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!

10 on the 10th – Birthdays!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized17 Comments

10 on the 10th is hosted by Marsha in the Middle!

It’s that time again!! This month is all about birthdays!

What is your earliest birthday memory? I have a memory from my 2nd birthday- I know this because we were living in the townhouse we lived in before we moved to the house I grew up in at 3. My family was coming over for my party, and my mom and dad had decorated, with plates and the cake on the table. There was a record playing the Captain Zoom birthday song, which I loved and would play over and over. I was running in circles around the table singing along to the song. I still remember the words to that song! I should probably get the personalized version for Wyatt!

What is your favorite birthday tradition? We have a tradition that we started for Wyatt’s birthday that I love. We always visit a new nature center for his birthday and take a hike. As he has gotten older, we have had to widen our circle and even done weekends away to explore a new trail.

How do you like to celebrate birthdays? When I was younger I enjoyed big to-dos with my friends, but now that I am older I like a quiet family filled event. Maybe a simple meal, a backyard fire, a glass of wine.

What is the best birthday gift you ever received? I have loved and appreciated all of my gifts!

What is the best birthday gift you have ever given? Wyatt’s toy kitchen. He played with that like crazy for years.

If money were no object, what would be the very best way to celebrate your birthday? Oooo fun one! I would fly my entire family to Scotland to all stay in a castle and celebrate there. We would visit all the touristy places and non-touristy places and do all the Scottish things, including visiting a herd of adorable Highland cattle.

Photo by Trina on Pexels.com

What is your favorite birthday treat? A cake from Astoria in Detroit. They are so delicious!

How long do you celebrate your birthday? Just that day. Unless I get that family trip to Scotland!

What is the best thing about your birthday? Sharing it with my loved ones.

What is your zodiac sign? I’m a scorpio….

This was a fun one! I would love to hear some of your answers!

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized25 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

Hey all! We are still working on our bedroom renovation and things are a crazy mess around here. Our week was pretty much spent here at home and that is ok. We need those at times!

Reading:

I went a little wild with books for this month, and I am reading between three different books. I also am having a more difficult time than usual reading – I usually read in bed at night and we are sleeping on a mattress on the floor which is not super comfortable for reading. I consider reading in the den at night but..it doesn’t work either. There is a lack of comfy reading spots right now! So I am reading three books slowly. Lol. Not ideal.

I am enjoying them all so far, but A Haunted History of Invisible Women is absolutely fantastic. It is much much more than you think it will be. The description reads:

Sorrowful widows, vengeful jezebels, innocent maidens, wronged lovers, former slaves, even the occasional axe-murderess—America’s female ghosts differ widely in background, class, and circumstance. Yet one thing unites them: their ability to instill fascination and fear, long after their deaths. Here are the full stories behind some of the best-known among them, as well as the lesser-known—though no less powerful.

Tales whispered in darkness often divulge more about the teller than the subject. America’s most famous female ghosts, from from ‘Mrs. Spencer’ who haunted Joan Rivers’ New York apartment to Bridget Bishop, the first person executed during the Salem witchcraft trials, mirror each era’s fears and prejudices. Yet through urban legends and campfire stories, even ghosts like the nameless hard-working women lost in the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire —achieve a measure of power and agency in death, in ways unavailable to them as living women.

Riveting for skeptics and believers alike, with humor, curiosity, and expertise, A Haunted History of Invisible Women offers a unique lens on the significant role these ghostly legends play both within the spook-seeking corners of our minds and in the consciousness of a nation.

It is absolutely fascinating, sad, informative, and wonderful.

Posted Last Week:

Homeschool Journey: Took a wrong turn in Albuquerque

Spooky Season Cinema: Young Frankenstein

What We’ve Been Reading: September Edition

Tuesday Morning Coffee Catch Up

Watching and Listening:

In movie news, Billy and I watched My Best Friend’s Exorcism. It was a pretty good interpretation of the book. I prefer the book, but the movie did leave out the part that I skipped in the book so that is a bonus. We also watched Young Frankenstein as part of our Spooky Season Cinema that Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are doing together. As for tv, Billy and I watched Agatha Christie’s Partners in Crime on Acorn. Billy really liked it, I was a little more eh over it. It was too espionage/spies for me. However, I did love the style and fashion in it. Tuppence is my new style icon. Would I look weird in a beret? Or in lipstick? I loved all of the outfits she wore!

