Hodge Podge: Favorite rooms and what I miss about childhood

May 28, 2025May 28, 2025 / Lisa R. Howeler / 20 Comments

I am joining this week’s Hodge Podge with From This Side of the Pond.

Here are the questions we were asked to answer this week:

What’s your favorite room in your house and why?

I guess I would say the living room is my favorite room in the house. It had tons of windows and well-lit and it’s where everyone in the family hangs out together. It has easy access to the kitchen and the bathroom, the TV, and the front and back porches. The woodwork and the well painted white ceiling also add to the atmosphere of the room. If only I was a better housekeeper and kept it cleaner. Ha. That’s something I definitely want to work on.

What’s something that will instantly annoy you?

How much time do you have? Kidding. One thing that will instantly annoy me is when I sit down, ready to read or write a blog post, after being in the kitchen washing dishes and cooking for two hours and my daughter will ask me if I can cut her up an apple.

I’m so glad to have her and I’m even glad to be available to wait on her but sometimes she gets wrapped up in what she’s doing and doesn’t recognize that any time in those two hours I was already up on my feet doing things is when she could have asked for the snack she wanted.

She’s also 10 now and can start getting these snacks on her own. I like to cut the apple up for her because I don’t want her to accidentally cut herself.

May 28th is National Hamburger Day…will you celebrate? How do you like yours? If you’re not cooking at home is there a favorite place you like to go for a burger? Did you ever work in a fast food restaurant?

That’s a lot of questions! I didn’t know it was National Hamburger Day, and I wish I had because I used the hamburger we had to make meatballs yesterday.

I am a huge hamburger fan, as long as it is made well. I don’t like any pink in mine, but I also don’t want it burned.

There is a restaurant near me that makes the best hamburgers but we don’t go there often. There was another restaurant near us that used to make amazing burgers but that changed in recent years so I haven’t tried again.

I have never worked at a fast food restaurant or any restaurant.

What are three scents you like?

Three scents I like are chocolate chip cookies while they are baking, a citrus essential oil I have, and coffee brewing (but I don’t actually drink it).

What do you miss most about being a kid?

So much. Most of all I miss that someone else was in charge and was protecting me. Now I am in charge and have to protect myself and my children. It honestly stresses me out.

I miss how carefree childhood was too. Riding scooters down the streets of the little town my friends lived in, exploring the creek, swinging on swings until we almost threw up and not caring that we almost threw up.

Having friends is something else I miss about childhood. I don’t have friends now and I did then. They were best friends too. We did a ton together and had sleepovers. Those same friends no longer speak to me. I guess life got too busy and I got too much to deal with because of my chronic illness stuff and anxiety and who knows what else. I tried to keep in contact with them but after awhile it became disappointing to be the only one trying.

Insert your own random thought here.

I just wrote a blog post about Murder She Wrote, and I spent several days researching it. Just for my blog where I only get about 100 views a day. I’m starting to wonder about my sanity. I’m sure there are better things I could do with my time but I keep doing things that help me avoid focusing on all the stressful things in my life. I suppose it is a little normal but also . . . I think I might have issues.

How would you answer any of these questions?

Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.

You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

Hodge Podge: A bit about March, celery, and historical farm shows

March 5, 2025March 5, 2025 / Lisa R. Howeler / 15 Comments

I decided to join up with Joyce this week for the Hodge Podge, a feature I like to do but haven’t done in a long time.

What do you love most about March?

March has never really stood out to me as a month I like for any reason other than I know it will lead us out of winter and toward Spring. I have to be careful saying that, though, because there have been some months of March over the years where we have gotten nailed by a snowstorm — sometimes at the end of the month even! One year we got a couple of feet of snow on March 30^th!

What I do like about March is that usually we start to see flowers like Daffodils blooming and we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with food they don’t actually eat in Ireland, but we like anyhow. Ha!

2. Hey! Did you know March is National Celery Month? Do you like celery? What’s something you make (or like to order out) that calls for celery?

