Sunday Bookends: He is Risen! And I feel like the books I am reading are very long.

On April 20, 2025April 20, 2025 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon9 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.

First things first – He has risen! He has risen indeed! Happy Easter!

Remember when I was all like, “I need some warmer weather. It’s too cold!”

Well, I thought we’d go into the warmer weather gradually, not one day it’s 35 and I’m wearing a winter coat to a day later it’s almost 80 and humid.

That’s Pennsylvania for you.

I didn’t enjoy the humid weather yesterday, but I did enjoy nicer weather the day before when it allowed me to sit on the front porch and read some while Little Miss drew on the sidewalk with chalk.

I am going to miss my evenings watching Murder She Wrote with a blanket over my lap.

Oh wow. Did I just write that?

I am officially old, aren’t I? Talking about watching Murder She Wrote with my blanket and a cup of tea. *wink*

Oh well. It’s where I am in life and I am okay with that. I’ll just have to watch Murder She Wrote with a glass of lemonade or cold ice water instead.

Today we will have Easter dinner with my parents and maybe watch a movie together.

This doesn’t really go with the rest of this section, but I hit 103 subscribers on my little YouTube Channel yesterday. Whoot!

Guys, gals, blog readers! I feel like I may never finish the two long books I’ve been reading! I know I will and have moved my focus to just one of the books to make it even more likely I actually finish of them this week.

I have been reading both The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien and All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot, switching off between the two depending on my mood, and they are taking forever! They seem so long. I read them on my kindle at night and I swear that I will be reading for an hour, look down at the percentage and realize I’ve barely made a dent in the book!

I finally realized they are both 400-page books, which isn’t really a lot, but can drag a book out when you’re only reading a chapter here and there. Even though they are long books, I am really enjoying them. I am especially enjoying The Two Towers even if it is a bit wordy.

I love the characters and all their different quirks, even if I have gotten a bit lost since we met up with King Theoden and his peeps. Now I am getting too many characters thrown at me, but that’s how fantasy books are so I am just taking it all in stride.

I hope to dig into a book of short stories by Louis L’Amour this week that my husband picked up at the library for me but I have also started a Hardy Boys book and am enjoying that. That, of course, won’t take me long to read since it is only about 200 pages long.

Little Miss and I finished The Littlest Voyageur by Margi Preus this week and really enjoyed it. It was about a squirrel who travels with river voyagers in Canada and learns the hard way that a fur trade is going on. It dealt with the subject of the fur trade in a very cute way and didn’t become as preachy as I thought it was going to. There was a lot of history woven into the book, which on the surface seemed to simply focus on a squirrel and his dream to become a river explorer.

The Boy is reading Warhammer books. I don’t remember which one he is on now.

Last week it was old mystery shows. The Rockford Files with a guest appearance by Tom Selleck early in the week. That episode was hilarious. Then it was Murder She Wrote, including a two parter where Jessica was in Ireland. Those two were very good. I’ve watched some real duds but this was in season 12 so they must have had better writers by then.

Yesterday I watched a 1934 movie called She Had to Choose. It was interesting and had me shouting at the screen a couple of times because I was so stressed at some of the decisions being made. As is with most movies from that era, it was about 60 minutes long.

I also rewatched Paris Blues for the Springtime in Paris feature that Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are doing until the beginning of May.

You can learn more about it here and if you want to jump in you can link up your impressions of the movies at any time at the link on the page. /

I’m working on the fourth book in the Gladwynn Grant Mystery series. I actually wrote an entire paragraph this week. Ha! I hope to write even more this upcoming week.

If you want to read the other three books in the series you can find them here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Lisa-Howeler/author/B07Y3W52FD?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true&ccs_id=654deb79-0e34-4d05-94d1-a81a4bd0ca0d

Last week on the blog I shared:

While I wash dishes I listen to a book and right now that book is The Two Towers.

Also, this:

and this:

Photos From Last Week

Now It’s Your Turn

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

This post is linked up with The Sunday Post at Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, The Sunday Salon with Deb at Readerbuzz, and Book Date: It’s Monday! What are you reading hosted by Kathyrn at The Book Date.

Saturday Afternoon Chat: Reading on the front porch

On April 19, 2025April 19, 2025 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Saturday Afternoon Tea4 Comments

Last night I was sitting out on the porch, reading The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien, enjoying the warmer weather. I looked out at our front yard and yes, our old maple tree is missing, but it doesn’t feel as weird as it did the first few days after it was gone.

