Lisa R. Howeler's Blog, page 79

Sunday Bookends: Hospital stays, late-night reading, and Anne of Green Gables movies

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

What’s Been Occurring

I mentioned yesterday in my Saturday Afternoon Tea and Chat post (or whatever I am calling it because I change the name every time I post it) that we had a very rough week. You can read more about my sickness and my mom’s week-long hospital stay in that post.

Today I hope to mentally recover a bit from all the craziness with some reading and catching up on The Chosen before the new episode premieres tonight. I will also most likely visit my parents and help Mom with her recovery from gallbladder surgery.

What I/we’ve been Reading

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I was sick this week and up all night one night and most of the night a couple more. During the all-nighter, I started A Highland Christmas by M.C. Beaton. It is a Hamish MacBeth Mysteries book and the first I’ve read of M.C. Beaton’s.

I will finish it today.

I’m also reading The Reckoning Trees by Alicia Gilliam and enjoying it. I decided I needed something lighter on the night I couldn’t fall asleep so I put it aside then but am back into it this week.

This upcoming week I will be plowing through the rest of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with The Boy.

At night Little Miss and I have been listening to Fortunately The Milk by Neil Gaiman or reading Paddington Marches On.

The Husband is reading a collection of short stories inspired by Sherlock Holmes.

The Boy seems to be avoiding reading until we get back into school on Monday.

What We watched/are Watching

With everyone being sick or running around this week, we didn’t find much time to sit down and watch anything together.  I watched Anne of Green Gables The Sequel and also a few episodes of The Andy Griffith Show.

What I’m Listening To

Right now I am listening to The Mistletoe Countess by Pepper Basham on Audible.

I’m ashamed to say that I did not listen to music this week. I think if I had it would have made the week a bit less stressful.

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

Saturday Afternoon (Actually Evening) Tea and Chat: Gallbladders, sleep deprivation, and comfort movies

Hello! So glad you stopped by.

Sit down and have some tea with me. I certainly need a tea break this weekend after the week I had. I might even have cocoa instead of tea, honestly. I meant to have this little chat and tea time up earlier today, but got delayed by . . . well, a lot.

This past week was a nightmare in many ways. There’s no way around it.

Actually, it all started on Friday of last week when my mom started to have horrible pain in her chest and stomach area. She’s had this before many times and has been told it is gastritis.

To make too long of a story much shorter, my mom was taken to the emergency room and diagnosed with pancreatitis caused by gallstones.

She was immediately admitted to the hospital, 45 minutes north of where we live, and a procedure to clean out the gallbladder was performed on Tuesday. The pancreas had to settle down after that procedure and then a plan was made to remove her gallbladder on Thursday.

While all this was going on, I was trying to recover from a cold, and it ended up leaving me up all night long two nights in a row due to coughing. The coughing only happened when I’d try to fall asleep though and wasn’t happening at all during the day. It was so odd. I wasn’t in great shape on Wednesday, ended up at the doctor, and was told I have severe postnasal drip left over from the virus or whatever I had.

This left me grounded and unable to go to give my poor dad a break from all the craziness. Thank God (literally) we were able to find a room at a Ronald McDonald type house across from the hospital for Dad, which cut down on his driving time.

I felt completely helpless yet absolutely unable to drive myself due to the condition I was in Wednesday.

I took magnesium glycinate Tuesday night to try to get myself to sleep but instead, it woke me up which has happened before when I took it but I had hoped wouldn’t happen again. It was horrible and I was shaking and a mess Wednesday. I was so relieved Mom’s surgery was pushed off until Thursday. Wednesday night I was able to sleep fairly well and Thursday I was able to be with Mom and actually function much better. Last night was another not-so-great night of sleep for me, but hopefully, that will get better soon.

The surgery went well and as I am writing this, Mom is sitting across from me talking to my brother on the phone.

After my sleepless night on Tuesday night, I sat in a confused stupor in a chair in our living room, watching the Anne of Green Gables movie sequel. I had watched the original earlier in the week. I sat in the chair, propped up, so all my drainage wouldn’t make me cough, dozing off for half an hour sprints and waking up to watch more of the movie.

I hated how I felt but I loved having that time to watch a movie with good memories from my past. It was very sentimental and nostalgic. I haven’t finished the second movie yet but hope to this weekend.

