looking back

Sunday Bookends: Making chocolate chip cookies, reading mysteries and classics, and started Gladwynn’s third book

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 8 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. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

This week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Deb at Readerbuzz, and Kathyrn at The Book Date.



What’s Been Occurring

Yesterday Little Miss and I visited my parents to have some dinner and make chocolate chip cookies with them.

We did that on a very windy, rainy day after traveling to drop The Boy off at a friend’s house 40 minutes away. On the way back from dropping him off, we stopped at a local library that was having a used book sale. It wasn’t a very exciting sale for us, sadly, but we did get a few books. There were no cozy mysteries. So sad. Yet, not really because I have so many to read right now.

The cooking making was interesting. We whipped up a batch but my mom said it didn’t look like there would be enough for her grandson, who loves chocolate chip cookies, so Little Miss and I added some more flour. But then we realized we would need more butter and another egg and then we tried to remember what we’d put in and what we hadn’t so the conversation started going like this:

Me: “We should put some more flour in.”

Her: “I don’t know about that.”

Mom/Grandma: “Did you even put the baking powder in?”

Her and me: “oops.”

Me: “I’d better put another half a cup of butter.”

Her: “This isn’t looking right.”

Me: “It looks super sticky and sort of runny.”

Mom/Grandma: “Add more flour.”

Dad/Grandpa, taking photos of it all and snickering: “I don’t know how these cookies are going to turn out.”

Me: “Well, we will eat them somehow.”

The cookies:

The cookies tasted great, by the way. Somehow I forgot to add this when I originally shared this post so if you see comments about that below — that is why. *snort* I am such an airhead sometimes.

While cooking the cookies we also had an incident where Zooma The Wonder Dog ran into a mud puddle twice trying to corner a cat at my parents’ neighbor’s house. I had to lock her in the bathroom, pull out the cookies, and then hose her down so she wouldn’t get the house all muddy.

She didn’t want to get in my parent’s walk-in shower but I finally managed to coax her in and pull the shower head off and wash the mud off.

We left not long after that and came home to enjoy some quiet time at home.

What I/we’ve been Reading/will be reading:

Currently:

I plan to finish The Divine Proverb of Streusel by Sara Brunsvold this week.

I am also reading The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett and started Priscilla by Jenny Knipfer.

Just Finished:

A Troubling Case of Murder on the Menu by Donna Doyle. This was a cute little, simple cozy mystery.

Soon to be read:

The Mystery at Lilac Inn by Carolyn Keene

Murder Always Barks Twice by Jennifer Hawkins

Death At A Scottish Christmas by Lucy Connelly

Little Miss and I finished The Middle Moffat by Eleanor Estes this week.

The Boy and I are looking for a new book to read for English for school and he is finishing a Warhammer book.

The Husband is reading Skinwalkers by Tony Hillerman.

What We watched/are Watching

This week I watched an episode of Lark Rise to Candleford, Bluey (because of course), and Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman.

I also watched a show called The Repair Shop on Britbox or Acorn or Masterpiece or some British channel on Amazon. I really enjoyed it. They are repair experts who repair special heirlooms for people and there are usually sweet stories behind the items.

This vlog by The Cottage Fairy about how she needed to take a break from social media to help quiet her mind. I could really relate to this because I felt the same way.


What I’m Writing

This past week I started book three in the Gladwynn Grant Mysteries. I’m excited to see where it goes and how it turns out.

Last week on the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening to

I’m going to try my best to finish A Tale of Two Cities but I will also be starting Watership Down on Audio, read by Peter Capaldi.

Photos from Last Week

Here are some photos from the play of War of the Worlds that my husband was in last week. I wrote about that yesterday in my Saturday Afternoon Chat post.

Blog Posts I Enjoyed This Past Week

Finding Solace in the Sink by Book Inheritance

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.

Saturday Afternoon Chat: The fox was going to eat my cat and very unexpected snow

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 4 Comments

I woke up this morning with a gasp because in my dream a fox had climbed up a pole and a fence and was preparing to eat my cat.

Only it wasn’t my cat, it was my friend’s cat named Peanut.

A cat my daughter cried over for ten minutes straight last night because she says our friends are giving him away. I have no idea the background for this breakdown or this story about Peanut The Cat. All I know is I am not adopting another cat and I am not eating chocolate before bed again because it produced some really odd dreams. Not only did I dream about the fox stealthy walking across a snowy backyard that wasn’t ours so it could climb a pole and fence and eat our cat that was not really our cat, but I also dreamed about New Kids on the Block lip-syncing in concert, which yes I am sure did, and does still, happen. (Yes, they are still touring. I know. I too hope they are up on their health insurance because they might break a hip.)

