Welcome to the A Good Book & A Cup of Tea (A Monthly Bookish Link Party)!! This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!).
1. For Bloggers, you can link unlimited posts related to books and reading. They can be older posts or newer posts. These can be posts about what you’re reading, book reviews, books you’ve added to your shelf, reading habits, what you’ve been reading, about trips to the bookstore, etc. You get the drift.
2. Link to a specific blog post (URL of a specific post, not just your website). Feel free to link up any older posts that may need some love and attention, too.
3. Please visit at least two other bloggers on this list and comment on their posts. Have fun! Interact! Get some book recommendations.
4. Readers can click the blue button below to visit blog posts.
5. If you add a link you are giving me permission to share and link back to your post(s).
Please be sure to visit other posts in the link-up and support each other!
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
Once upon a time I said I wanted winter to come so I could curl up with a book under a blanket or watch an old movie…also under a blanket.
I still like curling up under a blanket but I’m over the gloominess of winter now. I would enjoy some green, but, alas, after warming temps this past week, Winter is reminding us it isn’t done yet as I just learned Friday night that another winter storm is headed our way today into tomorrow.
Blah.
Hopefully it will drop off the snow and go because I have plans this week to help my parents, possibly see my brother, and maybe even sneak off to a bookstore.
I started a nostalgic clip account on Instagram a few months ago (Nostalgically Thinking) and this past week I shared clips of Canadian Figure Skater Kurt Browning as I reflected on how entertaining he always was but never won and Olympic medal. I was thinking about that because of all that was going on with figure skating phenom Ilia Malinin. He didn’t win an individual gold but he’s already done so much to entertain and project the sport into astounding levels that I don’t think it matters at all. It certainly didn’t with Kurt who I always loved to watch and never even knew if he won an Olympic medal.
On Thursday, I shared Kurt skating in “leather” pants to Brick House — one of my favorite routines of his.
Last night, before bed, I noticed a comment on my reel from kb.on.ice.
“Pants and the song sold it. The pants were plastic actually.”
Screenshot
I knew it was really Kurt because I’d found his account a couple of days before and, yes, I was a bit giddy seeing that comment.
I was so excited but remained calm as I told my kids about it and I give them credit – they didn’t role their eyes. They told me how nice it was, after I explained to them who Kurt Browning is, of course.
When I was in high school, I was obsessed with watching figuring skating but especially Kurt, Brian Boitono, Elvis Stojko, and Scott Hamilton.
My brother bought me tickets to Stars on Ice for the 1996 tour when it came near where we lived, which was shocking because nothing exciting ever came near where we lived.
I am so old that I remember almost none of it! I wanted to dig out the program and an old journal to remember who was even there before I finished this post but I looked all afternoon and some of the boxes with old journals were way back in the back of our bedroom closet so I finally gave up.
I was very certain Kurt Browning was there so I texted my brother to ask if he remembered who was there and he didn’t even remember he took me! Haha! I remember he gave me the tickets as a Christmas gift and I was so excited.
I will write more on my blog later this week about the show and my love of ice skating, if I can find the journal, photos, and program.
What I/We’ve Been Reading
Just Finished
Last week I finished Mrs. McGinty’s Dead by Agatha Christie. It is a Hercule Poirot book and I really enjoyed it. There was a lot of humor in it from Poirot and the mystery was very good.
In Progress
Right now, I am still making my way through Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien and The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery. They are my slow reads.
I am also reading Murder, She Wrote: Bullets and Brandy by Donald Bain.
Up Soon
I can’t wait to start Murder on the Orient Express since I’ve seen the movies but have never read the book. I’m also looking forward to reading another P.G. Wodehouse and Miss Read this spring. I’ll be making my list of spring hopefuls this week. Spring….and I barely got through my Winter reads! It’s insane to think of spring already being here.
What The Family is Reading
Little Miss and I are enjoying The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy and are tying it into a history unit about World War I.
