Month: November 2019

What Wyatt’s Reading – November

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn book review, books and reading8 Comments

It has been a great reading month for Wyatt and I! It was the Beaver Moon this past month, so we read a bunch of books with beaver characters. We also read a lot of fall books, with owls and Thanksgiving, and then threw in a little winter there at the end. Here is a round up of our favorites!

Thanksgiving in the Woods and Owl Moon are two favorites around here. We all love these two books. I would love to one day have a Thanksgiving out in the woods, under the trees like the family does in that picture book. How magical it would be! Owl Moon is one we gave Wyatt for his first Christmas – Billy and I go on an owl walk every year with our local Metropark (sometimes more than one) to call owls to get a glimpse. We went last Saturday and just being in the woods at night is a treat. We can’t wait to take Wyatt – he is just not quiet enough right now. Lol.

Wyatt really loved The Mukluk Ball, Sophie’s Squash, Owl Sees Owl, Look Whooo’s Counting, and The Little Snowplow Wishes for Snow. That one was so cute honestly. And the Little Snowplow has a birthday in early March, just like Wyatt! Bird Count and Winter is Coming were both wonderful, but too much for Wyatt right now – a little long for him. Winter is Coming is beautiful though, I actually enjoyed reading it for myself. Lol. It was lyrical and beautifully illustrated, and I loved the descriptions of fall ending and winter coming. I loved that the author described the sound of a goose as gray and sad and eternal. It just seemed so perfect. That is one I am definitely buying for our home library. We were talking last night about what signs in nature symbolize the end of the year to us, and geese flying south is definitely one of them around here. Is there anything that says winter is coming to you, besides the dropping temperatures and maybe snow or rain?

Nonfiction Nov – Week 5 – New to TBR

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn books and reading, Uncategorized27 Comments

I made it to Week 5, the final week! This has been a wonderful month of finding not just new reads but whole new blogs and people! My only regret is that I didn’t have enough time to visit everyone and reply all the time. My blogging hours are limited to when my son is in school three mornings a week, which is usually an acceptable amount of time, but this challenge needed a little more than that. I do plan on trying to go back and comment, and finish visiting those I missed though over the next week or so.

Also, because I am a person who takes notes on the backs of envelopes and random bits of paper, I lost one of my lists of reads and also a list with the names of the blogs I got books from. So… if you are reading this and see a book here that I have said I added but didn’t add the blogger and it is you, let me know so I can link back! I feel awful about it. Next year I will be more organized and better prepared. This was my first year, and I learned a lot and really enjoyed myself! Thanks to everyone who hosted and set this challenge up!

Which leads us to this last week, all of our new books added to our TBR, hosted by Rennie at What’s Nonfiction:

Week 5: (Nov. 25 to 30) – New to My TBR – Rennie @ What’s Nonfiction : It’s been a month full of amazing nonfiction books! Which ones have made it onto your TBR? Be sure to link back to the original blogger who posted about that book!

Memoir/Essays

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone : Books Are My Favorite and Best

Pancakes in Paris – Musings of a Literary Wanderer

Kitchen Yarns – Unruly Reader

Apple Island Wife – Secret Library Site

Where the Hornbeam Grows – What Cathy Read Next

Out East – Novel Visits

The Reluctant Hotelkeeper – Superfluous Reading

An Elephant in My Kitchen – Superfluous Reading

Educated – Cozy Reading Nook

The Man Who Climbs Trees – Booksplease

The Stranger in the Woods – Book Lovers Pizza

As You Wish – Sincerely Stacie

The Salt Path – Booker Talk

My Wedding Dress – Ex Urbanis

North of Normal – Kristin Kraves Books

Home Cooking – Cozy Reading Nook

Letters from Iceland – Liz D.

Iceland Defrosted – Liz D.

