Tag: week in review

Sunday Bookends: Broken down cars, ruined afternoons, sunny days coming, and lots of cozy mysteries

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends20 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 about what’s been occurring yesterday in my Saturday Afternoon Chat post, which I’ve now added a link up to for anyone who shares weekly updates.

Right before I hit post on that post, everything I wrote about having a relaxing Saturday afternoon was blown to smithereens when my husband called to tell me he was parked along the road because smoke and flames had been pouring from his right front tire while he was on his way to work 45 minutes away. He had gotten about 20 minutes away when he called me. He had to call 911 and I came back to edit that this will most likely not be an easy fix, sadly. It looks like a major injury to the truck my daughter has named Methuselah after an alligator character on a kid’s radio drama that we listen to.

My dad and I drove up so The Husband could take a car and continue on to work and then Dad and I waited for the tow truck. It was a cold, rainy, and windy day and I was glad that we didn’t have to wait long. Sadly, though, my relaxing afternoon was gone.

At least I was able to see a pretty view while I waited. The building below is where my son goes to school.

I was able to salvage some of the day by going home and watching a movie with The Boy. He groaned when I made him watch The King’s Speech, starring Colin Firth, but he started to like it after a half hour or so. I mean, he played a game on his phone through most of it so he sort of paid attention. He did, however, tell me this movie choice was a reason why I never get to pick movies for movie nights.

What I/we’ve been Reading

I’ve been reading a lot of cozy mysteries and have a lot on my upcoming reading lists.

Currently:

Murder Always Barks Twice by Jennifer Hawkins

The Deeds of the Deceitful by Ellery Adams and Tina Radcliffe

Listening to Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne with The Boy

Reading The Secret Garden with Little Miss

Just Finished:

The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts by Lilian Jackson Braun

The Mystery at Lilac Inn by Carolyn Keene

Soon/Eventually to be read:

The Women of Wyntons by Donna Mumma

The Real James Herriott: A Memoir of My Father by Jim Wight

Apple Cider Slaying by Julie Anne Lindsey

Death At A Scottish Christmas by Lucy Connelly

What We watched/are Watching

Last week The Boy and I watched Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings.

He and his sister also watched the first Harry Potter movie and I watched a little with them.

Last  night, as I mentioned, we watched The King’s Speech.

I also watched an episode of All Creatures Great and Small this past week.

I found a new vlogger who I really enjoy and have enjoyed her book recommendations:


What I’m Writing

Cassie is with my editor and I’ve started on book three in the Gladwynn Grant Mystery series. The title is Gladwynn Grant Shook the Family Tree and I am excited to tell you all about it more in the future.

What I’m Listening to

I am listening to Around the World in 80 Days. Music wise I’ve been listening to Ellie Holcomb lately.

Photos from Last Week



I don’t have a ton of photos from last week but here are a few:


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: outside looking in no longer when it comes to Little Women, lots of nice weather, and a new link up for bloggers

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Saturday Afternoon Tea9 Comments
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Did you ever feel like you are the outside looking in?

I’ve felt this a lot but specifically, I am talking about people who have read classic books like Little Women and I haven’t, or well hadn’t.

After reading Little Women this year I finally feel like I know what everyone is talking about when it comes to Jo and Laurie.

Finally!

I mean I have seen movies based on the book but only by reading the book did I really get why Jo and Laurie simply couldn’t be together at the end. They were too much alike. Both impulsive and passionate in ways that weren’t always good. Yes, as they grew they could have changed and mellowed but I can’t see that happening really. I think as they grew older they may have bounced off each other even more and ended up arguing all of the time, making for a miserable marriage.

They both needed partners to offset their personalities.

Jo needed someone more calming like The Professor and Laurie needed someone willing to be more genteel like Amy.

