Category: mom life

Runny Noses and Roo

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn family, family friendly, mom life, Uncategorized2 Comments

Last week passed in a flurry of Kleenex, chicken noodle soup, and Winnie the Pooh movies, with both the boy and me catching a wee bit of a cold. It seems like most of the country is sick with something right now, so I was unsurprised when we got the sniffles. Not happy, but not too surprised either. It made for days of cuddles, hanging out in the bedroom watching movies- lots of enforced down time. It sucked that we were sick, but as I lay there, I thought about how these little moments fly by so fast. In a month or two little man starts preschool, and while he will only be gone two days a week, for just a few hours, I am a mixture of emotions, from nervous to sadness. I have to admit, I got a little teary thinking about it! Listening to this song a million times over the course of the week probably didn’t help either..

I mean seriously Carly Simon. Could you pull the heartstrings any harder?

By Sunday we were well enough to go for a walk with my brother and his family – and the weather was wonderful, warm and sunny. Although waking up to a winter storm warning and blowing gales of snow on Monday was a bit weird. And felt sort of like betrayal after the weather we had experienced over the weekend.

Needless to say, my week was very slow paced. Lots of movies, lots of books and reading, and in between, I did a little online shopping. His doctor in charge of all his therapies and specialist visits wanted us to try leaving off his leg braces for half the day, and to really use them only for when we are specifically working on walking and standing. Wyatt only has shoes that fit over his braces, which are two sizes two big. So for the first time ever I got to buy shoes for Wyatt that fit his actual foot! It was pretty exciting for us, honestly. I ended up getting him Ikiki shoes – they look so cute! And they squeak! They are supposed to come today, and I am really looking forward to Wyatt wearing them. I think he is going to love them!

We also got his little play kitchen, which I am in love with. He loves to play pretend and we set up the cutest little area for him, with a table and chairs and a little kitchen with wooden dishes and pretend food. We have been limiting our outings so I thought it would help with being stuck inside a lot. If you follow me on any other social media, you have already seen this set up a million times, so I apologize for talking about it yet again! My biggest challenge is keeping our cats off of it! I love these stinkers, but wish they would stay off the table. Lol. (That is Miso by the way, our rescued Himalayan. She is a bit squinty, she and one of our other cats got into a “cat fight” over a seat on the chair the other night and she has a teeny scratch. She is ok though. Marlow is Wyatt’s buddy, the all gray cat – also a rescue)

This week and next are busy with appointments and thankfully, fun things too. I have book club tomorrow and Craft Night next week. I am ready to get out of this house for a bit, and relax with friends and a glass or two of wine!

 

First day of Fall!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Michigan, mom life, Uncategorized1 Comment

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Happy fall, y’all! It is officially the first day of autumn, although here in Michigan it still feels like summer! I am so ready for these hot days to go away, and for the cooler, crisper weather to start. I want to wear snuggly sweaters, hoodies, scarves, jeans, boots; I want to drink cider around a bonfire in the slightly chilly evenings. I want my pumpkin spice latte to not seem out of season! It looks like I am going to have to wait though, as the next week is supposed to be in the 80s still.

This is my most favorite, most wonderful time of the year! I may not have the weather (yet!) but Halloween is coming, and that means spooky movies, chilling reads, and fun activities! My calendar is literally filling up! We have family trips to the apple orchard, which I learned last year is a regional thing; various Halloween costume activities at the zoo, at our local metropark, and at Haunted Nights at Greenfield Village. I have Wyatt’s costume bought and ready to go, and I feel ahead of that game. We made his Viking costume last year, complete with a Viking ship made from a wagon, which was pretty amazing. This year I went a little easier, and bought his costume from the Land of Nod. It is adorable – I will share it with you when we get closer!

My plans are not just where we can go – but what we can do. Simpler things. Things like a nature walk through the woods, crunching leaves underfoot, collecting chestnuts and acorns. I want to bake bread, and go to a football game, make a few (easy) fall craft crafts. Make soup. I can’t wait to make soup. I know I can make soup at anytime, but it’s not that fun to eat when it is 90 outside. At least to me, someone who lives in the Midwest. Soup with crunch bread sounds amazing. With goat cheese to spread on the bread – yum!

 

I’ve got so much goodness planned – I can’t wait! What about all of you? Any traditions? Anything you look forward to in the fall? What is your favorite holiday?