Homeschool was a total wash this week. Between The Boy being sick, me being sick, and my mom being in the hospital, we truly really couldn’t find time to do it. We will jump in with both feet Monday and get back on track. We are taking our time and learning through experiences and life skills this year, but are also still focused on actual curriculum. I’m trying to create a calmer, less rigid homeschool experience this year and so far it is going well. Letting go this week and accepting we won’t finish our school year when I originally wanted to was very hard, but necessary.

I am looking forward this week to continuing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with The Boy, and hopefully finishing it, and continuing The Children of The Longhouse with Little Miss.

Of course, we will also have Math and Science to delve into and they can be fun as well, but English is my jam, as some might say (though probably not in 20 years).

I’ll ramble more about what I read and watched this week on my Sunday Bookends post tomorrow, but  will say now that being able to escape into books, especially, was a welcome blessing this week.

Our weather remained warm part of this week, but the damp and gloomy days did nothing to help my cold or lift my spirits. I felt like I was walking in a dream world most of the week, but that may have been more because of the sleep deprivation than anything else. The cold weather is already returning, reminding us that it is still winter.

I hope your week was better than mine was.

Did you do anything exciting or fun? How is the weather where you are? And what are you drinking today? Hot tea, a cup of coffee, or cocoa? Let me know in the comments below. I’d love to know.

(After Mom had been home for a while today, and after her nap, she asked if I would put this song on YouTube for her to listen to. She loves the lyrics and I guess it was running through her head at the hospital this morning. She began to cry as it played. Maybe it will mean something to you too.)

Favorite books of 2022 and books read

 I am not a prolific reader like The Husband and my mom, but I did read more books this year than in other years and thought I would share a few of my favorites today.

If I counted right (because I didn’t keep a list like other years and my totals are mixed up on Goodreads with all the books my mom read), I read 37 books last year, not counting children’s books. If I add in the kid-level books (Beverly Cleary, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Michael Bond, and C.S. Lewis) then I read 47. That’s a lot more than in previous years, so I’m pretty proud of myself. I actually think there are a couple of others I forgot to list.

Among my favorites were:

Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery

I read three Anne books in 2022, including Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, and Anne of the Island. Anne of Green Gables was a reread, which I read with Little Miss. Anne of the Island was my favorite of all three as it took her out of Avonlea more and pushed her to spread her wings even more.

For 2023 I plan to finish Anne of Windy Poplars and hopefully a couple of other Anne books.

Why Didn’t They Ask Evans by Agatha Christie

I watched the mini-series of this on BritBox (on Amazon Video) before I read the book and ended up liking the book as much as, if not more, than the mini-series. This was the second book of Christie’s I’d read and as always the prose and dialogue is brief and to the point but always tells a suspenseful tale.

I plan to read more of Agatha this year.

Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz

This one had me guessing and on the edge of my seat all the way through. Part of this may because I have watched so much Sherlock Holmes related content with my husband who is a huge fan of Sherlock books (the original and beyond), movies and shows. I think anyone, a fan of Sherlock or not, would love this book but it is definitely geared toward Sherlock lovers who simply can’t get enough of stories about him, whether the originals by Arthur Conan Doyle or spinoffs, so to speak, like those by Horowitz.

I hope to read The House of Silk, another Sherlock-related book, this year.

Walking in Tall Weeds by Robin W. Pearson

This is a book I thought about long after I finished it. Part of the reason I thought about it was because I didn’t know if I agreed with a couple of scenes in the book. They rubbed me the wrong way. I think the fact they rubbed me the wrong was is a testament to Robin’s writing because it made me sit and think about why they rubbed me the wrong way. I realized I had a lot to learn about race relations but also relationships between family in general. It wasn’t only a thinking or issue book, though. There was an underlying love story between a longtime married couple and that story spilled over onto their son and their extended family. Love isn’t always romance, of course.

Call Me A Cab by Donald Westlake

I had not read any books by Donald Westlake before this one and my husband told me that this was a big departure from his other books. I tried another one of his a couple of months ago and have yet to finish it because, yes, Call Me A Cab was much nicer and sweeter. I still want to finish the other book, even though it isn’t necessarily my style.

