Welcome to Sunday Bookends where I share what I’m reading, watching, listening to, writing and doing.
What’s Been Occurring
This past week we mainly recovered from last week, which was fairly busy. We didn’t do much until Saturday when we traveled to Scranton to visit, well, Scranton. I will write about this more in depth later in the week. Suffice it to say, when we told my parents we were traveling to Scranton we received the question most people in PA ask when someone says they’re going to Scranton. “Why? What’s in Scranton?” I’ll expound on that further in my post later this week.
On Friday I went to my parents to look at some books Dad had in the barn and wanted me to look at to see if I wanted them. They were crawling with spiders and dusty and mainly Reader’s Digest books, so I was not interested. They are now going to the dump. While in the barn, I had a bit of a panic moment when I felt the floor of the barn bounce up and down, wondering if it would cave underneath me.
The barn is very old, and my dad has been considering having it pulled down. He and The Boy recently cleaned it out to prepare for such an eventuality. For now, there are still a few pieces of antique furniture and, of course, old books, stored there.
When my son saw my panic, he thought it was pretty funny and proceeded to bounce on the boards to make it move more. A few minutes later he told my dad about my panic and my dad proceeded to do the same thing with the boards. Those two are very similar in their behaviors and personalities. They also think they are actually funny.
What I’m Reading
This week I finished Rose Among Thornes by Terrie Todd, after skipping through much of it because I didn’t enjoy the style of writing, which was mainly telling the entire story like a person relaying what happened instead of showing what happened through description. I did, however, enjoy the story overall and the subject matter about Japanese internment camps in Canada during World War II. Just because I didn’t like the way the story was told, does not mean the book is not good. It was just not a style of writing I enjoy. My mom disagreed with me and did enjoy it.
I am continuing the Husband Auditions by Angela Ruth Strong, which I will probably finish this week. So far, I am enjoying it.
I will have reviews for both of these books in a couple of weeks.
When I am in the mood for something a little deeper than the above mentioned clean rom-com, I delve into Another Man’s Moccasins by Craig Johnson.
Later this month, and into September, I hope to finish Double Minds by Terri Blackstock and for something totally different, Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain.
Little Miss and I are reading The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder before bed.
The Boy is listening to H.P. Lovecraft stories on audio.
What I’m Watching
The husband and I have been watching a British comedy, Upstart Crow and I’ve been re-watching To the Manor Born. We also watched some Rockford Files. I started a couple of movies, but didn’t finish either of them for a variety of reasons.
What I’m Writing
This week I plan to write a post about our trip to Scranton and then join up with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs for a post about our respective Main Streets. I also plan to finish a Randomly Thinking post I have started but never finished.
Welcome to Sunday Bookends where I share what I’m reading, watching, listening to, writing and doing.
Last week I spread myself way too thin.
I committed to too much and as a result, my mind and body are still trying to recover. Today, as I write this, my feet are throbbing from holding a yard sale with my neighbor yesterday. We got ready for the yard sale throughout the week and held it for one day and made almost no money. I will never do a yard sale again. This is what I said three years ago when I helped my dad sell a lot of my aunt’s belongings after she passed away, but after yesterday — yeah — I’m holding to it.
It’s not that anything bad happened. In fact, I met several interesting people, which I will write more about later this week. The issue was the waiting, standing, straightening and pulling out items for very, very little return (under $50).
So, no more yard sales.
After the yard sale, I kept moving and went downtown to watch the outhouse races, which I’ve mentioned before on this blog. I will be sharing a full post about the races later this week, including the history of it in our smalltown and more photos.
I know I had a couple of readers who wanted to see photos and learn more about it. I’ll even include a video in the post I share about it.
I did miss the other events of the day, including the keg roll race, which involves rolling a keg full of water (I think it is just water) through a haybale maze or course. I’m sorry, I have no photos of that one for you.
As for the book tours I’m doing, I’ll keep doing them, but I’ll spread them out a bit more next time. I have to read books for book tours, you see, and sometimes I don’t have time to just sit and read so I always panic I won’t get the book done in time. So far, though, I’m doing okay. Last week I posted a book tour interview post for Set in Stone, the fourth book in the Rembrandt Stone series and this week I am posting a review of Rahab’s Courage by Naomi Craig. At the end of the month, I have another review post and at the beginning of September I have two in a week.
After that, I won’t be doing anymore until we get into a good groove with homeschooling, which starts September 1.
The last of my son’s curriculum came this week. I still need a science until for Little Miss, but I have some science I can start with her for the first week. We will be doing a lot of reviewing to start with anyhow.
One thing I won’t have to review as much with Little Miss is reading because this summer, even without going over lessons, she has started reading on her own, to the point she can now read my text messages. I have to be careful what I write or what is sent to me now. The other day she had the phone when a friend texted to ask if we were going to the local fireworks display. Because of the yard sale, I forgot about the fireworks, which are about 20 minutes from our house.
“There’s a fireworks display?” Little Miss cried, looking over my shoulder.
Argh. How I longed for the days she couldn’t read yet (sort of).
“Um…yes, but it’s too late to get there. . .”
Ten minutes of crying followed because she wouldn’t get to see her little friends who we see maybe once a year at this point. Her other little friends moved to Texas out of the blue, two weeks ago, so she’s been pretty lonely.
Earlier in the day I caught her laughing while looking at a text message in my phone.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“This message from The Boy. ‘Mom, I can’t find my glasses.’”
(No, she doesn’t really call him The Boy. That’s simply his blog name.)
These are all simple sentences but early in the year last school year, Little Miss wasn’t even sounding out words. Now she’s reading full sentences and the other day, using an app, she sent me a message on my phone, “I love you, Mom.”
