Tag: week in review

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.

Saturday Afternoon Chat: Wild roses, cleaning out pools, and looking for crayfish

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Saturday Afternoon Tea11 Comments

Welcome to my corner of the internet for a Saturday afternoon chat.

Can I pour you a cup of tea or coffee? Maybe a glass of juice or just plain water?

I was out of honey all week this past week which meant I had to sweeten my tea with sugar. Yuck! It was awful.

I was so thankful to The Husband for picking me up some local honey yesterday I made myself a cup of tea even though it was humid and sticky.

Last Sunday we spent the day at my parents for Father’s Day where we helped my dad clean out the pool to try to get it ready for Little Miss and me to swim in for a couple of months this summer.

We were supposed to go back and help again this week, but Dad was either busy or the weather wasn’t great or, well, I completely forgot. This next week we will help again and hopefully, the pool will be ready soon.

Dad bought a robot to clean the inside of the pool. You start it up and lower it in the pool and the idea is that it rolls around the bottom and picks up all the dirt, leaves, and other messy stuff.

Dad decided he was going to name the robot Stella as a bit of a joke because he kept forgetting the name of the therapist that helps during his therapy boxing class. He dropped her in at one point and came back in the house and I went out to get a shirt from the car I wanted to change into before I started skimming the pool. When I started to the car, though, he told me I had to hurry and help him find Stella.

“Our pool is so dirty, she’s probably full already. Hurry and help me find her because she has the pool so stirred up, I can’t see anything and she might burn her motor out.”

So, The Husband and I ran to help. My way of helping was to yell “Stella! Stella!” like I was Marlon Brando in Streetcar Named Desire while my dad and husband searched for the robot and eventually found her. They used the end of a cane to scoop her out because the hook she came with hadn’t been put together yet.

Later in the afternoon we went inside and searched for photographs of my grandfather to use for a video that I want to pair with audio we have of him singing at a fairground near us. I had already made one video for my dad, which I shared on here last week, but I had another song and wanted to add more photos since that was the original plan for the other video.

The audio was transferred, I think, from a reel-to-reel years ago.

While looking through the photos, we found photos of my grandparents when they were young, my grandfather singing, my grandparents on their 55th wedding anniversary, my grandfather with his arm around some Hawaiian girls when he and Grandma visited Hawaii, and him with his cousin when they were young boys. The Boy looked at the photo of him hugging the Hawaiian girls with wide eyes but I explained that visitors are greeted when they arrive by young ladies and gentlemen with leis to hang over the necks of the visitors.

After we left my dad found a pile of photos of him singing and acting at community events.

If you haven’t guessed already from my writing that I have audio of my grandfather singing, he was a well-known local singer who performed for local community and fundraising events. We also have a recording of him singing at a local television station but for some reason, we only have the audio and not the video.

I know I mentioned last week that I never had the opportunity to get to know my grandfather because he died when I was 2. I only know him through stories, his poems (of which we have tons), his journals (which mainly consisted of him writing about the weather and the errands he ran that day so nothing super personal), and photographs.

On Tuesday Little Miss was able to meet with a friend who she normally only talks to online (through a kid-safe video chat). The girl’s family came to town for a dentist appointment for her dad, and we met them by the soccer field behind the dentist’s office. After the appointment, I took Little Miss and her friend to a local restaurant for ice cream. Then they explored the tiny stream that runs by the restaurant. Little Miss was looking for crayfish – which I learned this week many of you refer to as crawdads.  We didn’t have a net to catch one and she was afraid it would pinch her when she tried to pick it up so we are going to get a net soon and take her to a creek where she can catch one.

I wandered out into our yard later that day to photograph our roses because I know they will be gone soon. I miss it so much when our roses are gone. I miss the flowers and really need to take some lessons from my neighbor on how to grow them because she has beautiful flowers all summer long.

On Wednesday Little Miss had a short Summer Reading program at the local library (a book read and a craft) and The Boy went to a sleepover and birthday party for a friend.

On Thursday, The Husband took Little Miss to gymnastics and I watched a special with James Cameron on the 25th anniversary of the Titanic movie. I’m going to write a separate blog post about that one because – I have issues with it. Ha!

Yesterday I spent most of the day doing what I did Thursday which was washing dishes and doing laundry but not actually getting to the folding of the laundry. Ahem. But I did get it washed at least. On Wednesday I even hung laundry out on our clothesline, which I don’t know if I will do again because it was all stiff when I took it off for some reason.

