Tag: reading

Books I want to read for the remainder of the winter

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn books and reading, everyday musings10 Comments

Winter can last a long time in Northern Pennsylvania, which is why choosing what I want to read for the rest of winter here means I am choosing books for the rest of January, all of February, and a good portion of March. It has even been known to snow in April and the first week of May here, but I still consider the end of March and all of April to be spring, so that will require a new list.

I always list a lot of books I plan to read, or want to read, knowing full well I will not get them all read and will probably become distracted in the middle by another read.

For example, this week I am reading Little Women and finished another book I’d been reading for a bit but I got distracted by a lighter read called Sisterchicks Do the Hula by Robin Jones Gunn. After finishing the one book, I needed something lighter. Little Women is lighter but I like to read that book before bed as my nightly routine. I’m a bit of a creature of habit sometimes. I would, however, like to finish Little Women since I’ve been reading it leisurely since the end of November, so I will probably start reading it at other times as well. Anytime I need a bit of downtime and breather from life, I think.

Anyhow, enough rambling. Here are the books on my winter to be read list (subject to change):

The Bungalow Mystery and The Mystery At Lilac Inn (Nancy Drew Mysteries) by Carolyn Keene.

These two came together in one volume from Thriftbooks. I enjoy disappearing into these light, sometimes silly mysteries as a way to escape my worries.

Can I tell you how stupid I felt this week when I read that these books were written by several authors, just like the Hardy Boys? Talk about a facepalm moment. I had heard that years ago and then completely forgot that Carolyn Keene was simply a pen name.

Well, it doesn’t really matter. These classics are still a nice escape.

The Cat Who Went Into The Closet by Lillian Jackson Braun.

Braun’s books are a comfort read for me. I’ve already started this one and will probably continue it this week or next since I did get distracted by the fun Sisterchicks book. It will be a perfect read for the darkness of February – the month that seems like it will never end even though it is shorter than other months of the year.

Blessed Is the Busybody by Emilie Richards

This is a cozy mystery I picked up. It looked like it might have some faith elements but after reading part of Chapter 1 I see that the main character is a member of a Unitarian Universalist church and . . . well, I won’t comment here but that’s probably not the type of faith book I’m looking for. I don’t think? Still, most cozy mysteries I pick up have been clean and fun so I’m sure this one will be too.

I doubt it will be preachy because most cozy mysteries I’ve read aren’t, even if they are in the Christian fiction category. I only picked up one that went off about breast cancer and the importance of getting checked for a few pages, which totally threw me off since I read books to escape and this book read like a non-fiction book. I put that one aside and haven’t read anything by that author since, just as a way to protect myself from finding non-fiction subjects shoved at me in my fiction.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

My son and I started this classic in the fall, became very bored and disenchanted and set it aside but now I am listening to it on Audible and it is making more sense. I am going to try to finish it and then he and I will “read it” (probably listen to it) again in March or April as part of his English course. This way I’ll have more of an idea of what is happening and can explain it to him instead of us both wandering around in the dark looking for a clue.

A Taste of Fame by Linda Evans  Shepherd and Eva Marie Everson

This is a Christian fiction/cozy mystery and is part of a series of books. I’ve never read any books from these authors so I’m looking forward to seeing if the book is good or not.

Midwinter Murder by Agatha Christie

I have been saying I would read this book for the last two years and I am determined to do it this year. This is a collection of stories from Agatha, I believe.

Hell Is Empty by Craig Johnson

I didn’t read one Longmire Mystery book last year so I hope to remedy that this year. Johnson’s books are pretty dark but also have some humor in them. Still, the darkness is what often keeps me away from them in winter (when I deal with some seasonal depression but better than in the past) so I will probably read this one toward the end of the winter.

Do The New You by Steven Furtick

I’ve already started this book and hope to continue reading it and I know I’ll be reading it with my online Bible study group through February.

Under the Magnolias by T.I. Lowe

I heard about this book when it first came out a couple of years ago and I’m finally deciding to tackle it now. This may end up getting pushed into the spring, though.

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them if you did?

Saturday Afternoon Chat: Cold weather, a warm fire, and making myself sit down and read.

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Saturday Afternoon Tea9 Comments

The fire is still burning away today in our woodstove, orange and yellow merging together in a cacophony of raging warmth to chase away the insanely bitter cold outside. All week the family has been stuck inside because of the fall in the thermometer and the additional lower temperature brought by the windchill.

The fun of playing in fallen snow by the youngest was stolen by the cold. She lasted about ten minutes outside before she announced she couldn’t feel her face, her fingers, or her toes, even with all her thick winter gear on.

Zooma the Wonder Dog was quite depressed that the ground was white with snow but she and her favorite playmate weren’t out, rolling in it, tossing it in the air, and catching snowballs.

Instead, we had to find inside activities to do. I tried to read and work on my book. Little Miss was able to talk to her friends on the phone and play online games with them. The cats slept almost all day every day, especially when the fire was roaring. The Boy played some video games, did some homework and helped bring in wood to keep the fire going.

He also walked to the neighbor’s house one day and helped clean the snow off her steps and car. He only had one day of school again this week. He attends the morning session of a vocational school and if the local school district calls for a two-hour delay then the morning session is canceled.

He has been enjoying his time off and is a bit disappointed that the weather looks better next week and he’ll have to go back. We encouraged him to take a building and construction course at the local trade school as part of his education but so far it is not his favorite thing to do. He might change his course next year or try something else, but at least he has some experience and knows more what he doesn’t want to do when he gets out of school.

I’ve been missing going to my parents but either our driveway was slippery or it was super cold outside. I mentioned in the Sunday Bookends last week that I had tried to go to my parents on Sunday afternoon but there were tree branches in the road and ice forming as the temperatures dropped as we tried to drive there so I turned around. It will still be cold this Saturday but it shouldn’t be slippery or windy so we will be heading there for lunch and maybe a movie and a game of cards.

