Little Miss was able to meet a friend she’s only talked to online yesterday and they looked for crayfish, or crawfish, or whatever you call these things where you live:
After her friend left, Little Miss stayed at the little stream, which runs through part of the town, determined to capture two of these ugly buggers she saw. She did not catch one because we didn’t have anything to capture in but she is determined to try again another time.
So, what do you call those creatures up above? Crayfish, crawfish? Something else?
She opened her book as she sipped her coffee. An hour later, the café had disappeared around her, and she was firmly wrapped up in the world of Earl Stanley Gardner and his detective Donald Lam.
The snapping of fingers in front of her face startled her and brought her back to reality. Liam’s unshaven jawline and disheveled hair, along with his untucked dress shirt and wrinkled khakis, visible under a brown, thigh length leather coat, looked completely out of place here.
“Thought you’d gone deaf, Grant. Tried to talk to you twice.”
“Oh. Sorry. I’d gotten to a really intense scene.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” He gestured to the chair next to her. “This seat taken?”
She shook her head and moved her book and coffee mug closer to her. “No. Of course not.”
He turned the chair around and sat backwards, hooking his arms around the back after he set a takeaway cup on the table. “Hey, did Justin say anything to you about the brakes being messed with on that car in the accident we went to the other night?”
“Justin?”
“The fire chief.”
“Oh, right. No, that isn’t exactly what he said. He said the driver said something about her brakes not working but that she’d had a head injury, so he wasn’t sure what she meant. He asked me not to report that.” She took a sip of the cappuccino. “Why?”
Liam tapped the surface of the table with his index fingers like he was tapping keys on a piano, his brow furrowed. “I got a message on my voicemail this morning from the woman’s husband. He was flipping all out, saying she’s been saying her brakes weren’t working that night. He thinks someone tampered with them.”
Gladwynn nodded. “Is there a reason someone would tamper with them?”
Liam stood, flipped the chair around the right way and slid it back in place. “Don’t know. Let’s find out. Call the state police on Monday.”
“Yeah, okay. I can do that.”
Liam walked away without saying goodbye, sliding a pair of sunglasses on before stepping out onto the sidewalk and turning in the direction of the newspaper office.
She wondered if he ever took a day off. She turned her attention from the window to the bookshop doorway. It was time to find another book to lose herself in for the rest of the weekend.
I’ve updated my Substack with a writing update and giveaway. That giveaway is for an ebook or paperback copy of The Regal Pink by Jenny Knipfer. The Regal Pink is a Christian fantasy book that I just finished and enjoyed more than I thought I would since I normally do not enjoy fantasy books.
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, and some weeks I share what I am listening to.
What I/we’ve been Reading
I will be finishing The Regal Pink by Jenny Knipfer today and I have really enjoyed it. I am not just saying this because I consider Jenny an author friend. I went into this book concerned I wouldn’t like it because I am not a fan of “fantasy” type books but, yet again, I was wrong to be concerned. This is the third Christian fantasy book I have read that has captured my heart. Much like two books by author Max Sternberg, I fell in love with the characters of this book and also Jenny’s writing style. I honestly think that fantasy is the genre she’s meant to write in.
I’ll ramble about the book a little bit more in a review later this week.
I started a Nora Roberts book yesterday because Little Miss picked it out for me at the library. I have never read Nora Roberts but have been told by a friend that once I read this one, I have read all of her books.
This is actually a pair of Christmas novellas combined and it looked like it would be a quick read, but after reading up to chapter four last night I just know I am not going to be able to get through this without cringing anymore than I already have. It is so ridiculous. Seriously.
The guy is gone for ten years, comes back for town to see the woman who he left behind but asked to wait for him. She married while he was gone though, crushing his spirits. When he comes back, though, he finds out that day that she’s divorced and seconds after he finds that out they are making out. Like — what???
And of course, he meets the woman’s daughter and of course, I already know the daughter is his. Such a cliché trope. No thank you. That book is currently in my DNF (did not finish) pile.
Little Miss had no idea what she was picking out. She said she thought it was a cozy mystery. She also picks out small, 5.5 x 7.5 books because they are cute and if she likes the cover. It is a cute cover. I felt bad telling her it was a bad pick but oh my — it is not my cup of tea.
