Tag: week in review

Sunday Bookends: Recovering from a busy week, not my favorite cozy mystery book, and hopefully a slower week next week

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Sunday Bookends10 Comments

Sunday Bookends July 30

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 will be finishing up Elementary She Read by Vicki Delany tonight and I have to be honest that I did not enjoy the second half as much as the first half. The second hash seemed like a rehashing of the first half. I don’t know how to explain that other than the author repeating themselves a lot about the characters and points of the story like she herself forgot some of those points and wanted to be sure the reader didn’t as well. I will probably try another Delany book but maybe not in this series. The main character of this series sort of grates on my nerves but maybe she will grow on me if I try book two.

The only reason I kept reading the book was because it was due back on Libby yesterday. As soon as it was returned for me, however, before I finished it mind you, I asked to have it put on hold again. At first it said there were two people ahead of me. Then it said that I could have the book back again. So I took it back to finish it.

This week I plan to focus on The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz.

I also plan to read a chapter or two of Anne of Ingleside, which I believe is the last book in the series that focuses on Anne, Gilbert, and her family exclusively.

Next week I hope to finish Nicole Deese’s book All That Really Matters which I started at the beginning of the summer and got distracted from. It was a pretty good book, even though I can tell it’s going to be a typical romance of he doesn’t like her but he’s going to fall for her, blah, blah. Oh, wait. I write that stuff too sometimes. Ha.

The Husband is reading a Joe Pickett novel.

Little Miss and I read a stack of picture books yesterday and she started a book called Saving Winslow that she picked out on the last day of summer reading.

The Boy isn’t really reading right now as he tries to enjoy the last bits of summer before school starts the 24th.

What’s Been Occurring

I talked about what has been occurring in yesterday’s post. After our crazy busy week, Little Miss had some sort of allergy attack or brief illness (which would be the second in two weeks) and had a runny nose and dry cough all day yesterday. She slept hard last night and into this afternoon and now she’s a little bit better. Because of her not feeling good yesterday we are staying home today instead of visiting my parents but will probably see my parents later in the week. We will definitely see them on Thursday, which is my mom’s birthday. Also, she’s going to be 79, not 80. I aged her a year (again) in a post last week.

This next week we do not have a ton to do, luckily. I might ride with my dad to his physical therapy 45 minutes south on Tuesday and Thursday, but otherwise, it should be a relaxed week. You know how it goes when I say that in my posts, though. The week usually doesn’t end up being relaxed at all.

I will start my job as a sales representative for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine as an independent contractor around August 7.

Photos from Last Week

What We watched/are Watching

Last week The Husband and I watched a lot of Newhart and it was nice and relaxing.

I watched half of Monkey Business with Cary Grant and Marilyn Monroe and will watch the rest today. I also hope to watch some All Creatures Great and Small, even though I’ve seen all the episodes.

I also have had to watch a ton of Snake Discovery, which is a YouTube channel about snakes that Little Miss loves.

What I’m Writing

I worked on Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage this week and I am having a lot of fun writing it. I also wrote at least one blog post I’ll be sharing tomorrow and started a couple more.
On the blog, I shared:

What I’m Listening To

This week I will be listening to Elevation Worship. When I drive anywhere I will be listening to Death Beside the Seaside by T.E. Kinsey as an audiobook.


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 (Evening) Chat: Another busy week before a hopefully less busy week

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

Good afternoon! Oh, right. By the time I got this done, it was evening.

Sit! Let me make you a cup of something – well, probably not warm for most of us because it has been ridiculously hot out there for most of us.

Yuck!

So let me pour you a glass of lemonade instead. Or iced tea. Or a cold soda. Anything to cool you off.

After another long week, I am very excited to announce that next week we do not have any activities scheduled. I am so excited I can’t stand it!

Summer finally hit us for a few days this past week and it can go away for all I care. I am not a summer fan at all. The heat and humidity make me feel zoned out and sick.

I would have preferred to sit inside all day long in front of the air conditioner, but there were a few activities we had to attend and a few errands to run this week.

On Monday we were supposed to go to a day camp but ran out of energy from our busy week and pool visits the week before. We went to the day camp the next day instead. It was being held every day last week but it was a half an hour from our house and during the hottest week of the summer and we had other responsibilities or plans on the other days so we only attended the camp one day.

It was a Christian camp and Little Miss loved it. It was a camp for her age group so The Boy stayed home and then worked the next day with my dad at his house.

Wednesday sent us to the last day of the summer reading program where Little Miss picked out a book of her own but didn’t realize until that night that it was her book to keep.

“This is my first novel!” she cried. “And it’s mine! Now I can read it and shove it under my pillow and not feel guilty if I bend a page.”

Poor child. She’s inherited my fear of damaging a library book, which is a fear I’ve mentioned on here before.