A couple of days this week I forced myself to sit down in front of our woodstove with a book to feel the warmth and enjoy some quiet time. I don’t sit down and just read like I want to very often so I have to say to myself, “No. You’re not going to pick up the room.  You’re not going to wash dishes. You’re not going to work on your book or scroll through Instagram. You’re going to sit on this floor and read this book and lose yourself in it.”

It’s like I feel like it is wrong to just be sitting and reading but really, there are times we need to do that. We need to sit and take even 15 minutes to ourselves to settle our brains and calm our souls. We can either read a book we like, read the Bible, read a verse, listen to an encouraging sermon, worship music, or journal but we need to take that time for ourselves more than most of us do.

I don’t know why we don’t take the time we should for ourselves but I say this year work to feel less guilt when you sit in some quiet for yourself. I know that’s a goal for me.

I had to laugh the one night because both of my kids kept talking to me as I tried to read, as if I wasn’t sitting there, on the floor, with a physical book opened, clearly reading.

“Oh. You’re trying to read, aren’t you?” asked my son.

“No. No. I’m just holding this book to make myself look smarter,” is what I could have said, but what I really said was, “Yes, but it is okay. I like to talk to you.”

And I do like to talk to him because soon he will be grown up and out of the house and I won’t have as many opportunities to talk to him. He and I are both night owls who open up at night. I am not as much of a night owl as I used to be because I am old and start to fade by 11. If I get a second wind, though, I’m often up until 1 a.m. reading. After 11 is the only quiet time I get to read unless I wake up early to do so instead.

The Boy might not talk to me all day but when midnight hits that’s when he wants to talk so that’s when we talk. I’m fine with it unless I’m fading and feel guilty because I am not really listening.

How was the weather where you were this week? I know most of the United States was thrown into an arctic freeze and I think most of us will be out of it next week.

Have you been trying any new teas?

This week I drank my regular tea and some hot cocoa. I have tried a new probiotic tea and that was okay. What I hope to get some more of soon is some elderberry tea.

Let me know how you’ve been in the comments and I’ll see you again tomorrow for Sunday Bookends.

Sunday Bookends: arctic temps, still reading the same books (sigh), and binging Northern Exposure

On 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. 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

I talked a little bit about what’s been occurring yesterday in my Saturday Afternoon Chat. Mainly we’ve been dealing with weird weather of snow and rain and ice and high winds. Today our temps dropped very fast so we will be dealing with arctic temperatures for the whole week.  I will be inside the whole week, other than picking our son up at the bus stop (which is our local convenience store) because I don’t want him to have to walk up the hills to our house in the frigid temps.

I also woke up this morning to find out we have a wind advisory again so now it feels like 16 instead of 28. I was on my way to my parents this afternoon (they’re about eight minutes from our house) but when we saw a tree being removed from the bottom of our street and then another one hanging on a line, across the road and almost to the height of our car, I decided we would pick up my son and head back home to wait for the wind advisory to expire before we try again tomorrow.

We might have been fine but looking around seeing trees smashed along the road, limbs broken in the road and evidence of trees having been chainsawed to clear the roadway, we decided to err on the side of caution.

The Husband dropped some homemade soup I was taking off at my parents so they could at least have lunch.

Tomorrow’s temperatures will be frigid but at least we won’t have to be concerned about trees falling on us while battling the cold.

We have a lot of dead ash trees around us so those are ripe for falling down and causing issues. In the summer my daughter and I were at my parents’ swimming in the pool and one fell down behind my parents’ house in the woods. It wasn’t even windy that day. It just fell over. If it can happen without wind then it can definitely happen in 25 to 45 mph wind gusts.

What I’m/We’re Reading

I’m still reading Little Women and Dysfunction Junction.  I am enjoying both and like to switch off between them. I will probably finish Dysfunction Junction (by Robin W. Pearson) this week.

After that, I’ll be reading The Cat Who Went Into A Closet and The Bungalow Mystery – a Nancy Drew Mystery.

I am also reading Do The New You By Steven Furtick as a Netgalley read which was perfect timing since our online Bible study is going to be reading it in February.

At night Little Miss and I are reading The Borrowers.

What We watched/are Watching

I watched Northern Exposure over 20 years ago (probably) and started watching it again this week. I don’t remember much of anything about it so it’s like watching it for the first time.

It really was well written and holds up pretty well actually.

I also watched Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice for the Jane Austen January feature I’m doing with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs. If you want to join in our link-up to discuss all things Jane (including the books) you can find the link up above.

I watched Miss Scarlet and the Duke last week and will probably watch more today and this week since I will be hiding in the house until the weather gets better.

The Husband and I watched the 1978 version of Death on the Nile. It held up pretty well despite Bette Davis looking like she’d come out of a crypt.


What I’m Writing

I am working on Cassie, which releases in August. I hope to have it finished by February. If you are curious what the book will be about, here is a very loose description:

It’s 1995 and 32-year-old Cassie Mason is an actress who made it big on a sitcom in the mid-1980s but hasn’t been able to find a job since the show ended five years ago.

After being fired by her talent agency, Cassie takes her sister Bridget up on her offer for Cassie to come back to their hometown for an extended visit to unwind and regroup.

While there Cassie finds out her younger sister – the one with the handsome husband and three kids and running a farm – is going to open a café and farm store in the small town they grew up near. Cassie decides to stay long enough to help with the grand opening, though she isn’t sure what she can do since she doesn’t know a thing about cooking like her mom and sister and isn’t great at organizing either.

In fact, Cassie isn’t sure what’s she is good at other than acting. Bridget hasn’t been able to help out at the Berrysville Community center like she’d like to with all that has to be done to open the business so she asks Cassie to fill in for a couple of volunteer opportunities. That’s when Cassie finds out that her sister’s neighbor, Alec, isn’t only a small farmer – he’s also someone who knows how to cook and showcases those talents in a weekly cooking class at the community center.

During her visit home, Cassie struggles to figure out not only where she fits in and feels most at home but also to figure out if acting is all she is meant to do with her life or if there is another way God wants to use her talents.