The Solace of Wide Open Spaces – What’s Nonfiction

Spirituality/Self Help

Welcoming the Unwelcome – Lovely Book Shelf

Tiny Beautiful Things – Book Lovers Pizza

Thriving as an Empath – Lisa Notes

The Road Back to You – Lisa Notes

If at Birth You Don’t Succeed – Based on a True Story

History

Expeditions Unpacked – Julz Reads

The Witches: Salem, 1692

A Bite-Sized History of France – Deb @ Readerbuzz

The Evolution of Useful Things

Poe: A Life Cut Short : Katenread

The Five – Doing Dewey Decimal

Letters of a Woman Homesteader – Hopewells Library of Life

Dead Wake – The Paperback Princess

I also think Bryan’s post for expert week was pretty important – so I just added the whole list. One More Page as well

The Road to Jonestown – Scifantastor

Nature

The Hidden Life of Trees – Deb @ Readerbuzz

The Wild Remedy – Jade @ Reading with Jade

Last Child in the Woods

The Big Year – Deb @ Readerbuzz

North on the Wing – Deb @ Readerbuzz

Weird and Wild Beauty – Deb @ Readerbuzz

H is for Hawk – Deb @ Readerbuzz

Wilderness Essays John Muir – Deb @ Readerbuzz

The Soul of an Octopus – Shelleyrae @ Book’d Out

21st-Century Yokel – Secret Library Site (which I already bought and read!)

Gathering Moss – An Adventure in Reading – (pretty sure this is next on my list)

Under Land – Doing Dewey Decimal

Around the World in 80 Trees – Superfluous Reading

Braving It – Musings of a Literary Wanderer

Forest Bathing – Readerbuzz

Birders – Tale of a Tribe – Liz D.

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek – What’s Nonfiction

Humor

#IMOMSOHARD – Never Enough Novels

True Crime

The Crimes of Paris – What’s Nonfiction

The Poisoner’s Handbook

The Family Next Door

After the Eclipse – Rather Too Fond of Books

Then Shelleyrae had a crazy good list of women serial killers (does that sound weird? lol)

Decor

Cozy White Cottage – Unruly Reader

Cozy Minimalist Home – Unruly Reader

Travel

The Stopping Places

50 Great American Places

Don’t Make Me Pull Over

Science

Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? – Maphead’s Book Blog

Tamed – Kate Vane

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife – What’s Nonfiction

Bad Science – What’s Nonfiction

Quiet – Booksplease

Gender

The Gender Agenda – Rather Too Fond of Books

Books about Books

The Novel Cure – Books are my favorite and best

Fiction

Split Tooth – Lovely Bookshelf 

Cape May – Novel Visits

Podcasts

Redhanded – What’s Nonfiction

My Sunday-Monday Post!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized25 Comments

My Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz

Whee! We are getting into the holiday season big time now! I find myself in this weird emotional limbo about it – I am so very excited to share the holidays with Wyatt this year, he is really getting into them for the first time this year and it is so cool. We put up our tree on Friday night, and the smiles on this child! So big and full of joy. Which frankly, I need for many reasons, partly because this year the season is a bit harder as I am still grieving for those I have lost. But, despite some sadness, this family has been bitten by the Christmas spirit and we are throwing ourselves into the season, if a teeny bit early. I feel like Santa, making my lists of food and gifts and different things I want to do.

Friday was fun – Billy took a surprise day off and we had my mom babysit while we went shopping and had coffee and cake. It was so nice to be able to have that unexpected time. Later that evening, we put up Christmas! Saturday we bopped around, then went to an owl prowl, something I look forward to every year. Then Sunday we had an early holiday winter lunch with my dad and stepmom and bonus family. It is always so laid back and relaxed and I love it. We had a warming tortellini and bean soup, bread, and other little nibbles, while we sat around and chatted while the kiddos played.

On to the books!

Read Last Week:

I finished 21st-Century Yokel and I loved it. I love his voice, and the stories and adventures he shared about his family and his rambles. I will definitely be reading more by him.

Reading This Week:

I am starting Wild Things which looks well, magical, and finishing up The Owl Papers. I also finally started Alone in the Wild and am hooked already. I just love this series!