After summer reading we took The Boy to work with his grandfather and then I headed to the local high school to fill out paperwork for The Boy to attend a career center this school year. He will attend the career center in the mornings and have homeschool lessons in the afternoon. It starts in two weeks and he is not really ready for it at all. I’m not sure I am either. He’s growing up so fast and I really need a brake lever to pull and slow it all down.

A couple of weeks ago we had to buy him a new phone because his was dying. We bought a refurbished one, actually. For the last five or six years his phone has been connected to my AppleID and my phone. His photos and memes, music, etc., all showed up in my phone and vice versa.

We both decided it would be easier on both of us if he got his own AppleID with this new phone. That way he doesn’t have to swipe past all my memes and ads for my books and I don’t have to swipe by his Gen Z humor-based memes and weird photographs. I also don’t have to weed through his heavy metal to get to my Christian music and jazz.

Once we made that move, though, we both agreed it felt weird for us to have our own phones.

In fact, he said it felt “lonely.”


He was right. It felt lonely not to see the photographs he takes of frogs he finds when weed whacking at the pond at my parents or the weird photos he takes of his one friend crossing his eyes at the camera or the random photos of what he’s cooking in the middle of the night. He also takes some really nice photographs of storms or scenery, such as these two last week when a nasty storm was headed our way:


Speaking of him cooking in the middle of the night, last night he was cooking garlic to add to his pasta and the smell upstairs was overwhelming. I texted him to tell him the smell was so overwhelming that it woke me up. He insisted the smell wasn’t that strong. I’m very sensitive to smells, sometimes to the point it triggers anxiety for me if I can’t get the smell out of my nose. After I complained to him I could smell an air freshener that The Husband picked up about a month ago and that bothered me too.

He texted that there was no way I could smell the air freshener as he had barely sprayed it by the stove downstairs.

I texted back a realization.

I could smell the garlic and it smelled like garlic. For almost two years I have not been able to smell garlic correctly. My smell has been distorted since I had a severe case of Covid in late November 2021. Garlic, onions, peppers, and several other things had a very distinct smell that I could only describe as “the Covid smell.” It was like a cross between burnt rubber and sweaty feet. I don’t know how to describe it at all.

Garlic, onions, and peppers also tasted horrid and for the most part still do.

My smell has also been reduced since even before Covid so the fact that I could smell that garlic so distinctly was actually a good thing in some ways. Smelling that much at one time wasn’t really fun, however.

Thursday was a lighter day last week. At least for me. The Husband had a lot going on and then he took Little Miss to gymnastics so he could sit in the parent area and read a book.

On Friday, Little Miss had two friends over for swimming at my parents’ pool.

She and her one friend proceeded to argue almost the entire time and I was ready to ground them both before their time together was over. They both have very strong, determined personalities and neither likes to back down when they want their way. They argue constantly yet still call each other their best friends. It’s a bit strange.

In some ways it was good that we didn’t have a ton of time for swimming because of the arguing. Little Miss and I had a talk about her behavior specifically later in the day. She is learning how to communicate with others and, like adults, she sometimes slips up. I hope her bullheadedness and tendency to be rude when she doesn’t get her way is something we can continue to work on and improve as she grows.

We didn’t have a lot of time for swimming because I had to ride with The Husband 45 minutes South to pick up our – okay, his – new-to-him truck. The truck is a 2004 Chevy Avalanche and is much bigger than any other vehicle we’ve owned before. It will be nice for The Husband to have this winter when he has to come home on very slippery, narrow roads to get home from work.

The whole family took a ride in the truck earlier today and it is nice, even though it is louder than our other cars, other than the van when the exhaust system needed to be replaced.

I truly hope this next week is a bit less crazy. We don’t have any events scheduled.

I have taken a job with a company that I will talk about in a later post, but it is a work-from-home job for 15 or so hours a week and doesn’t being until August 7 or later.

As I mentioned above, school starts August 24 and we will be home a lot more after that.

How about you?

Have you been having busy summer days or nice and relaxed ones?


Sunday Bookends: Reading and writing mysteries

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Sunday Bookends9 Comments

Sunday Bookends:

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

I am very late in posting today because I simply ran out of brain power after a busy week last week of running around a lot. I spent the day resting, vegging, and reading some.


What I/we’ve been Reading

I did not have a lot of time for reading last week so I am still reading the same books from last week:

Secrets of the Amish Diary by Rachael Phillips and The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz.

These books could not be more different from each other and I like that because if I am not in the mood for one, I pick up the other.

I don’t remember if I offered descriptions for the books last week but I will do so today.

(Note: I can not find Secrets of the Amish Diary anywhere except as used copies or on a site called Annie’s Fiction (https://www.anniesfiction.com/products/amish-inn-mysteries/secrets-of-the-amish-diary). I have no idea why!)