I woke up from the dream before the fox ate my cat, by the way, but not before the cat in the dream let out a horrible yowl.

That yowl haunted me so I stayed up for a while scrolling Instagram before drifting off for another 20-minute snooze.

When I woke up for good, I looked outside and discovered the weather forecasters are apparently drinking booze these days because last week they prepared us three days in advance for a storm that never came and yesterday they prepared us thirty minutes in advance for two inches of snow that fell overnight.

Of course I know that storms and weather systems can shift at the last minute, but really? They didn’t see 2-5 inches coming until half an hour before it fell? They weren’t even calling for rain or sleet or anything wet and then – boom! – there it was. Snow all over our driveway and ground and me having to wake up a teenager who stayed up all night and tell him that his dad has to go to pick up things for a fundraiser for a community organization he’s part of so now said groggy teenager needs to wake up and shovel the driveway.

I’ll also have to go out in this snow later to return my dad’s car to him. He switched his car for his truck, which we have been borrowing because The Husband’s truck has been in the shop for two weeks getting a lot of very expensive work done on it. Dad needed his truck to take recycling downtown. Had I known this earlier than five minutes before he headed our way, I could have driven the truck to him and he could have brought me back home after we delivered the recycling. Dad seems to be like the forecasters these days with his last minute announcements.

Our car isn’t in very good shape either after hitting a deer in late October. The front headlight was damaged and the insurance didn’t want to pay for it but finally did and we ordered a replacement headlight assembly but it came broken so we had to ship it back and now we have to order a new one so my dad and son can replace it and hopefully save us another mechanic’s bill. We will see how that goes.

A drying rack is sitting on the landing at the top of my stairs right now because our dryer finally died and our neighbor offered us the drying rack until we get it fixed. Between working two jobs The Husband has been taking the wet laundry to the laundry mat because I’m too much of a wimp to lift a laundry basket full of wet laundry and carry it to and from the car.

I’ve been thinking a lot these past two weeks about that saying, “When it rains it pours” because it has certainly been raining and pouring here lately, which reminds me that last spring our ceiling leaked and we will probably have to have that looked at again in a couple of months.

Now all of these woes may sound depressing to some of you, but for me, it’s just life because mixed in with the woes have been some good too. A surprise and very appreciated gift of money last week helped us pay off our heating bill last week right before we needed another order (which will mean another bill, but it’s much less this time, thankfully).

My mom has been dealing with severe pain from fibromyalgia for a few weeks now but Thursday I found her CBD stick and we rubbed it on and it actually took the edge off. I’m not done with it yet but I have made quite a bit of progress on the book I am releasing in August as part of a series with a group of other authors.

So there has been some good mixed in with the bad.

Going back to our unexpected snow, I am pretty sure we Pennsylvania residents are no longer surprised when we go to bed with no snow and wake up with two, three, four, or even five inches of it all over the trees and ground and our cars. Throwing open the curtains is literally like opening a mystery box because you just never know what you are going to get. I can tell you that life is never dull in a state where the weather might be sunny and warm enough to wear short sleeves one day and cold, snowy, and wet, requiring winter coats, gloves, and hats the next.

Even my cats are anxious these days about going outside. They no longer dart out onto the back porch ready to start their exploring for the day. Instead they timidly stand in the doorway and move their heads back and forth while their eyes scan the outside world to see what elements they might have to deal with that day and whether or not they want to deal with the elements they see.

Some mornings they simply swish a tail and turn themselves right back around to head back into the house. They find a spot on a chair or a bed to curl up in and sleep the day away, hoping when they wake up it will be sunny and pleasant again and they can lay on their backs and let the sun warm their bellies.

Looking at the weather forecast for the next week, I don’t think that is going to be happening for a while so they might as well take their 18th nap of the day.

It’s probably safer inside anyhow.

No foxes to climb up poles and fences and eat them inside.

How was your week? Let me know in the comments.

Saturday Afternoon Chat: Christmas, Christmas light displays, and special Christmas gifts

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 14 Comments

Good afternoon!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas or holiday and are ready to celebrate the New Year.

We had a really fun, but relaxing Christmas Eve and Christmas.

We spent both days with my parents.

Christmas Eve we bought pizza and wings and watched the movie Elf with them and on Christmas Day we went there for a gift exchange and dinner. We watched White Christmas after all the gifts were open.