Part of me still doesn’t like that Amy and Laurie ended up together. My heart says it wasn’t right, but I can also see why Alcott didn’t make Jo and Laurie a couple. She needed to do something different – shake up the readers’ expectations and leave everyone talking for the next hundred or so years. If Laurie and Jo had ended up together then Little Women would have always been seen as a sweet book but maybe not the one ahead of its time that it is now.

What do you think? *looking at those who have read Little Women with a wide-eyed, somewhat crazed expression*

Relaxing breath.

Okay. With that off my chest, we can now move on to our regularly scheduled program of me reviewing my past week.

Today I am going to be sipping something warm – most likely tea – while writing blog posts, brainstorming more ideas for Gladwynn Shakes the Family Tree (book three in my cozy mystery series), and reading a cozy mystery. It’s a little chilly today after some very nice and warm days earlier in the week.

We had warm days and cold nights. Warm enough that our tulips came up and I thought one night they’d die in the frost we had forecasted, but they survived.

Next week I need to prepare myself to be at the playground a lot because it is supposed to be warm and sunny pretty much all week.

We spent time at the playground three days this week and a lot of time outside sitting on the porch and playing with the dog on other days.

In between all of that, we had school lessons as we marched toward the end of our school year. We will be finishing up around the first week of June.

I picked The Boy up from his trade school yesterday and we headed over to an additional location for a bakery near us that has become very, very popular before picking up our groceries.

The kids picked out some sweet treats – two Boston cream donuts for The Boy and three Oreo cupcakes for Little Miss (and an extra for dad) and three Hershey kiss cookies for me. The Boy also ordered an iced coffee but, sadly, said it had more ice than coffee. It was still good, though, he said and he will try again for one another time. He said he actually doesn’t like coffee that much but always feels like he should so he keeps ordering different kinds to see if the love for it will finally catch on.

There was a mix up at our pick up when the young man who brought out my groceries gave me two or three bags that were not mine.

I’m so glad I checked before I left because more than half my order was missing. He had grabbed the wrong stack of bags. I had to go into the store and track him down when I noticed the mistake. When he came out to the car to help correct, I let him know that I’m not in diapers yet so the one bag clearly wasn’t supposed to go me.

He was very polite and apologetic and the mistake was taken care of very quickly.

After we left there it was a quick snack from Wendy’s, which my son said was disgusting.

From there we headed home and the kids spent part of the afternoon watching Harry Potter and then a half hour at the playground.

Today The Husband has to work almost the entire day so it will be just me and the kids. We will probably watch a movie together later tonight – I’m trying to find something different that The Boy might like. He always suggests the weirdest movies so this time he’s going to watch something that I like.

Tomorrow we will visit my parents for Sunday lunch and to hang out. Little Miss likes to play games when we are there but I’m hoping that this time we can watch a fun or interesting movie instead.


This morning I spent some time crying over Tom Jones singing on The Voice. I never knew much about Tom Jones until I saw some clips on the UK version of The Voice and oh my. He is still amazing and he’s in his 80s! Just what?!

Here are a couple clips I just loved listening to while I procrastinated on cleaning the house and organizing my homeschooling supplies:

How was your week last week? Let me know in the comments and if you have a similar weekly catch-up post – no matter when you post it – link up with me.



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Sunday Bookends: Comfort reads, new reads, new book by me coming out

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends14 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 about what’s been going on in yesterday’s post so I won’t repeat it. You can pop over to that post if you want to catch up.

What I/we’ve been Reading

Currently:

I was looking for a comfort read last week and looked to see if I had any The Cat Who books on Kindle that I hadn’t read yet. I ended up finding one – The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts – and I think I never read it because I started it and it started in first person and I am used to the books in the series being in third person so I put it aside. The POV actually switches back to the third person and so far has been one of my favorite books, even though one of my favorite characters was killed off. There are some very funny lines in it and more of Qwill’s personality of being wary around children and women who talk to their pets like children.