Secrets of the Amish Diary:

When Liz Eckardt leaves behind her hectic life as a Boston lawyer to become an innkeeper in charming Pleasant Creek, Indiana, she hopes to find solace – and answers – as she mourns the loss of her mother, Abigail.  Along with her mother’s diary and an antique heirloom quilt, Liz inherited a family secret: Abigail cut ties with her Amish family years ago – a family Liz never knew existed – and Liz yearns to unravel the mystery of her mother’s past.

Liz settles into her new life at the Olde Mansion Inn with the help of the town’s quirky quilting group, the Material Girls, and several members of the Amish community.  She bonds instantly with her new Amish friend, Miriam Borkholder, and enjoys the success of her burgeoning bed and breakfast.

That is, until one of her guests, the unpopular Clarence Peabody, is found dead in the lake behind her inn . . . and Miriam’s son is the prime suspect!

Convinced of the Amish boy’s innocence, Liz begins to piece together the evidence, learning quickly that the killer will stop at nothing to hide the truth.  When Liz receives a cryptic letter written in the local Amish dialect, the message is clear: Stay out of this . . . or else.  Who sent the letter?  And is Clarence’s murder somehow tied to her family’s secret past?

Join Liz and her lively team of crafty investigators as they stitch together clues and uncover the cause of the unusual events happening in Pleasant Creek.  Will they discover the truth about Liz’s family before someone else is silenced?

The Word is Murder has one of the most unique plots I’ve ever seen:

A woman crosses a London street. It is just after 11 a.m. on a bright spring morning, and she is going into a funeral parlor to plan her own service. Six hours later the woman is dead, strangled with a crimson curtain cord in her own home.

Enter disgraced police detective Daniel Hawthorne, a brilliant, eccentric man as quick with an insult as he is to crack a case. And Hawthorne has a partner, the celebrated novelist Anthony Horowitz, curious about the case and looking for new material. As brusque, impatient, and annoying as Hawthorne can be, Horowitz—a seasoned hand when it comes to crime stories—suspects the detective may be on to something, and is irresistibly drawn into the mystery.

But as the case unfolds, Horowitz realizes that he’s at the center of a story he can’t control, and his brilliant partner may be hiding dark and mysterious secrets of his own.

The Husband is reading a Walter Mosely book called The Man In My Basement.

Little Miss and I are reading a variety of things right now, including re-reading Paddington one night when she felt frightened and sad about something (Paddington cheers her up) and listening to The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe on Audible.

The Boy is on a reading break because it is summer break and he’s been working a lot, either with my dad or at his job as a dishwasher at a local restaurant.

What’s Been Occurring

 I rambled a lot about what we’ve been up to in my post yesterday if you would like to catch up.

Today we stayed home and rested. I have a job interview in the morning for a job that would be from home and around 15 hours a week. I’m nervous but hopeful it works out. Our family could use the financial help like a lot of other families.

What We watched/are Watching

Last week I watched a lot of Just A Few Acres Farm on YouTube. The farmer, Pete’s voice is very soothing to me because he’s so calm and cheerful about life. He seems to stay positive a lot and I really need that in my life. On Friday when I had to drive 45 minutes up and 45 minutes back from somewhere, after doing the same thing the day before, I told myself I would channel Pete to make it through the day. I purposely focused on slowing my thoughts and speech down throughout the day and just being like Pete. “I am Pete,” I said each time I became stressed. It helped a lot and I have a feeling I’ll have to do more of that this week.


I also watched an episode of Miss Scarlet and The Duke and a few episodes of Newhart, as well as an episode of Poirot with The Husband.


I watched Some Like It Hot last week and wrote about it on the blog (link below).

This week I’ll be watching The Seven Year Itch.

What I’m Writing

Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing came out this week! You can snatch a copy, or read it on Kindle Unlimited, HERE.

I am working on book two of the series now. It’s called Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage.

On the blog this week I shared:

What I’m Listening To

I am listening to a mystery on audible: Death Beside the Seaside by T.E Kinsey.



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: Warm days, anniversary, and would you stab someone for telling you the end of a book?

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Saturday Afternoon Tea7 Comments

Hello, there! How is your summer?

Can I interest you in a slice of cake? A cookie? A cup of tea?

Honestly, I don’t have the cake or cookies so you will just have to have the tea, but I do have some fresh raspberries if you’d like some of those.

Let’s kick our Saturday afternoon chat off with a weird question:

Did you hear of the man who stabbed his colleague at a science lab in Antarctica in 2018 because the colleague kept telling him the end of the books he was reading?

Do you think you’d ever go that far?

I hope I wouldn’t but I would guess that there was a lot more to that man’s stress than simply being told the end of books. The man who was stabbed lived, by the way.

Anyhow, I somehow made it through this week without stabbing anyone despite all the running around and mental gymnastics my brain kept doing.

