Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot

On November 30, 2023November 30, 2023 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Weekend Traffic Jam5 Comments

Welcome to another Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot hosted by Marsha in the Middle, Melynda from Scratch Made Food For Hungry People and me.

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving last week. We are back in session this week for our Weekend Traffic Jam. We are still looking for an extra host so let Marsha know if you are interested.

This is a post where you can link up any post about any topic as long as it is family-friendly. You can even dig into your archives to share.

The most clicked post for the week before last was:

My favorite posts include:

Getting Started Homeschooling by My Slices of Life.

I enjoyed this post because I am a homeschooling mom myself and I know how hard it can be to get started. Parents need all the advice they can get.

This post from Is This Mutton was perfectly true. There really aren’t any good “belly laugh” shows out there anymore and while she didn’t think it had all to do with political correctness (maybe some), I think that is the biggest reason no one can laugh anymore. They’re always afraid of who they will offend. Of course, everyone is also offended anymore. Like everyone.

I remembered a lot of the shows she remembers (Father Ted, Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, Keeping Up Appearances – all shows I have watched over the years and enjoyed).

That is my intro post for today. I hope you’ll share a link with everyone at the link up below.

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot November 16

On November 16, 2023November 29, 2023 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Weekend Traffic Jam5 Comments

Welcome to another Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot hosted by me, Marsha in the Middle and Melynda from Scratch Made Food For Hungry People.

I cannot believe next week is Thanksgiving! Can you?!

It seems like school just started and now here we are rushing toward the end of the year.

I’ve been super busy lately with writing blog posts, editing books (past and future ones), and managing social media.

Last week a reel I posted on Instagram to promote the blog posts Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumb) and I were doing for autumn (Comfy, Cozy Cinema) went viral.

The reel was simply a clip of the documentary Tea With The Dames that Erin and I wrote about on our blogs but for some reason, it started to be shared and watched and commented on to the point it has 6 million views, 331,704 likes, 148,939 shares and 2027 comments.

There seems to be no rhyme or reason to what goes viral on social media, but I am guessing the reason this clip went wild is that people, one, love the dames (Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Joan Plowright, and Eileen Atkins) and, two, people simply need something happy and joyful to see these days with all the horrors and negativity going on in the world.

If you want to see the Instagram post you can find it here:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lisa R. Howeler (@lisarhoweler)

I enjoyed the documentary but I don’t know if I thought the clip was worth 6 million views. Ha! Ha! I am really glad it made people happy, though. A couple of people even messaged or left me comments to tell me how much it uplifted their spirits during dark times. I suggested they watch the full documentary to further improve their mood.

If you would like to see the documentary, you can find it streaming for free on Tubi or you can buy or rent it here: https://amzn.to/3SKEL7d

You can also buy a DVD of it here: https://amzn.to/3QJQgct

Now, on to our most clicked link for this week:

My Latest Trip To The VA and the Chanel Exhibition by Frugal Fashion Shopper

And my three favorite posts this week:

That Was October 2023 by Is This Mutton

Thanksgiving Activities To Do With Your Family and Friends by Grace Filled Moments

Wordless Wednesday: Finishing Up Fall by My Slices of Life

We will be taking a break for Thanksgiving next week so please return with us on November 30^th to link up your posts.

Also, don’t forget that we are looking for a couple more hosts for this feature. Contact one of us and we will put you in touch with Marsha. And please take the time to hop around to other blog posts that link up here.

(Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links. I only recommend items that I love, actually use, have used in the past, know someone else has used, or want to use in the future. Clicking the link does not mean that you will pay more for the item, only that I make a tiny commission if you make a purchase. Thank you for helping my family bring in a little extra, much-needed money.)

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot! Add your links!

On October 12, 2023 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Weekend Traffic Jam3 Comments

It is my second week co-hosting the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot with Marsha in the Middle and Melynda from Scratch Made Food For Hungry People.

I hope all my blogger friends will add your link to a favorite post from your blog this past week or even from previous weeks (there’s really no time limit). It helps to share your work more and connect with more bloggers, which is why I enjoy it.

I felt a bit numb this week from the news in the world so it was a nice break to wander from blog to blog and read about fashion and tours of photogenic villages and food and anything else not related to heartbreaking topics.

