what i’m watching

Sunday Bookends: Changing leaves, more mysteries (yes again), and my parents’ cats

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 8 Comments

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

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



What’s Been Occurring

The leaves have almost all fallen off here in Pennsylvania which means it is time for leaf jumping for our youngest and maybe for our oldest too if the youngest can convince him to jump with her.

I don’t remember jumping in piles of leaves very often when I was younger but my kids have always loved it. Little Miss raked some leaves yesterday to get ready for more jumping today and as she raked, my parents’ cat, Molly, watched quietly from the porch. Looking at Molly I thought about how little I know about my parents’ current cats. My parents don’t seek out pets. Any cats my parents end up with were dropped off at the non-working barn on the property or wandered up from the neighbors who seem to refuse to spay or neuter.

Two cats, both now passed away, were mine/ours. When my parents first moved to my grandmother’s house when I was in college, our all-black at Zorro came with us. We had moved from my great-grandparent’s house across a little creek (over the creek and through the woods was how we got to grandma’s house) so I was worried Zorro would try to walk through the woods back to our old house, but, as far as I remember, he never did.

Between college and when I got married, I lived at that old house (built in the mid-1800s) and had a cat named Four that I rescued from my pet-hoarding mother-in-law’s house. The cat once belonged to my sister-in-law who adopted pets and got rid of them like she did old shoes. The cat was mostly gray but had a number 4 in orange in the gray for on the top of her head. When my sister-in-law had her, she peed on my ex-brother-in-law’s side of the bed because she hated him. I wish my sister-in-law had seen that as an omen since she didn’t see his drug use and abuse as one and remained with him for years until he cheated on her after baby number five.

My parents took Four in and when my aunt moved in she fell in love with Four.

Both Four and Zorro are gone now and I miss them terribly.

When I was in college someone dropped a cat off at my parents/grandmother’s house and I named the him before my parents and grandmother could even consider sending him to the shelter. I knew if I named him, it would be harder for them to get rid of him. I named him Leonardo after Leonardo DiCaprio because he was very popular at the time – Romeo and Juliet and Titanic had both come out that year.

Mom said there was no way she was going to go out on the back porch and yell “Leonardo!” but she did for the next several years, including one week when he went missing and we all thought he died somewhere. Instead, my dad went to the small granary where he stores lawn equipment and various other items and a skinny cat darted out and ran to the patio. Mom said, “Well, what cat is that? It’s not Leonardo. He’s too skinny.”

Poor fat Leonardo had been locked in the granary for almost a week and had lost a ton of weight.

I always wanted to pet Leonardo but he had no interest in letting me. In fact, the only one he would let pet him was my 88 year old grandmother who sat calmly in her chair on the deck to enjoy the sun. He would curl up next to her and she’d rub his head. She was not a animal person either. I never remember her ever having a pet when I grew up. Leonardo loved her though.

Anyhow, back to my parents’ current cats. They are Buzz, a gigantic, fluffy, orange beast who looks like a Main Coon, and Molly, a black and white polydactyl. I visit them once or twice a week but don’t know the cats well because they are usually hiding from Zooma The Wonder Dog when we visit which means I can’t sit and really learn about them. I’ve only managed to pet Molly once.

Buzz is almost feral, though, so I wouldn’t get to know him anyhow. My dad is the only one who can pet Buzz and the one Molly will come right up to. I think her tendency to run when we are there and her usual fear of us is why I was surprised she watched us in the yard yesterday. Zooma was even with us, which made it even more surprising. I think both Zooma’s smell and eyesight were broken because she never saw Molly or chased after her like she usually does.

By the way, none of the cats we’ve ever had have been able to be inside cats since my mom is actually very allergic to cats. They make her itch all over.

What I/we’ve been Reading

I am still reading The Case of the Innocent Husband by Deborah Sprinkle and Handcrafted Murder by Isabella Alan. I will finish The Case of the Innocent Husband this week.


