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!
We had a bit of a more laid back week last week – I think we both needed it! However, we still did some pretty cool stuff.
Missouri was a surprise! As part of our state studies, Wyatt has to choose a few interesting facts about every state. This time, his favorite facts were all about food – that the first ice cream cone was served at the World’s Fair in 1904, as well as tea with ice in it. We had to of course have ice cream to celebrate that first ice cream cone.
I kind of had to chuckle that his favorite fact was about the ice cream cone, as the artist I had chosen for the week was Wayne Thiebaud, a pop artist known for his paintings of desserts and food. Pies, ice cream, cakes, hot dogs – all done in really cool pastels.
We didn’t get to art until Saturday, which worked out because then Billy could participate. He actually led the lesson for him this time! Billy is an artist, and knows so much about art so I appreciated his help. I had never used oil pastels before, and they were part of the lesson, as was creating a resist, which was new to me. So I switched on some 50s music as it felt appropriate, and we got to work – in our pajamas even! Billy also came up with a genius idea to create templates for Wyatt to trace around to get the right perspective and proportions.
It worked perfectly! Then they added in the details, the color, and then traced over the lines with a black sharpie. Thiebaud uses oil pastels for the frosting to create a more luxurious, thicker look, then paints the rest in watercolor. So Wyatt and Billy did as well.
Billy did such a good job that I hung his up as well.
It was a low key week, but still very fun!
What We Used:
This section contains Amazon Affiliate links. In addition to the curriculum I am creating for him, we also use curriculum from The Good and the Beautiful, The Waldock Way, and Blossom and Root for phonics, reading, science, and social studies.
I have spent the past week trying to get all comfy cozy but the weather is defeating me with its 70 degree days. Last night however we had some wild wind that felt like it was shaking the house – it was crazy! It was blowing in cooler temps, much more suitable to blankets and tea and books.
Billy and I celebrated our 22nd anniversary this weekend. We went out one night for dinner with Wyatt, and then the next night we left him with Grandma while we went for a hike and got tacos after. We ate them in the car,watching the sunset over the water. We are pretty simple people here.
And yeah, I totally spilled my beer. I am a bit of a klutz.
Read Last Week/Reading This Week:
I am still reading At Home in Mitford, taking my time and ambling along with Father Tim. When I am done I am starting The Hills in Lonely by Lillian Beckwith.
This week we have been watching Ghosts (both US and UK versions), and The British Baking Show, the latter of which has been making us crave all sorts of different baked goods.
As for listening, lots of Taylor Swift and The National Parks this week. I also put on a Vintage Autumn Playlist that Lisa at Boondock Ramblings recommended and it was really cool, so that is going into the rotation as well.
And that is about it from around here! Hope everyone is doing well!
Hi all! It’s been a ride the past week. We had to say goodbye suddenly to our sweet Maggie girl, which has broken my heart. She was filled with such personality and her absence is greatly felt by us all.
But as a parent, I had to buck up for my kid, to make his holiday Halloween weekend a good one. Saturday we laid low, nursing our hearts and watching movies, but Sunday I rallied for Wyatt. I woke up Sunday morning to find our house enveloped in a dense fog, and I knew it was the perfect morning to visit Greenfield Village. It is always decked out for Halloween because they do a Halloween Nights event on the weekends (which next year we are going to) but we like to go early in the morning when we have the village to ourselves – it makes the atmosphere a bit more spooky.
It was so ghostly and haunted feeling. Perfect for the day before Halloween! – Side note: It has recently come to my attention that “Devil’s Night” is a Detroit thing! I had no idea. I remember it being such a big horrible thing as a kid, where we all kind of stayed indoors that night because people were pretty criminal. It got reclaimed and relabeled “Angel’s Night’ as volunteers would patrol the streets and keep in contact with law enforcement. Anyway, I still have that residual fear sometimes the night before, Our city only experienced minor vandalism, like egging and pumpkin smashing, not the hundreds of fires that happened in the city but the idea was there. Things are much better now, thank goodness.
The fog stuck around for a bit and when the sun came out, the light was glorious.
This is my favorite house, the Daggett Farmhouse. It’s a New England Saltbox and I love it. The other one is pretty great too.
It was a great way to spend the morning, and we all went home feeling a little happier.