One night this week the wind was whipping outside, and I got that familiar clench in my gut that I always get when the wind blows and I worried about that big tree out there and what might happen if part of it fell. Then I remembered that there was no tree, and I didn’t have to worry about it anymore. Relief flowed over me.

We had two nicer days this week, but yesterday was even warmer and nicer. On Thursday, I couldn’t take sitting outside to read because the wind was just too cold. Yesterday, though, it was love and warm, despite the wind.

Little Miss drew with sidewalk chalk while I read. This was after we’d traveled the thirty minutes up and thirty minutes back to retrieve a grocery pick up from Aldi and spent a couple hours at my parents while The Boy helped his grandfather rearrange tools in the garage.

Little Miss wanted to take a ride on my dad’s golf cart, so we did that while we waited.

Today Little Miss, The Husband, and The Boy went to an Easter egg hunt.

We will spend the rest of the day hanging out and maybe watching a family movie. We’ll also be getting ready for Easter tomorrow.

We don’t usually attend an in-person church but will be trying to do so tomorrow so we can find more friends for Little Miss. After that there will be a small Easter egg hunt in our backyard and then lunch at my parents.

It feels weird to be home alone. The house was so quiet. It’s usually me and at least one of the kids. Shortly after they left, I looked for a movie to watch and settled on one from 1934 that I’d never heard of. It’s called She Had To Choose.

I had to choose it because the man on the preview was quite handsome

I might also have time for a Murder She Wrote. I watched a couple episodes from Season 12 and they were well done. Better than some from the earlier seasons. The Husband says the writers probably got better, one, and two, it was the final season so they went all out for it. I would say they did. So far there are at least three episodes filmed overseas, or at least the story takes place overseas.

Earlier this week The Husband took Little Miss to a meeting of the chamber of commerce in the town he works on to show her how small organizations work. It was a good educational experience, but Little Miss said she was bored and “zoned out” toward the beginning. She will still be asked to write a paragraph to share in her homeschool portfolio.

Before the meeting they visited the library in that town and The Husband picked me up a book of short stories by Louis L’Amour and his biography. I am looking forward to reading both. That’s if I ever finish The Two Towers and my James Herriot book. Both seem very long and dense. I am going to finish The Two Towers this week and am savoring the Herriot book, reading a chapter here and there before bed.

After the library visit and meeting, The Husband took Little Miss to an ice cream stand which also has a playground.

They had a good time.

I was at home enjoying the weather, even though it was chillier that day.

We have finally fixed The Husband’s old truck and that means Little Miss and I will have a car during the week. Where we will go with said car, I am not sure, but I do know I will be headed to my parents once or twice a week to help clean and maybe cook them some meals. They are definitely slowing down these days and could use the help.

I can hardly believe there is only about a month and a half left of the school year.

Little Miss and I will be focused on art the final month of the year, like we did last year. We will be reading about artists, watching documentaries on them and doing art most days with some math lessons and literature thrown in. Little Miss isn’t excited that I’ll be having her do a couple math lessons a week during the summer to help her not forget what she’s learned for next school year.

The Boy graduates at the end of May and will be looking for a job shortly afterward. Yes that fact has my mind racing but I am trying to reel my emotions in a little bit when everyone is around and having a good cry when they aren’t.

On Wednesday I visited my parents and dug into some old history, finding some extra letters from my great-great grandfather that I had wanted to find before so that I can write a final post to my series about my ancestors who fought in the Civil War. In the final post I want to follow up with how the brothers continued their lives after finding out Charles had died in Libby Prison.

If you haven’t read those posts, you can find them here:

Voices from the past: Letters written during the Civil War by my family members. Part 1

Voices from the past: The Fate of a Brother

How was your week last week? Did you do anything exciting? Is the weather warming up where you are? Let me know in the comments so we can catch up.

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Do you write a similar weekly wrap up or chat post? Feel free to link it below. It doesn’t have to be the exact same as mine or have the same title, but you are welcome to borrow the title and format (not that there is much of a format other than chatting). I’d love to visit your blogs and meet new bloggers!

Sunday Bookends: What is that family doing?

On April 13, 2025April 13, 2025 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends28 Comments

This past week was a fairly relaxed one until yesterday.

