library’s summer reading program.

The first event was the reading of a book about rescued donkeys, some crafts related to the same topic, as well as a visit by a donkey to the library.

The next day we visited a donkey rescue farm. The Husband was on vacation and was able to go with us. Dark clouds and sprinkles of rain arrived when we drove to the farm but for the most part, the rain held off until after the visit was over.

The farm owners are originally from Maryland. The wife said part of the reason they moved to our area was because of the kindness the local people showed her and her husband when they had a part-time residence in the area.

Now the locals are even more accepting and helpful and also love the donkeys they’ve brought to the area.

After meeting the donkeys, I can see why. They are so friendly. A couple of times I thought they were looking for food, which I didn’t have, but it turned out they simply wanted extra attention. They love to have their heads scratched and seem to love being talked to as well.

I talked along to the one donkey, whose name I think was Tucker, like he was another person. He bumped his nose under my belly if I stopped talking to him or petting him, which reminded me that I am way fatter than I want to be but also that I’m short enough for a mini donkey to be able to stick his little snout under my belly fat.

Little Miss woke up that morning saying she wanted a donkey ride, but I told her I didn’t think they gave donkey rides. Somehow before we left, she convinced the owner to give her a quick ride on the donkey so her day was pretty much made.

She keeps asking to go back to the farm but this was a special event organized by the library so I don’t know that I would feel comfortable just calling up the place and asking if we can randomly drop by their farm because my child is in love with their donkeys. Who knows, maybe she can volunteer her time and help them around the farm.

The view from the pasture of the farm was absolutely amazing and reminded me why I don’t mind living in Northern Pennsylvania, even if we are an hour away from all the bigger towns and stores.

After we visited the farm, we stopped by an old church that I imagine was once also a one-room schoolhouse, but I’m not sure. I found an article online about it so I’ll read that and get back to you about that later this week.

The building was locked but we could see by looking inside that the structure features very old pews that are built into the floor and a woodstove like the ones pictured in the Little House on the Prairie books. I would imagine the stove doesn’t work anymore but the fact that is in such amazing shape was fascinating to me. If they ever have an open house there I am definitely going to go so I can check out the inside of the place.

It also featured an outhouse out back, but I’m guessing that is only for looks since the locks were painted over.

I have no idea if the church is still used regularly or not. Again, I’ll see what the article says.

There is a large, old cemetery on the hill behind the church, but we decided not to explore it since it had started raining. If we make our way out there again, though, I want to go into it since it sits high on a hill and there is probably an amazing view from it.

We had our first dip in my dad’s pool yesterday after weeks of Dad trying to get the thing clean. It was covered all winter but dirt and leaves, etc. fell into it so he had to run the filter, treat it, and run his new little pool-cleaning robot (Stella) too.

Alicia from For His Purpose (https://forhispurpose.blog/) asked yesterday if Stella did her job cleaning my Dad’s pool this past week. Stella is the robot that Dad picked up to clean his pool and he named it Stella to help him remember someone who helps him in physical therapy. I mentioned last week about how we lost Stella the first day Dad set her loose and I stood by the pool yelling “Stella!” ala Marlon Brando in Streetcar Named Desire.

This week we had to rename Stella June Bug because the real Stella was a little creeped out by the robot being named after her. I think she wasn’t really creeped out. She probably thought it was funny but Dad said he didn’t feel right pulling her out of the pool and announcing, “Stella had a bunch of garbage come out of her today.”

So we now have June Bug, a name Little Miss chose for her.

To answer Alicia’s question, yes, June Bug did a very nice job and cleaned up the pool well, which is one big reason why we could go swimming. That and the level of chlorine finally evened out.

Today we are relaxing but might visit the pool later. I’m not sure yet, because of the storms coming in. When I started this post a bit ago, I was sure we would be over there tomorrow to jump in the pool and maybe help around the house, but I’ve since looked at the weather forecast and we might get rained out again. We will still go for some lunch most likely.

We were both rained out and smoked out of visiting the local state park while The Husband was on vacation this past week. Smoke, haze, and bad air quality drifted down from Canada again this week, keeping us inside much of Thursday. Luckily the smoke wasn’t as bad as it was in the first part of June.

