Sunday Bookends: Cool bookstores and I finally finished The Two Towers

On May 4, 2025May 4, 2025 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends32 Comments

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

This past week was a long, rough week with some medical challenges for my elderly parents. I’m pretty wiped out but not as wiped out as my mom who is facing an exhausting situation. If you are a person who prays, we could all use some prayers, but especially her.

Yesterday, The Husband, the kids, and I headed an hour south to picturesque Lewisburg, Pa. for a small break and to visit a comic store for free comic book day. We also visited a couple of bookstores, one independent and another a Barnes and Noble built inside of a three-story former hardware store.

The Barnes and Noble is three stories and features an escalator to reach the second level. It is also a merchandise store for Bucknell University, which is a university that is considered Ivy League, but which I learned yesterday is not officially “Ivy League.”

According to various sites, including College Advisor, Bucknell is considered a “hidden ivy” because of its strong academic reputation and its high rankings in various educational programs.

Regardless, it is a well-known college and, from what we’ve witnessed a few times, quite the party college. There was a noisy frat party going on as we visited a playground after visiting the bookstores and having some lunch. Plenty of young women in sun dresses. There were more girls than boys around, so maybe it was a sorority party instead. Hmmm….

Well, anyhow…we enjoyed our visits to the comic book shop and bookstore. The bookstore, called Mondragon, featured a variety of used books and records.

I didn’t find anything I really wanted but I enjoyed looking at the wide variety. I did find one book of recipes by artist Georgia O’Keefe, and Little Miss found a fiction book about horses.

We didn’t buy any books at Barnes & Noble because I wasn’t super impressed with their selection and rarely buy new. It is, however, a very pretty store.

I finally did it this past week! I finally finished The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien. It took me forever, thanks to life events, and reading a couple of other books.

I enjoyed it despite the wordiness, but I will be taking a bit of a break before I start in on The Return of the King, the final installment of the trilogy.

I’ve been reading Grave Pursuits by Elle E. Kay but it deals with a serial killer and that’s been a bit of a heavy topic with all that’s been going on in my life so I’m setting it aside temporarily. I am really enjoying it, and the writing style, though.

Instead, I am continuing All Things Wise And Wonderful by James Herriot, reading a chapter or two at night before bed.

I also started Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder by Valerie Burns. I like it so far.

And I plan to finish The Hardy Boys: The Twisted Claw by Franklin W. Dixon this week.

The Husband is reading Snow by John Banville.

Little Miss and I are reading Magical Melons by Carol Ryrie Brink.

The Boy is listening to a Warhammer book. I don’t remember which one.

This week I have been watching Murder She Wrote and The Dick Van Dyke Show. Comfort watches.

This week on the blog I shared:

Nancy Drew is 95! History, creation, lasting influence, controversy, and more.

This past week I enjoyed a episode on the True Drew podcast about the 95^th anniversary of Nancy Drew.

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.

Sunday Bookends: My 10-year-old’s opinion of the 1982 Annie, some dirt road traveling, and drop in crafternoons continue

On April 27, 2025April 27, 2025 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Sunday Bookends12 Comments

The kids helped some friends of the family clean up their yard last week and while they helped, I took a tour on the dirt roads around the property. It was fun to look at the cows grazing on the hillsides, even though they aren’t fully green yet (the hills, not the cows), watch two young does walk in front of me slowly, admire the amazing sky and clouds that day.

I rambled a little bit more about last week in my post yesterday, if you would like to read it.

On Friday, we drove to pick up groceries. In other words, we didn’t do very much last week.

Yesterday, Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I held our monthly Drop In Crafternoon with a couple of other bloggers. We will be holding another one tentatively on May 10 at 1 p.m. and definitely on May 24 at 1 p.m.

The crafternoons are events where we gather on Zoom and craft at our respective homes and chat while we work on various projects. There is one woman who creates with beads, another who colors, I sometimes draw or color, and Erin has been embroidering lately. We are calling them drop-in crafternoons because you can drop in and out during the time we are on. No need to stay the whole time if you can’t. Come late if you want or leave early.

Our conversations are usually about light things, including books, but somehow I got us on racism, or maybe Liz did, but usually the conversations aren’t super heavy. You will probably meet our cats, children, husbands, and dogs during the drop in so be warned.

