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

On 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 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.

HyperFocal: 0

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:

Next week I will be watching Some Like It Hot, which is another screwball comedy with Marilyn, Jack Lemon, and Tony Curtis.

If you would like to join in watching the movies with me, here is the rest of the schedule for the Summer of Marilyn:

July 6: Niagra

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

Looking for crayfish – crawfish – what do you call them?

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings16 Comments

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?

Teaser Tuesday: A sneak peek of Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings4 Comments

Here is a little sneak peek of Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing.



The full book releases on July 18th. You can pre-order it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C1KSQJXP


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.

Happy Father’s Day and a Song from my Grandfather

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings8 Comments

I meant to share this earlier today on my Sunday Bookends post but I don’t think there is anything wrong with sharing it in a separate post.

This is a video I slapped together of my grandfather (my dad’s dad) singing at the fairgrounds near us sometime in the late ’60s or early ’70s.

We spent the day with my dad looking through old photographs and I’m sure I’ll share some of them in a post later this week or next.

I hope you all had a great Father’s Day and were able to either spend it with yours or remember your father or a father figure in your life today.

Sunday Bookends: library visits, blooming flowers, books that make me cringe, and music to write to

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Sunday Bookends8 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.


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.

On the blog this past week I shared:

What I’m Listening To

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.)

Blog Posts I Enjoyed This Past Week Or Recently

Mama’s Empty Nest: Birthday Joy

Scott Tirrell: Well, I’m Stumped (about his writing journey)

Katja: Notorious

Over the Teacups: Names of Jesus



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: Roses are blooming, enjoying some relaxing days, and you don’t always have to explain yourself

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Saturday Afternoon Tea6 Comments

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!



Faithfully Thinking: Pockets of Peace

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Faithfully Thinking5 Comments

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?