Later that evening we carved pumpkins. (and yes my table is a mess – don’t look lol)
Finally Monday was Halloween and my little pirate was beyond excited! It was the best trick or treating he has had and I think it was due to the wheelchair. He was able to participate on his own and he really got into it. For the houses and walks he couldn’t access he had his wonderful cousin who would get his treats for him. She always has his back.
My brother’s neighborhoods is the best at Halloween! Everyone goes above and beyond with their decorations, they all have fires and tables and music and the atmosphere is just very festive and happy, kids laughing and having a good time, parents smiling over their children’s excitement. The sidewalks are packed, the candy is plentiful, and a few houses even give out adult beverages to the parents. We had such a great time!
My boyo had a blast, and was asleep in minutes. As was I!
Ah November. As much as October is the start of cozy season and fall, November is the true start of snuggling down and getting comfortable. There is some sense of rushing about still in October, as we try to soak up all of the nice days as we can while we can, if you live somewhere that has changeable weather. October sun is almost the best sun, there is more of a golden honey warmth to it, a softness, and if you are like me you want to catch all of it that you can. November however, almost gives you permission to stay inside, with its gray skies, rain, much colder temperatures, and sometimes even snow. It invites you to drink your tea, read your book, stay safe and snug and warm. Much like a hobbit in his hole, I like to keep it cozy in November.
After a very busy October, I am looking forward to my November of cozytimes. I have my sewing projects all lined up, waiting to begin – or finish, in the case of my rabbit. I am sort of stuck and need Billy’s help with it so this weekend he is going to help me. He is such a man of many talents! Stef over at Stefmakesallthethings shared some really cool cross stitch designs from Max Pigeon and they are beautiful! I think I want to try one. I love sitting and stitching while listening to a podcast in the winter.
Billy and I also want to experiment with making our own pizzas this fall and winter, like really good pizza. We have been watching the British Baking Show and were inspired by the pizza challenge. I asked Billy to build a brick oven pizza in our yard but he declined for now. I guess we will just start with a pizza stone and our regular ol’ oven. I do want to try to make a cornmeal crust like at Mama Mia’s pizza in Mackinaw City. They used to have the coolest old building, filled with antiques and a museum dedicated to the bridge building and bridge builders – and fantastic pizza. Then that building burned down and they have a new building now and the charm is lost. Billy and I have a tradition of finding a local pizza place on every trip, and Mama Mia’s has always been my favorite. (His is from a pizza place in Savannah, I think the name was Mia’s? Amy’s?)
Our anniversary is this weekend too, and the weather is supposed to be sunny and beautiful, just like on the day we were married 22 years ago. We are leaving little man at my mom’s and heading out for a hike in the woods followed by an adult beverage or two and … tacos. I requested tacos, like good tacos. Real tacos. Jeez, I am all about food this morning!! It will be a nice time, it has been a long while since Billy and I have gone hiking alone.
This month, we also planned a family event with my brother Devin, SIL Chrissy, and niece – we are having a Hobbit day. It is still in the planning stages but we have a rough idea of what we are going to do that day. My favorite part of the plan is the backyard fire and cider in the evening but we have some neat ideas for the rest of the day too. Devin and Mermaid Girl had been reading The Hobbit together and she is a fan. I haven’t read it to Wyatt yet but he will have fun anyway. When I was a kid my cousin Brian and I used to listen to a very short version on book and record – I wonder if I can find something similar for Wyatt? Check out that 1970s goodness there! Apparently I can buy the book and record still but we don’t have a record player.
I will also be preparing for Christmas – I like to be done with my shopping so that in December I can focus on being with family and baking and all that stuff. We already bought tickets for the Holiday Nights at Greenfield Village in December and I like to make sure the month is more relaxed by having the things I can do now ahead of time, (from the comfort of my home since I am an online shopper) done. I have lists made up of who I buy for and some ideas, and already have some things for Wyatt squirreled away.
And speaking of Wyatt – he is a little restless so I am going to end this here!
Last week we continued on with our fundamentals like math and reading (which I never share about really because it’s not super exciting as one might imagine) and also dove deeper into Dia de los Muertos and especially into Frida Kahlo.
Wyatt and I are both loving art this year. I decided to just wing it, and it is working out really well for us. Since October is Hispanic Heritage Month, I thought it would be cool to focus on Hispanic artists. We spent some time on Diego Rivera, and then on Frida, and then a quick lesson on Jose Posada.