I did not know that March is National Celery Month. I do like celery. I don’t like that it is sometimes stringy and gets stuck in my throat. I love it with peanut butter.

My mom used to make an amazing chicken salad for chicken salad sandwiches and it required celery. I mean REQUIRED. It had to be in there. It just tasted so much better with it. For a long time, we didn’t make this chicken salad because I couldn’t find a mayonnaise I could eat because of my allergy to corn (don’t ask. It’s a long story.) and because my mom simply stopped making it.

I have discovered that I can eat Duke’s Mayonnaise now so I can make chicken salad again! With celery! I should get on that! Also, if you are going to eat chicken salad, I highly recommend eating it on potato bread. So good. We ate chicken salad on potato bread all the way to North Carolina one year while we traveled to my grandparents.

3. _______________ is the soundtrack to my life right now. is the soundtrack to my life right now.

Victorian Farm and all the other historical British farm shows (Edwardian Farm, Tudor Farm, Tales from the Green Valley) is the soundtrack to my life right now. I swear I always have an episode running in the background to distract my racing brain, even when I am writing blog posts. I found Tales From The Green Valley on YouTube and started watching it today.

4. Share a favorite motivational quote for overcoming challenges.

“I have learned to kiss the waves that throw me up against the Rock of Ages”
― Charles H. Spurgeon

(I have not actually learned this lesson, but I really do like the quote)

5. The Hodgepodge lands on Ash Wednesday this year. Do you participate in Lent in some way? If so tell us more.

I don’t really participate in Lent other than to recognize that we are getting closer to Easter. I absolutely love the idea of Lent and giving up something for it, though, and in the past I have participate by giving up sugar, social media, news, or similar things.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

My cats are inside/outside cats. They absolutely love being outside and exploring, but at night they usually come in to eat, sleep, and get their pets in. In the winter they aren’t very interested in going outside at all and this winter they have definitely not been interested because it has been so bitter cold. I thought our younger cat, Scout, would venture out despite the cold but even she has preferred laying near the woodstove or curled up on a blanket to exploring and hunting outside.

Our older cat, Pixel, loves to be outside during the warmer months but doesn’t hunt as much as the younger one anymore. She mainly sits on the back porch and looks out over the backyard, watching what I am not sure.

She and the younger cat don’t really get along. She slaps Scout whenever Scout walks near her. At the end of this past summer, though, I started to notice that Pixel wanted to stay outside if Scout was still outside. She would sit on the porch, looking out into the darkness, as if waiting for Scout to come home.

My parents have a pair of cats and the female cat does wait for the male cat to come before she will eat. They are not siblings either. Sometimes, the female cat will even call for the male cat.

Pixel doesn’t call for Scout, as far as I have ever heard, but she does seem to wait for her. I always think they will bump noses and rub against each other when Scout does come, but instead, Pixel just slaps her again as if she’s angry at her. Maybe she’s scolding her for being out late since Scout has been known to stay out all night at times, leaving me inside, awake in the middle of the night hoping a fox didn’t get her.

Pixel likes to look in the kitchen window when she wants to be let in. She stands on the back of our deck chairs.

I can just imagine Pixel saying to her, “What are you doing? Worrying Mom like that? She loves you! And you’re out there gallivanting around like a stupid little kitten.”

That’s my Hodge Podge for this week. How would you answer some of these questions?

10 on 10 for June: Would You Rather . . .

June 10, 2024 / Lisa R. Howeler / 19 Comments

I am late today but I’m going to squeeze in a 10 for 10 with Marsha In The Middle today because it is fun!

Would you rather go camping in a camper (your pick on the style) or stay at a five-star resort? Ummm…of course I would rather stay at a 5-star resort. I am not a camping person. I like the comfort of my own space and I don’t want my own space to include the possibility of being bitten by scary bugs, stung by bees, or eaten by a bear. I love nature and I love being in it, but not necessarily overnight

2. Would you rather watch a movie in the backyard of a good friend or go to your favorite band’s concert with your worst enemy? I would definitely rather watch a movie in the backyard of a good friend. See, as I mentioned above, I like the outside as long as I am not sleeping in it. As for going to the concert of my favorite band with my worst enemy – no thank you. I’d rather listen to my favorite band and not deal with the crowds and the urge to kill said enemy.