The Dark Horse by Craig Johnson

This was one of two of the Longmire books I read in 2022. I really thought I’d read more of Craig’s books this year. That is something I hope to remedy in 2023. This was my favorite of the two I read. It followed the story of Walt Longmire investigating a case that other investigators said was already solved. Walt didn’t feel that way so he threw himself right down a rabbit hole to find the truth and I went with him on that ride. A lot of nail-biting fun, as always. Poor Walt, though. He’s always getting stranded out in the cold Wyoming winter while trying to find the truth.

Open Season by C.J. Box

I stayed in Wyoming for this first book in the Joe Pickett series. The Longmire Mysteries take place in Wyoming too, in case you weren’t sure what I was talking about there. This was another mystery that I wasn’t sure where it was going until it was barreling out of control to the finish. By the halfway point I couldn’t put it down and I’m looking forward to reading more in the series this year.

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

This was a non-fiction book that I enjoyed very much despite some crass descriptions, way too many sexual references and quite a few four-letter words. I don’t usually read books like this but I watched Bourdain’s shows for years before he passed away and wanted to go back to the book that launched him into stardom. It was a fascinating look into America’s high-quality restaurants and not all the looks were good, but they were interesting. Bourdain’s love of food from the way it is prepared to how it connects people was the undercurrent of the book and the main reason I pushed through some very cringeworthy sections (cringeworthy for me at least).

Love and A Little White Lie by Tammy Gray

This was a book I read toward the end of the year. I enjoyed the downhome style of it and the real look at the Christian community from a woman unsure of what she believes about God. I hated the one male character and how whiny he was but didn’t let him steal the enjoyment of the book away from me. If I were to meet someone like him in real life, though, I’d  most likely grab him by the front of his shirt, shake him a few minutes and tell him to, “get it together, man!”

I’m looking forward to reading the other two books in the series.

The Do Over by Sharon Peterson

This was a fun rom-com that had me laughing and shaking my head over the witty way in which it was written. The main character, Perci, was a blast and a treat but her Mimi (grandmother) had me gasping and shaking my head more than once. This was a clean read as well, which made me like it even more. I read two books with this title in 2022 and liked this one the best.

Miss Julia Renews Her Vows by Ann B. Ross

I wasn’t as enamored with the other two books I tried from the series because they either seemed to promote lifestyles and situations I wasn’t really a fan of or just weren’t as good as Miss Julia Renews Her Vows. I actually stopped reading the one at the beginning and didn’t look back. I do, however, think I will try one or two more of her books this year.

Favorite Christian Fiction Books

A couple of these books can also be listed under my favorite reads for the year, but I thought I’d separate them out for any Christian Fiction fans who are looking for definite clean reads. Some of the books above were not clean.

I already mentioned Love and A Little White Lie above.

Dead Sea Conspiracy by Jerry B. Jenkins

This was my first book by Jenkins, who has published more than 200 novels, and I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would when I first started it. His writing style irritated me a little bit but the story was well done so I kept reading it. I will read others by him in the future.

The Heart of the Mountains by Pepper Basham

This was my first book by Pepper and it was a wild, historical ride. This one was about a young woman running away from her fate in England and being forced to find a new life in the Appalachian Mountains of the United States. It had a lot of drama, romance, and heartfelt lessons. I am now listening to The Mistletoe Countess by Pepper and enjoying that as well. Some of The Heart of the Mountain was predictable but it was written well so I didn’t mind the predictability as much.

The Uncertainty of Fire by Stephanie Daniels

This was a debut book by an indie author, and it was very good and I’m sure she’d going to go far. This was a Young Adult Historical Fiction book.

Walking in Tall Weeds, which I mentioned above.

The Rhise of Hope by Max Sternberg

Max is a new independent author who writes Christian fantasy. I am not a big reader of fantasy but have enjoyed his series. This is the second book in the series.

A Refuge of Convenience by Kathy Geary Anderson

I am not usually a big fan of “marriage of convenience tropes” in romances, but this one was creatively done and the storyline surrounding it was interesting enough to keep my attention. The writing itself was also compelling enough that I could look past the trope and instead focus on non-stop action and conflict. It was the second of Kathy’s books I read and I have her others on my 2023 TBR list.

Honorable Mention

Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour

This next one is an honorable mention because I don’t know if I can make a book that provides such a raw look at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a “favorite” book but it was definitely the most eye-opening I’ve read all year.

Blood Brothers is the story of the Israeli takeover of the Palestinian region and Elias’ struggle with how it was done but also balancing his life as a Palestinian Christian in a world which assumes all Palestinians are Muslims.