Programme Name: Partners In Crime – TX: 09/08/2015 – Episode: 3 (No. 3) – Picture Shows: Episode Three: ‘The Secret Adversary’ Tuppence Beresford (JESSICA RAINE) – (C) ENDOR PRODUCTIONS – Photographer: Laurence Cendrowicz

This week I have been trying out new podcasts for spooky month – I will be sharing my favorites in an upcoming post!

And that is it from my corner of Michigan? How are you doing? What’s going on with you?

Homeschool Journey: Took a wrong turn in Albuquerque

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn homeschooling7 Comments

This homeschool update is a combination of two weeks – I just didn’t have time to write an update Monday. Plus, our house is a giant mess due to our bedroom reno and it seems to be affecting my productivity.

We have been hanging out in the Southwest the past two weeks, learning about Arizona and New Mexico in Social Studies. It is a part of the U.S. that I am fairly unfamiliar with, only having driven through it one time on the way to Vegas. Let’s see.. we read Dona Flor as part of our tall tales series for September, who was new to me as well. I really enjoyed her story, as did Wyatt. It is the tale of a giant woman who has an equally enormous heart, for her neighbors and for all the animals. She makes huge tortillas, sings to flowers, and solves problems for her community. Dona Flor is delightful!

We also read about the potter, Maria Martinez who is known for her amazing and beautiful pottery. We tried our hand at making a coil pot; this was a lesson in patience for us both. Wyatt wanted to just create whatever he wanted, and I usually encourage free creativity, but I really wanted him to see the process of coil pottery. It was a struggle but between the two of us we made it. He ended up rolling the clay into snakes and making the base, I helped him etch the coils, and then I stacked the coils. He also used water to smooth areas, like the base. It turned out pretty cute!

We started outside but some pretty aggressive wasps forced us back in. Wyatt absolutely loved this project – his grandmother is a potter so I am hoping to have him make a project with her that we can actually put in her kiln and everything. She is the reason he loved this by the way. He thought it was neat he was doing something like Grandma. I had originally planned for her to do this with us but she had COVID! (She is recovering and doing well)

We spent a lot of time on the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum website. It has so much content for kids and educators! Wyatt had told me his favorite fact about Arizona is that they have javelinas, so we learned about javelinas, including what they sound like. He loves pigs so I am unsurprised that he liked javelinas. I really liked the Gila monsters, of course – which sound crazy! Wyatt colored and decorate a picture of a Gila monster, and I love that is totally disco with gold glitter sprinkled all over it. Maybe one day we will get out that way and visit!

In science we were talking about vascular plants vs. non-vascular. We focused on moss for our desk work, and then since we had been visiting the desert, I ordered some Rose of Jericho plants for us to observe. They arrive like little dried out tumbleweed balls. You add them to a wide, shallow bowl of water, and they spring back to life over the course of a day. If you don’t water them, they revert to their dried out version but can be “resurrected” all over again! I thought they were so neat I ordered a few extra to give away to some people who I thought might like to watch the process too.

We managed to squeeze in a quick field trip as well! Since we had read John Henry, I thought we at least needed to ride a train.

Then, the following week, this week, we read Federico and the Wolf, a really fun retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, studied New Mexico (and now I am obsessed with that state – I didn’t know much about it before), and talked a bit about Diego Rivera. Our week this week was a bit pared down from normal, due to the renovations in our bedroom. When you have a tiny house and empty everything out of one of the rooms, it ends up everywhere else. We just didn’t have the right space for some of my planned projects. But we did have a good week of learning, just less hands on than normal, and few more videos than usual.

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.

Shaped by her Hands || The Three Little Javelinas || Diego Rivera His World and Ours || G is for Grand Canyon || Dona Flor || Federico and the Wolf || E is for Enchantment

Next week we continue our southwest journey, as we mosey on down to Texas!

Spooky Season Cinema: Young Frankenstein

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized12 Comments

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!

If ever I needed a comedy, this was the week! And I was totally cracking up throughout this whole movie, which in turn made my husband laugh. Although why he wasn’t laughing at the movie, I don’t know, because it is funny dang it!

I had previously watched this movie in high school and enjoyed it – I loved it even more this time around. The book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is actually my favorite classic. I could go on and on about Shelley, that time in history (the year without a summer), science, etc, but we are here today to talk about Young Frankenstein.