I have put the Lilian Jackson Braun book on the backburner because I would really like to read The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood to see what it is like.

After that I would like to finish The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, which I recently started.

Little Miss is reading Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone at night (I’m trying to convince her to also read it during the day. Not going so well.). Some nights she and I are reading The Four Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright and during the school day we are reading Johnny Tremain which we are both enjoying. Last week we painted pumpkins while listening to it on Audible, but normally I read the book to her as part of our school day.

The Husband is reading Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie.

The Boy and I will be starting The Hound of the Baskerville by Arthur Conan Doyle this week after suffering through Beowulf, which I actually just read the summary of. I’m not going to lie about that.

What We watched/are Watching

This past week I rewatched parts of Rear Window so I could write about it for my blog post and then I watched a lot of Murder She Wrote.

The Husband and I watched an episode of the new Frasier show as well. I started watching Only Murders in the Building now that we have a Hulu subscription and then made The Husband watch the first episode with me. We are hooked and I can’t promise I won’t watch more of the show without him since he often has night meetings and I am impatient to find out what happens.

I  hope to watch some more old movies this week in addition to Dial M for Murder that I am watching for the Comfy, Cozy Cinema.


What I’m Writing

Still working on Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree and having fun.

On the blog I shared:

Photos from Last Week

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

Sunday Bookends: Adventures with the parents, fall foliage, and reading more mysteries

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 35 Comments

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

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


What’s Been Occurring

Yesterday Dad, Little Miss, and I took my mom leaf peeping before all our leaves are gone. We didn’t have a very pretty year because of the warmer, dry temps we had in August and part of September but we did see some pretty trees on our drive.

We drove on some back roads (a.k.a. dirt roads) near my parents and eventually ended up at a house and former farm where some of my dad’s distant family used to live.

Throughout my whole life anytime we decided to go for a drive around the area or anywhere else, what normally would have been a routine or sightseeing trip became a weird adventure. My parents are 80 now so I thought our days of adventure were over but once again a simple leaf peeping trip became a little weird. First we passed a field of modern art sculptures all lined up in a field – sort of weird.

And when we stopped at the distant relative’s house things also got very weird.

We didn’t know who still lived at the house Dad used to visit as a kid, so Dad climbed out of the car and disappeared over a hill between the house and garage for a bit while he looked for the homeowner. While waiting for him, Little Miss, Mom and I watched another car rip into the long driveway, continue between two trees and stopped near our car. I rolled my window down and apologized for being in the way but the woman frowned and just said, “That’s fine.”

She went into the house without even asking why we were in her drive. I decided it was time to look for Dad in case she was really ticked off at us for being there, so I climbed out after telling my mom that the woman looked very familiar. I thought she looked like the manager of our local Dollar General.

A few minutes later, my dad and another man were walking from the back of the house, up the hill, and the woman, who had left the house to put the dog on a lead, marched toward my dad with her finger pointing at him and said, “You get your car out of my driveway!”

I panicked. Our trip was taking a very dark turn and I wasn’t sure how I was going to get my dad away from the crazy woman. But Dad was smiling and so was the man. I couldn’t see the woman but then she was patting my dad on the shoulder and I realized she was messing with my dad – probably how he picks on her when he stops in at the Dollar General.

In the end, we all had a good conversation and Dad shared some memories of visiting the former farm years before – like when he was 12 or 13.

After that, we took the long way home, and Little Miss and I spent the afternoon having dinner with my parents before heading home.

Today I have to pick up The Boy from a friend’s house and we will stop for lunch at my parents on the way back. Hopefully, we don’t have another weird adventure.  

What I/we’ve been Reading

The Case of the Innocent Husband (A Mac and Sam Mystery Book 1), Murder Handcrafted by Isabella Alan, and The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler.

The Secret of Red Gate Farm by Carolyn Keene (A Nancy Drew Mystery)

The Cat Who Brought Down the House by Lilian Jackson Braun

The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood

Little Miss is reading the first Harry Potter book at night. I love that she’s reading but she starts too late at night and then I have to tell her that it’s time for bed and she tries to make me feel guilty by saying things like, “But I only have 15 minutes of the chapter left to go!”