For books I read with Grace this year I really enjoyed Emily’s Run Away Imagination, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, and The Year of Miss Agnes.

Here is my full list of books read:

Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery

The Dark Horse by Craig Johnson

Holly’s Homecoming by Jenny Knipfer

Still The One by Susan May Warren and Rachel Russell

The Rhise of Hope by Max Sternberg

The Cat Who Saw Stars by Lilian Jackson Braun

The Road To Redemption by Lisa Jordan

Every Star in the Sky by Sara Davison

Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz

Miss Julia Rocks the Cradle by Ann B. Ross

Miss Julia Renews Her Vows by Ann B. Ross

Anything But Simply by Lucinda J. Miller

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

Open Season by C.J. Box

Violet’s Vow by Jenny Knipfer

Walking in Tall Weeds by Robin Pearson

The Darling Buds of May by H.E. Bates

The Heart of the Mountain by Pepper Basham

Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery

Junkyard Dogs by Craig Johnson

The Do Over by Bethany Turner

The Do Over by Sharon M. Peterson

Why Didn’t They Ask Evans by Agatha Christie

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

Dead Sea Conspiracy by Jerry B. Jenkins

Into the Flood by Milla Holt

A Brea of French Air by H.E. Bates

A Refuge of Convenience by Kathy Geary Anderson

The Cat Who Wasn’t There by Lilian Jackson Braun

The Uncertainty of Fire by Stephanie Daniels

The Dog Days of Summer by Kathleen Y’Barbo

Shepherd’s Abiding by Jan Karon

Love and A Little White Lie by Tammy Gray

By Broken Birch Bay by Jenny Knipfer

A Quilters Holiday by Jennifer Chiaverini

Christmas Cookie Murder by Leslie Meier

A Mark of Grace by Kimberly Woodhouse

Books Read with Little Miss

The First Four Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Freedom Crossing by Margaret Goff Clark

Emily’s Run Away Imagination by Beverly Cleary

On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder

By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Ribsy by Beverly Cleary

Mountain Born by Elizabeth Yates

The Year of Miss Agnes by Kirkpatrick Hill

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Ramona The Pest by Beverly Cleary

 


Have you read any of the books on my list?

Sunday Bookends: Gallbladders, colds, and other inconvenient parts of life

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

What’s Been Occurring

First, Happy New Year to everyone visiting today.

I’m looking forward to a new and exciting year.

I will admit I’m kicking off the year with some trepidation and worry as my mom is in the hospital with a gallbladder issue and not feeling well. Surgery is scheduled for Tuesday. I have not been to see her because I am recovering from a cold and because, as usual, she was thinking of others even as she is in the hospital and asked me to come so I wouldn’t be on the roads on New Year’s Eve. I am, however, going to see her today, whether she likes it or not, but briefly and while following hospital policy and wearing a mask. I even have a n95 I might try to slip on but they are horrible to breathe through, especially when I already have serious sinus issues.

Mom has been having pain in her upper stomach area for several months now and has been told each time that it is gastritis. Her heart and other conditions had been checked and that’s all doctors seemed to be able to figure out. Friday night my dad took her to the ER and an amazing doctor decided to run several tests, believing it very well could be her gallbladder, even though the pain was in a different area than it often is for gallbladder issues. They admitted her, sent her by ambulance to a larger hospital, and now surgery has been scheduled.

Not much else has been occurring since Little Miss developed a cold this past week and then I did as well. The cold was very mild, but annoying.

What I/we’ve been Reading

I actually finished A Mark of Grace by Kimberly Woodhouse this week after starting it at the end of the week before. It was a pretty good book, but I do wish every main character in historical fiction didn’t have to go through such hardship. People in the past had happy lives too. It’s okay to show that and not throw in all the sadness you possibly can on them. That being said, I still liked this book (don’t worry, the sadness is not that crazy) and the mystery surrounding it. I felt I had part of the mystery figured out but still wanted to read on to see if I was right.

Now I am on to The Reckoning Trees by Alicia Gilliam, which is a book I started at the beginning of 2022 and for some reason got distracted from and didn’t finish. I am looking forward to finishing it now. Well, soon. If you’ve been here long, you know I don’t read quickly.

In the evening before bed, I am reading Anne of Windy Poplars because it is wholesome and sweet, and I need that right before bed.

