Book Review: Summer at Lake Haven

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn book review9 Comments

Goodreads Summary:

Samantha Fremont may still be grappling with her mother’s death, but this summer she’s determined to build a new life for herself. Starting with making her friend’s dream wedding dress and establishing herself as a boutique fashion designer in the process. What she does not need is a surprise litter of puppies, the voice in the back of her mind saying she can’t do any of this—or her friend’s gorgeous brother who’s visiting from England for the wedding.

Ian Somerhill knows a sabbatical in Haven Point is exactly what his children need to recover from their own mother’s death. And even if he and Sam got off on the wrong foot, she has a way with Miranda and Thomas. As Sam—and her adorable puppies—bond with his children, they fall into a friendship unlike any he’s had in a long time. But Ian has obligations in England her can’t ignore—and a complicated past that might just stop this summer romance from ever blooming into something more.

My Thoughts:

Remember when you were a kid, and summer seemed to last forever and was all about playing outside, reading all night, fireflies and popsicles? That is what this book made me feel while I was reading it – like I was on an endless summer vacation. It was so light and easy and happy – plus, it had puppies and a rumply, British professor love interest…

Samantha is a romantic – how could you not be, if you are a wedding dress designer? She and her late mother used to run a boutique together – now that her mother is gone, the boutique is Samantha’s, which she runs while designing custom wedding dresses as well. Samantha is learning to live life out from under the shadow of her sharp tongued mother, who seemed to always have a derisive or mocking thing to say, even to her devoted daughter. Starry-eyed Sam, she would call her, making fun (and not in a lighthearted teasing way) of Samantha’s quick propensity to fall in love. So now that Sam is on her own for the first time ever, she is trying to override that little voice inside that wants to hold her back, that niggling of self-doubt.

When Ian and his family move in next door for the summer, Samantha vows she will not fall head over heels for this handsome, fish obsessed professor. She has learned her lesson. Ian has a past – and future – of his own that overshadows any hope of a relationship, the least of which is the geographical distance.

I enjoyed this easy little summer read very much – I love RaeAnne Thayne and Haven Point, so this was a sweet return to favorite characters. They just make me smile! And this book was no different. I loved seeing the evolution of Samantha and Ian, and also their own personal growth overcoming the history that is weighing them down.

All in all, a must read for your summer reading, whether you are on a beach or just at home!

Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

My Sunday-Monday Post!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized30 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

Last week was a pretty good week. Wyatt and I did some fun things, then Friday my mom came over and we socially distanced a picnic dinner. She brought her dinner with her and we had ours, just simple stuff so that we could spend our time talking and enjoying the weather. It was such a nice time. Then Saturday I got brave – I masked up and went to my favorite nursery to pick out some flowers. And it was a good experience. It is a giant nursery, all outdoors, it wasn’t crowded at all, and 99% of the people were masked. They had arrows on the floor to mark one way aisles, 6 feet distancing for the lines, and the cashiers had new plastic shields up. I was scared but soon sort of relaxed as I browsed, since there really wasn’t anyone around me. I went with a list but since I was going so late in the season knew I might have to make swaps. The only things I didn’t end up getting were snapdragons (my favorite!) and lettuce plants, but I bought pentas and swiss chard instead. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon planting everything. Today my brother is coming by to rototill my last little area that I need to work on and then I will be set for this year’s makeshift garden.

Read Last Week:

I read Summer at Lake Haven and it was just I had hoped, a light easy summer read. Perfect for my mood last week. Review coming very soon! I also started Honey and Venom, which I am also enjoying, but didn’t finish yet, so I will be reading it this week as well. I am learning some crazy things about bees – like the scent of bananas enrages them! So don’t eat bananas and then go around bees. Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copies of both!

Reading This Week:

I have been waiting a long time to read this! I pre-ordered it a million years ago because I loved The Vine Witch so much, and yay, now it is here! I love witchy books and this world that Smith created is so fun.

Posted Last Week:

Homeschooling: Bee Week!

Small Steps

Picture Book Review: Under My Tree

Watching:

We are still watching Rosemary and Thyme, and we have one episode left of When Hope Calls. It’s not as good as When Calls the Heart, but I do like the relationship between the sisters. Both of the movies we watched this weekend left me unsettled. I enjoyed them both, but I felt sort of sad after watching both of them. We watched The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, which is apparently based on a true story, and then The Bookshop, starring Emily Mortimer and Bill Nighy, whom I adore in everything. Both were excellent, but definitely left you with lots to think about. These movies are both on Amazon Video.