I’ll be trying my library pick once I finish a couple on my Kindle. That pick was:
I’m still reading All That Really Matters by Nicole Deese and enjoying it, but I wanted to finish Jenny’s book so I set it aside for now.
And as if I didn’t have enough to read, I have a cozy mystery from Libby that came in much earlier than I thought so I may start that this week and still put All That Really Matters aside.
The book is A Novel Disguise by Samantha Larsen. I really enjoyed the sample I read and looked at it after someone on Instagram suggested it.
For anyone who might be interested, here is the description:
1784 London.Miss Tiffany Woodall didn’t murder her half-brother, but she did bury him in the back garden so that she could keep her cottage. Now, the confirmed spinster has to pretend to be Uriah and fulfill his duties as the Duke of Beaufort’s librarian while searching Astwell Palace for Uriah’s missing diamond pin, the only thing of value they own. Her ruse is almost up when she is discovered by Mr. Samir Lathrop, the local bookseller, who tries to save her from drowning while she’s actually just washing up in a lake after burying her brother.
Her plan is going by the book, until the rector proposes marriage and she starts to develop feelings for Mr. Lathrop. But when her childhood friend, Tess, comes to visit, Tiffany quickly realizes her secret isn’t the only one hidden within these walls. The body of a servant is found, along with a collection of stolen items, and someone else grows mysteriously ill. Can Tiffany solve these mysteries without her own disguise being discovered? If not, she’ll lose her cottage and possibly her life.
The Boy is not reading right now but this week I have to get him to finish Fellowship of the Ring so he can say he read it.
The Husband is reading —
Little Miss and I are reading Little House on Plum Creek and then I picked up a Boxcar Children book yesterday at the library so I hope we can start that this week.
What’s Been Occurring
I wrote a bit about last week in my Saturday Afternoon post yesterday. Mainly I wrote that our flowers are blooming and we visited my parents. Not a very exciting week overall.
I did take a few more photographs of the roses and peonies yesterday to share on here:
This week the local library’s Summer Reading program starts.
They are offering an open sidewalk chalk art event on Tuesday and on Wednesday they are doing a Lego-themed storytime.
On Saturday of next week, I am supposed to have a sleepover with Little Miss’s friends because they have been asking for one for forever. I am not really looking forward to it because there is no sleep had during a sleepover and the one who won’t sleep will most likely be me and I already don’t sleep so great.
Plus I snore and I am worried I will keep the kids awake, but we will see how it goes.
What I’m/We’re Watching
Last week I watched a lot of Forgotten Way Farms on YouTube.
The Husband and I didn’t have a lot of time to watch things together but did watch a Barnaby Jones episode, which I made a lot of fun of. We also watched some Newhart. What I’m Writing
I have been working on book two of the Gladwynn Grant Mysteries.
This week I listened to James Herriot’s Treasury for Children on Audible. We don’t have a membership to Audible but we did for a while, so we purchased several books on sale. This was one of them.
I loved the sweet stories with happy endings in this book. Each story is about a cat or dog that Alfred Wight took care of or met during his time as a vet.
When I write I also listen to a mix of music from the 1930s and 1940s, including this playlist on YouTube:
This week I also listened to Samantha Fish and Matthew West (yes. Two completely different artists.)
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.
I am ready for a chat this week. A happier chat than in other weeks. *snort laugh*
I’ve been a bit of a downer lately. Eek.
So today I have made myself a cup of hot cocoa. It’s not super cold today (or super hot) but I think cocoa can work any time when you are not a coffee drinker.
Outside my window, the sun is shining. The bell at the Catholic Church on the hill across from the house is chiming because it is noon.
In the yard, my roses and my peonies are blooming, though some of them looked a little sickly, are also blooming.
I’m planning to take Little Miss to the library in a bit and then spend the day working on my book with a live writing sprint with an author on YouTube.
The weather this week was rainy and wet part of the time and then beautiful and sunny. It was not too warm, not too cold. In other words, it was lovely for at least the days it didn’t rain.