Little Miss needed some cheering up, so I suggested that after I picked up a friend of The Boy’s we head up to the town where we used to live to watch The Minecraft movie.

The kids were excited but since I wasn’t really interested in watching the movie, so instead I headed to an Italian Deli and Bakery near the theater after I dropped them off and picked up some cookies and cannoli, headed back to the park across from the theater and sat in my car reading books and eating fudge filled cookies.

Well, I ate one cookie actually and then I ate some string cheese and drank a natural ginger ale. It was nice and relaxing, as the rain fell around me.

One weird thing and funny thing that happened while I was sitting in the car: a car pulled up next to me and parked and then three people got out – they looked to be about the age of a mom, a dad, and maybe a 12-year-old boy. The park has a sidewalk that goes all the way around, and this family started walking on the sidewalk and then walked all the way on the other side of it toward the hospital, which is across the street from the park. They disappeared from my sight, so I went back to my book. About ten minutes later they passed in front of my car again, and I noticed all of them were looking at their phones. The mom said something to the boy, and he laughed, but they kept their eyes on their phones.

Then they started another loop around the park. I thought maybe they were playing something like Pokemon Go (is that still a thing), but they were just walking in a circle, staring at their phones.

They did this four more times, then crossed the street near the gas station, came back again, walked to their car, got in and left.

It was kind of, well, creepy … and funny. I have no idea what was going on, but it felt like some kind of Twilight Zone episode. Part of me wanted to ask them what was going on, but in this day and age, I think it is just better not to know.

For some reason, the movie didn’t start for almost 45 minutes after it was supposed to start so we got home a lot later than I wanted to. Remember when I told you last week that to get anywhere with places like theaters we have to drive 45 minutes north, south, east or west? To get to the theater, we had to drive 45 minutes north and then 45 minutes back home.

I was pretty tired by the end of the day and ready for my blanket and tea.

I didn’t actually have tea when I got home, and the evening wasn’t as relaxed as I wanted but maybe I can find some relaxation tonight instead.

This past week I finished Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke and The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis.

I am still reading The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien and enjoying it.

I am also reading All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot.

Next week I am going to be looking for another mystery but I might step out of my comfort zone and try a Christian regency romance by Joanna Davidson Politano. We will see how that goes.

I forgot to ask The Husband what he is reading before I wrote this. He’s taking a brief nap after a busy morning so I’ll update this later or share next week.

Little Miss and I are going to be finishing up The Littlest Voyageur this week for school and she is finishing up the third Harry Potter book.

I had to step away from Great Canal Journeys. It was becoming too heartbreaking to watch with Pru’s mental and physical health declining.

Pru is the wife of the canal riding team and it’s starting to really wear on me to watch her forget what she’s doing some days. I have elderly parents and them developing dementia is a huge worry for me.

Last week I watched How to Steal A Million as part of the Springtime in Paris feature I am doing with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.

You can still jump in to watch the movies on the list and write about them. We have a link up where you can link to your posts until May 10^th. The link and our list of movies and where you can find them can be found at the link at the top of my page.

This week we are watching Paris Blue with Paul Newman (swoon), Joanne Woodward, Sidney Poitier, and Diahann Carroll.

Last week on the blog I shared:

When I am doing dishes during the week, I listen to The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien, and the rest of the week, I read it.

Photos from the week

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.

This post is linked up with The Sunday Post at Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, The Sunday Salon with Deb at Readerbuzz, Stacking the Shelves with Reading Reality and Book Date: It’s Monday! What are you reading hosted by Kathyrn at The Book Date.

Sunday Bookends: A trip to a used book sale, the same books, more canal journeys

On April 5, 2025 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Sunday Bookends23 Comments

I want to start by sharing that today is my sister-in-law Kim’s birthday so happy birthday to her. She had a heck of a 2024 and is an overcomer. Looking forward to her having a much better 2025.

I shared a bit yesterday about our week last week, which was fairly uneventful, other than a trip to a used book sale at a library near us. I picked up 19 Hard Boys Mystery books for 50 cents each. That was a fun find. These books, like Nancy Drew, are a bit dated, of course, and written for younger kids but they still have pretty good mysteries. They are also a fun escape from life.

Little Miss also picked out some cozy mysteries for me to try out. She’s picked out a couple duds over the years but also some very good ones so we will see how this bunch works out.

