Author: Erin @ Cracker Crumb Life

I try to create a culture of celebration in our home. For life, for the little things, for wonder and for whimsy. I try to find the beauty around us and teach my son Wyatt to find it, and appreciate it and love it as well. We are a homeschool family, and we love it. We love the freedom it gives us to explore a topic or idea more deeply, and I like that I can adjust our schedule around Wyatt’s other needs. Wyatt has cerebral palsy and epilepsy, and his week often has therapy, doctor’s appointments, naps peppered throughout which would make a traditional school schedule difficult. He is also an asynchronous learner, and I love that I can tailor learning to where Wyatt is at that moment. We have a house full of animals and will probably add more because we like a zoo. We have one cat, Miso, who is a rescue. She is 14 years old and my little floofy girl. We also have one leopard gecko, Luna, a pictus gecko named Harlow, a pacman frog named Freddy, and two crested geckos, Applejack and Oliver. We love all of our little friends! My husband Billy, Wyatt, and I are all curious, creative, stubborn humans which makes for some fun times around here. We love the outdoors, except we are not made for high temps so we retreat inside when the temps start to soar. We are nature lovers through and through. We are trying to downsize our lives too, to live more simply, to buy things that last and eat real food from small local farmers. (and of course Goldfish crackers) We live seasonally and are always up for adventure. We love books and reading, and can be found at the library at least once a week!

Friday Morning Coffee Catch Up

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized10 Comments

Hello everyone!! it is actually cold here this week, and temps next week will be cold as well. I think it is safe to say autumn is here for real.

And it seemed to blow in all at once. We were having a warm sunny day the other day, then all of a sudden it was overcast, gray, and a storm and rain moved in. And that was that. Fall was here in a flash.

We have just been moving along over here. We had a few Halloween events last week, where we gave Wyatt’s costume a trial run, and then a family get together with my brother’s family and my cousin’s family. Billy, Wyatt and I also went to the apple orchard, one of my favorite outings of the season, if not my very favorite.

Let’s start there. It was sort of a neat moment – we went on the same day, October 18th, that we went to the very first time we went to this orchard with baby Wyatt. When Wyatt was a baby, I wanted to find an orchard that we could make our tradition, like I had when I was a kid. The one I grew up going to has turned into a circus, with too many bounce houses and people with tables selling things – it’s just too much. I wanted a more simple experience. Pumpkins and cider and doughnuts and apples – we don’t need anything else. I found one online, Bennett’s Orchard, and off we went with tiny Wyatt. And we have been going there ever since. So this past Oct. 18th was our ten year anniversary of sorts, of going, and it was ten years to the day.

They also have this gentle Lab who will sometimes join you in your wanderings. He has to be getting up there in age now, and is such a sweetie. I love when he joins us.

We had such a good morning at the orchard, although I couldn’t talk Wyatt into wearing a pumpkin hat for old times sake.

The next day was the party at my cousin’s house. He and his partner had it all set up for the kids, and it looked so good! They did a great job making a nice party for our kids of all ages, from 16 years down to 2. There were pumpkins to paint and sticker, doughnuts, pizza, and we brought a jug of hard cider from the orchard to share, while my brother brought different chips and dips. It was such a nice time!

I also picked up my new glasses this week, and just in time, because I broke my only pair! I really like my new pair but I got progressives for the first time and I am finding them confusing. I like them when I am doing stuff around the house, because I only need them for reading and I don’t need to take these on and off all the time, but when I am just sitting and reading and not multitasking I am having a difficult time. So I bought a pair of $7 readers from Amazon that work perfectly for that. It however made for a slower week of reading until I figured out I could do that.