We didn’t do much this week outside the house other than take Little Miss to gymnastics, explore the garden, and visit my parents. It was just a pretty relaxed week and we needed that.
Yesterday was super relaxed. I mostly wrote, designed journals (which are on sale for – ha. Kidding. I’m so tired of advertising my stuff. I’m going to take a break from that on my blog.), read a book, and watched Forgotten Way Farm on YouTube.
I really enjoy Forgotten Farms because she talks about simple, everyday things. She shares about what she is cooking, thrift shopping, what she’s reading, and simple living. Did I mention enough that she shares about the simple life? Have I used the word “simple” enough? You understand her channel is about simplicity now, right?
Okay. Moving on.
This morning I was thinking a lot about how I explain myself too much in life. I way overexplain why I am doing something because I think that the other person is thinking something negative about me. I go into defense mode way too often.
So, I kicked out this little paragraph to put on Instagram this weekend or later in the week. I’d really like to take an entire weekend off social media so it will probably be next week.
“You don’t have to explain to anyone why you want time to write. You don’t have to explain to anyone why you are writing what you are writing. You don’t have to explain to anyone why you are self-publishing. If it is making you happy and you find joy in it, or it is making you extra money that your family needs right now then those may be your reasons, but you don’t owe anyone an explanation for those reasons. Family, friends or strangers can think you are silly or ridiculous or delusional and they may even tell you that you are all those things, but you still do not owe them anything – not even a defensive response.
Tune it all out and write on, my friends!”
So today I say the same to you – tune it all out and do whatever you want to do (without hurting others or your soul, of course) and don’t explain yourself to other people as much as possible. I mean, sometimes you have to explain a little but, well, you get my drift.
In closing (I know! This post is so short today!) I am leaving you some photographs I took this week of our flowers as they started to bloom. There are more out there now, and I’ll probably take some more photographs of them for tomorrow’s Sunday Bookends post. Really, though, how many flower photos can one person have? They all sort of look the same, right? But, it makes me happy, so I don’t have to explain. Booyah!
Last week I was really struggling mentally over some situations in my life that I truly have no control over. I kept grasping at quick moments of relaxation to try to steady myself mentally. The mental worry really affected me physically by the end of the week.
Throughout the week, I forced myself to put my phone down or stop scrolling Facebook. I scroll through social media when my mind races. I seem to think that doing those things will distract me. They certainly distract me, but they do not calm me down. In fact, my mind races even more when I go onto social media during a time of anxiety.
As you all know, I am an overthinker and I was in full force overthink mode half the week and then much of the weekend.
By Sunday I was at my breaking point – crying over everything, even simple inconveniences. It was like a hormone shift but that hasn’t been happening a lot lately, so I had a feeling it was from me trying to shove all my worries from the week deep down inside, so those worries didn’t spell out onto others. At least one issue is something my husband really doesn’t want to talk about because he knows how helpless we are in the situation so I couldn’t vent on him.
I found a friend to vent to and then tried to pray through my feelings of hopelessness and guilt. I didn’t pray as much as I stewed inside about it all, though, unfortunately. I tried to be a bit better and intentional about praying instead of worrying this week.
Last week, when I felt my most anxious, I had to consciously tell myself to put the phone down or shut off the computer. I would then either go out and take photographs of the flowers starting to bloom in the yard, pick up a book or put on a worship song, even if it was just for 15 minutes or just one song. I started to call these moments Pockets of Peace.
They were little pockets of time in my day where I could regulate my thoughts and my soul, even if only slightly. It helped give my nerves and mind time to calm down, instead of continuing to race and raise my cortisol to dangerous levels. I even made a point to pull a blanket over my lap and make a cup of tea during those times, mentally envisioning myself in a type of comfort zone.
I even imagined stepping inside a type of bubble – or shall we say a pocket made of soft fabric – zipping it closed and making myself cozy down in the corner for that brief moment of time.
Iit’s very important for us all to find those little pockets of time throughout our days to help slow our thoughts and feelings down. Maybe we need to find that time because we are already at the breaking point level or maybe we don’t want to get to that level. Either way, those pockets of time don’t need to be hours of time. They don’t even need to be an hour or half hour. Even 15 minutes of sitting and reading a devotional, listening to music, or reading from a book we enjoy can help calm most of us down inside. There are days where longer stretches of time for peace are needed, of course.