At night, Little Miss and I are reading Fortunately the Milk by Neil Gaiman.

The Husband blazed through books this past week since he was on vacation from work. Right now he’s reading Cold Wind by CJ Box.

What We watched/are Watching

Last week I decided to start watching Cary Grant movies for the winter, but I didn’t get to start them yet. I think I’ll start with Holiday with Katherine Hepburn because I don’t remember watching it before.

I hope to rewatch Suspicion because I think I watched it years ago but can’t remember the details.

I watched the first episode of Miss Scarlet and the Duke and enjoyed it -especially because the man has a Scottish accent.

I hope to watch more of the show this week.

Last night I was watching the Youtubber Darling Desi and Little Miss said to me, “Are you seriously going to just sit there and listen to that woman tell you what she got for Christmas?”

I felt so …. Judged.  I also turned the episode off and went to bed.

What I’m Writing

I’m taking a break from writing and haven’t even shared a lot on the blog recently, but hope to remedy that this upcoming week as I look back at favorite movies, books, and shows from 2022.

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.

Beyond the Season Free on Amazon this week or the blog always

Beyond the Season, the Christmas novella I shared here on the blog for 12 days in December was free this week on Amazon and I meant to share that news here on the blog but got completely distracted. Thursday is the last day for the sale.

A copy of the book can also be downloaded for free here on the blog by clicking on the link, Beyond the Season, at the top of the page, or visiting this Book Funnel link: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/mzgwhaihwq

For a refresher, the novella is part of the Spencer Valley Chronicles.

The description:

Christmas has come to Spencer Valley and Robert and Alex are busy trying to pull of some big surprises for the women they love. If only life didn’t try to keep getting in the way and messing up their plans. Will they be able to finish their Christmas surprises in time and will there be a Christmas proposal for one of the characters from the small town readers have fallen in love with?

Sunday Bookends on Monday: Christmas, books to be read in the new year,

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what I and the rest of the family have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing, and some weeks I share what I am listening to. This week I am a day late since Christmas was yesterday and I was too busy to finish the post, which I actually started Christmas Eve.

What’s Been Occurring

I rambled more about what happened last week in my blog post on Saturday. I included some photos of the kids playing in the snow we received and also shared about the arctic temps we received. You can find that post HERE.  

Today I will share that I’ve been in a cocoon of Christmas for the last two weeks and I really am not ready to crawl out of it. It’s been nice watching happy movies and reading fluffy Christmas books.

Yesterday, we visited my parents for Christmas. I only received a couple of gifts this year and that’s the way I wanted it because I was more excited for the children to receive gifts. I was especially excited because my son was receiving a bass guitar, which he’s been wanting to learn for a while now. I wanted to go back to bed after Little Miss woke us up early but I was too excited to see how The Boy would react to the gift, which we had stored at my parents.

I wasn’t sure he’d want me to share the video I recorded here on the blog, so I won’t, but his grin was huge. He was so excited to get home and try it out, but finally went upstairs at my parents’ and tried it, even without the amp. When we arrived home, he went straight upstairs and started practicing.

My dad joked that our neighbors won’t bring us Christmas cookies anymore because we gave The Boy this loud instrument. For now, though, the windows will be closed since it is so cold, so the guitar shouldn’t bother them.

The Husband did buy me the five-DVD set of the original Anne of Green Gables series by Sullivan Entertainment (the Canadian produced one from the 80s) but it hasn’t arrived yet. I am very excited to start watching it when it does since that movie series was part of my childhood.

What I/we’ve been Reading

This past weekend I finished Shepherd’s Abiding by Jan Karon.

It reminded me I really like Jan Karon books but I also get a little annoyed by how she writes them in short bursts of information with tons of section breaks and quite a few points of view changes that sometimes make my head spin. I still enjoy the overall message of them, however, and will continue to read them as comfort reading.

Last week I started The Mistletoe Countess by Pepper Basham and am listening to it on Audible, which we have at a reduced monthly rate as part of a special deal, for four months. I am enjoying it so far. I’m only on Chapter 4 because every time I try to listen to it, I get interrupted or fall asleep (if I try to listen at night).

Quite frankly, I am overwhelmed with book choices right now. I truly feel like I have some form of ADHD because I can’t focus on one book at a time.

I am reading a book called A Mark of Grace by Kimberly Woodhouse right now because it releases next Tuesday (January 3).