It was a week for reading and hanging out with Brian, my cousin this week, because I hung out with him again on Wednesday! We tried out a place in Detroit called Sip N Read, which is like a bookstore bar. It was cold and rainy and really the perfect night to sit somewhere warm and read. Sip N Read is so pretty inside too! I loved the velvety furniture in shades of green and burnt orange, the space itself was so inviting! There is a small bar when you walk in, and then on the opposite wall are bookshelves. The books are there to be perused and read while you enjoy libations, and they offer wine and mocktails to their patrons. You can either choose to buy the book or not, or just read from different books, or whatever you choose. We had so much fun just reading and hanging out with our drinks. It reminded me of an adult version of when we were kids and would go to the library, check out some Stephen King, and head to his house where we would drink Capri Suns and read together. It was pretty empty but I am chalking that up to the night – it was a Wednesday, and it was so cold and rainy! We had a great time, reading and chatting, and then Brian treated me to the book I was reading as an early birthday gift!

I also did some baking this week – I made cinnamon apple scones, and chocolate chip cookies. I think I am going to be baking more since life is so expensive these days, and the groceries I am buying look different now too. I bought a whole chicken yesterday to turn into a few meals, as it was a better cost value than buying anything else. We are also having meals that turn into leftovers, like chili and stew, and Billy is going to start baking his sourdough again this weekend. Every bit helps!

It’s been fun baking again though. I am not great at it, but I have fun bopping around the kitchen to Oingo Boingo, Taylor Swift, Yaelokre (an Icelandic band my brother introduced me to that has really cool story and lore behind it), and also listening to the In the Meadow Podcast.

All in all, it’s been a pretty darn good week! The leaves are finally turning to fire, the weather is fully fall, and things are getting pretty cozy around here!

I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!

Comfy Cozy Cinema: Coraline

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized11 Comments

 Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are back to watching and sharing about comfy cozy (and as we move closer to Halloween, spookier) movies for the fall season. Feel free to join in with us!!

This week’s movie was Coraline!

I always make Lisa watch an animated movie. I don’t know why. I even know which one I am picking next year, already. Lol. This year, I decided on Coraline, one of my favorites. I once dressed as Coraline for Halloween, and this year, my niece is dressing as Coraline, because she now loves the movie too. She even sort of looks like Coraline, but with curly hair.

IMDB summarizes this movie as: “Wandering her rambling old house in her boring new town, a young girl discovers a hidden door to a strangely idealized version of her life that seems too good to be true.”

Coraline is a curious and feisty girl, a bit snarky, and 100% with the attitude of basically all 10/11 year olds. Her family moves from Pontiac, MI to the Pink Palace Apartments in Oregon, and she is booooored. She meets Wyborn “Wybie” a neighbor, who gives her a doll that looks very very similar to Coraline, which is ..creepy. She also meets the lanky black cat who has a pretty important role in the story. She is not impressed immediately with Wybie, probably because she is a kid who just moved across the country and left her home and friends and school behind to a very sad looking apartment with parents who work all day. And it is evident as well, that the family is struggling. The apartment is fairly bare, dull, blah, even Coraline’s bedroom, and their meals lackluster. Coraline is pretty much stuck there, hanging around the apartments while her parents work from home on a gardening catalog, and one day, she discovers a small door in the wall. After convincing her mom to open it, it reveals nothing but a brick wall.

Later that night however, Coraline finds herself going through that door which now has a tunnel instead of a brick wall, and encounters her Other Mother and Other Father, who are cheery, welcoming, and seem to just want to make her happy. It is colorful, and is everything Coraline could want – even if the Other Mother and Other Father have buttons for eyes. The Other Father even plays a song, just for her, about her, which was performed by They Might Giants.

Coraline wakes up the next morning at home, in her real home, and tells her mom all about her adventures. She spends the day visiting her other neighbors, who are very eccentric – Spink and Forcible, two former burlesque performers with a love of schnauzers, and Mr. Bobinsky, who used to be a gymnast, and a liquidator, (and is voiced by Ian McShane). He is also blue, and has a mouse circus.

Coraline again visits the Other Mother and Other Father, and this is when things take a turn. This story moves fast! I loved the pacing in this movie, it just kept everything moving along. The Other Mother and Other Father present Coraline with an option – she can choose to stay with them, if only she lets them replace her eyes with buttons. And from here, if you want to know what happens, you will have to watch! Let’s just say, there are ghosts, black cats who can straddle both worlds, plants that are sentient, and for Coraline, a very high stakes game.