Yesterday was very, very humid and rainy and today was supposed to be more of the same, but so far it feels much better. I am a fan of rain when it is cold out, not when it is all sticky and gross and makes my head feel icky.

Little Miss is having some friends over today and a planned sleepover with them, which will be her first time having a sleepover. Well, second, but we had to take her friend home in the middle of the night that first time. This time she is having two friends over so hopefully it goes better.

We are supposed to have rain for the next week, which will be great for the farmers and the ground, but will sort of stink because The Husband has the whole week off from work and we were going to go to a local state park which also features a lake we can swim in, but it looks like we might not be able to do that because of the rain.

How was your week last week? Do anything interesting? Let me know in the comments and tell me if you’ve found any good teas to try. I’ve written down a few of your suggestions and have been adding them to my shopping lists to try in the future.

Sunday Bookends: library visits, blooming flowers, books that make me cringe, and music to write to

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

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


What I/we’ve been Reading

I will be finishing The Regal Pink by Jenny Knipfer today and I have really enjoyed it. I am not just saying this because I consider Jenny an author friend. I went into this book concerned I wouldn’t like it because I am not a fan of “fantasy” type books but, yet again, I was wrong to be concerned. This is the third Christian fantasy book I have read that has captured my heart. Much like two books by author Max Sternberg, I fell in love with the characters of this book and also Jenny’s writing style. I honestly think that fantasy is the genre she’s meant to write in.

I’ll ramble about the book a little bit more in a review later this week.

I started a Nora Roberts book yesterday because Little Miss picked it out for me at the library. I have never read Nora Roberts but have been told by a friend that once I read this one, I have read all of her books.

This is actually a pair of Christmas novellas combined and it looked like it would be a quick read, but after reading up to chapter four last night I just know I am not going to be able to get through this without cringing anymore than I already have. It is so ridiculous. Seriously.

The guy is gone for ten years, comes back for town to see the woman who he left behind but asked to wait for him. She married while he was gone though, crushing his spirits. When he comes back, though, he finds out that day that she’s divorced and seconds after he finds that out they are making out. Like — what???

And of course, he meets the woman’s daughter and of course, I already know the daughter is his. Such a cliché trope. No thank you. That book is currently in my DNF (did not finish) pile.

Little Miss had no idea what she was picking out. She said she thought it was a cozy mystery. She also picks out small, 5.5 x 7.5 books because they are cute and if she likes the cover. It is a cute cover. I felt bad telling her it was a bad pick but oh my — it is not my cup of tea.

I’ll be trying my library pick once I finish a couple on my Kindle. That pick was:

I’m still reading All That Really Matters by Nicole Deese and enjoying it, but I wanted to finish Jenny’s book so I set it aside for now.

And as if I didn’t have enough to read, I have a cozy mystery from Libby that came in much earlier than I thought so I may start that this week and still put All That Really Matters aside.

The book is A Novel Disguise by Samantha Larsen. I really enjoyed the sample I read and looked at it after someone on Instagram suggested it.

For anyone who might be interested, here is the description:

1784 London.Miss Tiffany Woodall didn’t murder her half-brother, but she did bury him in the back garden so that she could keep her cottage. Now, the confirmed spinster has to pretend to be Uriah and fulfill his duties as the Duke of Beaufort’s librarian while searching Astwell Palace for Uriah’s missing diamond pin, the only thing of value they own. Her ruse is almost up when she is discovered by Mr. Samir Lathrop, the local bookseller, who tries to save her from drowning while she’s actually just washing up in a lake after burying her brother.

Her plan is going by the book, until the rector proposes marriage and she starts to develop feelings for Mr. Lathrop.  But when her childhood friend, Tess, comes to visit, Tiffany quickly realizes her secret isn’t the only one hidden within these walls.  The body of a servant is found, along with a collection of stolen items, and someone else grows mysteriously ill. Can Tiffany solve these mysteries without her own disguise  being discovered? If not, she’ll lose her cottage and possibly her life.

The Boy is not reading right now but this week I have to get him to finish Fellowship of the Ring so he can say he read it.

The Husband is reading —

Little Miss and I are reading Little House on Plum Creek and then I picked up a Boxcar Children book yesterday at the library so I hope we can start that this week.



