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!

A Cup of Morning Coffee

On July 17, 2021 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn mom life, nature7 Comments

Maggie likes to sit right next to me when I am working. She matches my “Strega Nona” mug perfectly. Lol.

My office is one of my happy places these days. It is so full of life in here, my lizards, my butterflies, the plants. The scent of dill and fennel from the caterpillar tanks remind me of being in my garden, and combined with the green wallpaper, the desk, the carpet, it just feels so peaceful in here.

I’ve thought a lot about my “happy places” this week. It’s been a rough week honestly, with lots of ups and downs, emotional moments, and frankly just all topsy-turvy. I’ve had to actively seek out those places and things that can ease my soul this week, fitting them in where I could. Time spent in here definitely is one of those places.

Another is outside in the butterfly garden. I love just being near all that beauty, observing the insects that are buzzing around, going about their own little lives in this place that I have created for them. And if I have a glass of wine with me in the evening, even better. I can’t wait to expand the garden next year honestly. We start small with our projects, and add on every year, and the garden is no different, a work in progress.

But I guess I am not all nature all the time. And especially this week, when our house has been so hot and humid. Our air conditioner is being fixed tomorrow thank goodness, but we have been either huddled in our bedroom with the portable unit, or sweating in the rest of the house. I needed an escape this week, and for me that is either the library (more on the library Wednesday..) or… Target.

I needed to be away. Out. Alone. Anonymous even. Not mom, not Erin. Just some lady walking around Target throwing various items into her cart, wandering the aisles looking at stuff. Plus, it is air conditioned. I also needed to be not hot.

Later this morning, we are visiting another of my happy places, one we haven’t been to for over a year. In fact, it was the last place we had been before lockdown March 2020. The nature center at our favorite metropark. We had celebrated Wyatt’s birthday, then boom, lockdown. During that time they were closed, they did a whole renovation to the interior, so today when we go, it is going to different looking, but still the same place. With the same people who work there who have become friends over the last twenty years, which is how long we have been going there. I am excited to visit and see the changes, and catch up with our friends, to watch the birds out the big windows, to explore the new displays. We are heading there soon, as soon as I finish up this coffee and we all get dressed. I can’t wait!

How about you? Where do you escape to? What are your happy places?

Italy in July

On July 16, 2021July 15, 2021 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn homeschooling8 Comments

Salve!!

We have been having a blast exploring Italy this summer! Not in person sadly, but learning and reading and yes, eating Italian food together. Every few months we study a country where our family has roots, as part of an intro to geography type thing, and Italy has been so much fun.

If I started at the beginning, I would have to say it was with watching Luca. I love that movie, it is so good! I love how it is such a movie of friendship and acceptance. And even in cartoon form, Italy is gorgeous.

Then, our actual studies began – I wanted to keep it fun and sort of loose and unstructured, it is summer after all, so we are not working on it every day, and we have lots of books and videos and art projects instead of straight learning facts and worksheets. And I want to create a love for learning about other countries and cultures – geography was always a favorite of mine is school, and I really want to pass that on.

We started off easy, reading about Italy in general, making an herb flag of Italy, a pasta map out of macaroni noodles, and learning some basic words and phrases. I did buy a few resources online to help me out – the main one we are using is from Savy Activities, a maker I have never used before but will again in the future. I just love how they have the information presented and their activities are so fun!

From here, we zoomed in for a closer look. Last year we built an Eiffel Tower from wafer cookies. This year, we built the Colosseum.

Wyatt did great, although he did want to eat our building materials. He kept snacking on our walls! We did have it for dessert that night though. Lol.

And we had a Strega Nona day! I love Strega Nona. They are such classic picture books and remind me of my childhood. We read the book Strega Nona, did some story sequencing, and did a little craft of Strega and her magic pasta pot. For dinner, we had spaghetti, but I was careful not to flood the streets of our city with it. ( I can’t find the link to the materials I used for this although I believe it was from Scholastic. If I locate it I will update this post)

This week has been my favorite so far though. Monday was Pisa, Pizza, and Pizelles day. The kids learned about the Leaning Tower of Pisa, made their own personal pizzas, and tried pizelles.

