blog networking

Links around the internet that have nothing to do with You Know What

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 24 Comments

Escapism is the name of the game for many of us already prone to anxiety who are in the midst of all this world craziness, so I thought I’d share some blog posts and other links from around the internet that I have found this week that have nothing to do with You Know What. If you need info on You Know What, you can always look to news and medical sites, but we should always have a few places we can go for escape as well.

I could relate to this one by Mama’s Empty Nest about smells and how they trigger memories of our loved ones. 

I always love the photos from Derrick and his wife Jackie and I’m glad he’s able to get out in his rural setting and still take some beautiful images. I also love reading about what they are eating because half the time I have no idea what they’re talking about. Ha! I’ve been following this blog that offers the most encouraging posts for Christians and others.Just One Robin has been keeping the topics on her blog different than the news to give people something to escape to and she offered this one about her art journey earlier this week.Bettie G shared about the guilt many of us have over asking for prayers for ourselves.Our Little Red House shared about making over pretty mugs to hold things, such as cute plants.Michelle at Blessings by Me always shares great DIY projects and this one is about a cactus flower pot, which then reminded me of Our Little Red House’s blog post about cacti in Arizona, which she called Walking with the Giants. I’ve been following some serial fiction stories, including:Pond People on Writing WrinklesQueen of the Garden at The Lily Cafe.Alice and the Warden by Autumn Rain.and some short fiction on this Pete’s blog and this Pete’s blog.For my own blog, I’ve been trying to stay away from commenting on all the news with some (mostly) unrelated posts:

A blog post about using the thesaurus more when writing. I swear it is more interesting than it sounds;Faithfully Thinking: When the Church Disappoints You;Sunday Bookends: Light Romances in book and movie form.And of course the continuing chapters from A New Beginning. We’ve also been distracting ourselves from things by watching this goat farming family from Arizona.


This post has some to do with what is going on, as it was put out for that reason, but it can also be a good one to save for moments of high anxiety.



For comedy, we’ve been binging Foil, Arms and Hog  (be wary they aren’t always appropriate for children, so just screen them.) They are very Irish with very Irish translators so you may need closed captioning. 😉 

We have been out of the house, um..some, but mainly to my parents because we only have one car right now and my husband is using it for work.

So what have you been reading and watching that aren’t related to You Know What? Let me know in the comments. And if you have any similar links to blog posts or other sites, please let me know in the comments as well.

Round ‘em up! Weekly blog roundup

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 2 Comments

There were so many good blog posts this week around the blogging community and I’m excited to share them with you on my weekly round up. As usual, I’ll provide a link to my blog posts from the past week or so as well, but this week I want to focus on some cool bloggers I follow or have discovered.

Pete at Lunch Break Fiction does it again with The Gift. Do yourself a big favor. If you aren’t following Pete’s blog yet go over right now and “click” follow. You won’t regret it. It’s full of touching, awesome, engaging short stories.

Manitoba Mom, hanging out up there the frozen Canadian tundra (just kidding about it being frozen. I think.) always gives me a lot to chew on and think about, in a fun and entertaining way, mixed in with some deep thoughts as well. This one about five tips on how she plans to manage the cold winter months coming up in January and February is one I can relate to because I struggle terribly with keeping my sanity in the winter months. We’ve been lucky to have a stretch of warmer days but the darkness is still here and I know the cold will soon make its return.

For His Purpose wrote about developing patience with people who are sometimes difficult to deal with and I could absolutely relate to this, especially since I used to work with people daily when I worked for smalltown newspapers. For this post, she’s been dealing with a particularly challenging person in her personal life, and again, I can completely relate to struggling to show a person like this the love of Christ, when all we really want to do is run screaming away. (I have a feeling I might be that person for other people  . . . hmmmm).

Bettydraper offered this lovely post about the day she became a Christian and how it ties into the real meaning of Christmas so perfectly.

I’m pretty sure I already shared links to some of Our Little Red House’s 12 days of Christmas craft posts, but just in case, here is another one. What ingenious ideas she’s had or gleaned from others over the years to recycle objects and turn them into beautiful Christmas ornaments or decorations. She offers other unique craft ideas throughout the year as well.

The Feet of A Messenger offered this look back at 2019 and how much she’s changed and grown in 2019 and also how far she still has to go. Trust me, I could relate to this (as you know by reading some of my more whiney blog posts earlier this year.)

I’ve also been discovering some new fiction writers who blog serial stories, or short fiction pieces, this week which is exciting for me since I’ve been blogging my own fiction since May.

I bumped into BeetleyPete who is in the midst of a serial story about a murder mystery. I’m heading back to the beginning to catch up on this one since the parts I started to read intrigued me already.

I’m also intrigued by Rachel Smith’s fiction and can’t wait to delve into her stories this week.

As for my blog posts in the last week or so:

So what have you been up to on your blog and otherwise? Read or write any good posts you would like to share? Leave a link in the comment section and I’ll share them in my next Blog Roundup (which I hope to make a bi-weekly post, or weekly if I have enough posts to share each week).

Lisa R. Howeler is a writer and photographer from the “boondocks” who writes a little bit about a lot of things on her blog Boondock Ramblings. She’s published a fiction novel ‘A Story to Tell’ on Kindle and also provides stock images for bloggers and others at Alamy.com and Lightstock.com.