Tag: week in review

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

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends10 Comments

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

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



What’s Been Occurring

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Talk about an answer to prayer.

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


What I/we’ve been Reading

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

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

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

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

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

What We watched/are Watching

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


What I’m Writing

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

What I’m Listening To

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

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

Sunday Bookends: Christmas Regency books, watching Christmas movies, and small-town Christmas event

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon16 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

It began to feel even more like Christmas this past week when we had our first, longer-lasting snowfall.

I thought we were only supposed to receive some sleet and freezing rain so I was surprised by the half inch on the ground the next morning.

My daughter was surprised as well and my son was thrilled because the two-hour delay meant he didn’t have to go to his trade school that day since he only goes for two and a half hours.

Little Miss was delighted to play in the snow with her best friend, Zooma the Wonder Dog, and I watched them some and then darted back inside to the warmth.

Inside the house, the Christmas tree is up, the fire is burning in the wood stove, and a cup of hot cocoa awaits.

I’ve never been a fan of extreme temperatures – either too cold or too hot.

The snow was gone by the next morning, which Little Miss was sad about. We thought we might have the chance for more snow Sunday into Monday but, alas, it is now going to be rain only and so much rain it might cause flooding.

We will have to see what happens.

Yesterday Little Miss had two friends over and I took them downtown to our small town’s Christmas event. There wasn’t a ton going on but there was a scavenger hunt that took them to several businesses in town to find photos of an elf and see what the elf was doing in each photo. They then had to write on the slip of paper what the elf was doing and return it to where they started for a prize. The prize was a York Peppermint Patty which I didn’t think was a very exciting prize for all that running around. The kids weren’t that impressed either but were okay with it. Little Miss doesn’t like peppermint but luckily I had some chocolate at home for her.

The town also had mini-fire pits set up throughout the town with s’mores kits for people to use, which I thought was a super cute idea.

Earlier in the day they had an ice carver, a cookie walk, and several vendors available in the one main building.

They also offered a semi-alive nativity display, which cracked me up when I read the title of it in the paper. Turns out that Mary and Joseph and Jesus and the wise men were cardboard cutouts but the animals were real. Little Miss was very disappointed she couldn’t pet the animals and grumbled about it the rest of the day.

We ended our jaunt downtown with some playtime at the tiny playground.

The library also had a used book sale during the event and unlike other times when I’ve come out of there with way too many books, I only came out with three and a DVD about World War II. One, they didn’t have a very exciting selection, and two I got way too many last time, and many of them I didn’t enjoy.

The books I picked up were another Nancy Drew:

This one by Brock Thoene (I’ve enjoyed books by him and his wife, Brodie, in the past):

And this middle-school-aged book that looked interesting to me and hopefully will be a good one for Little Miss later:

Our neighbors have added some extra lights to their Christmas display this year. For several years in a row they have won the town’s Christmas light contest, but last year they were unseated. My mom thinks they are trying to win it back this year since the husband has added another set of lights.

My dad gave us their old nativity set so all we have in our yard is a very subtle display and I’m okay with that. We can simply enjoy the neighbors and wait for the day the husband becomes Clark Griswold.

What I/we’ve been Reading

Last week I finished The Spectacular by Fiona Davis. I did not think it was spectacular, but it was okay.

I liked the story itself but I did not like the style of writing.

This week I am diving into Christmas books.

Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs told me about these Regency Romance books she would read every Christmas so I ordered one from Thriftbooks and it came this week so I started it yesterday.

It’s called Regency Christmas Wishes with novellas by five different authors.

Keeping with the Christmas theme, I’m also re-reading A Walt Longmire Christmas: Christmas in Absaroka by Craig Johnson.

Next I’ll be reading Southern Snow: A Sugartree Winter Romance by B.R. Goodwin.

I’m also still reading a chapter or two of Little Women but I left it at my parents so I won’t be able to read that until I get it back from them.

The Boy and I are putting The Tale of Two Cities aside for this month as we are both not focusing well on it. We will either restart it in January or put it off altogether until his senior year. I remember struggling through this book my sophomore year but really liking it once I got into it so I am sure once we can focus better (and buy cliff notes to figure out what he is talking about) we will be able to get through it.