This summer has been very busy for us in some ways, but usually we’ve only had one thing to do a day. That one thing has often been in the middle or end of the day so it has thrown some things off but that’s okay. We’ve adjusted.

I am looking forward to autumn and winter this year simply for the fact that I will have an excuse to say I can’t attend something.

“Oh, so sorry but we’re supposed to get bad weather and … yeah. I’d love to, but you know. The roads could be dangerous.”

I have that excuse practiced pretty well but, alas, I can’t use that one in the summer. Unless we get flash flooding, and I’d prefer that didn’t happen.

So, Monday I volunteered to pull weeds in my dad’s garden. I forgot how uncomfortable a person’s muscles can get after pulling weeds so the next morning I was hurting quite a bit.

I couldn’t mope around too long, though, because Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing came out on Tuesday and I worked on marketing for that most of the morning. In the afternoon Little Miss and I went swimming at my parents’. She talked me into a couple of swimming competitions which were easier for her because she was in an inflated inner tube and I was using my actual muscles to swim. Using muscles I don’t use enough other times of the year two days in a row left me in a lot of pain later that night and into Wednesday.

Working those muscles, in other words, was both good and bad for me. I had a hard time walking and sleeping this week but I was glad I got out and did things and I was proud of myself for whining less than I normally do when I am in pain.

On Wednesday I drove Little Miss about 15 minutes away to a park for the county library’s Summer Reading program. That’s one thing I don’t think I have ever mentioned on here – our county is so small population wise, we only have one library. It isn’t our town library – it’s the county library and it’s where everyone in the county goes for books and activities, etc. Since it is the county library, they try to hold events in places other than the most populated town in the county, which is my town.

The children at Wednesday’s event painted rocks, played on the playground, and participated in a rock relay race where they had to race to place rocks in the shapes that they belonged to on a large piece of cardboard.

Little Miss had fun but was ready to go home fairly quickly because there were new episodes of Bluey on Disney Plus. These episodes have been withheld for some reason for the last year or so and they were much anticipated in our house. I was glad we didn’t have anywhere else to go the rest of that day.

On Thursday, The Husband took the day off so we could one, take his car 45 minutes north to be worked on and two, go out to dinner for our anniversary.

Our view while we drove.
My lunch.

After we dropped the car off, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant we enjoy near us. The Husband took Little Miss to gymnastics that evening and I stayed home and watched an episode of Miss Scarlet and the Duke while turning the air conditioning up full blast to make the house feel like fall. I made myself a cup of peppermint tea with honey and sipped that while I watched the show and designed journals. I know I should live in the present and not wish for it to be another season, but I do have to say, yet again, how much I miss the cooler months where I can snuggle under a blanket with a good book.

Yesterday a friend came to visit for a couple of hours, and then it was back up to pick up The Husband’s car and then he went grocery shopping, something he does because he is very nice, but also because I think he just doesn’t want to deal with whatever weird calamity befalls me if I go.

If you are new here, you may not know that almost every time I go grocery shopping something weird happens to me and I have some kind of emotional breakdown because I am a bit of a mental case at times (that’s the understatement of the year).

One time I locked the keys in the car and we didn’t have a spare. The last time I lost the key fob to the van and thought we didn’t have another one so I burst into tears. It wouldn’t be so bad except we have to drive 20 minutes away from home to get our groceries and I hate when I have to inconvenience someone to dig me out of whatever trouble I have gotten myself into.

I’m a bit high maintenance, which makes it a surprise to me at times that The Husband hasn’t run away screaming and that we’ve actually made it to 21 years.

He’s really very sweet to do the grocery shopping. It helps so much, especially because, even though I hate admitting it, my chronic health issues often leave me feeling drained and achy for a day after I do something like grocery shopping or anything that leaves me on my feet for quite a while.

He does a lot for our family and we’d be lost without him.



Today I really want to stay home and do absolutely nothing other than catch up on blog posts by other bloggers, write some more in the second Gladwynn Grant Mysteries book, or read a book, but it is supposed to get up to 87 and it would be a good day for Little Miss and I to go swimming. We will see how well I get around. Tomorrow, however, I am drawing the line and staying home all day so I can do some housework and catch up on blog posts, etc., because next week promises to be another long week with a church program at a local church, Summer Reading, and probably visits to the pool again.

The pull off along the scenic bypass we travel down to go home.

How about you? How was your week last week? What have you been sipping while you work, travel, or read this week?

Sunday Bookends: Cozy mysteries, busy days, birthday parties, and flash flood watches

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings10 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.

Today I am joining The Caffeinated Reviewer for the Sunday Post.


What I/we’ve Been Reading

Since last posting, I finished the Nancy Drew book I was reading – The Secret of the Old Clock. I enjoyed it very much, even though it was very simple.