Every year before we open gifts we read the Christmas story from Luke. Either Dad or Mom or my brother usually reads it but my brother couldn’t be there this year so Little Miss and The Husband volunteered to read. It was very nice to have them read it.

There were a couple of very nice surprise gifts for me, including a new Kindle from my husband. I always joke how he rarely buys me books for Christmas, even though that’s what I want most of the time (he really just wants me to choose what I want on my own so he isn’t being a jerk) so this year he put me in my place and bought me a device where I can read hundreds of books.

It was a total shock.

I like the Kindle Paperwhite I have and it was working okay but earlier in the year I thought the battery wasn’t holding a charge as well. It turns out my case wasn’t closing right and failing to put it into sleep mode.

Regardless, The Husband got it in his head that I needed a new Kindle so he kindly used a portion of his bonus to buy one of the newest generations. He wanted me to have one that I could adjust the warmth setting on so I can use it more at night before bed without it messing with my melatonin. It also features a larger screen.

I certainly appreciated the thought and while I first thought it was a bit clunky compared to my older and lighter paperwhite, after a couple of days of using it (it came on Wednesday), I love it. I even hug it when I close the cover. I know. I’m weird. I also hug books after I smell them. Ahem. I’ve heard of weirder habits by people so I’m not worried about my mental status. At least for that reason.

Another surprise for me was a six-month membership to Ancestry.com so I could finish researching our family.

I already had an entire family tree put together but had to take a break because of expenses. Now I have to start a new account and redo some of my research but I can hopefully draw from my old account and quickly add some of it. After I am done, I will make sure to print it all out and save all the documents I want to save in a place I can find it this time.

Among my favorite gifts was a huge three-pound jar of local honey. The Husband joked it should last me a week and after looking at how much I’ve used already he might be right – though it will probably be at least a month.

Little Miss was surprised with two music boxes from my parents among some other gifts. The Husband was given a clock that used to belong to my paternal grandmother.

I bought my son a sword for Christmas. Yes, a real sword. Okay, not really that real but a little real.

It’s fairly solid and it’s something he has wanted, though he later told me it was a bit of a joke. Joke or not, he now has a sword to go with his helmet.

He also received two hammers from his grandfather and I’m not sure if he knew what to think of them but he did say they would be nice to have for personal projects or for his building and construction class. When he was little he used to hand his superhero figures to me and ask me to put them in my purse but on Monday he asked me to put his hammers in my purse. In the end, they were too heavy to be put in there and had to be carried out to go home in a box.

My dad received a gift from his neighbor of a piece of ash wood that had the pattern from the ash bore in its bark and was carved by his neighbor into the shape of a tree.

We have been using this wood in our woodstove and I thought the patterns in the bark were from the wood laying in the dirt and worms making the patterns.

(Speaking of our woodstove – we haven’t had to use it all week but will have to light it tonight as the temperatures drop back down into the 30s.)

My dad always does a beautiful job at wrapping the presents and this year was no exception.

As an aside, Dad will be 80 this Friday. He still likes to try to trick us at Christmas and wrap our gifts in a way we can’t really tell what it is until we open it. This year he wrapped each of us special gifts (like my Ancestry membership) around a can of sardines. We all guessed that was what it was but weren’t sure if they were real sardines or just the cans.

It turned out they were real sardines but money or notes about items that were ordered for us were wrapped around them. Both Little Miss and the Boy tried the sardines. The Boy liked his since they had a Louisiana hot sauce on them. He was disappointed he left them at their house when we left that evening.

Gifting The Boy underwear became a theme for a few years so one year my dad wrapped his underwear in a box of nails which made The Boy think he was receiving a Lego set.

The day after Christmas we all headed to a festival of lights – or Christmas light display about 45 minutes south of us.

Usually we attend this site the day after Thanksgiving, or at least before Christmas, and there aren’t as many people but this year there was a huge line of cars traveling through the lights with us. The lights are set up on a golf course and each display is very impressive, especially for our small area.

This year they enlarged the display and also added a tribute to the victims of 9-11, which was very impressive to us all.

On the way to the display we picked up two friends of Little Miss’s and they regaled us with Christmas carols as we rode because The Husband still hasn’t figured out how to operate the radio in his new-to-him truck so he didn’t know how to turn to the radio station they tell you to play while going through the display.

I tried to play Michael Buble’s Christmas album for everyone but they weren’t that interested.

The rest of the week was spent relaxing for most of us (The Boy has enjoyed staying up late and sleeping in on his break) and some work for The Husband but luckily not all week.

