Tag: week in review

Sunday Bookends: Fighting for joy, not reading a lot, making plans for comfy and cozy watching and reading this week

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 and Kathyrn at The Book Date.

What’s Been Occurring

I’m writing this post this week with a heavy heart. I’m overwhelmed mentally and emotionally with world events and personal situations. I almost didn’t write a post this week but I also know that trying to keep a routine and do something other than sit and cry about things is good for me so here I am.

I rambled about what has been going on in my world in my post yesterday if you would like to check it out.

Today we are huddled at home with cold wind and weather swirling around outside. I have taken almost no fall photos this year so I am hoping that there will be some sun tomorrow and I can take a few, even if it is only of the leaves on the ground.

Unrelated to my week or what has been occurring, but did you know I host a Clean/Christian Fiction Book Club on Facebook? If you’re interested, you can find it HERE. Soon we will be offering giveaways and author parties and chances for readers to meet new authors. I hope you will join us to discuss any clean or Christian books you are reading right now.

What I/we’ve been Reading

I didn’t read much at all this week.

I am reading Death Bee Comes Her by Nancy Coco and Walls Crumbling: A Seth Browne Novel by Alicia Gilliam.

Both are very good but I think I am enjoying Walls Crumbling a bit more. Alicia is such a good writer.

You can find her books HERE: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Alicia-Gilliam/author/B09PZ6SGTW?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

I am also listening to Death at the Seaside by T.E. Kinsey and I feel like I will never finish it because I keep getting interrupted. I am determined to finish it this week!

Little Miss and I will finish Gone Away Lake this week.

The Boy and I will probably finish Red Badge of Courage this week.

The Husband is reading The Dark Wind by Tony Hillerman.

What We watched/are Watching

I watched way too much news this past week and I will be changing that this upcoming week. I plan to watch Strangers on a Train for Erin’s and my Comfy, Cozy Cinema (see our last comfy, cozy post about that feature and how you can get involved). 

We watched The Lady Vanishes last week and it was very good. It was an early Hitchcock film but more joyful than some of his films.

I watched Forgotten Way Farms on YouTube and that was so relaxing and nice. I also watched several Newhart episodes. Having my 9-year-old daughter ask to watch Newhart never gets old either.

This upcoming week I also hope to watch as much calming, fall stuff as I can, along with reading more. I need to decompress, even as I think of all those in the world who don’t have that option.


What I’m Writing

Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage is almost done but took a bit of a back burner this week, partially because I filled my mind with too much news and partially because I didn’t know how to end it. I think I’ve found my ending but it’s not what I wanted. Sadly, it is apparently what was meant to be and a character I didn’t want to be guilty is. Sometimes characters tell me their stories and I don’t like them.

I forgot to share a couple chapters from the book for Fiction Friday but will share a couple more this Friday.

I have joined a couple of other bloggers to co-host a blog link-up on Thursday nights/Fridays called Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot. Bloggers can link their favorite blog posts on any topic from the week. You can learn more in this post: https://lisahoweler.com/2023/10/12/weekend-traffic-jam-reboot-add-your-links/

On the blog this week I shared:

What I’m Listening To

This week I listened to a lot of Matthew West and Brandon Lake.

Little Miss actually asked for Matthew West. His music is such a comfort to us when we are feeling down.

Blog Posts I Enjoyed This Past Week

I am behind on reading blog posts but I’d love it if readers would leave their own favorites this week in the comments for me to look at.

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.

Mention the group on Facebook and the blog share link thing..Weekend Traffic Jam

Sunday Bookends: Reading through my autumn TBR, watching old movies, and a new blog feature to share your posts

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Sunday Bookends16 Comments

Sunday Bookends October 8

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’s Been Occurring

I have to be honest that I’m a little distracted today by what is happening in Israel and I feel like writing a blog post about what I’m reading and doing in my life is pretty unimportant. I’m only continuing because I think we all need distractions right now, no matter how small.

I follow some people who live in Israel and have read some books about the situation in Palestine so hearing the news from the area is extremely upsetting.

I’ll move on for now, though, and relay that I really didn’t do much last week at all but if you want to read about it you can check out my post here.

What I/we’ve been Reading



Last week I finished The Cat Who Blew The Whistle by Lilian Jackson Braun. I enjoyed it for the most part but the ending was strange and a little annoying to me. That happens at times with Braun’s books, but this was at least better than the later ones that were put out and probably not fully written by Braun later in her life.

