I have been remiss over the years in reading books that are considered classics so this year I hope to read a few at least.
Now, I will admit that I said the same thing last year. Or was it the year before? I can’t remember now but I do know I said I would read more classics and didn’t, except for what I read with The Boy for school.
We read Silas Marner, Lord of the Flies, To Kill A Mockingbird, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
We are now reading The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien.
On my own, though, I hope to read at least five other classics this year:
Little Women
Lilies of the Field
Shane
The Secret Garden
and something by one of the Bronte sisters. Who can give me a suggestion of which one to read?
Also, are there any other classics you would suggest for me to read this year? I’ll see if I can squeeze them in.
Have you read any of the classics I mentioned? What did you think of them?
I’m sitting on my couch under my grandmother’s blanket.
Grandma passed away in 2003 (in the hospital, not under the blanket, incidentally) and the blanket has been at her house where my parents now live.
One day recently I went to visit my parents and my dad had a stack of blankets for me to go through.
“We’re running out of room. Take some of these.”
He then gestured to three empty Walmart boxes and told me to fill them.
One of the first blankets I reached for was the tan-brown knitted blanket that I remember my grandmother laying under for naps and when she fell asleep on the couch watching the 11 o’clock news. My paternal grandmother weighed about 100 pounds and was probably about 5 foot 1 inches tall. She’d pull her tiny form into a ball in the curved corner of the couch and drape the blanket around her. It would entirely cover her and it’s not a big blanket.
The couch was tan as well and it was a three- or four-piece sectional. The piece she sat in was curved and it’s not a shape I often see in couches these days.
If you looked too fast, you might miss her. That’s how well hidden she’d be under that blanket.
I know there were many times I almost didn’t see her when I was checking where she was.
One night, though I can’t remember why, I stayed alone at that house. I believe it was before Grandma died, but my parents were already living there. I curled up in the corner of that couch with all the outside lights on in case someone tried to break in and fell asleep there. Later I wondered how she’d ever been able to fall asleep in that spot, all curled up tight. It was not very comfortable.
The day Grandma died Dad called me from the hospital.
“You said you wanted me to call when she passed,” he said. “So, I am.”
I’d been over in her room earlier in the day.
“I love you Grandma,” I told her as I leaned over her while she slipped in and out of sleep.
“I know,” she said.
She didn’t often say “I love you” back but she may have that day. I truly can’t remember.
I just remember her saying, “I’m so tired, Lisa. So tired.”
She was two weeks shy of turning 94.
“I know, Grandma,” I told her. “Just rest. You can rest now.”
Grandma lived across the hill from us. A drive down a dirt road, a bridge over a small stream, then up another dirt road would bring us to her house – the house Dad and his sisters grew up in.
When I was a teenager I often called Grandma to tell her my mom was sending some food over to her for dinner. She’d often hang up without saying goodbye.
The conversations went like this:
“Grandma, Dad’s bringing over some chicken and potatoes Mom made.”
“Okay. Sounds good.”
“She also made some applesauce.”
“Okay. Yep. Mmhmm.”
I’d open my mouth to say something else but the click had already sounded in my ear. She was done with the conversation and hung up.
Often before she hung up I’d throw in a “I love you” and she’d say, “Yup. Mhmm. Okay then.”
And the click would sound.
One time, though, she said, “Yup. Mhmm. Okay then. Love you too.”
And then the click.
I was flying high for the rest of the night.
I rushed into the kitchen and told my mom, “Grandma said I love you back!”
It was the best feeling in the world – to actually hear those words.
She showed her love in other ways, though.
In small ways.
In the way she asked how I was or wanted to hear the stories I’d been covering at the newspaper.
In the way she gave me a quilt she’d made years ago for my college graduation.
In the way she didn’t talk a lot about her life but answered questions about it when I asked.
In the way we shared black jellybeans together, even though she said licorice was bad for her blood pressure.
In the way she tipped her head back and laughed at me that day I took her photograph while she sat on the ground next to the ditch behind her house.
In the way she let it slip that one time how she really felt and told me she loved me too.