Today The Husband is taking us somewhere for dinner and shopping. Tomorrow we will either relax at home or my parents for New Year’s Eve while The Boy has a friend over for a sleepover. I hope to make Aunt Dianne’s famous sausage balls for either Sunday or Monday.

How was your Christmas or holidays?

Did you receive any special gifts or just have some special family time?

I’d love to know.

I’ll be back tomorrow for Sunday Bookends to discuss what I’ve been reading and watching.

Sunday Bookends: A spring outing, reading mysteries, and new glasses for the youngest

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 9 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, and some weeks I share what I am listening to.



What’s Been Occurring

I did not share a Saturday After Chat post yesterday because I was out of the house both Friday and Saturday and did not have time to write one.

On Tuesday last week, we traveled to a town near us to pick glasses up for Little Miss and The Boy. Yes, Little Miss is now like the rest of us in the family and has glasses. I don’t really like that she’s had to get them at such a young age, but if she can see better, that’s great.

I wanted to blame too much device usage on her need at such a young age, but then I remembered that I was only a couple of years older when I got glasses, and I didn’t have devices back then. I did a lot of close work with sketching and reading but I did not have a phone or Kindle or anything else that might cause me to be near-sighted. I suppose it is simply bad genetics once again.

Luckily, she looks absolutely adorable in glasses.

The Boy looks absolutely adorable in glasses too, but he doesn’t pose for photos anymore.

The Husband would probably pose but his glasses are old so I didn’t take a photo of them.

After we picked up the glasses we went to the local library for a gathering with the local homeschool group. It was a lot of fun and nice to finally meet other homeschooling parents. I had met a few of them at the end of February but several of the children were sick that week. We missed the next couple of meet-ups because of Little Miss’s dental procedure, weather, and Little Miss getting sick one week.

During this meetup, they had a birthday theme and exchanged gifts between the children to help encourage them to get to know each other. This didn’t really work as much with the teenagers who simply looked at the floor while they handled each other gifts, but it was a good idea.

One of the members brought their pet pig and then there were birthday party type games (Pin the Tail on the Donkey, Musical Chairs, and a pinata). Little Miss had a blast but by the end she told me she was all socialized out and wanted to go home and not talk to people for the next five months.

Yes, she is very similar to me.

After interacting with other people I need a downtime of not talking to anyone or going anywhere for at least a day, if not more.

On Friday, Little Miss and I grocery shopped, which I hate doing but it went well, even though I had to have our van looked at by an exhaust specialist before we went because we have a hole in our exhaust and then grocery shop. I actually very much dread going to the grocery store. My weird health issues seem to kick in during those visits. My legs get weak, my head feels odd, and my lower back hurts by the time I get halfway around the store.

I prayed all the way to the store, though, calling on Jesus’ many names – Elohim, Adonai, and Jehovah Jireh, my provider. I rebuked anything coming against me and by the time I left the mechanic to head to Aldi, I felt so much better. I was able to get all of our shopping done and when I went home I even carried in all of the groceries, something I’m usually too tired to do.

In full disclosure, I did take a l’theanine before I left. It is a natural supplement to help with relaxation but there is no way it had time to kick in and not only that, it does not give me energy or take away the vertigo I experience in stores or in fluorescent lights. Only God can do that. Don’t be afraid to ask him for help in even the smallest situations in your life.

Yesterday we visited a comic shop as a family for Free Comic Book Day.

We traveled about an hour to get to the comic shop, visiting a town near us that we had not visited before. It was full of old houses that dated back to the early to mid 1800s. I honestly felt like I was in an old neighborhood in Philadelphia or something.

The kids and The Husband went into the comic book store and I wandered down the street, admiring the old buildings and beautiful churches.

There was a Little Free Library at one of the churches in the town with the comic book store and I found what I think is a cozy mystery. I replaced it with a book that was in the van.

After our visit there we stopped at a GameStop store for The Boy and visited a park/playground  afterward.

It was a nice day, especially since we finally had a sunny, warm day for the first time all week and also because the views were so nice.

I am trying to talk my dad and son in building me a little library that I can install across the street from our house. I think it would be fun for people who are walking or driving by to see and know that they can find good books in.

What I/we’ve been Reading

While I was not a huge fan of M.C. Beaton’s writing style, I couldn’t help reading through Death of a Poisoned Pen, which is a Hamish Macbeth Mystery. I gave up at one point and said I couldn’t put up with her choppy writing any longer, but I needed to know what happened so I went back to the book and finished it Friday night. This was a later book in the series so maybe it wasn’t even written by M.C. Beaton by then. Maybe ghost writers wrote it like they do James Patterson’s books.

