Tag: what i’m watching

Sunday Bookends: It’s cold. No. Really cold. Reading the same books but planning for others. Crafternoon Again! And some podcasts I want to listen to.

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Sunday Bookends25 Comments

Due to the illness of children or the cold of the northeast I have not left my house in two weeks and though I am a homebody, I must admit it is becoming a little depressing.

And based on the fact I feel like I am starting to get sick and dangerously cold temps are set to hit the area Monday through Wednesday this week, I have a feeling I will be in my house at least another week. At this point I’ve told my parents, who only live seven minutes from us, that I might not see them until after the spring thaw.

Our house is located on a hill, has a steep driveway, and we are down to one car, so that also makes winter travel difficult.

Yesterday I was alone for much of the day because Little Miss was at a friend’s house and The Boy was sick upstairs, while The Husband was at work. This was a strange situation for me because I’m rarely alone. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I eventually decided to work on a blog post (the second part to my Civil War letters posts), start watching Gunga Din, and read a chapter in my Agatha Christie book. I also was very brave and went out into the cold darkness of our backyard to retrieve a couple pieces of wood for our woodstove.

Then it was back inside where I realized I should cook some dinner for me and The Boy.

He’s had a horrible headache and watery eyes and no appetite, but he was finally able to eat a little bit around the time the mom of Little Miss’s friend brought her back home.

Today we are seeing how the weather is since we were supposed to get a snow storm but now it looks like it’s moved further east (I see you Poconos and NJ…good luck!) and I might visit my parents or … again…tell them I’ll see them in the spring thaw.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are bringing temps where we are expected only to reach about 11 as a high. Lows will be below zero due to windchill and other factors. I asked The Husband to bring some wood from our pile behind the garage into our laundry room so we don’t have to go out into the bitter cold to replenish the supply we have in our living room by the stove.

We do have some heating oil but do our best to use as little of that as we can because of how expensive it has been the last couple of years.

A quick reminder that we are having another Crafternoon Zoom Call next Sunday (the 26th) at 1 p.m. If you are interested in being a part of it, you can email me at lisahoweler@gmail.com or Erin (from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) at crackercrumbs@gmail.com.

If you don’t know what that is – it is where we all get together and chat together while doing crafts or other projects. We’d love to have you join us and stave off the gloom that can come with winter sometimes.

With all this cold and being trapped inside a lot you would think I would have plenty of time for reading and I do, but I also have other projects I am working on, so alas, this will not be an exciting section, because I am still reading the same books.

Christy by Catherine Marshall is a super long book and so I am taking breaks and reading A Body in the Library by Agatha Christie (do I really need to type her last name?) for something “lighter”.

I also hope to get back to Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography by Laurie Woolever this week.

If you are not aware of what Christy is here is a description:

The train taking nineteen-year-old teacher Christy Huddleston from her home in Asheville, North Carolina, might as well be transporting her to another world. The Smoky Mountain community of Cutter Gap feels suspended in time, trapped by poverty, superstitions, and century-old traditions. But as Christy struggles to find acceptance in her new home, some see her — and her one-room school — as a threat to their way of life. Her faith is challenged and her heart is torn between two strong men with conflicting views about how to care for the families of the Cove. Yearning to make a difference, will Christy’s determination and devotion be enough?

After these books I have a couple of books I want to get to including Frankenstein by Mary Shelly (for English with The Boy) and Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade by Janet Skieslen Charles, but I also want to read a Nancy Drew. Oh my gosh! Why does there have to be so many good books out there to read?!

Little Miss and I are reading The Sign of The Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare for school and listening to Peter Pan by J.M. Barie at night.

The Boy will be starting Frankenstein this week.

The Husband is reading The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson.

(For anyone new, The Husband is just a joke nickname for my husband since he jokingly calls our son “The Boy”.)

This week I’ve watched three old movies I had never seen before — The Prisoner of Zenda, which I wrote about on the blog, The Stranger, and Gunga Din.  I’ll be writing blog posts The Stranger and Gunga Din soon.

I also watched the first episode of season five of All Creatures Great and Small and am so excited that it is back for another season. I can’t wait to see Tristan again.

I watched a few episodes of my favorite YouTuber farmer, Just A Few Acres Farm, while I waited for him to release a new episode.

The Advanced Readers Copies of Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree have been sent out to my advanced readers. I pushed back the release date to give them some time to read the book and me some time to tie up some loose ends.

It is available for pre-order here:

I am working on a monthly writing update and some movie impression posts for my Substack, which people can subscribe to for free or pay about $3 a month to receive exclusive posts I plan to offer in 2025.

This week on Substack I shared:

|| Classic Movie Impressions: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir ||

This week on this blog I shared:

Podcast I listen to daily:

Our Miss Brooks – rebroadcasts of the old radio show. I listen to these as I go to sleep.

Podcasts I am occasionally listening to because I don’t seem to just put them on since I am doing other stuff:

Little House 50 for 50

Pop Culture Preservation Society

True Drew: A Podcast for All Things Nancy Drew

Podcasts I want to listen to this year:

The Matthew West Podcast

The Life Without School

Lisa Harper’s Back Porch Theology

Now It’s Your Turn

What have you been doing, readin’, watchin’, and listenin’ to this past week? Let me know in the comments!

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

Sunday Chat: So insanely cold, watching old shows because I’m always behind the times, and shows about farming in the past

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Sunday Bookends17 Comments

It was so cold this past week that our animals had no interest in going outside, which is unusual for the cats who like to go out even if it is snowing or raining.