I love this movie because Coraline is a smart, resourceful, clever girl. She doesn’t give up or quit, is determined, and knows what she wants. She also has a great sense of style – I used to have a version of the hat she wears and I miss it. Her mother has enrolled her in a school where she has to wear a boring gray uniform, and Coraline is bummed. How can she stand out? Where is the color? The opportunity to show her uniqueness and originality? She does find a pair of gloves that would add some flair to her uniform, but at $24.99 a pair, her mom says no.

This movie is stop-action animation, and took 500 people to make. LAIKA Studios has a few videos on YouTube if you interested in some behind the scenes looks at how everything was achieved. And it was a work of art, truly.

There are also little hidden Easter Eggs within the movie, which you can read about here. However, my favorite little detail is about Mr. Bobinsky, the eccentric blue neighbor, and former liquidator and gymnast. If you look closely, he is wearing a medal in every scene, and upon closer inspection, it is a medal that was awarded to the emergency workers who cleaned up after the Chernobyl disaster. Just a little reason he might be blue. These workers were given the title “liquidator” by the Soviet Union, hence why he is a retired liquidator. A little story within a story!

Overall, I love this movie, and I love Coraline, although the author of this story is no longer one I choose to support much anymore. I love Coraline’s independence and spunk and spark and curiosity.

And not to spoil anything, but in the end, Coraline does get her gloves.

Next week we are going all out, in our way, with The Mummy, starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. I love the character Evie. I am excited although it has been a while since I have seen it!

Be sure to check out Lisa’s post as well!

I hope that you are all enjoying the season, wherever you are on the spooky spectrum!

Mini Book Reviews: The Late-Night Witches, Falling Like Leaves, Uncharmed

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn book review, books and reading13 Comments

Hello everyone! I am having such a great time reading my fall picks. All the witches and ghosts and fall ambiance a girl could ask for!

I am loving Auralee Wallace’s books this fall. This is the second book that I have read of hers, and I know I want to read more of hers in the future.

” ‘There. You’re perfect. So pretty.’ She smiled. ‘But you might want to wash your hair later.’ “

I loved this book! It reminded me of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but with a suburban mom of three as the chosen one. It cracked me up, and it was not too scary or gory either, in my opinion. Sort of Buffy-like/Charmed even there, I guess! The main character Cassie is a witch from a family of witches for generations – although she didn’t know it until the big baddie vampire woke up from his quarter century of slumber. This book is about family and duty and also being true to yourself and believing in yourself. It was such a great spooky-not-spooky read, with fun characters and lots of shenanigans.

Taking a step away from the paranormal for a minute, to just enjoy a small-town fall, that could be a Hallmark movie (YA).

“Come for the apple picking and pumpkin carving, stay for the coziness.”

This book is the epitome of fall cozy, with its small town feel and endless autumn activities during it’s Falling Leaves Festival, that includes things like pumpkin proms and bonfire nights, cafes filled with cats, and delicious baked goods and coffee. If I could transport myself to Bramble Falla for their autumn fest I absolutely would.

I also appreciated this book for the just plain high school experiences that made up a large part of the plot. Ellis is not good at being a normal teenager and when her mom moves her to Bramble Falls against her will, she sees her future disappear in front of her. Or so she thinks. This is a clean YA romance that just made me smile throughout the book. 

And now, a little Mary Poppins-like witch. Wait, was Mary Poppins a witch?

“Everybody knows that any kind of productivity is at least seventy-five percent reliant on the appropriate notebook and pen selection.”

I LOVED this book, although I have to say I was uncomfortable about how closely I could relate to some of Annie’s quirks! I mean, I 100% believe in having the appropriate notebook and pen, and then of course that hesitation over even using it because “what if make a mess on the first page, ruin the whole thing with ugly handwriting, or bad spelling?” I just might be a little Type A about some things.