It’s weird to be receiving messages from my almost 7-year-old, but these days many children are learning how to read and spell as young as 4, maybe even 3, thanks to technology. Little Miss has been learning how to read and write through asking me how to spell words so she can message her friends on games or my phone. I even caught her commenting on YouTube accounts (she watches a snake education show and a show that follows a goat farm) recently.
Anyhow, I have digressed. In the midst of book tours and the yard sale, I “launched” my book Thursday, whatever that means. I released it and pretended it was a big deal by sharing posts on my Facebook page and Instagram, but honestly, I lost a lot of motivation to promote it. The constant bombardment by authors pushing books and everyone selling something has beat me down a bit. All of that marketing mixed in with politics on social media has my stomach in knots and my nerves frayed. Even when I try to avoid it all, I get hit in the face with it, so I’m trying to stay clear of social media as much as I can.
So, not to push something I’m selling at you here, but I will mention for blog readers who wanted to read the story in full (there were changes made and chapters added for the final book), you can order an ebook or paperbook copy through Amazon, HERE.
In the midst of the all the craziness, Little Miss and I did find some time for relaxation by going swimming at my parents a couple of times. We spent two hours in the pool one day and almost three another day.
It was a nice reprieve from the crazy of the world and part of me didn’t even want to leave the pool. In the pool no one asks me what I think about the situations in the world or talks to me about politics (even when I don’t ask) or wants anything from me other than to race across the pool. Sometimes I wish I was a mermaid and I lived in water and not in an upside down world.
What I’m Reading
This week I am reading two books for blog tours: Rose Among Thornes and The Husband Auditions. I’ll have more information on them in future posts.
Rose Among Thornes by Terrie Todd is currently available on Kindle Unlimited and tells the story of a Japanese-Canadians and the horror that fell on them during World War II when they were moved to internment camps, much like the Japanese-Americans.
This book is more of a telling of a story, than a showing, just to give a heads up. That doesn’t mean it is bad, it is just different than some books I have read. I will have a full review of it up on August 30, which is my scheduled tour date for it.
Here is a description for anyone who would like to check it out ahead of time:
Forgiveness is the deadliest force on earth.
War might be raging overseas, but Rose Onishi is on track to fulfill her lifelong goal of becoming a concert pianist. When forced by her government to leave her beloved home in Vancouver and move to the Canadian prairie to work on the Thornes’ sugar beet farm, her dream fades to match the black dirt staining her callused hands. Though the Thorne family is kind, life is unbearably lonely. In hopes that it might win her the chance to play their piano, Rose agrees to write letters to their soldier son.
When Rusty Thorne joins the Canadian Army, he never imagines becoming a Japanese prisoner of war. Inside the camp, the faith his parents instilled is tested like never before. Though he begs God to help him not hate his brutal captors, Rusty can no longer even hear the Japanese language without revulsion. Only his rare letters from home sustain him—especially the brilliant notes from his mother’s charming helper, which the girl signs simply as “Rose.”
Will Rusty survive the war only to encounter the Japanese on his own doorstep? Can Rose overcome betrayal and open her heart? Or will the truth destroy the fragile bond their letters created?
I am enjoying The Husband Auditions by Angela Ruth Strong.
Here is a description:
How far would you go to find the perfect husband? All the way back to the 1950s?
In a world full of happily-ever-after love, Meri Newberg feels like the last young woman on the planet to be single, at least in her Christian friend group. So when she’s handed a strange present at the latest wedding–a 1950s magazine article of “ways to get a husband”–she decides there’s nothing to lose by trying out its advice. After all, she can’t get any more single, can she?
Her brother’s roommate sees the whole thing as a great opportunity. Not to fall in love–Kai Kamaka has no interest in the effort a serious relationship takes. No, this is a career jump start. He talks Meri into letting him film every silly husband-catching attempt for a new online show. If it goes viral, his career as a cameraman will be made.
When Meri Me debuts, it’s an instant hit. People love watching her lasso men on street corners, drop handkerchiefs for unsuspecting potential beaus, and otherwise embarrass herself in pursuit of true love. But the longer this game goes on, the less sure Kai is that he wants Meri to snag anyone but him. The only problem is that he may not be the kind of husband material she’s looking for . . .
With droll comic timing, unbeatable chemistry, and a zany but relatable cast of characters, Angela Ruth Strong has created a heartfelt look at the reality of modern Christian dating that readers will both resonate with and fall for.
The book comes out August 19.
I am also reading (when I take breaks from the other books) Another Man’s Moccasins, by Craig Johnson. It is the fourth book in the Longmire Mystery series.
What I’m Watching
I am rewatching To the Manor Born because it is a light, sweet comedy and I need that right now.
We didn’t watch much together as a family this week because my husband had to work late every night and I was working on yard sale stuff.
What I’m Listening To
I haven’t had time to listen to much of anything, honestly. At night I listen to the same Our Miss Brooks podcast I’ve been listening to for over a year, maybe two. The podcast is simply episodes of the old radio/television show from the late 40s and early 50s.
I had very little time to read blog posts last week, so I hope to catch up this week and share some of my favorites in next week’s Sunday Bookends.
What I’m Writing
One day last week I got up early to write a little bit on The Next Chapter, the third book in the Spencer Valley Chronicles. It felt good to lose myself in telling a story again, even though I don’t really have a final plan of how this story is going to go or who the main characters are going to be.
I don’t know when, or if, I’ll be sharing this story on the blog. I haven’t decided if I want to continue Fiction Friday or not, but I may start it back up sometime in September if I do choose to continue it.
On Wednesday, I joined with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs for Hometown Views, where we shared about the churches in our town/city.
I’ll keep you updated on when our next one is. We haven’t decided a topic just yet.
So, that’s my week in review for this week. How was your week? Let me know in the comments.
Welcome to my Sunday Bookends post where I talk about my previous week, including what I’m reading, watching, listening to, writing and doing.