I’m very glad they stayed inside because I worry about them when they are outside. Yes, we have outside cats. We live in a rural area and allow them to wander during the day and they come in whenever they want or they come in at night because I do not want them out at night with the various critters we have out here. I’ve had people on social media be very rude to me in the past and tell me I’m a horrible pet owner for letting my pets outside so I just thought I’d add a little context. I’m not flinging my animals out the back door into the wilderness.

They absolutely thrive when they can go outside and they stay close to our house and then return, often with a dead mouse to present to us. I sometimes forget that those who don’t live in a more rural area don’t let their pets outside for safety reasons so they misunderstand and think I’m pushing the cats out into danger.

That all being said, they have not wanted to go outside because of the cold lately, so it has been nice to have them want to cuddle and to watch them sleep curled up on the coffee table or sprawled out in front of the lit woodstove.

The oldest cat, Pixel, has been making me a little nervous lately. I don’t know if she feels well, and I’ve found a couple of bumps on her head. She’s been a lot more desperate to sit on me and be petted. Ever since I read that cats purr when they are happy or in pain, I’ve wondered/worried why my cats are purring and hope they aren’t in pain. Hopefully she’s okay. She’s pulled this on me before and bounced right back, so we will see.

I am reading three books at the moment. Christy by Catherine Marshall (with some heavy stuff amidst the inspirational, so I need breaks), Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography by Laurie Woolever (with some heavy stuff amidst the inspirational, so I need a break), and A Body in the Library by Agatha Christie (because a nice old fashioned murder always breaks up the heavy stuff. Hee. Hee.).

Little Miss and I are starting The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare for school this week. At night we are listening to a collection of Henry Huggins books by Beverly Cleary and read by Neil Patrick Harris and William Roberts.

The Husband just finished The Quiet American by Graham Greene.

The Boy is getting ready to read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

I finished the first season of Only Murders in the Building last night and really liked it. I’m looking forward to the other seasons.

My brother said he got bored with the show after season two, but he gets bored easily so I’m going to keep going. (*wink*)

As evidenced by the fact I am only just watching Only Murders in the Building, I often watch popular shows years after they ended. That’s why I have also started Castle, with Captain Mal — oh, I mean Nathan Fillion.

If you don’t understand that niche joke, I can’t help you — well, I can, but I’m going to make you search it up on your own instead.

Actually, The Husband started it for me last week (he’s watched it before) and now I’m continuing to watch it on my own.

I’m also watching Tudor Monastery Farm and this has me wondering a lot about this show and its spinoffs (Victorian Farm, Edwardian Farm, Wartime Farm)  and how they work. Do these historians really do all these things they record, and do they really stay at these old buildings and houses? Or do they just film a little bit for educational purposes and move on. I guess I will have to step into the rabbit hole and figure this out this week.

I also watched Morning Glory with Katharine Hepburn and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., a couple episodes of Monarch of the Glen, and an episode of No Reservations (with Anthony Bourdain) last week.

I’ve started a Substack for cozy mystery, vintage movies, and book enthusiasts, as well as readers of my books.

For $3 a month you can join in and geek out with me about vintage Nancy Drew, classic movies, classic books, Gladwynn Grant and so much more.

You will be added to my book club Discord, A Good Book, and A Cup of Tea, and receive sneak peeks, exclusive discounts, access to various products, and whatever else comes to mind as I grow my space.

You can join here: https://lisarhoweler.substack.com/7ce3211e


What I shared on the blog last week:

|| How To Start Morning Creative Writing for More Productive Days by Filling the Jars ||

|| His Encouragement 300 by Christian Fiction Girl ||

|| Wordless Wednesday by Southern Patches ||

Now it is your turn! I’d love to hear what you are doing, what you are reading, what you are watching, listening to, etc. Let me know in the comments.

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

Sunday Chat: Octagenarian birthdays, starting my 2025 reads, and podcasts I recommend

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon12 Comments

Today is my dad’s 81st birthday. We had a family dinner for him yesterday when my brother could visit and will probably have another lunch together with the kids and I today.

We had ham and bean soup yesterday and today we will eat some sausage balls I plan to  make in memory of my aunt Dianne, as well a beef roast.

Last night we played a game of Uno that got a little crazy and felt like it might ever end. We ended up laughing and shaking our heads at how long it seemed to be going on.

This upcoming week we have nowhere to go which is fine with me because homeschool has to get back under way first thing tomorrow. Ha. First thing. Yeah right. It will probably be afternoon before we do anything, but it sounds better if I write “first thing.”

Having an easy-going week is something I am looking forward to after a pretty nuts Christmas break. The Husband was in the ER and diagnosed with Diabetes a few days before Christmas, so it’s been a period of adjustment and him not feeling well. He slept or rested most the break, which he needed and I’m glad he wasn’t working when this all hit.

I also injured my knee by – I don’t know how actually. By rolling over in bed or something. Who even knows.

So far we have not caught any of the various illnesses going around but I know our time is coming and I’m pretty worried about that happening.

I’m reading Christy by Catherine Marshall and really enjoying it. I loved the show that was based on it and aired on CBS in the 1990s and the book is fairly close to it from what I can see so far.

The book is a fictional book very loosely based on the life story of Marshall’s mother, if you’ve never heard of it. The main character travels to a very remote area in the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina in the early 1900s to become a teacher at a missionary school.