And that about sums it up for me! Stay safe everyone.

Homeschooling: Bee Week!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn books and reading, homeschooling13 Comments

This week was bee week! I was really looking forward to this one. I might say that about all of them though, as I am the one who really picks the themes…

This week we had some great activities, and great books, including our new read aloud of Winnie-the-Pooh! We started Sunday by going in search of bee hives – I thought I knew where one or two were but they turned out to be empty this year.

On Monday we started with the letter H, for honey and hive, played a memory match vocabulary game, talked about the different types of hives, and “created” a hive out of Honeycomb cereal. Oh and snacked on some honeycomb cereal with drips of honey on it, which was as sticky as it sounds.

Tuesday, we continued working on the letter H and vocabulary, did some sorting and pattern work, and started our fun counting book, complete with little wooden bees. In the afternoon we set up a pollination creation garden, where Wyatt created a little garden (inspired by our Monet’s waterlilies art from pond week) and I filled two of the flowers with powdered Tang to “bee” the pollen. Then we dipped a paintbrush in water, and used it to transfer the pollen from flower to flower. It turned out really cute!

Wednesday was such a sticky hot day, and not from honey but from humidity (another H word!) We did some table work, planted some seeds to grow a pollinator garden, then made homemade honey playdough, which was really fun. Wyatt loves to pretend bake and cook (and really help bake) so this activity was a hit.

Thursday I reserved for music and reading and poetry exclusively. It was a fun day! We listened to Flight of the Bumblebee, talked about the waggle dance that bees do to tell the other bees where to find flowers, and read some poems and rhymes. Friday we were going to make honey soap but decided to save it for Saturday when Billy could participate. So look for that update on my Instagram!

Next week we are going to take a little break, but then resume again the following week. Wyatt missed a month of school or so with the COVID shutdown and I didn’t start working with him right away, so we are going to keep working over the summer, with small breaks.

Resource Roundup!

Twig and Moth – Collection of Bees

Fun with Mama – Bumble Bees

Mrs. A’s Room – Bees Mini Unit

Preschool Discoveries – Bees

Books Read:

(This section contains Amazon and Usborne affiliate links)

This week I went crazy with the book buying. I love love love our copy of Winnie-the-Pooh and I wanted it to be a special one. If you were going to pick just one or two books though, I would go with Why Do We Need Bees? and Follow that Bee. Although Are You a Bee is really good too!

Bee by Britta Teckentrup || Summertime in the Big Woods || Why Do We Need Bees || Follow That Bee || Are You a Bee || Honey || Winnie-the-Pooh

Other Media Consumed:

Scout and the Gumboot Kids – The Case of the Buzzing Sweet Maker (Season 1, Ep 1)

Caitie’s Classroom – Bees

Maddie Moate – Beekeeping with Maddie Moate

And that is about it! It was a really fun week, filled with so many good reads! I feel so much more knowledgeable about bees myself now! If you have any questions about the materials I used or how I adapted them, let me know. You can comment here or send me an email!

Small Steps

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized11 Comments

This past weekend was all about small steps rather than big leaps. My garden is slowly, slowly, slowly coming along. My husband fractured his elbow back in May and he is still healing up, and unfortunately can’t do the digging for us. My brother has been coming over and helping me out – this past weekend we rototilled the front garden area and I hope to plant some things in there around the raspberry bushes soon. It is so weird to be so behind schedule, and off plan. I am a person who makes a detailed plan and then for the most part, checks it off. So this has been a learning experience in flexibility and rolling with the punches for sure. And honestly, I am ok. This just wasn’t the year I guess! Despite the setbacks, we are still doing great with what we have planted – I am super excited about all my radishes and I am going to pickle some of them today. We are also going to try our hand at baguettes (using sourdough since I can’t find yeast still!) and having our radish and butter sandwiches on baguettes, with radishes we have grown and bread we have baked. Simple but good, like my life lately.