I am making my way through my autumn reading list slowly, but fairly steadily.

Now I am on to reading Death Bee Comes Her by Nancy Coco and also plan to read a Nancy Drew book for fun (The Hidden Staircase). Death Bee Comes Her was not originally on my list but I picked it up at a used bookstore and it fit well with the theme since it happens in the autumn so I decided to add it in.

The Boy and I are reading Red Badge of Courage still for school.

Little Miss and I are reading Gone Away Lake for school.

 The Husband just started a Dennis Lehane book and I’m not sure if he started another one yet.

What We watched/are Watching

Last week I didn’t watch a lot of movies but I hope to watch a couple this week, including The Lady Vanishes for the Comfy, Cozy Cinema with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.

If you want to join us you are welcome to and we will have a link up for you to add your post to.

We did watch some Newhart and I watched an episode of Miss Scarlet and The Duke.

This week I really want to focus on escaping in some good movies, some wholesome things as well, including The Chosen and The Dick VanDyke Show – anything to calm myself inside.

What I’m Writing

I am working hard to finish Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage and am almost done. I did push the release date off by a couple of weeks because I was concerned I might not have time to write it, revise it, and send it the editor, and revise it again in time for it to be released on the original date. I wanted to slow myself down a bit.

Once I’m finished with this book, I’ll be continuing to work on Cassie, which is a book that will be released in August of 2024 with the Apron Strings Book Series. It is based in the 1990s so it will be fun to research that decade, which I lived through but have forgotten a lot about. Ha! Not because I was drunk or drugged but because I was lost in my own little world in high school and college.

This week on the blog I shared the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot with two other bloggers. This is a chance for bloggers to share favorite posts from their blogs for the week. You can still share your posts now and we will be back again on Thursday at 9:30 p.m. to set up the link for everyone who wants to participate.

Also on the blog this week I shared about a movie I watched The Lightkeepers.

What I’m Listening to

I listened to a lot of Brandon Lake this week and other worship music, as well as other Christian artists I hadn’t heard of before in an Apple Music playlist. I needed it.



Now it’s your turn

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

Saturday Afternoon Chat: A sore tooth, grandma’s birthday, autumn weather is here to stay (maybe), and a chance for bloggers to connect with other bloggers

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

Autumn weather has arrived and hopefully to stay.

I’ve written this before on this blog so we will see if I have to write it again in another month.

Last week we had temperatures in the high 70s and low 80s. Not exactly the weather I was hoping for to allow me to curl up under a blanket with a good book or to write a blog post.

Today, though, the temperature is in the low 60s and it’s raining.

Perfect weather for cuddling, reading, and writing this blog post.

Oddly, though, I am not drinking warm tea or cocoa today as I write this. I am actually drinking cold orange mango juice that my daughter made for me in a sippy cup with a straw that her grandparents gave her for her birthday. Why did my parents give my daughter a sippy cup for her 9th birthday? Well, because my daughter likes little cups with straws and now she has one. The cups are so cute, my almost 17-year-old son even likes drinking out of them. I have to admit that even I like having that cute little with a lid in case I knock it over, since I am a bit of klutz at times.

This is completely off the subject but as I wrote the date while saving today’s post in my computer (I write my posts in my computer and copy and paste because of WordPress’s poor composing interface), I realized that today is my late grandmother’s birthday.

Facebook reminded me of this as well with a memory post from when my dad shared a post of mine about my grandmother:

I miss my grandmothers terribly. Mom and I were talking about how remembering our loved ones helps to keep them alive and she’s right. I told her saying that has always felt sort of corny to me since I really want that loved one with me, not “alive” in my mind. Yet, I understand the saying and as I’ve gotten older it has made more sense to me, even if I would prefer to physically hug my grandparents instead of just keeping them alive in my memories.

  If you are a longtime follower of my blog you may notice that I mention my grandmothers more than I do my grandfathers. This is because I lost both of my grandfathers when I was very young. My paternal grandfather died when I was 2 and my maternal grandfather died when I was 9 and I only saw him once a year because he lived 600 miles away. I wish I had been able to know both of them better, but I am grateful that the rest of the family has been able to share memories of them with me over the years.

This past week wasn’t a super busy one for us, luckily.