As a young, inexperienced woman she is for a rude awakening but also an amazing experience of learning about the determination of the people who live in the mountains.

Upcoming books for me:

  • I have three Nancy Drew books coming in the mail from Thriftbooks and hope to read at least one of those after Christy.
  • World Travel: An Irreverent Guide by Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever
  • Little Men by Louisa May Alcott
  • The Two Towers by JRR Tolkien

Little Miss finished Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets yesterday while reading at her grandparents. She even made us wait for our game of Uno so she could finish the book. I’m very proud of her for reading the first two books. She was bothered by some of the violence in the end of the Chamber of Secrets so says she will be taking a break before she decides if she want to read book three.

The Boy and I will be starting Frankenstein soon, which he’s looking forward to a lot more than me. If you know anything about what I read, Frankenstein isn’t my normal read. We are reading through British literature this year and he likes the story of Frankenstein so we will go for it.

After that I’ll be having him read some Agatha Christie so that will be more up my alley.

The Husband is reading Bourdain The Definitive Oral Biography by Laurie Woolever.

This past week I watched The Power of the Press, a 1928 silent movie starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Morning Glory, a 1933 movie starring Fairbanks Jr. and Katherine Hepburn, a few episodes of No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain, and videos by Booktubers preparing their 2025 reading journals.

I enjoyed  this video by Plant Based Bride. It scratched some sort of crafty itchy for me, but I don’t think I’ll ever be as detailed or organized in my reading journal.

I also watched A Victorian Farm: A Victorian Christmas this past week and am now starting A Tudor Farm.

I am finishing up corrections to Gladwynn Grant Shakes The Family Tree and started a Patreon, which you can subscribe to here if you’d like a sneak peek of the book.

Last week on the blog I shared:

Recent Posts

I’ve been listening to the podcasts Pop Culture Preservation Society, which is aimed at us middle-agers to talk about some of the odd pop culture from when we were teens, etc. and True Drew, a podcast about Nancy Drew. I would recommend them both.

Now it’s your turn! What have you been doing recently? Watch anything good? Read a good book? Go anywhere interesting? Let me know in the comments.

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

Sunday Chat: A nice, calm Christmas, getting ready for the first book of 2025, and join us for a cozy crafternoon

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends24 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Chat where I ramble about what’s been going on in my world, what the rest of the family and I have been reading, watching, listening to, and what I’ve been writing.

This week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Deb at Readerbuzz, and Kathyrn at The Book Date.

“Let’s just use paper plates for Christmas dinner,” I told my mom.

We’ve had a lot going on and some members of the family haven’t been feeling well from  couple different health issues.

Plus it was only the six of us so there was no need for anything fancy.

I heard a small “uh-huh..” on the other end of the phone and figured she was agreeing with me. The next day, though, The Husband, kids and I walked into a kitchen that had been set with a Christmas tablecloth and very fancy plates and goblets.

“These were my Mama’s,” Mom said of the plates. “And we thought we better get them out now because we might never have a chance to use them again.”

I figured that might be their dark humor since they are in their 80s and often say odd things like this to us.

Mom said she actually meant because we might not want to take the time to drag them out again. I added that we might not want to take the chance of them getting broken since I am quite a klutz.

The plates, by the way, were made in Baveria and were a gift of some kind to my grandfather when he used to work for Pepsi Co. That was probably 50 years ago.

The crystal glasses were gifts to my parents on their wedding day. They’ve been married 60 years.

There were also a set of glass water glasses that belonged to my paternal grandmother.

Somehow, we made it through dinner without breaking anything. My husband also made it through washing the plates without breaking anything.

After dinner we had a quick gift opening session that was quite quick this year since we were all broke. *snort* It was a nice time, though, and it was preceded by the reading from the Bible of the Christmas story, which we do every year.

Our family had a lot to celebrate this year.

My sister-in-law, who had been in the hospital  for an entire month for heart issues, came home on Christmas Eve. She was/is still dealing with a Norovirus she caught while there and will have  lot of new routines she’ll need to do for her condition, but she is home.

The Husband has been dealing with a health issue which could have been so much worse but has been caught and is being treated now and we are very, very thankful for that.

Money is tight right now, but we were all together and found a lot of time to watch movies and simply have fun.

It was a cold week and that was nice in some ways because it meant we had the white Christmas Little Miss had wanted.

We have electric heat upstairs and downstairs we have heating oil and a wood stove.

Thursday we didn’t light the fire because we simply didn’t get to it, and it was a reminder how well it helps to heat the rest of the house when we have it lit because I had to put four blankets on me to get warm that night. I had also taken a shower right before bed and my hair was wet so that, and the fact I’d forgotten to turn on the electric heat upstairs didn’t help at all.  The fire was definitely lit Friday, but we didn’t have to light it last night because we are having a small warm up this weekend with temps in the 40s and 50s.

This weekend we have been relaxing and enjoying our time together since The Husband is off work until the week after next and The Boy doesn’t have to return to tech school until Thursday.

We hope to see the Christmas lights at a local golf course Monday if it doesn’t get rained out.

I will finish Shepherd’s Abiding by Jan Karon’s today or tomorrow and that will be my final book of the year. My first book of 2025 will be Christy by Catherine Marshall, which I have already started and am really enjoying.

It is a book based very loosely on the life of Marshall’s mother and takes place in the early 1900s.  

This past week I finished Tooth and Claw by Craig Johnson – a novella part of the Walt Longmire series.