What’s Been Occurring

I wrote a bit about last week in my Saturday Afternoon post yesterday. Mainly I wrote that our flowers are blooming and we visited my parents. Not a very exciting week overall.

I did take a few more photographs of the roses and peonies yesterday to share on here:

This week the local library’s Summer Reading program starts.

They are offering an open sidewalk chalk art event on Tuesday and on Wednesday they are doing a Lego-themed storytime.

On Saturday of next week, I am supposed to have a sleepover with Little Miss’s friends because they have been asking for one for forever. I am not really looking forward to it because there is no sleep had during a sleepover and the one who won’t sleep will most likely be me and I already don’t sleep so great.

Plus I snore and I am worried I will keep the kids awake, but we will see how it goes.

What I’m/We’re Watching

Last week I watched a lot of Forgotten Way Farms on YouTube.

The Husband and I didn’t have a lot of time to watch things together but did watch a Barnaby Jones episode, which I made a lot of fun of. We also watched some Newhart.

What I’m Writing

I have been working on book two of the Gladwynn Grant Mysteries.

On the blog this past week I shared:

What I’m Listening To

This week I listened to James Herriot’s Treasury for Children on Audible. We don’t have a membership to Audible but we did for a while, so we purchased several books on sale. This was one of them.

I loved the sweet stories with happy endings in this book. Each story is about a cat or dog that Alfred Wight took care of or met during his time as a vet.

When I write I also listen to a mix of music from the 1930s and 1940s, including this playlist on YouTube:

This week I also listened to Samantha Fish and Matthew West (yes. Two completely different artists.)

Blog Posts I Enjoyed This Past Week Or Recently

Mama’s Empty Nest: Birthday Joy

Scott Tirrell: Well, I’m Stumped (about his writing journey)

Katja: Notorious

Over the Teacups: Names of Jesus



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: reading cozy mysteries, watching a show about a victorian farm, and fun with Little Miss’s friends

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday BookendsLeave a comment

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.


What I/we’ve been Reading

Last week I finished Death and Daisies by Amanda Flower, which is part of the Magic Garden Mystery series.

I borrowed the first and second books in the series from Libby and then found out that my local library hadn’t put book three in. Argh! Hopefully they will eventually so I can finish the series.

The books are pretty good but are I don’t know that I like how the mysteries are always solved in less than a week. In book two the ending was so abrupt that it was like the story just hit a wall – pretty literally actually. The stories are entertaining, though, and I guess she solves the mysteries fast to keep the action going non-stop, which keeps the reader turning the page. They are well-written books and just a nice escape from life, even if there were a couple of things I didn’t like about them.

 I read plenty of books that I don’t like every aspect of it but still enjoyed the escape from life I experienced while reading them. If I didn’t like the books at all then I wouldn’t have added another one of her books from a different series to my Kindle this weekend from Libby and wouldn’t be hoping to get book three for less than the $13 being charged on Amazon for the eBook edition. I’m going to wait and see if I can get it on Libby instead at some point. I find it odd that you can get the other two books in mass paperback for $8 but it’s $13 for even an ebook for the new one, even though it is three years old, but I’ll never understand how publishers work.

Anyhow, enough rambling about books and costs and etc., etc. Here is a quick description of book two of the Magic Garden series in case you are wondering what it was about:
Fiona Knox thought she was pulling her life back together when she inherited her godfather’s cottage in Duncreigan, Scotland—complete with a magical walled garden. But the erstwhile Tennessee flower shop owner promptly found herself puddle boot-deep in danger when she found a dead body among the glimmering blossoms. One police investigation and a handsome Chief Inspector names Neil Craig later and Fiona’s life is getting back on a steady—though bewitched—track. Her sister Isla has just moved in with her, and the grand opening of her new spellbound venture, the Climbing Rose Flower Shop in Aberdeenshire, is imminent.

But dark, ensorcelled clouds are gathering to douse Fiona’s newly sunny outlook. First, imperious parish minister Quaid MacCullen makes it undeniably clear that he would be happy to send Fiona back to Tennessee. Then, a horrific lightning storm, rife with terrible omen, threatens to tear apart the elderly cottage and sends Fi and Isla cowering under their beds. The storm passes, but then, Fi is called away from the Climbing Rose’s opening soiree when Kipling, the tiny village’s weak-kneed volunteer police chief, finds a dead body on the beach.