This week we will be reading from books about World War II and I will be looking for books or material about World War I as I feel it is a war that isn’t as focused on as much.

Little Miss and are listening to The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson at night. I am also reading Christmas stories by Louisa May Alcott and L.M. Montgomery to her.

The Husband is reading In the Blood by Jack Carr.

What We watched/are Watching

This past week I watched Holiday Affair (1949), a couple episodes of Still Standing (a Canadian show) with The Husband, Signed, Sealed, And Delivered Christmas, and a couple episodes of Evening Shade.



What I’m Writing

I’m still working on Cassie and wrote maybe 4,000 words this week.

This week on the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening to

On Tuesday when I went outside to photograph the freshly fallen snow and listened to Michael Buble’s Christmas album but otherwise I haven’t listened to much this past week.

Photos from Last Week

I shared a couple of photos above but here are a few more from last week.

Blog Posts I Enjoyed This Past Week

Here are a few posts I enjoyed this week:

Songs of the Season 2023 – Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree – Brenda Lee

I Played Secretary Today by Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian

I Played Secretary Today

The Last Year We Decorated Christmas Cookies With My Mom by Deb Nancy at Reader Buzz

A quick reminder that Erin and I still have a linky open for anyone who wants to join in our Comfy, Christmas Link Up. The link up will be open until January 2.

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.

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot December 7

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Weekend Traffic Jam7 Comments

Welcome to another Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot hosted by Marsha in the Middle, Melynda from Scratch Made Food For Hungry People and me.

How was your week?

Do anything exciting?

I haven’t done anything very exciting this week – other than the fact we hit a deer Saturday night while my husband was driving us back from a Christmas event in a little town about half an hour from us.

The car was driveable but our left headlight suffered some. Not sure what happened to the deer for sure. Also hoping our insurance will cover some repairs. We are getting an estimate done soon to find out.

Today we woke up to snow on the ground – more than I expected. I thought we were only getting a slushy mix but, nope, there was actual snow out there!

This is our first snowfall this year that actually stuck around more than an hour or so.

Our daughter loved playing in it with Zooma the Wonder Dog who absolutely loves snow.

On to our most clicked post for this week. But wait! We have two most clicked posts this week. We have a tie!

The Real Food Blogger’s Vegetable Tien: A Colorful and Flavorful Dish

and

Simple Holiday Entryway from Thrifting Wonderland

And on to my favorites.

1.

  1. The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island by Amy’s Creative Pursuits.

I loved this tour of Mackinac Island, which I have heard so much about, but have never visited.

2. Easy Christmas Sensory Bin by Drug Store Divas

This was a very informative and well-done tutorial on how to create a sensory bin for preschoolers or other children.

3. My Favorite Shopping Trip by A New Lens

This was a beautiful post about what we can do with our time, our energy, and a limited budget to help bless others. It was also a reminder of the greatest gift anyone received on any Christmas – Jesus.

I hope you will leave a link to your favorite post from last week or an older post that needs some love on the linky below today.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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

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

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends29 Comments

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

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


What I/we’ve been Reading

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Husband is reading In The Blood by Jack Carr.

What’s Been Occurring

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What We watched/are Watching

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

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

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

We also watched Elfat Little Miss’s request.

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

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

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



What I’m Writing

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

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

On the blog this week I shared:

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

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

What I’m Listening to

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

Photos from Last Week

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

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

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

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

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Saturday Afternoon Tea11 Comments

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

Horrible dry skin from the dry air in our house.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An uneventful week where we almost died . . .

This past week was a rather uneventful week.

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

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

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

I’m kidding.

Sort of.

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

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

A question for my readers . . .

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

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

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

She also has two sisters as her friends.

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

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

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

Moving on . . .

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”

— G.K. Chesterton

How was your week?

Did you do anything holiday-related yet?

Read anything good or have a fun experience?

Let me know in the comments.

Sunday Bookends: Winter temps have set in, The Spectacular, getting ready for Christmas movies

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends17 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 and Kathyrn at The Book Date.


What I/we’ve been Reading

This week I am continuing to read chapters before bed of Little Women. It’s such a cozy read.