Posted:

Nonfiction November – Nonfiction Favorites

Watching:

Shakespeare and Hathaway on Britbox, Criminal Minds on Netflix (so many seasons!), lots of different things on Disney +. Lol. I couldn’t resist the nostalgia! Plus all the Winnie the Pooh for Wyatt! Billy is watching The Mandalorian and loves it. Boba Fett is on my Star Wars favorites list but I haven’t started that show yet.

What about you all? What is going on in your world?

Nonfiction November- Nonfiction Favorites

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized35 Comments

Week 4 already! And my TBR is out of control with all my new interests. Lol.

This week our prompt is:

Nonfiction November Week 4: Nonfiction Favorites: We’ve talked about how you pick nonfiction books in previous years, but this week I’m excited to talk about what makes a book you’ve read one of your favorites. Is the topic pretty much all that matters? Are there particular ways a story can be told or particular writing styles that you love? Do you look for a light, humorous approach or do you prefer a more serious tone? Hosted this week by Leann from Shelf Aware 

I generally tend to read nature writing, true crime, history, some travel, some memoir. There is probably some overlap in there too, with some of those topics. I do seem to be having a love affair with British Nature Writing lately though. I actually wrote a post about it at the beginning of the year if you are interested. (and it would probably explain these first two books on my list as well a little better!)

My Favorites, of which I have probably forgotten quite a few!

James Herriot and John Lewis-Stempel. Two of my favorites forever and ever. That is all.

There’s No Such Thing As Bad Weather really changed my view on how I see the outdoors. Then I followed it up with The Nature Fix and I really felt the world open up to our family in so many different ways. I actually read that book when my phone was broken and I was waiting on my new one – so my access to technology was less and I could see the difference in my life very clearly, with phone and without.

I also like to read books about people hiking.

I loved all three of these for very different reasons. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was just brilliant, its description of Savannah and all its eclectic denizens, I just knew I had to go and see for myself. So we did! Wide Open World was such a cool book about a family who spent a year volunteering around the world and wow, what an experience. It made me yearn for a freer lifestyle myself! Finally, The Oregon Trail. This book was amazing. My husband and I read it at the same time, and mini book clubbed it. I will say I now have a much better appreciation for mules! It was a great book about one man’s journey to retrace the Oregon Trail by covered wagon. I loved it.

It is probably fair to say that these books set the bar for most of my interests in nonfiction reading right now – and I say now because I am a person whose interests change all the time, I am always stumbling upon things somewhere then wanting to read all about it for a bit. But these are the mainstays, and not just “I have to know more right now!” reads.

My Sunday-Monday Post!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized25 Comments

My Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz

We had a busy busy busy week!! Tons of appointments – how they all fell in the same week I have no idea! But at least they are all done for a bit, including a few of Wyatt’s specialist appointments. So yay! Then on Saturday we celebrated my birthday! We went for really low key family day which I loved. It was so perfect to just see my family, hanging out, doing the things we enjoy. Today we have some stuff to get done, then we are going to try to make more pie! Lol.

Read Last Week – and this one coming up too!

21st Century Yokel: I am still plugging away at this one! I am really enjoying it, I just read nonfiction so slowly I guess. Plus, last week I would start to read at night and fall asleep in five minutes so that didn’t help. But I am more than halfway through so…this week!

The Owl Papers: I have also been reading this one as well. I have it stuck in my glove compartment and I read it when I get the chance. It’s really good too, but I love owls.

Posted Last Week:

Nonfiction November – Ask the Experts

A Day at the Detroit Parade Company

A Slow and Cozy Fall Day

Watching:

We barely watched anything last week! A little AutumnWatch on Britbox, and that is about it. Oh! We did watch a movie, The Biggest Little Farm, which was so beautiful and amazing. It is available on Amazon, and from the cinematography to the story, just the whole thing, was so beautiful. It made me cry too; sometimes tears of sadness, sometimes from the sheer beauty of what these people accomplished in just a few years. The life that abounded. The life that surrounds us. It was truly beautiful. I recommend it highly! Although, trigger warning, it does take place on a farm with animals, so…you know what that can mean sometimes.