I also got back into Anne of Windy Poplars by L.M. Montgomery, but then a Bookstagrammer I follow on Instagram invited readers to join her in reading The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery so I may try to tackle that this week instead. We will see how far I get. She actually suggested readers read it in a weekend. A weekend?! I’ve never read a book in a weekend.

I’m such a slow reader. My brain seems to dart away to other things I need to do. For example, I have blog posts to share or write and social media pages to maintain and homeschool lessons to plan and … blah, blah, blah.

This week I plan to listen to the chapters I assigned The Boy in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn last week for school. I’ll probably do that as soon as I finish this post.

In the new year, I have a whole list of books I hope to tackle, but I’ll ramble about that another day.

The Boy is not reading anything this week that I know of. He’s simply enjoying talking with friends online, making plans to meet them in person, and practicing on his new guitar.

Little Miss and I are reading Paddington At Large at night still and have taken a break on our book for school but may pick it up again this week.

The Husband is reading Game On by Janet Evanovich.

What We watched/are Watching

I watched quite a few movies last week, a few of them with family.

Two we finished up when we were interrupted watching them the week before. One of those was A Christmas Story Christmas, which was a sequel to a Christmas story. It had a slow start but got much better as it went on and we enjoyed it.

I also watched It Happened on Fifth Avenue, which I stumbled on on HBO Max (via our Roku) and The Husband said he had watched it before when he used to work a night shift as a switchboard operator at the local hospital.

It was very good. If you are interested here is the plot:

On Christmas, The Husband started Miracle on 34th Street at our house and then we finished it later in the day at my parents.

We also watched Charlie Brown’s Christmas at my parents at my dad’s request, even though I had watched it earlier in the week.

On my own, I watched A Walton’s Christmas, which was actually the pilot for the television show. It was a very, very melodramatic and a bit over the top, much like the show could be at times, but still sweet. I don’t know if I’d necessarily watch it again.

I also watched A Little House on the Prairie Christmas special from season eight, which Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs recommended for me and I really enjoyed it. It was very wholesome and heartwarming. Each adult character shared a Christmas memory and Laura’s memory of Mr. Edwards bringing gifts to her family one Christmas when there was a blizzard was my favorite because it is a story that Laura shared in one of her books, which, if you remember, I read a couple of times to Little Miss last year.

On Christmas Eve we watched The Rankin/Bass claymation/animated special Santa Claus is Coming to Town (the one with Mickey Rooney and Fred Astaire) and then really got into the Christmas spirit by watching…. Top Gun Maverick.

What I’m Writing

I am writing nothing right now. Is that proper English. No, probably not, but I’ll roll with it.

I’m on a bit of a fiction writing hiatus after finishing up my Christmas novella, Beyond the Season (which incidentally is free on Amazon this week and via the link at the top of the page). Shores of Mercy is with advanced readers and my editor so I’ll be making corrections on that before long.

On the blog this week I shared:

The TussleSaturday Afternoon Tea and a Chat: Merry Christmas EveBeyond the Season Available for DownloadGet in the spirit of Christmas: Five Christmas Music Specials, Five Christmas Songs, and Three Christmas-themed programs to help you do just that.‘Book review, recommendation: Abiding in Him: A Life Together in Ministry by Bettie and Barry Gilbert

What I’m Listening To

Last week I listened to a ton of Christmas music. I am not currently listening to any specific music this week. I am, however, listening to audio versions of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Mistletoe Countess this week.

Blog Posts I Enjoyed This Past Week

I hope to share some of my favorite blog posts on this post each week. I’ve been saving posts to share for months but haven’t actually sat down and put them together in one post so I thought I’d share at least a few here today.

Mama’s Empty Nest: Catch A Falling StarFuel for the Race – What Child Is This?Jenny Knipfer, author — Drink And Be Satisifed. A Prayer and A Vision

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.

The Tussle

By Ronald Robinson (my dad), December 2022

One morning on the family farm in 1927 a tussle broke out between a 16-year-old and his 25-year-old uncle. The reason I do not know but, by the account of the nephew after the tussle his uncle threw a dung (manure) fork at him. A few of you may know what a dung (manure) fork is. At that point, I assume it got more serious The nephew again overpowered his uncle and dragged him through the cow drop, and left him there. Some of you also know what a cow drop is.
That was the lad’s last day at his home. The next day in New Albany he was waiting for the freight train. A gentleman from another farm approached him, “Where do you think you are going? ” In that day trains were linked nationwide even from New Albany. The lad answered “New York City”. The elder farmer said, “You come with me.”

