Tag: week in review

Sunday Bookends March 29: Book buying ban official broken (whoops!), Agatha Christie reads, and the need for something light in reading this week.

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon6 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.

I broke my book buying ban for March and April yesterday when The Husband, Little Miss, and I visited a used book sale at a local library.

Okay. Fine.

I actually broke it two weeks before when I purchased two books online at the beginning of March.

But I really broke it yesterday when I came  home with 11 books and The Husband came home with four more.

Actually, if I want to get technical, he purchased the books for me so maybe I didn’t really break my book-buying ban. Ahem.

Well, whatever, I have 11 new books and will probably also read at least two of the ones he picked  up.

Oh, I forgot he picked up a fifth book at an indie bookstore in the same town.

So we have a book addiction.

It could be worse. It could be drugs.

Here are the books we picked up yesterday:

Have you read any of them?

I plan to do my best to renew my commitment and not buy any books in April.

Wish me luck?

What I/We’ve Been Reading

Just Finished

I finished Crooked House by Agatha Christie Friday and oof. What an ending. I had figured out less than halfway through who the murderer was but was really hoping I was wrong.

I was not wrong. Sadly.

Even though I knew, I wanted to know how Agatha would get us to the solution and what the guilty party would have to say for themselves.

If you have not read this one, I would highly recommend it.

In Progress

I started Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis this past week, and have to admit I already feel a bit stupid. Clive is much smarter than me and your average, every day citizen.

Looking for a pallet cleanser after Crooked House, I turned to A Damsel in Distress by P.G. Wodehouse.

Up Soon

I am planning to start Heidi this week as a buddy read with Erin from Still, Life with Cracker Crumbs for the month of April.

While I’m reading Heidi, I’ll also be reading A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie for the 2026 Reading Christie Challenge.

I hope to start Thrush Green by Miss Read after those two.

What The Family is Reading

Little Miss and I will finish The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy this week and plan to start Rascal by Stirling North.

What I/We’ve Been Watching

In an attempt to bond with our son, I watched the first episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Wednesday night. We were sitting in our car waiting for Little Miss who was attending a meeting of a kid’s church program. I thought I’d hate it because I knew it was connected to Game of Thrones, which I refuse to watch for many reasons. Still, he likes the show and I wanted to connect with him so I braced myself and dove in.

I was pleasantly surprised with the first episode. It wasn’t as bad as I feared. It was actually very good.

We had time when the first episode ended so I suggested we watch the second one. The Boy was surprised.

He may have been even more surprised when I suggested we watch episodes three, four, and five Thursday.

We still have episode six, the last episode of the season, to watch this week.

There is harsh language, some nudity, and violence (less than I expected of all) so I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone, but the story is really interesting and a lot lighter than GoT.

Looking for lighter fare after Crooked House and episode five of A Knight of The Seven Kingdoms, I watched a couple of episodes of Two’s Company, a British sitcom.

I also watched the Christmas special of All Creatures Great and Small and the 1942 movie, Her Cardboard Lover, with Norma Shearer and Robert Taylor earlier in the week.

This week I hope to watch a Bette Davis film to get ready for my Spring of Bette feature.

What I’ve Been Writing

Last week on the blog I shared:

I am also working on book four of my cozy mystery series. This week I restructured it and it is working so much better. I hope to release it in the fall.

Photos From Last Week

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Some Housekeeping

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

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

Now It’s Your Turn

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

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

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

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Sunday Bookends: Taking social media breaks, finally finished with Return of the King, O’Hara gets a DNF

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon29 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.

I mentioned in my Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot post on Thursday that I am pulling back from social media. This is something I’ve been trying to do for months because I know it will help  my mental health.

I stay on social media (Instagram) because I have fun sharing old movie clips or posts about books but it has started to really consume me and take away from more productive things I could be doing.

It is interesting that the same weekend I deleted Instagram from my phone (not forever but for a few days at least), YouTube suggested a video about scrolling less and experiencing life more.

If you are also trying to break the social media addiction (and I am happy for those of you who don’t have one!), here is a video with some ideas on what to do instead.