I’m also reading The Spectacular by Fiona Davis. It is a mystery.

A description in case you are curious:

From the New York Times Bestselling Author of The Magnolia Palace: A thrilling story about love, sacrifice, and the pursuit of dreams, set amidst the glamour and glitz of Radio City Music Hall in its mid-century heyday.

New York City, 1956: Nineteen-year-old Marion Brooks knows she should be happy. Her high school sweetheart is about to propose and sweep her off to the life everyone has always expected they’d have together: a quiet house in the suburbs, Marion staying home to raise their future children. But instead, Marion finds herself feeling trapped. So when she comes across an opportunity to audition for the famous Radio City Rockettes—the glamorous precision-dancing troupe—she jumps at the chance to exchange her predictable future for the dazzling life of a performer. 

Meanwhile, the city is reeling from a string of bombings orchestrated by a person the press has nicknamed the “Big Apple Bomber,” who has been terrorizing the citizens of New York for sixteen years by planting bombs in popular, crowded spaces. With the public in an uproar over the lack of any real leads after a yearslong manhunt, the police turn in desperation to Peter Griggs, a young doctor at a local mental hospital who espouses a radical new technique: psychological profiling. 

As both Marion and Peter find themselves unexpectedly pulled in to the police search for the bomber, Marion realizes that as much as she’s been training herself to blend in—performing in perfect unison with all the other identical Rockettes—if she hopes to catch the bomber, she’ll need to stand out and take a terrifying risk. In doing so, she may be forced to sacrifice everything she’s worked for, as well as the people she loves the most.

The Boy and I will be starting A Tale of Two Cities this week and I really hope I can make it through the old language because sometimes I am confused by it. Just being honest. I enjoy classic literature but sometimes the metaphors and allegory, etc. totally throw me off and I have to re-read a sentence more than once. I wouldn’t consider myself stupid (some might) but I don’t read classics all the time so it doesn’t come as easily for me as some. 

The Husband finished an ARC of the next Joe Picket book and recently started another Fiona Davis book.

Little Miss and I will probably finish The Black Stallion this week and I’m not yet sure what we will read next. We are reading a book about a Native American girl for school but I can’t find it and forgot the name of it.

What’s Been Occurring

Cold temperatures are becoming the norm now as we move into winter, which means lighting or keeping the fire going in the woodstove is also becoming the norm. It also means that hot cocoa and hot tea are the norm.

I am very lucky that I have a husband who makes amazing tea for me with just the right amount of honey and a daughter who makes me the most amazing hot cocoa with just the right amount of maple syrup.

Those have been my treats to warm me up this week.

Last week was a relaxed week with the Thanksgiving holiday.

Monday we will be back doing schoolwork and back to Kid’s Club at the church and gymnastics for Little Miss. The Boy has an extra day off trade school, but goes back on Tuesday.

Photos from Last Week

Here are a few photos from our Thanksgiving.

What We watched/are Watching

I started watching Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman last week. It’s been fun to go back because I don’t remember most of the episodes or what happened, even though I watched them during junior high and high school.

We also watched some episodes of Doctor Who this week and the 60th anniversary special, which I don’t want to talk about. Ever. I’m not kidding.

I’ll stick with the old episodes.

Little Miss and I watched the first Paddington movie since we have been reading Paddington books off and on during the week.

This week I’ll be watching a couple of Christmas-themed movies or shows as Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs get read for Cozy Christmas, which you can find out more about in her post here:

https://crackercrumblife.com/2023/11/24/comfy-cozy-christmas/

I’ll be posting my own separate post about this later this week as well.


What I’m Writing

I’m working on Cassie this weekend and will be this upcoming week after finishing preparations to release Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage next Tuesday.

On the blog this week I shared:

What I’m Listening To

This week I listened to Needtobreathe’s new album The Cave.

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: Preparing winter reads, finishing book two in the series, and looking for cozy Christmas reads

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends11 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 and Kathyrn at The Book Date.


What I/we’ve been Reading

I finished Walls Crumbling by Alicia Gilliam last night. She’s a very good writer and I enjoyed this second book in her Seth Browne series. I’ll have a review up later this week or next, depending on how my week goes.