I kept trying to read Shepherd’s Abiding to keep with the Christmas spirt, but I kept going back to Tooth and Claw to see if Walt and Henry got away from the psycho polar bear.

Little Miss is very close to the end of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

The Husband is reading World Traveler by Anthony Bourdain which is also on my TBR.

I watched a lot of Christmas movies or Christmas-related shows last week including

The Christmas episode of The Dick VanDyke Show

Christmas in the Smokies

A ton of Mary Berry episodes

The Christmas episode of All Creatures Great and Small

Jingle All the Way

The Last Holiday

Then I also watched the North and South mini-series. Good grief..that was depressing in many ways. Then I watched another depressing film called Me Before You.

The Husband and I also watched Hombre – again depressing, but Paul Newman was in it so that was good.

I watched a lot of Murder She Wrote one day as well.

I will hopefully watch some more uplifting movies and shows this week.

I’m editing Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree and brainstorming ideas for the fourth Gladwynn Grant book. You can pre-order Gladwynn Shakes the Family Tree (a cozy mystery) here:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DR6BG3ZR?

Last week on the blog I shared:

I also wanted to offer a quick thank you to everyone who took part in our Comfy, Cozy Christmas link up. That was so much fun. You can still add posts or just read the ones that are already there at this link: https://lisahoweler.com/comfy-cozy-christmas-2024/

A quick reminder for January plans for this blog and Erin with Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.


Erin and I are planning some Cozy Crafternoons on Zoom in January and February to try to beat those winter blahs that happen after Christmas. The plans for now are two a month.

We will just all meet up on the date and time, and individually work on whatever we want – embroidery, coloring, knitting, crocheting, jewelry making, etc, while chatting.

Erin says she will be embroidering during the session. I might be writing, drawing, or editing photos.

If you are interested in learning more send an email either to me at lisahoweler@gmail.com or to Erin at crackercrumblife@gmail.com. That way we will have your email for the zoom link! Our first scheduled crafternoon is January 11th at 1 pm EST.

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

Sunday Chat: Merry Christmas, Christmas movies, and looks like we will have a white Christmas afterall

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends12 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Chat where I ramble about what’s been going on in my world, what the rest of the family and I have been reading, watching, listening to, and what I’ve been writing.

As always, I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Deb at Readerbuzz, and Kathyrn at The Book Date.



I live in an area where we get a lot of snow during the winter – or at least enough to make the roads slippery. I have lived in this area my whole life but I am still not a fan of driving in snow. It makes me very nervous and when I am done doing it my entire body hurts from tensing all my muscles.

I avoid it whenever I can but twice this week, I ended up driving in potentially slippery conditions. On Wednesday I drove home in snow after taking my daughter to Kid’s Club, which is a weekly kid’s program at a church about 20 minutes from our house. Listening to an audiobook of Johnny Tremain helped keep me distracted from being worried we might careen off the road into an embankment, especially when the snow started to stick to the road about five miles from our house.

I recorded a quick video while I was driving slowly, and it was so funny because the audiobook didn’t stop playing as I recorded and when I played it back the woman’s sort of creepy voice was talking about the many deaths that happened during the Revolutionary War while the snow swirled in front of us. (If you push play be aware it is very loud!)

We made it home and I vowed not to do it again but on Friday my dad needed to go to an MRI and I needed to pick up groceries. We knew we were supposed to get snow but we weren’t sure how much, so we headed out anyhow. This was after I got my dad’s car stuck twice earlier in the day. I’m borrowing his car while our truck is broke down.

 I kept my hands tight around the steering wheel on the way to where we get groceries while we got stuck behind a long line of cars due to a very slow truck and a shiny sheen showed up on the road.

That’s when Dad decides to remind me not to get too close to the car in front of me because I don’t want to have to slam on the brakes and possibly skid across the road since the temp had dropped to 29 degrees. That’s always fun in winter by the way – watching the thermometer on your car drop below freezing and wonder if that’s going to be cold enough to freeze the road as well or if it was warm enough that the road  hasn’t had a chance to freeze yet. This is something those who don’t live in colder climates have to worry about.

So, on Friday, for 15 miles, I had to make sure I stayed back and stayed calm while Dad reminded me gently that I was too close to cars. He made me a bit nervous so I made him drive home and guess what – he pulled up too close to cars and didn’t slow down at all. Why that hypocrite. *wink* Honestly, he’s a pretty good driver but it was nice to harass him a bit by telling him he was too close to the cars in front of us.

Once we were home, though, I decided we won’t be leaving the house again until Christmas Eve when we will head to my parents for the evening and then head back again on Christmas Day.

The Husband does have to go to work today and Monday but then he is off for a week and we are looking forward to him having that time.

We did receive a few inches of snow on Friday and with today’s artic temps and still cold temps the next few days, it looks like we will have our white Christmas after all.

Our family has a lot to be grateful for this Christmas. The month of December has been a beast – beating my family down physically, emotionally, and sometimes even spiritually. Through it all it has been tough to be upbeat but as I write this I am grateful for miracles – for surgeries that won’t have to happen, for medical conditions caught quickly and didn’t cause more damage than they could have, and for healing that is slowly coming.

It isn’t always easy to be happy at Christmas and I just want anyone who isn’t celebrating this Christmas, for whatever reason, that it’s okay. You feel the way you feel and if you don’t feel cheerful, then you don’t. Christmas is something we can celebrate at any time of the year because of why we celebrate. I’m hoping many of us have better days to come.