Our tower crafts were not our best ever, so thank goodness we had the pizza and pizelles to follow it up. And seriously, that pizza was delicious. These picky eaters both ate all of it!

Wednesday was – are you ready – Michaelangelato day. Sometimes I crack myself up. The kids learned about Michaelangelo, did their own version of how he painted the Sistine Chapel, then we all had a gelato taste test! I bought five different flavors and we tasted them all, recording whether we liked it, didn’t like it, or were not quite sure. I bought Talenti Gelato in the flavors of Coconut, Mint, Peanut Butter Cup, Confetti Cookie, and Strawberry Cheesecake. The winner of best tasting gelato was hands down the Mediterranean Mint. It was the favorite of 3 out of 4 of us. I was the only one who placed the confetti cookie ahead of it. Wyatt was the only one of us to like the coconut, but he refused the strawberry. It was a lot fun.

Next week we are moving on to frescoes and music, and then we are finishing up in Venice!

This has been a fantastically fun month so far. We have a few other things planned, including a field trip and Billy and I have been conducting a local pizza survey as well, that I will write about later.

Until next time everyone, ciao!

Our Butterfly Project – Update #4

On July 14, 2021July 14, 2021 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized13 Comments

And we have a Monarch! Our very first chrysalis hatched on Tuesday morning. I was so excited I ran down the stairs to the basement to my husband’s office to tell him, and I asked if he wanted to come see it. He was not as excited as I was. However he did eventually come up to check it out before I let her go.

I usually start with the Black Swallowtails, but today, we are all about the Monarchs.

We had reached a point where all of our cats were in chrysalis! It was very quiet in the tanks. Then I went and checked our milkweed, and found monarch eggs!

I debated whether or not I wanted to bring them in. I was finding the idea of raising them from eggs a little intimidating, but I know that we have so many different insects in our garden that they probably were not safe – spiders, wasps, all sorts of critters. I decided to chance it, so I left them. And the next day they were gone. After that, I brought in every egg that I found. If you are interested, you peel the leaf off, and place it carefully into a plastic container that has paper towel lining the bottom. You don’t need to worry about little air holes as you will be opening it at least twice a day to check on them, and also to spritz them gently with water. If you have more leaves with eggs than you have room for, you can cut the leaves into smaller pieces. Then you wait. And eventually you will see a teensy tiny baby caterpillar. At this point, I leave them a few days in this little nursery, since they are even smaller than they are here. When they get about this size or a little bigger, I move them to their own tank with more milkweed. And then just keep feeding them and letting them grow.

We were at this stage for a few days, and then Monday night I noticed one of the chrysalis was turning dark, a sign that it was getting close to eclosing! If I had not gone to bed, I would have eventually been able to see the wings through the chrysalis. When I got up the next morning, I was rushing, running late to Wyatt’s therapy and I just glanced into the room to see if there was a butterfly hanging around, and nope not yet. However, when we got home, there was!

I gave her a few hours to pump up her wings and let her dry, then took her out to release her. She hung out for a minute before flying away. This one I named Faye.

The others went into chrysalis right after this one had, so I am expecting a flurry of butterflies pretty soon!

So, now the Black Swallowtails!

I only had a few chrysalis left at last posting, three to be exact. Since then, two more have eclosed, both males.

The first photo is the butterfly I named for my stepfather Jerry, and the second one is named DeWayne, for a blogger friend’s father. Both took off immediately when I released them. I have been tracking this actually, and every male I have had has flown off immediately. Every female has let me hold her before flying away. I wonder if this trend will continue and what it means, if anything.

And when I released DeWayne, I found two more Black Swallowtail caterpillars.

So the tally, as of Tuesday afternoon when I am writing this:

5 released Black Swallowtail, 1 released Monarch, 14 Monarch chrysalis, 1 Black Swallowtail chrysalis, 2 Black Swallowtail caterpillars, 5 Monarch tiny babies, and 3 Monarch eggs, and 2 Black Swallowtail eggs. This could change before tomorrow morning but this is my tally as it stands right now.

You can see my other updates here!

Update #1

Update #2

Update #3

Updated July 14th, 8:45 am:

When I woke up this morning, I had one more butterfly, still coming out of it’s chrysalis. Within the hour, two more eclosed, for a total of three new Monarchs. I will share their story next week!