And even in the hurt I held on to for years – a question about what had happened to me. I used to be so skinny, she said. I don’t think she asked it to be mean, though. She was truly worried. She wondered what had happened that was causing me to suddenly gain weight. It wouldn’t be until several years after she died that I learned my thyroid was dying and leaving the weight on me.
Even though I wasn’t still skinny, my mom always told me she knew Grandma still loved me. I have a good feeling she is right.
The blanket isn’t super soft.
I don’t know if I’d cover myself with it if it wasn’t full of memories of a love that was quiet when the world was loud.
I could use some quiet in the loud right now. Couldn’t you?
So, when I pull that blanket across my lap and up around my shoulders I will think of the action as if I am crawling into a stillness my soul needs.
A stillness that only a quiet love can bring.
A stillness that brings quiet when the world is loud.
The song Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus has been running through my mind for a couple of weeks now.
I’ve been humming it when the anxiety starts to overtake me.
When I say anxiety has been overtaking me, I mean it has been overtaking me completely. My body has been trembling, my legs have been weak, and my mind has been clouded.
These are the lyrics I have been singing when I can’t slow my mind down otherwise:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of his glory and grace.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus.
Not upon a celebrity pastor.
No upon a movement, even if that movement is good.
Not on a person or a group or a group of ideas.
Our eyes are to be on Jesus.
Not the Jesus other people say Jesus is.
Not the Jesus a pastor told us is Jesus.
Not the Jesus a TV show told us was Jesus.
The Jesus we know from reading the Bible. The Jesus we know does not condone sin but still loves the sinner.
Here are the rest of the lyrics of the song (which I don’t remember when I sing it!):
O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see? There’s light for a look at the Savior, And life more abundant and free!
Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, In the light of His glory and grace.
Thro’ death into life everlasting, He passed, and we follow Him there; O’er us sin no more hath dominion– For more than conqu’rors we are!
His Word shall not fail you–He promised; Believe Him, and all will be well: Then go to a world that is dying, His perfect salvation to tell!
The hymn was written by Helen Lemmel in 1922.
According to last.fm, “At age 55, Helen heard a statement that deeply impressed her: “So then, turn your eyes upon Him, look full into His face and you will see that the things of earth will acquire a strange new dimness.”
“I stood still,” Helen later said, “and singing in my soul and spirit was the chorus, with not one conscious moment of putting word to word to make rhyme, or note to note to make melody. The verses were written the same week, after the usual manner of composition, but nonetheless dictated by the Holy Spirit.”
As humans, it is hard to keep our eyes on Jesus and not on the storm swirling around us. Trust me, I’ve been failing at the message of the song for weeks now. I’ve succeeded a few times and felt better for it but I don’t keep my eyes on Jesus and on what he can do like I should. We need to daily remind ourselves where our focus should be.
A song like this one helps ground me, along with verses in the Bible.
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. Isaiah 26:3 ESV
What helps to remind you where your focus should be?
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what I and the rest of the family have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing, and some weeks I share what I am listening to.
What’s Been Occurring
There is still a lot going on in our family with – well, everything.
There are new diagnoses, surgeries planned, family members very ill, deaths of family friends. To say this year has been a beast for us so far is an understatement. I’d list all that has been going on here, but I don’t want to depress everyone more than I have to. So instead I will point you to yesterday’s post where I talked about some fun things we did this past week and where I shared some photos of my youngest running in the yard with her best friend, Zooma the Wonderdog.
I’ll even share a couple photos here:
Sometimes you have to choose joy and look for it a little harder than other times.
What I/we’ve been Reading
Most of this week I’ve been reading The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell by Lilian Jackson Braun.
That’s it. It’s just been relaxing and I haven’t had time to juggle two books. With all the family stuff going on, homeschooling, working on a new book and just being unable to really think much or too fast.
Later in the week, though, I started listening to The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien on Audible. The Boy and I are reading that together for English.
This week I hope to finish The Cat Who book and continue a Longmire book I started.
At night Little Miss and I are reading Paddington books again. Early in the week, she read a few pages of one to me.