I had planned to read all Christmas books leading up to Christmas and I did read a couple but didn’t fill all of my reads up with Christmas.

I finished The Hound of The Baskerville’s by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

I finished The Christmas Swap by Melody Carlson this past week. I did not enjoy it as much as A Quilt for Christmas and it honestly felt like a completely different writer.

 I then finished Johnny Tremain which Little Miss and I have been reading all school year for history (in between other lessons).

That brought my book total read for the year to 66 and as I told friends and family – that is too close to 666 in my head (not the number counting up…but you know what I mean) so I am reading Tooth and Claw by Craig Johnson to bring it to 67.

After Tooth and Claw I am diving back into Christy by Catherine Marshall and starting either Castles in the Air by Donald Westlake (which my husband recommended) or Little Men.

The Husband is reading The Midnight Library by Matt Haig and that will be his 115th book of the year.

The Boy is supposed to be finishing The Hound of the Baskerville’s this week.

Little Miss is reading Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets.

We have been cramming as many Christmas movies or Christmas-themed shows we can fit in before Christmas.

This past week we watched Miracle on 34th Street (my husband’s favorite), Elf, Home Alone, and White Christmas.

On my own I watched The Bishop’s Wife and The Chosen special The Messenger.

We still want to watch Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, A Christmas Story, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. I also hope to watch past Christmas episodes of All Creatures Great and Small since I don’t have streaming that allows me to watch the latest season yet.

I am still finishing corrections on Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree, which you can now pre-order on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DR6BG3ZR?

This week on the blog I shared:

A quick reminder for January plans for this blog and Erin with Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs. I’m going to copy what she has been posting on her blog because I am behind this week!


“Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are planning some Cozy Crafternoons on Zoom in January and February, to beat those winter blahs that happen late winter after Christmas. We are thinking we will have maybe two per month, so four in total. We will just all meet up on the date and time, and individually work on whatever we want – embroidery, coloring, knitting, crocheting, jewelry making, etc, while chatting or you could even have the sound off and just feel part of the group without the chatter, if you like it quiet. It is sort of open and flexible but also social. I will probably be stitching away – my friend has requested a small pillow with an embroidered possum on it, so I will be working on that in January for a while. Anyway, if you are interested in learning more send an email either to me at crackercrumblife@gmail.com or to Lisa at lisahoweler@gmail.com. That way we will also have your email for the zoom link! Our first scheduled crafternoon is January 11th at 1 pm EST.”

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

Sunday Chat: Winter weather, Christmas events, Christmas movies, and a dud mystery book

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Sunday Bookends27 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Chat where I ramble about what’s been going on in my world, what the rest of the family and I have been reading, watching, listening to, and what I’ve been writing.

This week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Deb at Readerbuzz, and Kathyrn at The Book Date.

It is hard for me to explain to people from larger, more urban areas just how small the little town I live in is. Sometimes numbers help – there are about 400 people in my town, 6,000 total in the entire county, and then in the summer the numbers go up some as visitors from the city come up to stay in cabins in the county. There is one elementary school and one high school for the entire county and it’s all located in one town – which is the county seat.

When there are events in our tiny town it’s not always very exciting and there isn’t always a lot to see, but the organizations and business owners try their best.

Yesterday there was a book sale at the local library for the town Christmas festival, and I went but was a bit disappointed in the selection this year. It was not their fault at all – there just wasn’t a lot of books that interested me this time around — yet I somehow still managed to come home with about 11.

There was also a strange but sort of funny exchange with the library director before I left about library bags and if I wanted one. I think I was misunderstanding the man but when he put the books I bought in a bag he said something about how they usually only use those bags for library books when they are taken out. He said they had boxes for people to carry books in from the sale. I asked him if he wanted me to take a box instead and he said, “Oh, no, we should be good with bags right now. We just got an order of 400 in.”

If they just got 400 in I’m not sure why he was telling me they don’t usually use the books for the sale, but thinking back, maybe he was simply sharing about how they don’t usually use them but decided to on that day because they had just received an order for them. I have no idea but I have to admit that later in the day I felt guilty that I had taken one of their bags. Yes, those are the kind of thoughts that pop into my mind when other people wouldn’t have given it a second thought the rest of the day.

I was very excited to find a copy of The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman since I have been interested in reading that for a while now.

I also picked up a copy of The Scarlet Pimpernel, which I have wanted to read after seeing a movie based on it years ago.

Jimmy Stewart and His Poems is a book I’ll have fun reading this winter, I think. It shouldn’t take me long. It’s very short.

I also picked up two mass-market editions of The Two Towers and The Return of the King from the Lord of the Rings trilogy so I can easily slide The Two Towers in my purse when I start to read it later this winter.

The “winter festival” is capped off by a very short, very cold Christmas parade each year. The “festival” was supposed to feature vendors and S’mores stations but there ended up being one tiny S’mores station and no craft vendors — unless they were tucked away in one of the other buildings in town.

We skipped the parade because we tried to go to it two years ago and it was so cold that I couldn’t feel my fingers. I also couldn’t breathe because the cold triggered my asthma – or whatever it is I have that makes breathing in the cold very difficult for me.

Last week our temps were in the low 50s one day and next week will be the same but yesterday our high was 30 and it was in the low 20s when it was time for the parade.

No, thank you.