You can catch up on what I’ve been up to lately in yesterday’s Saturday Afternoon Chat.

What I/We’ve Been Reading

Just Finished

I finally finished Return of the King by Tolkien. I don’t want to talk about it. The last several chapters were like torture. The book just would not end. Still, I loved the trilogy overall, the friendships, the way the ring was destroyed which was not how people make it out to be, the good writing.

But I felt like the last five or six chapters were a slog.

I’m ready for lighter fare now.

I tossed the Maureen O’Hara book aside. I have thoughts on that one – oh do I. I plan to write a separate review because I got through enough of it that I can write one.

Maureen says in the beginning she waited 70-some years to get revenge on people and boy did she – I think she made up half of what she wrote just to do that.

And she also made sure she came out looking like quite the victim and yet also the savior through most of it.

 I’ll explain my issues with the book further in a future post, but rest assured, I wasn’t the only one who got the same impression.

In Progress

I am reading Crooked House by Agatha Christie and A Damsel in Distress by P.G. Wodehouse.

Up Soon

I will be reading Heidi in April. I also hope to read Thrush Green by Miss Read, Nancy Drew and The Mysterious Letter, and Murder, She Wrote: Aloha Betrayal.

What The Family is Reading

Litte Miss and I are almost done with The Singing Tree.

What I/We’ve Been Watching

Eternally Yours (a 1939 movie with David Niven and Loretta Young), The Mirror Cracked (awful movie from the 1970s based on an Agatha Christie book), and the British Sitcom Two’s Company.

What I’ve Been Writing

This week on the blog I shared:

What I/We’ve Been Listening To

Little Miss and I are listening to Gone Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright. I read this to her last year but we are enjoying listening to it again.

I have started listening to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.

Recent Blog Posts I Enjoyed

Reading Through The Hardy Boys by Pages Unbound

Tea Time Kitchen Talk by The Farm Wife Reads

The Double Turn 1956 by Cross Examining Crime.

The Miracle Before Our Eyes by Grace Filled Moments

Some Housekeeping

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

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

Now It’s Your Turn

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

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

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

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

If you enjoy the kind of content on my blog and all that goes into it, you can support my writing for $2.99 a month or a single donation. Learn more here: https://lisahoweler.com/support-my-writing/

Sunday Bookends: Three seasons in one week

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon20 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 past week we had three seasons in one week. Warm weather – spring – then sort of warm like Autumn and then Friday night it snowed.

Good grief. The weather is weird but that’s how Pennsylvania is this time of year. One March we had spring weather and were all excited and a few days later we were hit with two feet of snow.

This next week winter is going to try to hold on a bit longer.

My poor skin needs a reprieve. It is so dry and cracked I just want to cry some days.

I enjoyed reading on the front porch last weekend but this weekend there was no chance due to a windchill of 18 degrees.

The only thing I am not looking forward to in spring is pollen because my allergies have been worse the last few years and the allergy meds make me dizzy.

On the warmest day this week the kids were able to visit my parents’ pond and the creek behind it with Zooma The Wonder Dog.

They found three deer carcasses in the woods, which was quite odd and made me wonder if they had been hit by lightening or something similar because Little Miss said one of the deer had clearly been killed by a falling tree. All three of the deer were mainly skeletons. I’m not sure why I shared that, but it was an unusual part of the week. Little Miss was so disturbed she had to jump in the shower as soon as we got back to the house.

What I/We’ve Been Reading

Just Finished

In the last couple of weeks I finished The Tower Treasure by Franklin W. Dixon, Whispering Walls by Mildred Wirt Benson, The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery, and Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie.

In Progress

‘Tis Herself by Maureen O’Hara (not sure what I think about this one. Sometimes I think it is better not to know so much about actors’ personal lives.)

Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien, which I should finish this week because I only have about 150 pages left.

Up Soon

After I finish these two books, or as I finish them, I hope to start A Damsel in Distress by P.G. Wodehouse and Murder, She Wrote: Aloha Betrayed.

After that I am looking at whatever interests me.