In the evening, right before bed, I am reading a chapter or two of Little Women. I have seen the movies so I know the story but I’m so glad I’m reading. I feel like I am getting to know the characters even more. I look forward to that time when I can snuggle down with. It’s such a nice escape, even though I know some sadness is coming.

The Husband suggested The Spectacular by Fiona Davis so I am trying that, but I will be moving into my winter reads this week too.

I have a collection of winter short stories by Agatha Christie I want to add to that list, as well as more cozy, Christmas reads. If you have any idea of any cozy Christmas reads please let me know in the comments.

Hopefully, anything I pick will be better than the book I picked up recently that I thought was a cozy mystery but dropped two f-bombs in the first two sentences so I immediately sent it back to Libby. I had high hopes for it based on the title and theme and it isn’t that I don’t read books with swearing but it was a little abrupt right out of the gate and I was in the mood for a more cozy feeling book so it grabbed be surprise – not in a good way.

Little Miss and I are still reading The Black Stallion at night. I might be enjoying it a bit more than her but she still likes it so far – or at least she isn’t complaining too much.

The Boy and I will be starting a fiction book soon but I haven’t decided which one I want him to read for English. We have a literature-based history course we are doing for school this year and they have a wide variety of books as part of it but some of them are just very tedious to read so I am picking and choosing something from the list that won’t leave us severely depressed.

What’s Been Occurring

Not much happened last week. It was mainly at-home stuff – washing dishes, homeschool lessons, and making corrections on my manuscript for Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage.

I did ramble about some stuff in my post yesterday if you want to check that out.

Today we went to my parents and I spent most of the day making corrections to the copy of the manuscript The Husband printed out so my mom could read the rest of the book and help find typos for me as well.

I will have a break this week from correcting the manuscript and I hope I can use that time to work more on Cassie, the book that comes out in August 2024 as part of a multi-author project.

What We watched/are Watching

Last week Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and I watched Fisherman’s Friends for our Comfy, Cozy Cinema and wrote about it on our blogs. Yesterday I watched the sequel to the movie, Fisherman’s Friends: One and All and while I don’t usually like sequels to movies, this one was actually quite good, heartwarming and full of great music.

Erin and I are taking a break for a couple of weeks so I may write about it for a movie impression post later this week.

Here is a trailer for it for now.

I also watched an episode of Miss Scarlet and am planning to re-watch Rosemary and Thyme this week.

What I’m Writing

I am writing Cassie, as I mentioned, but will start more in earnest once I get finished with the corrections to Gladwynn’s book two.

I already have ideas for Gladwynn’s book three but I won’t start that one until I finish Cassie … probably anyhow.

This week on the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening To

This past week  I listened to a lot of those Jazz channels with the sound of rain behind them for background sound while I edited.

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: Cozy weather, making soup, my racing mind

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Saturday Afternoon Tea8 Comments

I’m so glad to be able to just sit down and chat with you all today.

I’ve been doing a lot of writing about many different things the last few weeks but today I just want to write about nothing. Okay, so most of the time I write about nothing, but…go with me on this.

I started this post on Thursday. It was chilly outside but not as cold as it was earlier in the week. Friday we were supposed to have warmer temps again and get some rain and we did – late in the day. Then temps dropped sharply again today and we will be back to lighting the fire at night or even during the day this next week.

I really do like having the fire and enjoying its warm glow during the colder weather. The only thing I have to watch for is that too much wood doesn’t get loaded into it that the living room becomes a sauna and that has happened a lot in the past. We are supposed to get the temperature up to 300 degrees at least once during the day to burn off the creosote in the pipes so our smallish living room can get a bit too toasty when we do that.

All day Friday I wanted to sit in front of the fire and read a book but we didn’t start a fire since it wasn’t cold enough and I didn’t have time to open a book. I finally opened a book at almost 11 but then remembered I still had editing to do on my book.

My brain was a racing mess all week. It jumped from thing to thing to thing that I needed to do.

“Oh, I promised this group I’d post this.”

“Oh, I promised I’d write this post.”

“Oh, I need to get that one post ready.”

“Oh, I forgot to make the corrections on my book and it comes out in only two weeks.”

“Oh, I forgot to plan our homeschool lesson.”