Friday night I finished a book I was ready by an indie author for an endorsement. It was Christian Fiction and I will share more about it when it releases officially.

I am also reading Secrets of the Amish Diary by Rebecca Phillips and hope to jump back into The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz later this week.

I really enjoy the Amish Inn Mystery books by Phillips. They are relaxed and easy-going, but also full of murder and mystery. The characters are so loveable and I don’t mind that the pace is a little slow at times. It isn’t too slow but a little slower than some mysteries. I’m fine with that since that’s what cozy mysteries are too me.  The clues for the mystery don’t come out slowly, but the story itself does and I actually enjoy that about cozy mysteries.

What’s Been Occurring

Yesterday we took Little Miss to a birthday party. We weren’t going to stay long because the little girl wasn’t feeling well, but the party was outside so we stayed a little longer. Little Miss and The Husband hiked to a small stream and swimming hole behind the family’s house and Little Miss took a swim with her friend.

This swimming hole and waterfall are actually part of their property. Isn’t that awesome?

After we visited there, the entire family headed to the grocery store for our weekly groceries.

Right before we walked inside, though, The Boy came running to us in a panic because he had looked at the schedule at work wrong and it turns out he was supposed to be at work at that time. We were 30 minutes away so after a quick call to his boss, during which she reassured him he was okay and just to get in as soon as he could, The Husband did a dash through the store and we headed back home. After we unloaded the groceries and took The Boy to work, Little Miss and I headed to my parents for a swim in their pool.


Today, with the area under a flash flood watch, we stayed home to relax and for me to catch up on some work for the book that releases this week instead of next now (you heard it here first). I also have some journals I want to design and upload to our journal store on Amazon. Unfortunately, The Husband could not stay home and relax part of the time because he had to go to a political rally to cover it for work.

At least he was able to enjoy this view while there.

This week we have a couple of summer reading events, gymnastics, and lunch for The Husband and I for our anniversary.

Oh and Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing releases on Tuesday now instead of next Tuesday.

What We watched/are Watching

Last week we were in and out of the house a lot or I was busy with finishing up things for the release of Gladwynn and designing graphics to promote it so I didn’t watch as much as I do some weeks.

I even forgot to watch the Marilyn Monroe movie I had planned to watch to write about on Thursday. I didn’t even remember until Friday that I had not watched the movie. I will be watching it this week instead.

The Husband and I did watch a few episodes of Newhart and I rented Into the West, an Irish movie I really enjoy, but never got back to finishing before the rental ran out.

This week I hope to watch a couple of Marilyn Monroe movies and some documentaries on Ireland. Why Ireland? I have no idea, but I’ve always loved Ireland. This past week I started one and it was being narrated by an American who sounded like he was on an American news show. I just didn’t trust him is all I’m saying. I need a show about Ireland to be narrated by an Irish person. (*wink*)

What I’m Writing

I am working on book two for the Gladwynn Grant Mysteries and have already put it up for pre-order on Amazon. I already mentioned how busy I was last week so I did not have a lot of time to write blog posts. I only posted one yesterday about how busy I was.

What I’m Listening To

While writing this week, I listened to this:


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: Fourth of July, swimming, and a lot of running around (in my mind at least)

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Saturday Afternoon Tea10 Comments


I don’t know about you but I really need a cup of tea today, even if it is warm outside.

It’s been a very busy week. Well, busier than it normally is for us.  Part of that busy included a fireworks show during which I felt like I was having bombs dropped around me at the end. I’ll share more about that later on in this post. It’s a hilarious story. More hilarious to The Boy than to me, but at least he had a good laugh.

We are off to yet another event this afternoon – this time for the birthday party of a friend of Little Miss’s.

We spent last Sunday at my parents and Monday at home but I spent the day putting the finishing touches on my book that comes out soon and working on promotional material for that. On Tuesday we were back at my parents where we enjoyed a brief swim in the pool and some lunch. Then we attended a fireworks show near us that night.

Wednesday was another break day, partially because it was so sweltering hot outside. Thursday we were back at my parents for a swim (again because of the sweltering heat) and then some friends stopped by unexpectedly for a fun visit. Yesterday I did some running and then I spent all day either trying to fix the cover for my paperback book because Amazon kept saying the size was wrong, or developing promotional material for my social media.

I already mentioned today’s party. Tomorrow we may have lunch with my parents or I may just fall over. I’m not sure yet.

Honestly, we really didn’t do that much but it felt like I was buzzing around a lot trying to catch up and in some ways my brain was busier than my body. I kept thinking about some personal worries, my parents and their health, and also some more exciting things like upcoming ideas for books, my newsletter, and journal designs.