The body proves difficult to identify, but Kipling is certain it’s that of the parish minister. Which makes Fiona, MacCullen’s new nemesis, a suspect. And what’s worse, Isla has seemed bewitched as of late…did she do something unspeakable to protect her sister? The last thing Fiona wanted to do was play detective again. But now, the rosy future she’d envisioned is going to seed, and if she and Craig can’t clear her name, her idyllic life will wilt away. 

Since I didn’t have book three, I jumped back into my first Nicole Deese book, All That Really Matters. It is a romance and I know where it is going but it is well-written so I’m going to keep reading it.

I am also reading The Regal Pink by Jenny Knipfer. This is a faith-based fantasy book and so far, I am enjoying it, even though it is not my normal genre.

I’m switching between books based on my mood like I usually do since I am mainly a mood reader.

Little Miss and I are still re-reading Little House on Plum Creek, but I have a few other books on my list that I hope we can start soon.


What’s Been Occurring

I posted a little bit about what was happening last week on my post yesterday if you want to read that to catch up, but I will warn you that it wasn’t terribly exciting. *wink* There was a little sadness, a bit of stress, and a lot of wildfire smoke.

Yesterday Little Miss had a friend over and we attended a graduation party for our neighbor’s daughter who graduated from high school Friday night.

The party was held at a small hall down the street from our house but then it was moved back up to the neighbor’s house, which let Little Miss and her friend play with our neighbor’s grandsons and some other children who came to the party for a little while.

She and her friend jumped on the trampoline, then played on the slip n’ slide, then went to the trampoline, then back to the slip n’ slide and so on. I’m not sure about the other kids, but my daughter slept pretty hard last night after all that playing. I also let her sleep in this morning.

We finished school last week and are looking forward to our summer break to refresh our minds and souls. We are hoping for some relaxing days, a little bit of fun, and a lot of time to simply take our time and not feel like we have any obligations to do anything intentionally academic.

What We Watched/are Watching

I started watching Victorian Farm on BritBox this week because Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs has talked about it quite a few times to me and on her blog. It is an interesting show about how farmers lived in the Victorian age in England.

Here is a little description in case you are curious:

This historical documentary series finds archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn and domestic historian Ruth Goodman on the Acton Scott estate, located in rural England and frozen in the Victorian era. The trio lives here for a year, using only Victorian-era tools and materials, such as those found scattered around the estate, to re-create everyday life during the late 1800s. The three must grow and harvest their own food, care for and breed a variety of livestock animals, maintain the estate’s buildings and even craft their own tools and furniture.

The Husband and I also watched a few episodes of Newhart on Amazon last week because it is such a lovely escape from life.

This morning I watched a sermon from Elevation Church and then I watched another one with Robert Madu from Social Dallas. Both were very good. One was about our need to connect with other Christians and the other one was about Jonah and God’s call on his life and on our life. Then I watched half of another sermon by Robert, which was about loving others even we do not agree with them because God loves them even if he does not love what they do (just like he often doesn’t love what we do).

What I’m Writing

I am working on Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage, book two in the Gladwynn Grant Mysteries. The first book comes out July 18th.

Last 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.

Sunday Bookends: I Finally Finished Fellowship of the Ring, and other unimportant things

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends3 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.


What I/we’ve Been Reading

I did it! I finally finished The Fellowship of the Ring! It only took me four months (or was it five?), but I did it.

Now, did I like it?

Yes and no.

I really loved the characters and fell in love with them. I didn’t love the descriptions of trees and where they were walking as much, but I also didn’t hate them.

In some ways, I felt like entire sections of descriptions could be cut but this was a book written at a time when television and the internet were not even around or weren’t as popular. Long descriptions that may seem a bit overdone to us now were entertaining to readers back then. They are still entertaining to many readers now. I really did like the book but sometimes my eyes started to cross when he was describing what the trees on the left looked like and the trees on the right looked like and the trees in front and the trees behind and  . . .

Well, you get my drift.

He wrote a lot about trees.

Imagine my sadness too when I realized that this book was not the actual ending.

I thought this book was when Frodo threw the ring to the fire, but, alas, no. There are two more books after this one! And both are just about as long.

Not only that but when J.R.R. Tolkien originally wrote the books, they were meant to be released as one huge volume. I mean – really?? It would have been like a 1500-page book or something. Yikes! You could kill a person if you hit them with that.