3. Would you rather have chub rub because you forgot your protective gear or a big blister on your heel because you’re wearing cute but new shoes? I had to look up the term “chub rub” as I had never heard it before but after looking it up and finding out it is essentially chaffing of body parts, I decided I’d rather have the blister. I could move my foot around or slide the shoes off the heel and still manage to wear them but with the chaffing, there isn’t much you can do until you can get some cream or ointment on it.

4. Would you rather meet your great-great-grandparent or your great-great-grandchild? If I can live longer and meet my great-great-grandchild then I would go with that answer but I truly would like to meet my great-great-grandfather, especially on my dad’s side because I need him to tell me who his dad was and which part of Scotland he came from so I can finally make that connection in our family tree on Ancestry.com

5. Would you rather be hot and sweaty in the humid outdoors or cold and shivering in an overly air-conditioned room? Definitely cold and shivering. I hate being hot and sweaty or hot at all. I would rather be cold and since this question doesn’t say whether we can have a blanket or not I am going to say I’d rather have a blanket in the room with the AC on full blast! Being all chilly makes me feel like it is autumn which is my favorite time of the year because it is perfect for curling up under a blanket with a good book.

6. Would you rather eat a melted candy bar or a piece of cold pizza? I don’t mind cold pizza at all and sometimes I find it tastes quite good if the sauce is good but I’d probably choose the melted candy bar as long as it was pure chocolate. I don’t care if chocolate is all melted and gooey, I’ll eat it anyhow.

7. Would you rather go for a day without access to any social media or emails or would you have to remain on social media all day long? Oh I would rather go for a day without access to social media and email for sure. I’ve mentioned on here before how much social media stresses me out. I use it to promote my books and connect with other writers and some friends and family but a day without it? Bring it on. I know my anxiety level reduces immensely when I am off social media, even if I normally post positive and fun things.

8. Would you rather dress like a person from the 1950s or the 2050s? Marsha, Marsha, Marsha. What were you smoking when you created these questions? *wink* Seriously, 1950s because I have a feeling that outfits in the 2050s are going to get super, super weird.

9. Would you rather eat ice cream covered in pizza sauce or a pizza covered in chocolate sauce? Both of these sound so gross but I am going with number two because Marsha didn’t say the pizza had to be a savory/traditional pizza. Hee. Hee. I’ll make one with chocolate chip cookie dough covered with chocolate sauce.

10. Would you rather fly like Superman or swim like Aquaman?

I would rather fly like Superman because there are all kinds of dangers underwater – sharks and Man O’ War jellyfish (or whatever they are called) and gross seaweed and oil spills. I could get hit with a plane while flying like Superman but I’ll take that chance. I was watching the first Superman movie from the 1970s with Christoper Reeve the other week with The Husband and thinking about what a huge crush I had on Christopher when I was a kid. I would have loved to have flown with him if he had really been Superman – and he kind of was one in many ways.

Saturday Afternoon Chat: relaxing week, reptiles, pizza, some sun, and cozy mysteries to read

April 20, 2024 / Lisa R. Howeler / 10 Comments

Sipping tea and cocoa, reading books, and watching All Creatures Great and Small. That’s all I want to do today and hopefully, I will.

It wasn’t a rough week. It was a relaxing one, but it did have various bouts of sad news mixed in about a variety of people and situations. I just need a break from things.

The world is heavy, right? I’m not the only one who feels it, am I?

I mean – it’s a lot unless you lock yourself in a house and never engage with people or go on social media or participate in society whatsoever. That may be something I look into soon.

Again, though, could just be me, but I’m sort of over the craziness of the world right now.

Which is why I am piling up my cozy mysteries and popping in some old movies and eating a lot of chocolate this weekend.