The Tuesday fireworks show came at the end of a day where I made a dinner of fries and bacon-wrapped chicken and helped clean the kitchen and also went into the pool a while with Little Miss. We didn’t spend very long in the pool because the chlorine was high, which was very frustrating to my dad who had been working to get the chemicals just right for a couple of weeks.

He has also constructed an entire partially solar, partially electric-run heating system to keep the pool warm, which we fully enjoyed on Thursday when we went swimming for part of the afternoon.

When I went to the fireworks I was tired and, quite honestly, cranky. Yes, I know. The readers of my blog could never imagine me as cranky. *snort laugh*

But, yes, I was tired and worried about a lot of things, and flat-out tapped out mentally. I didn’t even want to be there and initially sat in the car while the rest of my family spread out a blanket under a tree in a field along with other viewers. The fireworks were put on by members of a local fire company, but not the fire company itself. I didn’t know what to expect but when the first few were fired off, I knew the show was going to be spectacular – and it was.

The Boy is a teenager so not much impresses him, but he really did seem quite enamored with the fireworks. This was confirmed on the way home when he told me it was the first time in a long time he had experienced childlike wonder. I think how close we were to the fireworks was part of the reason.

They were literally exploding over our heads. At the end I experienced sheer panic when they set a series of them off and flashes and explosions fired off repeatedly, making me feel like I was in a war zone. I decided it was not a good idea to be so close at that point and wanted to move further up the hill in case fireballs started falling on us, but I found when I tried to stand up the ground kept moving in fast-paced light and shadow so I kept falling over. This was amusing to my son who later said he wondered how many times I was going to try to stand up and fall over before I stopped. I eventually just hunched down, squeezed my eyes shut and prayed for it to end without killing us.

For your amusement I am sharing with you my moment of panic and my son’s amusement. I have spared you the four minutes of darkness where you can just hear me saying, “No. No. I need to get out of here” and “That was way too much. Way too much. We’re not sitting this close if we come here next year.”



I’m grateful no fireballs fell on us and we very well might go back again next year – but I will be either staying in our car or sitting much further away!

We could only spend part of the day on Thursday swimming because Little Miss had gymnastics that night. She missed gymnastics, however, after she fell on a makeshift platform my dad set up by the ladder and bruised her – well, bottom – and her shin. She was too sore for gymnastics but was able to play with her friends later. She paid for jumping with them on the trampoline by letting me know as she crawled into bed that her bottom still hurt quite a bit.

Yesterday the only thing I did was run out to buy a few groceries at the local store, but after being on my feet much of Thursday, even that tired me out.

This upcoming week may be a little busy as well. Tuesday Little Miss and I have an event in the evening with the local library for Summer Reading. We have another one Wednesday morning at a park 15 minutes away. Thursday is The Husband and my anniversary so we are going to lunch and then taking Little Miss to gymnastics that evening.

It won’t slow down much the following week as we have more summer reading programs and a church program each day of the week. We, luckily, don’t have events all day, every day, however.

I was so busy this week – or, again, my mind was – that I even forgot to watch my Marilyn Monroe movie and write about it. I will have to take the time to do that this week.

I enjoy warmer weather where we can get outside, swim, grill, etc., but I really do like it when it all slows down in the fall and winter and I can take my time a bit more. I have to admit that I become spoiled by not having to go a lot of places in the cooler months. I prefer watching my slow-living YouTubers, reading books, writing my sometimes silly books, washing dishes while I listen to an audiobook, and making cups of hot cocoa or tea.

How was your week last week? Was it super busy? Super slow and easy? Let me know in the comments.

Sunday Bookends: Horowitz, overly descriptive mysteries and swimming weather

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends2 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, and some weeks I share what I am listening to. This week I’ve also decided to join up with Kimba at the Caffeinated Book Reviewer.


What I/we’ve been Reading

I finished A Novel Disguise by Samantha Larsen his week. Well, sort of. I more like skimmed the last half because I was exhausted with the tedious descriptions of the main character getting dressed as her dead half-brother. The plot was hanging by a thread as it was but then add in three-paragraph-long descriptions of the clothes she had to dress in to look like her brother and I was pretty much over it. I enjoyed the writing style but the further I got into the book the more it felt like the author was trying to show off the research she’d done about colonial clothing instead of getting to the point of the story.

It was fine when she explained what clothes she needed to put on to look like her half-brother in the beginning but to keep doing it, complete with all the terms for each piece of clothing, each time she got dressed really dragged the book down. The book was 40 chapters long and I think she could have written the book in half that many chapters and it would have been much better. I did like the characters and the mystery, though, so I’m not saying I’d never read anything by this author again.

To cleanse my pallet (though the book was not horrible. Truly!) I am reading a Nancy Drew book – the first in the original series – and I’m about to start a Anthony Horowitz book – The Word is Murder (A Hawthorne and Horowitz Mystery Book 1).

This series of books is unique because Horowitz has written himself into the books.