I guess it is better that the books are broken into “bite-sized” chunks but I can’t imagine how frustrating it must have been for readers in the 1950s to get that first book and think they were going to get some resolution – that all that reading about trees was going to pay off with Frodo completing his mission – only to get to the end and realize that that book was only the beginning.

Tolkien was like the George R.R. Martin of his time. Of course, I’m kidding. Tolkien was the father of Modern Fantasy so Martin is really just following in his footsteps. The only difference is that Martin will probably never finish his opus. Ha.

Now that I’ve finished Fellowship of the Ring, I need some lighter reads, so I am reading the second book in the Magic Garden Mysteries by Amanda Flower – Death and Daisies. I borrowed it through Libby, and it is due this week so I need to get reading. Her books are very fast reads so I should be able to do it if I just put down my phone and focus! Easier said than done these days.

I’ve also just borrowed a book by Andrew Klavan called When Christmas Comes because I’ve heard a lot about his writing and want to try one of his books and it was only one of two of his available to borrow on Libby. I guess Stephen King endorsed the book, which is funny because they two of them have vastly different political views.

Little Miss and I are still reading The Cabin Faced West during the day and Little House in the Big Woods at night.

The Husband is reading Jack Reacher: Better Off Dead by Lee and Andrew Child.

The Boy is losing his mind trying to finish The Fellowship of the Ring.


What’s Been Occurring

Earlier today Little Miss and I went to a Memorial Day service with The Husband. He had to take photos of it for the paper. The service was a man playing the bagpipes and he did a very nice job. I think there was supposed to be more to the service, but the Civil War reenactors didn’t show up. Not sure why. It was still a nice tribute to our fallen soldiers and held in a cemetery that has recently been revitalized.

Afterwards, we stopped at a playground near the cemetery and explored a creek behind the playground. Little Miss had more fun at the creek, partially because the playground is out in the blazing sun and partially because she just loves exploring nature.

Tomorrow we will visit my parents for Memorial Day and plan to have a cookout there.

We don’t have much on tap the rest of the week. I may visit my mom and help clean her kitchen floor but that’s not very exciting. I’m sure I won’t feel the need to blog about that. *wink*

What We Watched/are Watching

This past week The Husband I watched a Poirot and a Brokenwood Mysteries. Yes, I know. It’s the same every week lately, but hey, we are creatures of habit.

I also watched Suspicion with Cary Grant and blogged about that.

Then I watched Forgotten Way Farms and Darling Desi on YouTube.

What I’m Writing

I am working on book two of the Gladwynn Grant Mysteries and a book I am going to release in 2024. When I run out of ideas for one, I switch to the other.

This week on the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening To

I have not been listening to music and I hope to remedy that this week and listen to more.

Blog Posts I Enjoyed This Past 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.

Saturday Afternoon Chat: Still cold in our neck of the woods, digging holes, weird grocery shopping trips and homeschool wrapping up this week

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

I am writing this post while – yet again – sitting under a blanket with a dog cuddled against me.

Yes, it is still a bit chilly in Pennsylvania but that is set to change next week when temperatures will finally rise into the mid-80s.

I have mentioned before that I like chilly weather and being able to curl up under a blanket with a good book and have an excuse to not go anywhere and instead just stay at home and read a book. Still, 50 and 60 degree days this close to summer is a bit odd.

I remember one summer when Little Miss was a baby, and The Boy was also young, that it was very cold almost the entire summer. It was either cold and raining and it ruined many summer plans, especially swimming at a public pool near us – which is no longer public, sadly. The Boy was severely depressed he couldn’t do most of his summer activities. Now he no longer swims or does too many summer activities – like digging holes in the backyard. I miss that.

One summer he started digging a hole in the backyard. Why? I don’t know. Even he didn’t know. He just wanted to see how far he could get and what the hole would become. He was around 11 and I think it was around the time his closest friend stopped talking to him because I had chosen to pull him from the private Christian school he was attending at the time. Long story short, my son was having difficulties with a teacher and having panic attacks.

Regardless of all the other details, my son found new fun in his life and digging that hole was part of his fun.

He’d grab his shovel and head out into the backyard and play some music and dig a hole. Sometimes his sister would join in.

Anyhow, I have digressed a lot in this post. Back to my week recap.