Check out the trailer!

So that is about it from me today! What about you? What’s going on in your world?

A Slow and Cozy Fall Day

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn autumn, day in the life, Detroit, family, mom life, nature9 Comments

Saturday we hit the city; Sunday, we were back tromping in the woods. It was the most perfect fall day. Not too cold, not too warm. The leaves were a blanket over the ground, crunching under our feet, paving a yellow golden road for us. We didn’t hear many birds, just some geese flying overhead occasionally, and sometimes catching a glimpse of a woodpecker or two, with their distinctive red heads. Mostly we walked and talked and listened to the woods, keeping our eyes open for an owl tree, where an owl may by roosting. A few signs would be a tree that has been “whitewashed” and owl pellets at the base. Despite our best efforts though, we didn’t spot one. Billy and I are going on an owl prowl in a few weeks though, so hopefully we spot an owl that night!

I found the teeniest little baby acorn!! We may not have spotted any owl trees but we did spot lots of mushrooms, and stopped to make some nature art near the trail out of acorns and oak leaves. Billy also made a “clock” to signify the time we took to hike together that morning near the trail as well.

When we got home, we dug in and kept cozy, listening to music, having impromptu dance parties, and baking. Well, Billy and I at least. I made an apple pie while Billy tried his hand at a hand raised hot crust pork pie, inspired by the Great British Bake Off. We have a pie project for this month, and this was our first attempt. I have never made a completely from scratch pie, nor has he, and we didn’t do too bad for the first round. My dough was a little tough, which I guess can be too much water or over handling. Billy needed a little more flavor in his filling and he had made his crust a little too thick. So, we will see how we do next time! My recipe came from the Art of Pie, and the filling was delicious! I ended up using Granny Smith and Gala apples and it was very tasty together. And I apologize, I am the worst at food photography!! I thought Billy’s little dough piggy looked cute though.

I am so glad that we had such a fabulous fall day together, because the next morning we woke up to a whole new landscape…

We got 6.5 inches of snow!! Our little gnomes in our gnome garden are totally snowed in! And it is still here, sticking around.

But hey at least we had pie!

A Day at the Detroit Parade Company

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized14 Comments

On Saturday one of my childhood dreams came true! I have always loved the Detroit Thanksgiving Day Parade and have all these memories of watching it with my brother, and now my own family. So when we got the opportunity to tour the Detroit Parade Company as part of a group that Wyatt belongs to, I quickly RSVPd. At the start it was more exciting for me, but I knew once we got there that Wyatt would love it too! Billy who is not a parade lover, even enjoyed himself!

We were greeted by larger than life Sesame Street characters – including two of Wyatt’s favorites, Cookie Monster and Elmo!

We learned that the Parade has been running continuously from the 1920s, except for the two years we were in WWII, when there was a shortage of materials. The warehouse itself was used to make Howitzers, which was weird to think about as we walked around! There is a permanent staff of 14 people, and then 2000 volunteers!

We walked through the construction areas first, that were reserved for sculpture and carpentry, before we got to the giant floats. And they were huge! Seriously so big. I think we were all a little in awe of the craftsmanship and size and scale of the floats that we saw.

Two of our favorites – The “Up North” float, and the Detroit Zoo! We also saw the brand new Ford Motor Company float which is amazing, but we are not allowed to talk about it or post photos. They want a big reveal at the parade! That one was Billy’s favorite of the day too. It was pretty cool!!

The big heads are always so fun during the parade! There is a Bob Seger one, which makes sense! But then someone had a sense of humor because the Henry Ford head was next to Walter Reuther. LOL. Our tour guide and full time staff member told us that the laundry for the parade takes until April to get finished!! Yikes!!!

We also really loved this dinosaur float!! It is retired unfortunately, so we won’t see it again, but I loved being able to see all the details up close! So fun. Also pictured is part of the Wayne State University float. And then of course my boy who was getting a little sleepy!