The Husband is reading the latest Robert Galbraith (Rowling) book.
What I/We’ve Been Watching
This past week I watched some of the figure skating at the Olympics, a new British mystery show called The Puzzle Lady, and All Creatures Great and Small.
I am watching my James Cagney movie – Angels With Dirty Faces — with The Husband tonight because he’s been too busy before this to watch it with me and wants to see it too. So my Winter of Cagney post is going up late this week.
I will be watching another Cagney movie — The Bride Arrived COD – later this week.
This afternoon I am watching East Side of Heaven (1939) with Bing Crosby.
Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and I host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea. This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!). Each link party will be open for a month. You can find that link up for this month here.
Each week, I host the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot with some great hosts. It goes live Thursday night but you can share any kind of blog posts (family-friendly) there until Tuesday of each week. You can check my recent posts on the sidebar to the right for the most recent link-party.
Erin and I also host a Drop-In Crafternoon once or twice a month. This is where we meet with other bloggers on Zoom and do some crafts while we chat.
We have two scheduled for March. The first is Saturday, March 7 at 1 p.m. and the second is Sunday, March 22 at 1 p.m. If you are interested in taking part you can learn a little bit more about it from Erin’s original post about our Crafternoons and by emailing her at crackercrumblife@gmail.com or me at lisahoweler@gmail.com or leave a comment below.
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.
If you enjoy the kind of content on my blog and all that goes into it, you can support my writing for $2.99 a month or a single donation. Learn more here: https://lisahoweler.com/support-my-writing/
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
Our family tried to go to a 120-year-old tradition of riding a homemade wooden sled down a hill on a track made of 13-inch blocks of ice yesterday but the wait was 3-hours.
We opted for food at an inn and tavern instead and left the waiting to others.
The Eagles Mere Toboggan Ride is held only if the Eagles Mere Lake freezes enough that the fire company can cut the blocks to build the slide.
It doesn’t happen every year so we have to take the chance when we can but it’s been so severely cold that we made the mistake of waiting.
Since the weather is warming up, this weekend was probably the last chance.
It was a nice day despite the kids and husband not being able to go down the historic slide. What? You didn’t think I was going down that thing, did you?
They walked around town on their way back and stopped by the little bookstore I love to visit. I was waiting in the car, though, and didn’t know they were visiting it and when we drove by later, finding a parking space was impossible. So I didn’t get to go to the bookstore, but Little Miss and The Husband picked up a couple books for me.
Then it was on to the tavern for an amazing lunch while taxidermy animals looked down on us.
If you would like to know more about the toboggan ride, you can watch this video:
What I/We’ve Been Reading
In Progress
I am reading Mrs. McGinty’s Dead by Agatha Christie for the Read Christie 26 Challenge.
I am also reading The Blue Castle, Return of the King, and Murder, She Wrote: Bullets and Brandy by Donald Bain.
Up Soon
How To Seal Your Own Fate by Kristin Perrin.
What The Family is Reading
Little Miss and I are reading The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy together and listening to The Green Ember by S.D. Smith.
The Husband is reading The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith.
What I/We’ve Been Watching
I don’t know if I need a life or if my life is okay but my big thrill this week was when my Blu-ray of Angels With Dirty Faces — a movie with James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart from the late 1930s — arrived in the mail. The icing on the cake was that The Husband was just as excited to see it and warned me I can’t watch it without him.
I am watching it for next week’s Winter of Cagney.
The husband and I watched an episode of Kate and Allie last night. I forgot about that show.
I watched White Heat for the Winter of Cagney and will write about it Monday.
I am listening to Shakespeare. The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench and Brenden O’Hea because I found it more interesting to listen to than read.
Some Housekeeping
Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and I host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea. This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!). Each link party will be open for a month. You can find that link up for this month here.