It was mainly homeschooling, reading, working on book two in the Gladwynn Grant Mysteries, and on Friday a trip to get my license photo. License photos are horrible already but I would say this is the worst one I have ever had taken. No, I’m not going to show it. It looks like I smelled something bad but am pretending I didn’t. As someone with glasses, I was told to tip my chin so there wouldn’t be a glare on the glasses. The frustrating thing is that this made my second chin more prominent. Luckily, I have rarely had to show my license to anyone in the last four years so hopefully I won’t have to show this one to anyone either.

We don’t have a lot planned for this upcoming week other than school. The Boy is excited because he doesn’t have school Monday. Well, he doesn’t have it at his trade school at least. I told him I may still give him some assignments for our homeschool lessons, but I really don’t think I’ll be that cruel.

He has been attending a trade school for two and a half hours in the morning and then has assignments from his other subjects in the afternoon. He is learning how to build things such as sheds and corn hole game boards at the trade school and it’s a lot more work than he or I realized, but he seems to enjoy the hands-on work it provides. It is much better than sitting in a classroom and listening to a lecture from a teacher, that’s for sure.

This week he will be going on a field trip to a technical school an hour from us and is currently earning college credits that can be used at this school if he decides to attend it in two years after he graduates.

Switching gears again, the leaves changed so fast here and then fell right off. I barely had time to grab any photos and really had no time this week because I was dealing with a sore tooth that I can hopefully have taken care of in January. Getting into a dentist is hard in our area and then there is the whole thing about needing money to pay for the dentist when you don’t have dental insurance. It’s no fun but I am hopeful I can keep the tooth feeling okay until I can get in.

I did get an antibiotic Thursday from my local doctor because a small bump developed above the broken tooth. While the pain was minimal, I decided I should get an antibiotic to make sure if there is an infection there it doesn’t spread. I am very thankful to God that the pain has not spread and that it doesn’t seem like the infection has either. It’s also amazing I have not had more pain with the shape my teeth are in. Sadly, I’ve always had very bad teeth and some health issues – like hypothyroidism – haven’t helped that issue.

I have been feeling a bit on edge lately with so many personal things going on at once and today I thought I’d be honest that I have not leaned into God the way I should have. I am trying to be better about that but this morning I started to think about how that may be one reason I have not written a Faithfully Thinking post in a while. It is hard to encourage others to trust in God when you know you haven’t been doing a very good job of it yourself.

I haven’t been totally forgetting God, but praying to Him has not been my first reaction for most of the past few weeks. On Sunday the pastor for our online church started to talk about the many needs we all have in our lives and how we need to trust that God is enough. It was hard for me to focus on the sermon because I had just discovered we had a financial shortfall and knew that would mean we would be struggling during the week. This was added to even more financial issues we are having, plus health concerns, health concerns for my parents, work issues for my husband, etc. etc.  I didn’t want to hear another sermon about how God was going to come through when I felt like I’ve been asking him to come through for me and my family for a long time and we are still struggling in many areas.

I almost tuned the pastor at but made myself listen at least to the second half and take some notes.

I am going to listen to it again today because I know I need to be reminded – yet again – that when I feel like I do not have enough of one thing in my life (money, health, time, for example) God is enough and will make sure I have enough. This week He provided for our family in many ways. He made sure the pain in my tooth stayed at bay – reminding me of all the natural ways I can  help mouth sores or teeth issues. He made sure we had enough food and gas to get to where we needed to go.

He gave me time to quiet my brain a little bit with books and shows or movies I enjoy and spending time with my family.

Instead of bringing Him my complaints and worries every day I am going to try to thank Him for what he’s already done.

The pain in my tooth might get worse this week. I don’t know, but I am thankful for the long length of time I have had without tooth pain.

Our finances might tank even more (though I pray they do not), but I know that somehow God will make sure we do not starve.

I am not faithful the way I should be much of the time but even when I have been faithless, he has been faithful.

I am awful at making gratitude lists, but I want to start doing that more. I want to start remembering more about what God has done for me in the moments when I feel like He hasn’t provided enough.

How was your week last week? Is it chilly yet where you are or nice and warm?

I’ll be back tomorrow for my Sunday Bookends post but I also wanted to mention that I am now co-hosting a weekly post called the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot that allows bloggers to share their favorite blog posts from the week from their own blogs.  If you want to participate this week, you can find the post HERE. The post will go live on Thursday evenings around 9:30 p.m. EST. It is a nice opportunity to connect with more bloggers and share your work.