The temperatures dropped last week, and I loved it. I know. I’m crazy, but I liked the cooler temps that allowed me to curl up under a blanket, with a mug of tea, and read a book.
I was hoping for some warmer temps this week so I can take the kids swimming at my parents, however, and it looks like we are getting it. A little hotter than I would like, actually, with temps inching toward the high 80s. Of course, they are going to be in the high 80s the week of the local carnival, which is returning after being canceled last year. I was hoping to take the youngest there while the oldest and their dad volunteer at the firemen’s tent on Thursday night, but I’m not sure I want to feel like I’m walking through a sauna, so we will see how it goes.
We have about three more weeks before school starts and I am hoping we can squeeze some fun in those weeks, but also some relaxation.
Last week Little Miss and I attended an event at a local conservation area about 20 minutes from us. The conservatory includes trails, a cabin from the time around the Revolutionary War (and relocated there from another location), a rope climbing area, a musical instrument area, and a place for crafts.
A book was read, the students were let loose to explore some stations in the woods, and then they were offered a chance to build a salamander out of clay and place it in a habitat they made. Little Miss went all out, creating a salamander and her baby. She kept running back to the lady leading the event, asking for more clay, different colors, to create her salamander. All of the other children made a salamander in a few minutes and were done. Not my kid. She was creating a masterpiece. And I thought that was pretty cool. The people running the activity did too and enjoyed taking photos of her creation and her.
After the activities, Little Miss decided we should go look for frogs in the pond. We didn’t find frogs, but we did find lily pads and vowed to return to the area again to look for more frogs, as well as to take part in another one of the conservatory’s events before the summer is over.
What I’m Reading
I am reading books for book tours I signed up for right now.
The first book I need to finish is Rahab’s Courage by Naomi Craig. So far, it’s good but a little tedious in some places. It’s a romance, which I wasn’t expecting. It is also Biblical fiction.
It is well written, but not a happy book.
I need to look for happier books after this one.
I have another book to read for a book tour at the end of the month, Rose Among Thorns by Terrie Todd. Both of these authors are new to me.
To break up the Biblical Fiction, I am reading Another Man’s Moccasins by Craig Johnson. It’s the fourth in the Walt Longmire series.
Little Miss and I have finished Little House in the Big Woods and she asked for a horse book instead of the next in the Little House series, so we are reading Misty’s Twilight by Marguerite Henry.
This Thursday on the blog I will be part of a book tour for Set in Stone, the latest book in the Rembrandt Stone series. My post will be an interview with the authors, Susan May Warren, James Rupart, and David Warren. Together they are David James Warren.
What I’m Watching
Last weekend we watched The Maltese Falcon with my parents, which was different since we usually watch movies with only my husband and I or our son. Little Miss is there too but she doesn’t really watch the movies. She plays games on my phone or paints or chases the dog. Black and white movies don’t interest her much.
During the week I watched mainly To the Manor Born, which is a British sitcom from the 1970s. I am getting caught up in the story of the woman and the man who took over the estate she once lived in and am very curious to see if they get together or not. It’s a very light comedy, something I really need these days.
My husband and I also started Upstart Crow, despite the fact my son said the canned laughter on it is annoying. To put him in his place, I did a search online and the laughter is not actually canned. It’s filmed before a studio audience, but The Boy says they are just saying ordinary, unfunny things, and laughter is being layered over it. I said that some of the lines are funny without the laughter, but he didn’t agree.
If you haven’t guessed, my teenager is a bit of a downer these days. He finds fault with what we used to enjoy doing together and analyzes shows, movies, and activities to the point they aren’t fun anymore. Hopefully this is a stage he passes through quickly.
What I’m Writing
I’m not writing much, to be honest. After finishing and editing Harvesting Hope, I’m a little burnt out. I have slowly started writing another book, called The Next Chapter, but I haven’t written more than a few words a day on it. Seriously. I know. How sad. I hope to find some more writing time this week as ideas are sprouting into my mind for the book when I have down time. Unfortunately, the last couple of weeks have been very busy so I haven’t had a lot of down time.
Harvesting Hope will be available on Amazon Thursday. It is currently marked down to 99 cents for preorders so you, my blog readers, can snap one up for next to nothing. I will be raising the price a few days after it’s release.
I am very behind on reading blog posts. I have been trying so hard to read the books I promised to read for blog tours, that by the time I get to the blog posts, my mental energy is gone. Still, there are a few blogs I make sure I keep up on. This week I have a list of four posts that I enjoyed and think you will enjoy as well.
2. This one is a couple posts back, but I also enjoy when Mama’s Empty Nest takes us on her trips around the country. This one is about the area they moved to years ago with their family in the Willamette Valley, between the Oregon Coast Range Mountains and the Cascade Mountain Range.
3. I also enjoyed this post by C.S. Wachter on Hopes, Hearts, and Heroes about words we use incorrectly in the English language, many times because we simply aren’t aware of the rules.
That’s my week in review. How did your week go? Reading or watching anything interesting? Do anything exciting? Let me know in the comments, I’d love to hear (read) about it.
Welcome to my Sunday Bookends post where I talk about my previous week, including what I’m reading, watching, listening to, writing and doing.
What I’m Reading
I’m on to the fourth book, Set in Stone, in the Rembrandt Stone series by David James Warren after finishing book three, Sticks and Stone, last week. Book four will release on August 10. I am reading it for a book tour being held the week of its release.
Here is a description of the fourth book but be warned there are some spoilers for the first three books:
Trapped in time, he’ll have to use the past to fix the present.
Thirty-eight women. Dead. All the in the past. All because Detective Rembrandt Stone played with fate, and somewhere in time unleashed a serial killer. He can’t undo their deaths, not anymore, but the serial killer is still at large, twenty-four years later, and now it’s personal. Especially when the evidence points to the last person on anyone’s radar: Rembrandt himself. Now he’ll have to use the clues from his pasts to track down the killer in the present.