I’m guessing we will be back at the pool someday next week since it is supposed to be much hotter than it has been, which is typical for July in our neck of the woods. The forecast says we could have temperatures in the high 80s, which I am not looking forward to.

How is the weather where you are? Is it blistering hot yet or just comfortable?

Did you have a nice week? Do anything exciting? Let me know in the comments, I’d love to hear (read) about it.

Summer of Marilyn: Niagra

On June 30, 2023 By Lisa R. HowelerIn classic movie impressions, Summer of Marilyn4 Comments

This summer I am watching Marilyn Monroe movies for fun. I was supposed to watch Some Like It Hot this week but The Husband (this is a silly nickname I give my husband for the blog) wanted to watch Niagara so I said we should go for it since I’d never heard much about it.’

It was not the romantic or screwball comedies I’ve watched so far from her so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was a little nervous it was going to be super dark but it was more intrigue than darkness.

The Husband calls the movie light noir. He also pointed out that she was only in about 35 minutes of the movie but believed she completely stole the show, which I agree with now that I’ve seen it.

This movie is one of the first major acting roles Marilyn had, and she doesn’t use her signature breathy voice which answers the question I had before – that breathless speech wasn’t her normal speech. It was simply her signature voice. I liked hearing her normal voice because the other way she speaks is so fake to me and grates on my nerves. That could be because I have seen so many parodies of her over the years.

This movie came out in 1953 and from what I can see, quite a bit of it was actually filmed at Niagra Falls. It was directed by Henry Hathaway.

The other stars of the movie, who were in it even more than Marilyn, were Joseph Cotton, Jean Peters, and Max Showalter.

The movie starts with Marilyn’s husband at the falls in a place I’m pretty sure you can’t stand at anymore if you were ever allowed to in the first place. The man travels back to a cabin right next to the falls and I really wanted to know if that is a real place because the idea of a room overlooking the falls seems awesome to me. I can imagine it might also be loud, though.

I looked it up and it turns out the cabins are not real.

According to IMbd, “The Rainbow Cabins were not real cabins, they were movie sets built exclusively for the film at a cost of over $25,000. They were built in Queen Victoria Park directly across from the American Falls. The stone structure located by the Rainbow Cabins was torn down, but a similar one can be found in the same park at “Rambler’s Rest.””

The man returns to his room where Marilyn has been smoking a cigarette but then quickly pretends she is asleep which already eludes to the fact that she may not be what she seems.

We move over to a couple who are visiting Niagara Falls both for a delayed honeymoon and to meet up with the owner of the company the man works for after the man won a contest. They reserved a certain cabin but Marilyn and her husband are still in that cabin. Marilyn (Rose) convinces them to let her and her husband (George) keep the cabin because she says her husband is suffering from PTSD from the Korean War and had been in a psychiatric hospital.

The couple reluctantly agrees to move to another cabin, but they will continue to run into Marilyn (Rose in the movie) again and somehow get swept up in the crazy drama that will begin to unfold shortly after they meet her.

While sightseeing at the falls, the wife spots Marilyn making out with a man who is clearly not her husband and realizes there is a lot more to the story of George and Rose.

That becomes even more clear when Rose wanders into a party being held at the cabins, places a record on the player, and George doesn’t like it so he breaks the record.

The wife (Polly) goes to the cabin to help him take care of his hand which he cut on the record and he tells the couple that he met Rose while she was working as a barmaid. She is considerably younger than him, full of life and he thinks she hates him because of all his issues.

Pretty sure the couple (The Cutlers) didn’t want to know all that but, well, there they had it.

Things start to go off the rails pretty quickly for George and Rose and, sadly, for the couple trying to just have a nice holiday. I won’t give away too much but there is a murder plot and mistaken identity and – well, you just have to watch it to believe it. It’s pretty crazy.

I will give away that I really wanted to punch Mr. Cutler about three times in this movie. Maybe five. I, in fact, dislike Mr. Cutler so much with his goofy smile that I didn’t even bother to look up what the first name of his character was while writing this blog post. I don’t even remember the name of it.

The guy was so dismissive of his wife’s concerns the entire time that by the end of the movie I was rooting for a full-fledged divorce. One day I’ll write an alternative ending to the movie where she tells him she’d be better off without him because he acts like she’s a crazy, hormonal woman all the time.

