Month: April 2020

Reading Roundup for April

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn book review12 Comments

This month I actually was able to start reading again, but I seem to be stuck on a genre and a series. I can only focus on supernatural witchy ghost books right now, and I have some armchair psychiatrist reasons why. Anything too intense is just well, too intense. Too complex and I can’t concentrate well enough to catch all that I normally would and I don’t feel I would appreciate it fully, and if they are too happy, that isn’t jiving with me because we are living in such strange days. So I think I am enjoying these because they have happy endings but the characters are in a sort of state of chaos as well. I am going to try to read something different next week, I am going to head back to the cozy mystery Lighthouse Library series I had been reading and see how I do.

That all being said, this is what I read this month..

And I am about to finish book 7, hopefully tonight!

So rather than go book by book, I think I am just going to discuss this series.

Charlie Payne is a psychic who is able to communicate with ghosts, and in the first book she begins to use her talents to assist the police, when a police officer’s mother asks her to look into the haunting of her house. The policeman, Jason, doesn’t trust her and assumes she is a con artist, but after seeing what she can do first hand, becomes a believer.

Charlie’s whole family is made up of gifted witches, all with different abilities. Together, Charlie and her cousins Lisa, Jen, and Daphne with their Aunt Evangeline work together with Jason in working his tough cases. Throughout the books, a few more characters are added in, each with their own roles to play. I don’t want to spoil it and tell you too much here though!

I really enjoy all of these characters. They seem like real people. I feel like sometimes you read books and characters just aren’t relatable – they don’t act or say things like just a normal real person does. Charlie and her crew are interesting characters, each very different but also make me think of regular people I might run into in life, with their reactions and way of doing things. I also love the family dynamic – they have family dinners every Friday and are such a tight knit little family. I love that.

As for the stories themselves, I feel like this series just kept getting better and better as I plowed my way through them. The only thing that bothers me is that there are editing errors that bug me here and there. Overall though, I am really enjoying these books! I will definitely keep reading this series, and also look into her other series, Book of Kaels.

Mini Post: Super Simple Caterpillar Craft

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn homeschooling21 Comments

Our theme for the next few weeks revolves around caterpillars and butterflies, and I try to incorporate art and crafts in as much as I can in the afternoons. We made the cutest little caterpillar the other day, and it was so simple. Too simple honestly, to make a blog post about it, but I wanted to share because it is so simple, if that makes sense. Plus, Wyatt absolutely loved it!

Last week we made a rainbow out of Fruit Loops cereal and I had a bunch that we had on the table that didn’t get used. We couldn’t eat them and I didn’t want to waste them so I bagged them up for future crafting days. Well, yesterday was rainy and dreary, the perfect day to make a cheery little craft. I pulled the Fruit Loops out and we got to crafting!

All you need to make these are pipe cleaners, Fruit Loops (or any cereal that is similar), glue, and scissors. That’s it! I cut the pipe cleaners in half, and then folded over one end to make the head. Then I gave it to Wyatt to string the cereal on. When he got to the end, I folded over the other end, cut little pipe cleaners for legs and antenna, folded them into V shapes, and voila, we were done! It was that simple. But the beauty of this whole project was that Wyatt wanted to keep making them. He must have spent an hour making them, adding Fruit Loops, taking them off, adding new ones. And it was was such good occupational therapy for him too, with the fine motor skills involved and it forced him to use both of his hands together.

So while these are not correct in any way shape or form, they are cute and cheery, simple to make, and my kiddo loved making them! A win all the way around in my book!

And we now have an army of colorful caterpillars!

The Almost Obligatory Sourdough Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn food12 Comments

Ok, so it’s not really obligatory to post about sourdough these days. But I have to admit, we are on the bandwagon! I actually started my mother back in February, before everything got crazy, and shared its progeny with Chrissy, my sister-in-law.

And my mother is really a father… lol. Yukon Cornelius the grand patriarch of many sourdough starters. I really just maintained him, keeping him fed and happy and didn’t use him for a long time. I did split him off into two starters – one for Chrissy in February, and another for my friend Gabe in March, respectively named Baby Yukon and Jack, after Jack London. I guess I like masculine sourdough names.

Chrissy was gangbusters with Baby Yukon, making all sorts of delicious looking baked goods that I was not able to eat as we are all in shelter-in-place. I could only ogle them through photos. Bagels, banana bread, cookies, breads, pancakes… she seems to have a magic touch. (Chrissy is also very talented at making soap and shampoo bars too!)