Annie is a witch who believes in always going the extra mile, never having a hair out of place, the perfect outfit, the perfect thing to say, perfect perfect perfect. However, her perfect life gets upended when she meets Maeve, an orphaned teenager with big big magic, and agrees to be her guardian and mentor until she gets her magic under control. This might be a task that Annie can’t keep perfectly controlled.

This whole book is a wonderful cozy journey, full of realizations and delicious sounding coffee, baked goods that inspired me to bake apple cinnamon scones, love, and finding that perfection is maybe not all that great after all.

Have you read any of these? Do you think Mary Poppins is a witch? And are you Team Pumpkin Spice or Team Apple Cider? I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!

Top Ten Tuesday: Cozy/Atmospheric Reads

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized44 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Today’s Prompt: Cozy/Atmospheric Reads

So today, instead of making a list of cozy/atmospheric books that I have read, because I feel this is pretty much everything I read and I talk about the ones that I have read all of the time, I am going to make a list of ten books on my TBR that fit the prompt.

I am thinking about the months ahead, which here in Michigan will be cold and gray, maybe with snow, maybe without. I am going to need books to curl up with on those long dark nights, that are made for reading. So I went with all cozy reads today.

This post does contain Amazon Affiliate links. I would receive a small commission if you were to click a link and make a purchase at no extra cost to you.

Sugar Shack || Natural Barn Killer || The Hidden World of Gnomes

The Enchanted Greenhouse ||Dinner at the Night Library|| A Fellowship of Librarians & Dragons

The Vanishing Cherry Blossom Bookshop || Yeonnam-dong’s Smiley Laundromat || The Amberglow Candy Store

A Spell for Midwinter’s Heart

I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized22 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

Hello everyone! I hope that you all had a good week! We have been just keeping on over here, having school, going to therapy, and attending appointments. We did make some time for some fun but it has just been life going on over here.

Read Last Week:

Falling Like Leaves was so adorable and the most autumn book I have read. I loved everything about it!

I am almost done with Uncharmed, and it is also pretty darn cute. It’s been a good week of reading!

Reading This Week:

I am so excited for these two. I was waiting until a bit closer to Halloween – and we are finally there!

Posted Last Week:

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Wish I could Read Again for the First Time

Comfy Cozy Cinema: The Young in Heart

Friday Morning Coffee Catch Up

Watching:

Billy and I have been watching a few different things lately. We were watching Twin Peaks, but then my cousin reminded me that we hadn’t watched The Fall of the House of Usher on Netflix so we started that. It is so creepy but so good! We also started watching classic Twilight Zone episodes as well as episodes of The Haunted Hotel which we watch with Wyatt.

Last night we watched It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown with Wyatt. I love that he loves Charlie Brown too – probably because Billy and I love it. It would be neat if Wyatt grows up feeling nostalgic about Charlie and the gang too.

Lisa at Boondock Ramblings and I are hosting Comfy Cozy Cinema again, and last week we watched an oldie but goodie – The Young in Heart. This week we are making things a little spookier, and we are watching Coraline.

I also just started listening to a podcast called In the Meadow. It’s been a nice, relaxing podcast to chill out to while cleaning. I have only listened to like two episodes, but they were good listens.

On the Internet:

Lisa and I decided to pause Crafternoons until after the upcoming holidays, which will put us into the new year – can you believe we are getting closer to 2026? So crazy! I am still participating in the link ups like this one, Top Ten Tuesday, The Weekend Traffic Jam, and A Good Book and a Cup of Tea too. And of course Comfy Cozy Cinema. We have a few weeks left if you want to watch along!

Friday Morning/Afternoon/Evening Coffee Catch Up

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized15 Comments

Good morning! I am trying to drink my coffee at super fast speed this morning, as Wyatt has two appointments back to back. One for a wheelchair eval, since he is growing so fast, and the other because he either lost a tooth or broke part of it yesterday. So a trip to the dentist for him! I have to leave shortly but wanted to get this started.