According to Wikipedia, the idea for the film came from Walter Reisch who eventually wrote it with Richard Breen and Charles Brackett. They said most films that take place at the falls are romantic, but Reisch wanted a film with murder in it.

Monroe was suggested to play a main role by the head of Fox Studios, Darryl F. Zanuck. According to Wikipedia, Reisch liked the idea but when Zanuck suggested she play a villain, he wasn’t so sure.

“According to Reisch, “We thought that was a nice idea until there came a second telephone call that he wanted her to be the villainess, not the girl… My God! Here was the prettiest girl in the whole United States of America! But he insisted it was a great idea, so we finally did it. We didn’t know whether she would like it, but she had no objection, whatsoever—on the contrary.”

A bit of trivia:

Jean Peters who played Polly Cutler had originally been suggested for Marilyn’s role, but by the time the movie started to get made, Marilyn’s popularity had grown and Peters was switched to play the wife. (No big deal because the wife got more screen time anyhow).

According to IMbd, even though she had a starring role, Marilyn Monroe was still under contract to 20th Century-Fox as a stock actor at a fixed salary, so she actually made less money than her make-up man did.”

During filming of the shower scene, director Henry Hathaway had to keep yelling at Monroe to keep away from the shower curtain and away from the lights as she insisted on being naked (as she was under the bed sheets at the beginning of the film). To pass the censors of the time, the scene was darkened in post-production.

Canadian officials didn’t like the film because they said it gave Niagara Falls a bad name by focusing on a murder taking place at it.

The “Letterman Hospital” that Rose mentions at the beginning of the film, saying George was a patient there, was Letterman Army Hospital at The Presidio of San Francisco. Built in 1898, it cared for returning wounded soldiers from every major conflict, especially World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. It was closed in 1994, the Army base at The Presidio was decommissioned in 1995 and the buildings of the hospital were demolished in 2002. 2005 Lucasfilm opened its headquarters on the site and named it the Letterman Digital Arts Center. (source IMbd)

Overall, if you haven’t already guessed, I enjoyed this film. It had me biting my nails and hooked until the end. While it did exploit Marilyn’s beauty and there were those moments of men gawking at her like they’d never seen a woman before like in other movies, it was still a great storyline.

If you want to read another review of the movie (which I didn’t agree with) you can click here.

Another review is here.

If you want to read about Marilyn’s fashion in the movie you can click HERE.

Up next for my Summer of Marilyn will be Some Like it Hot which was the movie I was going to originally watch this week. I was going to watch Niagra next week, though, so I just switched the two around.

After that, I’ll be watching:

July 13: The Seven Year Itch

July 20: Monkey Business (because it’s Marilyn and Cary together)

July 27: All About Eve

August 3: The Misfits

The Story Behind the Photo: Days of Freedom

On June 28, 2023 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings6 Comments

When the kids were really young they did crazy things in the backyard of our house in town. Apparently, it was more fun to be crazy in a town where everyone could see them. When we moved to a smaller town, they weren’t as crazy anymore. In our old town, they filled tiny pools with water and jumped in in their underwear. My daughter ran around in her diaper almost all the time, even on the very busy street in front of the house, which sort of drove my husband nuts because he felt it made us look like we weren’t taking care of our children.

Looking back, I totally see his point but he and I both also recognized that children should be allowed to be children. I look back at those messy, crazy, full-speed days and I miss them like I thought I would.

I miss the freedom of them. I miss the unstoppable energy, the unbridled joy, the unrestrained exploring, and the intense curiosity.

Recently, on our third re-read of the Little House books, I had to roll my eyes once again at Ma (Caroline Ingalls) reminding Laura and Mary that children are to be seen and not heard.

I have always hated that saying. I want my children to be seen, to be heard, to be held, to laugh and have fun and make messes and learn from it all.

Sunday Bookends: cozy mysteries, sleepovers and still working on book two of the mystery series

On June 25, 2023June 25, 2023 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends1 Comment

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

What I/we’ve Been Reading

I finished Murder Simply Played by Rachael O. Phillips earlier today.