During the week we are reading fiction books based on The Imagination Station from Adventures in Odyssey, which is a Focus on the Family creation.
The Boy is reading The Fellowship of the Ring.
The Husband is reading …oops. Forgot to ask him before he went to bed and he’s going to be gone today so I’ll catch up with what he is reading later in the week or next week.
What We watched/are Watching
This week we watched a couple episodes of Grantchester and an episode of Foyle’s War. I started to rewatch Death Comes to Pemberly, which is a story that extends the story of Lizzie Bennet and Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice. It is a reimagining, I guess you would say. There is a murder on the Darcy estate involving the dastardly Mr. Wickham. It is a four-part mini-series.
I also half-watched an episode of All Creatures Great and Small that was a bit emotional and too much for me. I will probably rewatch it and the next episode later this week.
What I’m Writing
I’ve been working on a cozy mystery that I’ll share a bit about later. I was able to write a couple thousand words on it this week, which was a nice distraction from life right now.
I need to listen to more music because it helps to calm my nerves.
Matthew West has a new album out and this is one of the new songs:
I also need to listen to this song a lot this week:
Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.
About the time you are reading this, I hope to be at my parents’ watching Anne of Green Gables with my mom. This will be after I take Little Miss to gymnastics, where she will prepare for an upcoming competition and I will read a book.
I hope I will be drinking a cup of tea of some kind at my parents.
What are you drinking today?
Is it cold or warm where you are?
It was warmer here earlier this week, but then dropped fast yesterday after a thunderstorm at 5 a.m. A thunderstorm in winter. It was certainly weird. I’ll miss the warm weather. That little sample was enough to make me long for spring. I feel better when it is sunny out. My sinuses are happier with warmer weather too.
Earlier in the week, Little Miss and I played outside and enjoyed the sunshine. She created slime and ran up and down the hill in the backyard with Zooma the Wonder Dog and then I read her history lesson to her. The wind wasn’t cold exactly. More like chilly but it was whipping fiercely most of the time and later that night I realized my face felt dry and chapped. I finally decided I had windburn, even though the wind wasn’t freezing.
That night, though, she developed a sore throat and a low-grade fever. She missed Awana, which she loves, and cried, but said her throat hurt when she talked, and she wouldn’t be able to sing either.
That night she fell asleep in her room with a fever while Bluey played on my phone. The moment struck me as wholesome. Her face was serene and beautiful. I watched her with her hand propped sweetly against her face and prayed that the next morning she would feel better and her fever would be gone. Thankfully it was.
I absolutely dread my children being sick. It’s not only because I lose sleep by watching over them, or in Little Miss’s case, tending to her when she can’t breathe through her nose or wakes up in a delirious feverish state, but because I simply cannot stand to see them suffer. I absolutely hate being sick, but I would rather be sick than see them hurt or suffer.
On Monday, I made a pot of ham and bean soup, which was really only local ham and butter means mixed together in the Instapot because I wasn’t sure what else to put in the soup.
My parents make their bean soup with onions and carrots, but the only carrots I had were canned and I was afraid they’d be too mushy. Also, my son doesn’t like cooked carrots and my daughter doesn’t like onions. This way they’d both be happy. I did find out later, though, that my parents now use canned carrots in their soup to cut back on all the work of cutting up fresh carrots.
It has become a tradition in my family that when one of us makes bean soup we send some to the other one. When my parents make bean soup, they make a huge pot of it and send containers of it to us because the kids absolutely love their bean soup. When I make some I send it on to them, even though their soup is always going to be better than mine.
This week is pretty void of appointments, thankfully.
I hope to keep working on a new cozy mystery I am writing.
Little Miss and I will also be continuing our lessons for homeschool, including history through fiction (I picked up some Imagination Station books for her. They are from Focus on the Family), science and math, which is something Little Miss and I frequently butt heads on. I hope that can get easier for us soon.
I found a couple of photos taken on the way back from our trip to Scranton a couple of weeks ago when I was downloading the photos from our sunny day Wednesday.