I introduced Wyatt to the art of Frida Kahlo the other week, and we talked about who she was as a person, how she overcame pain and obstacles to create her art, and how she eventually married Diego Rivera. We read about how when she was in bed overcoming an accident, she drew her feet – so Wyatt drew his feet while laying in bed. And if you follow these posts, then you know that he also put together a little Frida doll. Well this past week we took art a little further. We started by making a felt flower headband, which is super easy. (I will link the tutorial we used below in the resource roundup area.) I am always working with Wyatt on fine motor skills, which can be difficult for him with his cerebral palsy, especially with his right hand. Rolling is particularly difficult, and we work on it a lot. So this was a great project do with him even for OT purposes!
The next step involved Wyatt using watercolors to create a background – he opted for various colorful stripes which I think turned out beautiful. The next day, I took his photo wearing the headband, printed the photo, and cut it out. His background painting was dry, so it was time for the next step – painting on flowers using acrylics. While this was drying, Wyatt and I read a few books about Frida and all of her animals, and how she often included them in her self-portraits. I asked Wyatt which of our animals he would like to include in his self-portrait and he surprised me by saying Luna, one of our leopard geckos. I thought for sure he was going to say Miso, our fluffy cat! But nope, it was Luna who got the honor. I printed a photo of Luna, then it was time to put it all together. And I have to say, I absolutely love how it turned out!
I am 100% going to hang this in our house.
We also had a quick lesson on Jose Posada, who created the image of the calaveras. I also had picked up a mask kit and we put it to use.
In lieu of a state this week, we focused on the cultural traditions observed during Dia de los Murertos. We learned about the importance and symbolism of the monarch butterfly, and how it came to become a part of the celebration. We learned about the traditional foods that are provided on the ofrendas and also enjoyed by families, about the inclusion of earth, water, fire, and air which I hadn’t heard of before, and the reason for the sugar skulls. I love that I continuously learn as well, alongside Wyatt.
We carried our lessons on over to language arts as well. We read the book Our Day of the Dead Celebration, which I highly recommend, and Wyatt and I talked about our family members that have passed on and I shared funny stories with Wyatt about them, and talked about different things that they had liked.
Music is another area we are winging it, and while art is going awesomely, music is a bit more difficult. It is more like music appreciation at this point but that is ok. I found an incredible free resource online from the Phoenix Symphony which included a “concert repetoire” of music from Mexican folklore and also lessons about the Ballet Folklorico. Wyatt predictably enjoyed La Cucaracha the best.
What We Used:
This section contains Amazon Affiliate links. In addition to the curriculum I am creating for him, we also use curriculum from The Good and the Beautiful, The Waldock Way, and Blossom and Root for phonics, reading, science, and social studies.
Oh, and that weird pumpkin? It’s sort of creepy… are you ready for it?
Allow me to explain. Last week (when this pumpkin was created) we were studying spores in science, and looking at the spores on ferns. Well, since I had already trimmed these fern pieces I decided we were going to do something with them. I had seen something on Instagram about botanical pumpkins, and I was like ok, we will try it. Instead we had glue and mod podge all over us, were we laughing hysterically because we 100% could not get ours to look even remotely like the ones I had seen, so I told Wyatt to just be creative and make a fern jack o’lantern. And frankly, I can imagine this creation scaring spirits from our door!
October was a great month of learning with fun activities to accompany our work! I am looking forward to moving on to our November studies.
Oooo spooky…Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are are watching and posting about spooky cinema for the next two months, here and over on our Instagram accounts. We are starting fairly family friendly and working our way up to the scariest!! I love a thriller or chiller!
This is the movie I have been waiting for! We watch The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, both the cartoon and the Tim Burton version, every single Halloween. I have been watching the Disney cartoon version for longer than I care to say, and upon reading when the Burton version came out, yeah, that one too.
I love this story for some reason, so much. You know how there are people out there who watch and read every iteration of Jane Austen stories? Well, I am like that with Sleepy Hollow.
Let’s begin with the cartoon, shall we?
We watched this one with Wyatt and like his mother, he loved it. It will always be nostalgic for me. My little brother and I used to watch it together every year, we know all the words, and now we watch it with our children. It’s pretty fantastic. Brom Bones is a perfect villain, Ichabod the quirkiest hero (although, is he?), and Bing Crosby singing and narrating just is the icing on the cake.