And God? There’s someone else she needs to learn more about on this break from the career she thought she’d always have.

I’ve also been writing blog posts:

What I’m Listening To

This week I have been listening to James Herriot’s Treasury for Children but this upcoming week I will be back to listening to A Tale of Two Cities.

Next week I hope to return to sharing blog posts from other bloggers that I enjoyed from the week. I haven’t been reading as many blogs as I would like to and I’m really looking forward to getting back to that this year.

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: Crazy weather and crazy weather and some reading time

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Saturday Afternoon Tea5 Comments

I read on Instagram that today is National Drink Hot Tea Day. There is always a national something or other day and I sometimes wonder who even keeps track of them all so people on social media can use it as content to talk about.

Anyhow, I’m drinking some peppermint tea with honey later today, not because I don’t have any other tea, but because I had some other types of tea earlier in the week and I wanted my old standby today.

Also later today I will be lighting a fire because our temps are going to plummet very fast this afternoon into this evening until they are in the 20s tomorrow and then the single digits at night and in the mornings starting Monday.

We are also under a high wind advisory today and when you live in a semi-rural area surrounded by trees (including a really old, really tall one in front of my house), you tend to get very nervous about high wind advisories. You also expect to lose power at some point, which makes me a little nervous since today it will be just me and Little Miss at home. The Husband is working and The Boy is going to a friend’s house.

I don’t do well health-wise in either very hot temperatures or very cold ones so I am not looking forward to the cold weather. I will not be leaving my house much at all during the cold weather snap because it irritates my asthma. I will be going out enough to pick up my son from the bus stop because I don’t want him to have to walk up our hill in such cold weather.

I am supposed to go visit my parents for lunch tomorrow when it is only supposed to be about 26 but I’ll see if I still want to do that or not. I practically have to be dragged outside kicking and screaming when it is super cold or when it is super hot.

The weather has been very odd here lately but that is somewhat normal for Pennsylvania this time of year.

Last weekend we had a snowstorm that lasted two days. By Tuesday it was rain and wind and the threat of flooding. Then off and on during the week snow and hail came and last night there was a burst of snow that covered the ground right before freezing rain came in and left the entire yard in a sheen of ice. To say winter has decided to show up this month is an understatement.

This past week I stayed inside every day and was a slug part of the time because of the weather. I read books, worked on my novel, wrote some blog posts, made some social media posts, enjoyed the fire, sipped tea and cocoa, cooked dinner, did the dishes a couple of times, ignored piles of books and papers I don’t know what to do with, and overall just enjoyed being a hermit and not having to go anywhere.

Yesterday I had to go pick up groceries but I really can’t complain because one, I had to drive there and they put them in the car, and two, my husband had to go out in this awful weather all week for work so he’s got the real cruddy end of the bargain here.

No one went with me to pick up groceries this time so it was just me in the car, listening to James Herriot’s Treasury for Children on Audible. I was going to listen to a Jane Austen collection but my phone claimed it wasn’t downloaded and it turned out better to listen to the one from James Herriot anyhow because it is so relaxing and my day really wasn’t relaxing for a variety of reasons – mainly family stuff and a lot of things on my mind about said family.

Today I hope to relax some but Little Miss wants me to play a video game with her and watch a movie. I honestly do not understand why my children always want me to play video games with them. I do not enjoy video games but they are just so excited to show Mom how to play it and then laugh at her when she can’t figure it out. My son wanted me to play Skyrim one time and I ran the guy into the wall over and over for like ten minutes.

It’s now a running joke in our house. My son will say something like, “Look, I’m Mom playing Skyrim,” and then just run into a wall several times while looking over his shoulder saying, “Don’t worry, Havar. I’m coming! I swear! If I can figure out this controller, I’m coming to help you.”

Of course, by then Havar was dead because I was still running into a wall.

This upcoming week I really need to work more on my book, Cassie. It’s been hard to get going on it but I hope to have it done in February so I can start work on my next Gladwynn book.

This week my dad left me a comment on my Facebook cover where I was promoting the second book and it really meant a lot because my dad is not a reader. He’s really never had time to read and if he did, he chose non-fiction books, such as theology books.

Mom told me he read my first book in the Gladwynn Grant Mysteries, though, reading a chapter or so a night before bed. When he was done, he told me it felt weird not having the book to read so I was glad that it wasn’t long after that when I realized the second book.

Now he is in the middle of the second book so I really need to start writing book three for him.

This is the message he left on the photograph for the book on my page: am not much of a reader at all and very seldom read fiction and I watch very few movies.

Like who wants to read about something that is not? Lol. Evidently a lot of people.

Anyway, I got into the first Gladwyn Mystery and found it intriguing, and starting this one I find it more so.

Sometimes I think wow, I never knew that 😉lol. You see Gladwynn Grant, a mixture of intelligent, ditzy curious, and almost cunning, was my mother’s name.

Okay off to store a few more clues and along the way to the hometown theater find out what happened to Samantha.👩‍💼🧐🤔 🙂😋“”

Dad hasn’t always been super supportive of me writing fiction (“You have to actually go places to write books and you don’t go anywhere or have a lot of experience,” he told me once. Sigh. Dads.) so the fact he’s enjoyed these Gladwynn books has meant a lot to me.

Well, I am off to watch the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice, which I am watching as part of Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and my Jane Austen January Feature. I will warn you that this version is not my favorite and I am actually finding it a bit annoying at this point. I promise to try my best to be polite about it when I write about it on Thursday.

I will be back tomorrow with Sunday Bookends, where I will ramble about what I’ve been reading and what I hope to read and all that jazz.

How was your week last week? Did you do anything exciting? And what’s your tea of choice these days?


`10 on 10: Ten Things I want to accomplish, learn, master or create

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn 10 on 10, everyday musings11 Comments

I am finally joining up with Marsha in the Middle’s 10 on 10 today. I have forgotten to do it every other month, but here I am to talk about ten things I want to accomplish, learn, master, or create this year or in the future. I don’t know if it has to be this year but, in the future, at least.