My Sunday-Monday Post

On July 11, 2021 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

It was a looonnnnggg week last week! We had so much going on that I had to write post-it notes to myself and leave them places so that I could remember what I needed to do and when! We did manage to sneak in some fun times though, in between all the business. My son and niece had a pool night at my in-laws house, and oh my gosh did they have fun! Wyatt is a water baby and gets so excited and has no fear. He loves to be in the pool. He is screaming and laughing like crazy in that picture of him with my brother, who he was trying to splash. The kids and dads played in the pool for a few hours and then followed it up by devouring pizza and crazy bread.

Read Last Week:

I didn’t read quite as much as I had hoped last week, although I did finish this one. I loved it! I hope to do a few quick book reviews this week.

I had wanted to start Cape Cod by William Martin but I can’t find my copy! I packed it up when we redid the office and I can’t find the box it is in. So I put a hold on it from the library and I am waiting for it to come in.

Reading This Week:

While I was going through the boxes of books, I did pull this one out. Another oldie but goodie. I just mentioned it to someone on here the other day, when we were talking about Luna Moths. Luna Moths feature in this book somehow but I don’t remember exactly how. I grabbed it to read while I am waiting for Cape Cod. I also want to finish this one.

I got about halfway through it then put it down for some reason and never picked it back up. So it is on my list to finish this week.

Posted Last Week:

The Haps’

<a href="http://<!– wp:paragraph –> <p></p> Currently.. July

Our Butterfly Project #3

The Weekend Vibe

Watching:

Not really anything new. The Tour, Death in Paradise. I am listening to different creepy podcasts and some nature ones as well. Kind of boring on this front for right now.

The Haps’

On July 10, 2021 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn day in the life6 Comments

It’s been quite a week! We set a lot of different things in motion to make some changes this week, shifting stuff around, making different financial changes. We also had to deal with the insurance company over a small dent in Billy’s car that happened when he was hit while parked, and make some decisions on our barely functioning ancient A/C unit. Overall, it was a busy busy week and things have been pretty good for the most part.

I am going to probably skip around a bit, timeline wise. Wyatt had his EEG on Thursday, and he did so good. He is such a trooper all the time. It was supposed to be a 48 hour EEG, where we took him in, had him hooked up, then brought him home. However, on Wednesday the hospital called and I found out that a mistake was made in scheduling and this was a 30 minute EEG in office instead. So I imagine another EEG is in our future. I’m glad we at least got something done though.

He looks a little upset in that last photo. And he was. At me. Lol. I had to take my phone back for a minute and he was not happy with me. I don’t usually ever let him play with it (last time he did he called emergency so.. never again) but for the EEG I let him watch his YouTube favorites and Sesame Street. We got the results but I can’t interpret them so I am waiting on the doctor to call. But Wyatt did such a great job. He loved showing everyone his moon shirt, and it seems a lot of people really like the moon too. Or so they told him. The tech was also wonderful, she made the whole experience so much easier for all of us.

Wednesday I went back to work! For a short time but it was still something. I work part-time for my cousin at his law practice, and it is just the two of us. During the past 18 months though, he has been working from home and I haven’t been working at all. I just couldn’t juggle all of Wyatt’s needs and extra work, especially with never knowing quite when Billy is getting home from work. But now we are slowing adding in normalcy, like work. Brian is shifting his business away from the office entirely, and we are creating an office space in his home. I am looking forward to it, I can actually take Wyatt over there with me if need be and let him play or whatever while I work. But first, we need to get it organized. And since I had to pass by a Starbucks on my way over, I of course had to stop and pick up a new favorite, the Iced Matcha Green Tea Latte. So good!

And looking at this, I really need to do something about my nails today!

Last night Billy and I went out together, without Wyatt, for the first time since COVID. Our city has a Street Art Fair every year (except last year) and Billy and I have gone almost every year without fail. It’s been a while since I have gone on a Friday night though! I didn’t really look at the art too much, I was just too busy enjoying being out again. Looking around, people watching. We got tacos and split a beer, finished walking around, and that was about it. It was a beautiful night though, and with the music and the people and sights, it felt so alive. And so did I.