Here are my favorite posts from the week:

My Slices of Life: Our Trip to the Zoo

The Copper Table: Pumpkin Scones With Maple Thyme Butter

Shelbee on the Edge: What In The World Is This Wonderfully Weird Weather?

And the post with the most clicks last week was:

Thrifting Wonderland: A Little Art Deco In Your Fall

If you have a post you would like to share, do so at the link below:

Saturday Chat: Zooma is better! Chilly days, playing with the kids, and some old photos

On April 29, 2023 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Saturday Afternoon Tea14 Comments

This Saturday evening (because I couldn’t get this post finished before the afternoon was over) I am drinking chocolate almond beverage milk but then I’m going to drink some peppermint tea because our spring temps are low spring temps. It is cold and raining today. It is perfect weather for reading but I don’t know how much time I’ll have for reading since Little Miss has two little friends over and they can be a bit loud and like to try to get me to play with them.

When you were growing up, did you just play with your friends or try to get your parents to play with you? I don’t remember trying to get my parents to play with me. I just went off with my friends and played. No parents needed.

I think my husband created this trend with them when he started chasing them as a zombie one time when they were over. Now they want to play Zombie every time they come over and that entails one of us parents chasing them around the house while moaning and holding our arms out like we are a zombie that is going to get them.

I don’t mind playing a little with them, of course. It does get my exercise in for the day when I do it. I just don’t want to do it all day.

(Update to this part: I’m late posting this because the girls wanted to go to the neighbors’ trampoline and I need to watch them when they do that and there is no wifi out there on the porch. At least I didn’t have to chase them this time. Hee. Hee.).

This past week our Zooma the Wonder Dog fully recovered from the illness that struck her the week before. We were all so relieved. Zooma was very confused when we celebrated her climbing the stairs and jumping up on the bed, but she hadn’t been able to do those things for about a week, so it was worth celebrating to us.

Seeing her run around the yard the other night at full steam was wonderful too.

We learned our lesson too. We haven’t been slipping her any people food unless we know that it is fairly bland and won’t irritate her stomach. So, she does receive a few bites of chicken deli meat or plain chicken, but nothing else. We can’t go through that worry again. (Right after I wrote this, I literally gave her a bite of chicken that was seasoned without remembering it was seasoned. Oh boy! I hope it doesn’t cause an issue. I was thinking the plain chicken would be okay for her. Pray I didn’t make her sick again!)

Little Miss and I have been working on journals for the last couple of months to sell on Amazon. She designed a bunch of covers when she was recovering from her dental procedure so I thought it would be fun to put them up for sale for her on Amazon. Then I decided we would create a journal company for fun. She named it Rose Dove Journals so that’s what it’s called.

We are still waiting for quite a few to be approved by Amazon and I am designing some more prayer, devotional and sermon notes journals.

I don’t think we will sell a lot of journals, but we are having fun so why not try!

Don’t worry I’m not linking to them here. I don’t want my blog to be a full-time advertisement. That’s not why I started back to blogging. I just wanted to connect with other bloggers and have fun.

I used to blog when my son was young – about 14 years ago or more now. He’s going to be 17 this year. I can’t even believe it. When I blogged back when he was young I was called a “mommy blogger”. I wrote mostly about him and what he did and how he slept (or actually how he didn’t sleep) and what it was like to be a mom.

Then for a while I wrote about photography.

Now I just write about whatever strikes my fancy, so to speak.

Speaking of that saying “so to speak” – I use it often and don’t even know exactly what it means. I mean I guess it means “sort of” in a way? Such as, “I write about whatever strikes my fancy – sort of”? I don’t know what it means but it’s one of those sayings I think I use too often.

I also write “instead” and “of course,” too much in blog posts. Do you have phrases you overuse?

Do you think I’m asking too many questions in today’s post? *wink*

Well, brace yourselves because I am going to ask another one. What beverages are you drinking this week?

Oh and one more – what’s the weather like where you are?

I hope you had a good week last week and have a better one this week.

Here are a few photos from today four years ago of my dad and the kids and Zooma. I can’t believe how different the kids look now!

A wake-up call about my writing

On February 14, 2023 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings5 Comments

I’ve been writing novels since 2019 or so.

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.

The 500 subscriber milestone … exciting? A little.