Two of Chrissy’s bakes

They looked so good and inspiring, that Billy and I impulse bought a Kitchen-Aid mixer. We have wanted one for years and never gave in, until now. It took a pandemic and some good looking bagels to commit and we are so happy we did! I am not a big spender so it was a tough one for me, but I feel like it was a smart purchase since I feel it will get a lot of use and will last for a long time. So I was ok with it, even though you don’t need one to bake sourdough. We ordered it online from Target then did pick-up so that we weren’t making any delivery people work harder than they needed to, and Billy masked and gloved up and ran in. And it’s been a valuable asset for us through this time, enabling us to make bread and also as a distraction. Plus, Wyatt has really gotten into baking too! He loves baking with us!

Gabe took his and ran with it too, making bread and pretzels – and getting his girls involved as well! I am jealous of his pretzel making skills, as I tried to make pretzels too and mine didn’t turn out at all! Like the dough was just not right. Gabe also had lots of little Jack progeny as well, and for that I was grateful, since I accidentally killed Yukon Cornelius and was able to get a new starter. Just traveling through that sourdough family tree. I named my new one Yukon Jack, a combo of their two names, and then also made another starter from him, just in case we had another unfortunate incident. His name is Mountie Jack.. I guess I have become a Heartie. Then we split Mountie because my mom wanted a starter, and I named her starter Elizabeth. We will have to wait and see what my mom makes!

  • Gabe’s bread

Since I was abysmal at actually making something with our sourdough, Billy took that job over for a bit, although I am considering making sourdough crumpets and sourdough pancakes this weekend. Billy is still finding his footing, and while they taste amazing and have the perfect texture, the tops keep getting burned. I think we have the oven rack maybe too high, so next time we will drop it. Or he will rather. Lol. But it toasts up perfectly, and toast is one of my favorite things to eat.

A dramatic portrait of toast, if I do say so myself.

We spent a lot of time looking up recipes and information on sourdough! My favorite sources of info have been the Clever Carrot’s Sourdough Guide for Beginners, Binging with Babish Sourdough, and 15 Mistakes Most Beginning Sourdough Bakers Make. Pinterest has a million recipes for those interested as well!

I also want to acknowledge the fact that my brother-in-law has been magical in finding flour for us when we need it as well!

Any tips from sourdough bakers out there, I would love to hear!

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized31 Comments

My Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz

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

Last week was, well, another week. Lol. Wyatt and I really dug into homeschooling, with lots of projects and learning about weather. Then yesterday was my mom’s birthday. She is hanging tough, quarantining alone, but we did go over and drop off a gift that I ordered for her. I ordered her a DIY card making set, since she likes to send cards to people and also because it will occupy her time as well, making them. I also added a set of Flair markers because I love them and I thought she might like them too. We had started a plant from seed for her but either it didn’t make it or hasn’t emerged yet! We had a surprise when we visited too, a raccoon living in her tree! We visited for a bit, in the front yard and 8 feet apart, then later we had a video chat birthday cake and ice cream with her. My brother and his family visited her in the same way, and spent a good while chatting with her. We do what we can!

Read Last Week:

So yeah, still reading this series. I figure if it’s working I will stick with it! I did try to read two different books, and I just couldn’t, so it was back to witches and ghosts. These are pretty good though, and I will just keep reading them until I am done I guess! (or get tired of them)

Reading This Week:

I am obviously enjoying this series. Lol. The main character is intriguing and I think she is practical and tough and relatable, despite being a witch and psychic. The stories are interesting, the supporting characters are just as interesting as the main, and they are quick reads that are holding my attention at a time when I am finding it difficult to concentrate on reading.

Posted Last Week:

National Parks Week

A Pancake Picnic

Week Two of Homeschooling…

Some of my favorite vacations…National Parks Week

Watching:

When Calls the Heart and Sanditon are our go-to shows at night right now. On weekends we are doing “movie nights” and this weekend we watched The Pale Horse (although technically not a movie) and then Blow the Man Down which was a recommendation from Greg at Book Haven. We are so glad he suggested it last week, we both loved it! It was totally quirky and well done and just so different. I told my mom and brother to watch it too. I thought The Pale Horse was well acted and held my interest, but I can’t say I necessarily liked it. Does that make sense? I haven’t read the book, but I did google the synopsis after watching the Amazon show, and saw the book is nothing like what we watched. I am putting the book on my list to read though!