At his farm, he put the young man, for the first time behind a team of horses with a sod till plow and instructed him, “You fix your eyes on a mark on the other side of this field and do not look back” Side note: There are times to look back but, not until the field is plowed. This man and his wife gave the lad a home and provided an upstairs bedroom that had a candle in it for light. The need to be frugal was the time so when he retired for the evening the misses would give him two matches to light the candle. That young man later attended Wilkes barre Business School. After many years of driving truck, he and his wife, a Wilkes-barre Business School graduate became successful benevolent business owners.

When I was a young child, each year after Christmas at New Years’ time I accompanied my parents to my uncle’s and aunt’s home, at the same farm and a meal was prepared. Hominy was always served because the nephew liked it. Me, I did not like it at all. That was by the way, where I saw a television for the first time. The screen was round, slightly larger than a dinner plate, and the images that evening could not be made out. Even after I was married, Carolyn and I were invited to that Hominy meal one time. I do not know when it happened or if the healing process was gradual. but, reconciliation had taken place.

If this year I find some Hominy I will savor it.

Of course, that lad was my Dad.
Bitterness and unforgiveness destroy lives.
Christmas time is a good reconciliation time. Reconciliation is possible when Jesus reigns.
“And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end”. Sometimes we do not see His reign, Why? Who is the house of Jacob? Jesus reigns where He is welcome, where there is room for Him to reign.

When there was no room in that inn years ago, Jesus as a baby reigned from that stable. He now reigns in the hearts and affairs of of men when we allow Him, when we make room. Amazing that the ruler of the universes came down from His Glory and knocks on the door of our heart. May we make room, room for the king of Kings to reign in our heart and help us reconcile with others as Father Reconciles us to Himself when we accept Jesus.

RGR, December 2022

“Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation”

The Tussel

By Ronald Robinson (my dad), December 2022

One morning on the family farm in 1927 a tussle broke out between a 16-year-old and his 25-year-old uncle. The reason I do not know but, by the account of the nephew after the tussle his uncle threw a dung (manure) fork at him. A few of you may know what a dung (manure) fork is. At that point, I assume it got more serious The nephew again overpowered his uncle and dragged him through the cow drop, and left him there. Some of you also know what a cow drop is.
That was the lad’s last day at his home. The next day in New Albany he was waiting for the freight train. A gentleman from another farm approached him, “Where do you think you are going? ” In that day trains were linked nationwide even from New Albany. The lad answered “New York City”. The elder farmer said, “You come with me.”

At his farm, he put the young man, for the first time behind a team of horses with a sod till plow and instructed him, “You fix your eyes on a mark on the other side of this field and do not look back” Side note: There are times to look back but, not until the field is plowed. This man and his wife gave the lad a home and provided an upstairs bedroom that had a candle in it for light. The need to be frugal was the time so when he retired for the evening the misses would give him two matches to light the candle. That young man later attended Wilkes barre Business School. After many years of driving truck, he and his wife, a Wilkes-barre Business School graduate became successful benevolent business owners.

When I was a young child, each year after Christmas at New Years’ time I accompanied my parents to my uncle’s and aunt’s home, at the same farm and a meal was prepared. Hominy was always served because the nephew liked it. Me, I did not like it at all. That was by the way, where I saw a television for the first time. The screen was round, slightly larger than a dinner plate, and the images that evening could not be made out. Even after I was married, Carolyn and I were invited to that Hominy meal one time. I do not know when it happened or if the healing process was gradual. but, reconciliation had taken place.

If this year I find some Hominy I will savor it.

Of course, that lad was my Dad.
Bitterness and unforgiveness destroy lives.
Christmas time is a good reconciliation time. Reconciliation is possible when Jesus reigns.
“And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end”. Sometimes we do not see His reign, Why? Who is the house of Jacob? Jesus reigns where He is welcome, where there is room for Him to reign.

When there was no room in that inn years ago, Jesus as a baby reigned from that stable. He now reigns in the hearts and affairs of of men when we allow Him, when we make room. Amazing that the ruler of the universes came down from His Glory and knocks on the door of our heart. May we make room, room for the king of Kings to reign in our heart and help us reconcile with others as Father Reconciles us to Himself when we accept Jesus.