Okay, maybe I won’t eat a lot of chocolate. I’ve actually been craving fruit more than anything else. I just want fruit all the time lately and I think that’s because my body wants healthier foods. I intend to give it those healthier foods it wants this week. Even if fruits and vegetables are some of the most expensive foods right now.

This past week, as I said, wasn’t really too stressful other than bad news.

The Husband had off work for the week so we had some family time, including a trip to a nearby reptile zoo yesterday.

Earlier in the week we hung out at home, went for some walks (well, I didn’t but the rest of them did), went to the playground, visited my parents and had some pizza with them, watched some Adventures of Sherlock and Perry Mason and read books or, for me, wrote blog posts.

The kids had school but we took it easy, especially on the nice days when we had sun and warmer temps. We seem to be in this routine in Pennsylvania of two nice days and five not-so-nice ones. I’ll take those two nice days and hope for more nice days in a row in May and the rest of the summer.

Wednesday night we had a pizza night at my parents’ house. We made homemade pizza – well, not really. It was store-bought dough but we added the sauce, cheese, and roasted peppers.

Yesterday it was off to Clyde Peelings Reptiland where Little Miss was able to see her favorite creatures – reptiles. She was able to pet a snake and was thrilled by that but I’m sure she would have been more thrilled to bring it home. She’s still trying to talk me into us buying her one. I just keep pushing her off and hope she will forget about it.

The Boy, The Husband, and Little Miss went inside the zoo and I stayed in the car reading books, partially to save money because the tickets are quite high, and partially because I had already seen the zoo and The Husband hadn’t.

He is not a fan of reptiles, especially snakes, but he did well.

Afterward, we decided not to go to a fast food restaurant to eat but instead stopped at a local supermarket called Weis. It’s like a smaller version of Wegman’s, for those familiar with that chain, or Trader Joes with less options.

Still, it provides more fresh fruit and natural products than other supermarkets in our area, which means my lunch was some pork chops I had brought from home and a package of raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries. Everyone else had things like General Tsaos chicken, dumplings, and fried chicken pieces. To me, it always seems a better deal to pick up lunch at a place that provides good quality food next to some healthier options, especially since our last restaurant experience was expensive and disappointing.

The sun has been out a little bit today and that’s been nice but it looks like it is clouding up again out there. We really need a stretch of several days of sun to perk us all up.

I plan to spend the rest of the day sipping tea, as I mentioned above, and finishing up a The Cat Who … book that I got wrapped up in the other day when I was looking for a comfort read to deal with all the overwhelming news of people I know with health issues.

There are some very funny lines in this book – The Cat Who Talked to Ghost by Lilian Jackson Braun – it’s actually become one of my favorites.

At one point, Polly, the main character’s girlfriend (they are an older couple in their 50s just for a visual) adopts a Siamese cat and, usually reserved, gushes over it and talks baby talk to it.

Main character, Jim Qwilleran, a slightly uptight newspaper columnist with two Siamese cats of his own, is aghast at her behavior.

“Qwilleran had to admit he was an appealing little creature, but he found Polly’s commentary cloying.

He occasionally called Yum Yum his little sweetheart, but that was different. It was a term of endearment, not maudlin gush.

“What’s his name?” he asked.

“Bootsie, and he’s going to grow up to be just like Koko.”

Fat chance, Qwilleran thought, with a name like that! Koko bore the dignified cognomen of Kao K’o Kung, a thirteenth-century Chinese artist.”

I don’t know why that section cracked me up, but it did! I guess I needed the laugh.

How was your week this past week?

Do anything fun?

Let me know in the comments.

Next week I plan to start a link-up for weekly wrap-up posts and then anyone who does similar posts (they don’t have to have the same name at all) can add their links and we can catch up on what everyone is doing. I’ll let you know more about that next week.

10 on 10 for February

February 10, 2024February 10, 2024 / Lisa R. Howeler / 11 Comments

Today I am taking part in the 10 on 10 with Marsha In the Middle as host.