I have two favorite parts – the scene where Brom is singing about the Headless Horseman and scaring the heck out of Ichabod, and the part where Ichabod is heading home from the party through the woods that night. I love how they made all the sounds of the woods at night have an alternate sound – the toads croaking Ichabod, the birds cry sounding like beware..there is just so much in that one part.
Then, after Wyatt fell asleep, we moved on to the Tim Burton version.
At this time in my life, 1999, I loved Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci (and Winona Ryder but she wasn’t in this one) and I remember being so excited to see this movie in the theater. It literally came out the day after my birthday, so my friends and I went as part of my birthday celebration. And I was instantly a big fan. It turned my childhood spooky season favorite into a version that young adult me loved just as much. And now middle age me still loves it. Crazy.
The costume and set design for this movie is amazing – everything is so visually interesting. The village of Sleepy Hollow is not so beautiful and quaint, not like the wholesome look of the one in the cartoon. It is more grim, ramshackle, and reflects the atmosphere of a town gone wrong. Because something is very wrong in Sleepy Hollow – people just keep getting beheaded.
The town elders send away to the city (NYC) for a detective, and loose cannon weirdo detective Ichabod Crane played by Johnny Depp is sent to investigate. He brings his toolkit of inventions and relies heavily on science, logic, and reason, and refuses to believe anything supernatural could be behind the murders. Until the day he comes face to er..face with the Headless Horseman. That sends him shaking to his bed. But he quickly rallies and gets back on the job. Unfortunately, the Horseman seems to have an agenda and despite Crane’s presence and investigation, the townsfolk just keep on dying. Crane figures out the secret, that the Horseman is being controlled by a flesh and blood human being – only who could it be? Baltus Van Tassel? The sweet Katrina?
Every actor in this movie is phenomenal and the cast included some big names – Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Christopher Walken (so creepy good!), /Michael Gambon, Jeffrey Jones, Miranda Richardson to name a few. Let me amend – almost every actor. Billy and I are not sold on Casper Van Dien as Brom Bones. He just didn’t have the presence in our opinion to play such an important character. However, we can’t think of anyone who would be better. Any suggestions? We also are so confused about young Ichabod’s home life. Was his dad a minister? Why did he have a room full of torture devices? Was he a witch hunter – and if so, why did he marry a witch? Also, wasn’t the whole witch trials over by 1799? We talk about this every time we watch.
This movie was the creepiest and goriest of the movies we watched for spooky season – the perfect last hurrah and I am so glad that we built our way up to it. It was a perfect finale to our Spooky Season Cinema. You can read Lisa’s movie thoughts here!
Let’s give some props to Lisa – she was a super trooper through this spooky season cinema as she is not a fan of spooky movies.
And, we had so much fun with this, that we are doing it all over again for Christmas! We will start posting the week of Thanksgiving and we would love to make it a linky event as well!
Last week started off pretty good then very quickly went downhill. We had to say goodbye to our sweet Maggie Jane Friday after she suddenly and unexpectedly took a turn. Cats often hide their illness and pain and Maggie must have been hiding something for a while, which breaks my heart. She was the sweetest troublemaker, independent and sassy, smart and goofy, kitty. We were lucky to have her in our lives for as long as we did. We will miss her very much as she was much loved.
Read Last Week:
I actually didn’t read anything. It was a really rough week.
Reading This Week:
I have certain book series that I save for when I really need the most comfort, and the Jan Karon Mitford series is one of them. After last week, I needed some serious comfort reading so I pulled out At Home in Mitford for some cozy self-care reading.
We were all over the place with tv last week. The USA Ghosts, the British version of Ghosts, a little bit of the Great British Baking Show, and Miss Scarlet and the Duke, Season 2. We also finished up The Woman in White which was excellent.
I also watched the Disney cartoon The Legend of Sleepy Hollow as well as the Tim Burton movie for the movie posts Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I have been doing. We usually post them on Thursdays but with the week I was having we moved our post. It will be posted tomorrow, on Halloween, instead.
As for listening, mainly Taylor Swift’s Midnights. Last week I mentioned I was sure how I felt about it, but now I am really enjoying it.
We started off the weekend with a birthday party for my youngest (as of right now) niece. We haven’t seen them in far too long, so it was so nice to see her and her sister’s sweet little faces.
We unfortunately had to leave earlier than we had planned due to an issue at Billy’s work. He had to get down to Detroit and fix the issue which was a bummer, but we had a nice time until we had to go.