Each week, I host the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot with some great hosts. It goes live Thursday night but you can share any kind of blog posts (family-friendly) there until Tuesday of each week. You can check my recent posts on the sidebar to the right for the most recent link-party.
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.
If you enjoy the kind of content on my blog and all that goes into it, you can support my writing for $2.99 a month or a single donation. Learn more here: https://lisahoweler.com/support-my-writing/
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
As I am starting to write this post on a Saturday night our WiFi is out so I am using the unlimited data on my phone plan to draft this. Our internet company thinks the severe cold is our issue. (Update: It came back this morning and they still think it was the nasty cold).
This weekend’s weather here is taking the cake for this winter.
When I woke up this morning it was -6 without the windchill. The feels like temp was -30F (0 Celsius).
That temp continued to drop throughout the day.
Today our high will be 8F.
Obviously, we are staying hunkered down at home today.
We have three cats, Scout, Pixel and Cass and it is driving them crazy right now that they cannot go outside. We live in a semi rural area, so we normally let them outside in our backyard for a little bit, and they explore between the house and our wood pile and a little bit beyond and then they come back in. Scout is the hunter and sometimes we’ll disappear for a day and warmer weather coming back on occasion with a dead bird mouse or other animal.
Pixel is our home body. She mainly sits on the back porch and watches to see what scout does. Cass is new to us after being dropped off near our property the day before Halloween last year. So I’m not totally sure of his habits just yet, but he seems to be more like a hunter like Scout..
The bitter cold weather we have been having for the last month has meant keeping the cats in more than usual though. This is driving them absolutely insane and they pace in front of the door or smack each other around and have all out cat fights. I like winter in some ways because it means I can stay inside and write or read but right now I am ready for some warmer weather if only to get these cats out of the house and out of my hair. It would be one thing if they just enjoyed curling up but these are roaming cats and for them just to sleep all day isn’t really an option. They do sleep a lot, however.
I needed to slow down yesterday and have a good cry.
Another friend of the family passed away, and I realized I’d been telling myself I didn’t have time to sit down and cry about it.
Yesterday was his funeral and the severe cold and the possibility of me coming down with something kept me from going.
I busied myself throughout the day and then, right before dinner, I thought about how he is gone and I won’t see him again and I let myself have a good long cry.
I don’t like to break down and cry because I worry if I do I won’t stop and I’ll fall into a very deep depression. The problem is that I also sink into a deep depression if I hold in my sadness so it’s probably better to let some of the pressure off with a good cry instead.
What I/We’ve Been Reading
Just Finished
I finished The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham last night.
It was very good but different than I expected with a lot more cerebral and deep descriptions and a more artistic ending than I thought it would have. There was also very little sleuthing with the guy I thought was the main character – Albert Campion – but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. I will eventually post a review of it.
In Progress
I am still rereading The Blue Castle (I will have a post up Monday for anyone reading along with me) and am also reading – for the first time – Return of the King by JRR Tolkien.
I just started a Murder, She Wrote because I want to read something I don’t have to use my brain for a lot. Ha!
This one started out a bit more bawdy than other ones I’ve read and I’m not sure what I think of that. We will see how it goes.
Up Soon
I am still rereading The Blue Castle (I will have a post up Monday for anyone reading along with me) and am also reading – for the first time – Return of the King by JRR Tolkien.
I just started a Murder, She Wrote because I want to read something I don’t have to use my brain for a lot. Ha!
This one started out a bit more bawdy than other ones I’ve read and I’m not sure what I think of that. We will see how it goes.
What The Family is Reading
Little Miss and I are still reading The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy.
What I/We’ve Been Watching
Last week I watched Love Me or Leave Me with Doris Day and James Cagney and episodes of Murder, She Wrote and All Creatures Great And Small.
Today I am going to watch my farmer on YouTube ( Just A Few Acres) because he’s finally back with a video.
I am listening to Shakespeare. The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench and Brenden O’Hea because I found it more interesting to listen to than read.