Here are the questions we are supposed to answer and the answers are below the graphic:

I looked at this one for a bit and was grossed out with both ideas but then decided that I’d rather have the potato chips dipped in chocolate because, well, it’s chocolate. I could eat almost anything dipped in chocolate except crickets and, well, other gross things one shouldn’t eat, but you get my drift. (Looks like Gertrude Hawk actually makes this product!)

2, I would definitely prefer to recite an original poem to my husband than sing anywhere, let alone in front of a bunch of people. I don’t write poetry but I come from a family of poets so I think I could pull that off. I could not pull of singing or singing in front of a bunch of people. I’d probably giggle while reciting the poem and my husband would probably make funny faces to make me laugh, but it would be a lot better than doing anything in front of a bunch of people.

3. Oh gosh – this one was a little hard. I think both of these singers would be interesting to have dinner with but I guess I would choose Dolly because I want to see how old she really looks close up. I mean, the woman is 78 but has so much makeup and plastic surgery done, she’s got to really look old close up right? I just can’t imagine a human’s skin can stretch that much through plastic surgery and not rip somewhere. I’ve got to see for myself how wrinkled she really is. Plus I think she’s hilarious and I’d crack up at her jokes while she’d probably crack up if I told her I want to see how old she looks close up.

4. This one was easy – I would love to have only one red rose. I love red roses the most and I’m also not a huge flower person. I like them but I can take them or leave them. If my husband came home with one rose and said “We’re going to sit tonight and watch a mystery together tonight” that would be a better gift than a dozen roses and chocolate. I kid you not. I’m very, simple like that. If he threw a book I wanted in the midst of all that I’d be even more over the moon. Not that I’m hinting because he does a fine job with gifts for birthdays, holidays, and Valentine’s Day, etc.

5. I’m going to pick the pink with purple hearts because those are my favorite colors. As long as the hearts aren’t too big and I don’t look like a clown. Hopefully, it can be a comfy cotton dress that I can just lounge around the house in. *wink*

6. Uh, can I have both? I mean, both sound cool. This is “would you rather” though so I will go with the carriage ride in the Scottish Highlands because my ancestors are from Scotland and I absolutely want to visit there one day. On the list is Grant Castle because my family members were Grants (hello…why do you think the main character in my book series is Gladwynn Grant. One, it was my grandmother’s name, but two, to keep the Grant name alive in my family.).

7. This one was easy. The Rock, but not for the reason you think. I don’t agree with him politically and I want to give him a piece of my mind. Ha! That and I think we probably agree on more things than I think and I’d like to ask him some questions about WWE and if he thinks Vince McMahon did all those things he is being accused of.

8. I think Satin sheets are pretty slippery so I’d go with the flannel sheets with Teddy bears on them. This question doesn’t tell us what season we would have these sheets in, but I think even in the summer I’d rather have the flannel sheets. I’d simply not have a top blanket and put the fan on me so I wouldn’t get too hot. Yes, I thought of this way too long. I may have issues.

9. I will go with the box of chocolates with my least favorite fillings. I have dealt with some pretty bad allergies before and they affected my breathing so I’d rather not like chocolates than not be able to breathe!

10. Oh dear, my husband might read this and I don’t want to offend him but he likes surprise dates and I don’t. I mean, I’ve always enjoyed the surprise places he’s taken me but I like knowing where I’m going and what we’re going to be doing. I have anxiety and if I can plan for contingencies like how I’m going to be able to escape if I feel anxious or if I’m going to get carsick or not because it is a long drive, then I prefer to know ahead of time. If I planned the date then I’d know everything that was going to happen and that would help my control freak tendencies and my highly-prone-to-anxiety brain.

I’m so glad I was able to remember to do the 10 on 10 this month. I usually forget about it until I see Marsha post about it but this time, I remembered the day before. I simply didn’t write about it until after I saw Marsha post about it. *snort*

If you want to read more responses to these questions, visit Marsha’s blog here: https://marshainthemiddle.com/10-on-the-10th-february-3/

Saturday Afternoon Chat January 27: warmer temps (for a bit anyhow), relaxing with Miss Marple, and kids should be able to play and get messy

January 27, 2024 / Lisa R. Howeler / 8 Comments

I really enjoy our Saturday Afternoon Chats. I feel like I am talking to my friends – even if I can’t see most of you.’