So here we go:

1. I want to learn more about taking photos with film and developing it myself.

I have taken photographs for years, starting out in film when I was in high school. I didn’t know enough about film back then to know what I was doing. I simply took the photographs and then took them to be developed at a drug store like Rite Aid or CVS. When I worked in newspapers in college, we had a staff photographer who would develop all the film and refused to teach me how to do it when I asked.

All I knew was there was a rotating door that spun him into some dark room and he developed film until one day he didn’t anymore because we either took the photographs to Rite Aid or we started using digital cameras.

To this day, he is one of the best photographers I have ever seen, but back then he could be a real jerk to the newbies. I still wish he’d slowed down and taught me more about film photography.

2. I want to learn to cook better.

I can cook fine to make dinner for The Husband and kids, but I really want to learn more about how to cook different dishes and how to bake. Our oven has been broken for a couple of years now but we hope to have it fixed soon so that will help some of my efforts to become a better cook. I have learned more about cooking in an electric frying pan, an air fryer, and an Instapot without the oven, though.

3. I want to create a book of my dad’s writings and my grandfather’s poems and I hope to do that this year.

I already have the poems and all I have to do is typeset (old newspaper word) them into the computer and get them ready for publication. Wish me luck. My grandfather wrote poems about anything and everything. My dad writes little pieces of prose and I’d love to put them in the book as well and give it to my dad for Father’s Day.

My maternal grandmother was also a writer and poet so her work will be next on my list.

4. I want to be able to finish this book I am writing now.

I am really struggling with my latest manuscript and it is one hundred percent my fault. I agreed to join a multi-author project where there were all these rules about what I could write and how for the book I am contributing. In my own defense, there weren’t that many rules when I agreed to do it. All I knew was the book had to be written in the 1990s and it had to be a certain word length and there would be a cookbook involved that would tie all the books in the series together.

Once I signed on even more rules were thrown in and I was stuck because pulling out of the project meant leaving the other authors hanging. So I am plodding forward and asking God for help because this is not how I usually write my novels. I have my own ideas of how I want the story to go, who I want the characters to be and what the plot will be. The story is my own. In this instance, it does not feel like it is my own. Pray for me.

5. Start a clean fiction book club either online or in person

I would really love to start a book club for clean fiction either in person or online. We’d choose one book, read it for the month, and then discuss it at the end of the month. This would be easy to do, I just don’t seem to be able to slow down and do it.

6. To move forward and not hold on to the hurts of my past.

This one will not be easy for me. I have a lot of hurts from the past that I am holding on to. Almost all of them were betrayals and abandonment by people who were close to me at one time (not my parents so, no, this isn’t a therapy session. Ha!). I want to let all of that go and hold on to my word for the year – onward.

By onward I mean I want to go, “yes, I was hurt, but no I won’t react like I usually do and retreat away from that person or life. I won’t purposely ignore a person if they reach out, even if they hurt me. That doesn’t, however, mean I will fully trust them or open myself up to a friendship or relationship with them but I want to say, “That happened. They hurt me. Move on and let them live their life without me sitting and seething inside about how they hurt me.”

It will be hard for me because I put up walls very fast and behind those walls I ruminate about the hurt I’ve been inflicted. For years and years. I hope to let that go this year and in future years – or at least keep working on doing so.

7. Start a podcast with Erin and not be afraid of public speaking.

So this is actually two but they go hand in hand. Erin and I from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs want to start a podcast and ramble about whatever we ramble about. We are both trying to be brave and not only offer ourselves and others an escape from the stresses of life but maybe find ways to earn extra income for our families. How will we do that through a podcast? I have no idea. Maybe we can tell people about my books and Erin’s journals and books and who knows. The avenues to reach our goals are wide open, we just have to take them.

8. Reading more of the Bible and recording the verses I read.

I have started a yearly Bible verse reading project and I really hope to stick with it throughout the year. I want to get up in the mornings and read my verse and write it down in my journal to work on memorizing scripture and taking in what the verses really mean. How to apply them to my life, in other words.

Right now I am using a list I found on Instagram, which Erin shared with me and hopefully, I can use a list from the same account throughout the year. So far, I only have January’s list.

9. Master how to write a novel quickly.

This goes along with my other writing goals but I really do want to learn how to quickly write a novel and plot better. Right now I write most of my novels by the seat of my pants and in the writing world that is known as “pantsing.” I really hope to be able to plot a bit better in the future and bring the stories together a little faster so I can hit the deadlines I set for myself. As an indie author, I set my own deadlines for most of my books (except the book I mentioned above where deadlines were set for me.)

10. Travel more and have more experiences outside my house.

I suffer from some chronic health issues and sometimes crippling anxiety so I really would love to travel more and have some more experiences outside of my house and immediate area at some point in my life. Erin and I have discussed meeting each other halfway so we can actually meet each other in person so that is a goal for me. I also want to get over my fear of having a “spell” in public because that is one thing (along with time and money) that holds me back.

I do have vertigo and weakness spells a lot and that seems to go with whatever autoimmune issues I have (doctors haven’t really diagnosed me with anything because they just think I’m crazy and pretty much tell me so and offer me antidepressants.). I want to be able to manage them and the crazy anxiety symptoms that come as well, so I can travel further and just live a little more.

    So this was my 10 on the 10th for the month. How about you? Do you have accomplishments you want to reach? Things you want to master or conquer?  Let me know in the comments and if you want to join in on Marsha’s 10 on 10, find her link up here: https://marshainthemiddle.com/10-on-the-10th-january-2024/

    Sunday Bookends: Romances and mysteries in reading, mysteries in watching, and a snowstorm

    On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Sunday Bookends27 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 we were hit by a snowstorm that wasn’t as bad as we thought it was going to be but still brought about five inches of snow and cold. It was our first bigger snowstorm. Little Miss had a wonderful time sledding down the hill behind the house even after it got dark. We are grateful for a very bright light in our backyard.

    We are also grateful for a bright streetlight because the kids decided to slide down our driveway and across our street around 10 at night. They had a blast.