RGR, December 2022

“Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation”

Saturday Afternoon Tea and a Chat: Merry Christmas Eve

Ready for a cup of tea or cocoa? I think most of us need it considering how cold it’s gotten out there in almost every single state of our country.

It seems crazy to me that it is already Christmas Eve, but here we are and for us arctic temperatures have settled on us. Temperatures this cold scare me, I’m not going to lie. What was really crazy was yesterday when we watched the temperature drop from 46 degrees to negative three in less than ten hours. Last night it was negative five (Fahrenheit).

Thankfully our wood stove has been repaired and if we were to lose power in the next couple of days, we’ll at least have the wood stove to keep us warm.

On Thursday we were hit with snow and the youngest was excited to go out and play in it. The pets enjoyed it for a while but eventually decided they’d had enough too. Now, though, the cats are pacing inside by the back door because they think they want to go outside. We are refusing to let them go, of course, because I don’t want to pry their poor frozen bodies off the back porch. They have been chasing each other today to get out the energy — wait, I should say the oldest has been smacking the youngest because she is mean but it looks like play — but later the youngest (Scout) will fall over in front of the wood stove and we will have to check if she is breathing after a few hours.

By that night, rain had moved in and the temperatures rose but the snow still remained by Friday morning when the temperatures started dropping.

As I’m writing this we are at negative three and are supposed to get to at least negative four. (It actually dropped to negative five). I know that’s nothing compared to the folks in Alaska and parts of Canada and we are fine with that. These temperatures are not something we are used to or adjust to well.

The high on Christmas Eve is supposed to be 10 and the high on Christmas Day might be 19.

By next weekend we are supposed to be in the 50s again, which will be odd and bring on a lot of illness probably.

(How’s your drink? Need a warmup? An extra cookie? Take an extra cookie. We have a lot, which is unusual for us, even in pretend world.)

This week was very uneventful, other than the fact Little Miss had severe pain in one of her teeth and was up all night Monday and then in pain again on Tuesday. We thought we might need to get an emergency dentist appointment but then discovered a spot on her gum behind her tooth on the bottom that made it look like she might have cut her gum somehow. We still aren’t sure what happened but by Wednesday the pain was gone and she’s been fine since.

We have a dentist appointment in late January to see if we can get some issues with her teeth taken care of. Those issues, from what we have been told in the past are caused by an enamel deficiency.

With her tooth issues behind her, she is looking forward to Christmas and a week off from school. Both kids and even mom are looking forward to that break. It will help all three of us regroup and get ready for a new year of learning come January 2.

Between the tooth issue and the cold weather, Little Miss and I didn’t get out of the house much so we took some time to make no-bake cookies and chocolate-covered pretzel sticks for our neighbors. The neighbors closest to us, send over a huge pan of homemade cookies every year and Little Miss wanted to send them a treat back. We could never top what they send, of course. My neighbor and her daughter spend two days baking all kinds of cookies and then giving them away to family, friends, and neighbors.

We did purchase a gift basket for them this year, to try to show them how thankful we are for them being our neighbors and for the cookies they always provide.

I had considered buying cookies from a popular bakery near us and pretending I made them all but, in the end, I really couldn’t do it.

(I might have one of those cookies with my tea now, come to think of it.)

As I write this, we are watching Top Gun Maverick instead of Christmas movies but did watch one of the old 60s Santa Claus claymation movies earlier in the evening.

Today we were going to go to my parents to make homemade pizza, but we decided to stay out of the frigid temps and instead just brave them one day this weekend.

Tomorrow we will have to brave them to spend Christmas with my parents, however. It will be worth it and we are all looking forward to it, though we are disappointed that my brother and his wife have decided they won’t be able to attend.

So, how is the weather where you are? Freezing cold still? Ready for Christmas tomorrow? Or maybe just ready for some downtime? Let me know in the comments and if I don’t talk to you before then, have a Merry Christmas!

Beyond the Season Available for Download

The BookFunnel link to Beyond the Season, my Christmas novella, is available for download for free for blog readers and you can find it HERE.

The book will be on Kindle Unlimited next week and can also be purchased for 99 cents there.

If you want to read the book chapter by chapter here on the blog you can go HERE.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and thanks for reading along!