This Mel Brooks film keeps true to the bones of the original story, but with Brooks’ style of humor and shenanigans. Gene Wilder is brilliant in this, as the grandson of Victor Frankenstein. Wilder’s character rejects his grandfather, considers him a lunatic, and even stresses that his name be pronounced Fronkensteen, in order to further separate himself from his crazy ancestor. However, when he is presented with the will of his great-grandfather he is forced to deal with what he considers the skeletons in his family closet and travels to Transylvania. (And I can never ever hear that word, Transylvania, without hearing Tim Curry as Frankenfurter singing it in Rocky Horror) Frankenstein arrives in Transylvania and seems unfazed at the people around him still dressed as medieval villagers. He is slightly thrown off by the appearance of Igor (Eyegor) portrayed by Marty Feldman. Feldman’s performance was my favorite by the way. He seemed to really enjoy hamming it up.

Frankenstein is adamant that he is completely different than his ancestor Victor. Until he discovers the secret to recreating life, in a book clearly titled How I Did It by Victor Frankenstein, and he engages the help of his assistant Terri Garr as Inga, and of course, Igor. From here, of course things start to get a little nuts. And so does Frankenstein, who manages to reanimate his own creation – one he had hoped to create differently from his grandfather, by using the brain of a scientist. However, after Igor bungles that at the brain depository, an abnormal brain is used without Frankenstein’s knowledge. Ooops.

One thing that I really loved about this comedy is that they stuck by one of the main concepts of the story – that the doctor created this life and should be responsible for his creation. Be his family, love him and teach him. Not be disgusted by him and toss him aside. And Wilder’s character did exactly that, took responsibility for him, after a brief struggle of fear and disgust. The book is so dang sad, and I enjoyed this version’s ending much better. And hey, Madeline Kahn! I love her in everything and this was no exception.

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie! It was a fun comedic take on a serious story, but also remained sensitive to the deeper topics.

Next up we are watching Nightmare Before Christmas, a favorite of mine!

For Lisa’s review of Young Frankenstein, click here!

What We’ve Been Reading – September Edition

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized20 Comments

Every Friday my mom, Wyatt, and I go to the library. It’s one of our favorite weekly traditions! The librarians and staff all know Wyatt, and one librarian has been the librarian there when I started going to the library at basically birth. Mom and Wyatt generally color while I choose my books, and then while my mom is looking, Wyatt and I are picking out his books. He chooses a few that we put on his library card, and then I also pick some as well that I want us to read. We are a family of readers and we generally fill up the wagon! And this upcoming Friday will be our last wagon Friday, as Wyatt gets a loaner wheelchair while we wait for his actual wheelchair to come in, which will be sometime around Thanksgiving. I will be thankful to have it, but now we will need to rethink how to carry all of our books.

This was last week’s haul. I bet you can guess what we are focusing on the next few weeks. Lol.

Let’s start with my mom’s books.

As you may guess, my mom is a bit of a history buff. I love history too, as my mom taught me to love it. And I am pretty sure I am passing that on to Wyatt as well.

And now my books.

It was a great month of reading for me honestly.

For Wyatt, we will just share his and my favorites.

Let’s start with Pip and Zip. This book was one of the first pandemic era books we have read, that discusses the pandemic. During lockdown the family in this book goes for walks (like we all did) and found duck eggs in the water. They raise them and free them and it was lovely story. Wyatt loves ducks so he loved that part; I liked the subtlety of acknowledging those first days of the pandemic – people in masks, the way the characters were drawn with a distance between them, without being super in your face. Plus, it was a neat look at what pandemic project this family had because this book is based on the author’s actual life. This was our favorite book.

Out of the others, Wyatt really enjoyed Lawrence in the Fall, A Very Big Fall, and Miss Turie’s Magic Creatures, which was really cute. It is also a good spooky season book that is not scary, so bonus for any kids out there who might get freaked out but still want seasonal books. I really enjoyed Moon Light, it was so beautiful, The Night Walk, and Ready for Pumpkins which was not only adorable but also covered the growing cycle of a pumpkin – through the eyes of a classroom guinea pig. Loved it.

I am sure Wyatt’s books will get more Halloween themed this month, as my kid loves Halloween. Just like me!