We are down to one car right now so we don’t go many places during the week but on Fridays Little Miss and I travel to get groceries. With the weather being so cold we don’t do much other than pick up our pick up order and come back  home, stopping at my parents on the way through to drop off a few groceries we pick up for them.

We did that this Friday, and it was a fairly uneventful trip. We were glad to get back to the house and enjoy the fire in the woodstove and the Christmas tree we decorated a couple of weeks ago.

I’m really hoping to sit by that tree and read a Christmas short story or two later this week.

Our upcoming homeschooling week is going to be fairly laid back with Christmas-themed crafts and baking and vintage Christmas stories heavily mixed into regular, scaled-back lessons.

This week I finished Death Comes to Marlow by Robert Thorogood and was very disappointed in it. It was repetitive and dragged quite a bit. I had high hopes for it and thought I might continue the series but now I am not so sure.

I continued The Hound of The Baskerville’s by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and will most likely finish it this week.

I abandoned one of my planned Christmas reads because it was deeply depressing. Instead, I continued to read Christy by Catherine Marshall, which I am borrowing on my Kindle through Libby.

I might sneak in a last Christmas novella, The Christmas Swap by Melody Carlson, before Christmas. I’ll see if I make it that far since I am also in the middle of making corrections to Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree (releasing sometime in early 2025).

Little Miss hasn’t been reading much of Harry Potter, but I figure she will pick it up again later this week. The Boy is listening to The Hound of the Baskerville’s for English/British Literature.

I forgot to ask The Husband what he is reading but I know he’s read 113 books this year.

This past week I watched two Hallmark movies and then an older Hallmark movie that is one of the best ones I’ve ever seen — Trading Christmas (I wrote about it in this post from last year.)

We also watched a classic Christmas with Garfield from the 1980s and half of A Miracle on 34th Street, which we will hopefully finish tonight.

This week I hope to watch The Christmas Candle this week and other Christmas-related shows or movies.

I am currently working on edits to Gladwynn Grant Shakes The Family Tree. I hate edits – or fixing the manuscript after it’s been given back to me by editors and beta readers. It’s so tedious. But once it is done, I’ll be able to release the book and add it to the other two.

This week on the blog I shared:

|| Little Lord Fauntleroy Marathon by Cat’s Wire ||

|| A Fall Hike in Turkey Run State Park by Amy’s Creative Pursuits ||

|| Gingerbread Candy Kitchen and Hutch by Debbie Dabble Christmas ||

|| Peace on Earth, Second Sunday of Advent by Big Sky Buckeye ||

Don’t forget that Erin and I are hosting the Comfy, Cozy Christmas link-up, which you can find at the top of the page. The link-up is for any holiday-related posts.

Now it’s your turn!

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

Sunday Chat: Bitter cold, snowy weather, the insane prices of streaming services, and a mix of books to read

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Sunday Bookends17 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Chat where I ramble about what’s been going on in my world, what the rest of the family and I have been reading, watching, listening to, and what I’ve been writing.

This week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Deb at Readerbuzz, and Kathyrn at The Book Date.


Somewhere around Christmas I take advantage of a Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale and get a month of the Hallmark channel on Amazon so I can watch some of their ridiculously sappy movies.

This year I missed the sale but still thought I’d get a subscription for a month.

Amazon said I could indeed have that subscription.

For $7.99 a month.

$8.

Hallmark Channel thinks they are worth $8 a month. Like I’m going to watch more than two or three of their movies. Ever.

I looked at one of the movies I thought I might watch and they wanted me to pay $5 just to rent it.  I’m sorry but Hallmark movies are not worth $5 to watch and they are not worth me paying $8 a month when I am already paying for other channels and services. That thought made me want to find out how much those other services had jumped up to and I about fell off the couch.

We had five other subscriptions and most of them were $8 or $9 a month. I ended up unsubscribing from a few and keeping the subscription of one when they offered me more than 50 percent off for the next three months. The Husband and I have decided we will rotate subscriptions – getting some of them every other month instead of every month.

For example, I will be choosing to add PBS Masterpiece back in January so I can watch All Creatures Great and Small’s new season.

What is insane to me is how we left cable for streaming to save money and now companies are charging so much for their services, breaking them into all these individual channels they want you to pay for, we were paying almost as much for streaming services as we did for cable.

It’s really out of control. Luckily, we have the choice to not sign up for certain services and we also have a huge DVD collection so I think this first word problem will not overwhelm us.

 Last week was a very cold week so we didn’t really go anywhere – mainly because it was a very cold week. Had it not been such a cold and miserable week I might not have noticed how much we were being ripped off by Amazon and the other streaming services.  

We got the woodstove going and ran the fire all week. It was nice and cozy in the house most of the days – except one day when I let the fire go too low and almost shivered out of my clothes while getting dinner ready.

Thankfully, next week is supposed to be warmer. By warmer, I of course mean highs of 40 a couple days and one day of a high of 51. Still not sandals weather, but we will take it. We will most likely still light a fire during the day to keep us from having to use the heating oil because the nights are still expected to be very cold.

Lighting fires will be easier thanks to a delivery of wood we received Saturday morning. It will probably be our last delivery of the winter season.

As I began writing this post, I tried to think why I didn’t read more books this week. I had time but I guess I spent a lot of it writing blog posts, building fires, cooking dinners, and maybe a bit worrying about my sister-in-law who is still in the hospital with health issues. I’d love if you could say some prayers for her.

I was also reading Johnny Tremain for school with the youngest and doing homeschool with her.