You can read more about our week last week here.

I wish I had something more exciting to report but I am still reading The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murders by Joanne Fluke, The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis, and The Two Towers by Tolkien.

I did finish Whose Body? By Dorothy Sayers last week.

The Husband is reading Big Trouble by Dave Barry.

I’ve still been watching Great Canal Journeys every night. Not much else. The Husband has been watching Shogun.

I watched an episode of Great Canal Journeys when they visited Scotland and I was absolutely blown away by this huge device that lowered their boat from one level of the canal to the larger canal below and two huge steel statues of horse heads they visited during the episode.

I watched Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris as well last week and will be watching How to Steal A Million today or tomorrow.

I’ll also be watching another Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Mysteries episode this week so I can write about it on the blog.

Last week on the blog I shared:

A book sale, a trip to a garden center, and what’s up with the turkey vultures in our area?

On the Frontier by Transmissions from the Northern Outpost (I’m biased. This is my brother)

Nadine’s Private Island by Cat’s Wire

Photos from this Week

Now It’s Your Turn

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

Sunday Chat: Last week was a disappointing week in many ways.

On March 23, 2025March 23, 2025 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends18 Comments

Last week was a disappointing week in many ways.

I am not going to go into a ton of details on my blog but we had a bad experience with a staff member of our local library and have decided that we can no longer attend the place I fell in love with reading.

It was heartbreaking and hurtful and a bit shocking, so I spent the second half of the week and this weekend in a deep depression over it all. I’m still very, very down today. It was so surreal and it’s still hard to wrap my mind around how my daughter and I were treated. This is one of those times I did not read into what happened or misunderstood. Not at all.

My daughter was also very hurt, and it breaks my heart she will not have the same experience I did with this little town library that I did when I was growing up.

Maybe this week things will be better. We are looking for a new library to patronize and new places to participate in activities.

It will be colder than last week it looks like, and that isn’t going to be fun but we will take it one day at a time.

I am so down this weekend I barely had the mental energy to write this post today at first.

I will say that we had a crafternoon link up on Zoom yesterday and that did lift my spirits. There were three of us and we had fun discussing crafts, books, libraries, and all things in between. Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I hope to hold our crafternoons once or twice a month and will be changing them to “drop-in crafternoons” so even if a person wants to drop in for a half hour to chat and do some crafts they can. Email me at a lisahoweler@gmail.com or Erin at crackercrumblife@gmail.com if you want to get on our list for the Zoom link!

These chats and opportunities to just relax and craft have been so nice and needed. I know that sometimes I don’t take the time to do things that relax me and take my mind off of the stresses of life. The virtual meetups are a way I “force” myself to slow down and take some time for me. I am so grateful to Erin for having this idea. It’s been such a boost to my mental health.

Last week I finished The Case of the Clueless Kitten by Erle Stanley Gardner. It is not about kittens (not really) and it is a Perry Mason mystery.

I really enjoyed it and plan to share a review of it. I love Gardner’s writing.

This week I am reading:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Murders by Joanne Fluke (am I the only one who has never heard of putting egg shells in coffee grounds before brewing them!?)

Whose Body by Dorothy Sayers (not sure why I abandoned this before. I must have been tired and not tracking. I am enjoying it so far.0

And before bed some nights I am reading All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot. This one seems to be a retelling of some stories mixed in with stories of his time in the RAF.

My “long” read (or the read I am taking my time on) is The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien and I am really enjoying it.

Little Miss and I finished Miracle on Maple Hill, which we listened to on Hoopla.

We will be starting The Littlest Voyageur by Margi Preus tomorrow for school and for fun.

The Husband is reading When One Man Dies by Dave White.

The Husband and I are making our way through Castle.

I started A Touch of Mink. I didn’t finish it yet but not really sure what I think of it…Not my favorite Cary Grant, even though it is somewhat funny.

I also watched Just A Few Acres Farm on YouTube to try to relax from the stressful week.

Next week I will be getting ready for Springtime in Paris, the next movie event with Erin.

We will be watching movies that take place in Paris. Erin and I watch the movie one week and then share our thoughts about the movie on a Thursday on our blog. So the dates listed on the graphic are the dates we will share our thoughts on our blogs.