“Oh, I wanted to make soup for that lady The Boy rescued this past summer.”

“Oh, I need to outline my next book.”

“Oh, look the animals have fleas again despite using the same flea medicine we’ve been using for years.”

“Oh, look we have a full on flea infestation in the house now.”

“Oh, I forgot that one bill.”

On and on it went and still it goes. Today I am desperate for a small amount of time where my brain only says, “That was a nice chapter,” or “I liked that video. It was peaceful,” or “Bob Newhart is so funny.”

I’m craving calmer days where I don’t feel like I’m plugging my finger in another hole in the dam of life which is about to burst and send me careening down a river of trials.

I don’t know if that is going to happen any time soon so I am going to enjoy some pockets of peace instead, stealing those quiet moments when and where I can.

Today (Saturday) The Husband has taken Little Miss to a makeup gymnastics class and I am watching Darling Desi’s latest video, will make some tea, and will hopefully read another chapter of Little Women.

Then I need to make the corrections from The Husband and my mom on Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage before it goes to another editor this upcoming week.

After that, I really hope to watch a cozy movie and work on some upcoming blog posts, but I don’t want to feel as rushed as I did all week long.

The rushing really hasn’t helped any situation – I haven’t sold more books (in fact I’ve sold almost none this entire month), I haven’t brought any more money in for my family to help as we struggle that way (in fact I have spent money will trying to bring in money so that has defeated the purpose), and I haven’t solved even one problem with the rushing and worrying.

This upcoming week will be Thanksgiving and we will spend the day with my parents. My brother and his wife will be home because my sister-in-law has to work the night shift (she is a 911 dispatcher) and it is also their anniversary. My brother is going to spend time with his wife before she has to go to work.

Thanksgiving is also my husband’s birthday which means the pies we make can be for his birthday and Thanksgiving.

Since Erin (from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and I are kicking off our Cozy Christmas the week after next, I’ll also be spending some time to plan out my posts and grab onto the cozy feel of the season as much as I can, despite all the oddness going on in my life.

In addition to trying to figure out finances, my animals have fleas right now and our normal OTC flea medicines (both are very well-known, high-quality medicines) are not working. It’s possible we have an infestation in the house so we are working to solve that issue without having to set off one of those awful bombs that requires everyone to leave the house for two days.

While things have been stressful here, there have also been some lovely moments. Little Miss has made another one of her cozy forts for us to snuggle in at night when we want to read. Adding an extra pillow to the floor has helped this old lady with sciatica issues be able to sit there and I’m sure we will find time to snuggle tonight and this week while reading books.

I’ve pulled out my fluffy, very warm, blue blanket my husband bought me for Christmas our first Christmas here and put it on the bed and it’s been wonderful to snuggle under it while reading Little Women with a booklight at night.

We’ve had some nice family nights with my parents, playing charades and laughing while we all try to figure out what the other person is trying to describe. My dad is the best at charades, I should add. Mom and I are probably the worst.

Later today I hope to make some sweet potato and butter squash soup, which Little Miss has been asking for. She lost a tooth the other day and that reminded her of her dental surgery earlier this year and how I had to make her a variety of soups to eat while she recovered so she asked for sweet potato soup again.

I also hope to make potato soup at some point this week. I had planned to make it last week but never got around to it.

It will be a week of soups, I think, because I also have some frozen roast and potatoes to add to the Instapot to make vegetable beef soup later in the week.

Today I am closing my post with the Darling Desi video because the end of the video really hit me this week in a place I needed it.


How was your week last week?
Did you do anything fun?

Try any new teas or warm drinks?

Let me know in the comments.

Sunday Bookends: Driving my husband’s big truck, editing Gladwynn’s second book, and started reading Little Women for first time

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Sunday Bookends11 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 and Kathyrn at The Book Date.

Affiliate disclosure: Today’s post may contain an affiliate link, which could provide a small commission to me as a blogger.

What’s Been Occurring

I wrote about what I’ve been doing in my Saturday Afternoon Chat post yesterday. You can read that HERE.