Now that I have finished that book I am free to focus on Fellowship of the Ring, which I have a goal to finish before the end of May but will probably finish earlier. I need The Boy to finish it before the end of May as well because I would like him to write a review of it and Huckleberry Finn before our meeting with our homeschool evaluator.

I am also reading a cozy mystery by Amanda Flower, a new-to-me author. The book is called Flowers and Foul Play. It is a Magic Garden Mystery so there is a bit of magic mixed in.

Little Miss has been reading a collection of Charlie books to me. Charlie was Ree Drummond’s (The Pioneer Woman’s) dog and there was a series of I Can Read books written about him. I found the collection at a library sale, and she’s been reading a chapter or two of the books to me before bed. Then I read from The Miss Piggle-Wiggle Treasury to her but I am telling you, I am ready for that book to be over. The stories really do drag a bit and I find the solutions this woman has to common childhood quirks a little irritating. It was written in the 1950s when children weren’t supposed to be imaginative, I suppose because the latest story had a mother trying to figure out how to get her son to stop daydreaming and dragging his feet and instead hurry up and do what he is told.

Little Miss likes the stories though, so I push through for her sake. I can’t wait until we can move on to something else, though. The book is due back this week, but, sadly, I can renew it again.

On our trip yesterday, Little Miss read an entire Imagination Station book by herself – they are about 80-100 pages long and around 12 chapters. They are books produced by Focus on the Family through the Adventures in Odyssey series.

The Husband is reading Peril at End House by Agatha Christie.

What We watched/are Watching

We watched a lot of Newhart this past week and I watched Holiday with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn, which I loved.

Little Miss and I watched some Mary Berry.

I actually did not watch a lot this past week because I was either revising my book or reading a book.


What I’m Writing

I am in the revision process for Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing so I worked on that a lot this week.

On the blog I shared:

Blog Posts I Enjoyed This Past Week

Rose Fairbanks: Living In the Overflow

https://rosefairbanks.com/2023/05/01/music-monday-living-in-the-overflow/comment-page-1/#comment-19638

Mama’s Empty Nest: Words for Wednesday, Just Like Mom

https://mamasemptynest.wordpress.com/2023/04/26/words-for-wednesday-just-like-mom/


Now it’s 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.

Looking back at October and Ahead to November

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 2 Comments

It’s hard for me to believe that we are almost to the end of 2022. Here we are in November already! It’s crazy to me. This year has flown by for me.

October was a fairly busy month for us with a lot of errands and activities. Little Miss also turned eight in October.

Many of those activities during the month tried to or did interrupt school days and we had to make up our lessons on other days. I am not sure what November will bring but hopefully, there won’t be as many activities during the week. We did start to get into the homeschooling groove in October though I always feel like I am not doing enough. Little Miss and I are plowing through her Reading book, which is actually a book we are finishing from last year. We are winding up our first-grade math so we can jump into second-grade math. She is a second grader this year and the curriculum we are using doesn’t actually say which grade it is for, but I think it is still first-grade math. We’ve started skipping some lessons because Little Miss already knows it and it’s become repetitive for her.

The Boy and I are reading a classic, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and he says it is boring but he says that about everything so he’ll just have to suffer through.

The days and nights became a bit cooler with a couple nights of frost. The leaves fell off the trees faster than I would have liked but first, it was only around our house. There were still a lot of leaves on the hills in other areas the county next to us. T

Then this past Sunday I noticed that the hills around my parents’ house were completely bare and brown looking. This, of course, usually means that winter will be here soon, which I am not looking forward to much this year for a variety of reasons. Sometimes life seems dark and gloomy on its own. It doesn’t need the weather to add to it.

I do like that winter means slower days where we don’t often have to rush off to an activity or I don’t feel as guilty if I don’t get the kids outside into the sunshine.

Little Miss spent many of her days jumping on the neighbor’s trampoline, which we are really going to miss this winter. It’s brought us a lot of fun.

We took a couple of mini-hikes of excursions involving nature during the month of October as well.

Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I finished up our Spooky Season Cinema Monday and are looking forward to a Christmas Season Cinema (not sure that will be the official name or not) starting the week before Thanksgiving.

For reading in October, I finished a couple of books, including two with Little Miss (Paddington At Work and The Year of Miss Agnes).

For me, I read: The Do Over by Sharon M. Peterson, The Uncertainty of Fire by Stephanie Daniels, A Quilters Holiday by Jennifer Chiaverini, and started a couple I didn’t finish, one of which I may never finish at this point.

For November I hope to do a No News November or an Almost No News November by reducing my news intake since most of the national news isn’t news anymore anyhow, but political propaganda.