But the killer is onto him and puts the one person Rembrandt loves in his cross hairs. Now, Rembrandt must outwit time to save the people he loves.
Because time is playing for keeps.
The fourth installment of the True Lies of Rembrandt Stone will have you holding your breath and leave you gasping for more.
I am also reading Rahab’s Courage by Naomi Craig, which releases August 17. It is a Biblical fiction book and quite good so far.
Here is a description:
A scarlet cord tethers one ruined woman to the salvation of mankind.
Harboring two fugitives in a city slated for destruction, Rahab has one small chance of escape. In exchange for their safety, she bargains for her own. Their agreement rewards her courage, and she flees Jericho and a life of prostitution for a new life among the people of Israel. Never again will shehave to depend on anyone—especially men.
Except Salmah won’t take the hint.
High ranking soldier and leader of the tribe of Judah, Salmah is determined not to repeat his parents’ mistakes. He will keep the Lord’s commandments. Rahab’s growing faith fits right in with phase one of his plans: find a wife who loves the Lord and settle down in the new land.
Rahab finds shelter and meaning in the Lord’s ways until her past comes back to haunt her. As her new faith is put to test, she finds herself alone. Isn’t that what she’d always wanted?
With her courage waning, only the Lord can turn Rahab’s life around again, but will He do it before she loses everyone and everything that really matters to her—to her heart?
I will need to finish both books in the next couple of weeks, so wish this slower reader luck. It shouldn’t be too hard since I am taking a news and social media break this next month. I won’t be totally off social media since I administrate a couple of book groups and am releasing a book, but I am planning to be on very, very little, probably once a week.
What’s Been Occurring
This week was full of more time spent watching the little girls who stay with their great-grandmother, our neighbor down the street, during the week. She used to watch them at the same time, but now she only watches one at a time because they are quite active, and she gives out of energy fast. Much of my week was spent watching them play in the yard and ride their bikes in front of the house.
My husband took one of Little Miss’s training wheels off to get her used to balancing more and prepare her to ride her bike without the training wheels. She was so proud of herself she blazed up and down the street over and over again Friday and Saturday. Each of those nights she fell asleep super fast, of course.
This past week was apparently our week to interact with wildlife. Early in the week, my son saw a toad in the yard while he was mowing and caught it for Little Miss and her friend to see.
They put the toad in a bucket and took turns holding him, decided he was a girl and named him, er, her Violet, later released her, found her again when she didn’t moved from where they’d placed her.
Then Little Miss proceeded to fall in love with her and it took a little convincing for Little Miss to release Violet again 20 minutes later, even though Violet had been making terrified little squeals since they had caught her. I don’t know what Violet thought of me but she leaped toward the camera in a bid to escape at one point. It happened so fast, I didn’t have time to focus on her leaps toward me.
Little Miss’s friend told me Little Miss had decided the toad was a girl by “looking.” I have no idea where Little Miss looked to tell the frog was a girl, but I just let it go.
On Friday, Little Miss and her friend traveled with me when I took The Boy and his friend over to my parents so my dad could take the boys to our county fair. On our way back to the house we saw two racoon babies along the road near my parents’ house, but sadly I was too far away to get a good photo of them. About ten minutes later, near our house, we saw a young buck. I actually didn’t notice the deer was a buck. Little Miss’s little friend pointed out his antlers.
I tried to grab a photo of the buck, but my camera kept focusing the grass in front of him instead. He was probably only about five feet away from us at the time, on a small bank above us and near my neighbor’s house.
Little Miss’s friend said her and her Nana saw an adult buck in her backyard yesterday morning. I’m hoping to catch a glimpse of him in our backyard at some point. We haven’t seen as many deer in our yard this year as we did last year.
What We’ve Been Watching
Last week we watched Key Largo with Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson, which I had never seen before. I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it.
For those who have never seen it, I pulled a description off Rotten Tomatoes.
This classic film noir by John Huston stars Humphrey Bogart as World War II vet Frank McCloud. Visiting Key Largo to pay his respects to the family of his late war buddy, McCloud attempts to comfort his comrade’s widow, Nora (Lauren Bacall), and father, James Temple (Lionel Barrymore), who operate a hotel. But McCloud realizes that mobsters, led by the infamous Johnny Rocco (Edward G. Robinson), are staying in the hotel. When the criminals take over the establishment, conflict is inevitable.
I’ve also been watching a lot of To The Manor Born, a British sitcom from the 70s and Lovejoy to try to avoid news sites.
What I’ve Been Writing
On the blog this week, I wrote a blog post with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs about the schools in our different parts of the world (she lives in a more urban area, and I live in a rural area, so we’ve started a new feature where we compare “our worlds” so to speak).
I also shared some random thoughts/events on Friday to replace Fiction Friday for now, since I am working on completing corrections to the manuscript of Harvesting Hope (which comes out on Kindle August 12) and don’t have another story to share right now..
What I’m Listening To
I’ve still been listening to songs from Danny Gokey’s new album and I highly recommend Agradecido being turned up loudly and repeated at least twice.
So those are my random thoughts for the week. How about you? Share what you are doing, reading, listening to, watching and writing in the comments.
Welcome to my Sunday Bookends post where I talk about my previous week, including what I’m reading, watching, listening to, writing and doing.
This week our area was plagued by storms that caused some serious flooding, but luckily not widespread.
Every day we had a storm or at least a crazy downpour, and I started to tell my children they needed to get activities done before our usual afternoon storm.
Roads near us eroded and some are currently impassable.
A small town near me that suffered a great deal of damage two years ago, suffered again, only this time the library had already been washed into the center of a major highway so the high water couldn’t wash that way at least. This time there is an abandoned house about to fall into a creek because rushing water had washed away the creekbank and the ground around it.