I absolutely laughed out loud at these parts:

Before he could reply with a stiff “How do you do,” the parents had spotted the Lanspeaks and descended on them, leaving him with Baby. She looked up in wonder at his moustache and said in her clear, precise speech, “What’s that thing on your face?”

“That’s my nose,” said  Qwilleran. “Doesn’t your father have a nose?”

“Yes, he has a nose.”

“How about your mother? Does she have a  nose?”

“Everybody has a nose,” said Baby with disdain, as if dealing with a dolt.

“Then you should recognize a  nose when you see one.”

Baby was not fazed by his evasive logic. “Where do you work?” she asked. 

And

All of this he could understand, and he could handle it, but her gushing over the kitten was more than he could stomach. There would be no more relaxing country weekends at Polly’s cottage with just the two of them— reading Shakespeare aloud and playing music—not while Bootsie diffused her attention. Bootsie! It was a vile  name for a Siamese, Qwilleran insisted.”

Qwill can be such an elitist and in his case I love it.

I’m also reading The Secret Garden but I’ve paused my own reading of it and have started reading it with Little Miss. So far she’s really enjoying it.

I started The Deeds of the Deceitful by Ellery Adams and Tina Radcliff as well. I just started it but it’s okay so far.

Just Finished:

Last week I finished The Divine Proverb of the Streusel by Sara Brunsvold and I really enjoyed it. I will have a review of it up next week.



Soon to be read:

Murder Always Barks Twice by Jennifer Hawkins

Death At A Scottish Christmas by Lucy Connelly

What We watched/are Watching

This week I watched some Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, All Creatures Great and Small, and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.


What I’m Writing

I am working on the latest Gladwynn Grant mystery and having fun trying to figure out what direction I want to take the story. I’m hoping for a subplot related to Gladwynn’s ancestors.

I let my daughter in on the brainstorming and she suggested that someone in the Grant family line be an assassin. I was a bit stunned since I write cozy, light mysteries and told her that.

Then The Boy got in on the action and suggested that her ancestors be involved in human trafficking.

Needless to say, I will not be taking any more advice from my children.

This week I also announced that Cassie, the book that is part of the Apron Strings Book Series is up for pre-order. You can find it HERE.

Here is a description:
One cookbook connects them all…
Cassie ~ Book Eight in a string of heartfelt inspirational stories, featuring different women throughout the decades from 1920 to 2020.

Cassie Drake starred in a popular sitcom over a decade ago, but she hasn’t been able to find a job since the show ended five years ago.

Now it’s 1995 and fired by her talent agency, Cassie decides to accept her sister’s offer for an extended visit in their hometown. Back in Coopers Grove, she’s just Cassie Mason, sister to Bridget Martin, the local volunteer extraordinaire with the handsome husband and three wonderful children.

When an accident at the site for the Martin family’s new café and farm store leaves Bridget frantic for help with the community center open house she’s planning, Cassie feels forced to step up—even though it involves something she’s clueless about.

Cooking.

Even with Mrs. Canfield’s Cookery Book, Cassie fails at every attempt. Fortunately, her sister’s handsome neighbor, Alec Alderson, steps in.

As a former chef, he’s more than capable of giving her some tips. Will his charming smile during cooking lessons be too distracting though?

Watching others use their talents leaves Cassie wondering if God, whom she’s barely spoken to in the last few years, is telling her she was made for more than the career that became her identity.

What I shared on the blog this week:

What I’m Listening to

I am currently listening to Watership Down and Around the World in 80 Days on Audible.

For music, I am listening to a variety of artists from Needtobreathe to early Mumford and Sons, The Civil Wars, and Danny Gokey.

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: relaxing week, reptiles, pizza, some sun, and cozy mysteries to read

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Saturday Afternoon Tea10 Comments



Sipping tea and cocoa, reading books, and watching All Creatures Great and Small. That’s all I want to do today and hopefully, I will.

It wasn’t a rough week. It was a relaxing one, but it did have various bouts of sad news mixed in about a variety of people and situations. I just need a break from things.