We have three birthdays to celebrate, my son’s, my aunt’s and my husband’s and of course Thanksgiving. Other than those celebrations, I don’t have anything super exciting planned for November. I will be editing Shores of Mercy to get it ready to release on January 31 and will also be working on another book for National Novel Writing Month, thought I don’t plan to finish that book.

So how was your October and what are your plans for November? Anything exciting? Let me know in the comments. I love catching up with you all.

Sunday Bookends: Gardens are too much drama, still reading the same books (I’m serious), and adding truth to Bible stories

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 18 Comments

My cellphone rang at 7:30 a.m. after a rough night of sleep. I struggled to find it where I’d dropped it somewhere in the sheets and looked at it with bleary eyes.

Dad. Uh-oh. Was something wrong? I’d better pick it up.

My dad sounded panicked. But my parents and the rest of the family was fine.

“Did you leave your plants out last night?” he asked hurridly.

“Uh..yes?”

“We had a frost last night. Listen, if you go out and sprinkle them lightly with cold water you can wash the frost off and maybe save them.”

That’s when I realized. . . taking care of a garden is way too stressful.

I don’t even have the garden planted yet and I’m already stressed about the plants. They’re in a tray outside my door and each night I go to bed and wonder if the deer will come this far down and eat them. I planted a few tomatoes and Dad says he’s pretty sure they won’t eat those. Deer don’t like tomato plants but they like shrubs and carrots and green beans and anything else they can get their mouths on, I guess.

We will see.

If I don’t give up on the garden all together. I still have to stretch a fence around the garden, which is why I haven’t planted the other plants just yet. I would like to plant carrots but my dad says they are a pain and probably won’t grow in my soil. I’m still going to try it, even though the topsoil we picked up really is quite awful and rocky. Who knows. It doesn’t hurt to try.

I’m still reading the same books and watching the same shows, for the most part. For books: Sweet on You by Becky Wade and then switching off with A Light in the Window by Jan Karon. These are books that are filling a type of comfort reading for me.

I’ve also read the first chapter of Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes by Kenneth E. Bailey. I’m planning a separate post on that book at a later date, but I can say for now that the book is broken down into simple, short chapters and it’s fascinating. I have a feeling it is going to spin my view of the real Jesus on it’s head, which I’m excited to have happen since it is coinciding with my watching of The Chosen.

If you haven’t heard about The Chosen before (or missed when I mentioned it before), it’s a TV series based on the life of Jesus and is available on The Chosen site, The Chosen app, and on DVD via their site. Purchases of the DVD help to support series two, which is currently being written. The Chosen has fictional aspects within the true story of Jesus in that it offers backstories of some of the most important people of the Bible – Simon (Peter), Mary Magdalene, Jesus’, the disciples, Nicodemus and many other supporting characters. This is not your typical Bible retelling.

My 13-year old son and I have been watching it for homeschooling and he said “I like how this makes the people of the Bible seem like real people.”

And that is what the show does. It shows the humanity and authenticity of the people we’ve spent our lives reading about on the page. I love how the show portrays Jesus as I feel he really was. So many movies about Jesus show him as stoic and serious and just very . . . how do I put it? Heavy and dramatic.

But in The Chosen, Jesus laughs and jokes and relates to his followers as any other person in real life would. It shows us a new view of Jesus. A view that he is God but he was also man.

Even if you aren’t a Christian, I’d encourage you to watch the show anyhow because it is very engaging and tells the story of people, not religion, which I believe is what our relationship with God should be – the story of us, not of what the world sees as simple “religion.”

Although the books I’m reading and the shows I’m watching are the same, I’m listening to some different things this week, including a new-to-me group The Dead South. Their language on some songs are not “clean”, just as a warning. (I always hesitate sharing music that might have some hard language because I don’t want to offend any of the Christian followers I have, but hopefully they won’t judge my heart for liking some of the songs, but not the language. )

On the blog last week I shared some thoughts on how social media kills our creativity (which I’ve actually blogged about before but forgot. Apparently this is a subject I feel strongly about *wink* ), shared Chapter 5 of Fully Alive and Chapter 9 of The Farmer’s Daughter.

So, how about all of you? What have you been up to lately? Reading? Watching? Listening to? Just simply doing? Let me know in the comments!

Sunday Bookends: Things I’m already sick of, new house, new books.