Stupid Kindles and their ability to tell you how many minutes of a chapter you have to go.

We are also reading The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright on some nights. For school/during the day we are reading Johnny Tremain.

The Husband just finished The Labours of Hercules by Agatha Christies and is getting ready to read book 99. He is going to read The Satanic Verses by Salaman Rushdie for book 100.

What We watched/are Watching


Last week I watched a lot of Lovejoy and Murder She Wrote, Blithe Spirit with Erin for our Comfy, Cozy Cinema, and Reading Rainbow for old time’s sake.

What I’m Writing

I am still writing Gladwynn Grant Shakes The Family Tree and announced on Instagram that I will be pushing off the release date to 2025 so I can take some more time on it. I was pushing myself too hard to get it done before the end of October and now I realize that I am stressing myself out about a book that I am not under a publishing contract for and that I am writing more for fun than anything else.

If anyone would like to read books one or two, though, you can find them here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C1KSQJXP

On the blog last week I didn’t share a ton since I was working on the book, but here is what I did share:

What I’m Listening To

I was listening to Ever After by Karen Barnett but I am not a big fan of the narrator so not sure I’ll finish it.

Photos From Last Week

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

Sunday Bookends: Remembering Maggie Smith, reading the same books, and some blog posts I enjoyed recently

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 31 Comments



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

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



What’s Been Occurring

What a weird coincidence this week that Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and I watched a movie with Maggie Smith and a day after we posted out those she passed away. We had watched Ladies in Lavender with her and Judi Dench and wrote about it and then that night I was thinking how upset Judi would be when Maggie passed away. I also wondered which “dame” would actually pass away first – I thought it might be Joan Plowright.

The next morning Erin texted me to tell me that Maggie had died and I honestly felt like I had lost a friend. I haven’t even watched her very much in things like Downton Abbey or Harry Potter (though I did watch Harry Potter with the kids just recently). I stopped watching Downton when they killed Matthew off. It ticked me off so bad I refused to watch the show again.

I’ve seen Maggie in a few movies since then, though, and just sort of fell in love with her spunk and attitude, but also a tenderness I saw in her.

I’m slightly ashamed to admit that I cried more over her death than the death of my mother-in-law the week before – partially because I had more sentimental connection with Maggie – whom I’ve never met – that my husband’s mother. That’s a very long, sad story that I won’t go into here.

I was looking for clips of Maggie to share on Instagram since I had a clip of her and Judi and Joan Plowright from Tea With the Dames go viral last year on my Instagram, when I remembered I had seen that she’d been on The Carol Burnett Show one time.

If you want to see that clip, I’ll share it below in my What I’ve Been Watching section.

I’m really hoping to watch an Agatha Christie movie with Maggie that I just learned about Friday as well.

What I/we’ve been Reading

I was working on the third book in my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series last week so I didn’t read as much as I could have.

Therefore I am still reading the same books I was reading – Move Your Blooming Corpse by DE Ireland and Kristen by Dawn Klinge, but have added The Secret at Red Gate Farm, a Nancy Drew to the mix.

I finished nothing! Nothing, people! See above. *wink*




Murder Handcrafted by Isabella Alan (An Amish Quilt Shop Mystery)

The Cat Who Brought Down the House by Lilian Jackson Braun

The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood

Little Miss and I are reading The Four Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright via Hoopla.

The Husband is reading Fear and Loathing On the Campaign Trail 1972 by Hunter S. Thompson

The Boy is listening to Beowulf and a book of short stories.

What We watched/are Watching

Last week I rewatched most of Ladies in Lavender to write about it for our Comfy, Cozy Cinema, since I’ve seen it before.

I mentioned above that I enjoyed watching Maggie Smith and Judi Dench in the movie and then the next day Maggie passed away. It was heartbreaking.