Scout, our mischievous kitten, darted out to attempt adventure one day, but was stuck in one of the many storms when I couldn’t capture her to come back inside. I went out to check on my garden in between storms and she slunked across the yard from the neighbor’s outdoor patio, drenched. Usually she runs away from us when she is outside but this time she came right to me and seemed fairly happy when I scooped her up to carry her inside.
Last Sunday, again in between storms, my dad and Little Miss visited Dad’s pond for an impromptu fishing session.
They caught a couple of fish and let them go. While down there, I also startled a couple of fawns and they darted into the woods and a few minutes later two foxes started to call to each other.
On Thursday, I had to drive to our county seat to drop some paperwork off at the assessor’s office. I wanted to take the paperwork in and return home, but Little Miss had other ideas. She wanted to explore the town. Honestly, there isn’t much to explore in the town. Downtown has a handful of buildings, mostly county offices, a nursing home, and several homes. On a backstreet is the school campus, which includes the high school (grades 7 to 12) and elementary school all in one location. The school is the only school in the entire county, population 6,000 or so.
Somehow Little Miss sniffed out the only restaurant in town, a little cozy café. We ordered some fries and mozzarella sticks and while waiting for them, I received a call on my cellphone from the security man at the courthouse. I had left my keyfob for the van. The hook for it broke a few weeks ago so I can’t hook it to my keychain right now. I had placed it in the basket to go through the metal detector and forgot to take it out.
The man called the assessor’s office to see if they had my name and number. He knew how to find me by the sign-in sheet, but also because I was apparently the only person who had entered the courthouse all day. When we walked back to retrieve the key, he met me at the front door and after I mentioned I was taking some photos of the courthouse to share on my blog, he suggested we visit the museum at the back of the building.
Little Miss said she wanted to go but I later learned that was because she thought they would have dinosaur bones. She was sorely disappointed when it turned out they only had local artifacts such as military uniforms from various wars, weapons from the same wars, old pictures, and various other historical items. She also didn’t enjoy when the volunteer and I struck up a conversation about homeschooling that lasted for 45 minutes.
Our lives are so boring, that that short trip, which took about to and a half hours when it should have taken about 30, was the highlight of our week.
What I’m Reading
You are not going to believe this, or actually you will, but I am still reading the same books I’ve been reading for a couple of weeks now. However, I am almost done with The Cat Who Knew A Cardinal by Lilian Jackson Braun.
I also finished the first book in the Rembrandt Stone series, Cast the First Stone by David James Warren and started book two, No Stone Unturned. I am reading No Stone Unturned on my Kindle. I listened to the first one on Audible.
They are very quick, easy reads, written in serial form. The fourth on releases in August. I will probably have the second book finished by the end of today.
I will also most likely finish Journey to ChiYah by Kimberly Russell early this week.
Books I hope to read next include book three of the Rembrandt Stone series and the fourth book of the Walt Longmire series.
Little Miss and I started Little House in the Big Woods this week after finding Farmer Boy. We skipped Little House in the Big Woods when we started the series so we went back to read it.
What I’m Watching
For our anniversary, my husband and I went out to dinner and then we returned home and watched a movie without the kids, which is a rarity. The movie was Twilight with Paul Newman (my favorite actor), James Gardner, Susan Sarandon, and Gene Hackman. It was an interesting mystery and apparently when it came out in 1997, it bombed, which is sad because I thought it held up pretty good.
It probably came out around the same time as Titanic or something.
I’ve also been continuing to watch Jonathan Creek, a British mystery show and in traditional British fashion they are changing characters on me with little warning.
I have also been enjoying To The Manor Born, a British sitcom from the 70s.
Last Sunday I watched the final episode of season two for The Chosen. I am really looking forward to season three, whenever that comes out.
What I’m Writing
I’m writing…stuff. Mainly I’m finishing edits on Harvesting Hope and have started a new story that will probably be called A New Chapter.
What I’m Listening To
I’m still enjoying listening to the Unashamed podcast with three of the men from Duck Dynasty, but I’m very behind.
I also enjoyed listening to a sermon by Pastor Steven Furtick that I missed half of last week.
That’s my week in review. How about you? What are you reading, writing, watching, doing or listening to these days? Let me know in the comments.
Welcome to my weekly post where I recap my week by writing about what I’ve been reading, watching, writing, doing, and sometimes what I’ve been listening to.
What’s Been Occurring
I didn’t have a lot of time for reading this past week because I was helping my neighbor watch her great-grandchildren (she had children young as did her children and her grandchildren so she’s not a 100-year old great grandmother. She is a – well, I don’t think it’s polite to tell a lady’s age on my blog). They are two little girls, one a year younger, the other a year older than Little Miss. All three together are a combined force that drains the energy from the souls of adults and sucks them into themselves so they can grow stronger with unbounded energy that 43-year old women only dream of.
They raced up and down the street on bikes and scooters; looked for “creepy things” under our porch and under the porch of the garden shed (they found or resident garter snake there); used a huge box to careen down our stairs in (I watched them for this one and our stairs aren’t super steep so it was fairly safe); tried to convince the neighbor to let them see her little dogs (even though the poor girl had just had her wisdom teeth pulled and didn’t even know where she was); chased our kitten to try to keep her from climbing a tree (again. It also didn’t work. She climbed two trees while they were here, one of them twice in the pouring rain.); jumped on the neighbor’s trampoline; picked black raspberries from the bushes by our garden shed; painted masterpieces and almost ruined their new clothes; inhaled a lot of sugar, and the youngest later skinned her knees all up when she fell off her scooter. A huge part of the above list happened in only the first two hours they were at my house Wednesday.