Then we offer a link for other bloggers to share their thoughts on the same movie. You do not have to watch the movies at the same time as us or even put your link up for a particular movie on the week we watch it. Just drop a link whenever you watch whichever movie. And you absolutely do not have to watch every movie to participate.

Here is our schedule:

Last week on the blog I shared:

I am listening to the podcast True Drew Podcast about all things Nancy Drew and will be listening to Sabotage at Cedar Creek by Janice Thompson on Hoopla later this week.

Now it’s Your Turn!

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

In addition to my blog, I write fiction, and you can learn more about my books here: https://lisahoweler.com/my-books-2/

I also have a Substack where I share about my writing journey or books.

Sunday Bookends: Warmer weather and my socially introverted family

On March 16, 2025March 16, 2025 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends20 Comments

I took Little Miss to the little playground in our little town twice this week thanks to higher temperatures. They were high for us anyhow after coming out of a very arctic winter.

The first day it was close to 60 degrees Fahrenheit and the second day it was about 55 degrees. Friday it was over 60 degrees. Yesterday it was about 55 but still sunny and we took another trip to the playground with a friend of Little Miss’s.

Today it is pouring rain, and we are supposed to get some nasty storms.

I do like when it is warmer and sunny but still miss chilly days where I have an excuse to stay home. What I like most about the warmer weather, though, is being able to sit outside and not feel chilled to the bone.

That first day we went to the playground she made me smile by being brave and approaching a little girl she didn’t know and asking her if they could play together. She was nervous to approach the little girl because she said she is used to texting people not talking, which was weird for me to hear but also understandable in this modern age.

Some people think that homeschooled children are shy because they don’t interact with other children. My child does interact with other children through local homeschool activities, library activities, the local 4-H, a Bible program at a church near us, her friends, and Vacation Bible School. She’s still shy.

I attended public school all the way from Kindergarten to twelfth grade. I was shy all the way through and still am.

I know that public school can afford more opportunities to interact with peers but it isn’t always a positive interaction. I was able to interact with my peers and I hated it. I was an introvert through and through. Not a recluse but an introvert. Little Miss has a similar personality. She likes to socialize but when her meter is filled, which sometimes can happen fairly fast, she prefers to go off on her own and participate in quiet activities. My son is the same.

It cracks me up when we come back from an event or a friend goes home and she flops in her chair and says, “Whew! That’s enough social interaction for the week. I need some alone time.”

After she introduced herself to the little girl at the playground earlier this week, and they had played for a bit, she came over to me and said, “She wanted to add me to a group chat on her Messenger Kids (which is a Facebook app monitored by parents) but I’m not ready for that.”

As a GenXer, it is crazy for me to hear that a 10-year-old is being invited to an online group chat by an 8-year-old. We did not exchange contact information with the little girl but if we had I would have had to contact her parents on Facebook, and we would both have to give permission for our children to talk. Then I would have had to be the one to be social with strangers. I was so relieved when Little Miss said she wasn’t ready for that level of interaction. Ha!

Little Miss and I have been attending 4-H cooking classes once a week for the last two weeks. Well, Little Miss has been doing the cooking, and I have been reading a book in the hallway. She really enjoys cooking and has been enjoying attending the class with a little girl who also goes to the church program o.

We attended the first class with my 81-year-old dad who, of course, immediately found someone to talk to while we waited for her. I had been worried he would be bored but he was not at all. He enjoyed talking to a young man there about local history as they looked at a mural on the wall in the building we were at. The Mural is beautiful and showcases history of the small town and county we were/are in.

Dad always seems to find someone to talk to no matter where we go.

I finished The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis last week.

I am reading the biography of James Herriot by his son Jim Wight very slowly because it is rather dull in many parts. I have had to skim a lot of unnecessary information about his time in veterinary school. It truly was unnecessary in my mind, but some readers may enjoy it.

Most of the time this week I have been reading The Case of the Careless Kitten by Erle Stanley Gardner. It’s a Perry Mason mystery and I am really enjoying it. I love Gardner’s style of writing and the banter between Lieutenant Tagg and Perry.

I am slowly reading The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien.

I hope to start Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery this week for Middle Grade March.

After that I will be starting Between the Sound and Sea by Amanda Cox.

The Husband is between books.

The Boy is also between books.

Little Miss is reading Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban.

This week I watched more Edwardian Farm, two episodes of Castle, my farmer on YouTube, and a Booktuber who was designing her reading journal.