I’m still working on A Death in Marlow, which is actually a very easy read and I’ll probably finish this week. I was distracted from it this past week by A Quilt for Christmas by Melody Carlson which was a fun, quick, cozy Christmas read and then shared a review of it. I also plan to share a review this week on The Marlow Mystery Club, which I read a couple of weeks ago.

I am continuing to read The Hound of the Baskerville’s by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle fairly slowly with The Boy for school and I hope to read another Christmas-themed novella this week – Catching Christmas by Terri Blackstock.

The Husband has started his 111th book of the year, High Priest of California by Charles Willeford.

The Boy is reading The Hound of the Baskerville’s with me but is sort of dragging his feet right now.

Little Miss is listening to Caddie Woodlawn at night before bed and reading Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets but took a break from reading it this week.

I watched three  Hallmark Christmas movies this past week. They were sort of awful and sort of good at the same time – like any Hallmark movie.

I also watched Just A Few Acres Farm’s videos quite a bit this week. It is so relaxing to watch him do simple things like rebuilding a tractor engine or feed the cows.

I shared a lot on the blog this week including:

Don’t forget that Erin and I are hosting the Comfy, Cozy Christmas link up, which you can find at the top of the page. The link-up is for any holiday-related posts .

A blog post I enjoyed this week:

|| Tuesday Tour: Christmas Ever Day by Mama’s Empty Nest ||

|| Traditional Christmas in the Living Room, More Table Vignettes & Hallway, Christmas Home Tour, 2024 by Debbie Dabble Christmas ||

|| Under the Mistletoe – The Third Door by Cat’s Wire ||

Now it’s your turn!

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

Sunday Bookends: Getting into the Christmas spirit already

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends22 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Morning Chat where I ramble about what’s been going on in my world, what the rest of the family and I have been reading, watching, listening to, and what I’ve been writing.

This week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Deb at Readerbuzz, and Kathyrn at The Book Date.

The Christmas spirit is already on its way, even though I wasn’t sure I was ready for it. Yesterday the kids decorated the tree, and we chose some Christmas movies to watch later in the month – they didn’t seem to watch them yesterday so I watched The Man Who Invented A Christmas again to get in the Christmas mood.

While we decorated The Husband was performing in a radio play of It’s A Wonderful Life, which we will see the second showing of today.

He’s been rehearsing for the play for the last couple of months and been having a blast. We didn’t go last night because he had to go two hours early and we didn’t want to wait while he got ready, but today we will go with my dad to see it. I thought it was too cold for my mom to come out so I suggested she stay home. We are supposed to have a high of 26 today and yesterday we had a windchill of 13 so I doubt today will be any better.

Last week we had a nice, small Thanksgiving with my parents. My sister-in-law has been facing some health issues so she and my brother stayed home. She is improving but traveling was not really in her best interest this year.

The Husband and I made dinner and took it there. After dinner, we played charades at the urging of Little Miss (who enjoys playing games) and watched part of a movie together. On Friday it was grocery pick-up time for me and yesterday it was staying inside keeping the fire going to cut down on the heating oil costs because it was so cold outside.

This upcoming week I only have one event which I may or may not go to, depending on how we feel and how much we want to brave the cold.

What I/we’ve been Reading

I am reading quite slowly right now so I am still reading Death Comes to Marlow by Robert Thorogood and also A Quilt for Christmas by Melody Carlson, which I started yesterday and was pulled right into.

I think I’ll finish A Quilt for Christmas this week since it is very short and cozy at 171 pages long.

Death to Marlow is moving along briskly as well, but I read that mainly at night.

I have borrowed Christy by Catherine Marshall from Libby again since I ran out of time to read it before it had to be returned, but I have a feeling it will go back again – not because it isn’t good. I am enjoying it very much, but I like taking my time with it. I am going to look for a used copy of it to read over the winter.

I am also reading and listening to The Hound of The Baskerville’s by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with The Boy for British Literature.

This past week I finished The Secret of the Wooden Lady by Carolyn Keene and left a review HERE.

After I finish the two books mentioned above, and continue Christy, I hope to read Lynn Austin’s Christmas book The Wish Book Christmas and Toni Shiloh’s You Make It Feel Like Christmas. I’m not a huge romance fan so I’ll see if I make it through Shiloh’s book. I know she’s a good writer so if I do set t aside it won’t be because of that. It’s just because some romances aren’t my “thing.”

Little Miss and I have been reading And Then There Were Five by Elizabeth Enright at night. Last Sunday she read Harry Potter And The Chamber of Secrets for three straight hours at my parents, taking breaks only for some lunch, a snack of whip cream, and getting a drink. This week she hasn’t read as much but instead we’ve been listening to The Greatest Christmas Pageant ever and then started Caddie Woodlawn again the other night because it’s a favorite of hers.

The Boy is reading The Hound of the Baskerville’s with me, as I mentioned above.

The Husband is reading, but he’s at the play as I am writing this and I might forget to ask him before I hit publish so if I do, I’ll i

What I’ve Been Writing

This past week on the blog I shared:

Comfy, Cozy Christmas

Once again this year Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and I are going to be sharing Christmas-themed posts in a link up that you can find at a link at the top of my page. Up there where it says, Home, About, My Books, etc. etc. The link is on a page and you can add your Christmas-themed links from now to January 2!

Erin does such a good job with the graphics for these events. This year she featured our pets in the graphic. It’s so cute and … well, comfy and cozy. Ha!