We have a new pet! It is a tarantula, so if you don’t like spiders scroll super fast past its picture. We named her Dungeon Crawler Carl after the books, and because Carl will be living in Billy’s office in the basement after he makes room for her.

She was abandoned and then turned in to a pet store, where she was left in her really dirty enclosure, which was way too small for her. My friend saw her week after week in this condition and finally talked me into taking her if she paid for her. So, we now have Carl! She was in terrible condition when we got her, and I was worried she was going to die – she was in the death curl position, which indicates death is coming or severe dehydration. It appears Carl was dehydrated because she drank so much water after we moved her into her new, spacious home. I have to say, I never wanted a tarantula but Carl is endearing herself to me. She loves to watch Sid the fish, who is her neighbor, and sleep in her little burrow. We have had her a week and she looks so much better already!

We have been working hard at home and in school when we can around appointments this week. It was just one of those weeks. I will be grateful for when things settle down and we can just get to our work and routine. Wyatt kicked butt at therapy again this week, and stood assisted again but with less assistance, so he is getting stronger and stronger, week by week. We are pretty faithful with his exercises, and he is really good about doing them which makes it easier.

Billy has been busy too! He has been working super hard on Wyatt’s costume, and it is unbelievable. Like seriously. I have to brag on him a bit here. Wyatt is going as Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon this year, and I was like that meme, following Billy around with my bag of ideas, and said to him, “You know what would be really cool? If it looked like Wyatt was riding on Toothless.” So, Billy made our dreams come true, turning Wyatt’s wheelchair into Toothless. Here is a preview. Has my house turned into a war zone, filled with craft supplies and art stuff? Yes, yes it has. But it is worth it. I can’t wait to see it all come together on Halloween. Like Billy literally made that Toothless mask, out of foam and paint. It is crazy to me. He is so talented.

Our Halloween decorations served a practical purpose the other night when we suddenly lost power! Sunday night, the entire north end of town lost electricity and it was right at dinnertime, and the sun was getting ready to set, and in fact already had begun the process. Billy ran up to McDonalds for Wyatt, and I ran outside and gathered all of our pumpkins from the trees that Billy had put solar lights in last weekend. They made perfect little lanterns for dinner and inside until the power came back on. It was hilarious to eat by pumpkin light and later read by the same light.

We are back from the dentist’s office and it’s all good. He has lost two teeth that they said were probably already loose as they could see the new teeth erupting already. So thank goodness that turned out well. We were having ice cream of all things, when it happened. Wyatt had chocolate peanut butter with frozen tiny Reese’s cups and they were apparently rock hard. I heard a crunch, saw blood, it was a mess. He was fine though, and was more upset that I wanted to look inside of his mouth than he was about the teeth. I am assuming the ice cream helped, perhaps made the area cold and slightly numb.

And that is it from me today! I hope that whatever you do this weekend, you do something that makes you smile!

And here are just some random photos from the past week!

Comfy Cozy Cinema: The Young in Heart

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized12 Comments

 Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are back to watching and sharing about comfy cozy (and as we move closer to Halloween, spookier) movies for the fall season. Feel free to join in with us!!

This week’s movie was The Young in Heart, starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Janet Gaynor.

This movie was such a cute little movie.

It starts off with the Carleton family – Sahib, Marmy, George-Anne, and Richard – working their charms on the unsuspecting rich vacationing in the Riviera. George-Anne and Richard are pretending to be people they are not, while hoping to score a rich partner. That is, until their plans are foiled by the police. They are ordered out of town, practically run out on a rail(way) as they take the first train out.

Once on the train, George-Anne tells her suitor, who I thought was much cuter than Douglas Fairbanks (sorry Lisa, it was the Scottish accent), that she is not good enough for him, and for him to just leave her alone. She meets the sweetest elderly woman, named Miss Fortune. Billy and I both were like, hmm, Miss Fortune, or … misfortune? Well played, movie.