There are two others in this series – Amish Inn Mysteries – at my local library so I’m sure I’ll pick up the next one when we go to the Summer Reading program on Tuesday.

I’m now moving on to A Novel Disguise by Samantha Larsen, which I am part way through. It’s a historical cozy mystery and is keeping my attention, even though I think it’s a completely implausible plot line with a woman pretending to be her half-brother who died. I don’t know how she’s making herself look like her brother so much that no one can tell, but, okay. We will go with it, I guess. There also isn’t much of a mystery going on yet other than a few stolen items, but we will see where it goes. Her half-brother died of natural causes but I’m beginning to wonder if he might have been murdered.

The Husband is reading a CJ Box book he picked up at the library.

The Boy is on a break from reading for the summer.

Little Miss and I hope to start a Boxcar Children book tonight.

What’s Been Occurring

I rambled yesterday about what has been going on and mentioned Little Miss was having a sleepover with two friends (who are sisters). That went fairly well and Little Miss has her first sleepover under her belt. I think we will wait to do that again for a while but it really didn’t go as bad as I thought. They were to sleep pretty early and sleeping on the couch wasn’t the most comfortable arrangement for me but I slept better than I thought I would.

I’m surprised they stayed awake as long as they did since they ran full bore all day long. They were on the trampoline, the slip n’ slide, chasing each other on roller skates, and hoping all over the place all day long. When they finally sat down for a movie around 9, I thought they’d be out before the movie barely started.

This week The Husband is on vacation, and we have a couple of Summer Reading events to attend with Little Miss. Other than that, he will be at home reading books and watching mystery shows.

What We Watched/are Watching

This week I plan to watch Some Like It Hot with Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemon.

I also hope to carve out some time to watch some mystery shows with The Husband and Edwardian Farm by myself.

I also hope to watch a special on Ireland, most likely by myself, which is okay by me. I geek out on shows about other countries or castles, etc. and not everyone else in the family does, though The Husband occasionally does.

This past week I watched several videos by YouTubers I enjoy following, including Just A Few Acres Farms. I wrote about some of the YouTube Channels I watch and enjoy in a post on Friday and really appreciated the suggestions a couple of you left for me. I plan to check out those YouTubers as well.

What I’m Writing

I am still working on Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage, as well as finishing edits on Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing, which is available for pre-order (ebook only right now) on Amazon HERE.

On the blog this week I shared:

What I’m Listening To

I have been listening to Harry Connick Jr.’s. Red Light, Blue Light album this week.

Blog Posts I Enjoyed This Past Week

Dad Was Different by author Rachael O. Phillips

Now it’s your turn.

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

Saturday Afternoon Chat: Wild roses, cleaning out pools, and looking for crayfish

On June 24, 2023June 24, 2023 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Saturday Afternoon Tea11 Comments

Welcome to my corner of the internet for a Saturday afternoon chat.

Can I pour you a cup of tea or coffee? Maybe a glass of juice or just plain water?

I was out of honey all week this past week which meant I had to sweeten my tea with sugar. Yuck! It was awful.

I was so thankful to The Husband for picking me up some local honey yesterday I made myself a cup of tea even though it was humid and sticky.

Last Sunday we spent the day at my parents for Father’s Day where we helped my dad clean out the pool to try to get it ready for Little Miss and me to swim in for a couple of months this summer.

We were supposed to go back and help again this week, but Dad was either busy or the weather wasn’t great or, well, I completely forgot. This next week we will help again and hopefully, the pool will be ready soon.

Dad bought a robot to clean the inside of the pool. You start it up and lower it in the pool and the idea is that it rolls around the bottom and picks up all the dirt, leaves, and other messy stuff.

Dad decided he was going to name the robot Stella as a bit of a joke because he kept forgetting the name of the therapist that helps during his therapy boxing class. He dropped her in at one point and came back in the house and I went out to get a shirt from the car I wanted to change into before I started skimming the pool. When I started to the car, though, he told me I had to hurry and help him find Stella.

“Our pool is so dirty, she’s probably full already. Hurry and help me find her because she has the pool so stirred up, I can’t see anything and she might burn her motor out.”