Erin and I have a few movies with either Judi or Maggie or both in it on our Comfy, Cozy Cinema this time around and I swear we didn’t do it on purpose. We both chose movies on our own and then whittled the list down, not even thinking about who was starring in them. We both even forgot about Judi and Maggie being in a couple of the movies.

This weekend I’ve been watching some clips of Maggie from various shows or interviews, including this one from The Carol Burnett Show:


I had no idea Maggie sang until I saw this clip with her and Carol on YouTube:

I have also been continuing to watch Lovejoy, an old British show that sometime has a mystery and sometimes just a conman story.  I hated how this series ended so I’ve watched it before but seem to have forgotten some of the episodes so I am rewatching them. This is a show my husband always watched and turned me on to.


What I’m Writing

Gladwynn Shakes The Family Tree, of course.

On the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening To

Ever Faithful by Karen Barnett on Hoopla

Photos from Last Week

Recent Blog Posts I Enjoyed

|| Review: Hillbilly Elegy by Stray Thoughts ||

(I appreciated this non-partisan and just straight review of J.D. Vance’s book. Not a fan of him as a politician but I’m also not a fan of any politician at this time.)

|| Words for Wednesday: Confined by Mama’s Empty Nest ||

(Boy, could I relate to this one.)

|| His Encouragement by Christian Fiction Girl ||

(A great reminder of God’s faithfulness during challenging times. )

|| Book Review: Cassie, Apron Strings Book Eight by Leslie’s LIbrary Escape ||

(This one is a little biased on my part, but this was a really nice review of my book Cassie.)


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 Bookends: another last swim? Mysteries with no connection to the main character, and watching fun, old movies

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 7 Comments

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

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



What’s Been Occurring

Today my dad suggested we go into the pool since it is hot and humid out still – in the middle of September. Yuck.

I had decided we’d already had our last swim in the beginning of September, though, and I’m actually dreading it because the last time we went in the pool there were some 100 mosquitoes I had to clean out before we could swim. This has been a very bad mosquito year apparently.

Plus there is drying off but not getting all dry so when you try to get your pants on you can’t because your skin is still just damp enough to not let the pants slide on easily. That is so annoying to me.

Yes, I know, I am being dramatic about nothing. Ha! But it’s just a little whine and I do actually have fun once we get in the pool. I have a feeling it will not be a warm trip, though, because our nights have been very cool.

I do miss the pool and being able to hop in on a hot day so maybe one last dip will be good for me. I just sort of had packed that part of the year away already and am ready for sweaters, hot cocoa, and falling leaves.

What I/we’ve been Reading

I am still reading An Assassination on the Agenda by T.E. Kinsey and have also started A Simple Deduction by Kristi Holl.

I am not bowled over by either of them but they are an okay escape. I was liking An Assassination on the Agenda better than a Simple Deduction where I couldn’t connect with the characters at all, but as I started to get into the book I liked it more. I still can’t connect with the main character at all, though. There is no personality written into her in this book, which was written by a different author than the other books (actually each of the books in the series seems to be written by a different author, but with the same main character and setting). In this one she’s just very flat. We don’t learn anything about her personality or her likes or dislikes until halfway through the book. It’s just a straight mystery – which is okay too since that’s how Agatha wrote all her books. We never really got to the know the characters too well – just the mystery, ma’am. I mean we did learn about their quirks and personalities as the series went on – especially Poirot.

I finished Trouble Shooter by Louis L’Amour this past week. It wasn’t my regular read and I wasn’t totally in love with it, but I would try another one of his books. It was a good story and a really crazy ending.

This was a Hopalong Cassidy novel that he apparently wrote in the style of the original author but was re-released in the 1990s under L’Amour’s name. I’d like to read a book by him that’s about one of his own characters.