    It was too dark for photos but Zooma the Wonder Dog also had a blast. As I have mentioned before on my blog, she loves to jump up and catch snowballs that are thrown for her.

    The snowstorm is set to continue today so we are hunkering down. I don’t know if we will get much more snow but the roads are supposed to be fairly messy and it is very, very cold out there right now.

    Little Miss enjoyed playing in the snow much of yesterday and again today with her dad before he has to go to a second, part-time, job he recently started.

    What I’ve Been Reading

    This past week I finished two books – a Christian romance, Southern Snow by B.R. Goodwin, and a non-Christian mystery called  How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin.

    If you like squeaky-clean books with a Christian message and romance you will like Southern Snow.

    If you don’t mind some language and a very good mystery (like could not put the book down good) then you want How To Solve Your Own Murder but that one doesn’t come out until March 26 so go pre-order it.

    You could also be like me and like both of them. Southern Snow is out now and on Kindle Unlimited if you have a membership to that.

    This week I will be continuing Little Women, Dysfunction Junction by Robin W. Pearson, and listening to A Tall of Two Cities on Audible.

    Dysfunction Junction will be out on February 6. Here is a description:


    When three women receive an unexpected phone call that leaves them reeling, they have no other choice but to reckon with a lifetime of memories they’ve long tried to bury. Only in facing the past will they find their path forward.

    Frances Mae Livingston’s firm grip of her family’s destructive history makes her hold her husband and four children even closer. But she’s losing bits of herself while proving to everybody and her mama that she’s enough. There’s no way she’ll repeat her mama’s mistakes, even if it kills her.

    Annabelle McMillan didn’t have trouble kicking the Eastern North Carolina dust off her feet. The tough part was replanting herself in familiar soil. Now she’s blending her old life with her new husband, stepson, and unborn child. And battling old memories of abandonment and new fears of rejection.

    Dr. Charlotte Winters has built a career around helping others sort through their emotional baggage. She’s also spent a lifetime refusing to unpack her own. So what if Charlotte doesn’t recall all that her mama did to her and what her daddy didn’t do for her? Her only mission is to help others help themselves…until the women from her past and the man in her future undo her well-sewn life.

    At the junction of healed and hurting, broken and whole, and past and present, three women wrestle with their inability to forgive and forget in this riveting Southern family drama about sisterhood from award-winning author Robin W. Pearson.

    I am also putting together a list of books I want to read this winter – including a collection of stories by Agatha Christie that I planned to read last winter but never got to. I hope to share that tomorrow or another day on the blog. It won’t be a big list because I am a slow reader. The Husband is reading John Connolly books.

    The Boy and I have set A Tale of Two Cities aside for right now as we start a non-fiction book for history called Lost Names by Richard Kim, which I have started and have been swept up in. I also decided I wanted to read/listen to A Tale of Two Cities first so I can guide him when he reads it.

    What We watched/are Watching

    This past week I watched a lot of cozy mysteries – Poirot (with David Suchet) and Miss Scarlet and The Duke (which I am pretty much binge watching now).

    What I’m Writing

    If you’re new here you might not know that I write fiction books. Yes, I am an indie author and some readers do not read indie authors. That doesn’t offend me. I get it. I don’t even read a lot of indie authors.

    There are a lot of not very good indie authors out there and a handful of good ones. That’s my honest opinion, even though I am an indie author.

    Am I a good indie author? I’m a decent one, maybe, but recently questioned it when I put out a book that I had somehow switched two chapters on and then published the stinking book.

    Oh my word I was so humiliated when I discovered it two weeks later. How did I do it? Well, it has to do with my new formatting software and how it’s very easy to move things around. So easy that two chapters were transposed without me even realizing I did it. I did not second check things before I uploaded it to Amazon because I had uploaded it before and it was fine. This time I had only made a minor change with a typo I somehow missed correcting after my editors gave it back so I didn’t think I needed to check it. Well, I learned my lesson the hard way.

    Anyhow, this week I am working on a new book called Cassie that will be part of a multi-author project. It doesn’t come out until August so I have plenty of time but writing this one has been a struggle. I will admit that I now wish I had not joined a project that had so many rules with it that were provided by someone else and not myself. I will not be doing another project like this ever, but I feel this one is pushing me creatively and that’s a good thing.

    I hope to have Cassie complete by the end of February, the beginning of March. After that, I hope to start a new Gladwynn Mysteries book and I think this time around I will share it here on the blog more than I did with the last book. I plan to move my books out of Kindle Unlimited so I can share and sell them anywhere I want. I will be doing that in the spring.

    If you want to learn more about my books and what they are about, you can click HERE.

    What I’m Listening To

    Right now I am listening to A Tale of Two Cities on Audible.

    Photos from Last Week

    Here are some photos from our snowstorm:

    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.

    Sunday Bookends: wrapping up Christmas — but not right away, family outings, mystery books, and

    On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends13 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

    Welcome to my last Sunday Bookends for 2023. Crazy, isn’t it? Tomorrow it will be 2024.

    2023 flew by for us in some ways and dragged in others.

    This past week we ended the year with a lot of family time.

    It was Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at my parents and two family days and a lot of relaxing together and watching movies.

    Today and tomorrow will be more relaxing and then it will be back to school for the kids and I on Tuesday.

    I wrote a bit about our last week in my post yesterday if you would like to catch up.

    I was watching a video by Darling Desi on YouTube yesterday and she talked about how many years ago in our country we used to celebrate the Christmas season until January 6 and that we should give ourselves permission to do that if we want to. So this week I’m giving myself permission to continue celebrating Christmas with Christmas movies and books that I didn’t get to in the month of December.

    I started watching It’s A Wonderful Life last night so I can watch some of my favorite scenes and before bed I read from a vintage Christmas book.

    What I’m/We’re Reading

    I didn’t read a ton on my break but I did read some. I finished Christmas in Abasorka County by Craig Johnson and made progress on Southern Snow by B.R. Goodwin.