The world is heavy, right? I’m not the only one who feels it, am I?

I mean – it’s a lot unless you lock yourself in a house and never engage with people or go on social media or participate in society whatsoever. That may be something I look into soon.

Again, though, could just be me, but I’m sort of over the craziness of the world right now.

Which is why I am piling up my cozy mysteries and popping in some old movies and eating a lot of chocolate this weekend.

Okay, maybe I won’t eat a lot of chocolate. I’ve actually been craving fruit more than anything else. I just want fruit all the time lately and I think that’s because my body wants healthier foods. I intend to give it those healthier foods it wants this week. Even if fruits and vegetables are some of the most expensive foods right now.

This past week, as I said, wasn’t really too stressful other than bad news.

The Husband had off work for the week so we had some family time, including a trip to a nearby reptile zoo yesterday.

Earlier in the week we hung out at home, went for some walks (well, I didn’t but the rest of them did), went to the playground, visited my parents and had some pizza with them, watched some Adventures of Sherlock and Perry Mason and read books or, for me, wrote blog posts.

The kids had school but we took it easy, especially on the nice days when we had sun and warmer temps. We seem to be in this routine in Pennsylvania of two nice days and five not-so-nice ones. I’ll take those two nice days and hope for more nice days in a row in May and the rest of the summer.

Wednesday night we had a pizza night at my parents’ house. We made homemade pizza – well, not really. It was store-bought dough but we added the sauce, cheese, and roasted peppers.

Yesterday it was off to Clyde Peelings Reptiland where Little Miss was able to see her favorite creatures – reptiles. She was able to pet a snake and was thrilled by that but I’m sure she would have been more thrilled to bring it home. She’s still trying to talk me into us buying her one. I just keep pushing her off and hope she will forget about it.

The Boy, The Husband, and Little Miss went inside the zoo and I stayed in the car reading books, partially to save money because the tickets are quite high, and partially because I had already seen the zoo and The Husband hadn’t.

He is not a fan of reptiles, especially snakes, but he did well.

Afterward, we decided not to go to a fast food restaurant to eat but instead stopped at a local supermarket called Weis. It’s like a smaller version of Wegman’s, for those familiar with that chain, or Trader Joes with less options.

Still, it provides more fresh fruit and natural products than other supermarkets in our area, which means my lunch was some pork chops I had brought from home and a package of raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries. Everyone else had things like General Tsaos chicken, dumplings, and fried chicken pieces. To me, it always seems a better deal to pick up lunch at a place that provides good quality food next to some healthier options, especially since our last restaurant experience was expensive and disappointing.

The sun has been out a little bit today and that’s been nice but it looks like it is clouding up again out there. We really need a stretch of several days of sun to perk us all up.

I plan to spend the rest of the day sipping tea, as I mentioned above, and finishing up a The Cat Who … book that I got wrapped up in the other day when I was looking for a comfort read to deal with all the overwhelming news of people I know with health issues.

There are some very funny lines in this book – The Cat Who Talked to Ghost by Lilian Jackson Braun – it’s actually become one of my favorites.

At one point, Polly, the main character’s girlfriend (they are an older couple in their 50s just for a visual) adopts a Siamese cat and, usually reserved, gushes over it and talks baby talk to it.

Main character, Jim Qwilleran, a slightly uptight newspaper columnist with two Siamese cats of his own, is aghast at her behavior.

“Qwilleran had to admit he was an appealing little creature, but he found Polly’s commentary cloying.

He occasionally called Yum Yum his little sweetheart, but that was different. It was a term of endearment, not maudlin gush.

“What’s his name?” he asked.

“Bootsie, and he’s going to grow up to be just like Koko.”

Fat chance, Qwilleran thought, with a name like that! Koko bore the dignified cognomen of Kao K’o Kung, a thirteenth-century Chinese artist.”

I don’t know why that section cracked me up, but it did! I guess I needed the laugh.