I had considered dropping this weekly feature and rolling it into my Sunday Bookends but that would make that post very long and rambling so I’ve decided to ramble here on Saturdays instead. Ha.

The fire is not burning in my woodstove this weekend as we are in a warm-up after the horrible cold we experienced last week (the week before this past week I mean) and last weekend.

Yesterday it was 60 degrees in the little village I was visiting a friend in and our kids were outside playing barefoot in her yard..

Almost eight days of arctic and bitter cold are behind us for now and we can finally go about our business without worrying about our fingers and noses being frozen and asthma attacks being triggered.

We do, however, have snow and ice coming tomorrow so winter is not done with us yet.

Still, those nice warm temps and the sunshine were very welcome yesterday as Little Miss and I drove 40 minutes South to hang out with our friends.

The family has three cats and three dogs and the youngest dog is just a couple of months old, tiny, and very cute.

The youngest cat is also pregnant.

So in between cats and dogs running in and out of the house, there were also children running in and out of the house and onto the trampoline behind their house, an activity Little Miss hasn’t been able to do for a few months now. In other words, it was a very nice and fun day.

While we were chatting my friend and I spoke about parents who like their children to remain clean and not play in the mud and dirt too much. That concept is very foreign to us. Our children love to get messy, run in the mud and climb trees or play in creeks, or even wrestle at times.

The idea that they couldn’t do those things because we don’t want their clothes to get messy is weird to us.

That’s why I buy used or cheaper clothes – because I know my kid is going to roll down a hill or play in a pile of mud – okay, well, maybe not the mud. She’s always been a bit resistant to getting herself too muddy, but she was still running barefoot through our friends’ yard yesterday and I didn’t even think twice about it.

The drive back to our house was a little stressful because we have the headlight to replace the headlight that was damaged in October when we hit a deer but haven’t had time to set up an appointment with a mechanic to have it replaced. I tried to leave our friends’ house before it got dark but that didn’t happen so I drove with my hands tightly gripping the steering wheel and trying to see the road in front of me with a busted headlight that was pointing up toward the top of the trees and the other one trying to light the road on its little own.

I already have horrid night vision so this added to the stress of night driving for me. There was a deer along the road at one point and I put the brakes on to see what she was going to do. She just stared at me with her buddies in the woods behind her so I laid on the horn and she and her friends took off, away from the road.

I was so grateful when we made it home. It felt like a much longer drive than it would have been if it had been light out. I made myself some dinner (The Boy had already eaten and Little Miss was snacking on these little cans of tuna fish salad that she likes), grabbed a blanket, curled up under it and just relaxed the rest of the night, with the plan not to leave my house again until at least Sunday.

Today I am watching Agatha Christie’s Marple, the series based on the Miss Marple books by Agatha Christie, that ran from 2004 to 2013. I will talk about that more in tomorrow’s Sunday Bookends post.

I have that blanket over my lap again and I’m sipping hot peppermint tea and munching on French fries cooked in the air fryer.

I could have cooked the fries in my oven, though, since my husband fixed it last week after a year of our oven not working. We had an idea of what was wrong with it but it would have cost $200 to have the repairman come so we kept putting off getting it fixed. We have an air fryer, a stove, and an Instapot that we can use to cook anyhow so we didn’t miss it too much. I use the stove and Instapot more than the oven anyhow. It turned out that the part for it was only $30 but neither of us are very mechanical and didn’t want to bother my dad to help us.

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the episode of Little House on the Prairie where Pa is trying to buy a new glass window for the cabin, but in the episode the modern glass windowpane repeatedly gets broken and he has to keep going back to the store for a new one. It’s a running gag throughout the whole episode. I don’t remember all the ways he breaks it but I think one time he drops it and another time Laura is upset and climbs into the back of the wagon and steps on it. I think someone in town runs into it or hits it with a broom handle too.