On July 29, 2020July 28, 2020 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings20 Comments

I hit 500 subscribers to this blog at the end of last week.

On one hand that is pretty cool. On another hand I have a feeling some of those bloggers subscribe because they are looking for me to reciprocate. The issue is that many of those who subscribe never comment here so I have no idea who they are which means I’d probably never subscribe to their blog. I’m old school and think of blogging as a social activity of sorts. We exchange ideas or share a little bit of ourselves and others do the same in the comments.

I’d like to know who you all are, in other words so, please, feel free to introduce yourself in the comments. I love to get to know the bloggers who follow me. It was really nice to have some of you tell me about yourselves last week on the post where I shared about myself and the blog.

For those who are new to the blog, you may have noticed I blog a little bit a lot of things here. I share some posts about my faith (usually entitled Faithfully Thinking), I share fiction (usually on Fridays and sometimes on Thursdays), I share photographs, and I share what I’m reading/watching/doing on Sundays. In other words, I sort of share whatever comes to my mind at any given moment (scary, I know.).

If you are interested in reading some of my fiction you can find link to excerpts from my book A Story to Tell HERE and A New Beginning HERE. You can also follow my novels in progress, The Farmer’s Daughter (I’ve been publishing new chapters on Fridays) at the link of the top of the page (or HERE) and Fully Alive HERE.

Welcome to the new subscribers and hello to the old. Glad to have you visiting my corner of the world.

Looking back at February, ahead to March, and favorite posts from the blogosphere

On March 4, 2020March 4, 2020 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings20 Comments

February was a little bit of a crazy month. Normally it drags on because we are dealing with the winter blahs, but this year it flew by pretty fast because of house showings and then eventually the sale of our house. Now we are knee-deep, somewhat literally, in packing up the house and clearing out, some of which we had already started.

Weather-wise, the temps rose and fell throughout the month, which was wonderful for our sinuses and mood (she said sarcastically). It was like “We’re happy!” “Now we’re sad!” “We’re happy!” “Now we’re sad!” all month long.

Looking ahead to March, there will be more packing and then the actual moving, with the plan to be in the new house by April 3. There will also be more homeschooling, somehow, in between all the packing and moving. So far, homeschooling is both a blast and completely aggravating. I’ve considered writing a post about homeschooling again, but, sad to say, I had some who looked down their noses at me for doing it so I hate to think they’ll read any posts about the struggles and gloat. I know, very immature of me to worry about what others think, but I’m still working on that.

I wrote a variety of blog posts on a variety of topics (which is why the word “ramblings” is in my blog name.)

I shared a few weekly round-ups:

I also shared several chapters of A New Beginning, and you can find the links to all of those HEREor at the top of the page.

I share a couple posts about faith:

I also wrote about:

I also enjoyed many posts by a variety of bloggers in February and I thought I would share them with you today in addition to my February review.

I loved all the photos and daily events with Derrick, but I especially loved this one he called The Horse Whisperer. The photos and story behind it were beautiful.

As always, I have to share one of Pete’s stories from Lunch Break Fiction, but this time I also get to share he has a book out. I just purchased it and I am so excited to read it! I loved this post from February entitled Metrics. If you haven’t read Pete’s short stories, you’re really missing out.

I like pretty much every post shared at My Life with Gracie so it’s hard to highlight just one, but I did like when John shared his copy of Doctor Doolittle with Gracie and the other chickens.

Mama’s Empty Nest shared this throwback post written from the perspective of her cat and it was hilarious and sweet.

Melinda Johnson wrote about Facebook Being a Stalker Boyfriend and she’s completely right. You all know my disdain for Facebook.

Bettie, one of my favorite bloggers, shares so many touching posts butthis one was interesting because it gave me the chance to hear her voice and more of her story. What a blessing!

I enjoyed this post by Heather Dawn about waking up on the wrong side of the bed (even with coffee!) because I could relate to it.

I could also relate to Autumn at Autumn Rain about her worry that she’s too late to blog, to write, to . . . well, whatever. And, no, Autumn, we are not too late. It’s never too late.

There is a lot interesting posts to digest at Our Little Red House, so I picked just one about her garden in the month of February. She gets to have a garden in February since she lives in Arizona.