Tuesday Morning Coffee Catch Up

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized14 Comments

Good morning all! It’s been a busy, chaotic few days and I am taking a minute to sit and enjoy my coffee this morning. This mug is from an actual PI business near me, and they would occasionally do work with my cousin’s law firm. When I worked there regularly I fell in love with this mug and took it home. The coffee today is my favorite, Post Alley from Seattle’s Best. Last week we were drinking 6th Avenue Bistro Blend and while it was good, it still couldn’t replace Post Alley in our hearts. We are very serious about our coffee I guess over here.

We started painting our bedroom this weekend! I am so excited about it! It has been a long 20 years of me not liking the color and wanting to paint it but never ever actually doing it. Now we are in the process and I am so impatient for it to be done, but things take time if we want them done right. Billy ended up having to put three coats on to cover the deep blue, even with primer, and since we had the extra paint, added a fourth coat. He plastered, he sanded, he painted the walls, the ceiling, the doors. I painted the trim, two coats. Today the trim goes up and by tomorrow I think we will be in our room again. I’ll make sure to share some photos! For now, this is how we are living…Wyatt loves that we are “camping” all in that room. Lol.

On Friday though before all the madness began, my cousin (the one I mentioned above – his name is Brian) and I went to a “Spooky Shop” at a local used and new bookstore. They opened fairly recently and neither of us had been there before. It was really neat, and I enjoyed hanging out with him. We have been close our whole lives, more like siblings than cousins, and lately we have been making efforts to get back together again. The whole pandemic thing and all put sort of a stop to that for a bit.

Brian is a whole foot taller than my five foot one so it was handy to have him there to get the books down from the high shelves for me. I ended up buying just two this time around – a Sherlock Holmes book, and a book of poetry for Wyatt.

I have a whole folk post percolating in my head. Maybe when the room refresh madness is over I will be able to get to it.

Saturday night we celebrated October with a fire at my brother’s house. It was a perfect night, complete with cider and apple pie. I had to drag Billy out of the bedroom and his work, but he needed a break, and he was happy I forced him to stop working for the night.

My life would not be complete without a nature story. After Wyatt’s physical therapy – which he rocked like a rock star – I was getting in the car and noticed a praying mantis, looking pretty dead but fully intact. It was in the parking lot and I couldn’t bear the thought of it getting run over. I know, I am super weird but things like that bother me. Anyway I scooped it up with my Kroger receipt, and put it in a bag I had in my car and took it home, having no idea what I planned to do with it. Probably just dump it in the garden honestly. When I took it out of the bag though, I thought I saw it twitch. I thought I was crazy. Then I remembered the night before had been so cold, and maybe this mantis had just been too cold to move. So I put it in a butterfly enclosure on the porch in the sun to warm it up safely. And fifteen minutes later, it was moving around. However it is injured, so I will just let it live in the enclosure I guess until it no longer is alive, then dump it in the garden.

And that is it for this morning! Enjoy your day everyone!

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized20 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

First, let me say that I am thinking of everyone who has been affected by the Hurricane. What a terrible situation and I am praying for everyone who was in its path.

This past week was full of work – school, housework, and all the prep needed to start painting our bedroom. How did I have so much in that room? I am flabbergasted. It was a good opportunity to reconsider it all and make choices about what is actually going back in.

We did do some good stuff too – a field trip, watched Hocus Pocus 2, a fire and adult beverages at my brothers. All in all, a pretty solid week.

Read Last Week:

Sheets – what a very different, emotional read than what I was expecting. I absolutely loved it though. I am still working on Invisible Women but it is good so far.

Reading This Week:

Winterset Hollow caught my eye a few months ago and I wrote it down to read this month, October. I am not sure about it honestly – sometimes straight horror books are too much for me these days. However, I am curious about it and I am looking forward to reading it. Hopefully in my newly finished room tonight, but we will see how far Billy and I get today.

Posted Last Week:

My Cozy Fall Shopping List

Spooky Cinema Season: Hocus Pocus

Talk With Me Over Tea

Friends’ Fall Day Trip

Homeschooling Journey: John Henry, Clementine Hunter, and West Virginia

Watching and Listening:

Billy and I never watched the LOTR show darn it. Maybe this week. We instead watched McDonald and Dodds Season 3 – wow that first episode was the best! We started the Chelsea Detective but decided we want to wait on it for winter watching. We also tried out Recipes for Love and Murder and decided we weren’t interested at this time. Maybe later. We obviously had a weird week of tv.