When I wrote my post yesterday, I said I hadn’t left the house all week. That wasn’t exactly true. I left it on Monday when my son said he needed a ride from his bus stop and I remember this because I had to drive my husband’s gigantic Chevy Avalanche down the hill to the convenience store downtown where the bus dropped my son off.

I have not tried to drive his truck yet because it is very tall and very big and I am not a tall person. I am always afraid to drive it because I can’t see over the front very well and I feel like I will run over something or, worse yet, someone.

But my son needed me so I took off, after figuring out how to adjust the seat, and headed down the hill. When I got to where he was supposed to be, though, he wasn’t there. I called him and he said he’d texted me that he was going to walk up the hill so I didn’t have to drive the truck and he was on our street. I found out later that he’d never actually sent that text so I’d had no idea.

Since I was already down the hill in town, I decided to go to the little supermarket we have and pick up the flour I needed for dinner, but I was terrified the whole time I might hit a car or person while I was driving.

When I got back to the house, I texted my husband and told him about my journey and how nervous I was. His only response? “Is my truck okay?”

I said, “Thanks for worrying if I was okay.”

He texted back, “Oh, right. Are you okay?”

I said, “I was worried I was going to hit something or someone the entire time.”

Him: “Don’t worry about it. You’re in a truck. It’s like a bug on a windshield.”

I said, “Not if I hit an older lady!”

Him: “She’ll bounce back.”

Anyhow, I won’t be driving that truck again unless absolutely necessary.

What I/we’ve been Reading

I finished The Hidden Staircase, a Nancy Drew Mystery, by Carolyn Keene yesterday.

This week I will finish Walls Crumbling by Alicia Gilliam. It’s so good. I love her writing.

I also started Little Women for my cozy winter read and I’m really enjoying it so far.

The Husband is choosing a new book because he just finished a Joe Pickett novel.

Little Miss and I are reading The Black Stallion on some nights and Paddington others and also listening to Fortunately the Milk by Neil Gaiman because she really loves that book.

The Boy isn’t reading anything right now but we will be reading something historically related soon for school.

What We watched/are Watching

This past week we watched Tea With The Dames for Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and my Comfy, Cozy Cinema. We really enjoyed it. I shared a short clip and talked about it on Instagram and that clip went viral – why? No idea but I think everyone just needs a dose of happiness right now. The documentary about Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Joan Plowright, and Eileen Atkins, is available on Tubi for free or on other streaming devices for a rental fee. You can find it on Amazon HERE.

I also watched Forgotten Way Farms videos as a way to relax. Here is her latest:

I am looking forward to when All Creatures Great and Small’s fourth season starts airing in the U.S. I read online that that will be January 7, so not too much longer. Until then I will catch up on Miss Scarlet and the Duke this week.


What I’m Writing

I am editing Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage so I can release it on December 4. If you want to pre-order it, you can find it HERE.

A description? Why, yes, I can provide you with that:

More mystery, intrigue, and loveable characters in Brookstone, Pa.

Gladwynn Grant hasn’t been living in Brookstone, Pa. very long but already she’s been mixed up in two attempted murders and the aftermath of a jewel theft.

Just when she thinks life has settled down and her new job as a small-town reporter will begin to be routine again, the recreational director at the local retirement community is found dead.

Was Samantha Mors death an accident, or was it murder?

Since she was the second person to discover her body, Gladwynn wants to find out what really happened.

Local State Police Detective Tanner Kinney lets her know that her job is reporting the news, not investigating a possibly suspicious death. The father she barely speaks to stops for a visit and also urges her to not get involved.

When warnings to stay away from the case come from handsome pastor Luke Callahan Gladwynn wonders if he knew the victim better than he is letting on.

Quieting her inner sleuth will prove difficult for Gladwynn, though, especially when her eccentric grandmother Lucinda tags along to help her solve the case.

I am also writing Cassie, which will release in August of 2024. I will share more about that as it gets closer to the release date but I have shared a little bit about it here already. It is part of a multi-author project, which you can learn more about in our Facebook group HERE.

The first book in that project, Polly, comes out January 15 and it is available for pre-order now. You can pre-order Polly HERE.

This week on the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening To

This week I will be listening to the end of an audio book: Death Beside the Seaside by T.E. Kinsey and the new Needtobreathe album.

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.