What The Family is Reading

Little Miss and I are still reading The Singing Tree by Karen Seredy.

What I/We’ve Been Watching

Last week I watched the third Thin Man Movie (Another Thin Man), a movie with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. called It’s Tough To Be Famous, and Libeled with Myrna Loy, William Powell, Spencer Tracy, and Jean Harlow.


I didn’t watch much else because I read more last week than I watched things.

The week before I watched The Puzzle Lady and All Creatures Great and Small, Saving Grace (the 2010 movie), and The Crystal Ball (1943).

What I’ve Been Writing

Recent posts on the blog:

Photos From Last Week

Some Housekeeping

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

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

Erin and I also host a Drop-In Crafternoon once or twice a month. This is where we meet with other bloggers on Zoom and do some crafts while we chat.

We one scheduled for Sunday, March 22 at 1 p.m. If you are interested in taking part you can learn a little bit more about it from Erin’s original post about our Crafternoons and by emailing her at crackercrumblife@gmail.com or me at lisahoweler@gmail.com or leave a comment below.

Now It’s Your Turn

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

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

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

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

If you enjoy the kind of content on my blog and all that goes into it, you can support my writing for $2.99 a month or a single donation. Learn more here: https://lisahoweler.com/support-my-writing/

Sunday Bookends: Kurt Browning commented on my Instagram! Oh and I read books. (Link parties too)

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon18 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.

Once upon a time I said I wanted winter to come so I could curl up with a book under a blanket or watch an old movie…also under a blanket.

I still like curling up under a blanket but I’m over the gloominess of winter now. I would enjoy some green, but, alas, after warming temps this past week, Winter is reminding us it isn’t done yet as I just learned Friday night that another winter storm is headed our way today into tomorrow.

Blah.

Hopefully it will drop off the snow and go because I have plans this week to help my parents, possibly see my brother, and maybe even sneak off to a bookstore.

I started a nostalgic clip account on Instagram a few months ago (Nostalgically Thinking) and this past week I shared clips of Canadian Figure Skater Kurt Browning as I reflected on how entertaining he always was but never won and Olympic medal. I was thinking about that because of all that was going on with figure skating phenom Ilia Malinin. He didn’t win an individual gold but he’s already done so much to entertain and project the sport into astounding levels that I don’t think it matters at all. It certainly didn’t with Kurt who I always loved to watch and never even knew if he won an Olympic medal.

 On Thursday, I shared Kurt skating in “leather” pants to Brick House — one of my favorite routines of his.

Last night, before bed, I noticed a comment on my reel from kb.on.ice.

“Pants and the song sold it. The pants were plastic actually.”

Screenshot

I knew it was really Kurt because I’d found his account a couple of days before and, yes, I was a bit giddy seeing that comment.

I was so excited but remained calm as I told my kids about it and I give them credit – they didn’t role their eyes. They told me how nice it was, after I explained to them who Kurt Browning is, of course.

When I was in high school, I was obsessed with watching figuring skating but especially  Kurt, Brian Boitono, Elvis Stojko, and Scott Hamilton.

My brother bought me tickets to Stars on Ice for the 1996 tour when it came near where we lived, which was shocking because nothing exciting ever came near where we lived.

I am so old that I remember almost none of it! I wanted to dig out the program and an old journal to remember who was even there before I finished this post but I looked all afternoon and some of the boxes with old journals were way back in the back of our bedroom closet so I finally gave up.

I was very certain Kurt Browning was there so I texted my brother to ask if he remembered who was there and he didn’t even remember he took me! Haha! I remember he gave me the tickets as a Christmas gift and I was so excited.

I will write more on my blog later this week about the show and my love of ice skating, if I can find the journal, photos, and program.

What I/We’ve Been Reading

Just Finished

Last week I finished Mrs. McGinty’s Dead by Agatha Christie. It is a Hercule Poirot book and I really enjoyed it. There was a lot of humor in it from Poirot and the mystery was very good.

In Progress

Right now, I am still making my way through Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien and The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery. They are my slow reads.

I am also reading Murder, She Wrote: Bullets and Brandy by Donald Bain.

