Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot Oct. 23

On October 22, 2026October 22, 2026 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Weekend Traffic Jam7 Comments

Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, where we offer a place for bloggers to link up and get a fresh set of eyes on their posts. We also feature one blog a week, letting our readers know about the blog and providing a link so readers can learn more about it. Please feel free to post new blog posts or old ones you want to bring attention to again.

Look for the post to go live about 9:30 PM EST on Thursdays.

I keep trying to think of happy things to write here but I don’t have any right now…things are tough here. I hope they are nice where you are. Tell me something happy in the comments if you can, to make me smile.

Now, let’s introduce our current hosts for the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot:

Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!

Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household – The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings shares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.

Cat from Cat’s Wire is a bookworm, movie fan, crazy cat lady, armed with beads, cabs, wire and a very jumpy brain which loves to go down rabbit holes!

Rena from Fine, Whatever writes about style, midlife, and the “fine whatever” moments that make life both meaningful and fun. Since 2015, she’s been celebrating creativity, confidence, and finding joy in the everyday.

We would love to have additional Co-Hosts to share in the creativity and fun! If you think this would be a good fit for you and you like having fun (come on, who doesn’t!) while still being creative, drop one of us an email and someone will get back with you!

WTJR will be highlighting a different blogger each week this year! We invite you to stop by their blog, take a look around and say hello!

This week we are spotlighting: I live for my dreams

Thank you so much for joining us for our link-up!

And now some posts that were highlights for me this past week:

Love this lacey ghost from The Apple Street Cottage!

This oatmeal and molasses recipe from Melynda sounds so good!

Gail showed off some awesome jeans and shoes!

I loved looking at Jill’s photos!

Some lovely old books and paintings by Thrifting Wonderland

Important things to know about the link-up:

This link party is for blog posts only. All other links will be deleted.

Please link only blog posts you created yourself.

Please link directly to the URL of your post and not the main address of your blog.

Please do not add links to videos, sales ads, or social media links such as YouTube videos or Shorts, Instagram or Facebook Reels, TikTok videos, or any other “social media” based content.

But do visit other blogs and give the gift of a comment.

Notice: By linking with Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, you assert that content and photos are your own property. And you give us permission to share said content if your post or blog is showcased.

We welcome unlimited, family friendly content! This can include opinion pieces, recipes, travel recaps, fashion ideas, crafts, thrifting, lifestyle, book reviews or discussions, photography, art, and so much more! Thank you for joining us!

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube and Facebook.

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot Oct.16

On October 15, 2026October 16, 2026 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Weekend Traffic Jam5 Comments

Look for the post to go live about 9:30 PM EST on Thursdays.

Things are still crazy and pretty awful with my parents and their health, especially my dads. My son and I have become their full time caregivers and are so tired. Please pray.

Now, let’s introduce our current hosts for the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot:

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings shares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.

Cat from Cat’s Wire is a bookworm, movie fan, crazy cat lady, armed with beads, cabs, wire and a very jumpy brain which loves to go down rabbit holes!

WTJR will be highlighting a different blogger each week this year! We invite you to stop by their blog, take a look around and say hello!

This week we are spotlighting: Shelbee on the Edge

A little about Shelbee

Welcome to my little corner of the universe! My name is Shelbee and I am an over 40 stay-at-home mother of two boys named Archie and Ralphie, two cats named Dave and Frankie, and a bunny named George. I also was an Army wife until my husband retired after 22 years of service in 2021. We were stationed at Fort Drum and are remaining in the surrounding Watertown area in the northern reaches of New York State where the summers are short and the winters are long, cold, and very snowy. I decided to start blogging during my husband’s deployment to Afghanistan in 2015 as a means to reclaim some of the sanity I have lost trying to raise these boys in the midst of an extraordinary military lifestyle in this curious climate of the North Country!

Thank you so much for joining us for our link-up!

I’ll be back with some features next week.

Important things to know about the link-up:

This link party is for blog posts only. All other links will be deleted.

Please link only blog posts you created yourself.

Please link directly to the URL of your post and not the main address of your blog.

Please do not add links to videos, sales ads, or social media links such as YouTube videos or Shorts, Instagram or Facebook Reels, TikTok videos, or any other “social media” based content.

But do visit other blogs and give the gift of a comment.

Notice: By linking with Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, you assert that content and photos are your own property. And you give us permission to share said content if your post or blog is showcased.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube and Facebook.

Sunday Bookends: Unexpected caregiving, autumn leaves, and new Agatha books

On October 11, 2026October 11, 2026 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon22 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.