Have you found yourself in need of those little pockets of peace at some point in your life? How would you use those pockets of time if you intentionally made them?
Two weeks ago I watched How to Marry A Millionaire and decided that weekend I would watch Marilyn Monroe movies for the summer, similar to how I watched Paul Newman movies last summer.
How to Marry A Millionaire stars Marilyn, Lauren Bacall, and Betty Grable and was considered a screwball comedy.
It was released in 1953.
It follows the story of Schatze Page (Lauren), Loco Dempsey (Betty), and Pola Debevoise (Marilyn) who are all looking for ways to marry a rich man and live the high life.
Or at least that’s the goal when the movie starts.
As we progress into the movie, we see the goals of the women begin to shift based on the men who they end up meeting along the way.
Each woman works on snagging a rich man and to do that they need a home base, so Schatze finds a home to rent from a man who is out of the country. She’ll need money to pay for the rental, though, so she begins to sell off the fancy furniture in the home, even though it isn’t hers.
Eventually, she and the other women will meet men who they decide they can snag and marry. Schatze meets William Powell, one of my favorite “classic Hollywood” actors. He’s 30 years older than her and a widower. More importantly, he’s rich.
She sets out to make him her own, but there’s a man named Tom who is trying to get her attention. She wants nothing to do with Tom, though, since he’s poor and won’t support her high-end needs.
Marilyn’’s character meets a wealthy businessman who is also a crook and she’s about to run off with him when she gets on the wrong plane and meets the man who owns the apartment on the plane. The apartment owner, it turns out, is trying to escape the IRS.
Betty’s character meets a married man and thinks she’s on her way to a Elk’s Club meeting in Maine, but has actually been invited to his personal lodge. She tries to leave when she realizes what is going on, but comes down with the mumps and is quarantined. While there, and after the man she came with becomes ill himself, she meets a poor but charming forest ranger and has to decide if she wants to pursue love or money.
Betty was supposed to be the star of the film, according to some articles, but, of course, Marilyn ended up with top billing.
According to the blog, Classic Movie Hub, Fox created the movie using anamorphic lenses developed by Henri Chretien in France. These lenses “expanded the audience’s peripheral vision by creating a panoramic, curved screen triple the size of a conventional screen,” according to the blog. This was in an effort to combat the rise of televisions in the American home.
Fox had two things to compete with television with this movie – Marilyn and these new lenses. They made a movie called The Robe first with the technology, however, because they felt that movie would appeal more to a wider audience and was more family-friendly.
The Robe was about a Roman centurion who commanded the unit responsible for the crucifixion of Christ.
(I think it is interesting that the woman in this photo by Lauren’s name looks nothing like her.)
Marilyn originally wanted Betty’s role since that role had more “snappy lines.” Playing Pola would mean playing a nearsighted woman who felt insecure wearing her glasses and often slammed into walls when she took her glasses off. Marilyn wasn’t confident in her comedic skills and wanted to back out, but the director convinced her to continue and she managed to pull it off amazingly well.
Lauren Bacall was already a well-known actress at this point and I felt she really held the group together.
In some ways I felt Marilyn did overshadow the others with her performance and not just because of her beauty. She pulled off the quirky-plus-innocent role well.
I felt like Lauren was out of place in a comedy but that’s probably because I am used to watching her in Noir-type films with Humphrey Bogart (who she later married).
Betty impressed me with her comedic skills and matched Marilyn’s quirkiness. I guess Lauren was more of the “straight-man” in the trio.
I loved William Powell in this. None of the other men really stood out to me, but that may be because William was so sweet and doted on Lauren’s character even though he really should have known she was a gold digger. And because I have a soft spot for him after watching him in the Thin Man movies.
I won’t share the ending of the movie, but I will say that the women redeemed themselves from their selfishness as the movie progressed.
As for stories from the set, the Classic Movie Hub blog relayed that Lauren and Betty were annoyed that Marilyn was late on set a lot and there were other minor snits between the three women.