However, this train has an accident and their train car derails! Wyatt was watching this movie with us and he yelled “Whoa!!” when that happened and it cracked me up. Then my favorite line of the movie came up. Duncan came over to see what George-Anne was doing with the unconscious Miss Fortune, who had been injured in the accident and the family rescued, and he notices George-Anne actually appears to be helping someone! George-Anne however tells him to go away, saying “I am up to no good, and you are interfering.” I just loved that line.

The Carleton family winds up living with Miss Fortune, in her big mansion and off of her recently acquired wealth. George-Anne smells potential however for a bigger grift – they should pretend to be upstanding citizens, so that Miss Fortune chooses one of them or all of them to inherit her fortune when she dies. She tells Sahib and Richard to get jobs, when they have never worked a day in their lives, and says that she and Marmy will become caregivers.

However, jokes on them, because it seems living with the kind and gentlehearted Miss Fortune has grown their hearts at least three sizes. After a particularly adorable scene between Miss Fortune and Richard, where she nurses him through a rough morning after a night of drinking, Richard makes it his mission to find a dog like the one that once so captured Miss Fortune’s heart. A white dog, with a black spot like an eyebrow. This was probably my favorite part of the movie, because so many puppies!!!

And I am going to wreck the end for you all – so skip this if you want – but the family turns their lives around and become the fine upstanding people they are pretending to be. I won’t wreck it too much for you, you will have to watch the movie to see the ending, which is super sweet and adorables.

I mentioned I loved that line that George-Anne says to Duncan, but he also has some of my favorite lines. Lines like these:

“You’re a bad-mannered, bad-tempered, outrageous female… ..but I have discovered I cannot live without you. It’s a shameful confession for a sane man to make.”

So I saw that Lisa already talked about the car, which was Billy’s favorite part of the movie. He did a deep dive during the movie to read about it, because it was a spectacular looking piece of machinery. It must have been quite something back then, because it still is beyond impressive today. The movie called it a Wombat, but you might know it more as the Phantom.

Overall, this movie was just a fun delight to watch. It had plenty of funny moments, and it was nice to just decompress too after a long day.

Make sure to read Lisa’s post here.

Our next movie is Coraline! I LOVE this movie, and it is beginning our little trend to spookier movies for Halloween. Little bit of Erin trivia – I once dressed as Coraline for Halloween, and this year, Mermaid Girl is going as Coraline!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Wish I Could Read Again for the First Time

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized44 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Today’s Prompt: Books I wish I could read again for the first time

Do you remember the books that made you love words and writing and books, landscapes and characters, books that stopped time as you read them? That formed your thoughts and helped you escape? I feel like those are the books I would like to read again, that had such a profound effect on my life as I grew up. To feel that magic all over again.

A Prayer for Owen Meany || The Prince of Tides || All Creatures Great and Small

These three books were given to me by my mom, my dad, and my uncle, and I think that helped make them special as well. My mom gave me the whole James Herriot collection when I was probably 10ish, and I adored them. I didn’t always understand them, but it didn’t matter. I understood what these stories represented – kindness, love, and caring for all of our creatures that we share this planet with.

The Prince of Tides was a book given to me by my dad. He loves Pat Conroy (and now me too!) and despite some tough subject matter I was wrapped up in this world. I remember I even stayed home “sick” from school one day so I could finish it. I went on to read the rest of his books, and each were as amazing but none could take the place of Prince of Tides.

A Prayer for Owen Meany was from my uncle. Another book that has stayed with me all through my life, that I think about all the time. I wish I could read it again just to see how masterfully Irving had the ending all planned, right from the very beginning.

The Lake of Dead Languages || King’s Oak || On the Banks of Plum Creek

The Lake of Dead Languages was Dark Academia before that was a thing. I remember reading it and thinking about how I wanted to throw myself into academia the way that these girls did – minus the big secret in this book of course. I love Carol Goodman still, she was my entrance into a world beyond my little town in Michigan, that was all about steel mills and auto factories.

King’s Oak took me down south again, this time introducing me to Tom Dabney, a character I would love to meet and hang out with. Like Luke in the Prince of Tides, he burned a bit too brightly for his world.