Injuries seemed to be prevalent in the three days I watched them – or was it four? I honestly started to lose track of days somewhere in there. The oldest was stung by a wasp at her nanas one day. At first only her little sister was coming up to visit but when the oldest found out her sister was coming, she jumped off the couch, swollen and painful hand and all, and came too. I spent half the morning worried she was either going to pass out from the Benadryl or swell up and stop breathing from the reaction she was clearly having. Her nana (as they call her) and I conversed and agreed on a plan of action should any of that happen. Eventually, the swelling went down some, but a day later her hand, up to her elbow, was still pretty puffy.
When they wanted to go look for snakes under our house, the oldest joked she was going to pick one up when they found one. I told her absolutely not. “You’ve already been stung by a wasp. Let’s not add snake bite to that, even if the snakes around here aren’t poisonous.”
Later she hit her head on our heating vent when falling out of the box that went down the stairs (she didn’t hit it super hard) and also had a huge blister on the back of her foot that ripped open at some point before I took her back to her nana.
Their mother works swing shifts at a large Procter and Gamble plant near us, to explain why they are sometimes with their great-grandmother several days in a row.
Friday my neighbor said to me, exhaustion permeating her words, “They’re going home tomorrow morning. Thank God.”
It cracked me up. They are a lot of fun, but yes, absolutely draining with all their unending energy.
One other notable event that happened last week was the baptism of my husband. I won’t dwell too much on it because it is something that my husband wants to keep private for the most part, but I can’t help mentioning it because it was an exciting day for our family.
What I’m Reading
When I did find time for reading (like a whole hour all week) I read The Cat Who Knew A Cardinal by Lilian Jackson Braun, which is comfort reading for me. It’s a hardback copy I bought from a library sale. At night, when the lights were off, I started a Walt Longmire mystery, book four, Another Man’s Moccasins.
I am also reading Journey to ChiYah, a Christian indie book by Kimberly Russell
For the writing side of things, I am reading The Story Equation by Susan May Warren
I also listened to an audiobook for the first time. Cast The First Stone is the first book in the True Lies of Rembrandt Stone Series by David James Warren. It is a time travel thriller.
I had a horrible time listening to it not because it was bad (not at all), but because I was always being interrupted by a child or pet or there is a TV in the background. It didn’t help that the cheap headphones I bought from the Dollar General broke so I couldn’t drown out everything around me. I hear other people talk about listening to audiobooks in the car, but I don’t go anywhere far enough away to give me time to listen to a book. I don’t work out or take walks alone often enough to listen and when I’m cooking dinner there is usually a dog that wants me to let her out 15 times, a kitten getting herself in trouble or a 6-year-old asking for me to spell something for her (which I’m totally fine with, don’t get me wrong).
Anyhow, I decided to try this one as an audiobook because I have three books to read before I review book four for a blog tour in August. They are short, serial-type books, written to be almost like TV episodes so I should be able to get through them before then, but I thought having an audiobook might help me get through them faster. Now I’m not so sure.
David James Warren, by the way, is three people. David Warren, Susan May Warren, and James L. Rubart. Two of them write Christian fiction, but this series is a time-travel series with almost no spiritual or Christian arc in them at all, so if you are not a fan of Christian Fiction, you will still like this series. It’s listed under thriller and time-travel thriller on Amazon.
Little Miss and I are still reading The Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder at night. The Boy is not reading this summer and the husband is reading Conspiracy of Paper by David Liss.
What I’m Watching
This weekend we watched some old NBC shows, The Equalizer and Kolchak. I also watched a British sitcom called To The Manor Born and I’m also continuing Jonathan Creek, a British mystery/crime show.
Blog posts I enjoyed this week
I’m stealing this addition to my Sunday Bookends from Michele at Blessings by Me. I love the idea of featuring some of my favorite blog posts once a week. Here are three I enjoyed this past week.
I loved this post from indie author Scott Austin Tirrell about the difficulty in hiring professional editors. It hit the nail on the head and I did reblog it yesterday.
I also really enjoyed this post by author Becky Wade about God not always telling us the how of life, but only asks us to obey.
This post on Inspy Romance by author Angela Ruth Strong about a motorcycle trip and the idea for a really crazy Christian Fiction book had me cracking up and shaking my head.
What I’m Writing
I am still editing and putting last-minute touches on Harvesting Hope while my mom and husband and others read it and help me proof it.
I’ve also started books three and four of the series. I haven’t decided which story will be book three and which will be book four. A friend would like me to hurry up and tell her what happens with Liz and Ben’s lives, but I am really itching to write the story of my middle-aged librarian, Ginny Jefferies, which I started over a year ago. Do any of my regular Friday and Saturday Fiction readers have a preference? Let me know in the comments.
I shared a blog post last week on Hope, Hearts, and Heroes (an excerpt of Fully Alive that most on my blog have already read) and also shared a Randomly Thinking post on Thursday.
What I’m Listening To
As I mentioned above, I am listening to the first book in the Rembrandt Stone series on Audible. Other than that, I have not had much time to listen to anything else.
So that’s my week in review. What have you been reading, watching, listening to, or doing lately? Let me know in the comments.
Welcome to my weekly post where I recap my week by writing about what I’ve been reading, watching, writing, doing, and sometimes what I’ve been listening to.
Friday night I crawled into bed around 11:30. On one side of me was a 6-year old little girl with sun burnt cheeks and nose, clutching a stuffed baby giraffe and clearly asleep. Next to her was a friendly kitten who had already extracted a series of pets from me. In the space where my feet should have been was a Shetland sheepdog mix and the feet of the aforementioned child.
My arms and face, chest and back of my neck were hot to the touch. Events of the day raced through my mind, most of them good a couple of them could have been bad, scary and life changing.
It had been a full day and I was beat, but glad to have experienced it all.
We started the week planning to take a few day trips for my husband’s vacation. Instead, hot and muggy weather and a series of thunderstorms throughout the week kept us home until Friday. We’d also planned to visit my 88-year old aunt that day, taking my dad (her brother) with us. I talked to my aunt Tuesday and by Wednesday she was in the hospital. In the end my dad went to see her while we went to Animal Adventure Park, which is the park in Harpursville, N.Y. that became famous a few years ago when everyone in the world, it seems, was waiting for April the giraffe to give birth and then watched her do just that.