We spend our evenings in the front yard, where we actually have some shade, all nestled on a blanket in front of the apple tree. We snack and chat and watch the birds flying about in the twilight. It’s a great way to wind up the evening before going in. We have been doing some read-alouds at night as well, poems from a book called A Poem for Every Night of the Year, and sometimes from Farmer Boy too.

Then this past weekend we took a spontaneous walk through the marsh. Most of our favorite hiking spots are now super crowded so when we go, we try to find some of the smaller, off the beaten trails. Sunday we headed out to one of the places we knew would be crowded, but we only planned on checking out the hive to look for bees, since we were starting bee week this week. Well, no bees, but we decided to wander down one of the less popular trails for a bit. It was such an impulse that kiddo didn’t even wear shoes, we didn’t have our hiking backpack – or sunblock, so it was a quick trip, mostly under the canopy of trees!

I am slowly learning how to live without a plan, something that is hard for me. But I am learning we don’t always need one.

Picture Book Review: Under My Tree

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn book review5 Comments

Under My Tree by Muriel Tallandier

From the Publisher:

A modern take on Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree that celebrates the friendship between a curious child and her favorite tree.

When Susanne leaves her city home to visit her grandmother, she finds a very special tree of her own in the forest. Each time she returns to the tree, she observes something unique about it—from the sheltering protection of its branches to the scratchy surface of its bark.

This is a wonderful introduction to trees for young children that gently cultivates an appreciation for nature. Interwoven in the fiction text are unique facts about trees and simple activities that encourage readers to touch, smell, and observe the world that is all around them. Printed on FSC-certified paper with vegetable-based inks.

My Thoughts:

By the time I finished reading this book to my five year old, I knew that this was one that we need to buy for our own personal library. A little girl so in love with her tree, that she looks forward to seeing it every year when she visits her grandmother. I love this depiction of a child’s relationship with nature! I loved the science sprinkled throughout, the thought provoking questions for children, the prompts to use their senses when thinking about the tree. I loved that the little girl loved her tree so much she shared it with her friends and her family. We are such a nature loving family, that this was a wonderful story to share with my son, to encourage his own relationship with our natural world, and engage his curiosity and senses. I loved this book, but even better, so did my five year old.

This book is compared to Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree, which is a wonderful book, although a sad one. I think this book has a different tone, one that respects the tree, which I enjoy much more.

This was just a lovely story with beautiful illustrations, and one I plan to buy for my son’s shelves, to be read again and again.

Thank you to NetGalley and Myrick Marketing and Media for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

My Sunday-Monday Post!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized28 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

Last week sort of went by in a blur. It’s funny how some weeks go by so slowly, and others fly by. I think last week seemed to go by so quickly because we were able to get some decent outside time in. We have been spending a chunk of our mornings and afternoons outside and it is wonderful! All that sunshine. We head back in during the heat of the day and do other projects then, but the mornings for sure are ours. We also shopped at a small farm over the weekend – Trillium Woods Farm near Lansing, MI. We placed an order online for different meats and then went to their drive-thru pick-up. I have always wanted to start supporting small farmers and this year I really am going to do better. Our own little plantings are doing well, our peanuts and radishes and carrots and beets are coming along!

Read Last Week:

I talked last week about how this book really resonated with me, and it really does. From start to finish, I devoured this book, and feel like I am on the right path for my child. Everyone has their own journey and I think this is part of ours, at least for now. I even joined the Wild and Free community online!

Reading This Week:

I am so excited to read this new RaeAnne Thayne book – it is just the right time for this summery type read. I am also looking forward to Honey and Venom – we are learning about bees this week and it seemed like a good time to start this one as well!

Posted Last Week:

Currently..June

Homeschooling: Ladybug Week!

Watching:

So this week we have been watching Living the Dream, When Hope Calls, and Rosemary and Thyme. For our movie nights this week we tried watching Winchester until it scared me too much and we had to turn it off lol. Then Saturday we watched This Beautiful Fantastic – and I loved it so so much!! I see myself watching it many many more times. Can a movie become an instant favorite? If so, this is one. It is beautiful and if you love books or gardens or quirky or unlikely friendships this is the movie for you.

Stay Safe everyone.

Homeschooling: Ladybug Week!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn homeschooling8 Comments

Ladybug week! I was super excited about this week, since we were going to have live ladybug larvae to observe with our studies! They are pretty crazy looking honestly. And I learned things about ladybugs as well – I think that is one of the coolest things about schooling Wyatt myself. I am continuing to learn too! Did you know that when ladybugs emerge from the pupa state they are yellow before they turn red? I didn’t until this week.