Some Housekeeping
Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and I host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea. This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!). Each link party will be open for a month. You can find that link up for this month here.
Each week, I host the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot with some great hosts. It goes live Thursday night but you can share any kind of blog posts (family-friendly) there until Tuesday of each week. You can check my recent posts on the sidebar to the right for the most recent link-party.
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.
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
What else can I start this post with but a bit of a whine about the arctic cold that has settled over Pennsylvania and much of the country…
It has definitely impacted my every day since I’ve mainly been trapped inside the house, due to having difficulties with breathing in extreme cold. And it has been EXTREME. We’ve had windchill warnings left and right with windchills being -25 in some cases.
Today, though, I am wrapping a scarf around my face and braving the cold so I can see my parents. I don’t have to go too far. From the house to The Husband’s truck and from his truck to my parents’ house.
I’ve almost forgotten what my parents look like at this point.
I am grateful they have wonderful neighbors who have been keeping an eye on them during the snowstorm and cold weather. Those neighbors have brought them food, cleaned their driveway, and checked in on them. The Husband has also taken food to them for me and stayed with my mom one day when my dad went to a doctor’s appointment earlier in the week.
I never thought I’d be happy to see temperatures in the mid-20s but that is what we are getting next week and that will make going places much easier.
What I/We’ve Been Reading
Just Finished
I just finished Miss Read’s Village Diary by Miss Read and enjoyed it maybe a little more than the first book.
I will read more books in the series this year.
In Progress
I’m currently reading Return of the King, The Blue Castle, and The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham.
I am enjoying all three. The Blue Castle is a re-read.
The Tiger in the Smoke is very hard to put down. I am very curious where it is going. It is my first Allingham. She’s a Golden Age mystery/crime fiction writer.
You might recognize the name of her main character, Albert Campion, if you’ve ever seen the British show Campion.
Up Soon
I plan to read Judi Dench’s book, Shakespeare, The Man Who Pays the Rent next. I have it on Libby so I need to get to it!
What The Family is Reading
Little Miss and I are reading The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy.
Two for Texas by James Lee Burke
What I/We’ve Been Watching
I’ve been watching Murder, She Wrote, Cagney & Lacey, the James Cagney movie The Public Enemy, and a great Lucille Ball movie entitled Lured. It was not a comedy movie and while I don’t know that she was the right actress for the role, the storytelling and suspense of the movie was worth pushing through Lucille’s misplaced casting.
George Sanders also made it worth it. He isn’t the traditionally handsome but he oozes sex appeal through the whole movie.
Last night I watched a documentary about the pianist and comedian Victor Borge. I added one about Fred Astaire to the watchlist that I want to watch with The Husband.
What I’ve Been Writing
I’m making a lot of progress on Gladwynn Grant Goes Back to School.
The first book in the series, Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing is free on Amazon in ebook form until Tuesday.
Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and I host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea. This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!). Each link party will be open for a month. You can find that link up for this month here.
Each week, I host the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot with some great hosts. It goes live Thursday night but you can share any kind of blog posts (family-friendly) there until Tuesday of each week. You can check my recent posts on the sidebar to the right for the most recent link-party.
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.
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
As I am starting this post on Saturday night, we had temps — er – temp of 5. In the morning snow is supposed to start and when it all ends Monday night, we are supposed to have close to 18 inches of snow.
I really hope we don’t get as much as they say, though, because the high temp is supposed to be 15 degrees, which I think means this will be a very heavy, wet snow. We live in a rural area so that could mean power outages. We have a woodstove that could keep us warm downstairs but we would have to worry about our pipes freezing since we do not have a generator. I believe that’s something we will need to invest in at some point soon. Our neighbors have generators, which I think they purchased after a tornado hit here on our street about six years ago, wiping out power for several days.
I’m sure many of you, if you are in the Northern and Middle U.S. are facing a similar situation as us. Stay safe out there, everyone.