The sunset one is near a Procter and Gamble plant near us and the building is a former Catholic school that is now the location for a Jewish summer camp.
Tomorrow in my Sunday Bookends post, I will ramble about what I’ve been reading and watching this week.
I mentioned Sunday in my Sunday Bookends post that I had visited a local library that was having a sale, as well as a local flea market-style store that had a large selection of used books.
I thought today I’d share a few of the books I picked up, even though I did mention a few already.
I’m going to toss in there a couple I also picked up last week at a library near us that has a bookshop in the back of their building.
I had to use photos I downloaded online for a couple of these photos because I loaned the books to my mom before I took photographs of them. Mom reads a lot faster than me so I always pass copies of books on to her first.
Her Mother’s Legacy by Francine Rivers
I haven’t read a book by Francine in years, mainly because the topics are usually quite heavy and I often look for books with lighter topics.
Fire By Night and Candle in the Darkness by Lynn Austin
I have yet to read a book by Lynn Austin but people who read Christian Fiction absolutely love her so I figured it was time I tried. She writes historical fiction. These are the first two books in the Refiner’s Fire series.
A Case of Bad Taste and A Case of Crooked Letters by Lori Copeland.
Lori is a new to me author and while I thought her books were cozy mysteries, I needed to take a break from the one book because within the first three pages, two husbands had already been killed off and one of them was fairly young and died from a blood clot, which has been happening to a lot of people lately so that made me uneasy. Of course, this book was written years ago so it has nothing to do with the recent rashes of blood clot deaths, but it still felt a little too close for comfort after someone I know who is in their 30s had a stroke last week. I do plan to pick the book back up again, however, because, despite that dark issue, the book does seem like it will have hope and some humor as well.
Home to Holly Springs, Come Rain Or Come Shine, and To Be Where You Are by Jan Karon
These books looked new and I was excited to add them to my collection.
To Be Where You Are is the last book in the series. Home to Holly Springs is book ten but I believe it was originally part of a planned separate series about Father Tim. It is one of the darker and tougher books of the series, but, in my opinion, one of Jan’s best.
Books from the Walt Longmire Series: A Cold Dish, Death Without Company, Kindness Goes Unpunished, As the Crow Flies, Another Man’s Moccasins, Hell is Empty, A Serpent’s Tooth by Craig Johnson
I’m on book seven of the series, Hell is Empty. We own all of the books on Kindle, but I want to start collecting the books in physical form as well.
Murder at the Vicarageby Agatha Christie (A Miss Marple Mystery)
The Husband picked this one out for me and I’m excited to read it because I’ve never read any of Christie’s books about Miss Marple but she’s one of my favorite Christie characters.
The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell and The Cat Who Blew The Whistle by Lillian Jackson Braun
I picked these two up at the bookshop in the back of the library in the town near us (well, 40 minutes near us). The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell is a later book in the series and the later books aren’t as good, but I’m on chapter 4 and it’s a lot better than some of the other later books I’ve tried to read.
Sean of the South: Whistling Dixie by Sean Dietrich.
He’s a new to me author and this book looks like a collection of short stories or short thoughts. I follow him on Instagram, and he seems like a downhome author that I will like. I have a couple of his books in my Kindle as well.
Treasure Island by Robert Lewis Stevenson
The last book by Robert Lewis Stevenson that The Boy and I tried to read we failed at, but I’m willing to try again. The Husband said this one is better than Kidnapped.
I picked up a stack of books for Little Miss as well, but I’ll write about them in a separate blog post.
Have you read any of the books mentioned above? What did you think of them?
I started it as a fun endeavor to help take my mind off some lost friendships and my loneliness. I was lonely before those lost friendships because they really weren’t good friendships at all, but I didn’t realize how bad they were until they were gone.
A few times during this fiction writing journey, I got wrapped up and sad about not making money from my books. Silly, I know, since they are really stories I wrote for my blog readers more than they are books.
As the journey has continued, I have slipped in and out of those feelings, but have had more moments of simple gratitude – not for making money from selling my books because I’ve barely made any of that, but for the friendships and connections I’ve made through writing, either with the books or the blog.