From the blog: “When the three female stars assembled on the soundstage for the first time, the press awaited a mushroom cloud of conflict and cattiness or, at least, Grable’s bitter resentment of Monroe. However, Grable immediately embraced Monroe and ceremoniously told her, “Honey, I’ve had mine. Go get yours. It’s your turn now.” In response to Bacall grumbling about Monroe’s tardiness, Grable said, “Honey, give it to her. Let’s listen to records until she gets here. It’s her time now. Let her have fun.” Before long, Bacall found herself also feeling protective of Monroe.
I think this is my first time watching a movie with Marilyn all the way through. I enjoyed it and am looking forward the other films, though I know at least a couple of them are much darker than this one.
The next movies I plan to watch and when I plan to write about them are:
June 22: Gentlemen Prefer Blonds
June 29: Some Like It Hot
July 6: Niagra
July 13: The Seven Year Itch
July 20: Monkey Business (because it’s Marilyn and Cary together)
It felt so weird yesterday morning when I realized I didn’t have to plan our homeschooling week out and I also didn’t have to get ready to argue with Little Miss about lesson time.
It felt weird and also freeing. I literally did a bit of a dance in my kitchen while warming up my tea as it hit me that I can take it easy most days for another two months.
Speaking of taking it easy, I want to take it easy even during homeschooling next year, especially after talking to my evaluator and realizing homeschooling doesn’t have to be as strict as I have been making it.
“You realize you only have to teach these subjects at some point during grades kindergarten to sixth right? You don’t even have to teach every subject every year, let alone every day.”
I’m paraphrasing that by the way. That’s not an exact quote.
I will be teaching the core subjects every year, of course, but as she pointed out to me – most public schools in my state are focused on reading and math and a small amount of science or history before sixth grade. Apparently, I am an overachiever because I have been teaching math, reading, science and history every day, every year since kindergarten with Little Miss and she is going into third grade this year.
I’ve now been told that, yes, I should teach those subjects throughout the year but I can break it up however I’d like. I can take a month and only focus on English or Math or I can mix things up and teach science a couple of times a week.
The reason I would most likely offer math, especially, every day, is that is a subject where concepts need to build upon one another and be consistent to be sure it is in the brain. It’s more of a subject where practice is very important.
The Boy is another story.
I have to make sure he takes certain courses before he graduates, whether those classes are taught every day or not. I’m also the one who determines if he graduates. Both me and my evaluator, to be more specific. And, well, if we really get technical, the school district does have to sign off on what I submit to them as well, but it’s unusual for them not to approve what a state-certified evaluator signs off on.
I need credits in certain subjects for The Boy from 9th to 12th grade. It’s four credits in English and three in Math, Science, and Social Studies, as well as two years of arts and humanities.
Those credits can be met by either about 120 hours of learning and studying time on the subject (including activities and independent reading) or they can be at least 80 percent completion of a textbook.
He will be attending a trade school for high school students in the fall and part of what he learns there will most likely count toward those credits as well.
The Boy will need two more credits in English and Science. He only needs one more in math and history/social studies. I told him this means that his senior year will mainly be attending the trade school and arts and music. I’d say he liked the sound of that but he’s a teenager, so I mainly just received a grunt in response.
I am hoping to incorporate more art and music into schoolwork for both the kids next year. I really enjoyed being able to focus on artists, composers, and musical instruments throughout much of May with Little Miss.
I hope to be able to incorporate at least a semester of music lessons for The Boy in addition to planned art classes.
I have a feeling I’ll be hammering out all those details in the next two and a half months, even when I am supposed to be taking a break from it all.
In end of the year news, Little Miss and I read 34 books together with two of them being read on her own. The Boy and I read two together. It was one of those years where there were a lot of other things focused on. They were both good, deep reads, though: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Fellowship of the Ring.
When we start school up again – either in the middle of August or the beginning of September, it will be our sixth year of homeschooling. It’s insane to even think it has been that long. What a ride it has been. We’ve definitely had trials, tears, and some doubts, but in the end it has been one of the best decisions we ever made.
The Boy and Little Miss have had more time to explore their interests and also to spend time with their aging grandparents and avoid some of the more stressful situations that can develop at public school.