We finished up at Santa’s sleigh, which really put me in the Christmas spirit! I guess Santa no longer gets out of the sleigh as he gets mobbed, but gets out onto a platform and the mayor climbs up to him.

This was definitely something that we probably will never have the chance to do again, and it was such a good time. I learned a lot, and saw a lot, including the smile on my kiddo’s face during this whole event. I can’t wait for the parade now to see these things in action!

Do you like a parade?

Nonfiction November – Ask the Experts!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized39 Comments

Wow, week 3 already! I have been finding so many great books – I am so glad that I participated this year. This week’s prompt is:

Be The Expert/Ask the Expert/Become the Expert (Hosted by Katie at Doing Dewey)
Three ways to join in this week! You can either share three or more books on a single topic that you have read and can recommend (be the expert), you can put the call out for good nonfiction on a specific topic that you have been dying to read (ask the expert), or you can create your own list of books on a topic that you’d like to read (become the expert).

This is the week I was really nervous about. In the past few years I haven’t read much nonfiction. Not enough to consider myself an expert at anything. Maybe years ago, when I was reading more. But now, not so much. So, I am opting for a blend of the remaining two options! I am asking for recommendations as well as sharing a list of the books I had already started. If you have a suggestion on my topic, I would love to hear it! If you have an opinion on any of the books I am sharing, I would love to hear that too! And finally, if you don’t have one on this particular topic exactly, I would love your suggestions for nature reading!

Rewilding/Wilding our Family

For much of my adult life, I have suffered from anxiety. When things began to pile up, I would find a walk in the woods always made me feel so much better. Years later, I have learned that this is something that has been studied and scientists are finding that nature and a connection to nature is so important to our health, mental and physical. My son has cerebral palsy, so sometimes finding the accessibility is tough, so I have joined a million groups online and read all sorts of different philosophies to find different ideas that I can adapt. I really believe that some of his progress is due to the way we are trying to raise him, with a closeness to nature. Yes, he has multiple therapy appointments a week, and monthly doctors appointments, but I believe this nature connection is providing a healthy balance to that world, and they are working in tandem. So,with all that being said, I need your suggestions! I have read a few already, like The Nature Fix and There is No Such Thing as Bad Weather, but I am looking for more!

These are the few I have found but I would love to hear your recommendations or suggestions! If you don’t have a rewilding/widling specific book suggestion, I would love to hear your nature book suggestions!

My Sunday- Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized20 Comments

My Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz

I have had a week, I tell you! It was just crazy. I can’t even tell you why, but it disappeared like that! *snaps fingers* I blogged a lot, I went to a wet felting class with my stepmom, had parent teacher conferences, then on Saturday Billy, Wyatt, and I toured the Detroit Parade Company, which was awesome!!! A post on that with lots of photos is coming this week, I took a million so I will try to cut some out. Lol. I didn’t read as much as I intended to however – my Kindle ran out of juice and I never managed to charge it! I am so bad with that, it is one reason I read physical books more. I know, I’m weird.

Read This Week:

When my Kindle died, I reached for this. And I loved it! I guess I am feeling Christmas a little early this year – perhaps because I already drove my son to school in a white out?

I started 21st Century Yokel and was enjoying it but then ended up just reading Coming Home For Christmas. I was a little judgy of the main character at first and thought I might never like her, but then ended up loving the book.

Reading This Week:

I am going to hopefully finish 21st Century Yokel, and also read Alone in the Wild, which I am super excited for! I love this series!

Posted Last Week:

Currently…November

Hello, November!

Nonfiction-Fiction Book Pairings – Nonfiction November

Watching:

AutumnWatch on Britbox – I’m obsessed a wee bit. Lol. Also Riverdale, and I also started watching the Reese Witherspoon show on Netflix, Shine On. The first episode with her and Dolly Parton is magic. I love them both.

How about you all? What is in going on in your world?