The Secret of Red Gate Farm by Carolyn Keene (A Nancy Drew Mystery)

Murder Handcrafted by Isabella Alan (An Amish Quilt Shop Mystery)

The Cat Who Brought Down the House by Lilian Jackson Braun

What We watched/are Watching

This past week I watched Lovejoy and the movie Out of The Blue that I watched last week again but with my husband. I also watched The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel as part of the Comfy Cozy Feature I am doing with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumb.

Yesterday I watched an old movie called A Woman of Distinction with Rosalind Russell and Ray Milland.  There was a cameo with Lucille Ball in the beginning and it was so funny. She was only on screen five minutes and still cracked me up. The entire movie was full of hilarious moments and the ending wasn’t as bad and cliché as I thought it was going to be.

The movie was about the female dean of a college who has sworn off love, instead choosing her career. When a lecturer from Great Britain comes to the states to present some lectures, the public relations woman promoting his lectures decides she needs an angle to drum up some interest and makes up a story that he has come to the states looking for the dean. Craziness ensued after that and I realized that there are a lot of movies from the 1940s and 1950s that really hold up today.

I also started a movie called Merrily We Live and that one also cracked  me up within the first ten minutes. I can’t wait to finish it later today.

I’ve been watching these old movies for free via our Roku and the Tubi app.


What I’m Writing

Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree is what I’ve been writing. I hope to finish it by the end of September. I’ll be announcing a release date later on my newsletter Substack, which is where I share most of my writing news (https://lisarhoweler.substack.com/)

Last week on the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening To

I have been alternating between reading An Assassination on the Agenda and listening to it while I do dishes or other chores during the week because I really like the narrator.

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 Bookends: Cooling temps, family reunions, Gladwynn book three excerpt

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 8 Comments



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

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


What’s Been Occurring

 Temps have definitely dropped into autumn territory in Pennsylvania. As I started writing this post it was 50 degrees but felt much colder to me. I wrapped myself in my grandmother’s blanket and wore a jacket but still couldn’t warm up. We do our best not to turn on our heat until October and don’t usually start our woodstove until the end of October.  

Last night, though, when I couldn’t feel my toes while sleeping, even with two blankets on, I realized we are probably going to have to at least turn on our heat upstairs, which is electric. The heating oil is what really hits us financially and that heats our downstairs.

Today is my parents’ 61st wedding anniversary. We will be attending a family reunion where there isn’t much family left due to everyone getting older and passing away. (What a downer sentence. Sorry.)

I hope to sneak away for most of it to read a book in the car because people will probably start talking politics and I have banned political discussions from my life for the foreseeable future.

What I/we’ve been Reading

I am reading An Assassination on the Agenda by T.E. Kinsey. It is a Lady Hardcastle Mystery.

I love Lady Hardcastle and Flo. They are so fun. I also like that the books are clean and just fun. If you haven’t ready Lady Hardcastle before they are set sometime in the early 1900s (around 1912 for this one) and Lady Hardcastle and her maid Flo are international spies, but seem like your average rich lady and maid to most.

 I have listened to at least one of the books on Audible and the narrator was so good. She makes Lady Hardcastle sound exactly like I imagine her in my head. The books are written in Flo’s point of view.

I plan to finish Trouble Shooter by Louis L’Amour this week.

I just finished Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murders by Jesse Q. Sutanto and loved it. Yes, there was swearing and I don’t read a lot of books with swearing, but it wasn’t full of sex or graphic violence. The main character was so hilarious and easy to fall in love with and be shocked by. If you haven’t heard of this one, I highly recommend it. It is a mystery – somewhat cozy.

Here is a description:

Sixty-year-old self-proclaimed tea expert Vera Wong enjoys nothing more than sipping a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy ‘detective’ work on the internet (AKA checking up on her son to see if he’s dating anybody yet).

But when Vera wakes up one morning to find a dead man in the middle of her tea shop, it’s going to take more than a strong Longjing to fix things. Knowing she’ll do a better job than the police possibly could – because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands – Vera decides it’s down to her to catch the killer.