If you want to just drop in and say hello If you would like to join us shoot Erin an email at crackercrumblife@gmail.com and she’ll add you to our mailing list.

Uh…nothing

I keep saying I am going to finish The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien the next week, but I am sure I will actually finish it this week.

I have enjoyed it but, oh my, is it long and wordy. I like the wordy at times too, don’t get me wrong, but I just felt like I might never make it to the end. I am only about three chapters away from the end and I do know that it will end on a cliffhanger since each “book” in the series is actually two books of one huge saga of six books altogether so in many ways I still won’t be done. But I will at least be done with this installment.

I am not sure when I will read Return of the King but probably not until fall or winter.

I’ll need a little break from fantasy books for a while I think. I need a few good mysteries and a romance up next, I think.

I didn’t read any of the James Herriot book (All Things Wise and Wonderful) this past week, except for last night, but I will be diving into it again this week.

I also started Grave Pursuits (Pennsylvania Parks Book 1) by Elle E. Kay as something quick to read and I am enjoying it so far. Elle is a writer who lives about 90 minutes from me, and she writes about state parks and towns near me. I am looking forward to one she wrote that takes place in the town I live in. I’m curious to see what she writes about our tiny town. I’ll be digging into that one next.

I’m also reading The Hardy Boys The Twisted Claw.

Little Miss and I are reading Magical Melons (also called Caddie Woodlawn’s Family) by Carol Ryrie Brink, a collection of short stories about Caddie Woodlawn.

Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder by Valerie Burns

Peg and Rose Solve a Murder by Laurien Berenson

I watched a Hardy Boys from the 1977 show last week and will be writing about it later. I also watched a few episodes of Murder She Wrote from the last season and missed Cabot Cove. She was living in New York City in these episodes.

Little Miss decided she wanted to watch the 1982 version of Annie last night (not sure what inspired this, but maybe a meme she saw making fun of it or something). I told The Husband we were watching it while he was at a work event, and he asked if it was because it was Carol Burnett’s birthday. I said I didn’t know it was her birthday, but it was perfect timing.

When we started it, I realized I must have seen the movie as a kid more than I remembered, because I had it practically memorized. I also realized how old I am because a movie about an orphan hits different now that I am older and think about all those children out there who just want a place to call home.

Another realization was how manipulative that little Annie was. Daddy Warbucks is going to send her back to the orphanage? She adopts a sad look and says, “It’s okay. I’ve already had enough fun just in the short time I’ve been here.” Daddy Warbucks isn’t going to go to the movies with them? “Oh. It’s okay. I don’t need to go to a movie. I’ll just practice my backhand. That girl at the orphanage who said she’d been to a movie once is a liar anyhow.”

Of course, I know that’s not really how they were trying to play her. I’m just having a little fun. In all honesty, I was surprised how nostalgic I was watching the movie.

I couldn’t wait to show Little Miss classic songs like “It’s A Hard Knock Life For Us” and “Little Girls.”

Here were some of her quotes during the movie:

“Why are they dancing? She told them to clean. Hey! You’re supposed to be cleaning! Not practicing your flips!”

“Oh. The little orphan’s got hands!”

“No! Don’t fall for that man! He looks like Professor Quirrell but squared up!”

“No! You can’t marry him! It’s like marrying Jeff Bezos! He pretty much is Jeff Bezos!”

That and when Grace comes out in her yellow dress “oh that dress is beautiful! Slay, girl!”

Watching it and all the great songs (Easy Street with Carol, Tim Curry, and Bernadette Peters for one) was a ton of fun and Little Miss didn’t even make too much fun of it so that was a win!

At the end I asked her what she thought.

“It was kind of a strange movie. We went from, ‘oh these children are sort of being abused, but I guess we’re okay with that.’ To ‘Oh my gosh that guy is chasing her and she’s hanging off this bridge and going to die’ to ‘oh, she has a family now. That’s – uh – cool”

I am making some progress on book four in the Gladwynn Grant Mystery series. You can find the other three here.

I don’t have a release date yet but I’m having fun pulling ideas together for the story.

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.

Saturday Afternoon Chat: A drive in the country and adding a blog roll to my blog

On April 26, 2025April 26, 2025 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Saturday Afternoon Tea12 Comments

Good afternoon!