This past week was very uneventful, other than an issue with the inside of my mouth and a broken tooth I’m having. Right now, I can’t get the tooth fixed because I don’t have insurance or money for the dentist (like up to $300 just to come in and see what needs to be done. No thanks.) I am thankful I am not in excruciating pain but talking has been interesting since I ripped my cheek muscle trying to get a look at the broken tooth. Fun times and stupid move by me. Hopefully it will all heal soon or I will find the money to get the one tooth pulled.

Thursday Little Miss and I drove the van up to be fixed by an exhaust specialist because the van’s exhaust system has a big hole in it.

The Husband met us there from work and brought us home. While trying to turn around because I drove past the place, some very angry man cursed at me out his truck window. I think it was at me. I’m not sure. All I know is that he sounded very angry, used extremely bad words, and then flipped off someone as I pulled out. No idea if it was at me or not because I was already going the other direction by the time he got his hand out the window.

Before we took the van, we stopped at the library to sign Little Miss up for the summer reading program and for her to pick out a few books.

Yesterday we had to pick the van back up and grab some groceries. That was a whole drama as it often is when I get groceries. Something weird happens almost every time I go. One time I locked myself out of our van and our spare keys don’t work to unlock it and the key fob lock button doesn’t work on it. It was a whole thing. Another time the youngest was just about starving and I had to get her food before we could go. This time the key fob fell off the keychain and disappeared into the void of Aldi or the parking lot or my van or I don’t even know. It was just gone. This meant I was once again stranded at Aldi with no way to get home until The Husband (who’d already had a super, super long day) could come and get me. He’d already headed home to rest because he had to take photos for the paper at a Twitty & Lynn concert. If you don’t know who they are, they are the grandchildren of Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn. Having them perform in our area was a little weird since there is nothing out here but trees and bears, but, alas there they were.

Speaking of bears, The Boy was up very late one night last week and looked out his upstairs window to see the outline of a bear in the dark sniffing our grill on the back porch. He said it was too dark to see it very well but that he could hear the bear breathing.

He left a note letting his dad know about the incident and then The Husband read in the local paper (not the one he works with) that a bear has been seen wandering our street and the streets around us.

I have been trying to see a bear for three years but only from the safety of my house. However, after hearing one is actually roaming our backyard, I’ve decided I don’t want to see one. I was even too afraid to take Little Miss to the neighbor’s trampoline this week in case the bear came out of the small woods behind it. I have no idea what I would do if a bear came out while we were up there.

It’s fairly rare for a bear to come out during the day, but a young bear was in the yard of a friend of ours down the street last summer and it had no interest in leaving, even with her daughter’s dog barked at it. Zooma the Wonder Dog likes to go with us when we go up to the trampoline and I know she’d try to defend us. This week I am going to look up what we should do because it is supposed to be very nice out, and it will be nice weather to jump on the trampoline. Or it will be too hot to jump on the trampoline. Not sure which yet. We never can tell with Pennsylvania weather.

Today we had gymnastics for Little Miss and then we will have a week off from gymnastics.

School is winding down for us and we are mainly tackling last minute tasks such as finishing book reports and a research paper for The Boy, since I am required to have writing samples for him now that he is in high school.

Our last official day of school is June 2 and then we meet with the evaluator the next week. The evaluator will go over what work we did for the year and then write up a report that says we did what we needed to do under the requirements of our state’s homeschool law. We then hand that in to the school district and the year is officially done when the superintendent sends us a letter saying we have done what we needed to do – again – under state law.

I mentioned above that I signed Little Miss up for the local Summer Reading Program. That starts June 20th and is every Tuesday and Wednesday. It runs for about a month and should keep us busy and at the library at least a couple of times a week.

The Boy is still working at a local restaurant, at least for the summer. His schedule will get busier in the fall because he is going to be attending a trade school near us a couple of times a week in addition to homeschool, so he plans to quit his job.

I have not been drinking as much tea lately because I am out of honey. I planned to get some yesterday but after all the drama, I just wanted to head home. In place of honey, I used sugar. Yuck. I don’t know how I ever drank anything in it with sugar. It’s just too sweet and doesn’t taste right.

Since it will be warm this upcoming week I’ll probably stick to cool water or cool water with a bit of grape juice mixed in.

How about you? What have you been drinking and what will you be drinking this upcoming week? Herbal tea? Iced tea? Lemonade? Let me know in the comments and let me know how your week was.

Sunday Bookends: Good but unrealistic books, what are these flowers? And super cold weather in May.

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends13 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.