What’s Been Occurring

I usually try to be upbeat on my blog, but the past few weeks, especially the last week, have not been easy at all and I’m emotionally and physically beat down.

My dad has been in the hospital for a week and with him being my mom’s main caretaker, my son and I have had to take over those duties, especially at night.

Mom is fine mentally (thank God) but physically she can not transport herself to the bathroom so we push her in a wheelchair. That includes twice a night in the middle of the night and while we have a pretty good system, it is very tiring.

It has thrown off everything for our entire family and add to that trying to line up caregivers (after the last one bailed/lied etc.) in a very rural area where there are very few options has been exhausting. Added to all of it is that my brother has also been in the hospital with major pain and health issues, I have a chronic pain condition and my left knee is flared up, and our car just died. So I am not doing well some days, but I am still trying to find some normalcy by writing and reading blog posts when I find time.

My son and I have been switching off nights to hang out with my mom, which is the fun part. The less fun part is getting up at night and just not being in our own beds and environment and also having my mom cry and tell us she’s sorry we have to do all this.

One thing that being away from your home does is make you really appreciate the little things about being at home — the slower wake up, feeling like you don’t have to be on all the time, the pets, the quiet mornings where you can just think, and late night reading.

Hopefully we can all get back to that soon but it doesn’t look like it will be that way again for the rest of the year.

What’s nice about staying with my mom is waking up to this view:

What I/We’ve Been Reading

Recently Finished

I had a hard time finding time to read or concentrating when I did find time but I did finally take some time for me to finish And The Plot Thickened by P.G. Wodehouse.

That one was a very fun escape. I have no idea if this book exists anywhere but on used sites, since it was given to me by my friend Erin and she picked it up at a used book sale. I looked to see if the book was on Kindle so I could read it when I shut my bedroom lights off, but I couldn’t find it anywhere.

I’m glad I had an old library edition then!

In Progress

I am slow reading Stillmeadow Daybrook by Gladys Taber. Since each chapter is a month, I plan to read a chapter a month for the rest of 2026 and into 2027. I’m also reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.

I am now reading The Pink Motel by Carol Ryrie Brink (a middle grade book) and Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie.

Up Soon

I’ll be reading The Two Mrs. Abott’s by D.E. Stevenson soon. Also coming up is Storm in the Village by Miss Read and Cloud of Witness by Dorothy Sayers

What The Family is Reading

Little Miss and I are reading Rascal for school.

New arrivals to my bookshelf

This past week I added Murder with Mirrors, Five Little Pigs, and The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie, The Best of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton and The New Bedside, Bathtub and Armchair Companion to Agatha Christie.

What I/We’ve Been Watching

With Dad in the hospital I stayed with my mom and we watched some old shows like Bob Newhart and Two’s Company (which she announced was stupid), Psych, and Murder, She Wrote.

During one of my breaks at home I watched How To Kill Your Wife with Jack Lemmon, One Body Too Many, and Straight Talk with Dolly Parton and James Woods.

What I’ve Been Writing

Last week on the blog I shared:

Some Housekeeping

Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs), Cat (Cat’s Wire) and I host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea. This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!). Each link party will be open for a month. You can find that link up for this month here.

Each week, I host the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot with some great hosts. It goes live Thursday night, but you can share any kind of blog posts (family-friendly) there until Tuesday of each week. You can check my recent posts on the sidebar to the right for the most recent link party.

Now It’s Your Turn

What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing?

This post is linked up with The Sunday Post at Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Deb at with Deb at Readerbuzz, and Book Date: It’s Monday! What are you reading hosted by Kathyrn at The Book Date and Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Reading Reality.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot Oct. 9

On October 8, 2026October 8, 2026 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Weekend Traffic Jam13 Comments

Look for the post to go live about 9:30 PM EST on Thursdays.

Our family is having a crazy month already, spilling over from September. Our routine is off and our brains are racing but we have been enjoying some beautiful views as the leaves change color in our neck of the woods (do you use that saying where you are from? And where does this saying even come from? According to grammarphobia.com: “Several hundred years ago, early American settlers used the word “neck” to describe a narrow stretch of wood, pasture, meadows, and so on.

Our expression “neck of the woods,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a surviving remnant of that old usage.

The use of “neck” to describe a narrow piece of land was of course an extension of the anatomical term “neck”—that narrow stretch located between the head and the shoulders.

The original word dates back to the 800s (it was first recorded in Old English as hneccan), and comes from old Germanic sources.”

There you go. A bit of fairly useless trivia for you!

Now, let’s introduce our current hosts for the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot:

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings shares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.