We also started the sunshine before noon challenge from 1000 Hours Outside this week. Morning sun is supposed to do wonders for your health, both physical and mental, and we are making it a priority to get outside early. I am loving the early morning time outdoors together – we read and draw and talk and observe the world around us. Blue jays shrieking, dragonflies flying low over our heads like little helicopters, the breeze blowing through our hair. It is a wonderful way to start the day. We start in the shade and then welcome the sun as it moves closer to us.

We worked on so many things this week, but focused on the life cycles of ladybugs, what they eat, counting, letter and number identification, the letter L, handwriting, patterns, sequencing, and fine motor. If you read here, you know that Wyatt has Cerebral Palsy. One thing he was working on in school was making a circle, without going around and around in spirals. Just one circle, with a starting and stopping point. And this week, he did it! We were sitting outside and boom, there it was. Over and over. And he was so proud, as he should be! We do a lot of hand over hand work together, as well as using an app called Writing Wizard, and this week the connection between brain and hand was made! He is such a hard worker.

This was a fun week, and I was so happy that we were able to get outside too! I am really looking forward to next week, when we tackle bees! After that we are taking a week’s break then we are just going to pick back up again. We missed two months of school so we will continue, although I hope to make it a little less formal most days.

Resource Round Up!

Ladybug Anatomy Bundle and Printables – PsychoScreen

Ladybugs Preschool Printables – Lauren-Sophia

Books We Read:

(This section contains Amazon Affiliate links)

A Ladybug’s Life || Are You a Ladybug || The Life Cycle of a Ladybug || Mrs. Peanuckle’s Bug Alphabet

Extras Used:

(This section contains Amazon Affiliate links)

InsectLore Ladybug Land Kit

Wooden Self-Adhesive Ladybugs and Bees

Videos/Songs:

Caitie’s Classroom – Beautiful Bugs

Ladybugs by Jessie Farrell (Gumboot Kids – Spotify)

If you have any questions about how I used or adapted the materials let me know!

Currently…June

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized30 Comments

Today I am linking up with Anne in Residence’s monthly post, Currently… This month we are sharing what we are feeling, wearing, buying, craving, and discussing.

Wearing:

These two necklaces that were both gifts to me from special people in my life. My husband surprised me with the rabbit and moon necklace for mother’s day – he knows how much I love rabbits and the moon. He said he also liked the shape of this one, because he knows how much I also rub the pendant of whatever necklace I am wearing, almost like a touchstone. The other is a necklace that one of my best friends surprised me with after a particularly hard week in my life. She remembered how much I admired hers and wanted to give me a smile. And she did!

Buying: Lots of crafting and art supplies, and picture books. I miss the library! We also purchased a Schwinn Roadster for our kiddo! He has cerebral palsy and is not able to balance on a two-wheeler right now, and we wanted him to have something to ride around. His legs have gotten too long for his tricycle from last year, plus we didn’t want him to look too “baby” so we thought this was a great find for him! It is low to the ground, has a stable center of balance, and is very sturdy – sort of like a hybrid tricycle big wheel. Plus it looks cool. He absolutely loves it! We are working on the pedaling still but it will happen!

Craving: Fresh fruit and vegetables! I have been super nervous about buying fresh produce from the stores with the pandemic – I know it is probably cuckoo. But yesterday we finally did it and made this Mediterranean tuna salad with fresh veggies (including mint from our own garden), and oh my goodness, it was divine after three months of not enjoying anything fresh. Our own garden is slowly taking shape, after many setbacks – shelter-in-place and my husband’s fractured elbow being big ones.

Feeling and Discussing: So many things. Sadness, grief. Contemplative. I’ve been staying sort of quiet online about current events since I don’t feel like it’s my feelings that need to be heard. But there needs to be change, real change, in this world. So right now I am listening and learning and praying.

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized40 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

Last week was pretty focused on the outdoors – gardening, toads, ponds, playing in the yard and water. My husband worked pretty late all week and the kiddo and I are still on lockdown, but we made the best of it that we could. We even made sugar cookies cut out to look like dragonflies together on Friday – although Wyatt was more about eating the frosting straight out of the container rather than helping to decorate. I’m not the baker in the family, that is Billy, but these turned out pretty ok!