Since we are going to be snowed in, I have been planning how to get through it all without worrying too much. I plan to watch movies, read books, and sip tea or cocoa.
To keep themselves occupied, Little Miss has been video chatting with her friend and The Boy has been chatting with his friend and playing video games. The Husband has been cleaning the house (he’s much better at that than I am) and reading and doing a little work for the newspaper he is at the editor at.
He expects to be snowed in Monday and will work from home. As long as we have power that is.
Erin (www.crackercrumblife.com) and I held our Crafternoon Zoom call yesterday and it was very nice to chat with people from all over the world. We chat while we craft and if you are interested in taking part, please let me or Erin know. It is just a relaxed time to chat, make new friends, and forget about our troubles. We keep conversations as free of politics or hard stuff as much as we can.
UPDATE:
It is 12:24 P.M. as I am finishing up this post and it is about 10 degrees out (-12 C) and we have about six inches of snow on the ground. The snow is supposed to stop sometime tonight and we are expected to have up to 18 inches of snow when it is all done.
What I/We’ve Been Reading
Just Finished
I didn’t finish anything this weekend.
In Progress
I’ve been reading Miss Read’s Village Diary by Miss Read, The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery (a reread), and just started Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien.
I’m enjoying all three. Miss Read’s books are such easygoing, relaxing reads.
Up Soon
I hope to finish Miss Read this week so I can add The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham to my reading line up.
I read the first few pages about a month ago and it intrigued me.
Cat from Cat’s Wire needs to let me know if it is good or not. *wink*
After that I plan to start the February Agatha Christie Read for the Agatha Christie challenge, Mrs. McGinty’s Dead.
What The Family is Reading
Little Miss and I started The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy. We’ve also been listening to Winnie The Pooh on Audible.
The Husband is reading….
What I/We’ve Been Watching
I loved this YouTube video about how to read more classic books.
And this video about how to cut back on buying books you never read.
I watched After The Thin Man, the second movie in The Thin Manseries, yesterday, and earlier in the week I watched episode two of season six of All Creatures Great And Small.
Today I hope to watch another old movie, probably a James Cagney, for my Winter of Cagney.
I’ve had to change my schedule of Cagney movies again because I have found yet another movie that is not streaming anywhere and can’t be found for very cheap on DVD. Two movies now, Man of a Thousand Faces and Angels With Dirty Faces, are going to have to be taken off my list as I figure out how to watch them in the future.
The Husband says these movies are most likely no longer in print and have not been licensed for streaming, hence my challenge in finding them. Man of A Thousand Faces costs $40 most places and is mainly on BluRay and Angels With Dirty Faces (a movie with Cagney and Humphrey Bogart) is on DVD but $19.95. I will probably set the aside for another time and slide two Cagney movies that I can find streaming into my list instead.
David Phelps with Laura Osnes singing a song from The Phantom of the Opera.
Photos From Last Week
Some Housekeeping
Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and I host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea. This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!). Each link party will be open for a month. You can find that link up for this month here.
Each week, I host the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot with some great hosts. It goes live Thursday night but you can share any kind of blog posts (family-friendly) there until Tuesday of each week. You can check my recent posts on the sidebar to the right for the most recent link-party.
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.
I should be able to manage this one since I am in a Christie reading challenge for 2026. I tried it last year and failed but I think I’ll do better this year.
I read The Secret of Chimneys for January and already have the book for February — Mrs. McGinty’s Dead.
I will be reading An Autobiography by Agatha Christie for the challenge as well, which will actually cross off another of my goals down below.
Two. Read at least three classic books this year
I want to read at least two classics this year, and I hope one of them will be The Count of Monte Cristo.
I will be reading Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien as well.
Other classic book goals for me this year are to read at least one book by a Bronte sister, finish Mansfield Park (despite the gag factor I have with it), and a re-read of Tom Sawyer, which I haven’t read since I was maybe 11.