I spent the week catching up on the podcast Your Own Backyard with Chris Lambert. He has been covering the trial of Paul and Ruben Flores, who are being tried for the murder/disappearance of Kristen Smart in 1996. I listened to the podcast earlier, pre-trial, and it is seriously one of the best podcasts I have listened to. Lambert is an amazing investigative journalist, in my non-expert opinion, and the podcast actually helped to propel this eventual arrest and trial of the two Flores men. I am waiting for the newest installment, which covers the last week of the trial, as the closing arguments are this week. No cameras or video recordings are allowed in court due to some of the sensitive witness testimony. Anyway, I could go on and on about this case. I have lots of opinions and feelings.

And that is it from my corner of Michigan!

My Cozy Fall Shopping List

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Friday Favorites11 Comments

So yes, I am a cliched stereotype. I love fall and wearing boots and drinking coffee and wearing plaid and all things pumpkin. I told my brother who likes to good-naturedly josh me about it that I fully embrace it and I am ok with it. I know who I am. And I live in the midwest – autumn here is amazing. Brilliant colors, brisk temperatures, fire and quilts and warmth and coziness, all that good stuff.

I have all sorts of favorites and wish lists and items I have bought or plan to buy, all fall and cozylike. And since in the fall I seem to gravitate away from my beloved bunnies and towards foxes, you might notice a theme. (and be prepared, I will probably make another post about all the Halloween things!)

This post contains Amazon and Etsy affiliate links.

I think we all know we need tea and a good solid mug to drink it from, and I have fallen in love with this sage green and fox mug from Pleasant Pottery, located in the Finger Lakes region of NY. And can you imagine how beautiful that area must be in the fall?? As for tea, Billy requests Earl Greyer every year, while I switch it up. This year I want to try this Apple Pie Chai, which sounds delicious, or the Apple Cinnamon by Celestial Seasonings.

I like to add little festive decorations to the house, like most people. We bring in a lot of nature items that we gather on our walks but I do also decorate with non-nature items too. Lol. I generally do a fall decorate, where it is less Halloween and more autumn, and add in some spooky things in October, which I can easily remove and leave the autumn up through November. I always have a banner up in our den windows, all year, and I love the colors and simplicity of this one from Matthew and Mae. But I also like this version with teal in it! Which do you like better?

I love the mushroom, leaf, and fox tea towel, also an Esty find. We use hand towels a lot around here although sometimes I am like “Wait! Not that one! That one is just for pretty!” I could see me saying that with this one for sure!

And, while not a decoration I am adding these note cards to the cart. I want to start sending handwritten notes out this fall and winter and these are so pretty!

Billy and I are painting our bedroom this weekend, and while I have most of what I need to refresh the room, I do love this print. I am thinking of adding it to our walls. It just makes me feel happy to look at it. I don’t know when or if we will get to Paris, but I like to dream of it. And November is a special month – our anniversary is in November as is my birthday.

A purse has become something more of a necessity. I have broken countless debit cards by putting them in my back pockets (and lost them sometimes too), I have to bring my glasses with me now, I have keys, my phone – ugh just too much stuff. Gone are my carefree days of just a phone and license and debit card. It’s time to grow up and actually carry a purse. This one seems like it will work wonderfully, big enough to carry all my junk unlike my wristlet wallet, but not huge and bulky in case I am holding Wyatt.

Finally, I wanted something fun to wear around this fall. I like to have my arms not all bunched up in layers because I often have to pick Wyatt up and carry him, and it is hard if my clothes are all bunchy. This poncho looks perfect for kicking through leaves, picking apples with my kiddo, sitting around a fire. I wanted something that was easily washable for the same reasons – I have a 7 year old, and sitting around a fire makes your clothes a little smoky. Or a lot smoky, depending. Although Billy likes this one.

Is there anything you are loving for this fall season?

Spooky Cinema Season: Hocus Pocus

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn movies6 Comments

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 week since Hocus Pocus 2 is coming out on the 30th, we watched the OG Hocus Pocus. I actually never saw this until about three years ago, and I needed to know what all the fuss was about. I have seen references to it for just about ever, I know it is beloved and every Halloween I see so many Hocus Pocus themed decorations and costumes. It is a cult classic, the inspiration for so many memes. This meme is my favorite, because I actually do really like Kathy Najimy’s character the best, although Sarah Jessica Parker’s total ditziness made me chuckle a few times.