How was your week this past week?

Do anything fun?

Let me know in the comments.

Next week I plan to start a link-up for weekly wrap-up posts and then anyone who does similar posts (they don’t have to have the same name at all) can add their links and we can catch up on what everyone is doing. I’ll let you know more about that next week.

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

On 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

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

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

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

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

Her: “I don’t know about that.”

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

Her and me: “oops.”

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

Her: “This isn’t looking right.”

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

Mom/Grandma: “Add more flour.”

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

Me: “Well, we will eat them somehow.”

The cookies:

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

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

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

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

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

Currently:

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

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

Just Finished:

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

Soon to be read:

The Mystery at Lilac Inn by Carolyn Keene

Murder Always Barks Twice by Jennifer Hawkins

Death At A Scottish Christmas by Lucy Connelly

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

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

The Husband is reading Skinwalkers by Tony Hillerman.

What We watched/are Watching

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

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

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


What I’m Writing

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

Last week on the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening to

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

Photos from Last Week

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

Blog Posts I Enjoyed This Past Week

Finding Solace in the Sink by Book Inheritance

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

Saturday Afternoon Chat: The Husband was in a play, it was too cloudy for the eclipse, and we had a hint of spring.

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Saturday Afternoon Tea9 Comments

We begin our retrospect of my week last week with last Sunday.

Why am I writing like I am a script writer for the Twilight Zone? I have no idea.

Maybe I’m just going a little squirrely because our area is still experiencing rain, cold, and wind instead of sun and warm days that I can spend on my front porch reading.

I was able to do that one day this past week and it was lovely.

We were, however, immediately plunged into cold again.

But I am jumping ahead. Let me go back to last Sunday when my family went to see The Husband in a play in a town near us.

He played a couple of different parts in a play based on the radio show War of the Worlds by Orson Wells.

It was a small cast of five very talented people who pulled the play off in brilliant fashion. It was a play within a play so it was a radio program telling the story of the original radio production of A War of the Worlds in 1938 and the aftermath. The director of the local play then tacked on a very interesting ending about how radio was a major source of news before that broadcast and then became even more of one in the subsequent years. The ending also touched on how news has become a 24/7 business now with it constantly at our fingertips, which isn’t always a good thing.

The Husband, in blue, and the man playing Orson Wells.
There is tea in the glass, not actual alcohol.
This kid is very talented.
Another very talented young woman.
The cigarettes weren’t real.

My parents were able to attend the play with us and it was the first time my mom had been out of the house since before Christmas because of her health issues and the weather.

She looked great and had a lot of fun. Dad did as well.

He found a vintage-style hat to wear for the occasion and afterward, I grabbed a photo of him and The Husband in their hats and a few photographs with Mom and Dad as well.

I also recorded a small “review” video from them afterward which was a lot of fun to make.

I’m, of course, sharing it here for you:

Dessert and drinks were offered during the play held in a large room in a community building in a town used for various events.

The Husband played an announcer and then a newspaper reporter, which was pretty much up his alley considering that’s his actual job. A former newspaper editor, a former boss of mine, portrayed Orson Wells and a couple of other parts.

When we first got there and my mom saw the program, she thought they had left The Husband’s name off and she was very indignant until I showed her where his name was.

She’s very defensive of her son-in-law, obviously.

On Monday we hoped to see some of the eclipse, even though I was nervous it might blind my children, but right when it was supposed to start, dark clouds moved in. We watched it on the TV instead and watched it get very dark outside. We were in the about 95 percent totality range where we are in Pennsylvania.

It was a very interesting experience, but would have been more interesting if we could have seen it live, I think.

The weather we could have used on Monday came Tuesday when warm, sunny weather set in. Little Miss and I spent much of the afternoon and evening outside doing schoolwork, reading, and for her, making a blanket fort on the porch swing.

By Wednesday it was raining and cold again and stayed that way the rest of the week, including today.