Sunday Bookends: Little Miss’s Birthday, fall foliage, book sales, and cozy mysteries

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.

What’s Been Occurring

Can you believe it is October 1?! I can’t! September just flew by!

Tomorrow is Little Miss’s 9th birthday so October always kicks off fun for us.

I shared a bit about this yesterday, but on Friday we took her out for dinner to a restaurant. Before that we visited a large library book sale and then met her friends to play at a playground near the restaurant, which was about 45 minutes from our house.

I wish I had spent a little more time at the book sale, but we had a budget for all four of us, so I didn’t want to go too crazy. I didn’t actually choose many books from the sale itself. Instead, I found six cozy mysteries in the library’s permanent used bookstore in the back of the library.

I found ten or more books from the Annie’s Mystery books – all hardcover with built-in ribbon bookmarks, but only grabbed two so The Husband could also get some books.

We got bit up pretty bad from mosquitoes near the creek at the park and I think it’s so weird that the itching didn’t kick in until last night. It was like they all activated at the same time.

The leaves are changing fast around us for autumn and there are some gorgeous reds. Some of the leaves are drying up and falling off before they can change, which is sad, but the ones that are lasting are beautiful and even more should change this upcoming week into next week.

I’m not sure what is on tap for this upcoming week other than Little Miss’s birthday and running some errands.

What I/we’ve been Reading

I’ll be finishing up A New Leash on Life by Kathleen Y’Barbo today. I’ve really been enjoying it. It is a light mystery and releases – oh, today actually! I’ve been reading it as part of a blog tour for it. This is the second book I’ve read from the series and so far I like this one better.

I’m also still reading The Cat Who Blew The Whistle by Lilian Jackson Braun. It’s such a comfort read for me.

I’ve put Anne of Ingleside to the side for now because I picked up a cozy mystery from a library book sale Friday that I read the first chapter of and am now hooked on. It’s called Death Bee Comes Her by Nancy Coco.

It will be a perfect autumn read since it takes place in October.

I think I’ll probably pick Anne back up later in October and finish it as quick as I can because I want to clear my classic book slate for Little Women in November.’

What We watched/are Watching

Last week Erin and I watched Arsenic and Old Lace for our Comfy, Cozy Cinema and then posted about it on our blogs. This week we are taking a break from our feature and having a wild card week.

Next week we are going to watch The Lady Vanishes and blog about that.

Other than those movies, I didn’t actually watch a ton last week. I did watch some Newhart and a couple episodes of Just A Few Acres Farm on YouTube.

This morning we watched our sermon from Elevation Church and then an episode of The Chosen on Amazon.

What I’m Writing

I plan to finish Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage this week and will then go through it again before sending it to my husband to edit.

On the blog this week I shared:

What I’m Listening To

I’ve been enjoying Brooke Ligertwood, Matthew West, and Brandon Lake again this week.

Photos From This Week


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: Fall arrives officially, fall book list, and watch Arsenic and Old Lace with Us

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

What’s Been Occurring

Welcome to autumn. Yes, it’s officially autumn now and our Pennsylvania weather cooperated and is chilly outside which means we are cozy inside under blankets.

This past week we focused mainly on schoolwork instead of other activities. I also tried to focus on taking breaks for reading, but didn’t do as well at that as I would have liked to so I hope to make up for that this week.

My birthday was on Tuesday but we celebrated on Sunday so Tuesday was mainly a regular day for me. I grilled some chicken and we hung out and watched a little Anne of Green Gables.

Wednesday night was Kid’s Club at our former church and Thursday Little Miss and I rode with my dad to his physical therapy 45 minutes away. That night Little Miss had gymnastics. Friday was errand day, yesterday I hid in the house all day and today it was lunch at my parents with our former pastor, his wife and children.


What I/we’ve been Reading

This week I am reading A New Leash on Life by Kathleen Y’Barbo and The Cat Who Blew The Whistle by Lilian Jackson Braun.

The Cat Who book is a cozy mystery and I thought A New Leash on Life was as well but so far it’s a romance and a slow one at that. Hopefully it picks up because it is well written otherwise.

I put together a list of books I plan to read this autumn and shared it on my Instagram yesterday.

I always struggle a bit with a planned reading list – mainly because I am a mood reader. I might be in the mood for one book when I make my list and totally not in the mood for it during the time frame I said I’d read it in. Still, I like the idea of having a list of planned reads, even if the plan changes.