This post from Becoming HIS Tapestry entitled Love Me; You Don’t have to Trust Me, hit home as there have been people in my life I haven’t fully trusted, but who I have loved. Honestly, it might tip some of your preconceived notions about love right up on their head.

Some difficult, but important posts from the last month included:

This one on Storied Pathwayswhen she wrote about her grandmother, who is in the hospital, and who has meant to much to her. Get some tissues.

The Whole Truth Laid to Rest on A New Life was such a hard read, but just so necessary in a day and age where so many don’t respect life on the simplest, smallest levels. *trigger warning* This is the personal story of a woman who had an abortion years ago and is now facing the pain from that decision. No matter what you believe about the issue, this is her story and she has the right to that story as much as anyone else.

So, how about all of you? Read any good posts in February? Do some exciting things? Share links or stories in the comments and see you at the end of March for my March update (if I remember to do it or even have time with the move and yes, this post was supposed to be done for the end of February. Oops.).

Thank you to the 350 people who follow me and the people from 92 different countries that have visited me

On March 2, 2020March 2, 2020 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings13 Comments

I don’t look at my stats too often (she lies, trying not to look as vain as she sometimes, unfortunately, feels), but last week I noticed I had gained a few more followers (I think I’m up to 360, not tons, but a lot for little ole’ me). I’ve also been checking out where my visitors are from and was surprised to find that I have had visits to my blog from 92 different countries in the last year. I find it so interesting that my readers are from so many different countries. I also find it interesting there are this many countries in the world and that there are a few on my list I have never heard of (Maldives and Suriname, I’m looking at you).

The majority of my visitors, of course, come from the United States. In 2019, 8,262 visits were from Americans. I thought the second highest visitor count would be from Canada (I don’t know why since I don’t really post anything that would be exclusively interesting to Canadians) but instead India is in second place with 835 visits. Not that anyone really cares (about the same as about this entire post) but rounding out the top five countries where my visitors came from were Canada, United Kingdom and Australia. Off-topic, but I only know one Australian and I think she’s too busy homeschooling her brood to even check out my blog so I don’t think those Australian hits are from her. I actually met her while blogging 13 years ago on a different blog (a mommy blog). There is some unimportant and unnecessary trivia for you.

I think some of my followers are simply looking for reciprocal follows on their blogs, which is the nature of the social media culture we find ourselves in these days. Many of my followers author blogs about psychology or mental health, which really isn’t a surprise considering my mental health is pretty unstable most days. I’m sure people who know me in real life aren’t surprised I’m being stalked by mental health experts (or self-proclaimed experts). They are probably expecting to find some business through me. Ha! But maybe some are following because they are actually interested in the ramblings of the girl from the boondocks (no, really, they want business.)

Some people probably follow me based on my posts about faith, some because of the fiction, maybe some for the photography (though those posts have been sporadic at best lately), and maybe some for the ramblings about creativity. Most bloggers say you need a niche for your blog (I heard the same from the photography world) but being random can pay off too.

Sure, I don’t have the following of other, high-profile bloggers, but I really don’t mind that. I like my small little corner of the blog world. If I did start to accumulate a high amount of followers, I’d probably delete this blog/site and start another one. I share for fun, not for attention. I mean, a little attention is okay and nice, but a lot of attention? No thank you!

I have never looked at a social media “influencer” (whatever that is), or someone famous and felt envy, wishing I could have people pay attention to me like they do them. I mean, can you imagine having all that attention on you in this highly political, always offended, always ready for a fight environment? Blogging or sharing wouldn’t be fun anymore. Instead, it would be like walking into a minefield and hoping you don’t set off a row of landmines that destroy your life and your love of writing.

In other non-important stat information from my blog for 2019 and 2020:

I had a total of 11,351 views in 2019 and 6,904 visitors (this doesn’t add up with how many views I received from different countries, but I think that total was 2019 and 2020);

161 blog posts (not many by most standards);

2,067 views from WordPress;

1,870 views from Facebook;

and a handful from other sites.

In 2020 I’ve had:

3, 544 views;

1,986 visitors;

and 49 blog posts (which actually seems like a lot for it only being the end of February).

So, if you are a blogger, do you keep track of your stats? I don’t normally, so if you don’t, that’s good with me. If you do, that’s cool too! Let me know in the comments (if you want to, of course).

Boondock Ramblings

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