So, The Husband and I ran to help. My way of helping was to yell “Stella! Stella!” like I was Marlon Brando in Streetcar Named Desire while my dad and husband searched for the robot and eventually found her. They used the end of a cane to scoop her out because the hook she came with hadn’t been put together yet.

Later in the afternoon we went inside and searched for photographs of my grandfather to use for a video that I want to pair with audio we have of him singing at a fairground near us. I had already made one video for my dad, which I shared on here last week, but I had another song and wanted to add more photos since that was the original plan for the other video.

The audio was transferred, I think, from a reel-to-reel years ago.

While looking through the photos, we found photos of my grandparents when they were young, my grandfather singing, my grandparents on their 55^th wedding anniversary, my grandfather with his arm around some Hawaiian girls when he and Grandma visited Hawaii, and him with his cousin when they were young boys. The Boy looked at the photo of him hugging the Hawaiian girls with wide eyes but I explained that visitors are greeted when they arrive by young ladies and gentlemen with leis to hang over the necks of the visitors.

After we left my dad found a pile of photos of him singing and acting at community events.

If you haven’t guessed already from my writing that I have audio of my grandfather singing, he was a well-known local singer who performed for local community and fundraising events. We also have a recording of him singing at a local television station but for some reason, we only have the audio and not the video.

I know I mentioned last week that I never had the opportunity to get to know my grandfather because he died when I was 2. I only know him through stories, his poems (of which we have tons), his journals (which mainly consisted of him writing about the weather and the errands he ran that day so nothing super personal), and photographs.

On Tuesday Little Miss was able to meet with a friend who she normally only talks to online (through a kid-safe video chat). The girl’s family came to town for a dentist appointment for her dad, and we met them by the soccer field behind the dentist’s office. After the appointment, I took Little Miss and her friend to a local restaurant for ice cream. Then they explored the tiny stream that runs by the restaurant. Little Miss was looking for crayfish – which I learned this week many of you refer to as crawdads. We didn’t have a net to catch one and she was afraid it would pinch her when she tried to pick it up so we are going to get a net soon and take her to a creek where she can catch one.

I wandered out into our yard later that day to photograph our roses because I know they will be gone soon. I miss it so much when our roses are gone. I miss the flowers and really need to take some lessons from my neighbor on how to grow them because she has beautiful flowers all summer long.

On Wednesday Little Miss had a short Summer Reading program at the local library (a book read and a craft) and The Boy went to a sleepover and birthday party for a friend.

On Thursday, The Husband took Little Miss to gymnastics and I watched a special with James Cameron on the 25^th anniversary of the Titanic movie. I’m going to write a separate blog post about that one because – I have issues with it. Ha!

Yesterday I spent most of the day doing what I did Thursday which was washing dishes and doing laundry but not actually getting to the folding of the laundry. Ahem. But I did get it washed at least. On Wednesday I even hung laundry out on our clothesline, which I don’t know if I will do again because it was all stiff when I took it off for some reason.

Yesterday was very, very humid and rainy and today was supposed to be more of the same, but so far it feels much better. I am a fan of rain when it is cold out, not when it is all sticky and gross and makes my head feel icky.

Little Miss is having some friends over today and a planned sleepover with them, which will be her first time having a sleepover. Well, second, but we had to take her friend home in the middle of the night that first time. This time she is having two friends over so hopefully it goes better.

We are supposed to have rain for the next week, which will be great for the farmers and the ground, but will sort of stink because The Husband has the whole week off from work and we were going to go to a local state park which also features a lake we can swim in, but it looks like we might not be able to do that because of the rain.

How was your week last week? Do anything interesting? Let me know in the comments and tell me if you’ve found any good teas to try. I’ve written down a few of your suggestions and have been adding them to my shopping lists to try in the future.

Some Favorite “slow life” and other simple life YouTube Channels I like

On June 23, 2023 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings5 Comments

I have a few YouTube Channels I watch fairly regularly and each of them either focuses on simple moments in life or on leading a “slow living” life as they call it. What that means is that they take their time and enjoy life, even choosing to cut out social media or the news, or other outside noise that might steal their simple joys. Most of the time anyhow.

I thought I would share a few of those channels with you today. Ironically, many of them updated either yesterday or today, which is exciting. Many of these only update once or twice a month, which is nice because I can keep up with their videos.