How are you all? What are watching, reading, eating?

Some of my favorite vacations..National Parks Week

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn nature11 Comments

I’ve been thinking about some of my favorite trips since we have been in lockdown, and so many of them have been our trips to National Parks. We have not yet had the opportunity to take Wyatt, but I am hoping that maybe next year we will be able to start visiting with him, although I am not sure which to start at. An old favorite? One that is new to both Billy and I? We will see!

For now, I can look back with smiles on the memories I have made visiting the parks before he was with us and it was just Billy and I off adventuring, many times with my brother Devin and his wife Chrissy, before my niece was born as well.

I think my favorite of all that I have been to (which is not very many sadly!) is Shenandoah. To me there is just something so beautiful about the Blue Ridge Mountains, and Shenandoah in particular was so peaceful and lovely. We have stayed there more than once, and we always stayed in Big Meadows Lodge. Big Meadows Lodge was built by the CCC and is rustic and sturdy, with its stone and log walls. We stayed in a room that did not have television or phones, and I loved the quiet of it. The deer are so plentiful and numerous there that they are as common as the squirrels here, just frittering about in front of your room or on the trails. And so are other animals, including bears! We never saw one on the trail, but I am sure they knew we were there… we did see a mom and her cubs from our room though, all the way across a field. I was a bit nervous being from an area that does not have bears! But the best part was the horse back riding on the trail – I have always loved horses and never had the opportunity to ride them until Shenandoah and it was such a great experience. One of my favorite lifetime memories was here at this National Park too – and my brother told me the other day it was one of his as well. There is a little pub bar in the lodge where you can go and get drinks and snacks, and at night they have a sing-a-long. We all sat there drinking our wine and beer, singing along to songs like Country Roads by John Denver and then when we headed back to the room we stepped outside and saw the bright stars just blanketing the dark skies overhead, the mountains stretched out in front of us, the cool air and felt so alive and happy and in the moment. Just perfection, one of those moments you never forget.

Our trip to Sequoia was equally memorable – it was my first (and only so far) time in California and wow, so beautiful!! We stayed on Coronado Island to start, at the Hotel Del Coronado then ventured north to Sequoia, which was like something out of a movie set. If I ever move to California, that is where I want to go. I am a forests and lakes and mountains kinda girl, and I am not one for beaches, although they have their own beauty and charm. It is impossible to walk in the shade of the giant Sequoias and not feel in awe of nature’s wonder. We stayed in the lodge here too, because I am not a tent camper. I like bathrooms that are in my room and a bed and walls. Especially in bear country! Plus there is something to be said for hiking all day then going back to your room at night, at least in my opinion. The best of both worlds!

Unfortunately, my photos from our other trips have been lost when my old computer died. Our trips to Gettysburg (a place I have visited at least five times!), and to Mammoth Cave National Park, so different but both so amazing to visit. Then there is our trips to Chincoteague National Seashore when I was a kid, one of my favorite places ever and is on the top of my list to take Wyatt when we can travel safely again, and of course Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore! I do have photos from that trip though! And of course, I saw that pancakes picture and had to include it since I have a pancake problem… lol.

I have some parks that are on top of my list to visit one day! Acadia is definitely one, and of course the big ones like Yellowstone and Yosemite. Smoky Mountain too, because I can’t believe I have never been there, with my love of the mountains. Billy can’t wait to head west, although I’m not sure how I will feel about the desert but Carlsbad Caverns looks pretty cool. And of course we both want to go to Isle Royale in our own home state!

Have you been? What is your favorite?

Week Two of Homeschooling…

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn homeschooling7 Comments

This week we focused on weather! I have to admit, I am starting to really have fun with this stuff! It’s a lot of work but I am enjoying finding all the resources and working with him everyday. (well we took Thursday off since he had worked so hard all week already!) Saturday we are baking something rainbow, that is yet TBD.

We did so much stuff this week! We worked on the letter W, which he is already pretty familiar with since it is the first letter of his name, and talked about sun, rain, clouds, wind, snow, and rainbows. We talked about the types of clothes we need for different types of weather, then did some sorting activities with that. We did an experiment, of will the wind blow it, with items gathered from around the house. We read books and made sensory bottles, worked on numbers and letters, sequences and patterns, and then created some art, including a name rain cloud.