To get through these classics I will be using advice that a booktuber I just found gave on his channel and that I mention more in detail below. Keep reading if you want to find out what that advice is.
Three. Read at least two autobiographies
I already have a couple I want to read — Maureen O’Hara, Myrna Loy, and Paul Newman’s, but then I heard that James Cagney’s is very good, so I am looking for that one on Thriftbooks.
Four. Read at least two non-fiction books
I hope to read at least one C.S. Lewis book, Mere Christianity, and as for another non-fiction, I’m not sure yet. Feel free to recommend a good one in my comments.
Five. Read more Christian Fiction books
I did not read a ton of Christian Fiction books in 2025. Not for any bad reason. I just didn’t seem to find a ton that interested me last year. I was also more interested in mysteries. I have a few lined up for this year, though, including:
Finding Lady Enderly by Joanna Davison Politano, Stories That Bind Us by Susie Finkbeiner, A Desperate Hope by Elizabeth Camden, and Long Way Gone by Charles Martin.
A lot of Christian Fiction is very intense.
Do any of my blog readers know of Christian Fiction that is less intense? Rom-coms, I know, but those are hit or miss for me.
Mystery and thriller books in Christian Fiction seem to be all overdramatic and formulaic and not a simple, fun mystery like Agatha Christie or the Golden Age crime writers, which is why I don’t often read Christian Mystery.
Six. Weed out books I’m not reading or probably won’t to straighten shelves
My shelves are overflowing with books I grabbed at used book sales and will probably never read. I need to weed them out and make more room on our bookshelves. As the vlogger I watched this morning said, we buy new books because we get an endorphin hit at the idea of what the story will hold but then when that endorphin hit wears off, we just end up leaving the books piling up and not reading them.
Seven. Find another place in the house for another bookcase
This brings me to seven — we need more bookcases, even if I weed some of the books out. I really want another one for our bedroom since we are currently using an old coffee table and piling them up there. A bookcase would look better there, and it would be easier to find the books we want to read if we had a bookcase. Right now, most of those books are The Husbands, but to find one, he has to shift through the stacks. I’m not sure how we would get a bookcase up the stairs, but I suppose we could get one that can be assembled after we buy it.
And a few writing goals:
Eight. Finishing Gladwynn Grant Goes Back to School and start a planned Christmas cozy mystery
I watched a video this morning from a booktuber who was sharing about how to read more books instead of buying them and never reading them. One thing he said was to set aside a certain time for reading, and while reading, don’t think about all the other things you need to do. Instead, tell yourself, “I am reading for one hour, and I can do those other things later,” and then immerse yourself in the story. Focus on the words and the use of them and the play of them. Don’t think about the end goal of finishing the book, but instead think about the words as you read them and really be mindful of what you are reading.
While I want that goal in reading, I also want it in writing this year.
I want to set aside an hour or two a day and just write and enjoy the act of writing instead of constantly being focused on the need to finish this book and add it to the series. I think that’s what has been holding me up. I haven’t been having fun with writing — I have been looking at the end and how far I am from it instead of taking one step at a time and focusing on the path in front of me. I’ve been so focused on the thought, “I need to get this done” that it has become a chore rather than a joy.
So, I will be enjoying creating scenes and scenarios for Gladwynn and her friends more and looking at how far I am behind in word count etc. less.
Nine. Figure out a way to finish my small town contemporary romance series, The Spencer Valley Chronicles
I am very behind on this one. I released my last Spencer Valley Chronicles book, Shores of Mercy, in 2022. I really need to wrap up the series and how I want to do that is to write a final book with Alex Stone, Molly Tanner’s love interest, as the main character. He has some demons he needs to tackle, mainly from his broken relationship with his verbally and emotionally abusive father.
The one problem is that I don’t write contemporary romance or any romance anymore. I would have to rewrite a lot of the series because I don’t really enjoy looking back at it and seeing my writing at that time.