Up Soon

I can’t wait to start Murder on the Orient Express since I’ve seen the movies but have never read the book. I’m also looking forward to reading another P.G. Wodehouse and Miss Read this spring. I’ll be making my list of spring hopefuls this week. Spring….and I barely got through my Winter reads! It’s insane to think of spring already being here.

What The Family is Reading

Little Miss and I are enjoying The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy and are tying it into a history unit about World War I.

The Husband is reading the latest Robert Galbraith (Rowling) book.

What I/We’ve Been Watching

This past week I watched some of the figure skating at the Olympics, a new British mystery show called The Puzzle Lady, and All Creatures Great and Small.

I am watching my James Cagney movie – Angels With Dirty Faces — with The Husband tonight because he’s been too busy before this to watch it with me and wants to see it too. So my Winter of Cagney post is going up late this week.

I will be watching another Cagney movie — The Bride Arrived COD – later this week.

This afternoon I am watching East Side of Heaven (1939) with Bing Crosby.

What I’ve Been Writing

Last week on the blog I shared:

Some Housekeeping

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

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

Erin and I also host a Drop-In Crafternoon once or twice a month. This is where we meet with other bloggers on Zoom and do some crafts while we chat.

We have two scheduled for March. The first is Saturday, March 7 at 1 p.m. and the second is Sunday, March 22 at 1 p.m. If you are interested in taking part you can learn a little bit more about it from Erin’s original post about our Crafternoons and by emailing her at crackercrumblife@gmail.com or me at lisahoweler@gmail.com or leave a comment below.

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.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
https://fresh.inlinkz.com/js/widget/load.js?id=c0efdbe6b4add43dd7ef

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

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

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

If you enjoy the kind of content on my blog and all that goes into it, you can support my writing for $2.99 a month or a single donation. Learn more here: https://lisahoweler.com/support-my-writing/

Sunday Bookends: We missed a 100-year old tradition & more mysteries

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon23 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.

Our family tried to go to a 120-year-old tradition of riding a homemade wooden sled down a hill on a track made of 13-inch blocks of ice yesterday but the wait was 3-hours.

We opted for food at an inn and tavern instead and left the waiting to others.

The Eagles Mere Toboggan Ride is held only if the Eagles Mere Lake freezes enough that the fire company can cut the blocks to build the slide.

It doesn’t happen every year so we have to take the chance when we can but it’s been so severely cold that we made the mistake of waiting.

Since the weather is warming up, this weekend was probably the last chance.

It was a nice day despite the kids and husband not being able to go down the historic slide. What?  You didn’t think I was going down that thing, did you?

They walked around town on their way back and stopped by the little bookstore I love to visit. I was waiting in the car, though, and didn’t know they were visiting it and when we drove by later, finding a parking space was impossible. So I didn’t get to go to the bookstore, but Little Miss and The Husband picked up a couple books for me.

Then it was on to the tavern for an amazing lunch while taxidermy animals looked down on us.

If you would like to know more about the toboggan ride, you can watch this video:

What I/We’ve Been Reading

In Progress

I am reading Mrs. McGinty’s Dead by Agatha Christie for the Read Christie 26 Challenge.

I am also reading The Blue Castle, Return of the King, and Murder, She Wrote: Bullets and Brandy by Donald Bain.

Up Soon

How To Seal Your Own Fate by Kristin Perrin.

What The Family is Reading

Little Miss and I are reading The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy together and listening to The Green Ember by S.D. Smith.

The Husband is reading The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith.

What I/We’ve Been Watching

I don’t know if I need a life or if my life is okay but my big thrill this week was when my Blu-ray of Angels With Dirty Faces — a movie with James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart from the late 1930s — arrived in the mail. The icing on the cake was that The Husband was just as excited to see it and warned me I can’t watch it without him.

I am watching it for next week’s Winter of Cagney.

The husband and I watched an episode of Kate and Allie last night. I forgot about that show.

I watched White Heat for the Winter of Cagney and will write about it Monday.

I also watched All Creatures Great and Small.

What I’ve Been Writing

What I/We’ve Been Listening To

I am listening to Shakespeare. The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench and Brenden O’Hea because I found it more interesting to listen to than read.

Some Housekeeping

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

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

Now It’s Your Turn

What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

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

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

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

If you enjoy the kind of content on my blog and all that goes into it, you can support my writing for $2.99 a month or a single donation. Learn more here: https://lisahoweler.com/support-my-writing/

Sunday Bookends: Severe cold weather, a new-to-me author, and a needed cry

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon18 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.

As I am starting to write this post on a Saturday night our WiFi is out so I am using the unlimited data on my phone plan to draft this. Our internet company thinks the severe cold is our issue. (Update: It came back this morning and they still think it was the nasty cold).

This weekend’s weather here is taking the cake for this winter.

When I woke up this morning it was -6 without the windchill. The feels like temp was -30F (0 Celsius).

That temp continued to drop throughout the day.

Today our high will be 8F.

Obviously, we are staying hunkered down at home today.

We have three cats, Scout, Pixel and Cass and it is driving them crazy right now that they cannot go outside. We live in a semi rural area, so we normally let them outside in our backyard for a little bit, and they explore between the house and our wood pile and a little bit beyond and then they come back in. Scout is the hunter and sometimes we’ll disappear for a day and warmer weather coming back on occasion with a dead bird mouse or other animal.

Pixel is our home body. She mainly sits on the back porch and watches to see what scout does. Cass is new to us after being dropped off near our property the day before Halloween last year. So I’m not totally sure of his habits just yet, but he seems to be more like a hunter like Scout..

The bitter cold weather we have been having for the last month has meant keeping the cats in more than usual though. This is driving them absolutely insane and they pace in front of the door or smack each other around and have all out cat fights. I like winter in some ways because it means I can stay inside and write or read but right now I am ready for some warmer weather if only to get these cats out of the house and out of my hair. It would be one thing if they just enjoyed curling up but these are roaming cats and for them just to sleep all day isn’t really an option. They do sleep a lot, however.

I needed to slow down yesterday and have a good cry.

Another friend of the family passed away, and I realized I’d been telling myself I didn’t have time to sit down and cry about it.

Yesterday was his funeral and the severe cold and the possibility of me coming down with something kept me from going.

I busied myself throughout the day and then, right before dinner, I thought about how he is gone and I won’t see him again and I let myself have a good long cry.

I don’t like to break down and cry because I worry if I do I won’t stop and I’ll fall into a very deep depression. The problem is that I also sink into a deep depression if I hold in my sadness so it’s probably better to let some of the pressure off with a good cry instead.

What I/We’ve Been Reading

Just Finished

I finished The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham last night.

It was very good but different than I expected with a lot more cerebral and deep descriptions and a more artistic ending than I thought it would have. There was also very little sleuthing with the guy I thought was the main character – Albert Campion – but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. I will eventually post a review of it.

In Progress

I am still rereading The Blue Castle (I will have a post up Monday for anyone reading along with me) and am also reading – for the first time – Return of the King by JRR Tolkien.

I just started a Murder, She Wrote because I want to read something I don’t have to use my brain for a lot. Ha!

This one started out a bit more bawdy than other ones I’ve read and I’m not sure what I think of that. We will see how it goes.

Up Soon

I am still rereading The Blue Castle (I will have a post up Monday for anyone reading along with me) and am also reading – for the first time – Return of the King by JRR Tolkien.

I just started a Murder, She Wrote because I want to read something I don’t have to use my brain for a lot. Ha!

This one started out a bit more bawdy than other ones I’ve read and I’m not sure what I think of that. We will see how it goes.

What The Family is Reading

Little Miss and I are still reading The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy.

What I/We’ve Been Watching

Last week I watched Love Me or Leave Me with Doris Day and James Cagney and episodes of Murder, She Wrote and All Creatures Great And Small.

Today I am going to watch my farmer on YouTube ( Just A Few Acres) because he’s finally back with a video.

What I’ve Been Writing

Last week on the blog I shared:

Winter of Cagney: Love Me Or Leave Me

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot for February 6

Book review: Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie Mallowan

Classic Movie Impressions: After The Thin Man

A Good Book and A Cup of Tea (or coffee) Bookish Link Up for February

Sunday Bookends: The frigid cold, good mysteries, and old mystery shows and movies.

What I/We’ve Been Listening To

I am listening to Shakespeare. The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench and Brenden O’Hea because I found it more interesting to listen to than read.

Some Housekeeping

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

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

Now It’s Your Turn

What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
https://fresh.inlinkz.com/js/widget/load.js?id=c0efdbe6b4add43dd7ef

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

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

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Sunday Bookends: The frigid cold, good mysteries, and old mystery shows and movies.

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon19 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.

What else can I start this post with but a bit of a whine about the arctic cold that has settled over Pennsylvania and much of the country…

It has definitely impacted my every day since I’ve mainly been trapped inside the house, due to having difficulties with breathing in extreme cold. And it has been EXTREME. We’ve had windchill warnings left and right with windchills being -25 in some cases.

 Today, though, I am wrapping a scarf around my face and braving the cold so I can see my parents. I don’t have to go too far. From the house to The Husband’s truck and from his truck to my parents’ house.

I’ve almost forgotten what my parents look like at this point.

I am grateful they have wonderful neighbors who have been keeping an eye on them during the snowstorm and cold weather. Those neighbors have brought them food, cleaned their driveway, and checked in on them. The Husband has also taken food to them for me and stayed with my mom one day when my dad went to a doctor’s appointment earlier in the week.

I never thought I’d be happy to see temperatures in the mid-20s but that is what we are getting next week and that will make going places much easier.

What I/We’ve Been Reading

Just Finished

I just finished Miss Read’s Village Diary by Miss Read and enjoyed it maybe a little more than the first book.

I will read more books in the series this year.

In Progress

I’m currently reading Return of the King, The Blue Castle, and The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham.

I am enjoying all three. The Blue Castle is a re-read.

The Tiger in the Smoke is very hard to put down. I am very curious where it is going. It is my first Allingham. She’s a Golden Age mystery/crime fiction writer.

You might recognize the name of her main character, Albert Campion, if you’ve ever seen the British show Campion.

Up Soon

I plan to read Judi Dench’s book, Shakespeare, The Man Who Pays the Rent next. I have it on Libby so I need to get to it!

What The Family is Reading

Little Miss and I are reading The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy.

Two for Texas by James Lee Burke

What I/We’ve Been Watching

I’ve been watching Murder, She Wrote, Cagney & Lacey, the James Cagney movie The Public Enemy, and a great Lucille Ball movie entitled Lured. It was not a comedy movie and while I don’t know that she was the right actress for the role, the storytelling and suspense of the movie was worth pushing through Lucille’s misplaced casting.

George Sanders also made it worth it. He isn’t the traditionally handsome but he oozes sex appeal through the whole movie.

Last night I watched a documentary about the pianist and comedian Victor Borge. I added one about Fred Astaire to the watchlist that I want to watch with The Husband.

What I’ve Been Writing

I’m making a lot of progress on Gladwynn Grant Goes Back to School.

The first book in the series, Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing is free on Amazon in ebook form until Tuesday.

Last week on the blog I shared:

Some Housekeeping

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

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

Now It’s Your Turn

What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
https://fresh.inlinkz.com/js/widget/load.js?id=c0efdbe6b4add43dd7ef

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

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

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Sunday Bookends: A lot of snow, some cozy reading and watching, and some more snow

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon30 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.

As I am starting this post on Saturday night, we had temps  — er – temp of 5. In the morning snow is supposed to start and when it all ends Monday night, we are supposed to have close to 18 inches of snow.

I really hope we don’t get as  much as they say, though, because the high temp is supposed to be 15 degrees, which I think means this will be a very heavy, wet snow. We live in a rural area so that could mean power outages. We have a woodstove that could keep us warm downstairs but we would have to worry about our pipes freezing since we do not have a generator. I believe that’s something we will need to invest in at some point soon. Our neighbors have generators, which I think they purchased after a tornado hit here on our street about six years ago, wiping out power for several days.

I’m sure many of you, if you are in the Northern and Middle U.S. are facing a similar situation as us. Stay safe out there, everyone.

Since we are going to be snowed in, I have been planning how to get through it all without worrying too much. I plan to watch movies, read books, and sip tea or cocoa.

To keep themselves occupied, Little Miss has been video chatting with her friend and The Boy has been chatting with his friend and playing video games. The Husband has been cleaning the house (he’s much better at that than I am) and reading and doing a little work for the newspaper he is at the editor at.

He expects to be snowed in Monday and will work from home. As long as we have power that is.

Erin (www.crackercrumblife.com) and I held our Crafternoon Zoom call yesterday and it was very nice to chat with people from all over the world. We chat while we craft and if you are interested in taking part, please let me or Erin know. It is just a relaxed time to chat, make new friends, and forget about our troubles. We keep conversations as free of politics or hard stuff as much as we can.

UPDATE:

It is 12:24 P.M. as I am finishing up this post and it is about 10 degrees out (-12 C) and we have about six inches of snow on the ground. The snow is supposed to stop sometime tonight and we are expected to have up to 18 inches of snow when it is all done.

What I/We’ve Been Reading

Just Finished

I didn’t finish anything this weekend.

In Progress

I’ve been reading Miss Read’s Village Diary by Miss Read, The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery (a reread), and just started Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien.

I’m enjoying all three. Miss Read’s books are such easygoing, relaxing reads.

Up Soon

I hope to finish Miss Read this week so I can add The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham to my reading line up.

I read the first few pages about a month ago and it intrigued me.

Cat from Cat’s Wire needs to let me know if it is good or not. *wink*

After that I plan to start the February Agatha Christie Read for the Agatha Christie challenge, Mrs. McGinty’s Dead.

What The Family is Reading

Little Miss and I started The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy. We’ve also been listening to Winnie The Pooh on Audible.

The Husband is reading….

What I/We’ve Been Watching

I loved this YouTube video about how to read more classic books.

And this video about how to cut back on buying books you never read.

I watched After The Thin Man, the second movie in The Thin Man series, yesterday, and earlier in the week I watched episode two of season six of All Creatures Great And Small.

Today I hope to watch another old movie, probably a James Cagney, for my Winter of Cagney.

I’ve had to change my schedule of Cagney movies again because I have found yet another movie that is not streaming anywhere and can’t be found for very cheap on DVD. Two movies now, Man of a Thousand Faces and Angels With Dirty Faces, are going to have to be taken off my list as I figure out how to watch them in the future.

The Husband says these movies are most likely no longer in print and have not been licensed for streaming, hence my challenge in finding them. Man of A Thousand Faces costs $40 most places and is mainly on BluRay and Angels With Dirty Faces (a movie with Cagney and Humphrey Bogart) is on DVD but $19.95. I will probably set the aside for another time and slide two Cagney movies that I can find streaming into my list instead.

What I’ve Been Writing

Last week on the blog I shared:

What I/We’ve Been Listening To

David Phelps with Laura Osnes singing a song from The Phantom of the Opera.

Photos From Last Week

Some Housekeeping

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

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

Now It’s Your Turn

What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
https://fresh.inlinkz.com/js/widget/load.js?id=c0efdbe6b4add43dd7ef

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

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

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

If you would like to support my writing (and add to the fund for my daughter’s online art/science classes), you can do so here.

Sunday Bookends: Calming my nerves is an everyday challenge but reading, worship music helps.

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon14 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.

Latey I’ve become even more diligent about calming my nervous system and one way I am doing that is by choosing when I see or hear national or international news.

Previously, if I logged into my Chrome app on my phone headlines popped up at me and I was hit full in the face with some horrible headline about some horrible thing going on in the world.

Two days ago I found a way to change the home screen so there are no news headlines slamming me in my face first thing. I didn’t know I could do that before but it has been so helpful. Now all that pops up are sites I visit the most and none of those are news sites.