First up is The Cottage Fairy. She focuses on life in her little home in the middle of some state that is gorgeous and looks like a fairy tale. She works at a small bookshop in her town, is an artist, and is recently married (though I don’t think she’s ever shown her husband). She owns rabbits, picks flowers, walks through enchanted forests, and sometimes talks about her time being homeschooled and how it shaped the quiet life she tries to live now. She speaks in a soft, breathy voice (like many of the young, simple life bloggers) and her videos feature soft, calming music in the background. They are perfect for days I need to decompress from life.

Forgotten Way Farms is a channel I’ve mentioned on here before. The channel showcases a small farm in — some state — I can’t remember where. The host, AbbieJo, mainly focuses on filming what she’s been cooking, thrift shop visits, and other “simple living” topics. She’s big on homesteading and stocking your shelves with homemade food that you can go to later when money is tight or food is scarce. Sometimes she shares what books she is reading and they are usually books about farming, gardening, flowers, or cooking in the old days.

This week she shared a video of them renovating her kitchen and pantry area. They purchased a doublewide that they have been slowly renovating over the last year or so.

Just A Few Acres Farm is a cattle and chicken farm located in the Ithaca, N.Y. area which is close to where I used to live. The farmer, Pete, puts out videos about what he’s doing on the farm, farm events he visits (he is an International Tractor farmer and loves to vlog about them), the farmer’s market he visits (which I have visited a couple of times in the past and enjoyed), and other various farming related topics. His videos are pretty laid-back and just interesting to watch. He is very chill and cheerful and just really seems to enjoy what he does. Watching him cheers me up because even when things aren’t going well, he’s still pretty happy about life in general.

Roots and Refuge is a bit about slowing living but is more about homesteading and Jess and her husband Micah aren’t always living slow. They are planning to open a homesteading store, host a podcast, and have a lot going on in their lives, but the main message of their channel is to cultivate your own food and store as much of the food as you can. Their other message is to love God and the earth he gave us.

I have mentioned Darling Desi before on here (like I have mentioned a couple of the others) but will mention her again. I do like her channel even though she sometimes reads books I have no interest in and even though her perky demeanor over some really silly stuff sometimes makes me want to roll my eyes.

You know – like how I want to roll my eyes at myself sometimes because I get excited over some really silly stuff too. Ha! Anyhow, Desi talks all things “cottage core” which are books and aesthetics that – well, cottage core is . . . Hold on. Let me consult Google. Okay. I’m back. Wikipedia says: Cottagecore is an internet aesthetic popularised by adolescents and young adults celebrating an idealized rural life.”

So it is a fake outlook of rural life and I’m all for that. A fake outlook on life is how I survive. Sigh. Sad, but true(ish).

The definition continues: “Originally based on a rural English and European life, it was developed throughout the 2010s and was first named cottagecore on Tumblr in 2018. The aesthetic centres on traditional rural clothing, interior design, and crafts such as drawing, baking, and pottery, and is related to similar aesthetic movements such as grandmacore, farmcore, goblincore, and fairycore.”

Desi takes the viewer on frolics in fields and walks through bookshops, while her husband records her antics. I’d say poor guy, but she has a lot of followers and viewers and I am guessing they make some good money from it.

One thing I remind myself about a couple of these channels is that while they may seem like they have idelic lives, they really are simply showing the highlights of their life not to be fake but because they are providing a place for the viewer to escape to – a bit of a quiet corner of the internet that can serve as a mental refuge.

Are there some YouTube channels that you follow and enjoy? Let me know in the comments!

Summer of Marilyn: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

On June 22, 2023June 25, 2023 By Lisa R. HowelerIn classic movie impressions, Summer of Marilyn8 Comments

I am watching Marilyn Monroe movies for the summer.

I have a confession.

I think she might annoy me a bit.

I know. Isn’t that awful?

It’s just that her breathy voice and the weird things she does with her mouth are so distracting to me. I know. Sacrilege to any hardcore Marilyn fan.

Maybe all her little gestures are annoying to me because I am a heterosexual woman and none of that does a thing for me.

Regardless, I’ve heard so much about her over the years, I figured I should actually watch her movies and see if she was any good or not.