Ten. Figure out how to advertise my books (without breaking the bank) and sell more of them
This one will be an ongoing process. Right now, my free ways of advertising my books are here on my blog and various social media accounts. It gets tedious to plug the books all the time, though, and I prefer to have fun posting bookish memes and reels and talking about old movies or books.
I’m horrible at self-promoting. Even doing it in this post is making me feel icky.
Still, I write the stories so I should have people read them, and it’s fun when they do and let me know they like them.
I don’t have deep pockets for paid advertising, but I hope to find a few ways to do that this year.
So…..these are some of my bookish and writing goals for 2026. What are some of yours?
If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin and I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.
On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.
I also post a link-up on Sundays for weekly updates about what you are reading, watching, doing, listening to, etc.
If you would like to support my writing (and add to the fund for my daughter’s online art/science classes), you can do so here.
Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.
You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
Latey I’ve become even more diligent about calming my nervous system and one way I am doing that is by choosing when I see or hear national or international news.
Previously, if I logged into my Chrome app on my phone headlines popped up at me and I was hit full in the face with some horrible headline about some horrible thing going on in the world.
Two days ago I found a way to change the home screen so there are no news headlines slamming me in my face first thing. I didn’t know I could do that before but it has been so helpful. Now all that pops up are sites I visit the most and none of those are news sites.
If I do visit news sites, I am trying to do it briefly on my laptop and for only about two minutes.
I have also been trying to read more and watch TV less. If I watch TV it is usually All Creatures Great or Small, an old detective show, or old movies.
I listen to light, older/classic books and even childrens’ books (like Winnie the Pooh) while doing dishes or housework.
Worship music a few times a week has been a must lately but I have not always been doing that like I should.
I feel much calmer when I listen to worship music at some point during my day but the earlier the better because then the song is stuck in my head throughout the day and I can sing it when I feel stressed.
I have a couple of devotionals in my kindle I want to start but I also want to get some hard copies of devotionals so I can underline and write in the margins.
This past week was fairly calm with me visiting my parents a couple of times to visit and help clean up and with doing school with Little Miss. Our most productive school day was Thursday because we discussed the end of the Civil War and other historical subjects.
The other days of the week we focused on math, trying to figure out what book we want to read next for Literature, and Little Miss attended the four classes and two clubs she has online.
What I/We’ve Been Reading
Just Finished
This week I finished Miss Read’s Village School by Miss Read and The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie.
They were both very good and made up for my first read of the year, My Beloved by Jan Karon, which I did not enjoy (unlike her previous 14 books, which I did very much enjoy).
The Secret of Chimneys was more like an international mystery than her normal mysteries, but I liked that even more.
I do have to say — a lot of rich people get murdered in her books. Ha! She was a member of the upper class in England, but I think she had a grudge to,o because she was frequently killing off the richest or the people who wanted to be the richest. That wasn’t the actual case in this latest one, so I didn’t spoil anything, but the mystery does involve rich and powerful people who want things kept a secret.
In Progress
I am now reading Miss Read’s Village Diary, which is similar to Village School. It follows Miss Read, a teacher at a small, rural school and the mix of characters around her. It is just a simple, calm book, without a deep plot. It’s perfect for what I want to read right now.
I’ve also started The Blue Castle for a re-read.
Up Soon
I hope to continue The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham because I started the first few pages to see if I liked it and got pulled right in.
After that I am going for lighter fare with a Murder, She Wrote book, but I am not sure which one yet. I have one that takes place in Hawaii and that might be a good one to help me forget about how cold it is right now where I live.
What The Family is Reading
Little Miss and I are starting The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy.
The Husband is reading The Housemaid is Watching by Frieda McFadden.