These little cards were Wyatt’s favorites! He loved lining them up, naming them, playing a memory game with them, matching his little gnomes up, and then creating patterns. I printed them from out from a resource I found online, and glued them onto some cardboard I saved from cereal boxes. I am trying to save all sorts of things like that now for crafting and school use.

Resources Used: (no affliliate links)

Stephanie Hathaway Designs Weather Bundle – so many neat things, including all those beautiful weather cards

Little Learners All About Weather bundle

Melissa and Doug Alphabet Picture Boards

Weather Peg Dolls (I’ve had Wyatt’s for a few years)

Books We Read:

Videos we watched:

Catie’s Classroom – Wind

Catie’s Classroom – Snow

Catie’s Classroom – Rain

I was pretty excited about all of these Catie’s Classroom videos. Wyatt loves her so he was pretty happy about watching them too.

All in all, it was a pretty good week of school!

And of course, every school needs recess!

A Pancake Picnic

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn day in the life22 Comments

After our Saturday night indoor campout, it seemed only natural to follow up with a pancake breakfast picnic on Sunday.

We have a system here in our house – Billy makes the pancake batter, and I am the cook. It’s challenging, because the three of us all like our pancakes served differently. Wyatt likes tiny pancakes, like half-dollar or smaller even. I like my pancakes a gentle golden brown, and Billy likes his dark brown, almost bordering on overdone. So, I have my work cut out for me when I cook! Over time Billy has come up with the perfect recipe for our family as well, after much experimentation, and honestly, they are seriously perfect, at least in my opinion. They smell so good while they are cooking even! If you are interested in trying them, I’ve added his recipe! It’s not fancy but it’s good. And keep in mind, we are just home cooks here. Lol.

Billy's Sunday Morning Pancakes

Ingredients:

  • 1.5 cups all purpose flour
  • 3.5 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3 TB maple syrup (yes right in the batter)
  • 2 TB Vanilla extract
  • 1 TB Almond extract
  • 1.25 cups milk
  • 1 egg
  • 3 TB melted butter

Directions: Melt the butter. Sift together the dry ingredients. Form a well in the sifted dry ingredients and pour all liquid into well. Add egg. Whisk together until combined. Drop onto hot griddle or pan – I use a 1/2 c. measuring cup but you do you. When they start bubbling you know it’s time to flip, or make according to your tastes. Like I said Billy likes his much darker brown than I do so I don’t flip his as quickly.

Our little guy certainly enjoys them! He doesn’t even bother with syrup or a fork! Lol.

How do you like your pancakes? Any secrets you have for making them?

National Parks Week!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn nature8 Comments

Our family loves to hike and be outside, and before we had Wyatt, Billy and I had made plans to visit as many National Parks as we could. Notice the key word there, plans. We have visited a couple so far, but we were waiting until well, this year, to start visiting again, a plan that might be on hold for a little bit.

While we can’t visit this year, there are ways we can “visit” virtually if you need an escape for a bit. I love Instagram and always find different events and information through following different accounts, which is how I found out that Yosemite was hosting a virtual campfire program Saturday night. We set up Wyatt’s tent in the living room, lit a virtual fire on my laptop, gathered blankets and pillows and snacks, and tuned in. My brother and his family did the same, and we video chatted each other before the event. It was the closest we could get to hanging out right now, but it was nice to see my little niece having such a fun time doing the same thing we were.

It’s not the same as visiting in person, but there are ways to visit virtually! I am adding some here, and I might add to this list as the week goes along, so keep checking back!

The complete list of National Park Week events from the NPS. If you scroll down there is a list of all these different parks and if you click on a park listed, it takes you to their pages of events! So many to choose from and look through! https://www.nps.gov/subjects/npscelebrates/national-park-week.htm#CP_JUMP_6139956

Take a virtual visit to a park! https://www.nationalparks.org/connect/blog/take-virtual-visit-national-park

The NPS has a checklist of a great ways to celebrate the National Parks virutally https://www.nps.gov/articles/national-park-week-inspired-20-virtual-ideas.htm

Or if you have kids, here is a complete list of how to earn Junior Ranger Badges at home from the blog Craft Knife http://craftknife.blogspot.com/2018/06/heres-every-national-park-junior-ranger.html

A few free coloring sheets from The Landmark Project.. https://thelandmarkproject.com/blogs/news/nps-coloring-pages

Billy and I spent some time coloring on Saturday…

Follow Parks Project on Instagram for a different challenge everyday, like trivia, playlists, and challenges!