Read Last Week:

I was so excited to see this on NetGalley! I am really enjoying this series.

Reading This Week:

Well this book has been a sort of personal revelation for me – it is everything I feel in my soul as a mother! It resonates so deeply for me – I had bought the kindle version and then the next day ordered a physical copy as well. Needless to say I am loving it.

Posted Last Week:

Homeschooling: Ponds and Frogs

Book Review: A Death Long Overdue

Weekend Vibes..

Watching:

We finished up When Calls the Heart and I miss its simple, happy ease already! We started watching Living the Dream on Britbox and Rosemary and Thyme and are enjoying them.. but I still miss my Hope Valley characters. Our movie nights this weekend we watched the new Emma, which we thought was ok, not great. I kind of enjoyed the golden warmth of the cinematography, so much yellow and gold, like the sun was constantly shining on them. My husband and I are heathens though – we both agreed our favorite version is…Clueless. LOL. Then we watched The House with a Clock in its Walls. I was so excited to see this! John Bellairs was born in Michigan, not too far from here really, and I have stood in front of the house that inspired this story. So I was really excited to see this movie. It was a fun kids movie for sure! Kind of dark, so if you are not a fan of that for kids avoid this one.

Stay safe everyone.

Homeschooling: Frogs and Ponds!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn homeschooling7 Comments

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This week we learned about ponds, pond life, and frogs! I have to admit this week forced me to sort of overcome my squeamishness over getting my hands mucky – I am not a fan. Luckily Billy doesn’t mind so he could take over some of the messier aspects of our pond dipping experiences. That is the first thing we did – pond dipping! I had never heard it called this before but I like it. We bought Wyatt a catch and release beach aquarium, suited him up in his rain gear (he would not have liked sitting in muck either..), and let him explore the shallows of our favorite pond. Honestly, we didn’t find much! We did manage to spot an aquatic snail in our pail but otherwise, nothing. Lol. We did spot much larger creatures, from herons to water snakes to toads in the sand, so it wasn’t a complete bust.

This week, we also played with a pond sensory bin, which was welcome on the hottest day for us so far. We kept to the shade and Wyatt loved the small water play. We also worked on counting, number and letter identification, size comparisons, patterns and sequencing as well as discussing pond habitats and the animals that live there, and the life cycle of frogs. It was a busy week!

Art is becoming one of our favorite activities! Wyatt loves to paint so this week I lined up two painting projects – a rendition of Monet’s Water Lilies, and then I had planned to do some carton creatures, but then we swerved off plan! Wyatt was having more fun painting on the paper I had put down on the table, so I just scrapped the carton creature idea and just let him create some process art.

 

I am getting a kick out of finding these art projects that are based off of famous artists, that also match our theme, lol. This one might be my favorite so far!

This was a pretty fun week, even though my hands got a little dirty…

 

Resource Round-Up:

Pond Unit Study – Stephanie Hathaway

Life Cycle of a Frog – Stephanie Hathaway 

Pond and Frog Preschool Activities – Pre-K Printable Fun

Scout and the Gumboot Kids – Frogs

Books: 

(This section contains Amazon Affiliate links for which I will receive a small commission. I use all money made this way to purchase more educational materials)

Over and Under the Pond || Growing Frogs || In the Small, Small Pond ||The Wide-Mouthed Frog || Big Fish, Little Fish || Fish is Fish||The Usborne Outdoor Book || Across the Stream|| Have You Seen My Duckling

 

Videos and Art Projects:

Caitie’s Classroom – Frogs 

Scout and the Gumboot Kids and the Case of the Spotted Jelly – Amazon Prime

Monet Inspired Water Lilies = Messy Little Monster

 

Also, I wanted to share that The Hidden Way has teamed up with many different homeschool resource creators and is offering a Mega-Nature Bundle for $25! It is over 1800 pages and offers studies on many different topics for learners of all ages. I bought mine yesterday; there were so many different units included that I plan on doing with Wyatt, such as bees, owls, birds, and so many others, that it would have been crazy not to. I would have spent that on just one or two of the units alone!

Please let me know if you have any questions about how I use or adapt these materials in my learning time with Wyatt!