On the Banks of Plum Creek of course has to be on here. Who didn’t want to be Laura when they were younger? All those adventures and animals and running wild and living in a sod house! What! I thought that was the coolest thing ever.

Franny and Zooey || Remembering Blue || Charlotte’s Web || The Great Gatsby

Franny and Zooey was probably the first book by a classic author that I read and really loved. I know Salinger gets a bad rap but I always liked his work. Franny and Zooey is my favorite though.

Remembering Blue is just like a lovely romantic sad fairy tale. I attended a writing class, a small group of maybe 10 other people, with my dad at Connie May Fowler’s house in Florida (her husband made us dinner!) and it was so cool to talk with her about this book. I wish I wouldn’t have been so young honestly when I went; I feel like I could make more of the whole experience now as an adult. It was an awesome time though.

Charlotte’s Web. Yes, I know reading it all over again for the first time will be tragic but it still makes me cry anyway. Just the love that was in these pages between Charlotte and Wilbur. I read it with Wyatt a few years ago, and it struck me just how much Charlotte was like a mother to Wilbur, protecting him. And reading it with Wyatt for the first time was almost like reading it again myself for the first time, as I was reading it with a different perspective.

The Great Gatsby is another one of the first classics that I read and loved. I wanted to go back and live in the Roaring ’20s so badly, to be a flapper and dance all night in a fringed dress.

And that is it. These books worked magic on me that is not lost, but it would be amazing to feel that first wonder all over again.

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized29 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

Hello everyone! That last week was a whirlwind, but we are taking it easy this weekend, and it has been a nice restful few days.

Read Last Week:

I finished up The Late-Night Witches and I really enjoyed it. It sort of reminded me of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but with a suburban mom of three as the chosen one. It cracked me up, and it was not too scary or gory either, in my opinion. Sort of Buffy-like even there, I guess! The main character Cassie is a witch from a family of witches for generations – although she didn’t know it until the big baddie vampire woke up from his quarter century of slumber. It was a fun read!

Reading This Week:

I am hoping to read these two this week. I am starting with Falling Like Leaves, which is a YA romance so it should be pretty light and breezy and full of fall ambience. Then I am moving on to Uncharmed, which just sounds so cute and pink!

I really need to do a tally of how many books I have read this year with cats on the cover.

Posted Last Week:

Mini Book Reviews: In the Company of Witches, Ghost Business, Play Nice

Comfy Cozy Cinema: The Five Year Engagement

Friday Morning Coffee Catch Up

Watching:

Billy and I have started rewatching Twin Peaks and it is so fun to watch again. It is so different to watch it as an adult, with an adult’s perspective. I still love the music, the styling, the setting, the whole aesthetic, and it’s craziness, and I love just how 90s it feels. But certain scenes are more powerful than they were when I was younger. We watched the episode with Laura’s funeral last night, and Bobby’s anger at the town, chastising them all, struck a note with me. I don’t think I picked up on just how perceptive and mature this was for his character at the time, since when I watched this show I was in high school, and just thought Bobby was very cute and rebellious. But he was so right in this scene.

We are also watching our Comfy Cozy Cinema movies, as well as mixing in other things as well here and there, mostly YouTubers.

Internet Shenanigans:

Lisa and I are co-hosting so many things together! We have our crafternoons, which are just fun get togethers where we hang out and chat and work on whatever projects we want with other bloggers on Zoom for an hour or so. We have one this afternoon actually, at 1!

Then we have our Comfy Cozy Cinema, where we watch movies and post our thoughts about them on Thursdays.

And finally, we have a monthly book link up, where you can post any book related posts throughout the month. Book shopping, book hauls, book whatevers – you can link up there!

If you wish to participate in any of these with us, feel free!! We would love to have you!

And that is it from me today! I hope that whatever you do, you do something that makes you smile!