It should be a pretty slow Saturday around here, Billy has to wrap up some of our business today and then tonight we are going swimming at my in-laws with my brother and the fam.

I can’t wait to share some of the things we have been doing for Italy month! Hopefully next week I get a chance to round those up.

How was your week? What has been happening?

Currently…July

On July 7, 2021July 6, 2021 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized11 Comments

It’s that time again! I’m joining up with Anne in Residence for her monthly Currently..post. This month we are talking about what we are eating, feeling, going, ordering, and realizing!

So, on with the prompts!

Eating: Fruit, lots of fruit. Nectarines, peaches, blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries mainly. Turkey burgers and salads. Tacos. BLTs and club sandwiches. Easy stuff, light stuff. It has been aggressively hot here! (at least for Michigan)

Feeling: The summer heat. Also a sense of fullness, I think. When I step outside I am struck by the growing lushness of the gardens, the buzzing of the bees, the butterflies, the fireflies. Birds are singing, neighbors are out. The world just seems so full right now. Of goodness and sunshine, family and friends.

Going: On picnics! I have no idea why, but my son loves to go on picnics. But I do too so it is all good. We have spent some lazy afternoons on the blanket under the trees, reading and snacking and drawing, with the cool breeze sweeping over the water over us, the shade from the trees protecting us from the sun. We could seriously spend hours there. We have also been revisiting some of our favorite places, like the zoo, Greenfield Village, Belle Isle in Detroit. Most weekends we have a fire at my brother’s while the kids play in the yard, getting muddy and dirty and loving every second of it.

Ordering: Iced London Fog Lattes and Iced Green Tea from Starbucks. Both are so darn good! Dresses to wear around the house and to backyard mom’s night out. Books and books and more books. I particularly recommend World of Wonders (for you) and The Big Book of Bugs (for kiddos).

Realizing: That I am a nurturer by nature. That nature has its own rhythms that we can live by. That summer is not my season but I can still find the beauty in it.

How about you all? What have you been eating, feeling, going, ordering, and realizing?

Our Butterfly Project – Update #3

On July 7, 2021July 6, 2021 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized13 Comments

As I said last week, life moves pretty fast when you are a caterpillar. I am writing this Tuesday night, and by tomorrow things could be different!

Let’s start with the Black Swallowtails. By the end of the week, they were all in chrysalis, with one poky little one. Sunday morning I got up, peeked at their enclosure, and saw a butterfly sitting there. It is so exciting to see honestly, just all of a sudden this beautiful creature pops into being.

After they eclose, you need to give them some time for their wings to dry – get their wings in order and all. Before then they are sort of floppy, fluttering wildly and going nowhere. I am giving them about three hours before releasing them and it seems to be a good amount of time. I named this first one after my Uncle who passed away in the fall from COVID. I never got to say goodbye and I whispered to this one to pass my love on to my Uncle as it winged away. I hope Arthur Blue flies high and has a good life.

Later that day our second Swallowtail eclosed. I named this one after my Aunt Barb, and released it when my mom was over. Art took off when we released him, he was ready to fly, but Barb flew a bit then landed nearby and stuck around for a while. That is her at the top.

This morning I woke up to number three, a beautiful female. I released her later in the morning, naming her Marion for my grandmother, and she sat on my hand for quite a while. They feel so light yet you can feel their little feet grabbing on. I sat with her a bit then went to set her on a flower. When I leaned over to place her down, she flew off without hesitation.

Now for the monarchs! Last week I had four hungry caterpillars. Then Thursday, my friend called me to pick up more. When I got there, she had nine for me. 9! By that point though, two of my first four were in chrysalis. And my new ones were big chunkers, so they were destined for chrysalis within a short amount of time.

I was so thrilled that I happened to be sitting at my desk when my first monarch went into chrysalis! I captured some of it on video.

When monarch caterpillars decide it is time, the wander around a bit, looking for their spot. Then they sort of are in on deck position, I call it. Just sitting there. After a bit, they fasten their little silk ending onto whatever they are attached to, then eventually go into a J-hook position. From there it is a waiting game.

These two are a little scrunchy still. They will hang all the way in a J, hanging straight down with a little hook at the end. Then the magical process begins!