A Simple Deduction (An Amish Inn Mystery) by Kristi Holl

The Secret of Red Gate Farm by Carolyn Keene (A Nancy Drew Mystery)

Murder Handcrafted by Isabella Alan (An Amish Quilt Shop Mystery)

The Cat Who Brought Down the House by Lilian Jackson Braun

Little Miss and I are reading The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright before bed. That has taken up some of my evening reading time.

She and I are also reading Johnny Tremaine for history and English since school has started.

The Husband is reading a book by Salman Rushdie.

The Boy will be starting Beowulf this week for school.

What We watched/are Watching

Yesterday I watched a movie called Out of The Blue (1947). It was an absolutely ridiculous and hilarious screwball comedy. It was about people in an apartment building who have some hilarious interactions and one of them involves a murder that isn’t a murder – or is it?

Last night I convinced my teenager to watch The Third Man with me. It is an amazing film from 1949. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should.

Earlier in the week I watched more Lovejoy (a British show).


What I’m Writing

I’m still working on Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree.

I had fun writing this exchange between Lucinda and Gladwynn:

“So do you think you two young people will tie the knot someday?”

Gladwynn asked the question with a smirk, enjoying how Lucinda almost choked on her smoothie when she heard it.

The woman’s eyes widened. “Excuse me?”

In Gladwynn’s amused opinion, it was high time the tables were turned on the meddling woman.

Gladwynn set her fork down and reached for her juice, doing her best to look innocent. “What? I mean you’ve been seeing a lot of each other. Maybe it’s time to make things official.”

Lucinda’s shocked expression faded. She pressed her lips into a thin line and narrowed her eyes, setting her glass down on the table. “That’s how you want to play this, is it?”

Gladwynn raised an eyebrow in challenge. “Play what, Grandma? I don’t know what you’re getting at.”

Lucinda leaned back in her chair and folded her arms across her chest. “What are you going to wear to church today, my dear? Something nice, I hope. Luke did just get back from Northern Ireland this weekend. I’m sure he’s been very anxious to see you and I know you’d like to look nice for him.”

Gladwynn’s eyes narrowed. “Why would I want to look nice for Luke?”

“I think you know why.”

“Do I? Or do you think I should look nice for Luke?”

“I think you think you should look nice for Luke.”

Gladwynn broke eye contact with Lucinda and began eating her breakfast again. This conversation was going nowhere good, as her grandfather used to jokingly say. “Don’t you need to get those curlers out of your hair?”

“Don’t you need to do your makeup?”

Recent Blog Posts I Enjoyed

I will have some blog posts from other blogs to share next week. I’ve been reading some good ones.

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 Bookends: I think Summer is really over..I think…and lots of mysteries on the agenda

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 15 Comments


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

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



What’s Been Occurring

 This past Tuesday Little Miss and I had a wonderful day swimming at my parents. The pool was in perfect shape and the temperature was absolutely perfect.

We ate some lunch before we went and took lunch to my parents as well. Then we spent two hours in the pool, took a break for a light supper, then back in the pool for another 90-minutes. The temperature was fairly high outside so the pool was perfectly nice inside.

Little Miss enjoyed swimming underwater, doing flips, and practicing floating on her back – all skills she learned this summer.

The Boy helped my dad with mowing the lawn since Dad has been suffering from a pinched nerve in his lower back that has made doing work outside very difficult.

On Wednesday Little Miss and I went back to the pool and Dad and The Boy went to a county fair near us.

On Tuesday I will start classes with the kids, even though I don’t have everything I need yet for the oldest. He, however, only has a couple of classes to take to finish out the credits he needs to graduate since he is also attending a technical school this year.

Little Miss will be my main focus this year and we are trying new curriculum in almost every subject. We will see how it goes but what is great about homeschool is that I can switch to a different curriculum at any point if needed. 

What I/we’ve been Reading

I started Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers because several cozy mystery readers (vloggers) said it was good and it is good but I could do without the language. I know. I’m a prude (and also  a hypocrite if you must know the truth), but, well, I didn’t expect the f-word and other words to pop up in the fourth or fifth chapter. I do really like Vera, though, so I am going to continue to read it.