My aunt is doing better but we are not sure when she will go home or if she will go to rehab. They believe a severe urinary tract infection caused her to become disoriented. By the time my dad got to see her, her mind had cleared, luckily.
It’s been two years since we’ve been at the adventure park, so my daughter had forgot a lot about what they had to offer, but she had a blast. She’s an animal enthusiast so she liked to talk to the animals while she fed them. She was most fascinated with the goats, which I found odd since we can see goats just about anywhere around us. We do not, however, see African lions, African penguins, giraffes, and monkeys around our home. I am most fascinated with the giraffes because they are so friendly and tall. We’re not allowed to pet them but people are allowed to feed them carrots. It is very hard not to pet them when they reach up over the fence with their large heads.
April, who we loved visiting when we first went there, passed away this April. She was euthanized after a long bout of arthritis made it difficult for her to stand any longer, which is, of course, something giraffes need to do to survive. A member of the staff chatted with me about it and said how hard it was. The owner of the facility, Jordan Patch, asked the entire staff for their opinion before the final decision was made and it was very hard on all of them, she said.
There is a statue in honor of April and her son Azizi in the front of the park. Azizi was sent to another facility and passed away from a severe stomach issue sometime this year, or last. April’s other son Tajiri, the one everyone watch being born, is still at the facility, along with his father Oliver. They also have two other giraffes, Jahari (I am sure I have that spelled wrong) who they think may be pregnant and Desmond.
I honestly thought we might never be able to leave there. My daughter wanted to go around and around again and again, but mainly wanted to keep feeding the goats. Even my son enjoyed conversing with the goats. His biggest fascination, however, was the monkeys. He loves monkeys and I have no idea why. One species of monkeys had just had a baby two days before we were there. The squirrel monkeys had also recently had babies and they looked like little aliens.
We enjoyed watching them feed the lions. The male lion and the lioness had a small tumble about four feet away from us, which was pretty cool to watch. They have a mix of African lions and Timbavati White Lions.
Little Miss was also able to hold a joey, or a baby Kangaroo (for a fee of course) and thoroughly enjoyed that, even when it almost scratched her eye out.
I will probably share some extra photographs from the day there in a post later this week.
What I’m Reading
I finished a book by Elizabeth Maddrey called So You Want A Second Chance. It was what some call a “billionaire romance” but it was much different than other such romances. There was less focus on “oh he’s got money and she doesn’t” and more focus on the couple who had known each other years before and reconnected after the man has a heart attack. This couple was also an “older couple” in their 50s instead of the younger couples these books usually feature. It was nice to see a book focus on the older generation (since I am slowly becoming a member of that group).
I am still reading The Cat Who Knew A Cardinal by Lillian Jackson Braun and I also went back to finish Maggie by Charles Martin which I abandoned months ago because it was pretty depressing.
For fun I am reading Ready to Trust by Tina Radcliffe, a Love Inspire Romance.
What I’m Watching
Since my husband’s vacation was mostly sweated and rained out (hot temps and then thunderstorms, as I mentioned above) we watched old movies and shows most of the week.
We watched two classics I had never seen, The Birds, and Double Indemnity.
I also watched episode seven of The Chosen and loved it, especially the interaction between Quintis and Jesus. You can watch the episode on The Chosen app, which you can download to your phone or tablet, and then cast to your TV, or watch right on your phone or tablet.
We watched three or four episodes of Lovejoy as well.
What I’m Listening To
I am listening to an audio book by David James Warren (which is actually three authors) from the Rembrandt Stone series. I don’t listen to audiobooks very often. I prefer reading books but I signed up for a book tour for the fourth book in this series in August so I have a lot of reading to do before I get a copy of that book. I’m enjoying it so far. It’s a time-travel mystery/thriller
What I’m Writing
I am working through revisions and edits of Harvesting Hope for the next month since it comes out on Amazon on August 12, so that’s mainly what I wrote this past week.
That’s how many days in a row I have posted on WordPress.
I have no idea why I am telling you this, other than I’m still getting notifications from WordPress and now I feel like I have something to prove.
I know.
Sad life for me.
But, hey, we all need our little hobbies and this week my two hobbies have been working on finishing a fiction novel and making sure I post every day on my blog for as long as I can so I can keep racking up those pats on the back from my blog host.
Other than those odd hobbies, I didn’t accomplish much else.
We did travel to our homeschool evaluator’s house Wednesday to have our school portfolio reviewed, which I wrote about yesterday on the blog.
Since we live in the middle of nowhere we drove 45 minutes to her house and used the trip to also pick up a Walmart order and my new eyeglasses. My new glasses look exactly like my old glasses. I am that boring and predictable.
The flowers around our house are starting to bloom, which is always exciting for me. Some people take exotic vacations, other people, like me, stare at their flowers and wait for them to bloom.
The peonies are budding and will probably open in a few days, as they always do, around my brother’s birthday. Last year was our first year in this house and I was very excited about having peonies since we had peony pushes in front of the house I grew up in.
What I’m Reading
It only took me two days to finish Amanda by Sarah Monzon. It moved along that well and was also fairly short. I’ll have a review of it out later this week.
Here is the description for anyone who is curious:
“The devil made me do it” is a phrase that will never pass my lips. Why would it when I have Delores, my undiagnosed autoimmune disorder, to make all my decisions for me? (Yes, I named her myself since the doctors couldn’t do it for me.) A get together with friends? Delores says no. I’ll have my prescheduled daily afternoon fever and fatigue at that time.