So far, I have watched two of her movies all the way through and have decided that, yes, she was a good actress, but she was also put in a lot of stereotypical roles because of her large chest and pouty lips. I am hoping not all of her movies were like that, but these first two on my list here.

Of course, I have only watched the screwball comedies she was in so they would focus on her beauty as part of the plot points.

This week I watched Gentlemen Prefer Blonds with Marily and Jane Russell.

The movie starts with Marilyn getting proposed to – well, she’s getting a ring at least – by a bit of a nerdy man. That’s a theme in her movies – she’s always attracted to nerdy men with glasses.

As I started to watch the movie, I remembered I have seen it before. It has been years since I have seen it, though, so I totally forgot it was a musical. I should have remembered since it is the movie where Marilyn performed Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.

Anyhow, the movie continues with Marilyn and Jane, who are showgirls, deciding to go on a cruise to Europe. The women are also best friends even though they are very different. Marilyn (Lorelei in the movie) likes a man to be rich and buy her diamonds while Jane (Dorothy) likes a man to be fit and doesn’t care about wealth.

They both like to make men watch them, however.

There is a lot of skin shown in this movie, including a scene where Jane dances with members of the Olympic team who are also traveling on the ship to Europe. They are wearing only tiny, skin-colored shorts, the entire time. Little Miss asked, “Why are those men naked?” I realized at that moment that watching the movie with her in the room might have been a bad idea, even though it is way more tame than the movies out today.

There are several ridiculous moments as a private detective follows Lorelei on behalf of the father of her fiancé, who thinks Lorelei is simply a gold digger. The private detective and Jane fall for each other, which, of course, complicates things. There is also this whole thing about Lorelei trying to con an old, rich, married man out of a diamond tiara and later being taken to court to answer for the theft of it. Then there is that sexy dance scene in court by Jane, which was totally bizarre to me, but supposed to be funny. I’m such a prude – I just found it disturbing.

When I watch Marilyn movies and see how absolutely gorgeous she is, I am one, jealous, but two, aware of what it took to get her to that place of beauty because I once read an article about all the plastic surgery, dental implants and other physical changes she had to read that perfection.

As I watched the movie I also wondered if her movie voice was really her voice. Like is that how she talked when she asked for a fresh towel at a hotel or asked her assistant to get her a cup of tea? Or did she yell at people with a thick accent – like a Brooklyn or Boston accent? “hey! I’m walkin’ here! Whatreya’ doin’”

I mean, why did she talk like that? Was it considered sexy back then? I find it a little annoying today but that’s probably because I’ve heard so many parodies of her voice.

After a Google search, I learned from Vogue magazine that the breathy, whisper she spoke in was something she used to overcome a childhood stutter. She kept it for her acting and it became her signature voice. So, yes. It was her real voice and she used it in her everyday life. Not like Michael Jackson who totally faked that high voice, but I digress….

Now, When I saw Marilyn sing that famous song, I wanted to know if it was her voice so I Googled that too. The answer was yes and no. She did most of the singing, but an actress and singer Marni Nixon actually supplied part of the notes – the higher notes – which are the notes I thought weren’t hers.

Jane Russell matched Marilyn in this movie with her talent and humor. I do believe she was the better singer, but she and Marilyn were such a fun pair and worked well together.

The bottom line is that I liked the movie, but, as a self-declared prude, there is a lot I could have done without. For one, I didn’t need to see Marilyn and Jane in such skimpy clothes so much. I definitely didn’t need to see all the cleavage and I found myself rolling my eyes more than once at these women essentially using their bodies and sexuality to get what they wanted. Men were portrayed in this movie as too stupid to think when the women were around because, according to the movie, they were both too hot to handle. Men couldn’t be around them without melting into a sexually aroused mess.

I know that some will say that a movie like this was needed to show that women can be in control too and use their sexual prowess to get what they want – like men have been doing for years – but I don’t like it when either sex does that. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t have some fun watching the movie. It just wasn’t my favorite movie because the whole theme of “Marilyn and Jane are hot so men will fall over them” just was overplayed and overused in my opinion.

If you would like to watch the movie I am sure you can find it streaming, but I also found it on Youtube here: