Sunday Bookends: birthdays, baking pies, and finishing up the third Gladwynn book

On November 10, 2024November 10, 2024 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Sunday Bookends8 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

This past week was an interesting one in some ways and a regular one in others.

On Tuesday I had a not-so-fun experience at the polling place in my little tiny town. Lesson learned to mail-in ballots from now on. It had nothing to do, by the way, with who I voted for. It just had to do with adults who were rude to my child and it really ticked me off. This paragraph is completely unrelated to politics other than I was in a polling place for an election.

Thursday was better, though, because it was our son’s 18^th birthday. My neighbor asked how I felt having an 18-year-old.

I sent her this gif:

Then I told her I was also very proud of my son because he’s grown into a wonderful young man.

It’s all gone by so insanely fast, though. There is so much I miss about him being younger but so much that is also great about this age.

We bought him a War Hammer model set and he’s having a blast painting them. It is a new hobby for him. Little Miss and I traveled to my parents on Thursday to help make apple pies for The Boy because he prefers pie over cake.

My mom ended up coming down with a sinus infection that triggered a flare of her fibromyalgia while we were there. It was a little scary as she was in excruciating pain all over and having some trouble walking. That night she spiked a fever.

We still had a nice day and the next day she was much better and the fever was gone. None of us can really understand why whatever she had only lasted a day and went away, but I do know I prayed a lot that day and night for her healing.

The pie, by the way, was “great” according to The Boy who doesn’t easily give compliments out so Little Miss and I, with my parent’s directions, pulled it out after all.

Yesterday The Boy and The Husband had fun during a father-son day in a city about an hour away. They visited a comic book shop where he picked up some more figures to paint.

They then walked around town, visiting the local university and a used book shop where my husband picked this up for me:

He knows me way too well. That’s an original 1941 Hardy Boys book. I can not wait to read it – as long as the mildew smell doesn’t mess with my sinuses. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t.

I forgot to mention that on Friday we had an art class and then drove the 30-minutes north to pick up our groceries.

Yesterday I spent the day relaxing with an old movie and a new cozy mystery show and also worked on the final chapters of Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree.

I definitely am not used to Daylight Savings yet I’ve come to realize. I was so tired all day yesterday, for one, and then at one point I yawned and thought how I could go to bed soon. That’s when I looked at my laptop clock and it said 6:42.

“6:42? For real??” I cried. “I thought it was 8!!”

I suppose my body will get used to it – you know, by spring when we spring forward.

What I/we’ve been Reading

I am reading The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Christy by Catherine Marshall, and The Maestro’s Missing Melody by Amy Walsh

The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood. Yes, I enjoyed it and yes I just started the series and no it does not keep to the book.

The Secret of the Wooden Lady by Carolyn Keene (Nancy Drew)

The Farmer’s Son by John Connell

The Husband is reading The Housemaid by Frieda McFadden

What We watched/are Watching

This week Erin and I watched Bringing Up Baby with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn for our Comfy, Cozy Cinema.

I watched Harvey with Jimmy Stewart on my own.

I also watched the first two episodes of The Marlow Murder Club on Amazon (that is all that is out so far).

What I’m Writing

I sound like a broken record but I am finishing Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree.

This past week on the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening To

I am listening to The Shepherd’s Abiding by Jan Karon on Audible.

I am also listening to this song my Downhere:

Photos from Last Week

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: Books with errors, the last of warm days, old movies, and a movie watch party

On October 27, 2024October 29, 2024 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Sunday Bookends16 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

The beginning of this week the weather was beautiful which led my dad to decide to take my kids for a hike along the old railroad tracks near his house two days in a row. I stayed back at my parents and helped my mom with cleaning the house.

The kids enjoyed walking the path where the train tracks used to be and my dad told them the history of where the station was and where the trains traveled. He also talked to Little Miss about where the old French mill used to be along the creek.

Zooma The Wonder Dog also loved the trip. She and Little Miss splashed in the creek and looked for fish, but didn’t see any.

The kids took some photos:

Two days later our little town was placed under a water boil advisory when there was a water main break. This made cooking and washing dishes a challenge, but we managed – not without complaint from me. The advisory was lifted on Friday, thankfully.

Last week I wrote a bit about our family’s cats over the years and barely scratched the surface of all the cats we’ve had over the years. I’ve decided I’m going to sit down one day this week and write about all the cats I can remember us having. Cats have such interesting personalities and each one seems to be different.

I also hope to write a blog post in the next month or so about the letters we have between my great-grea-grandfather and his brothers and mother that were written during the Civil War. They are very interesting.

What I/we’ve been Reading

The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood and The Anne of Green Gables Devotional by Rachel Dodge

Murder Handcrafted by Isabella Alan, which I have been sharing the wrong title of for a couple of weeks. So this one was good but also annoying. First, I didn’t know it was the last book in the series until I read some reviews. Second, there were some super weird typo and consistency issues that really threw me out of the story. I was surprised to see this because the book was published by Random House Publishing.

I really shouldn’t have been surprised because I’ve seen some errors like this before in Amanda Flowers’ books and Isabella Alan and Amand Flowers are the same person. There are so many books out by Amanda that I feel like they are trying to push them out way too fast and therefore letting quality slide.

Now, as someone who is independently published and has a lot of errors in her book as well, I’m not trying to act superior. I’m just surprised because so many readers are so negative about independently published books because of their supposed lack of quality but I am seeing that lack across the board in publishing right now.

In some ways I think the production of books needs to slow down and focus on quality over quantity. There are just too many rushed books out there.

All of this said I did enjoy the story of the book. I was, however, really annoyed to find out this was the last book in the series and she did not wrap up the love story between the main character very well (I mean they were still together so I guess that’s good at least) and left the storylines of other characters hanging. I still enjoy the stories and her writing, though, so this doesn’t mean I won’t read further books by her. Just not for a while.

I need to take a break from mysteries for a bit so I am going to try either Miracle in a Season by Sarah Loudin Thomas or Finding Lady Enderly by Joanna Davidson Politano

I haven’t read either of these authors before.

I decided to put The Cat Who Brought Down the House by Lilian Jackson Braun aside for now since I learned it was one of the later books in the series. I read one or two of those and they weren’t as good, and I think it might have been because Lilian was quite old by then and others may have been writing them or she was, and they just weren’t as good.

The Husband is reading Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie.

Little Miss is reading Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone. At night we are sometimes reading The Four Story Mistake. During the school days we are reading Johnny Tremaine.

The Boy is listening to an audiobook – Tales From The Gas Station Part Four.

What We watched/are Watching

Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown. This was my first time watching this one and I found it very interesting. It sent me down a rabbit hole of reading the real story of John Brown and Queen Victoria.

For Comfy, Cozy Cinema with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs, I watched Dial M for Murder. If you want to join in on our movie marathon posts for the rest of October and November you can follow the list here:

You don’t have to blog about them if you watch them but if you do write a blog post about your impression about the movies, we will be adding a link up at the end of our posts.

On Nov. 14 we will be watching Chocolat as a group watch. We will be pushing play together at the same time and then chatting about the movie in our Discord group (The Dames), which you can join for free now here: https://discord.com/invite/J7qQ36Uf

On my own I watched The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (original with Danny Kaye) this weekend and really enjoyed it. I loved the music and Danny Kaye’s performance overall. I watched an episode of the first season of Only Murders In The Building as well last week. I am really enjoying it and it’s hard not to binge watch it but I’m trying to wait for my husband to be home to watch it with me.

What I’m Writing

I am getting much closer to the end of the third Gladwynn book.

I released the description this past week, if you are curious:

https://lisarhoweler.substack.com/p/gladwynn-returns-in-2025-book-recommendations

This week on the blog I shared:

Photos from Last Week

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: Changing leaves, more mysteries (yes again), and my parents’ cats

On October 20, 2024October 20, 2024 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Sunday Bookends8 Comments

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

What’s Been Occurring

The leaves have almost all fallen off here in Pennsylvania which means it is time for leaf jumping for our youngest and maybe for our oldest too if the youngest can convince him to jump with her.

I don’t remember jumping in piles of leaves very often when I was younger but my kids have always loved it. Little Miss raked some leaves yesterday to get ready for more jumping today and as she raked, my parents’ cat, Molly, watched quietly from the porch. Looking at Molly I thought about how little I know about my parents’ current cats. My parents don’t seek out pets. Any cats my parents end up with were dropped off at the non-working barn on the property or wandered up from the neighbors who seem to refuse to spay or neuter.

Two cats, both now passed away, were mine/ours. When my parents first moved to my grandmother’s house when I was in college, our all-black at Zorro came with us. We had moved from my great-grandparent’s house across a little creek (over the creek and through the woods was how we got to grandma’s house) so I was worried Zorro would try to walk through the woods back to our old house, but, as far as I remember, he never did.

Between college and when I got married, I lived at that old house (built in the mid-1800s) and had a cat named Four that I rescued from my pet-hoarding mother-in-law’s house. The cat once belonged to my sister-in-law who adopted pets and got rid of them like she did old shoes. The cat was mostly gray but had a number 4 in orange in the gray for on the top of her head. When my sister-in-law had her, she peed on my ex-brother-in-law’s side of the bed because she hated him. I wish my sister-in-law had seen that as an omen since she didn’t see his drug use and abuse as one and remained with him for years until he cheated on her after baby number five.

My parents took Four in and when my aunt moved in she fell in love with Four.

Both Four and Zorro are gone now and I miss them terribly.

When I was in college someone dropped a cat off at my parents/grandmother’s house and I named the him before my parents and grandmother could even consider sending him to the shelter. I knew if I named him, it would be harder for them to get rid of him. I named him Leonardo after Leonardo DiCaprio because he was very popular at the time – Romeo and Juliet and Titanic had both come out that year.

Mom said there was no way she was going to go out on the back porch and yell “Leonardo!” but she did for the next several years, including one week when he went missing and we all thought he died somewhere. Instead, my dad went to the small granary where he stores lawn equipment and various other items and a skinny cat darted out and ran to the patio. Mom said, “Well, what cat is that? It’s not Leonardo. He’s too skinny.”

Poor fat Leonardo had been locked in the granary for almost a week and had lost a ton of weight.

I always wanted to pet Leonardo but he had no interest in letting me. In fact, the only one he would let pet him was my 88 year old grandmother who sat calmly in her chair on the deck to enjoy the sun. He would curl up next to her and she’d rub his head. She was not a animal person either. I never remember her ever having a pet when I grew up. Leonardo loved her though.

Anyhow, back to my parents’ current cats. They are Buzz, a gigantic, fluffy, orange beast who looks like a Main Coon, and Molly, a black and white polydactyl. I visit them once or twice a week but don’t know the cats well because they are usually hiding from Zooma The Wonder Dog when we visit which means I can’t sit and really learn about them. I’ve only managed to pet Molly once.

Buzz is almost feral, though, so I wouldn’t get to know him anyhow. My dad is the only one who can pet Buzz and the one Molly will come right up to. I think her tendency to run when we are there and her usual fear of us is why I was surprised she watched us in the yard yesterday. Zooma was even with us, which made it even more surprising. I think both Zooma’s smell and eyesight were broken because she never saw Molly or chased after her like she usually does.

By the way, none of the cats we’ve ever had have been able to be inside cats since my mom is actually very allergic to cats. They make her itch all over.

What I/we’ve been Reading

I am still reading The Case of the Innocent Husband by Deborah Sprinkle and Handcrafted Murder by Isabella Alan. I will finish The Case of the Innocent Husband this week.

I have put the Lilian Jackson Braun book on the backburner because I would really like to read The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood to see what it is like.

After that I would like to finish The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, which I recently started.

Little Miss is reading Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone at night (I’m trying to convince her to also read it during the day. Not going so well.). Some nights she and I are reading The Four Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright and during the school day we are reading Johnny Tremain which we are both enjoying. Last week we painted pumpkins while listening to it on Audible, but normally I read the book to her as part of our school day.

The Husband is reading Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie.

The Boy and I will be starting The Hound of the Baskerville by Arthur Conan Doyle this week after suffering through Beowulf, which I actually just read the summary of. I’m not going to lie about that.

What We watched/are Watching

This past week I rewatched parts of Rear Window so I could write about it for my blog post and then I watched a lot of Murder She Wrote.

The Husband and I watched an episode of the new Frasier show as well. I started watching Only Murders in the Building now that we have a Hulu subscription and then made The Husband watch the first episode with me. We are hooked and I can’t promise I won’t watch more of the show without him since he often has night meetings and I am impatient to find out what happens.

I hope to watch some more old movies this week in addition to Dial M for Murder that I am watching for the Comfy, Cozy Cinema.

What I’m Writing

Still working on Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree and having fun.

On the blog I shared:

Photos from Last Week

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: Adventures with the parents, fall foliage, and reading more mysteries

On October 13, 2024October 13, 2024 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends35 Comments

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 Dad, Little Miss, and I took my mom leaf peeping before all our leaves are gone. We didn’t have a very pretty year because of the warmer, dry temps we had in August and part of September but we did see some pretty trees on our drive.

We drove on some back roads (a.k.a. dirt roads) near my parents and eventually ended up at a house and former farm where some of my dad’s distant family used to live.

Throughout my whole life anytime we decided to go for a drive around the area or anywhere else, what normally would have been a routine or sightseeing trip became a weird adventure. My parents are 80 now so I thought our days of adventure were over but once again a simple leaf peeping trip became a little weird. First we passed a field of modern art sculptures all lined up in a field – sort of weird.

And when we stopped at the distant relative’s house things also got very weird.

We didn’t know who still lived at the house Dad used to visit as a kid, so Dad climbed out of the car and disappeared over a hill between the house and garage for a bit while he looked for the homeowner. While waiting for him, Little Miss, Mom and I watched another car rip into the long driveway, continue between two trees and stopped near our car. I rolled my window down and apologized for being in the way but the woman frowned and just said, “That’s fine.”

She went into the house without even asking why we were in her drive. I decided it was time to look for Dad in case she was really ticked off at us for being there, so I climbed out after telling my mom that the woman looked very familiar. I thought she looked like the manager of our local Dollar General.

A few minutes later, my dad and another man were walking from the back of the house, up the hill, and the woman, who had left the house to put the dog on a lead, marched toward my dad with her finger pointing at him and said, “You get your car out of my driveway!”

I panicked. Our trip was taking a very dark turn and I wasn’t sure how I was going to get my dad away from the crazy woman. But Dad was smiling and so was the man. I couldn’t see the woman but then she was patting my dad on the shoulder and I realized she was messing with my dad – probably how he picks on her when he stops in at the Dollar General.

In the end, we all had a good conversation and Dad shared some memories of visiting the former farm years before – like when he was 12 or 13.

After that, we took the long way home, and Little Miss and I spent the afternoon having dinner with my parents before heading home.

Today I have to pick up The Boy from a friend’s house and we will stop for lunch at my parents on the way back. Hopefully, we don’t have another weird adventure.

What I/we’ve been Reading

The Case of the Innocent Husband (A Mac and Sam Mystery Book 1), Murder Handcrafted by Isabella Alan, and The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler.

The Secret of Red Gate Farm by Carolyn Keene (A Nancy Drew Mystery)

The Cat Who Brought Down the House by Lilian Jackson Braun

The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood

Little Miss is reading the first Harry Potter book at night. I love that she’s reading but she starts too late at night and then I have to tell her that it’s time for bed and she tries to make me feel guilty by saying things like, “But I only have 15 minutes of the chapter left to go!”

Stupid Kindles and their ability to tell you how many minutes of a chapter you have to go.

We are also reading The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright on some nights. For school/during the day we are reading Johnny Tremain.

The Husband just finished The Labours of Hercules by Agatha Christies and is getting ready to read book 99. He is going to read The Satanic Verses by Salaman Rushdie for book 100.

What We watched/are Watching

Last week I watched a lot of Lovejoy and Murder She Wrote, Blithe Spirit with Erin for our Comfy, Cozy Cinema, and Reading Rainbow for old time’s sake.

What I’m Writing

I am still writing Gladwynn Grant Shakes The Family Tree and announced on Instagram that I will be pushing off the release date to 2025 so I can take some more time on it. I was pushing myself too hard to get it done before the end of October and now I realize that I am stressing myself out about a book that I am not under a publishing contract for and that I am writing more for fun than anything else.

If anyone would like to read books one or two, though, you can find them here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C1KSQJXP

On the blog last week I didn’t share a ton since I was working on the book, but here is what I did share:

What I’m Listening To

I was listening to Ever After by Karen Barnett but I am not a big fan of the narrator so not sure I’ll finish it.

Photos From Last Week

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: Remembering Maggie Smith, reading the same books, and some blog posts I enjoyed recently

On September 28, 2024September 29, 2024 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends31 Comments

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

What’s Been Occurring

What a weird coincidence this week that Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and I watched a movie with Maggie Smith and a day after we posted out those she passed away. We had watched Ladies in Lavender with her and Judi Dench and wrote about it and then that night I was thinking how upset Judi would be when Maggie passed away. I also wondered which “dame” would actually pass away first – I thought it might be Joan Plowright.

The next morning Erin texted me to tell me that Maggie had died and I honestly felt like I had lost a friend. I haven’t even watched her very much in things like Downton Abbey or Harry Potter (though I did watch Harry Potter with the kids just recently). I stopped watching Downton when they killed Matthew off. It ticked me off so bad I refused to watch the show again.

I’ve seen Maggie in a few movies since then, though, and just sort of fell in love with her spunk and attitude, but also a tenderness I saw in her.

I’m slightly ashamed to admit that I cried more over her death than the death of my mother-in-law the week before – partially because I had more sentimental connection with Maggie – whom I’ve never met – that my husband’s mother. That’s a very long, sad story that I won’t go into here.

I was looking for clips of Maggie to share on Instagram since I had a clip of her and Judi and Joan Plowright from Tea With the Dames go viral last year on my Instagram, when I remembered I had seen that she’d been on The Carol Burnett Show one time.

If you want to see that clip, I’ll share it below in my What I’ve Been Watching section.

I’m really hoping to watch an Agatha Christie movie with Maggie that I just learned about Friday as well.

What I/we’ve been Reading

I was working on the third book in my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series last week so I didn’t read as much as I could have.

Therefore I am still reading the same books I was reading – Move Your Blooming Corpse by DE Ireland and Kristen by Dawn Klinge, but have added The Secret at Red Gate Farm, a Nancy Drew to the mix.

I finished nothing! Nothing, people! See above. *wink*

Murder Handcrafted by Isabella Alan (An Amish Quilt Shop Mystery)

The Cat Who Brought Down the House by Lilian Jackson Braun

The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood

Little Miss and I are reading The Four Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright via Hoopla.

The Husband is reading Fear and Loathing On the Campaign Trail 1972 by Hunter S. Thompson

The Boy is listening to Beowulf and a book of short stories.

What We watched/are Watching

Last week I rewatched most of Ladies in Lavender to write about it for our Comfy, Cozy Cinema, since I’ve seen it before.

I mentioned above that I enjoyed watching Maggie Smith and Judi Dench in the movie and then the next day Maggie passed away. It was heartbreaking.

Erin and I have a few movies with either Judi or Maggie or both in it on our Comfy, Cozy Cinema this time around and I swear we didn’t do it on purpose. We both chose movies on our own and then whittled the list down, not even thinking about who was starring in them. We both even forgot about Judi and Maggie being in a couple of the movies.

This weekend I’ve been watching some clips of Maggie from various shows or interviews, including this one from The Carol Burnett Show:

I had no idea Maggie sang until I saw this clip with her and Carol on YouTube:

I have also been continuing to watch Lovejoy, an old British show that sometime has a mystery and sometimes just a conman story. I hated how this series ended so I’ve watched it before but seem to have forgotten some of the episodes so I am rewatching them. This is a show my husband always watched and turned me on to.

What I’m Writing

Gladwynn Shakes The Family Tree, of course.

On the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening To

Ever Faithful by Karen Barnett on Hoopla

Photos from Last Week

Recent Blog Posts I Enjoyed

|| Review: Hillbilly Elegy by Stray Thoughts ||

(I appreciated this non-partisan and just straight review of J.D. Vance’s book. Not a fan of him as a politician but I’m also not a fan of any politician at this time.)

|| Words for Wednesday: Confined by Mama’s Empty Nest ||

(Boy, could I relate to this one.)

|| His Encouragement by Christian Fiction Girl ||

(A great reminder of God’s faithfulness during challenging times. )

|| Book Review: Cassie, Apron Strings Book Eight by Leslie’s LIbrary Escape ||

(This one is a little biased on my part, but this was a really nice review of my book Cassie.)

Now it’s your turn

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

Saturday Afternoon Chat: A nice birthday weekend, more cozies to read, and complex feelings after some news

On September 21, 2024September 21, 2024 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Saturday Afternoon Tea15 Comments

This was a week of highs and lows. Thursday was my birthday and it was a nice and very relaxing day. We received some news early in the day, however, and even struggled with what kind of news it was since it was the passing of a family member we haven’t had contact with in years. It’s hard to know how to handle the death of someone who wasn’t very pleasant to know, was abusive to your husband, and then stopped communicating (which actually came as a blessing).

The weather was beautiful that day, though. I didn’t go anywhere. I read a book and wrote a little bit on the third Gladwynn book, and watched an old movie.

Yesterday we went out as a family for my birthday and it was another relaxing day with beautiful weather.

We went to lunch at a nice restaurant, visited a garden center, a library with a used bookstore, and then a playground and creek.

The garden center is decorated for fall with pumpkins and gourds lined up all over and flowers blooming in their garden.

Little Miss wanted a white pumpkin so she can paint it later so we picked up one of those for her and a natural soda for me.

We stumbled on to a shoe sale that we thought was next week, which was very exciting for us because it was an amazing sale and let us stock up on shoes for us and the kids. It derailed our trip to a Barnes and Noble, which is about two hours from our house (any Barnes and Noble stores are two hours from our house – in one direction or the other.)

I haven’t visited a Barnes and Noble for probably 15 years and my husband was going to take me to one as a surprise. I decided it would be better to save gas money (it was another 45-minute drive) and buy the shoes instead. I didn’t know where The Husband was actually taking me but I had guessed maybe he’d found a Barnes and Noble near us so I told him I was okay if we didn’t visit it this time around.

The thing is, I wouldn’t have bought a lot of books anyhow because I rarely buy new books. I prefer to buy them used or on clearance. I’d rather get a few books for $10 than one for $15. It would have been nice to walk around the store, but now that I know there is one not super far away, we can find another time to go. Plus, we needed the shoes and there is a used bookstore in the library of the town we were already in so we went there and we brought home 15 books for less than $20.

Most of my books were cozy mysteries and Little Miss chose quite a few of them. I’ll share more about the books I picked out on my Sunday Bookends tomorrow since that’s where I usually talk books I’ve been reading or have added to my collection.

After we visited the bookstore and library, Little Miss wanted to try out her new water shoes at the creek so we spent about 45 minutes at a small park that also has access to a creek.

Earlier in the week Little Miss and I picked up her new glasses and the next day I took her to Kid’s Club, which is a program at a church near us, where she met her friend that she’d invited.

Little Miss loves her new glasses with multiple colors on the earpieces and pink along the rest of the frame.

We both enjoyed looking at the trees that had changed in the town where the optometrist is and I had to laugh because one of the trees is changing into a beautiful orange color that is matching the color of the car parked at the house it is next to.

Wednesday night Little Miss and her friend had fun at the church program while my friend (Little Miss’s friend’s mom) and I chatted together in the parking lot.

This weekend we are continuing to relax since The Husband doesn’t have to work for the first time in – I don’t know how long actually.

We plan to hang out and watch movies and one of us should probably wash some dishes since we played hooky from housework the last couple of days.

These days off came at a good time since the death in our family was my estranged mother-in-law. My husband wrote a bit about his relationship with her on his personal Facebook page but I have decided not to share that here.

The bottom line is that my mother-in-law was abusive mentally, emotionally, and sometimes physically. She picked favorites out of her two children and you can take my word for it that my husband was not that child. She has not spoken to us in more than five years and lives several states away. In other words, this “loss” doesn’t feel much different than when she was alive.

It’s a complicated situation when a person loses a family member who wasn’t very kind. There is grief there but it’s different than the grief other people have. It’s partially a grief of what could/should have been and also grief of there being no closure or apologies for past hurts. In this situation that apology would most likely never have come thanks to mental illness on the part of my mother-in-law.

I wasn’t even sure how to feel and spent part of my birthday a bit numb and dazed. Should I grieve the woman who tried to manipulate me the way she did everyone else? Two days later, I still don’t how to answer that. I feel sadness for a woman who chose to have no relationship with her son or beautiful grandchildren – even when we lived less than a mile from her for many years before she moved, but I can’t honestly say I feel a sense of loss or grief. I feel guilty for that and I also feel odd admitting that, but it’s where I am right now.

I should be crying, shouldn’t I? I should be thinking back on fond memories or saying things like, “Sure she wasn’t nice at times but…”

Yet I have none of that to offer in this situation and it’s a surreal place for me to be.

It’s only happened one other time and in that case I could at least think of one or two really nice and genuine things the person did – while also wondering if any of it was real since so much lying was revealed at the end of that person’s life.

So moving on to my plans for the rest of the weekend as I navigate this weird headspace I am in.

I’m looking forward to working more on my book this weekend and on some reading.

Next week we don’t have any appointments scheduled so it will be mainly school and maybe a playdate at a local creek with a couple of friends.

The temperature is supposed to drop next week and I am looking forward to the fall-like weather. Yesterday’s 83-degree temps were not very welcome by me, even though it was a very beautiful day.

How was your week last week? I hope you found some time to relax and unwind. Let me know in the comments.

Sunday Bookends: I think Summer is really over..I think…and lots of mysteries on the agenda

On September 1, 2024August 31, 2024 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends15 Comments

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

What’s Been Occurring

This past Tuesday Little Miss and I had a wonderful day swimming at my parents. The pool was in perfect shape and the temperature was absolutely perfect.

We ate some lunch before we went and took lunch to my parents as well. Then we spent two hours in the pool, took a break for a light supper, then back in the pool for another 90-minutes. The temperature was fairly high outside so the pool was perfectly nice inside.

Little Miss enjoyed swimming underwater, doing flips, and practicing floating on her back – all skills she learned this summer.

The Boy helped my dad with mowing the lawn since Dad has been suffering from a pinched nerve in his lower back that has made doing work outside very difficult.

On Wednesday Little Miss and I went back to the pool and Dad and The Boy went to a county fair near us.

On Tuesday I will start classes with the kids, even though I don’t have everything I need yet for the oldest. He, however, only has a couple of classes to take to finish out the credits he needs to graduate since he is also attending a technical school this year.

Little Miss will be my main focus this year and we are trying new curriculum in almost every subject. We will see how it goes but what is great about homeschool is that I can switch to a different curriculum at any point if needed.

What I/we’ve been Reading

I started Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers because several cozy mystery readers (vloggers) said it was good and it is good but I could do without the language. I know. I’m a prude (and also a hypocrite if you must know the truth), but, well, I didn’t expect the f-word and other words to pop up in the fourth or fifth chapter. I do really like Vera, though, so I am going to continue to read it.

I’m also reading through my long Netgalley list so this week I started An Assassination on the Agenda (A Lady Hardcastle Mystery) by T.E. Kinsey.

I’m also reading Trouble Shooter by Louis L’Amour but I am reading it a little bit slow because it is a slower read for me. There are a lot of descriptions of rounding up cattle and falling off cliffs and old time writing that I have to push through. I do want to finish it, though, because I am really enjoying the story and want to know what happens.

Here and there I am reading Little Men by Louisa Mae Alcott. I figure this one will get pushed off until November and December, which is when I read Little Women last year.

The Gardener’s Plot by Deborah J. Benoit

A Simple Deduction (An Amish Inn Mystery) by Kristi Holl

The Secret of Red Gate Farm by Carolyn Keene (A Nancy Drew Mystery)

Murder Handcrafted by Isabella Alan (An Amish Quilt Shop Mystery)

The Cat Who Brought Down the House by Lilian Jackson Braun

Little Miss and I are reading The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright.

What We watched/are Watching

This week I watched The Detective… a 195… film with Alec McGuiness based on the short stories about Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton. I discovered it by accident and ended up really enjoying it. I started The Third Man with Orson Welles but forgot to finish it. I will do that this week. Then I watched What We Did on Our Holiday as part of the Comfy Cozy Cinema feature that Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I will be doing starting this Thursday.

Here is the list of movies we are watching if you want to watch with us and write about your impressions of them. We will be sharing a link up each week.

What I’m Writing

I am working on Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree and having a lot of fun. Tomorrow I will be sharing the first chapter with my paid supporters on Substack. I will be revealing the cover sometime in September and hope to have the book out in early November.

On the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening to

I am listening to The Cross-Country Quilters and also to An Assassination on the Agenda when I can’t read it because I love the narrator who narrates all the Lady Hardcastle books.

Photos from Last Week

Recent Blog Posts I Enjoyed

This week’s Small Pleasures by Thistles and Kiwis

Friday Feels: Three Questions and An F Word by Deb’s World

Now it’s your turn

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

Sunday Bookends: The last of the summer swimming, planning for autumn reading, and lists of mysteries to read

On August 25, 2024 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends10 Comments

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

What’s Been Occurring

Last week was pretty chilly part of the week but things have started to warm up again. Little Miss and I hoped that warm up would include some time in the pool but the nights have been very cool so that has left us with very cool pool water. It’s been so cool our teeth have started chattering as soon as we enter the pool, and our bodies don’t really become acclimated even though we hope they will.

Yesterday we tried again, and I somehow lasted 90 minutes but my body did not feel well afterward. The warmest days this week will be Tuesday and Wednesday so I think we will wait to try again until then and those will probably be the last swims of the season.

This week I will ease into lessons for Little Miss to kick off school, but we won’t start in earnest until after Labor Day. The Boy already started back at tech school. I’ll start his lessons the week of Labor Day as well but he has much less to do this year.

So this week is the last week of freedom, so to speak, for the kids before school really gets underway.

What I/we’ve been Reading

Currently: I am still reading Trouble Shooter by Louis L’Amour because I have been reading a couple of other books in addition to or in between. I am going to focus on the book more this week because there is a mystery woven in and I really want to know what happened.

I am also reading The Gardener’s Plot by Deborah J. Benoit. It is an Advanced Reader’s Copy.

On cozy evenings I am also reading Little Men by Louisa Mae Alcott

I just finished Clueless at the Coffee Station by Bee Littlefield and really enjoyed it. I’ll share a review of it on here tomorrow.

My upcoming list has shifted around some as I plan for reads for Autumn.

Up next, possibly, depending on my mood,

A Simple Deduction by Kristin Holl (An Amish Inn Mystery)

The Secret of Red Gate Farm by Carolyn Keene (A Nancy Drew Mystery)

Murder Handcrafted by Isabella Alan (An Amish Quilt Shop Mystery)

The Cat Who Brought Down the House by Lilian Jackson Braun

Little Miss and I read Homer Price by Robert McCloskey over the last couple of weeks.

What We watched/are Watching

Last week I watched Clambake. I don’t want to talk about it. I’d just like to never remember I watched it.

I also watched a few episodes of the old British show Lovejoy.

I then watched Just A Few Acres on YouTube.

What I’m Writing

I made quite a bit of progress on Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree this past week. I hope to make even more progress this upcoming week.

On the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening To

I am still listening to The Cross Country Quilters by Jennifer Chiavarini

Recent Blog Posts I Enjoyed

Don’t Wait Until You Feel Like It by Stray Thoughts

Peace Descending by Big Sky Buckeye

Words for Wednesday: Going Through The Motions by Mama’s Empty Nest

Now it’s your turn

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

Saturday Afternoon Chat: The Italian statue of the devil that was too hot and Timothy is missing in action

On August 24, 2024August 24, 2024 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Saturday Afternoon Tea2 Comments

Ah, so glad you’re here. Can I get a drink?

Some tea? Coffee? Milk?

Juice? Water? Soda?

Let’s chat about our week.

How was your week last week? You can let me know in the comments after I ramble at you about my week, which was rather calm thanks to chilly temps and a car that needs to pass inspection before we can drive it again.

Yes, in Pennsylvania your car has to pass an inspection every year and thanks to some lovely incompetence on the part of a local salvage yard and of another seller, we have been unable to get our headlight that was destroyed by the deer we hit last year fixed until this week. And that is well over when our inspection was due. We have an inspection appointment this week and then I will have a car during the week when my husband is at work.

I didn’t really want to go anywhere this past week anyhow. It was superbly chilly and rainy, giving me the autumn vibes I have been craving.

I spent three blissful days inside my house reading books and working on Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree, all while cuddled up under my grandmother’s blanket. Grandma has been gone since 2003 so I didn’t steal her blanket. I inherited it. Ha! I always figure I should clarify that since it sounds like I stole my poor grandmother’s blanket and she’s at home shivering in the cold.

All the coziness ended Friday when I had to leave my little cozy cocoon and take my teenage son to get his haircut and pick up groceries.

The Boy started school at the tech school again this past week. This is his second year there and at the end of the year he will be done with school because he is – he is – sniff – a senior!

I can’t even believe he is about to graduate from high school. It makes my head very woozy.

I have started asking myself things like, “Will he still want to go on family vacations with us? Will he go out to dinner with us? Will he still hangout with us? Will he still live here because I really want him to live here for a very long time and my heart will shatter if he moves too far away?”

I’m not handling all of this well and I’m not afraid or ashamed to admit it.

After we picked up groceries and brought them home, Little Miss and I attempted to go swimming at my parents. The nights have been very cold so the pool was like an ice bath. We lasted about an hour and then gave up.

Back at home last night I was again under the blanket as the temperatures went back down. This week the temps are supposed to be back in the 80s but I think our days of wickedly high summer temps are behind us. We shall see.

Even as some forecasters say our autumn season will be warm and dry, The Farmer’s Almanac says it will be cool and wet. We will have to take it day by day and see who wins out. When I first heard we might have a warm fall I wanted to cry. I really want some chilly days where I have an excuse to stay inside. I have no excuses to stay inside in summer unless the weather is so sweltering I know it will make me sick.

In Autumn I can be like, “It’s just so chilly out. I think I’ll stay at home.”

Which is code for – I’m going to read a book and watch an old movie.

Speaking of movies – Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and I are gearing up for another Comfy, Cozy Cinema starting September 5.

She’s already made some great graphics to go with the feature so if you want to join along, here is our list:

A little update today on Timothy The Spider, who I wrote about last week – he is currently MIA.

Earlier this week it was raining very hard outside and I think he could hear the rain and wanted to get out because he climbed behind one of our curtains and it was the last we saw of him for the rest of the week.

So far I haven’t seen him on the floor but we have brown hardwood floors and a carpet of various shades of brown so he could be anywhere. If I see him, I will most likely kill him. Poor Timothy. Alas, his life might be short. Or he could already have been eaten by one of the cats, I have no idea. All I know is he isn’t hanging over my head anymore and I sort of wish we had killed him before because now I don’t know where he might show up or when.

In closing, I thought I would share a weird conversation The Boy and I had last night about a statue of “the devil” or Lucifer that was sculpted in Italy in the 1840s by Joseph Geefs.

Geefs statue was commissioned and installed the St. Paul’s Cathedral in Belgium but was then determined to be “distracting allure” and feature “unhealthy beauty” in its portrayal of Lucifer or Satan.

So the church hired Geefs’ older brother Guillaume Geefs to sculpt another statue to represent the devil and that one turned out to be just as “sexy” or even more so by some definitions. That second statue is still in St. Paul’s Cathedral.

The Boy and I agreed that the second sculpture is actually more beautiful and distracting than the first so we’re not sure why the first one was replaced by the second one.