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 13 Comments

For those who are following along, we moved into our new house this past week and though it’s only been a few days we somehow feel almost at home already. Sure, there are some days everything feels a little weird and surreal, maybe even a bit disorienting because the house and the neighborhood are new to us. For the most part, though, we are settling in well. It probably helps that we are 10 minutes from the house I grew up in and the house where my parents live now (which was actually my grandmother’s house when I was growing up.)

In a lot of ways, this house has features I’ve always wanted in a house, including a tiny bathroom. You know what I mean, right? One of those bathrooms that are so small it’s equally cute and claustrophobic-inducing? Yeah, I have one now. Just one tiny door, one toilet, and a tiny sink and no windows. Cooool. Yeah, I know, I’m weird. I’d take a photo of it for you but .  . . uh, it’s tiny. I did take a photo of the cool wallpaper and decor though. I love how the people who owned this house before decorated.

We also have a gorgeous staircase, which I’ve always wanted, a banister my kids can slide down, large windows with beautiful light in the living and dining rooms, a wide-open kitchen, a front porch we can sit on (complete with a porch swing) and one of the best things is that there is a small space in our backyard for a garden.

Oh, and I now have this fridge that has a digital setting on the outside and on the inside, the light slowly brightens when you open it. Yes. Little things like that excite me. I know. It’s sad.

I’ve had almost no time for reading with unpacking, calling heating oil companies and the propane company and then weeping slightly on Friday when the snow started to fall. Yes! Snow. About three inches of the yucky, cold, white stuff. I was in denial, rocking in a corner when it started. I was also getting yelled at in an email by our mortgage broker because I didn’t give her a positive review in the survey her boss sent me. Yeah. That was fun.

I started About Your Father by Peggy Rowe last week but literally got two pages in before I fell asleep, not because it is boring but because I was so tired that day from all the moving and getting adjusted. I can’t wait to read more of it this upcoming week.

I haven’t been able to work on my books at all with everything going on and just as it started to settle down my computer died. Luckily the stimulus money will help me buy a new one (and luckily my son is letting me use his to write my blog posts until it arrives.) Maybe I will actually get to finish Chapter 3 in Fully Alive next week and hopefully Chapter 4 in The Farmer’s Daughter. Who even knows at this point.

I’ve been posting some on my blog, but I won’t lie: I’m not reading a lot of blogs. Part of the reason for this is there has been no time with the move and all the drama that has gone with it. The other reason is I’m flat out of sick of talking about You Know What and I don’t read many posts where other people are talking about it.

I’m tired of sappy “we’ve got to stay strong” posts (even if I understand and agree) and posts that regurgitate facts that aren’t even facts because the “facts” change every single day. One day it’s “don’t wear masks they don’t help.” Less than a week later: “Wear a mask or you’ll die!” In PA it’s now: “Wear a mask or you’ll go to jail.” So, yeah, that roller coaster has been “fun.”

I’m already sick of the term “social distancing,”, DIY face masks tutorials, Facebook posts lecturing people, blog posts lecturing people, family members lecturing other family members (no, not in my family, don’t worry. This isn’t a veiled comment against my family!) and Americans seeming really, really happy being told what to do and what not to do. I did, however, enjoy this Youtube video that was not your traditional DIY facemask tutorial.

 

I had to run to the Dollar General yesterday when my husband forgot his wallet. The plan was to meet him outside but he wasn’t outside when I got there so I had to grab a face mask and head on in to find him. It was so apocalyptic in there with people all walking around with masks, glaring at each other. There was one couple without masks, violating the signs on the doors that stated the governor has made it mandatory to wear masks in the store, smirking at everyone else. I wasn’t sure if I should be mad at them or not, since, like I said, the recommendations change every few days.

Plus, I’m tired of being offended and outraged about everything like the rest of the world. In other words, I decided to let them do their own thing and be their own people. I know. I’m awful.  How could I let others live their own lives instead of living it the way I think they should?

Yes, I may have a little bit of sarcasm issues today.

I thought I’d share a few photos I took over the last week or so, some at the new house, some at my parents. I had to pull these off my DSLR using the phone so I’m not sure if the quality will be great, but, eh..whatever.

So what have you all been doing, watching, reading,  and how are you handling life with all this craziness? Let me know in the comments and yes, I will read them, even if they do have to do with You Know What. I’m merely taking a break from that topic, when I can, not boycotting it all together (mainly because there is no actual way to do that!)

Sunday Bookends: Free ebooks, moving and some fresh air

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 9 Comments

What a week, huh?

Don’t worry, I’m not going to interject politics, worries, or virus numbers from around the world in this post, so you’re safe.