Luckily, we didn’t really have anywhere to go so we mostly stayed inside and did some schoolwork.

There was one creature who didn’t stay inside, however.

Wednesday night our neighbor sent us this photo:

It was taken from their doorbell camera and shows their backsteps and yard, which is about 15 feet, maybe, from our back porch.

Our neighbor told me what time the photo was taken and it was about the same time I had let our dog out the night before. She was sort of growling at something (the dog, not the neighbor) and now I know it was the bear.

So that was unsettling to find out. I now make sure to lock our outside screen door, the hinge of which was broken in some high winds a month or so ago and has been blowing open in the wind and the last thing I want is to open the inside door to look out to see if the bear is on the porch and be face-to-face with it.

While this past week was boring, next week should be a little more interesting since The Husband is on vacation and we plan to take a couple of day trips and simply spend some time together as a family. One trip will be to Reptile Land, which my daughter absolutely loved going to in the fall. She’s been waiting for months to go again.

So far, the weather is looking like it will be much warmer next week and less rainy. We will see, though, since Pennsylvania is always throwing us curve balls when it comes to weather.

Today we will be baking cookies with my mom and dad in the afternoon, after The Husband takes The Boy to see a friend who recently moved 45 minutes away.

The Boy will be spending the night and will be back tomorrow afternoon sometime.

I hope to spend my evening sipping tea and watching Lark Rise to Candleford or Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman with Little Miss since The Husband will be working.

How was your week last week?

If you are in the U.S., were you able to see the eclipse?

Did you have nice sunny weather where you were?

I’d love to hear/read about it.

Sunday Bookends: a little outing and a book sale

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings23 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

My husband has been running every day this week for either work or a play he was rehearsing for but he still wanted to go to lunch and a used book sale 45 minutes away from us. We spent the morning and part of the afternoon doing that and I came home with a large stack of books, some children’s books, and some cozy mysteries. Today they had a $ 5-a-bag sale so we filled up two bags.

Little Miss picked out four for me but I rejected the one because I am not a huge fan of the author.

I told her I liked the cover very much though and thanked her.

Little Miss picked out several books with animals on them.

The Husband picked out a number of books, including two he had been looking for other places.

Today we will go see The Husband in his play. They are performing The War of The Worlds radio drama.

What I/we’ve been Reading

Currently:

Right now I am reading The Secret Garden by Frances Hodges Burnett, The Proverb of the Divine Streusel by Sara Brunsvold, and at night I’m reading a cute, short cozy mystery called A Troubling Case of Murder on the Menu by Donna Doyle.

Just Finished:

This past week I finished Murder in an Irish Village by Carlene O’Connor and Nightfall on Predicament Avenue by Jaime Jo Wright.

I hated Wright’s book by the end and will not be endorsing it in the future.

I liked Murder in an Irish Village and purchased a couple of other books in the series on the Kindle.

Soon/eventually to be read:

The Mystery at Lilac Inn by Carolyn Keene

Death At A Scottish Christmas by Lucy Connelly

Murder Always Barks Twice by Jennifer Hawkins

What everyone else is reading:

Little Miss and I are reading The Middle Moffat at bedtime.

The Boy is reading Horus Rising and The Pearl by John Steinbeck.

The Husband is reading … well, I have no idea. He’s been so busy this week I don’t think he’s even had time to read.

What We watched/are Watching

This past week I watched Dr. Quinn Medicine Women, To The Manor Born, and yesterday  I watched a marathon of As Time Goes By and then a couple episodes of Mary Berry.

What I’m Writing

I finished Cassie and this week I  hope to write some blog posts and then start Gladwynn Grant’s third book.

On the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening to

I’ve been listening to an audio dramatization of Jane Austen books. Right now I am on Mansfield Park.

Blog Posts I Enjoyed This Past Week

Cards and Scrapbooking Pages I made by My Slices of Life

Joy in Imperfection by Ink Torrents

Words for Wednesday 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.