What I/we’ve Been Reading


Last week I finished Flowers and Foul Play by Amanda Flower. I liked the book for the most part but did find how the case happened and was solved all within a matter of a few days (and the police inspector started to fall for the main character) farfetched but so is a garden that comes to life when the main character walks into it. So, I suppose, you need to suspend some belief when reading Flower’s books, but that’s okay. They are a nice escape.

I have the second book in the series in my Kindle now. I’ll see if it is as ridiculous in its timeline as the first. Again, though, I still enjoyed the book, even if the timeline was a bit silly to me. My books are silly too so…I’m not going to get too up in arms about it all.

I am determined to finish Fellowship of The Ring this week even though I feel like I will never finish the book. Every time I think I’m almost done, I look, and I have several more chapters left. I have four chapters left but considering Tolkien’s chapters are like 100 pages each, I have like four more novellas left. Sigh.

I’m enjoying the book, even though it is very long. I have also paused during the reading of it to finish the cozy mystery I am writing and read other books, so that is another reason it is taking so long to read.

I started reading Anne of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery, which I hope is better than Anne’s House of Dreams, which was extremely depressing. Reading about the innocent, wide-eyed Anne growing up is a bit depressing honestly. Within the first two chapters of this book Anne is lamenting growing old and talking with her best friend Diana about how she’d love to be young again. All of that conversation hit a wee bit close to home for me. I think I might prefer reading about the young Anne since that is more of an escape for me. Reading about her older with five kids is a bit too much reality for me, I think. We will see.


What’s Been Occurring

I didn’t get a Saturday Afternoon Chat post written because we were gone all day yesterday for gymnastics, a family picnic and then a movie with The Husband, The Boy, and Little Miss.

I know I should just write their real names on here, but I can’t seem to stop writing the nicknames, so I’ll keep doing that.

Earlier this week I was writing blog posts under a blanket with a warm cup of tea.

Under a blanket in May?

Yep. I was,

This week’s weather was cold. Yes. Cold. In May. It was so cold that on Wednesday night into Thursday we had a freeze warning. Not a frost warning. A freeze warning. It dropped to 32 degrees and it killed part of my lilacs. Not cool, Pennsylvania. Not cool at all. The death was a bit slow too. They looked pretty good the next day but by this morning they have shriveled. It makes me want to cry. I’ve really been looking forwards to the flowers blooming in our yard and having them ripped away just as they started to bloom feels very cruel.

I’ve heard that we are going to have a mild summer and if May is an indication, those predictions are accurate.

Little Miss and I did get outside at least one day for a jump on the trampoline. She jumped. I read from the historical fiction book we are using for history.

Both of us are more than ready for school to be over this year and it will be on June 2.

Dragging through our schoolwork has not been easy at all.

As I’ve mentioned before, though, we are focusing mainly on art and music for the month of May and that has been easier than pushing through Math every single day. We still have some math I would like to finish before the school year is all the way done, though, so the kid will have to suck it up a bit this week and next.

Abrupt topic shift warning: At the park yesterday before the movie, I saw this tree. Does anyone know what it is? Because I had no idea. From a distance, I thought it was a lilac tree but it is not.

What We watched/are Watching

I mentioned above that we went to the movies yesterday.

The Husband and I split with the kids. Originally, we were all going to go see Guardians of the Galaxy 3 but shifted gears late in the week when we heard that the movie was pretty intense in language, etc. We thought it might be a bit much for Little Miss who is not a fan of violence or swearing.

She wanted to see Super Mario Brothers anyhow, so we lucked out that they were both playing at the small theater near us, which has four theaters. That’s a lot for our little theaters around here.

The only issue was that Super Mario Brothers didn’t start until 45 minutes after their movie started so Little Miss and I wasted some time with a piece of red velvet cake and a juice pack for her and a cup of tea for me.

We also looked at all the artwork at the theater.

While we were in the movie it hit me that this was a Chris Pratt weekend since he plays Star Lord in the Guardians movies, and he voices Mario.

Earlier in the week The Husband and I watched an episode of Poirot and an episode of Brokenwood Mysteries.

Little Miss and I watched Mary Berry episodes and she rewatched Bluey again.

What I’m Writing

I have been working a little bit on book two in the Gladwynn Grant Mysteries and a little on blog posts and a little on..well, I’ve just been working on a little of a lot of stuff.

What I’m Listening To

Elevation Worship has a new album out this week so I will probably be listening to that a lot 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.