I also started an old movie with Cary Grant that I did not enjoy at all, so I am going to be looking for another old movie this week.

I started writing book four of the Gladwynn Grant Mysteries last week.

Last week on the blog I shared:

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.

In addition to my blog, I write fiction, and you can learn more about my books here: https://lisahoweler.com/my-books-2/

I also have a Substack where I share about my writing journey or books.

Sunday Bookends: Grandma Ruth, Middle Earth, and Middle Grade March

On March 9, 2025 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends18 Comments

I finished Grandma Ruth Doesn’t Go To Funerals by Sharon Mondragon last week and really enjoyed it. I could see this one being a movie. I will write a longer review later but I loved the characters and the story overall.

In case you are curious about it, here is a description:

In a small town where gossip flows like sweet tea, bedridden Mary Ruth McCready reigns supreme, doling out wisdom and meddling in everyone’s business with a fervor that would make a matchmaker blush. When her best friend, Charlotte Harrington, has her world rocked by a scandalous revelation from her dying husband P. B., Mary Ruth kicks into high gear, commandeering the help of her favorite granddaughter, Sarah Elizabeth, in tracking down the truth. Finding clues in funeral condolence cards and decades-old gossip dredged up at the Blue Moon Beauty Emporium, the two stir up trouble faster than you can say “pecan pie.”

And just when things are starting to look up, in waltzes Camilla “Millie” Holtgrew, a blast from P. B.’s past, with a grown son and an outrageous claim to Charlotte’s inheritance. But as Grandma Ruth always says when things get tough, “God is too big.” With him, nothing is impossible–even bringing long-held secrets to light. Grandma Ruth and Sarah just might have to ruffle a whole mess of feathers to do it.

Next up I am continuing The Real James Herriot: A Memoir of My Father by Jim Wight. So far it is very dry and dull so I may toss it aside but I’d love to get to the years where he worked as a vet and some of the behind the scenes stories first. We will see how it goes.

I also started The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien, which will be my slow read for the next couple of months. I am loving it so far, even if we lost one of the team on the first page. *sniff*

I started The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis the other night for my Middle Grade March read. I also hope to read Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery for Middle Grade March. Little Miss and I are reading Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorenson for school, which is a re-read for me.

Once those are done, I hope to start Whose Body? By Dorothy L. Sayers. I’ve never read anything by her so we will see how I like her.

The Husband is on his 25^th book of the year. Sigh. He reads fast but has also had some extra time to read this year so that’s cool for him. Or whatever. *wink*

He is reading Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned by Walter Mosley.

I have been watching more historical farming shows this past week and not a ton else. I actually read more than watched things.

This upcoming week I hope to watch more Murder She Wrote and a couple of old movies.

I started writing book four of the Gladwynn Grant series this past week.

On the blog I shared:

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.

In addition to my blog, I write fiction, and you can learn more about my books here: https://lisahoweler.com/my-books-2/

I also have a Substack where I share about my writing journey or books.

Sunday Bookends: Finally an outing and finished a couple of books (also finally)

On March 1, 2025March 2, 2025 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends18 Comments

Saturday, the family and I got out of the house for an outing for the first time in months.

We drove about an hour south to attend a gathering at a pottery studio with the local homeschooling group.

The group leader had set up a chance for our students to visit the studio and paint pottery. It was a gloomy day to travel on, but it was still nice to get out. We didn’t stay as long at the studio as I hoped, with Little Miss declaring she was done and over it all within a half hour of arriving.

I had gone to the car to get a drink of water and The Husband and she had stayed back to finish her project, which was very small and not terribly exciting to me, and when I looked back up after a few minutes of being in the car they were walking toward me.

They were done and ready to get lunch, The Husband said.

Little Miss chose a small paw print to paint. If that’s what she wanted, that was okay, of course, and it was one of the cheaper items available so it worked out well but I still thought she’d really want to paint a larger piece of pottery.

I thought she might choose something larger which would give us longer to interact with the other children there. Unfortunately only four families showed up and there were only about six kids there, including mine, and three of them were boys and Little Miss had no interest in talking to them.

I had these grand visions of introducing Little Miss to the fellow homeschooled children casually by asking the children what they were working on and then telling them what Little Miss was working on and how old she was, etc. etc. but Little Miss has a mind of her own and when she’s done with her art or project, she simply likes to leave.