I moved some of my books I had posted about last week or the week before to a winter list but for now my “planned” autumn reading list is a mix of adult books and kid books since I will be reading a couple with my daughter or just for myself. I most likely will not get to all these books.

Reading right now:

🐈‍⬛The Cat Who Blew The Whistle by Lilian Jackson Braun

🐕New Leash on Life by Kathleen Y’Barbo

“Planned” Reading for October and November:

📚Bake Until Golden by Linda Evans Shepherd and Eva Marie Everson

📚The Ghost and Mrs. Mewer by Krista Davis

📚Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other by Bethany Turner

📚The Cat Who Talked Turkey by Lilian Jackson Braun

📚The Hidden Staircase (Nancy Drew book two) by Carolyn Keene

📚When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr (part way through this but the library book smelled like mildew so I found a used copy on Thriftbooks and it’s on its way. I hope it doesn’t smell!)

📚Gone Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright (reading this already with Little Miss)

📚The Black Stallion by Walter Farley

📚The Wind in The Willows by Kenneth Graham

Do you make planned reading lists for the different seasons? If so, did you make one this year for autumn?

Little Miss and I will hopefully finish Gone Away Lake next week or the week after. We are enjoying it and I’m already planning to buy it’s sequel, Return to Gone Away Lake.

The Boy and I are listening to Red Badge of Courage for our unit on English lit and American History.

The Husband is reading The Deserter by Nelson DeMille.

What We watched/are Watching

Last week I watched The Dick VanDyke Show and Newhart. I also watched The African Queen as part of the Comfy, Cozy Cinema feature with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.

This week we are watching Arsenic and Old Lace. If you are interested in watching the movie with us and blogging about it we will be posting our impressions of the movie on Thursday and will have a link on our posts where you can sign up.

Last night Little Miss and I had a girl’s night and watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2. We didn’t like it as much as the original My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but it was okay.

What I’m Writing

I am furiously working on Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage and while I’ve hit some snags, I’m still having fun writing it.

After it’s finished and edited and revisions are made, I’ll be working more on Cassie, which will come out in August of 2024 as part of a multi author book series.

What I’m Listening To

This week I enjoyed listening to Matthew West, Brooke Ligertwood, Brandon Lake, and TobyMac. I was also excited to find a Klove radio station in the town where my dad’s physical therapy is. I was able to listen to wonderful Christian music almost all the way home from his appointment and it was such a comfort because I tend to think a lot and worry about him on the way home from those appointments.


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: Mystery books, a planned autumn reading list, and still writing book two in the Gladwynn Grant Mystery series

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends15 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 All That Really Matters by Nicole Deese Friday. Finally. No, the book is not bad. It is very good, in fact. I just kept putting it aside so I could finish books for other authors or library books.

I’m going to try to not add any more library books to my TBR list right now . . . other than the one I just added: A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales. Ahem.

I started it last night and we will see if I like it. So far I do. The last Regency cozy mystery I picked up from Libby I did NOT enjoy. Hopefully, this one will be better the whole way through this time.

I’ve also started another cozy mystery for a book tour: A New Leash on Life by Kathleen Y’Barbo. It comes out on October 1. I was going to read it slowly since I don’t have to review it until October 30th but I was hooked right away and have been enjoying it. I read another of her books in this series and I did enjoy it but I did not enjoy the ending. It sort of fell apart so I am hoping this one doesn’t. This book is different because it is somewhat like a romance with it being from two points of view – one from the woman and the other from the man – but it is also a mystery.

I am not a huge fan of those types of switches in books when it is first person but it’s not so bad in this book. After writing two or more POVs in all of my books in the Spencer Valley Chronicles, I have now decided I am not a huge fan of more than two of POVs and I really don’t like the back-and-forth POVs in romances as much anymore. I don’t know if I will ever write two POVs again or not, but I definitely don’t plan to write more than two POVs in one book.

Anyhow, back to the books I’m planning to read after the two I just mentioned.

For fall I have a stack of books I’d love to get through:

  • Trouble Shooter by Louise L’Amour
  • The Cat Who Blew The Whistle by Lilian Jackson Braun
    The Cat Who Talked Turkey by Lilian Jackson Braun
    A Case of Bad Taste by Lori Copeland
    Sydney Chambers and the Perils of the Night by Jamie Runcie
    Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

I’d also like to add a Longmire book to that list because I don’t think I’ve read any Longmire this year so far.