The connections I’ve made through my blog and my books have meant so much more than money.
Those connections have literally been a lifesaver. I’m not exaggerating when I say that.
The encouraging messages, the offers of prayers, and even beautiful songs sent to me privately have sustained me through some very dark days, most recently, but also over the last three years.
Just a couple of weeks ago a follower/reader and now friend sent me this video that was such an important reminder to me. It literally left me in refreshing, needed tears.
The people I have met online came to me in a time when I had lost “real life” (as the saying goes) friendships and felt so lonely and alone.
I used to take the online connections for granted. These were only people I knew online, not really “knew-knew”. But behind that computer they are real people, like me, some of them also lonely or in dark places, and we are making connections, in many cases, on a heart level, not just a superficial virtual level.
I can’t imagine what I would do without all of your wonderful people who read my blog and my books and send me encouraging messages and are just there when I really need someone to be there.
You are appreciated much more than you could ever imagine.
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what I and the rest of the family 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 was determined to finish Anne of Windy Poplars this week because I started it, not necessarily because I am enjoying it. I don’t like to not finish books I’ve started. I won’t lie. I skimmed the last few chapters. I’d heard from some other readers who have read Anne that this one wasn’t their favorite and I can see why. It isn’t a horrible book but there were parts that just dragged on. I mean, the Anne books sort of drag on anyhow. They are written some 100 years ago now and are in the classic style of “head-hopping” and over explaining, but this one was a bit over the top.
With that book behind me I’m planning to read Anne’s House of Dreams but only a chapter or two at a time.
I’m really itching for a cozy mystery so I wanted to delve into The Cat Who Smelled A Rat by Lilian Jackson Braun, even though it is one of her later books and they aren’t as good. I had purchased a mass-market paperback for my birthday this past year. When I opened it last night, all excited to read, though, I realized that there are tons of bizarre typos in it. Like spaces in the middle of words typos. Like I don’t know how this made it off-the-press typos.
I’m so irritated by these typos (I could deal with some missing commas, etc.) that I don’t know if I’ll keep reading this one. I do have four others in the series in hardcover that I haven’t read yet so I may grab one of them.
I picked up a book called A Case of Bad Taste by Lori Copeland at a library sale I mention below, so I am starting that today instead.
I’m also reading an ARC for an indie author, which I am also done with. It is called A New Day Dawning by Sara Whitely.
It releases on Tuesday.
What’s Been Occurring
I wrote a little about last week in the post I shared yesterday.
The Husband and I went to lunch in a town 30 minutes away yesterday and then visited a merchant center, which is sort of like a flea market. There they had a selection of old books, which distracted me for quite a while, mixed in with other items, such as cast iron pans, handmade products, dishes, DVDs, toys, clothes, etc.
For me, looking through old books is so exciting because I just never know what treasure I’m going to find there. I found a book by two “old time” Christian Fiction authors, Bodie and Brock Thoene, that I hadn’t ready before (though I haven’t read a lot of theirs) and one by an author named Sean Dietrich who I found on Instagram. He writes short little tidbits about life, which reminds me of my blog, or at least the early years of my blog.
After we left the flea market, we headed to a library book sale in a small town we pass through on our way home. Okay, wait, we actually stopped by Aldi first for a couple of items, and then we went on to the book sale. I had looked on social media to see if there were any book sales going on because – yes – I am addicted to buying books, just as The Husband said. I say he can’t say much since he stopped by a library to buy a used book on Friday too. Ha!
The sale was upstairs in a conference room of the library (which is in an old high school) and many of the books appeared brand new. A notice on the chalkboard said that the sale was $5 for one bag full and $3 for a second bag full. I could have probably filled three bags with the books we found, even though the selection didn’t look that large on arrival.
In the end, we came home with 22 books for $8 and many of them were hardcovers that looked brand-new. I picked up three books from the Mitford series that were library-bound and spotless. They looked like they’d never been checked out, which is sad because that means a bunch of readers really missed out. I was also happy because I added them to my collection since I’ve been trying to gather together all 14 of the books in physical form for my bookshelf.