My two biggest regrets with having Delores direct my fate? One, my family thinks my illness is all in my head. And two, I set the love of my life, Peter Reynolds, free from my anchoring tether so he could fly. I never thought I’d see him again, but five years later he’s soaring in the limelight as one of the most talked-about defensive players in professional football. Oh, and did I mention he also happens to play for the team my boss just assigned me to as a social media manager?
Meanwhile, nothing much has changed for me. Delores still bosses me around, and I’m still hopelessly in love with Peter. What’s a girl to do?
I’m now reading Sarah’s Choice by Pegg Thomas. It is historical fiction and while I’ve never been a huge fan of historical fiction, this is now my second book by Pegg and she’s making me fall in love with historical fiction. This book won’t be released until August so I consider myself lucky that Pegg chose me as an Advanced Reader.
I am also reading The Love Coward by Naomi Musch in between it all.
What I’m Watching
I’ve mainly been watching Jonathan Creek episodes and this farming YouTube Channel:
I’m watching it for book research, but also because farming is fascinating.
What I’m Listening To
I have been listening to The Civil Wars this week (and sadly they are not together any longer). I plan to listen to the new Crowder album when it drops this week.
What I’m Writing
I’ve been writing a lot, on here and on my book Harvesting Hope, which is set to release in the beginning of August.
So that’s my week in review, how about all of you? What are you reading, writing, listening to, watching or doing these days? Let me know in the comments.
Welcome to my weekly post where I recap my week by writing about what I’ve been reading, watching, writing, doing, and sometimes what I’ve been listening to.
What’s Been Occurring
This week I decided to try to start planting my garden even though we do not have the fence up around it yet to keep the deer out.
I don’t have a huge garden space, so I don’t have tons to plant. Little Miss and I decided on beans, beets (which neither of us eat but we’re going to try), yellow squash, cucumbers, kale, sweet red peppers, and tomatoes. My dad picked up topsoil for me about two weeks ago. I should have raked it more after it was dumped into the beds (raised garden beds that my dad and son made for me last year), which I realized when my dad corrected how I had installed the poles for the beans to climb up and also noticed the topsoil issue.
“This dirt could be broken up more,” he said.
Oops.
He also said, “These bean poles should be positioned this way.”
And then he changed my entire set up for the better because he’s been gardening for like 50 years and I haven’t.
I had also planted the bean seeds in the wrong place, so he helped me correct that as well.
The bean poles were his idea since he had extra long bean seeds left from last year. In fact, he had seeds for a variety of vegetables left over from last year that he gave me, which meant I didn’t have to buy any seeds this year.
The seeds are in the ground, but I won’t plant the plants until we have the fencing up because again — the blasted deer.
We also finished homeschooling this week, for the most part. The Boy still has to write a book report on To Kill A Mockingbird and I have a meeting with our homeschool evaluator on Wednesday. Once she signs off on us, and we submit our paperwork to the local school district, our school year will be officially complete and The Boy will be a high schooler (hold me, Jesus!) and Little Miss will be a first grader.
What I’m Reading
I haven’t had as much time for reading as I’ve wanted because I’ve been trying to hit a deadline for Harvesting Hope (formerly The Farmers’ Sons).
I did finish Love Happens at Sweetheart Farm by Dalyn Waller and am almost finished with my Longmire book, Kindness Goes Unpunished by Craig Johnson. (I love Henry. That is all.).
Two books I really want to start this week is Amanda by Sarah Monzon and Relative Silence by Carrie Stuart Parks.
Before I can start them, though, I also have to finish Rooms by James Rubart, which is a very interesting mind-bender.
Little Miss and I are reading On the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder and boy do I have some thoughts on this one. Hopefully I’ll find some time to share those thoughts this week in a separate blog post. Pa Ingalls, seriously, dude — what were you thinking?
What I’m Watching
I am continuing to watch Jonathan Creek through Acorn on Amazon or maybe it’s Britbox. I forget, but it’s on one of those and I watch it through Amazon.
We also watched Galaxy Quest this week, which I think I watched once years ago.
The Boy and I started Master and Commander Blah Blah Blah. I wrote blah, blah, blah because the movie has a really long title to match it’s really long and convoluted storyline. I’m too lazy to look up the full title for this blog post.
We had to stop watching it to go to bed the other night and haven’t returned to it yet. We watched an hour of it and still don’t know what is actually happening other than the ship keeps getting attacked and the captain is keeping them out at sea while more and more people die and he gets more and more arrogant about trying not to be attacked. I don’t know. It’s very confusing.
I also watched episode 5 of The Chosen and loved it. I’ve heard there was some controversy over it, but I haven’t had time to listen to the director talk about what the controversy is about so I will figure it out later. I liked it. That’s all I know.
You can watch the episode on the app, which is very easy to download to your phone (Android or Apple).
What I’m Writing
As I mentioned, I am working on the first draft of Harvesting Hope and plan to have it completed at the end of this week. I’ve been writing anywhere from 500 to 2000 words a day this past week and half of that may be eviscerated during the second draft. We’ll see.
This week I shared two chapters from what I’ve already written, one Friday and one Saturday.
I think I also decided on a book cover — If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been going back and forth on what I want it to look like.
Earlier in the week, I shared some flash fiction I wrote as part of a writing group on MeWe (a social media site).
I forgot to finish my Randomly Thinking post for Thursday (I’m seriously having focus issues), so I hope to have that ready to go this week.
What I’m Listening To
If he hadn’t gotten himself in trouble with a drunken comment, I’d never heard of Morgan Wallen, most likely. This week my husband tried his album to see what the fuss was all about, so I tried it as well. We both were surprised. We liked it, so I listened to that this week.
For old times sake, I listened to The Civil Wars. I miss them.
I’m leaving you samples of both, so you know who I’m talking about.
So that’s my week in review. How was your week last week? Read any good books? Listen to any new-to-you music or watch anything cool? Let me know in the comments.