The Boy and I are reading Red Badge of Courage for school so I’ll have to add that to my planned reading list too.

Little Miss and I are reading Gone Away Lake for school and sometimes we are reading it at night too. We are really enjoying it and I’m so glad that Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs sent it to us!

What’s Been Occurring

I wrote a bit about what’s been going on in my post yesterday. You can catch up there but the bottom line is: fleas, sick animals recovering, fall weather, and homeschool. There. You’re caught up. *wink*

Photos from Last Week

I didn’t take a ton of photos last week but here are a few and a few from my parents’ anniversary party last week.

What We watched/are Watching

Last week I watched two movies with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs for our Comfy, Cozy Cinema: Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Secret World of Arrietty.

The Husband and I watched Song of the Thin Man yesterday after he cooked me dinner for my birthday. My birthday isn’t until Tuesday but he has to attend a meeting that night. It was the last movie in the Thin Man series with William Powell and Myrna Loy.

We also watched a few episodes of Newhart this week.

 By myself I watched part of a documentary about what the Victorian royals wore.

My brother also sent these hilarious videos of real letters being read by celebrities. I was warned that some of them are crude so to be careful.

What I’m Writing

I am working on Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage for a November release and, in case you don’t know, Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing, the first book, is out already on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. It will leave Kindle Unlimited on October 8 as I hope to be able to offer it on additional sites for sale. This a cozy mystery series and I really am having fun writing it, even though this week I was almost in tears trying to decide who my murderer is because I didn’t like who I had originally decided it to be.

Yes, I am writing other blog posts but, no, I haven’t finished them because I keep getting distracted by life. Sigh.

What I’m Listening To

This past week we took some time to turn off the TV (where cartoons are mainly played) and listen to some music, including Frank Sinatra and Tim McGraw. I know. What a mix right?!

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 Evening Chat: Autumn weather arrives, recovery time, and recovering pets

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Saturday Afternoon Tea6 Comments

As I write this, I am sitting in bed under covers because the temps have hit autumn temps and I am chilly.

I spent most of this past week trying to recover from the week before when our family was sick and then we had my parents’ 60th-anniversary party. That’s something I still hope to blog about on here soon. I was so tired this past week and it didn’t help that I was still dealing with the cough from the previous week’s cold a little.

Yesterday Little Miss made a type of cozy fort at the bottom of our stairs and into our foyer. She made it last week as well but this week it worked out well because of the autumn weather. She filled the set up with pillows and blankets and an electric candle and stacked some of her books on the windowsill. It became a little reading corner for us while I read a book about Johnny Appleseed to her and she read a book called Saving Winslow on her own.

I also finished a book I’ve been reading for a few months (while getting interrupted by other books I agreed to read for authors, etc.). It was a very nice cozy day, made even cozier by Little Miss making us cups of hot cocoa sweetened with maple syrup throughout the day.

At the end of the day all three of our pets made themselves comfortable on a pillow or comforter, curled up, and fell asleep. The cat I call “fat cat” (real name Pixel), stole my seat after I got up to charge my phone and while I was a bit annoyed, it was nice to see her able to rest after she had been suffering with fleas most of the week thanks to an inferior flea medicine we picked up last month.

We applied the better medicine on Monday but it took a few days for all the fleas to get off the animals. I was still finding fleas on Zooma the Wonder Dog who not only had flea treatment, but also a flea bath, yesterday. We picked up a flea spray to spray in the house and hopefully we can kill them off before it gets too bad in the house.

Zooma the Wonder Dog took an emergency trip to the vet 45 minutes away last Sunday because of severe stomach issues. Her breathing was very fast and we found out that she was in severe pain due to a return of the colitis she had in April. She was also (TMI alert) constipated.

We are discovering that there are certain foods that set off her condition and I fed her a tiny bit of one of those foods and I guess, but am not sure, that’s what triggered things. She also gets into our trash from time to time so we now sit heavy things on top of it or will be putting the trash can in a place she can’t reach it.

We have food that is supposed to be for digestive issues and that’s all she will be eating from now on. She’s been on an antibiotic and a steroid all week to help bring the inflammation down and heal her colon. It looks like this will be a reoccurring issue for her and us from now on, unfortunately.

Our previous dog had colitis a lot as well. He was 14 when he passed away in 2017 and I am surprised he lived that long with all the weird things he ate – including aluminum foil and ear plugs. We seem to have the luck of having dogs that have sensitive stomachs and I don’t know if that is bad or good luck but right now it seems like bad luck.