I’m starting his book because I picked up my husband’s library book — The Twist of A Knife — and got hooked. The only issue is that The Twist of A Knife was the latest book in the series and there are three others before it that The Husband feels I need to read first. So I am starting with The Word is Murder.

Little Miss is reading The Boxcar Children: Surprise Island. I haven’t been reading to her at night the last couple of nights because she’s been so tired she’s been passing out before we can get to the reading.

The Husband read at least four books on his vacation, including the Horowitz book and a Janet Evanovich book.

What’s Been Occurring

I wrote about what we’ve been up to in my post yesterday and nothing worth nothing has happened since then. We have a fairly relaxed week upcoming with one event for summer reading at the local library and gymnastics, but not much else, thankfully.

What We watched/are Watching

This past week The Husband and I watched a Midsomer Murders, a Shakespeare and Hathaway (which was not very good but none of them from the Covid area were), and a lot of Newhart. We also watched the movie Niagara with Marilyn Monroe, which I wrote about on the blog.

I’ll be watching Some Like It Hot this week.

I watched a lot of Just A Few Acres on YouTube as well.


What I’m Writing

I am still working on Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage and finished up corrections on Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing so I can get that ready for release the week after next. I’m so close to the release date! I’m excited to release Gladwynn into the world. In August I will be sharing some of book two on my Substack for paid subscribers.

This week on the blog I shared:



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: Donkey farm visit, first jump in the pool, the smoke is back, and little country churches

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



Is it too warm in your neck of the woods for warm tea or coffee?

I have to say that is warming up here but I still enjoy some warm tea in the morning shortly after I wake up. I have not tried any new or exciting teas lately.

Today I am sipping water with lemonade mixed in. I mix the lemonade with water because this lemonade, which we pick up from Aldi, is very sour and acidic for my stomach, but I still like a bit of the flavor of it and it is also a sure way to get me to drink more water.

As I am writing this the sky is darkening up and it definitely feels and looks like we have a storm coming through or at least rain. That may put a damper on our plans for later today.

This week was both a slow and busy week.

It was mainly slow, but we had some events earlier in the week, including two library events that made it a little bit busy.

Both events were related to rescued donkeys and part of the local library’s summer reading program.

The first event was the reading of a book about rescued donkeys, some crafts related to the same topic, as well as a visit by a donkey to the library.

The next day we visited a donkey rescue farm. The Husband was on vacation and was able to go with us. Dark clouds and sprinkles of rain arrived when we drove to the farm but for the most part, the rain held off until after the visit was over.

The farm owners are originally from Maryland. The wife said part of the reason they moved to our area was because of the kindness the local people showed her and her husband when they had a part-time residence in the area.

Now the locals are even more accepting and helpful and also love the donkeys they’ve brought to the area.

After meeting the donkeys, I can see why. They are so friendly. A couple of times I thought they were looking for food, which I didn’t have, but it turned out they simply wanted extra attention. They love to have their heads scratched and seem to love being talked to as well.

I talked along to the one donkey, whose name I think was Tucker, like he was another person. He bumped his nose under my belly if I stopped talking to him or petting him, which reminded me that I am way fatter than I want to be but also that I’m short enough for a mini donkey to be able to stick his little snout under my belly fat.

Little Miss woke up that morning saying she wanted a donkey ride, but I told her I didn’t think they gave donkey rides. Somehow before we left, she convinced the owner to give her a quick ride on the donkey so her day was pretty much made.

She keeps asking to go back to the farm but this was a special event organized by the library so I don’t know that I would feel comfortable just calling up the place and asking if we can randomly drop by their farm because my child is in love with their donkeys. Who knows, maybe she can volunteer her time and help them around the farm.

The view from the pasture of the farm was absolutely amazing and reminded me why I don’t mind living in Northern Pennsylvania, even if we are an hour away from all the bigger towns and stores.

After we visited the farm, we stopped by an old church that I imagine was once also a one-room schoolhouse, but I’m not sure. I found an article online about it so I’ll read that and get back to you about that later this week.



The building was locked but we could see by looking inside that the structure features very old pews that are built into the floor and a woodstove like the ones pictured in the Little House on the Prairie books. I would imagine the stove doesn’t work anymore but the fact that is in such amazing shape was fascinating to me. If they ever have an open house there I am definitely going to go so I can check out the inside of the place.

It also featured an outhouse out back, but I’m guessing that is only for looks since the locks were painted over.

I have no idea if the church is still used regularly or not. Again, I’ll see what the article says.

There is a large, old cemetery on the hill behind the church, but we decided not to explore it since it had started raining. If we make our way out there again, though, I want to go into it since it sits high on a hill and there is probably an amazing view from it.