If I do visit news sites, I am trying to do it briefly on my laptop and for only about two minutes.

I have also been trying to read more and watch TV less. If I watch TV it is usually All Creatures Great or Small, an old detective show, or old movies.

I listen to light, older/classic books and even childrens’ books (like Winnie the Pooh) while doing dishes or housework.

Worship music a few times a week has been a must lately but I have not always been doing that like I should.

I feel much calmer when I listen to worship music at some point during my day but the earlier the better because then the song is stuck in my head throughout the day and I can sing it when I feel stressed.

I have a couple of devotionals in my kindle I want to start but I also want to get some hard copies of devotionals so I can underline and write in the margins.

This past week was fairly calm with me visiting my parents a couple of times to visit and help clean up and with doing school with Little Miss. Our most productive school day was Thursday because we discussed the end of the Civil War and other historical subjects.

The other days of the week we focused on math, trying to figure out what book we want to read next for Literature, and Little Miss attended the four classes and two clubs she has online.

What I/We’ve Been Reading

Just Finished

This week I finished Miss Read’s Village School by Miss Read and The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie.

They were both very good and made up for my first read of the year, My Beloved by Jan Karon, which I did not enjoy (unlike her previous 14 books, which I did very much enjoy).

The Secret of Chimneys was more like an international mystery than her normal mysteries, but I liked that even more.

I do have to say — a lot of rich people get murdered in her books. Ha! She was a member of the upper class in England, but I think she had a grudge to,o because she was frequently killing off the richest or the people who wanted to be the richest. That wasn’t the actual case in this latest one, so I didn’t spoil anything, but the mystery does involve rich and powerful people who want things kept a secret.

In Progress

I am now reading Miss Read’s Village Diary, which is similar to Village School. It follows Miss Read, a teacher at a small, rural school and the mix of characters around her. It is just a simple, calm book, without a deep plot. It’s perfect for what I want to read right now.

I’ve also started The Blue Castle for a re-read.

Up Soon

I hope to continue The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham because I started the first few pages to see if I liked it and got pulled right in.

After that I am going for lighter fare with a Murder, She Wrote book, but I am not sure which one yet. I have one that takes place in Hawaii and that might be a good one to help me forget  about how cold it is right now where I live.

What The Family is Reading

Little Miss and I are starting The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy.

The Husband is reading The Housemaid is Watching by Frieda McFadden.

What I/We’ve Been Watching

This past week I watched a movie called It Happened Tomorrow about a man who receives a newspaper that tells him the future, and it changes his entire life. It is a lighthearted film, and I would guess it was movie behind the idea for the show from the 1990s with a similar plot. The movie starred Dick Powell and Linda Darnell.

I also watched The Million Pound Note with Gregory Peck. It wasn’t too bad. A bit strange, but cute and fun. I originally was going to write that this was only the third Gregory Peck movie I have watched, but then I did a search to remind me the name of the one movie and saw others of his I had watched, starting with The Guns of Navarone, which my mom really likes. The second was Roman Holiday. Then it was To Kill A Mockingbird a couple of years ago and then this movie.

I watched the first episode of the sixth season of All Creatures Great and Small Friday night at the end of a very relaxing time of reading and cuddling under a warm blanket with a dog next to me and a cat on my chest.

Little Miss and I also watched the first episode ever of Little House on the Prairie, at her request.

I also watched “10 ways to live like a Grandma in 2025” On the Real Vintage Dollhouse YouTube channel.

What I’ve Been Writing

What I/We’ve Been Listening To

I’ve been listening to Winnie the Pooh while I cook and clean. I’m enjoying it.

Recent Blog Posts I Enjoyed

|| Christian Fiction Reading Plans January Through June 2026 by Carla Bruns ||

|| Which Classic Crime Novel Should be Reprinted Next by Cross Examining Crime ||

|| My Memoir is Published by For His Purpose ||

Popular Instagram posts this week

Some Housekeeping

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

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

Now It’s Your Turn

What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
https://fresh.inlinkz.com/js/widget/load.js?id=c0efdbe6b4add43dd7ef

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

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

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.