Welcome to the blog for a Saturday Afternoon Chat, where I look back at my week that was.

Most of the time my weeks are not very exciting so don’t expect too much.

Would you care for a beverage while we chat?

I have a variety of tea – peppermint, chamomile, raspberry, and an orange turmeric (has a bit of a bite to it). I also have some milk, grape juice, and just plain water. But no ice cubes. Yes, I need to get ice cub trays because our ice maker doesn’t work.

This past week was fairly routine for us. We did homeschool lessons for most of the week, and then on Thursday I took the kids to the house of a family friend, and they cleaned up sticks and leaves from their yard and The Boy built a garden fence for the woman.

While they worked, I took a scenic tour on the dirt roads around their house. I’ve lived in this area my entire life, but don’t remember being on these roads. The roads had very Irish names like McKeany and Murphy, so I recorded a couple of videos saying the name of the roads in one of the worst Irish accents you’ve ever heard and sent them to Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs. She and Wyatt had a good laugh over my horrible accent, and that’s what I was going for, so it worked.

I enjoyed looking at the cows and saw a couple of deer. I tried to film them but I apparently didn’t hit the record button on my phone correctly. Sigh. I did get a quick video but it wasn’t terribly exciting. The sky was amazing that day.

I’d like to say I enjoyed looking at the rolling green hills, but they aren’t very green just yet. The trees are just starting to bloom, and the grass is just starting to grow here. Today we have rain, so I have a feeling that by next week the hillsides will be much brighter and healthier in appearance.

Yesterday, Little Miss and I drove the 30 minutes one way to get our groceries from the Aldi pickup. We went back to my parents for a bit and then came home to unload while The Boy stayed to help my dad with fixing up a couple of lawn mowers to get ready for mowing season.

Today Little Miss and I will spend much of our day alone together while it rains outside. The Husband has assignments to attend and cover for the newspaper and The Boy is going to a friends for the rest of the weekend.

I am going to get on Zoom for our drop-in Crafternoon. You can find more information about it on Erin’s page here until I get my own information page up on it, but the bottom line is it is a chance for people to connect via Zoom and do crafts while we chat. They can be any crafts — knitting, sketching, coloring, watercolors, painting, scrapbooking, needlework. Whatever you craft, you are welcome. Unless it is sketching naked people. Maybe don’t do that on our Zoom. Har. Har. You don’t even have to craft. You can just come on and chat.

We have a tentative one scheduled for May 10 and a definite one scheduled for May 24. All you need to do is send an email to Erin at crackercrumblife@gmail.com or me at lisahoweler@gmail.com, and we will make sure you get on our list to email you the Zoom link.

On other blog matters, I discovered this week how to add a blog roll to my sidebar since WordPress removed the ability to do that a couple of years ago. You can still add a blog roll, but only if the blog is on WordPress. I follow blogs that are on a variety of host sites so I wanted the option to add them as well. After a quick search online, I found directions on how to do that:

Create a Navigation (Link) Menu for Your Blogroll:

Navigate to Appearance > Menus: in your WordPress dashboard.
Create a New Menu: Click “Create a new menu” and name it something like “Blogroll”.
Add Menu Items: Use the “Custom Links” section to add links to other websites.
- Enter the URL of the website and a descriptive label for the link.
- Click “Add to Menu” to include the link.
Save the Menu: Click “Save Menu” to save your changes.

It was pretty simple, and it is sad it took me this long after they took away the official blog roll feature for me to figure it out. Now I just have to add more of my favorite blogs.

I don’t understand why WordPress is always changing things. I feel like if it isn’t broke there is not need to fix it while they seem to think, “it’s not broke but we can improve it” and then it’s like they wander off in the middle of improving it to improve something else and the thing they said they were going to improve just sits there now broken.

So, to me, WordPress is like a person who says he’s — I mean they — are going to fix something in a house but he — I mean they — wanders off in the middle of one project to start another project and eventually there are like ten projects in the house and around the property that are in various degrees of progress/finish status.

Maybe one day WordPress will actually finish a project and stop messing around with it.

So how was your week?

Do anything interesting or exciting?

Let me know in the comments or leave a link to your weekly round-up post. Tomorrow I will be sharing what I’ve been reading and watching, etc. in my Sunday Bookends post.

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

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.

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.

—–

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.