Sunday Bookends: Happy Easter, busy week so less reading, comfort watches

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends10 Comments

First, Happy Easter.

He has risen! He has risen indeed!

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

Last week was a crazy week in some ways and I detailed that more in my Saturday Morning Chat. The long and short of it is that there were some health issues within our family, everyone is okay, and my brain is trying to recover from it all.

Yesterday I didn’t have tons of time for my brain to recover since our daughter had a friend over and they tend to be a little crazy when they get together. They had a lot of fun, though, and it was a good day. And they weren’t really that crazy. We went to the playground and then they had fun splashing in the bathtub in their bathing suits. Earlier in the day they went to two Easter egg hunts as well.

And I did have some downtime for reading and watching Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, at least.

Today we are going to my parents for Easter dinner and an Easter egg hunt.

What I/we’ve been Reading

Currently:

I’m reading Murder in an Irish Village by Carlene O’Connor and Night Falls on Predicament Avenue by Jamie Jo Wright still thanks to the aforementioned crazy week. Both are very good. I’ll probably be finished with Murder in an Irish Village today and Night Falls… later in the week.

The Secret Garden is also being read but slowly.



Soon to be read:


The Divine Proverb of Streusel by Sara Brunsvold

The Mystery at the Lilac Inn by Carolyn Keene (Nancy Drew)

What We watched/are Watching

This week I watched Little House on the Prairie and Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman.

I also enjoyed relaxing to my favorite YouTube farmer, Farmer Pete:

There is something comforting about watching Pete and his wife work on the farm – feeding the cows and the chickens, fixing tractors, cooking beef brisket and just doing what they do every day.

I also watched this interview with two of the authors I am in a multi-author project with.

You can learn more about our project by watching this video or visiting our Facebook group.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/511319271100448

For Easter I am watching this:

and other songs related to Easter like this:


What I’m Writing

What I’m Listening To

I’ve been listening to Ellie Holcomb’s album, Canyons.

Blog Posts I Enjoyed This Past Week

Did Jesus Die on Friday by Nostalic Italian

Are You Following the Breadcrumbs by A New Lens

The Bookstore With One Million Books – Literally by Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs

Good Friday’s Not the End by Mama’s Empty Nest

Photos from this 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.

Saturday afternoon chat and tea: Possible concussions, hospital stays for family, cold weather, and an exciting book find.

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Saturday Afternoon Tea21 Comments

Welcome to my corner of the internet for a little chat and a cup of tea. If you don’t like tea, we also have coffee, juice, or water.

We have a small selection of teas: peppermint, Chamomile, green, Ginger with orange, and raspberry.

Let me tell you that I needed something relaxing to sip today after the week our family had. We are all okay but there has been a lot of worry over various health issues for a few of us and that has had me on edge.

Last week my sister-in-law ended up in the hospital with a health issue and only came home yesterday.

Monday my son came home from school and told me  he had run into metal piping at his vocational school and the impact had knocked his head and neck back.

He got off the bus and walked to the dollar store down the street and back home. I had no idea this had happened to him and was alarmed that he hadn’t let me know so I could pick him up at the bus stop.

He had a horrible headache and his neck hurt. He was also exhausted but he hadn’t slept well the night before. His telling me what had happened launched me into Mama Bear mode and I started asking all the routine questions about symptoms that could mean he had a concussion.

I asked him if he had blacked out, had gotten dizzy, had sensitivity to light and sound, had nausea, or had memory loss.

He didn’t have any of those and when I asked him who the president was he thought he was pretty funny when he answered “Ronald Regan.”

I kept a close eye on him the rest of the day, waking him up when he fell asleep for a nap later. We also kept him home from school the next day and also woke him up in the middle of the night, despite him saying he felt okay.