I also picked up a couple books by Lynn Austin (Fire by Night and Candle in the Darkness), one by Francine Rivers (Her Mother’s Hope), two books by Lori Copeland (A Case of Bad Taste and A Case of Crooked Letters) and together The Husband and I picked out seven of the first nine books in the Walt Longmire series by Craig Johnson. We own those books already on Kindle, but I always say we never know when Amazon is going to stop their service or something weird will happen and we will lose all those books. I prefer to have the books I really like in physical form.
For Little Miss, I picked up a couple of Native American fiction books because she loved Children of the Longhouse so much and is now fascinated by Native American culture – at least when it comes to books. Those books included Walk by Two Moons by Sharon Creech, Sing Down the Moon by Scott O’Dell, and Zia by Scott O’Dell.
I also picked her up a few picture books.
I didn’t find any books The Boy might like this time around.
Do you do what I do when you see a book by a new-to-you author and read the first few lines to see if you will like the book? If the first few lines catch me then I snatch up the book, thereby adopting it and taking it home.
I didn’t do that with each of the books I looked at yesterday, but I did with a couple, including the Copleand book.
After we came home, Little Miss’s little friend came over to play for a couple of hours. Little Miss stayed with the little friend and her grandmother while we were gone too, so she had a full day of playing, which was nice because it’s hard to get her together with her friends, who all live a half an hour from us.
The day was extremely relaxing and exactly what we needed after the last month of craziness our family has had.
Today we will visit my parents for some lunch and afternoon watching of The Chosen.
What We watched/are Watching
Last week we watched the last two episodes of season three of The Chosen. You can watch them at www.angelstudios.com or on The Chosen app.
They were pretty incredible but I’m going to need to watch them again to take everything in that was touched on. I’m already looking forward to season four.
During the week I watched an episode of All Creatures Great and Small from the most recent version of the show and sniffled through most of it. It’s a very touching show.
The Husband and I watched an episode of Foyles War and really enjoyed it.
I also watched a documentary on Orchard House, which is the house that Louisa May Alcott lived in and wrote Little Women.
Last night I watched video after video on YouTube of ice skaters I used to watch back in the 90s – Scott Hamilton, Kurt Browning, Elvis Stojko, etc.
Browning just had the most amazing footwork. He has always been quirky and fun on the ice too. He has a style that I’d never seen in skating before and haven’t since.
I love watching him.
Elvis was such a powerful skater and Hamilton? Well, we was the inspiration for them all. What a showman.
As I was falling down the YouTube spiral, I saw a video of Browning from last year and – oh my – he still is in amazing shape and skating well at the age of 56.
I spent 2 hours just watching the various performances and it was so relaxing. I need to take YouTube spirals like that more often.
Here are a few of the performances I watched:
What I’m Writing
Earlier today I had a breakthrough with ideas for a cozy mystery I want to write. I hope to start working on it this week.
I’m also going to be working on my Biblical fiction story.
I didn’t share much on the blog this week for various reasons, part of which I wrote about yesterday.
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.
This weekend is very welcome after a very long week.
Today I’m sipping some tea with an insane amount of local honey. The Husband picked up some local honey that has a cinnamon aftertaste and I’m really enjoying it.
It was very delicious and relaxing to have tea when we traveled 90 minutes one way to take Little Miss to an oral surgeon consultation this past week. Little Miss has had some damage to her teeth over the years due to soft enamel and now she’ll need a procedure in March, which I am not looking forward to in many ways, but am in others. I’m looking forward to helping her teeth not become infected or cause her pain (which she doesn’t have now) but I’m very concerned that she will need anesthesia.
The good thing is that the surgeon we consulted with was amazing. He walked in, stuck his hand out, and said, “Hello, my name is Justin.”
Not, “Hi, I’m Dr….”
Instead he made it clear we are on the same level and he isn’t above us simply because of his degree.
He was extremely reassuring, interacted well with Little Miss, and left us dumbfounded with his kindness. So dumbfounded we almost forgot to ask questions. We weren’t used to being treated kindly by a person involved in dental care and let him know that which he said he was sorry to hear.