And of course, there are always books! We may not be able to go to the library in person, but these books are available digitally or if not, for purchase. These are a few that I have read, but there are obviously tons out there – I even picked up a few more to read while grabbing these cover images! This list is a mixed bag of fiction, nonfiction, and children’s books but I have enjoyed them all!

Later this week I will be sharing some of our previous adventures at National Parks. What is your favorite park?

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized24 Comments

My Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz

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

Another week of shelter-in-place. Billy took the week off this past week and it was really nice to have him home. I was much more relaxed knowing he was home with us and not out at work. And while we did a lot of lazy things this week, we realized last night that being just sort of couch potatoes is not something we really ever do a whole lot of. So it was interesting to just lay about. The weather was horrid this week, we even had an all day snow on Friday, and we just stayed inside with the exception of a few rides around town to just get out for a minute. We also worked with Wyatt together for his homeschool, learning about the letter R and rabbits, and we had so much fun doing it! This week and next we are going to focus on weather, and I am in the process of pulling that all together still. We watched a stream of the DSO classroom edition, which was really cool. It was about the many moods of music and Wyatt absolutely loved it! Saturday night we tuned in to a virtual campfire program with Yosemite National Park. We set up the tent in the living room and went all out. It was fun! I am trying to take advantage of some of these virtual events as much as I can – or at least as much as I remember to do so.

Read Last Week:

I haven’t been able to really read since COVID started, until this series. I can only read about ghosts right now apparently. But since I am able to read this series, I am sticking with it! It is pretty good! And so far they have all been included in my Amazon Kindle Unlimited membership.

Reading This Week:

Posted Last Week:

I reviewed a few board games for kids here, and then talked about our massive craving for junk food here.

Watching:

Still watching When Calls the Heart, although we are nearing the end of the seasons available. Good news though, the newest season will start this upcoming week. Lol. Yay! We watched a movie, Brittany Runs a Marathon, Saturday night too, after kiddo went to bed. It was pretty good!

And that’s it from my corner of the world. How about you?

Shelter-in-Place Snacktime

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn day in the life9 Comments

So I don’t know about everyone else, but our house is snacking more and eating more junk than we ever have. I don’t know what this is about, if it is just the fact that it is one of the things left to us right now, indulging our sweet tooth, but man, we keep craving things like crazy!

Right before the state went to shelter-in-place, my husband went to the grocery store with instructions to buy whatever he wanted, and to not worry about the budget for like the first time ever. I had previously bought a bunch of stuff, and had been since January honestly. I’ve been nervous about COVID for a while now, and I was adding things to my groceries and stocking away for months, but not fun food, if you know what I mean. So, Billy had carte blanche at the store, and took full advantage, returning with things we needed and that were important, but also with cookies and crackers and Doritos and wine and a pie even.

So we have been enjoying many things, but there are some true favorites that are emerging. Oreos are tops right now in this house. Doritos for me, Fritos for Billy. Chocolate chip cookies have a place too – but the biggest win of all was Wyatt loving cake. I made a box cake, Strawberry flavored with vanilla frosting and sprinkles for Easter (I am not a great baker) and Wyatt wanted it every single night for a week. I am hoping that he actually gains a little weight over this time period (we have to look for positives!). Other things that we have splurged on are Nutty Buddy bars, Rice Krispie treats, and Pop-Tarts. Oh and sugar cereal! Just who are we now? I have a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch for breakfast every morning and it is so good! Wyatt has been allowed Cocoa Puffs but then I found an organic, better for him version that I subbed in. I think he knows the difference though… For now though, I am not going to worry about it. We are not overdoing it, but it is definitely more than normal!

We’ve also been eating things we normally wouldn’t, is anyone else doing this? We have bagel, egg, and cheese sandwiches at least once a week, sometimes more. We had Kroger brand gluten-free frozen pizza a few times, because that is what was available, and we like to have pizza as a treat once a week. We were pleasantly surprised at how delicious it is! Like, we might actually get it for reals after this is over. For now though, we take what there is and are happy to have it. As my friend says, you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit. I try not to overburden the grocery pickup staff with big lists of crazy things or too much that is not essential – but I do have a five year old, and we do allow a few items on there. I just try not to make their lives harder than they are. So when we do indulge, we really enjoy and appreciate these fun food items.

How about you? Is there something you are indulging in or craving?