    The one by Craig Johnson is a small collection of short stories featuring Sheriff Walt Longmire from his Longmire Mysteries series.

     I should have Southern Snow finished this week. I am not taking so long to read it because it is bad. I just stopped reading it to read some other Christmassy-themed books like the collection of vintage Christmas stories, the Johnson one, and a few chapters of Little Women, which I am making my way through slowly. Southern Snow does feature Christmas but I believe it can be read any time of the year.

    Early last week I started an ARC by Kristen Perrin called How To Solve Your Own Murder and I was hooked and am blazing through it.

     For those who like clean reads – this is clean so far but I’m only on chapter 10. There has been one swear word and it could get worse as things get intense, but I’m not sure. In other words, if you usually read Christian or clean fiction like me – just be warned that this is not listed in those categories.

    I’ve also started Dysfunction Junction by Robin W. Pearson, which is another ARC read. The book releases February 6.

    In January I’m focusing on cozy like I did in December so I hope to read some more cozy mysteries, including The Cat Who Went Into The Closet which my husband ordered for me and a couple of Nancy Drew books.

    I’m also reading A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens with The Boy for English.

    Little Miss and I have been listening to The Best Christmas Pageant Ever but I’m trying to get her to let me read her The Borrowers at night before bed.

    We will be back to reading a history-related book for school on Tuesday, but I’m not sure which one yet.

    The Husband is reading John Connolly books because Connolly has just put up his entire catalog on Kindle Unlimited. If that isn’t a sign of things to come in the publishing industry I don’t know what is. That means his ebooks are exclusively only on Amazon and he’s a NY Times Best Seller. They cannot be purchased anywhere else for 90 days. Interesting.

    Also interesting is that the book we downloaded, The Furries: A Charlie Park Book begins in the town my husband and I lived in for 20 years for me and more than 20 for him. It is the town he now drives through to go to his second job because the towns up there all run together. The Furries is actually two books in one and the first one that mentions the town is The Sisters Strange.

     It’s so bizarre to see the town in the book because it is truly a tiny little area essentially in the middle of nowhere. There are about 3,200 people in the town he’s talking about and maybe 13,000 altogether in the three towns that run together. I may be off on that number – I didn’t check the census but it is definitely under 30,000 these days.

    I’m very curious now to know how Connolly knew about it or his connection to the area. He even writes about the flood we went through there in 2011. Thankfully it did not hit our home since we were at a higher elevation but it did flood the historic and business district of the town. I was working for the newspaper at the time and took photographs of the destruction but almost forgot to take them because I was just standing on the hill looking down into the rest of the flooded town in shock.

    I’d also love to know if any of his characters are based on any real-life residents. I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if they were. I don’t know that Connolly’s books are my cup of tea but after reading the first chapter I am hooked and if he goes back to Athens in this book, I know I will be trying to see which characters might be based on people I know from there.

    In an interview with a Maine television station, Connolly said he wrote this mainly in lockdown during the pandemic so he was mainly in Ireland at the time (which is where he is originally from). This makes the book partly taking place in Athens that much more interesting to me. He also released the book in chapters like I have done on my blog. Maybe Mr. Connolly saw my blog and copied me. *wink* Ha. Ha.

    What We watched/are Watching

    I watched a ton of Christmas-themed shows and movies since I last posted a Sunday Bookends.

    A Christmas Carol from 1938

    White Christmas

    Elf (for the second time)

    Trading Christmas

    A Biltmore Christmas

    A Christmas Story

    A half of The Man Invented Christmas (need to get back to it)

    Half of Blithe Spirit (need to finish it when The Husband is home from work)

    The Christmas special from last year of All Creatures Great and Small

    The Little House on the Prairie Christmas special

    A Christmas episode from M.A.S.H.

    We also watched a couple other episodes of M.A.S.H., a couple episodes of Miss Scarlet and The Duke, the first episode of C.B. Strike (based on the books by Robert Gailbraith. I read the first one and enjoyed it even though it was dark and full of obscenities – just a warning for anyone who might try it), a lot of Newhart, Forgotten Way Farms, Darling Desi, Doctor Quinn Medicine Women, and The Pioneer Woman.

    I probably watched some other things as well but it has been two weeks so I’m not sure.

    What I’m Writing

    I’m working on my book Cassie and blathered on about a bunch of movies and other stuff here on the blog.

    Next week I will be writing about the movie Persuasion to kick off Jane Austen January. Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I will be starting buddy watches of movie adaptations of Jane movies January 11. We have started a link up that you can access through the menu at the top of my page.

    If you want to read more about the feature you can see my post here: https://lisahoweler.com/2023/12/28/getting-ready-for-jane-austen-january/

    The movies we will be watching include:

    Sense and Sensibility – 1995 (January 11th)

    Pride and Prejudice -2005 (January 18th)

    Emma – 1996 (January 25th)

    Miss Austen Regrets (February 1)

    On the blog recently I shared:

    What I’m Listening To

    I listened to Shepherd’s Abiding by Jan Karon before and during Christmas week.

    I have also been listening to a collection of audio productions of Jane Austen’s books on Audible and plan to start Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry on audible at some point, but probably not until February because I’ll be listening to the Jane Austen for Jane Austen January.

    Photos from this week

    Christmas:

    Local light display:


    Fun outing:

    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.

    Sunday Bookends: Christmas movies, Christmas books, Christmas, Christmas, and more … yes, Christmas

    On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends10 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

    I wrote yesterday that I tested positive for Covid on Friday. I must have been at the tail end of it because yesterday morning I woke up with my nose clear and able to taste and smell again. I pretty much felt like I hadn’t had anything at all. I had written yesterday’s blog post on Friday evening when I was at my worst – congested and swollen in my nose, no smell or taste, and this horrible burning up my nose and through my sinuses that kept coming in waves and making my eyes water so bad I couldn’t see.

    I literally cried when I could taste peanut butter and smell my essential oils in the morning. I know it seems dramatic and if you don’t know my back story with Covid-induced smell and taste loss then it does seem that way.