What We’ve Been Watching

Last week I watched a lot of Murder She Wrote. I write about the show from time to time but I really haven’t seen a lot of the episodes so it’s been interesting to watch through them and either giggle at some of the silliness or get wrapped up in the mysteries – which actually hold together pretty well.

I also watched some of my farmer show on YouTube – Just A Few Acres Farm. One video was just him riding on a tractor with no other sounds and it was seriously the most relaxing thing I’ve seen in a while. I did write some and build the fire while watching but it was very calming somehow. My Sunday morning routine is watching the sermon online with The Husband and then watching Just A Few Acres to try to ease into my day.

Later in the week I watched a show called Now Hear This With Scott Yoo and yesterday I watched a documentary on Leonardo Da Vinci.

Recent Blog Posts I Enjoyed

|| November Reflections by Stray Thoughts ||

|| Stocking Fillers 2024 Gift Guide by Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs ||


Now it’s your turn

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

Sunday Chat/Sunday Bookends: First snowfall/snowstorm and a variety of books to read

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon28 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Morning Chat where I ramble about what’s been going on in my world, what the rest of the family and I have been reading, watching, listening to, and what I’ve been writing.

This week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Deb at Readerbuzz, and Kathyrn at The Book Date.



What’s Been Occurring

We got snow this past week, but it was a weird storm. We got 6 or 7 inches in our little down, but a few miles up the road they got 10 or 12. My parents live about five miles away from us and they got about 4 or 5. The town three miles north of them received a dusting. The town 15 miles from us where we buy the bulk of our groceries received only rain.

It was a strange storm, needless to say. It wreaked havoc because the snow was very heavy and wet. It knocked down already dead Ash trees in our area (killed by the ash boar) and knocked them down onto lines, taking out power for many in the area. Our power has been flickering off and on since Friday night.

For some reason, we have no cell service right in town but at least my Wi-Fi calling works in the house. We aren’t sure if that is connected to the storm or not.

The snow, for all the chaos it caused, though, was very pretty.

I’m hoping future snows this winter will be less heavy and damaging. A few of our bushes and one of our trees was damaged. A big maple in front of us that we can’t currently afford to have cut down (this thing is one of the biggest maple trees I have ever seen in my life!) lost a limb. I was worried it might lose more and cause major damage to our house or our neighbors. Getting this thing cut down will have to be a priority in 2025.

I had hoped that the snow day would mean more time in front of the fire, reading a book. Sadly, I spent most of Friday watching Little Miss play in the snow, loading the woodstove with wood, cooking some dinner, and doing other odds and end chores. I did find a little time to read some, though, thankfully.

What I/We’ve Been Reading

I have been reading The Secret of the Wooden Lady by Carolyn Keene. It is, of course, a Nancy Drew Mystery. One of the early ones. Number 27 to be exact. It’s okay but I’m a little confused about the plot and who the wooden lady is. This one seems to be a bit all over the place. It’s not like anyone has ever called these early middle-grade books great literature, of course. The mysteries do hold up most of the time. This time around I don’t feel like this mystery is really capturing my attention like others have.

I also started Christy by Catherine Marshall last week and while I am only on Chapter 2, I am really enjoying it.

The Boy and I are reading The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for his British Literature course. It is a bit slow getting into but then it really picks up.

This past week I finished two of the three novellas in an Amish romance/Christmas novella collection. I haven’t finished the third yet because the second one, honestly, wasn’t that great to me.

The collection was The Christmas Gathering with authors Shelley Sheppard Gray, Lenora Worth, and Rachel Good.

I’m not usually someone who reads Amish fiction, but that wasn’t the issue with the one novella. It just dragged and dragged and threw in way too many characters for a 12-chapter book.

My plans have changed a little bit on what I am reading next because first, my sister-in-law (brother’s wife) told me about a series and I decided I’d try it. That book is The Sweetness of the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. It is the first in the Flavia De Luce Mysteries.

Also, I had a book on hold on Libby and it became available yesterday. That book is Death Comes to Marlow by Robert Thorogood. It is the second book in The Marlow Murder Club series.

After those books, or while reading them, I’ll be adding A Quilt For Christmas by Melody Carlson, which I picked up from a recent library trip.

Little Miss and I are still reading And Then There Were Five from The Melendy series by Elizabeth Enright. We read that some nights before bed if we aren’t too tired. She is reading the second book in the Harry Potter series as well, but not every day.

The Husband just finished The Bounty Huntersby Elmore Leonard.

What We’ve Been Watching

The past week I watched Transformers One twice. I watched it first with Little Miss and The Boy and then we watched it as a family last night for The Husband’s birthday. The Transformers aren’t really my thing but growing up my friends loved them and I played with them some too so I do know a lot of the characters. Not like The Husband and The Boy do. Sheesh – the tiny little details they know is a little mind-blowing.

They know all the characters and storylines from the original shows and the ones in between, as well as the live action films and the comics.

Last Sunday, Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I watched Chocolat during a watch party. That was a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to when we do that again.

I finished reading over and rewriting parts of Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree Friday and it is now in the hands of my editor husband. From there it will be proofed. I’ll be looking for advanced readers for the book. If you are interested, you can sign up to read it before it comes out here.

This week on the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening To

This week I finally sat down and listened to another episode of the True Drew Podcast, which talks all about Nancy Drew – the books, the games, etc.

I also listened to a podcast by a homeschooling dad called The Life Without School. That was eye opening and interesting.

So 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.