Last week there was a lot of staying at home and doing homeschool work and keeping an eye on the dog.

Yesterday Dad and The Boy cut up wood from trees that Dad had to have cut down behind his house. They loaded it into the back of Dad’s truck and brought it to our house to fill up the woodpile behind the garage. We are hoping that this will be enough wood to get us through the winter and keep our heating oil costs down.

Heating oil is so expensive right now that we are filling our tank with off-road diesel fuel to push us closer to the winter months to reduce how often we have to get a delivery of actual heating oil during the coldest months. We do this because we can never afford to pay off the full delivery because of how high the cost is. We always make payments and we can’t receive another delivery until the first bill is paid off.

A lot of people I know are struggling financially right now. It’s very frustrating for me to watch politicians debate if inflation is bad enough to say we are in a recession or not. It’s even more frustrating when they go on news shows and say that Americans aren’t struggling to pay their bills or put food on their tables and that “the other side” is making it all up.

My family are among those struggling. We’ve asked for help and have been denied or given $19 a month to help. Meanwhile we have people who cross the border illegally and they are receiving the help they need in many (though not all) cases and it’s very aggravating. I am, however, glad that people can come here legally and find a better life so it’s a very conflicting issue for me.

There are days I feel like my husband working and us living in this country our whole lives means we are second class citizens. It feels like you have to have a sob story or an angle of some kind to get ahead of even get help. We’re drowning under bills and grocery prices and every week I feel like we are just fighting to keep our heads above water. Then to turn on a news show or visit a site and see an economist say it isn’t as bad as we think it is and we just need to go back to college and get a better degree then we’d be able to get a higher paying job and be fine. It makes me want to scream and throw things most days.

God has always provided for us even at the hardest moments so I do my best to remember that when things get very tough.

This upcoming week there will be more homeschool lessons, gymnastics, a church kid’s club, and maybe a visit to the library.

The Boy will go to the career center and probably work with his grandfather and I will work on finishing the second book in the Gladwynn Grant Mystery series.

I also hope to read a lot more because I am somewhat depressed with my book count for the year so far. I am not a fast reader but I could be reading a little more than I have been.

How about you? How was your week last week? Did you do anything exciting or read anything good? Let me know in the comments.

Sunday Bookends: 60th anniversary party, getting over a cold, and a sick Zooma the Wonder Dog

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.

What’s Been Occurring

Last weekend my entire family came down with some kind of virus and it kept me from writing my Sunday Bookends post on Sunday.

I had no interest in writing because I had the worst sinus headache for the first part of the cold and then it was like some kind of dam broke and my nose started running for a day and a half. Then the cold was gone but left behind some gunk.

The illness started with The Boy who started attending a career center the week before last.

I should have known that more illness would come now that he’s at a regular school part of the time.

In the end we were really only “sick” for two days but it felt so much longer and then the mucous and coughs lingered for another few days. All of this was going on while I was trying to plan for my parents’ anniversary party which was yesterday. I’ll write a little bit about it here and then I’ll do another blog post later this week, but I will share that it went well.

One of the highlights was when our local state representative presented them with a proclamation to honor them for being married for 60 years and to honor my dad for his service in the United States Air Force.

I also slapped together this video for them but wasn’t able to show it until afterward because I couldn’t figure out where to put the video up for everyone else to see it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXDNg0qWLZM

On Friday I made ham and bean soup and cut up fruit and veggies for the party, while trying to simply relax and not worry about our dog who seems to be suffering from colitis again.

Her symptoms started while we were all sick, of course.

She has these bouts of colitis every six months or so at this point. When it hit her in April, she was so bad she couldn’t even get herself off and on the back porch to use the bathroom and her little backside was bent over to try to deal with the pain.

This time it’s clear she’s not herself but she’s moving better than she could be.

We are hoping we can use all the natural treatment instead of taking her to the vet this time. Today I am home with her while the rest of the family goes to a family reunion.

Despite our illness, we managed to start school a little more earnestly this week than last.

We are starting easy with art, English, and music for Little Miss and history and English for the Boy.

Next week I start adding in the big one – math, which neither of them is a fan of – and science which both are sort of fans of.

The Boy will be learning about forensic science this year and Little Miss will start with ecosystems and then we will be doing some general science.