(I am editing my original post here to make it clear that I love Little Miss has a mind of her own so this isn’t a complaint. As the comments came in I realized I hadn’t really clarified that.

It just cracks me up that I always have these plans to try to encourage her to step out of her comfort zone and she’s like, “nope. This is how it’s going to be..” and is not swayed one bit. I think it’s going to really pay off as she gets older to be that aware of what she wants and not compromise…. Though it would be nice if she stepped out just a bit so she can meet some new people but that will come organically over time.)

At lunch at a local restaurant we found online, Little Miss also said she thought my plan sounded creepy.

“Hey, little girl,” she said in a creepy voice, I guess pretending to be me. “How old are you?”

The Husband and The Boy thought her impression was pretty funny, but that is not how I was going to ask. I was going to attempt to engage them in conversation so Little Miss could also engage them in conversation. These attempts of mine pretty much fail every time. We will have other opportunities with events going on with the local 4-H and homeschool groups this spring as well.

The hamburger I ordered was the largest I have ever seen circumference-wise!

Yesterday Little Miss and The Husband went to see Paddington 3 and The Boy and I stayed at home and did our own thing. He played a video game (Skyrim) and I doodled in my reading journal, colored in some Nancy Drew illustrations, worked on blog posts (including this one), snuck a couple spoonfuls of some ice cream we’d picked up the day before, and watched some YouTubers.

This week we don’t much planned, other than me going to my parents at least once or twice to help clean.

I finished Every Living Thing by James Herriot and Nancy Drew: The Sign of the Twisted Candles by Carolyn Keene this past week.

Now I’m reading Grandma Ruth Doesn’t Go To Funerals by Sarah Mondragon and really enjoying it. I found it for free on Hoopla and I can only read it on my phone, which is terribly annoying. Hoopla doesn’t allow it to be sent to a Kindle and I don’t have a notebook to read it on. It can be read on my laptop but that isn’t very comfortable for me. I don’t want to pay full price for it until I am sure I like it and it released in February so..this is my only option at the moment.

Little Miss and I are reading Miracles on Maple Hill for school after finishing The Sign of the Beaver last week. I’ve read Miracles on Maple Hill before but wanted to read it with Little Miss this time of year (maple season in Pennsylvania) and it will fit with Middle Grade March.

I’ll also be reading The Moffats by Eleanor Estes and Violet Jenkins Saves The Day by Stacey Faubion for Middle Grade March. I may try to squeeze in Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry but that might have to wait until March.

The Husband is reading The Maltese Iguana by Tim Dorsey.

The Boy is reading Frankenstein.

This past week I watched All Creatures Great and Small’s season finale and cried through it. I also watched Edwardian Farm, which was more of a rewatch because I watched it before but missed a ton of it because I kept wandering out of the room or family members talked through it. Ha. Family. I tell ya.

I also watched The Rise of Catherine the Great as part of my Winter of Douglas Fairbanks Jr., which finishes up this week.

In April and May, Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I will be watching movies that take place in Paris. We will update you more on that and our choices when it gets closer to the start date.

I am working on making all of my ebooks of my fiction books available for purchase through my site so you can “own” the ebook (or the license to read it) and read it where you want to.

I started brainstorming more of book four of the Gladwynn Grant Mystery series as well.

Last week on the blog I shared:

|| Glimpses of February by The Farm Wife Reads ||

|| Fridays Fave Five by Stray Thoughts ||

|| Late Snack by Words From Anneli ||

|| Grief Journey Day 197 by A Little Bit of Everything With Love ||

|| Review: Pioneer Girl, The Annotated Autobiography of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Impressions in Ink ||

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: The Get Rid of Hiccups Trick, what I thought of the Miss Marple Short Stories, and a Paris movie marathon being planned

On February 23, 2025February 23, 2025 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends13 Comments

Throughout my childhood and teenage years my family and I would visit my mom’s side of the family in Jacksonville, N.C. for Christmas at my grandmother and aunt’s house.

One day when I was about 18 or so, my parents told me we were going to drive a couple hours west to see my mom’s aunt and uncle and cousins in a little town called Farmville.

I had never met this part of the family before so I didn’t know what to think of them. The house was full of chatter as soon as we arrived. Chatter and offers of food.

“Y’all come on in here and get yourself some food,” Cousin Joyce said from the kitchen.