Little Things

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn hygge, marriage, mom life6 Comments
My mornings begin with a tiny gesture, a small offering left on the table outside our bedroom: a mug of hot coffee.
This sounds weird, I know.
Lately, my mornings have been beginning earlier than I would have ever contemplated. I’m not an early bird by any stretch. Too early, I even feel slightly ill. But I have learned to take my opportunities where I can these days, and early mornings can belong to me. Before little man, I would get up, not too early mind you, and wake up slowly, reading the interwebs, all the blogs, news, while slowly sipping my coffee and rejoining the world again. I haven’t had that for a while. Quite a while. And I kind of miss a little morning time to myself. So, when my husband gets up for work, I get up too. Kind of, since I don’t actually get out of bed.
That makes me sound lazy, that I stay there. But W. has usually wormed his way in by that point, snugged down between us. I know there are many opinions on this, but for us, it works. He wakes often, trapped against the side of his crib, unable to turn over to the left due to his weaknesses on one side of his body. It has to be scary, to awaken in the dark, alone, unable to move. During the day, he compensates for this. He’s like an acrobat really, for all his limited mobility. He has ingeniously devised his own system of movement, graceful and effective. But, eventually, he winds up with us. Sleep is important, any way that you can get it. Yet that means in the mornings I am tethered, as I have not managed to move him back to his bed without waking him. He always knows.
So I use this time instead, that I am awake and he is asleep. The room slowly grows brighter and sunnier, following that pre-dawn grayness, tinged with pinks and yellows. There is usually some book or another next to me.  I hear a slight clink as my husband sets a coffee down on the table outside our room. Sometimes I hear him quietly making his way down the hall, before the clink. Other times I hear nothing until I hear the sound of the front door closing as he leaves. Those mornings I slip out from under the covers, bare feet on the cool wooden floors, everything cool now really, these early spring mornings, and open the door just a crack and spot my gift right there, waiting for me. I tiptoe back, making sure not to wake W. and plan and read and dream and yes, read the internet too, while I wait for him to wake.
It’s kind of like a secret, but not.

It’s Freezing!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn artist review, Kelly luttrell photography, mom life2 Comments

Oh Michigan, it is definitely winter now. Temps below zero or hovering right above are keeping this little family in the house!

We have been spared thus far though the more severe winter weather that other parts of the country are experiencing however. Not sure how that happened but comparatively, it could be worse! Usually on cold days I am so industrious, bustling about, making bread, or baking something in the oven, or cleaning and organizing places in the house that I usually bypass due to time constraints. Today though, I am being a bit lazy. A little bit dreamy. I want to woolgather in my wooly socks. I want to huddle under blankets with my family and books and multiple cups of tea and coffee and hot chocolate. It is a cold that has made me snuggly.

This year, a year I plan on being more mindful and paying more attention to my own inner needs, I am going to go with that feeling.

If I want to blog and not clean up the last of the detritus from Christmas, I will.

If I want to play around on Pinterest, without planning on making anything from it, I will.

If I want to sit around in my yoga pants and super warm cabin socks, drinking from my fat round belly mug, I will.

And yeah, there are the things I will need to do. Like entertain my almost two year old when he gets up from his nap. Feed him. Feed me. Feed my husband. The husband actually made us all a breakfast of delicious French toast this morning, so I will reciprocate with dinner. I am thinking soup, but then in the winter, I pretty much always think soup, it’s my favorite food group. Tonight I foresee a bubbling pot of tortellini white bean soup on the stove, with a loaf of crusty bread unmade by me, and perhaps a glass of wine, all in my future. Until then, I plan on just hanging out here, letting the day slowly unwind itself and me along with it.

Not everyone stays inside on snow days. In fact, before Punk we used to snow hike all the time. Now we mostly stay in, especially on super cold days like today. Maybe when he gets a little bigger I won’t be so worried, but he is still just so little. My friend Kelly is not afraid of the snow either. In fact, he rather relishes it, tromping about the early hours taking photos of the winter kissed landscaped, or whiles away afternoons in the snow taking some gorgeous photos. 

Here are two of my favorites, with two very different subjects, but still both absolutely stunning.

I love this photo so much. The composition, the focus, the bright colors, the vivid white, and even the echo of brown and texture from her hood to the nest. It’s stunning.
I love this one too. The stillness yet the awareness, the energy you feel lurking beneath the calm, and the calm itself. The colors again, are perfect echoes from the horse to the trees to the snowy landscape.

Kelly’s photos run the gamut from sweet little baby photo shoots to sweeping landscapes to urban gritty photos to photos of the human form. You can check his photos out here. Please note that some photos include nudes, tastefully done. If you like what you see, he also has a GoFundMe right now to replace his equipment. Kelly is the consummate artist, and chooses not to sell his photos for large amounts of money, but rather sells them for whatever people want to offer him, in an effort to put art in the hands of more people. You can check out an article about that endeavor here, if you are interested.

So what about you? What do you do on cold, wintry days?