Then Saturday was the Detroit Zoo Boo! We went with my brother and his fam, my SIL’s mother, Michelle, and my mom. The kiddos looked so cute!
It was the most beautiful fall night, if not a tiny bit too warm to start with. I want fall to be fall darn it. But it was an absolutely gorgeous night to be out and about, and everyone was so relaxed and just enjoying the event. We have gone before in the cold and rain, so this was a nice reprieve from that! I particularly loved seeing the animals framed in the autumn light and foliage. We wandered around, taking our time, making sure to visit as many favorites as we could.
I even tried a cider slush, which was delicious!
It was late when we finally headed home, and we were all full of happy moments and ready for bed. We had an early morning coming up, after all!
The next morning Billy, Wyatt, and I were off on another adventure – Billy and I feeling barely recovered from the weekend thus far but we were more than up to the challenge.
We wandered around the orchard and peeked into the corn, soaking up the October sunshine. After we had explored to our heart’s content we headed back to the shop for pumpkins and doughnuts and cider.
It was a perfect, peaceful moment. We had the whole area to ourselves, and we took a moment to just be.
Billy and I enjoyed our drinks while Wyatt played in the dirt, because we are those parents. You would never guess that up until two years ago Wyatt would not sit on the grass or touch dirt by how filthy he is here, but it took me years of working with him to get to this place. We were all in a place of happy. The orchard we go to makes their own hard cider and we always treat ourselves. I had a cranberry cider while Billy had elderberry, and both were so good.
When we got home Billy and I had to hit the house and clean up! We spent the weekend playing, and the house needed some love – plus my brother and fam were coming over that evening for a fire and we needed to make things presentable. We had popcorn around the fire and good conversation, and it was the perfect end to a fantastic weekend.
We are winding up our month of Hispanic artists and it has been a really fun unit! We started Frida Kahlo last week and will continue with a few more art projects and books about her this week, before adding in Jose Posada, just in time for the Dia de Muertos.
We read a book about Frida from the Little People, Big Dreams series which I absolutely love. I introduced who Frida Kahlo was and Wyatt and I put together a little Frida doll kit from Michael’s Craft Store. It was a super simple sewing project, with a big plastic needle and holes to thread through, and then the rest was all felt stickers. I did the sewing to help Wyatt out and he added the rest!
Our state for the week was Nevada! It always surprises me which interesting facts Wyatt chooses as his favorites. For Nevada he thought it was really cool that it became a state on Halloween (in 1864) and he also really liked learning about the blue tailed skink. That part wasn’t too surprising.
For our supplemental language arts we read The More You Give and we discussed how love can be shown by different acts that can’t be held in your hands, like pancakes in the morning, growing strawberries together, all these little things that are really actually really big things. I had hoped to make a felted acorn with him to accompany our reading but we just ran out of time!
I am super excited about this week ~ rather than study a new state this week for social studies, we will be instead learning more about Dia de los Murertos. We have talked about it here and there, visited ofrendas, but we will be digging a little further this week. And all the art we are going to do! (hopefully lol!)
What We Used:
This section contains Amazon Affiliate links. In addition to the curriculum I am creating for him, we also use curriculum from The Good and the Beautiful, The Waldock Way, and Blossom and Root for phonics, reading, science, and social studies.
Hi all! I hope you are having a great weekend! Ours has been very full but fun. We had a birthday party, trick or treating at the zoo, and this morning we are heading out to the orchard for apples and pumpkins and doughnuts! And hard cider because the orchard we go to makes their own and it is fantastic.
Read Last Week:
I devoured this book! I could not stop reading it – it was wild and weird and I needed to know the end so I just kept reading, waaaaayyy past my bedtime. It was a bit of a crazy read but I really enjoyed it.
Reading This Week:
So, I have three books left on my October TBR, and not enough time to read them all. Gone are my days of reading 2-3 books a week lol. I am not sure which book I will end up reading – two are shorter so maybe just maybe if I try hard I can read two books. We will see!
We are still watching Ghosts, which makes us laugh. We also started watching The Woman in White and it is so good!!!
Tonight we are watching a double feature for Spooky Season Cinema – The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the cartoon and the movie. These are my favorite spooky season movies so I am excited.
I also started listening to Taylor Swift’s new album Midnights. I love her Evermore and Folklore albums but I am not sold on this one yet.
And that is it for me today! I hope you all are doing well.
Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.. 