So, at current count I have released three Black Swallowtails, and have three left in chrysalis. And.. I have 12 in full chrysalis, two on deck, and one still eating. Two didn’t make it, sadly. One was eaten by another caterpillar, and one for some reason just died. I am betting by tomorrow the two on decks will be in full chrysalis, and the munching muncher will be on deck at least.

If you look at the top you can see so many chrysalis! Monarchs don’t overwinter, so they will all eclose this year. Black Swallowtails, you never know, sometimes it might be next spring. We will see.

And that is where we are as of today!

The Weekend Vibe

On July 6, 2021 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Detroit, family friendly, Michigan, nature12 Comments

I felt like we lived in this car most of the weekend! We kept busy for most of the weekend, whether it was time spent outdoors, with family, and sometimes just taking a ride around. I apologize, this will probably be a long post with lots of photos!

Friday morning we loaded up the car with our new little red wagon, a cooler of water, my backpack of snacks, and headed off to the zoo! We were meeting my brother Devin, his wife Chrissy, and my niece Dino Girl. Thank goodness it was a cooler day, it has been so hot and humid in Michigan it’s like a swamp out there. But Friday was practically perfect.

Whenever we go out we have to make choices on how Wyatt will get around. A backpack carrier? And with me or with Billy? A stroller? I hate that these options limit his independence to practically nothing, but he outgrew his wheelchair over the past year and the way insurance works, if we were to get another one we would practically insure that he would never get another walker again. So, we are trying to work around that since he is working on walking and can use a walker, just not well enough for a trip to the zoo. And not to be negative on here since I hate doing that, but my husband took him for a stroll around the neighborhood the other day in the stroller and was stopped by someone asking what Wyatt’s “issue” was. They also let Billy know that Wyatt was eligible for therapy services, like he hasn’t been in them since he was six months old. So frustrating. I get that the person had good intentions but frankly it wasn’t her business. And now I feel super self-conscious taking Wyatt out that way, I don’t like people staring at him. It will more than likely happen his whole life but I want to be able to make things as easy as I can for him when I can. I’m his mom. I can’t help it. Anyway, Thursday night it clicked that we could use a wagon. So, Billy headed out at 8pm to find one. And delivered like the awesome dad that he is. I felt like the wagon would first, blend in, and second, I was positive my niece would crawl in there at some point too, giving him company and making him feel less isolated. And it was so much easier to take him in and out, he could move around a bit, and it folds down into a bench seat as well. Win-win. There were a million wagons at the zoo too, just like ours so I feel like if he looked around, he wouldn’t feel as different.

Anyway. Once that was out of the way, we were golden for the whole day. Zebras, lions, giraffes, rhinos, camels, tigers – they were all out and about and looking cute. Zebras are Wyatt’s favorite (and mine) and I was excited to see them so close this time!

However, we all seemed to love the Amphibian House the very best. I guess our family does love its little creatures!

I also got super excited about this turtle in the marsh system outside. And this bee!

Saturday we stuck closer to home. We loaded up our little wagon again, this time with picnic supplies, and had a little picnic in the park. Later on that night we had drinks with my brother and fam, plus my dad and stepmom too.

It was so hot and sultry out this weekend, and I think we were all remembering our many trips to New Orleans – which inspired Billy to make a cocktail. Which he never does. And I rarely drink at all, if ever. But it was good, y’all. Also, my new favorite summer wine made an appearance. The drink Billy made is called a Gin Basil Smash, and it is so light and refreshing and citrusy. And actually so is the wine. (Loveblock, Sauvignon Blanc)

Sunday morning, and we just kept on rolling. We took a drive around Detroit, specifically Belle Isle and the farmer’s market area of Eastern Market. Eastern Market was closed so I was able to grab photos of the beautiful street art.

From here we headed to Belle Isle for a total change of scenery…

And someone got a little sleepy.

It was a busy, full weekend, full of people and sights and things that I love.

I hope you all did something or talked to someone that made you smile over the weekend!