The only thing I will say about it all is that I have discovered a couple new things from not being able to get the groceries I usually do. One, I had no idea that Bob Evans potatoes came in individual servings. I rarely eat them but picked them up when potatoes were running low in our area. We’ve eaten these at my parents and they aren’t the best, but they also aren’t the worst. Two, a local pizzeria near us makes amazing pizza and I wish we had ordered pizza from them in the past. We know this because we ordered two of their pizza making kits and the ingredients were fresh and resulted in incredibly tasting pizza.  Once the restrictions in our state are lifted, we will be sure to order from them again.

As many of you know, if you’ve been a long time, or even short time reader of this blog, I don’t handle stressful situations well. I especially don’t handle the unknown well. Not knowing what might happen from day to day or if someone I love will come down with this virus and become very ill is very draining on me.

BUT —  and yes, this is a good BUT — only by the literal grace of God,  I have been able to stay calm and surprisingly positive throughout this situation affecting our world.

It isn’t that a couple of nights haven’t been ruined by me laying awake and scrolling through a mental list of “what-ifs” but I’m able to push those thoughts aside a lot faster than I used to be. I’m handing so much more over to God than I did in the past. I am remembering (for once!) the words “the battle belongs to the Lord!” When a reader told me she remembered my post and wrote those words on a piece of paper and hung it up on her house to help her get through all of this craziness, I was not only touched, but it encouraged me to do the same.

I have not been doing as much reading as I would have liked to this past week, even though my brother encouraged me to do a 24in48 readathon. The idea is to read 24 hours out of 48 hours. Um… yeah. Not really going to happen. Probably ever. For me anyhow. (Edited this to add this comment of clarification from my brother: “Just to clarify that is the idea. That is not the rule, especially this time around. I think what’s happening this time is that a lot of people are gathering together and talking about books, even the little that they are able to read. One participant suggested a goal of reading 10 minutes each hour or listening to an audiobook for 20 minutes, which I think is doable. Today, for myself, I am going to post once or twice on Instagram and stay away from Instagram Stories, read Sunday Salon posts like I normally do, and read as I can while avoiding all news altogether.” (You can read the rest of his comment in the comments section and check out his blog for what he’s doing to keep his mind off of things.)

Anyhow, I probably read a total of an hour on Saturday and may read an hour Sunday so two hours total.  I’ve been having trouble focusing on reading (much like my brother) between current events and packing up our house to move, plus homeschooling (which we do all the time, as I mentioned in my post yesterday) playing with my 5-year old (who thinks she needs constant entertainment at this age), writing a short story for my Facebook pageant Instagram author account, and finishing up A New Beginning.

Isn’t it cool how I made myself sound really important and busy in the above paragraph? Looks good on paper/screen, right? In reality, it looks like a Picasso painting that’s been puked on.

While I am thinking or writing about books, in case others are not yet aware of this, Scribd, which I had never heard of before, is offering their subscriptions for free for the next 30 days. That includes almost all of their ebooks, audiobooks and even sheet music. My brother told me about this and it has been nice to have because all of the Romana books by Beverly Cleary are currently available for free there and my daughter loves Romana so I am reading the books to her before bed.

For myself, I am reading the second book in the Mitford series by Jan Karon, A Light in the Window and also Falling for You by Becky Wade (continuing the nice light romances I mentioned last week.)

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We were able to get outside in between blasts of heavy rain on Friday, which was very much needed after a damp, cold week. It was 71 on Friday and dropped to 37 by Saturday. Talk about messing up sinuses. I’ll share a few photos from our day here and then probably do a separate post later in the week when we all need a break (another break) from the bleak news cycle.

We usually visit my parents on Sundays but with everything going on we decided to skip this weekend even though we think we’ve most likely exposed each other already. My dad is 76 and pretty matter-of-fact about things so last week he told us “We’re in our 70s. We could get a cold and die at this point so I’m not really worried.”

My dad is a young 76. He is still very active so keeping him in one place hasn’t been easy.  Earlier this week he said “Well, I guess we should try to not travel much during all this,” and we decided together our family would stay home for this weekend and maybe next, but after that, we are moving and may need to stay a couple nights with them.

We are praying none of us catch this before then so we don’t have to sleep in our van or car until we get the keys to the new house (apparently we have to be moved out prior to signing our closing papers to sell this house and can’t have keys to the new place until the sale of this house is final. Yeah. Fun times.).

We enjoyed a visit with them last week and while the trees are still bare, we did some signs of spring starting to show up.

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DSC_8772DSC_8788So how about all of you? What are you reading, writing, watching or simply doing right now? Let me know in the comments.

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

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 20 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.

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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.).