Cat from Cat’s Wire is a bookworm, movie fan, crazy cat lady, armed with beads, cabs, wire and a very jumpy brain which loves to go down rabbit holes!

WTJR will be highlighting a different blogger each week this year! We invite you to stop by their blog, take a look around and say hello!

This week we are spotlighting: My Homemade Roots

A little about Melissa:

I’m Melissa, and this is my cozy corner of the internet, where I share from scratch recipes (ok, mostly from scratch), old-fashioned kitchen wisdom, and simple homemaking ideas inspired by the rhythms of the seasons. I have a love for hearty, old-fashioned meals, freshly baked bread, and a good canning recipe. I also love to share my gardening tips, craft ideas, and hints for simple living. I write about creating a home you love in the only tried and true way I know — one simple recipe or project at a time

Thank you so much for joining us for our link-up!

And now some posts that were highlights for me this past week:

Thistles and Kiwis shared some little pleasures this week

Kim shared some beautiful pumpkin designs

Bettie shared about looking up while waiting on God

Lisa shared about bugs and books…with one of them being more pleasant than the other

Jeanie visited some friends

Important things to know about the link-up:

This link party is for blog posts only. All other links will be deleted.

Please link only blog posts you created yourself.

Please link directly to the URL of your post and not the main address of your blog.

Please do not add links to videos, sales ads, or social media links such as YouTube videos or Shorts, Instagram or Facebook Reels, TikTok videos, or any other “social media” based content.

But do visit other blogs and give the gift of a comment.

Notice: By linking with Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, you assert that content and photos are your own property. And you give us permission to share said content if your post or blog is showcased.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube and Facebook.

Sunday Bookends: Sir, your (dead) cat is back.

On October 4, 2026 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon17 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.

What’s Been Occurring

Little Miss’s birthday was this past Friday and that morning we had breakfast at our local diner and yesterday we took a day trip to a small city near us for a day out.

It was so nice to see all the leaves changing and thanks to the cold nights I think our trees are going to be brilliantly bright this year.

I don’t think I shared on here yet a funny story that happened after we had our cat put to sleep in August. If I have, just skip it… ha!

Having Pixel put to sleep after a months long illness (not too mention her disappearing for three days and reappearing) was very traumatizing for our family — especially me and the kids. Warren took Pixel to be put to sleep and though he thought he’d be okay because he’d never been super close to her, he ended up really taking it hard when he got to the emergency vet. They allowed him to hold her as they sedated her and put her to sleep and he said he burst into tears at the idea of all she’d gone through and then losing her.

I’ve been a bit of a mess emotionally since then, both from her loss and the stress of caring for two very stubborn elderly parents who prefer to do things their own way even if it means a lot is put on their children and grandchildren.

I have only just started pulling out of the depression in the last couple of weeks.

So a couple of weeks ago Warren told me that a couple of weeks before that he’d gotten a call from the emergency vet office, but he ignored it because he was mowing the lawn. He checked the message after he was done and heard words that chilled him.

“Mr. Howeler, your cat is back. If you’d like to call back we can arrange a time for you to pick her up.”

He was instantly alarmed and quickly called the vet office back. That’s when the woman informed him that they had noticed he had asked for his cat to be sent away to be embalmed and then shipped back for burial. Her body was waiting for him in a drawer in their office, they said.

“No. No, I didn’t say I wanted my cat embalmed,” he said. “I wanted her remains cremated and for you to take care of them.”

At this point in the story I stopped him because I had no idea at all that vets even did that. Neither did he. But, yes, vets will send your animals away to be embalmed and send them back to you for you to burry them on your own.

“Sir, let me check your paper again,” the woman said. She was gone for a few minutes, came back, and said, “I’m so sorry. You are right. You did not want your cat embalmed. We will take care of her as you originally requested.”

Warren had been afraid this story would make me cry but instead it made me laugh so hard. I loved Pixel intensely. She was an interesting cat who was standoffish with most people but loved me and my son. She was moody and bold yet also timid and afraid of a lot. She seemed not to care at times but loved to lay on my stomach or side to have a quick pet and cuddle.

She could also be difficult — fighting being picked up, running outside when I didn’t want her to, and even acting like she was going to get better at the end and then just slowly getting worse and then better, worse and then better, for a couple of months.

She was always a character, leaving us with funny stories and now, even in death, she had been difficult and a challenge.

I told the kids I was just glad the vet’s office didn’t offer taxidermy services. Can you just imagined if they had shipped her to us all stuffed? I would have opened that box and fainted right there.