Conversations began to take the path they usually do in Mom’s family — several of them being held at once all at the same time, back and forth between each other. I did my best to keep track. The conversations were mainly between my grandmother, mom, aunt Dianne, Cousin Joyce, Cousin Janet and Aunt Mattie.

Uncle Ray — full name Ashley Ray Waignwright (isn’t the quentissintial Southern name?!), a short man with very little hair, wearing a pair of small, wire-rimmed glasses, and looking a bit somber, was sitting in a little rocking chair. He was participating in some of the conversations but not much. Mainly he was observing.

At some point I developed the hiccups. They were painful and wouldn’t stop.

Mom suggested I drink some water. Aunt Dianne said a spoonful of sugar. Someone else suggested holding my breath.

Uncle Ray narrowed his eyes.

“Heard what you been saying about me, girl.”

I was startled. Was he looking at me? I looked behind me. There was no one there. It had to be me he was talking to.

“I—I’m sorry?”

He frowned. “You. I heard what you been saying about me.”

“I-I – know I haven’t said anything.”

Mom hadn’t mentioned her uncle Ray was going senile but this conversation was getting weirder by the moment.

“You sure did,” he said. “You know it and I know it so you just need to apologize.”

“I—I .. but…”

His grim expression didn’t crack. “Where those hiccups gone?”

“What? What do you mean?”

A small smile tipped the corner of his mouth upward. “Your hiccups. They’re gone, aren’t they?”

I dragged in a ragged breath and let it out again.

The rest of the conversations had stopped during this exchange and I heard my mom laugh.

It was beginning to hit me now.

“He got you, didn’t he?” Mom asked.

Uncle Ray was smiling more now. Yes, he’d got me, and the panic I’d felt at thinking he thought I’d said something awful about him had been enough to stop the hiccups

I am juggling a few books right now – I know that sounds weird, but I do that because I read one during the day and one at night sometimes.

I prefer to read my mysteries during the day and more relaxing or light books before bed. I’ve found if I read mysteries before bed, I dream about people dying or chasing me. Even with cozier mysteries. Not always, but sometimes. If the mystery is too good, I still read it at night and just put up with the weird dreams.

Anyhow, I just finished The Tuesday Night Club (Miss Marple short stories) by Agatha Christie and ended up liking it more as I continued it. It is a series of short stories involving several familiar characters from Miss Marple books all gathered together discussing mysterious cases they’d heard of or investigated and asking if everyone listening could figure out what really happened.

There was a lot of subtle humor in the book that ended up making the repetitiveness of how almost each story ended with Miss Marple solving the case presented by each person and then that person, who previously said they didn’t know the solution, or someone else in the room, saying that they suddenly had remembered she was right and they had heard what had really happened. It was a bit tedious but not every story ended that way, luckily. I mean, Miss Marple did solve it every time, but there wasn’t always a sudden realization from someone else in the room knew what really happened.

I will finish Every Living Thing by James Herriot this week, as far as I know anyhow.

I’ve already started The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman and I’m not sure what I think so far. POV’s keep changing and there is a lot more detail about a lot of characters than I think is needed so….we will see if I can make it through or not. I’ve heard good things about it, so I’m sure I will end up liking it.

I will need a slightly lighter read for nights later this week so I will be picking up Little Men again or finishing up Nancy Drew: The Sign of the Twisted Candles.

Little Miss and I have almost finished Sign of the Beaver for history.

The Boy and I are still pushing through Frankenstein. I don’t want to talk about it. I just can’t wait to graduate him this year. We are starting Romeo and Juliet in March. Lord, be with us.

He’s also listening to No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

The Husband is reading Hot Property by Mike Lupica.

This week I watched Murder She Wrote, Victorian Farm, All Creatures Great and Small, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 with the kids (let’s be honest. I didn’t pay much attention to it.), my farmer on YouTube (Just a Few Acres), and Sinbad the Sailor.

Upcoming in April: Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs, and I are planning on a Paris themed movie marathon. We will keep you updated.

I’ll be starting book four in the Gladwynn Grant series soon and have decided I’ll probably only write six books in this series and, yes, I will wrap up that “love triangle” in book four or five. Probably book four. It’s boring even for me at this point.

On the blog I wrote:

I am listening to Frankenstein on Audible and hope to continue it this week

Now It’s Your Turn!

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

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