    My previous smell and taste loss lasted a couple of weeks or more and when it returned my smell and taste were distorted for months afterward.

    You can read more about that on the blog by searching Covid in the search bar to the right, though I’d just skip it because it’s depressing. Ha! It’s depressing but also gets hopeful later and taught me about trusting God.

    Today when I made myself some deli ham on lettuce with Italian dressing (I’m trying to cut bread all the way out for health reasons) and I could taste the Italian dressing I felt weepy. I really did.

    Every time I can smell something or taste something I feel immediate gratitude.

    While I didn’t like the fear that came with getting Covid again since my last bout sent me to the hospital for five days (hooked up to a very low dose of oxygen for a day and a half of those days), I do like the reminder God gave me with this that he got me through that first bout and he is going to get me through whatever struggles I am facing now.

    Much like a rainbow is a reminder of God’s promise to never flood the earth again, being able to smell and taste is like a reminder to me that God hasn’t failed me and doesn’t intend to let me fall now.

    This illness was like a short head cold but I was very concerned part of the time it would be longer, like Covid was for me and my family before. I remained calm most of the time with a few breakdowns of crying, but trying to remember the verses about Jesus giving us peace that passes all understanding.

    Most of the time I felt very peaceful. I did not feel dragged out like I did when I’ve been sick in the past.

    Still, I prayed to God on Friday and asked him to please give me a sign that I was going to be okay. I prayed again very, very early Saturday morning when I couldn’t breathe through my nose. I asked God to forgive me for me being annoyed because I had just been thankful for being able to smell and taste a few days before and now it was being taken away again. I asked God to forgive me for not being thankful that I was breathing okay.

    At 6:45 a.m. I still couldn’t smell anything.

    At 9:30 a.m. I could both smell and taste.

    Little Miss and my fever were gone (mine had been gone even when I tested positive for Covid the day before) and we both felt almost like we’d never been sick in the first place.

    Talk about an answer to prayer.

    We are in quarantine another day and then I can finally see my parents in person for the first time in two weeks.


    What I/we’ve been Reading

    Because my eyes were watering a lot this week, I didn’t read as much as I wanted to. I did continue some of my Christmas Regency romance book, which is a collection of novellas in one book. I am in the second novella now.

    I also read a little of Southern Snow by B.R. Goodwin. I hope to have at least Southern Snow finished this week, but I also hope to finish Christmas in Absaroka by Craig Johnson.

    Since it is the week before Christmas, I will probably continue to read A Vintage Christmas: A Collection of Classic Stories and Poems, which is a collection of Christmas stories by a variety of authors, including L.M. Montgomery, Louise May Alcott, Charles Dickens, and Mark Twain as well.

    Oh, and I will definitely be finishing up my audiobook of Shepherd’s Abiding by Jan Karon which I have been listening to each night before bed. I mentioned before on here that I didn’t know if I liked the narrator but I absolutely love him as I continue to listen so I wanted to correct that. From what I understand he also narrates the other audiobooks of the Mitford series so I hope to collect them over time.

    Little Miss and I are listening to The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever again.

    What We watched/are Watching

    Since we couldn’t leave the house last week, I watched more than I do other weeks.

    I watched We’re Not Angels as a buddy watch with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs, and blogged about it.

    I also watched Going My Way, the prequel to The Bells of St. Mary’s. I’ll blog about it later this week but really enjoyed it. I might have liked The Bells of St. Mary’s better, though. I don’t know. They were both very good and watching them close together was a good idea.

    I then watched the 1938 version of A Christmas Carol and while I am about done with watching any more movies based on this book, I loved this one. This is probably my favorite version so far.

    My aunt used to look for this version every year and I didn’t know why until I watched it this week. I wish I had taken the time to watch it with her when she was still alive.

    I will blog about it later this week but for now, I will say I loved the acting in the movie. I also loved how I really feel this movie gave us more time with each character and gave us a more well-rounded impression of them. That well-rounded impression connected me to the characters more than any other movie I’ve seen and maybe even more than the book itself, which made the emotional impact of what unfolded even more powerful for me.

    I highly recommend this version if you’re going to watch a movie adaptation of this story.

    Last night I watched a Christmas episode of All Creatures Great and Small (the latest version).

    This week I plan to load myself up on Christmas movies including The Man Who Invented Christmas, The Man Who Came To Dinner, White Christmas, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and maybe Arthur Christmas.

    I will also be watching Christmas-themed YouTube videos and a couple of Christmas specials from the creators of The Chosen.


    What I’m Writing

    This past week I shared a lot of Christmas-themed blog posts including:

    What I’m Listening To

    I am listening to audiobooks such as Shepherd’s Abiding and The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever and also Christmas music about the reason for the season (at least in my family) – Jesus’ birth.

    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.

    Sunday Bookends: Thoughts on reading, didn’t see that deer coming, and Gladwynn’s second book coming out Tuesday

    On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends29 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 I/we’ve been Reading

    I don’t read as many books in a year as other people and this year I decided that was okay and I don’t care.

    I sometimes do not finish books either and I decided this year I was also okay with that.

    Every week or so my husband announces how many books he’s read so far in the year and I like hearing it. I like that he keeps track of it and that he reads over 80 books each year.

    He was also a more avid reader than I was. I only started reading more books again in the last few years. I used to read all the time as a teenager, took a break in college and while working for newspapers and even while raising my son. Now I’m loving how reading has become an escape from the real world for me again.

    For a while, I wanted to be like my husband and count all my books read and be able to announce the totals to him and the world.

    There were several problems with this, though. One, I’m a slower reader. It isn’t that I read slow. It’s that I get interrupted a lot while reading a book so it takes me a while to finish one. People or pets aren’t always what interrupt me. Sometimes it is housework or homeschooling or my own writing or simply because I can’t seem to stay as focused as I used to.

    I like that The Husband tells me his book count. It used to irritate me because I felt less than but now (okay in the last week) I let it go.