I’m also reading through my long Netgalley list so this week I started An Assassination on the Agenda (A Lady Hardcastle Mystery) by T.E. Kinsey.

I’m also reading Trouble Shooter by Louis L’Amour but I am reading it a little bit slow because it is a slower read for me. There are a lot of descriptions of rounding up cattle and falling off cliffs and old time writing that I have to push through. I do want to finish it, though, because I am really enjoying the story and want to know what happens.

Here and there I am reading Little Men by Louisa Mae Alcott. I figure this one will get pushed off until November and December, which is when I read Little Women last year.

The Gardener’s Plot by Deborah J. Benoit



A Simple Deduction (An Amish Inn Mystery) by Kristi Holl

The Secret of Red Gate Farm by Carolyn Keene (A Nancy Drew Mystery)

Murder Handcrafted by Isabella Alan (An Amish Quilt Shop Mystery)

The Cat Who Brought Down the House by Lilian Jackson Braun

Little Miss and I are reading The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright.

What We watched/are Watching

This week I watched The Detective… a 195… film with Alec McGuiness based on the short stories about Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton. I discovered it by accident and ended up really enjoying it. I started The Third Man with Orson Welles but forgot to finish it. I will do that this week. Then I watched What We Did on Our Holiday as part of the Comfy Cozy Cinema feature that Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I will be doing starting this Thursday.

Here is the list of movies we are watching if you want to watch with us and write about your impressions of them. We will be sharing a link up each week.


What I’m Writing

I am working on Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree and having a lot of fun. Tomorrow I will be sharing the first chapter with my paid supporters on Substack. I will be revealing the cover sometime in September and hope to have the book out in early November.

On the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening to

I am listening to The Cross-Country Quilters and also to An Assassination on the Agenda when I can’t read it because I love the narrator who narrates all the Lady Hardcastle books.

Photos from Last Week

Recent Blog Posts I Enjoyed

This week’s Small Pleasures by Thistles and Kiwis

Friday Feels: Three Questions and An F Word by Deb’s World

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 Bookends: Summer movies, school starting, and more mysteries to read

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 15 Comments




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

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

What’s Been Occurring

 School starts for The Boy this week. It will start the following week for Little Miss.

I rambled about what’s been going on in my blog post from yesterday.

What I/we’ve been Reading

I am still reading Clueless At The Coffee Station by Bee Littlefield (really enjoying it) and Trouble Shooter by Louis L’Amour.

Renee by Sandra Ardoin




A Simple Deduction by Kristi Holl (An Amish Inn Mystery)

World Traveler by Anthony Bourdain

Ever Faithful by Karen Barnett

The Author’s Guide To Murder by Lauren Willig, Beatriz Williams, and Karen White

Gardner’s Plot by Deborah Benoit

The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashi

What We watched/are Watching

The Husband and I watched a Magnum P.I./Murder She Wrote crossover yesterday. I expected more from it, but then I learned there is a second part so we will be watching that tomorrow after he gets off work.

I started a Hayley Mills movie – Summer Magic — that I planned to replace one of the movies in my Summer Movie Marathon series since Having A Wonderful Time isn’t streaming anywhere and I don’t really want to order a DVD of it. I’m really not liking the movie very much so I don’t know if I will stick it out or not or watch something else for the marathon.

This morning I watched Just A Few Acres Farm after we watched the sermon from Elevation Church together. This is a Sunday tradition.

The sermon was excellent this week.

Just A Few Acres was interesting as he worked on fixing up an old truck with his son.

Last week he was spray painting a tractor and I know I’m old now because that was simply fascinating to me. Fascinating and very relaxing.


What I’m Writing

This week on the blog I shared:

My book Cassie came out last week on Amazon. You can learn more about it here:

It’s part of a series but can be read as a stand alone.

I made quite a bit of progress on Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree which I hope to have out by early November.