This is a very silly goofy movie, designed to just get a laugh out of people, one way or another. It’s over the top, exaggerated, and has pretty cool witch costumes. I loved Thora Birch’s little witch costume, she was adorable. And who doesn’t want a cat that talks that turns out to be a ghost (I guess?) from the 1600s? That would be pretty cool.

More than anything though, this movie is just supposed to be fun. There are some things I like about it, besides the talking cat and the costumes. I like what they were trying to do there with stressing the importance of loving your siblings, even though it was a bit on the nose. Max and his sister Dani are typical siblings, that I love you but you pester me sometimes deal. But underneath it all Max does love her, which he proves by taking the potion and sacrificing himself for her. Whereas the Sanderson Sisters seem to be a tight knit sisterhood but the head witch in charge, Winnie (Bette Midler) doesn’t really seem to like them too much, although I think Mary really does love Winnie. And now I feel like maybe I put too much thought into this movie! One thing that does bother me – how the Sandersons are supposed to not understand modern life since they are from the past, yet can make comments and jokes about margarine and drivers permits.

My sister-in-law Chrissy, my little niece Mermaid Girl, and I are watching Hocus Pocus 2 together this weekend. It should be a good time! I am curious if it will keep its over the top qualities or if it will be different in style and spirit. We shall see!

Overall this is a silly, goofy, fun movie for Halloween, especially if you are not into scary but want to watch something Halloweenish.

For Lisa’s review, follow this little link right… ~here~ She watched this with her teenaged son and he had some funny comments!

What do you all think of it? Who is your favorite Sanderson?

Talk with me over Tea!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn chit chat coffee time19 Comments
Photo by Ylanite Koppens on Pexels.com

Hi all!! Happy Wednesday! We are almost to the weekend! I usually write this post in the morning but that didn’t happen today, so instead we are “talking” over tea this afternoon. It’s a chilly but sunny day, and I am sipping on a warm cozy cup of mint tea before we get to the rest our schooling for the day.

Aren’t these “mumkins” so happy and adorable? I had to get one for our porch, they just make me smile! We were at the flower and garden center because they had little photo opps set up – very smart on their end because I had to take Wyatt of course, and ended up buying this mum. I’m sure many people fell into their clever scheme…

Last Friday is usually project/errands/field trip day and I spent a few hours in the morning packing up my grandmother’s china to convert my china cabinet into an art cabinet – at least for a few years.We live in a small house and I have to use all my space as wisely as I can. Turning it into something useful and more functional was a better choice, although I did get a little sad. But, the china although it is beautiful and I love it – I never used it. So for now it is an art supply area and I am loving it honestly. It feels more like us, and is cheerier and brighter. We can sit at the table and finally all of our supplies are close to hand. I don’t have to go searching in many different areas around the house anymore! I have the stuff we use the most on display, and then other supplies stored in the drawers underneath. Today we are doing an art project in the new space and I am super excited. My world is small but I am happy!

I still have a big day ahead of me after I finish up my little tea break. We have science, a little reading, a little math, and our small art project still to do. Then when we finish up, I need to get working on our bedroom. We are finally, finally getting to painting it this weekend! It is such a pain though to move out temporarily. All you all who have moved or are moving, my hat is off to you because that is so much work. I wish I could magically touch the tip of a paint brush to the wall and have it just fill in like it does in Photoshop. Lol. Oh well. It will be a pain for a short time but I will be so happy when it is done. I’ve been wanting this for literally years!

Billy and I are falling back into our autumnal eating menus (pun definitely intended), and we are enjoying this return to comfort food. Pork tenderloin, stews, pot roast, roasted chicken, the list goes on. I have been squirreling away meat all summer, buying extra if it was on sale in case prices went crazy this fall and winter, and I feel very Ma and Pa Ingalls with our larder feeling full. Except we didn’t do any of the actual work, so thank you farmers out there for doing that. I am putting together an order for Azure Standard as well, to help fill up the pantry, and making a run to Sam’s Club, because we are not cool enough for a nearby Costco. Is this like an ancestral type memory, to feel like we have stored up food in the fall? I like to live in tune with the seasons, even though our rhythms are so different than those long ago.

Do you live or eat differently in the fall? I know that we do. Last night my friend and I chatted each other and we were both under blankets watching something Agatha Christie and drinking something warm. Absolute perfection.

And that is about all I have time for right now! Let me know what’s going on in your world!