    I don’t have to read a bunch of books in a year to be a reader. I don’t have to finish a book I started to be a reader because life it is too short to worry about competition in something like reading which is supposed to be relaxing and it is too short to keep reading a book you’re not enjoying.

    There are also too many good books in the world to waste our time on a book that might be good but isn’t working for us personally.

    I often think things like, “But this is a popular book. It’s on the NYT bestseller list. It must be good, right?”

    Well, it may be that it is good for some and not for me and that’s okay.

    I read a lot more than books during the year, as well – textbooks with the kids and blogs, articles, etc. So I do read a lot just not always full books. Again. That’s okay. If it is okay for me, it is okay for you.

    If you’ve been holding on to all these imaginary ideas of what it means to be a reader and a book blogger or whatever – let them go.

    We all have our own journey and path and just because we don’t inhale books like Galactus eats planets, we are still readers.

    Anyhow…on to what I’ve been reading this week.

    This week I have mainly been reading The Spectacular. Every other day I was reading a chapter from either Little Women or The Cat Who Talked Turkey (a cozy mystery). I dropped The Cat Who book last night because there was no mystery. It was driving me crazy. I was on chapter 4 and still nothing had happened other than Qwill looking for someone to narrate some presentation he was giving.

    This book was one of the ones written later when people suspected Lilian Jackson Braun had gotten a bit too old to write and had a ghostwriter. It showed. I have a soft spot for the Cat Who books but I had to set aside for now because I have so many other books I want to tackle. Not every book in a series can be a winner.

    I love reading Little Women a chapter at a time. I don’t mind dragging out the enjoyment of reading it because it gives me something to look forward to every night.

    The Spectacular is fairly slow moving so far and I’m on Chapter 12. My husband insists that something is going to happen soon and I hope so because I’m a bit bored. I read a lot of boring books this year so in 2024 I am going back to Longmire and Anthony Horowitz to give myself some excitement. Those and some more Christian fiction because I know there are some good ones out there I haven’t read yet by authors like Nicole Deese.

    I still haven’t finalized what I will read this winter but The Boy and I are reading The Tale of Two Cities for his English so I do know I’ll be reading that.

    I also just ordered a Christmas regency-era book recommended to me by Erin at Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.

    Little Miss and I just finished The Black Stallion. Talk about boring and wordy.

    She just wanted to watch the movie but I insisted we finish the book. Then I ended up skimming two chapters and getting us to the end because good grief there was way too much explanation and rambling in that book. I mean how many times could the dude describe what it was like for Alec to ride the horse? And for three to four pages every time. Plus the dialogue which was repetitive.

    We are listening to The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson at night now. I read this book to her last year and I wouldn’t mind reading it again but one night I was too tired to read so we put the audiobook on and now she enjoys the narrator more than me (I think. She didn’t actually say it), so we are listening instead of me reading it.

    The Husband is reading In The Blood by Jack Carr.

    What’s Been Occurring

    Last night The Husband, Little Miss, and I went to a Christmas parade about half an hour from us. We saw some of our friends and visited for a bit, The Husband took some photos for the newspaper and we headed home. On the way to the event and back we saw a ton of deer and had to put our brakes on more than once. About ten minutes after an eight-point buck that was blending in with the center line, turned and crossed in front of us, another deer came out of nowhere from the right and there was no missing it when it turned to go back in front of us. We slammed into it but I have no idea what happened to it, though I vaguely remember it darting off to the left.

    It did some extensive damage to the front of our car, smashing in our left headlight and the body of the car in that same area, but allowing us to get home without any damage to us.

    We were really very lucky considering I’ve heard stories of deer being hit that way and rolling up onto the hood and through the windshield.

    We aren’t sure if our insurance will cover the accident since we adjusted our deductible to make our premiums less. We will find out more later this week but for now the car is parked in the garage. The deer left part of its fur under the edge of the hood.

    All three of us were fairly shaken up and a bit in shock from it all so at first we didn’t think about how much the damage would cost us. I think we were all simply happy it wasn’t worse. There have been a lot of accidents in our area caused by deer lately and I’ve never seen as many as I have this year.

    It is hunting season in our area right now so I don’t know if the deer are running wild because of that or not but driving is certainly nerve-wracking for now whatever the reason.

    The Boy was at a friend’s house spending the night so I called to let him know about the incident. I also sent him some photos to which he replied, “She’ll be fine with some Flex Tape.”

    Having the car out of commission is a bit sad for me as I finally had a car to drive that had heated seats and a stereo system I could patch my music into.

    My husband gave me the car after he bought his truck, which we call Bambi Killer. Sadly, it has horrible gas mileage so we took the car to save on gas. Had we had the truck, there would have been very little damage to the vehicle but a lot to the deer.

    What We watched/are Watching

    This past week I watched Beyond Tomorrow, a fairly obscure Christmas movie from 1940. I wrote about it on the blog Thursday.

    I also watched – or well, watched most of The Bells of St. Mary’s, which I hope to finish later today.

    Little Miss and I watched A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong, which has become an annual tradition for us now.

    We also watched Elfat Little Miss’s request.

    I’m sure there will be other Christmas movies and specials on our list this upcoming week.

    I also plan to continue watching Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman this week. I am rewatching it after last seeing it some 20 years ago when I was in high school.

    I started Men In Kilts: A Roadtrip with Sam and Graham this past week as well. I enjoyed the first episode.



    What I’m Writing

    Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage comes out Tuesday in ebook on Amazon. Amazon messed something out with the paperback so it is out now.

    I am working on Cassie and made a bit of progress on it this week.

    On the blog this week I shared:

    Erin and I are also hosting a Comfy, Cozy Christmas feature where other bloggers can link up their Christmas/holiday-themed blog posts. You can find the link up here:

    https://lisahoweler.com/comfy-cozy-christmas/

    What I’m Listening to

    I listened to a lot of Needtobreathe’s The Cave this week.

    Photos from Last Week

    I didn’t take a ton of photos last week. I hope to remedy that this week and get my camera out more.

    Here are a couple from the parade we went to a display in the town.

    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.