In the end, Pa gives up and just puts up the old-fashioned glass paned window.

I thought that might be like what would happen with us after The Husband ordered the part, showed it to me so I could see how fragile the part (an ignitor) was, returned to the kitchen, sat it on the tabletop, and then it rolled off and broke. He had to order a replacement and start all over again. Luckily the second time was the charm and he didn’t break it. He replaced it on Monday night and was very proud of himself since he isn’t someone who often does house repairs.

Tuesday night I made some breaded chicken in the oven, made waffles in our new waffle maker, and tried chicken and waffles.

The Boy had started suggesting we try to make chicken and waffles since The Husband picked up the waffle maker in December.

My recipe didn’t come out exactly like real chicken and waffles, but everyone said it was pretty good. I’m trying to cut out gluten so I just ate the chicken with some peas (honestly because I had already had gluten earlier in the day. I’m not doing great at the no-gluten thing in other words.).

I’m looking forward to relearning recipes that I can cook in the oven.

We usually visit my parents on Sunday afternoons but we might have to skip it tomorrow since we are supposed to get a snow and ice mixture.

If we stay home, The Husband and I hope to try out the mystery show Vera and maybe some more Marple. We haven’t had a lot of time to watch things together because he has been working a lot lately.

The rest of today will be me watching more Marple, maybe some more Lark Rise to Candleford, reading and hopefully finishing Little Women (after leisurely reading it for a couple of months I now hope to finish it and move on to some other classics. I’ve been enjoying it). I will be drawing some with Little Miss too. She already has the sketch paper and markers all set up.

I want to sit down at least once a week for an hour with her from now on and just draw with her and talk about art.

She really loves art and has since she was a toddler. Her current sketching obsession is dragons. I haven’t really sketched in years so I try to draw people when we sit down to draw and then I notice that the proportions are off and crumple it up and throw it away.

It’s nice to take some time, though, even an hour or so, to step away from social media and my computer and use my brain for something other than trying to figure out how to promote my books or write them in the first place.

I think this week we will draw and listen to an audiobook or a story from Adventures in Odyssey and completely remove ourselves from the rest of the world, so to speak. What’s nice is that our art time can count toward our homeschool lessons for the week.

How was your week last week? Do anything fun or exciting or just relaxing? I’d love to know.

Saturday Afternoon Chat December 2: A hodgepodge of thoughts about my week and the week to come

December 2, 2023 / Lisa R. Howeler / 11 Comments

Dry skin. That’s what I’ve got right now.

Horrible dry skin from the dry air in our house.

Don’t worry – it just feels dry. I won’t describe how it looks because it doesn’t look bad. It just looks — pale and dry.

We don’t have a humidifier downstairs but I think we are going to have to get one because when I get dry skin it causes my entire body to feel inflamed with itchiness. It’s a horrible feeling and sometimes I have to practically bathe myself in lotion to get relief.

I have a soap I use from Cetaphil that is moisturizing and helps immensely.

I find it fairly cheap on Amazon and at Walmart (no, this is not a sponsored post. I promise.) but I’m sure you can find it in other places as well.

Cetaphil used to make an amazing lotion too, but they changed the ingredients earlier this year and I don’t think it works as well.

My mom keeps telling me to put lotion or coconut oil on right after a shower to help my skin absorb the moisture but I always forget and pay for it later.

What do you, dear readers, use to help your dry skin if you have it? My curious mind wants to know.

An uneventful week where we almost died . . .

This past week was a rather uneventful week.

The only day I had something to do was yesterday when I drove 30 minutes down and back to pick up our groceries. On our way there some driver decided he’d try to pass a truck and a car on a stretch of road right on a corner, where there were double lines, and in a spot on the highway near my parents where there have been a number of fatalities over the years. When I saw him in my lane I couldn’t believe it.

I laid on the horn and luckily, he yanked back into his lane but it was certainly a frightening experience.

I’m not sure what was so important that this person needed to risk everyone’s life but I have a feeling he needed a beer.