What I/we’ve been Reading

Last week I finished Crime and Poetry by Amanda Flower.

I liked it but I am always a little confused by her books because the mystery is always solved in like three days and it is back-to-back crisis and also a little formulaic. I still like her writing and books and how she creates characters I get attached to, however.

I didn’t have a lot of interest in reading while I was sick so I didn’t finish All That Really Matters by Nicole Deese yet. I have plans to finish it this week but I did start a comfort read – The Cat Who Blew The Whistle (Cat Who . . . Book 17) by Lilian Jackson Braun.

I just wanted a simple cozy mystery with my favorite cozy mystery sleuth, Jim Qwilleran and his Siamese Cats Koko and Yum-Yum.

Little Miss and I are reading Gone Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright.

The Husband is reading Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane.

The Boy is reading The Red Badge of Courage for school.

What We watched/are Watching

Last week I watched Shop Around the Corner and we watched a lot of Newhart.

I also watched an episode of the new Around the World in 80 Days mini-series with David Tennant with The Boy.

This week I am watching Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Secret World of Arrietty for the cozy, comfy cinema series that Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are doing this fall.

We will be watching movies and posting our impressions of them on Thursdays. This week only we will be posting on Tuesday and Thursday.

Today my family went to a family reunion without me, as I mentioned above, so I can stay home with Zooma the Wonder Dog and catch up on some rest that I lost last week while battling the aftermath of the cold. I may actually get to watch something on my own, which is a very rare occurrence. I think I’ll probably pick something light and relaxing along the lines of Anne of Green Gables (the 1985 one).

Update: I picked a movie called The Lightkeepers with Richard Dreyfuss and I’m liking it so far.


What I’m Writing

I am still working on Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing. I am also working on some blog posts for the upcoming weeks.

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: Slowly getting back into the homeschooling groove and bracing for hot weather in autumn

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Saturday Afternoon Tea4 Comments

I almost didn’t write one of these today because our week really was that boring.

This past week it was mainly schoolwork, failing at cleaning the house, washing dishes that got used less than an hour later and were once again dirty, and worrying about a ton of things I can’t control.

I did have my regular tea and honey so that made me happy.

I spent a lot of the week trying to plan homeschool lessons and trying to figure out what to do with all the books I bought from a recent library sale to use for pleasure reading and homeschool.

I also spent a lot of time looking at a space at the bottom of our pantry where I could place some of these books but which is full of miscellaneous items and would take a long time to clean out. I mean, I could clean that space out and have a place for the books but then where will I put the garbage that I clean out?

This is the dilemma of people who don’t know how to throw anything out.

We enjoyed nice fall weather most of this past week but, and I can’t even believe I am writing this, this next week the temperatures are going to be in the high 80s. I am so depressed about it and I’m serious. I know how sad it sounds to be depressed about warm weather but I was looking forward to chilly and cozy weather.

I am trying to look forward to another chance to take the littlest swimming but the idea of climbing in and out of a pool and peeling wet clothes off doesn’t really appeal to me anymore.

We did a lot of that all summer and it was fun but it had its season and that season should be over. At least I know that much of the rest of the country will be experiencing this hot weather as well.

Because of the weather I wanted to stay inside this week but it looks like I’ll have to go out at least three days. On Tuesday I am going to get my hair cut because my mom subtly hinted it looks awful and said she’d pay me to get it done. Ahem. Mothers are lovely, aren’t they? My mother is a sweet woman and I know she meant well, but it was a little annoying since I did not want to go out and sweat this week.

On Wednesday my daughter goes back to Kids Club at a local church. On Thursday she has gymnastics. I’ll be taking her to at least one of those if not both.

Next Saturday we have a 60th anniversary party planned for my parents but so far there aren’t tons of people saying they will attend so I don’t think it will be as big of an undertaking as I thought it would be.

Our neighbors invited us to a cookout tomorrow since their daughter is home from college and I’m sure we will go to my parents on Monday.

That’s if none of us come down with the cold that The Boy caught and dealt with yesterday. I am trying my best to make sure my parents do not get sick before their party on Saturday. It doesn’t help that The Boy was with his grandparents the day before the symptoms hit. Sigh.

I did not pick my camera up all week so I have no photos to share with you but I’m sure I will next week since we will be doing summery things this week.

How about you? How was your week? Are you ready for cozy weather and getting it or are the warm temperatures hitting you as well?