My Sunday-Monday Post

On July 4, 2021 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized24 Comments

My Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer
Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date

Happy 4th of July if you celebrate! We are having a slow day today, and not really doing much. We had a pretty busy Friday and Saturday though, with a trip to the zoo, a picnic, and a fire and BBQ with my family. Today we are keeping it low key. We did go for a ride earlier today, which is something of a tradition for us on the 4th. It is usually super hot and muggy and today is no exception. Wyatt just is not great in heat so we generally keep inside, get some ice cream, and go for a ride. I’m looking forward to watching Jaws later on (another 4th of July tradition) and finishing up my book!

Read Last Week:

I have one chapter left in this book but I am seriously in love with every bit of it. It is definitely one of the best books I have read this year – it is beautiful. I have already recommended it to so many people. It’s almost a treat to read it at night, I am enjoying it so much. Nezhukumatathil has an amazing talent.

Reading This Week:

This week I am starting both of these. Cape Cod is a favorite of mine, and a big chunker so I am sure I will be reading it over the next month. And I love the Truly Devious serious so I am super excited to read it! Wyatt actually has a 48 hour EEG this week, and we will be home for the duration of it. He will be all hooked up at the hospital, then we will do the actual EEG at home, then take him back to be unhooked. So, we will be staying at home those 48 hours, probably watching tv, reading, and doing sort of easy things.

Posted Last Week:

Hello July!

Our Butterfly Project #2

Iced Tea Afternoons

Watching:

The Tour de France!! And pretty much nothing else, except for all creatures living in my home, my lizards and caterpillars and cats. I literally just sat and watched my first monarch caterpillar go into chrysalis and it was crazy! I managed to record some of it and I will post it in my update on Wednesday if you are interested.

And that is it from our little refuge. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!

Hello July!

On July 1, 2021July 1, 2021 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized9 Comments

I can hardly believe it is July already! June was a pretty darn good month. A return to a more normal way of life, fresh strawberries from the garden, caterpillars, ice cream, lazy nights, a new favorite wine. All the little things that make up our days and make us smile.

Every July I used to reread the book Cape Cod by William Martin. It is a big chonker of a book, but I love every bit of it. I haven’t read it for a few years and I can’t get it out of my mind lately. It looks like I will be rereading it this year. We are going to the zoo this weekend, having a fire at my brother’s and then I don’t know what all else for the fourth. I do know we are going to watch Jaws, which has become a 4th of July tradition. That scene where Quint talks about the USS Indianapolis is one of the best bits of acting I have seen in a movie. It is riveting. And terrifying.

July brings us the potential for more and new adventures – we are doing a whole Italy study for the entire month of July, and it is going to be so much fun. We started on Monday, and we have already done some cute little projects! We have a “field trip” planned to a local winery – it was the only place nearby I could think of where the kids could see grapes growing for the life cycle of a grape study. But bonus for the adults. I think that we will take a picnic with us and the kids can have grape juice while the parents taste one or two of the wines being offered. I also have a few new recipes for us to try together, along with learning a bit of the language. I am still doing a bit of research about other things we can do to tie in to this unit – I am sure I will find a few more!

It is also the month of the Tour de France! Billy and I have been glued to it every night when he comes home from work – this year has been so crazy already. Some emotional wins, some terrible crashes, even a protest and an arrest! My favorite cyclist, Mikel Landa, is not part of the Tour this year as he has a broken collarbone. I hate that he has to miss out this year! I already miss seeing him pedal pedal pedal to the finish line! I am trying to find my cyclist to root for, but honestly, I have been so happy for every cyclist that has won a stage so far this race. Wyatt is even starting to enjoy watching, at least the end and all the excitement that happens in those last few minutes!

My garden is slowly filling out and growing – this cycle of rain and hot weather seems to be good for it. Not as much for me, but the plants seem happy. I love going outside and just looking at how pretty it is all looking! I ended up planting way more flowers than vegetables this year. I guess that is what my soul needed this year. I desperately need to get outside and do something with my tomatoes though. I can’t find any tomato cages and my plants have become a big jungle! I hope that they are salvageable, the tomatoes look amazing already. I had been so proactive, pulling off the suckers, removing the shoots from the bottom – then bam, it is a giant mess. This is a view from my front window. This cute little squirrel showed up for breakfast the other day, plopping himself among the yarrow and lavender and raspberries. And can I just say how much I am loving yarrow these days? I never planted it before and I am in love with it.