Friday Morning Coffee Catch Up

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized22 Comments

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well! As for myself, I am tired y’all. After Wyatt’s bummer summer I was going all out for a fun fall. I might have gone too far because I am exhausted. I don’t say that much honestly – I am a push through, I can do it kind of a person. But even I recognize right now that I need a huge break, so I am taking the weekend slow and being lazy, starting today. I have been making mistakes here and there because I am just worn out, and I need to recharge! However, despite how tired I am, I am so happy that I have created these moments and memories for Wyatt, and that we are making really good progress in therapy.

I left off last time with Billy and my date night, which was a blast. Then Wyatt and I spent the week going to therapy and having school, and Wyatt worked so hard at therapy, as always. He is getting so strong! In fact, this week we had a big milestone. Wyatt stood assisted for the first time since his surgery!!! It was a huge moment for us. His therapist said that he has gained enough strength now that we can start doing more standing exercises with him. Our home program right now is very time consuming, but every second of it is worth it.

To celebrate, Wyatt and I had another mother-son book outing. I definitely am going to do this once a month with him. We had so much fun. First, we went to the library and picked up some books there, then we headed to the one of two bookstore stops. The first was Another Look Books, a used bookstore near us. I took some old books with for me trade in credit, and Wyatt picked a few books, and I chose a cozy mystery. And after paying, we still had $16 dollars left in store credit! (you can only use $10 in credit a visit)

Our next stop was Brooks Books, and they were all decked out for Halloween, as a haunted bookstore. They had fake books set in place that would ease themselves out of the shelves, candles hanging from the ceiling, all kinds of gadgets and decorations. Wyatt loved it! We picked out our books, then bought treats from the tiny little corner cafe they have. I had the Campfire Curse latte, and it was delicious!

This was just the tip of the iceberg for our weekend though!

On Saturday, Billy and I spent the day working on Halloween things – Billy working on Wyatt’s costume while I made spiders for our Blackbirds party, which we had last night. I only burned my fingers from the hot glue a million times, but it was worth it. The kids had so much fun playing with them. I am getting ahead of myself though! Later that night, we went to my brother’s house for a backyard screening of Disney’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow and the old Donald Duck cartoon with Witch Hazel or Broom Hilda or whatever her name is. It was an evening of chaos but family, and it was a great night. Even with my youngest niece tossing a fairy garden home into my lap that was filled with hundreds of ants, who took exception to being tossed. And then when we got home, the pumpkins we put up outside were all lit up! Billy had put solar lights in them before hanging them and they look super cool!

The next day was another very big day! We had a Blackbirds guided nature hike on Belle Isle in the morning, followed by the Zoo Boo at the Detroit Zoo in the evening.

The hike was so fun. It was a great easy way to get our kids out into nature, and the nature center on Belle Isle offers all of their programs like this free of charge to schools and groups. They have a mission of getting kids outside and learning and exploring, and they do such a great job with it. The kids had a blast walking around, looking for bugs and snakes and at the end they were able to be imaginative and make their own bugs out of arts and scraps and bits of nature. The only downside was that it was a million degrees out.

We had just enough time to get home, eat, rest up, change, and head back to Detroit. The Zoo Boo was so fun. Wyatt told us a million times how happy he was, and thankfully, it was cooler! Not cool enough for Wyatt to wear his costume though. We made do though, and he wore his shirt that says “Just a boy who loves snails”. So I guess he went as a boy who loves snails – so, himself.

Which takes us to this past Monday! I had an eye appointment, we had school, the week continued, then Wyatt, Mermaid Girl, and I went to a special “Magic Potions” class at the library which was super cute, and it was awesome to hang out with Wyatt and Mermaid Girl like that.

Which brings us to our Blackbirds Spooky Not Spooky party last night! Fellow moms Shawnna and Nicole and I planned out the party and got all the stuff together and it turned out fantastic if I do say so myself. All the kids had so much fun!!! I loved loved loved seeing all of their happy faces and hearing their laughter. I didn’t get many photos because I was crazy busy but it was an awesome night.

And now, we are back to the beginning. Just me sitting in bed, typing this, drinking coffee. Wyatt is next to me watching some tv. I think we both need a break this weekend!!

And that is it from me today! I hope that you all have a great day, and do something that makes you smile!