I’m kidding.

Sort of.

Tonight The Husband, Little Miss, and I are headed to a Christmas parade in a tiny town half an hour away. He has to attend the event for work and I decided Little Miss needs to get out of the house and see her friends because she’s so bored that she’s started asking The Husband and I to play Hide and Seek or Red Light, Green Light with her.

She’s really gotten desperate for entertainment apparently. We are not really the most fun and we are easily distractable.

A question for my readers . . .

This reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend recently. I said Little Miss wanted me to play dolls and stuffies with her and she said she was always impressed with how I played with my daughter because most parents she knows don’t do that.

I have a variety of ages reading my blog so my question to all of you is if you play(ed) with your children when they were young or if you did what my mom did which was essentially tell me to go find a way to entertain myself. She wasn’t rude at all. She just had work to do in the house and couldn’t sit and play all afternoon so she’d gently suggest I go draw or play with my dolls on my own if I asked.

I don’t even remember asking, actually. I was used to drawing or playing on my own a lot. I was sort of a lonely kid with only a handful of friends my entire childhood. In fact, I was a lot like Little Miss is now and only had two close friends (sisters) until junior high.

She also has two sisters as her friends.

Her other two friends moved to Texas in the summer but are returning for a visit around Christmas.

As a follow-up to the question of if you played with your children, did your parents play with you? I mean, I know most parents at least throw a ball with their kids or play some board games, but did you really sit down and play with the dolls and their stuffed animals?

I like to do that some with Little Miss because I think it helps to develop her imaginative play and I know how important play is to the development of a child. I can’t, however, do it all day like she wants me to.

Moving on . . .

Right now I am listening to Cozy Cafe Ambience – Relaxing Smooth Jazz Music with Rain & Thunder Sounds at Night on YouTube. I’m trying to drown out the noise of my house. We don’t have a lot of people in our house but it is very noisy.

Little Miss seems to think she has to have the TV on at all times, even while talking to her friends on a chat app while they play online games.

She’s not watching anything bad – it’s often a show on YouTube about reptiles that she likes. I don’t allow her to have YouTube on her phone anymore because she was watching all those Shorts and they were kicking out some very inappropriate stuff at her.

Even though the shows she watches aren’t bad, it’s constant noise.

I find it hard to focus on what I am writing with the constant chatter and interruptions. (How many times should a dog need to go out in an hour? Asking for a “friend.”) Sometimes I’m amazed I get any books or blog posts written but I do so by making myself get up early, before all the chatter starts, and also by going into the kitchen and sitting at the kitchen table where I’m a little bit more removed from the noise.

Oh and sometimes I just tell Little Miss to turn it all off! That helps too.

Today I goofed off this morning when Little Miss and others were sleeping so that’s my own fault for having to deal with the noise and activity.

We are having a slightly warmer day with rain forecasted for later on.

Then we will be dropping back into the 30s tomorrow. I know I was wishing for the cooler weather so I could cozy up under a blanket with a good book but on days like this when it isn’t exactly cold enough to light the fire but we don’t really want to turn the heat up too much and use up our heating oil, I find I don’t enjoy cuddling under a blanket as much as I hoped I would.

We do tend to romanticize the whole idea of a warm blanket, a cup of tea, and a good book, don’t we? We never factor in our cold nose or fingers, the cat that wants to warm up with us so she lays on our chest (right under our chin), or the way the tea gets really cold in the chilly air so we have to keep getting up to warm it up.

Or at least I don’t always think of all those negatives.

But, I think I’ll still continue to romanticize my life a little. Finding those little moments of magic are important, even if they aren’t as perfect as we had imagined. Plus, I have the option to turn the heat up, I have a roof over my head and a nice house, my family around me to make me laugh and smile (even if I sometimes have to tell them to be quiet so I can think.), I have food in my cupboards and fridge, and I have the luxury of being able to choose when I want to read or right – most of the time.

I’m very lucky and even though I grumble a bit from time to time (usually in jest, not a real grumble) I recognize that and I am grateful for it all.