What I/We’ve Been Watching
This past week I watched a movie called It Happened Tomorrow about a man who receives a newspaper that tells him the future, and it changes his entire life. It is a lighthearted film, and I would guess it was movie behind the idea for the show from the 1990s with a similar plot. The movie starred Dick Powell and Linda Darnell.
I also watched The Million Pound Note with Gregory Peck. It wasn’t too bad. A bit strange, but cute and fun. I originally was going to write that this was only the third Gregory Peck movie I have watched, but then I did a search to remind me the name of the one movie and saw others of his I had watched, starting with The Guns of Navarone, which my mom really likes. The second was Roman Holiday. Then it was To Kill A Mockingbird a couple of years ago and then this movie.
I watched the first episode of the sixth season of All Creatures Great and Small Friday night at the end of a very relaxing time of reading and cuddling under a warm blanket with a dog next to me and a cat on my chest.
Little Miss and I also watched the first episode ever of Little House on the Prairie, at her request.
I also watched “10 ways to live like a Grandma in 2025” On the Real Vintage Dollhouse YouTube channel.
Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and I host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea. This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!). Each link party will be open for a month. You can find that link up for this month here.
Each week, I host the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot with some great hosts. It goes live Thursday night but you can share any kind of blog posts (family-friendly) there until Tuesday of each week. You can check my recent posts on the sidebar to the right for the most recent link-party.
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.
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to. Feel free to link your posts about
This past week we took our newest pet edition — our cat Cass — to the vet for a cut to his leg and paw. I don’t know what he did. The cat is crazy. Luckily the cuts were not yet infected but he is on a preventative antibiotic just in case.
I had a stressful week for several reasons, so I looked for the small things to calm me and make me happy during the week (and distract me from national news).
What I/We’ve Been Reading
Just Finished
I didn’t finish any books this week.
In Progress
I am enjoying Miss Read’s Village School by Miss Read. It’s a slow, easy-going read and I really need that right now. It’s about a teacher at a small school in a small English village in the 1950s and it is about as quaint and low-key as it sounds.
I am also reading The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie. This one is like an international mystery, so different than her normal mysteries. I’m really enjoying it so far.
Up Soon
I will probably start Return of the King by Tolkien once I finish The Secret of Chimneys.
What The Family is Reading
The Husband is reading The Return of the Maltese Falcon by Max Collins and just finished Anxious People by Fredrick Backman.
He is also planning to read Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carre, as well as the other books related to that one.
Poor guy thought something I wrote on Instagram meant that I didn’t like when people planned what they were going to read in the new year or set goals. That’s not what I actually said but he read too fast, I think. What I wrote was that I am not setting a numerical goal of books to be read this year because I just want to read and not worry about numbers or goals of any kind. I’m doing this because there has been a lot of stress with my parents’ health and other life things so I just want to take the pressure off this year.
Of course, I probably will set a personal goal of how many books I’d like to read but I’m not going to be strict about it or make an announcement.
I do, however, enjoy it when others announce or talk about these goals and I admire anyone who sets them and reaches them.
I usually do set and try to reach them. I just don’t want to this year.
The only challenge I will probably do is the Read Christie 2026 Challenge, which involves reading at least one Agatha Christie book a month for the entire year. That’s a challenge I can totally handle.
What I/We’ve Been Watching
This past week I watched, Taxi a James Cagney movie from 1931.
I also watched a few episodes of Cagney and Lacey and it might replace my Murder, She Wrote obsession but I’m not sure yet. I am enjoying the series so far.
I also watched The Lemon Drop Kid with Bob Hope. It was a totally goofy, crazy, wild movie.
Tonight I hope to watch the first episode of season six of All Creatures Great and Small on the PBS channel on Amazon.
Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and I host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea. This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!). Each link party will be open for a month. You can find that link up for this month here.
Each week, I host the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot with some great hosts. It goes live Thursday night but you can share any kind of blog posts (family-friendly) there until Tuesday of each week. You can check my recent posts on the sidebar to the right for the most recent link-party.
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.