After we left the dentist, we found a restaurant for dinner and then headed back home north another ninety minutes. On the way home we saw a bald eagle going for fish in the river. Little Miss missed seeing it and lamented how her short stature causes her to miss everything exciting you can see out the window.
Our appointment was in Scranton and we saw a large library on our way out of town. Both Little Miss and I wanted to go to the library but it would have been hard to get out of traffic and find a parking space so we kept going. The Husband was impressed that Little Miss wanted to go to a library so he decided to make up for her not seeing the eagle by stopping at a library in a town he has to visit often for work.
For a small town it has a very nice library and I’ve been wanting to go there and see the bookshop they have in the back of the library.
The bookshop is like a full-time library book sale and I was thrilled to finally see it. It’s a small room but it has several bookshelves lined with used books in very good shape that are for sale for $2 hardcovers and $1 paperbacks. The Husband didn’t let me stay very long for fear I’d wipe out our grocery money, but being there, looking through the books, was the happiest I’d been in weeks. I felt so calm and relaxed by being able to focus on something other than bad news.
I picked out three hardcovers, Little Miss picked out a book on Pegasus, and The Husband found a book for himself. We also found an entire set of the Lord of the Rings books, which was timely since the Boy and I will be starting The Fellowship of the Ring next week for school.
We were going to go back to the bookstore today after The Husband and I grabbed some lunch, but decided to find a restaurant a little closer. This made me a bit sad because I knew it meant I wouldn’t be able to go to the bookstore. That sadness led me to look on social media and see if any of the libraries in the town we’d be visiting had a similar type store and guess what? They are having a book sale and another, smaller library, that we will pass on the way, is having one too. I told The Husband about the sales and he informed me I am addicted to buying used books.
I’m okay with that. There are worse things to be addicted to.
(Interrupting this blog post to ask for prayer as I am having trouble focusing on The Boy telling me about video games right now while I am trying to write this. How can he possibly have all the lore of these games memorized but not be able to remember what he learns for school? Argh!).
The weather warmed up this past week just a little bit in the beginning and more later in the week. This gave us a chance to not stuff wood into our woodstove the way we had been previously while we tried to keep up with our heating oil bill. We were able to do that this week but now that we know how to utilize the heat from the woodstove more, we will be able to save on heating oil in the future.
We were able to just keep the fire at a nice gentle roll that left a warm glow in the woodstove but didn’t overwhelm us with heat this past week.
Our youngest cat loves the stove and somedays she looks like she is worshiping before it.
I will be glad when the weather is a bit warmer and I won’t have to start the fire or load it and the guys won’t have to haul wood in from the woodpile. At the same time, I will miss the coziness of it.
This upcoming week should be a bit calmer than the past few weeks. We don’t have any appointments planned other than grocery shopping at the end of the week.
The Husband has been doing the shopping for the last couple of months because he actually likes it. Weirdo. I’ll be taking over again this week, though, which I’m not exactly looking forward to since I’m not really a fan of grocery shopping like he is. Still, he does a lot for the family and deserves a break.
This post is jumping around a lot (hey, that’s normal for posts here!), but I have to share that I miss blogging. I have not been blogging as much recently because of either stress, things going on that I had to take care of, or trying to figure out how to market my books. I’m really tired of trying to keep up with social media to market the books and blogging is a stress reliever so I really hope to get back to blogging some more fun things the rest of February and beyond.
So how was your week last week? Did you drink lots of tea or cocoa or something else warm? What’s on the sip list today? Let me know in the comments.
I leave with you two very entertaining performances by ice skater Scott Hamilton. An amazing skater and an even more amazing man and Christian. God bless him. It’s a joy to be able to look back at his performances. I’m so glad he shared this first one on his Instagram this week. I needed that pick-me-up. The second one is ten years later, which would have made Scott about 46 years old. It was the same year he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He’s since had two or, maybe, three tumors and a couple bouts of cancer but he’s still kicking and preaching Christ too.