We had our first dip in my dad’s pool yesterday after weeks of Dad trying to get the thing clean. It was covered all winter but dirt and leaves, etc. fell into it so he had to run the filter, treat it, and run his new little pool-cleaning robot (Stella) too.

Alicia from For His Purpose (https://forhispurpose.blog/) asked yesterday if Stella did her job cleaning my Dad’s pool this past week. Stella is the robot that Dad picked up to clean his pool and he named it Stella to help him remember someone who helps him in physical therapy. I mentioned last week about how we lost Stella the first day Dad set her loose and I stood by the pool yelling “Stella!” ala Marlon Brando in Streetcar Named Desire.

This week we had to rename Stella June Bug because the real Stella was a little creeped out by the robot being named after her. I think she wasn’t really creeped out. She probably thought it was funny but Dad said he didn’t feel right pulling her out of the pool and announcing, “Stella had a bunch of garbage come out of her today.”

So we now have June Bug, a name Little Miss chose for her.

To answer Alicia’s question, yes, June Bug did a very nice job and cleaned up the pool well, which is one big reason why we could go swimming. That and the level of chlorine finally evened out.

Today we are relaxing but might visit the pool later. I’m not sure yet, because of the storms coming in.  When I started this post a bit ago, I was sure we would be over there tomorrow to jump in the pool and maybe help around the house, but I’ve since looked at the weather forecast and we might get rained out again. We will still go for some lunch most likely.

We were both rained out and smoked out of visiting the local state park while The Husband was on vacation this past week. Smoke, haze, and bad air quality drifted down from Canada again this week, keeping us inside much of Thursday. Luckily the smoke wasn’t as bad as it was in the first part of June.

I’m guessing we will be back at the pool someday next week since it is supposed to be much hotter than it has been, which is typical for July in our neck of the woods. The forecast says we could have temperatures in the high 80s, which I am not looking forward to.

How is the weather where you are? Is it blistering hot yet or just comfortable?

Did you have a nice week? Do anything exciting? Let me know in the comments, I’d love to hear (read) about it.

Sunday Bookends: cozy mysteries, sleepovers and still working on book two of the mystery series

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends1 Comment

It’s time for our Sunday 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, and some weeks I share what I am listening to.


What I/we’ve Been Reading

I finished Murder Simply Played by Rachael O. Phillips earlier today.

There are two others in this series – Amish Inn Mysteries – at my local library so I’m sure I’ll pick up the next one when we go to the Summer Reading program on Tuesday.



I’m now moving on to A Novel Disguise by Samantha Larsen, which I am part way through. It’s a historical cozy mystery and is keeping my attention, even though I think it’s a completely implausible plot line with a woman pretending to be her half-brother who died. I don’t know how she’s making herself look like her brother so much that no one can tell, but, okay. We will go with it, I guess. There also isn’t much of a mystery going on yet other than a few stolen items, but we will see where it goes. Her half-brother died of natural causes but I’m beginning to wonder if he might have been murdered.

The Husband is reading a CJ Box book he picked up at the library.

The Boy is on a break from reading for the summer.

Little Miss and I hope to start a Boxcar Children book tonight.



What’s Been Occurring

I rambled yesterday about what has been going on and mentioned Little Miss was having a sleepover with two friends (who are sisters). That went fairly well and Little Miss has her first sleepover under her belt. I think we will wait to do that again for a while but it really didn’t go as bad as I thought. They were to sleep pretty early and sleeping on the couch wasn’t the most comfortable arrangement for me but I slept better than I thought I would.

I’m surprised they stayed awake as long as they did since they ran full bore all day long. They were on the trampoline, the slip n’ slide, chasing each other on roller skates, and hoping all over the place all day long. When they finally sat down for a movie around 9, I thought they’d be out before the movie barely started.

This week The Husband is on vacation, and we have a couple of Summer Reading events to attend with Little Miss. Other than that, he will be at home reading books and watching mystery shows.

What We Watched/are Watching

This week I plan to watch Some Like It Hot with Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemon.

I also hope to carve out some time to watch some mystery shows with The Husband and Edwardian Farm by myself.

I also hope to watch a special on Ireland, most likely by myself, which is okay by me. I geek out on shows about other countries or castles, etc. and not everyone else in the family does, though The Husband occasionally does.

This past week I watched several videos by YouTubers I enjoy following, including Just A Few Acres Farms. I wrote about some of the YouTube Channels I watch and enjoy in a post on Friday and really appreciated the suggestions a couple of you left for me. I plan to check out those YouTubers as well.

What I’m Writing

I am still working on Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage, as well as finishing edits on Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing, which is available for pre-order (ebook only right now) on Amazon HERE.

On the blog this week I shared:

What I’m Listening To

I have been listening to Harry Connick Jr.’s. Red Light, Blue Light album this week.

Blog Posts I Enjoyed This Past Week

Dad Was Different by author Rachael O. Phillips


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.