 At one point on Tuesday, he said he was very tired and I got nervous it might be because he actually had a concussion until we both started talking about how many times I had woke him up to check on him, then his dad, and then he had woke up a couple of times in the night too, plus his alarm had gone off even though he didn’t have to go to school. We decided then that he actually needed more sleep without us checking on him to feel less tired.

On Monday while I was worried about The Boy, Little Miss was dealing with a sore throat but I thought it was from sinus drainage. Later that night she developed a low grade fever. By the next morning, the fever was gone, which is something that happens with her from time to time, especially when the weather changes.

Prior to all of this, on last Friday to be specific, my sister-in-law was admitted to the hospital an hour away for a complication from an ongoing medical issue. She was doing well for the most part but it was stressful as we all waited to see what decisions would be made to solve the issue.

I tried to give her something to think about other than waiting to figure out the next step in her treatment so I texted her jokes or about books or anything else. A few days later my fingers started going numb and I realized carpal tunnel was rearing it’s ugly head from all the texting back and forth with her and my brother. I don’t regret the texting but I probably should have worn the wrist braces I’d purchased a couple of weeks earlier.

I dealt with pins and needles in my hands most of the week until I started wearing the braces more and found a video on YouTube for wrist stretches. The numbness started to subside and is doing much better. I hope I can continue to be consistent with the exercises and help the awful feeling.

Thursday I ate food that I should not have been eating because I have some food sensitivities and that night I had stomach pains and couldn’t fall asleep.

All of this is to say that I was a mess much of the week and didn’t accomplish as much as I wanted to, but did accomplish some things.

I picked up my new glasses and groceries yesterday. The glasses were very much needed because the anti-glare coating was peeling and it was making reading and writing a challenge. I was having a hard time telling what were my normal eye floaters and what were the marks on my lenses and while I tried not to focus on the spots on the lenses, it was a huge struggle.

I also finished writing Cassie, which will be released in August. I can now go over it again and then send it on to be edited. After that, I will start writing book three of the Gladwynn Grant Mysteries. I am excited to start that and announce a title sometime in the near future.

One of the more exciting events this week was when The Husband found a stack of books in the attic left by our house’s previous owner. Now, I know this makes me sound like a very lame person that I found the discovery of books in our attic to be the most exciting part of my week, but they were books from series I have either read or am reading from.

The books were four from the Mitford series by Jan Karon, four from the Elm Creek Quilter series by Jennifer Chiaverini, and a Beverly Lewis book. I’ve never read a lot of Beverly Lewis, but I have read all of the Mitford books and two of the Elm Creek Quilter books (though not any of these particular ones.)

I remember when we first looked at this house. The homeowners at the time were here and when we walked inside what is now our dining room I saw a row of Jan Karon books on a small shelf and blurted out, “Oh, I love Jan Karon! Do you read her?”

Like, she had them on her shelf. Of course, she read them and that’s what she told me with an amused smile. I have no idea why they placed some of those books in a hutch in some bags in the attic but maybe they knew we’d enjoy them.

The couple moved to Arizona from here and the husband passed away last year, which was very sad to us because they seemed like the coolest people. After we met them, I found out the man was in his early 80s and I didn’t believe it. I would have said he was in his early 70s, maybe, but not 80s.

Our neighbors on both sides said there were times they tried to talk him off ladders or from doing other dangerous things at his age.

Based on the books we found and the books she read, I think the wife and I would have got along.

Later today we are taking Little Miss to a couple of Easter egg hunts that The Husband needs to attend for work (he’s a small town newspaper reporter/editor/photographer for anyone who is new here) and then a couple of her friends are coming to visit for the day.

Tomorrow, we plan to visit my parents for Easter dinner.

As for next week, I don’t have a lot scheduled so far. I would absolutely love it if the weather got warmer but so far Spring doesn’t seem to want to come back to Pennsylvania. Our days have been cold and gloomy. We truly need some more sunshine, especially since the buds are coming out on the trees and I’m anxious to see the leaves and flowers again.

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

What are you drinking today wherever you are? I hope it’s something good!