What I’m Listening To

I listened a little more to The Cross Country Quilters by Jennifer Chaverini and Mansfield Park by Jane Austen.

Photos from Last Week

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 Bookends: Some swimming time, some relaxing time and lots of fun books

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 9 Comments




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

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


What’s Been Occurring

 This week was fairly lowkey. Little Miss and I went swimming twice – once earlier in the week and once yesterday with her friend who I’ll name Crazy Child for the sake of the blog.

She had a sleepover last night and it’s the last one of the summer, so I’m excited about that even if she isn’t. I know. I’m awful, but sleepovers can be so exhausting.

She and her friend had a ton of fun, though, so I am glad.

The temps dropped so much the last couple of days that I think my animals thought it was fall already. They were curled up on me or against me Friday and Saturday. Our youngest cat wanted to be on me no matter what Saturday night – even laying on my chest while I was trying to sleep!

Temps are going to warm up again because we aren’t done with summer yet.

What I/we’ve been Reading

Our daughter let me know this week that she is done watching movies based on books. They ruin her images of what she sees in her mind. I just thought that was funny and accurate because so many of us readers feel that way.

I am currently reading

Trouble Shooter by Louis L’Amour (just taking my time on this one since it is not my normal genre)

The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes (A Nancy Drew Mystery) by Carolyn Keene

Tracking Tilly by Janice Jackson

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery (loved this one. I’ll have a review later this week.)

The Key Collector’s Promise by Donna Stone (this book will be out in September)



Renee by Sandra Ardoin

An Assassination on the Agenda by T.E. Kinsey

The Boy is in between books.

Little Miss and I are listening to Little Women on Audible at night before bed.

The Husband headed off to work before I could ask him what he’s reading right now.

What We watched/are Watching

This week I watched Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop with Kelsey Grammer and a British actress I’d never heard of. It was pretty good but was a pretty simple mystery. I read that it was meant to be the first movie in a series but You Know What happened and then Kelsey started filming the new Frasier.

I also watched When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (a German film based on the book by Judith Kerr, which I enjoyed).

I started a movie called From Time to Time but haven’t finished it yet. It is a bit weird and involves a young boy going back in time. I’m not sure how they got Maggie Smith for it. It isn’t horrible but it doesn’t seem to be at the same caliber as her other work.


What I’m Writing

I am still working on Gladwynn Grant Shakes The Family Tree and having fun.

On the blog I shared:

Photos from Last Week

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 Bookends: I can’t think of an interesting title for this week

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 11 Comments

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

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


What’s Been Occurring

I wrote about our week in my post yesterday.

After I posted that post the kids and I picked up a friend of The Boy’s and brought him home to our fold to become one of the family for a couple of days – though he is really part of the family even when he isn’t here.

We also stopped and picked up groceries.

Yes. It was a very exciting day, but we needed that after our busy week last week.

What I/we’ve been Reading

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery.

I’m very much enjoying this book which is so much different than the Anne of Green Gables books. I love the main character and can’t wait to see what happens to her in the end.

When You Returned by Havelah McClat

Tracking Tilly by Janice Thompson

I put Dandelion Cottage by Carrol Watson Rankin to the side and plan to pick it back up in the fall to read with Little Miss – or actually we may start it this week because am I as writing this I remembered we finished our read aloud this week.

Return to Gone Away by Elizabeth Enright


Renee by Sandra Ardoin

Trouble Shooter by Louis L’Amour

An Assassination on the Agenda by T.E. Kinsey

What We watched/are Watching

This week I watched the original Gidget movie (1959) for my planned Summer Movie Marathon and will write about it in a future post.

I also rewatched the 2010 version of True Grit with The Boy and his friend. As usual I cried at the end. It’s such a good movie.


What I’m Writing

This week on the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening To

I am currently listening to The Cross-Country Quilters by Jennifer Chiaverini.

I have also been listening to Anne Wilson’s album, Rebel.

Photos from Last Week

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.