My Sunday-Monday Post

On November 9, 2025November 9, 2025 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

Hello everyone!! It is snowing here! Our first snow of the year! I always feel like it is my personal gift from Mother Nature when it is around my birthday, which is next week. I am very Lorelai Gilmore about snow, especially the first snow. Tonight I am going to make soup and if I can, I am going to try to make cinnamon rolls for the first time as well.

What I Read Last Week:

This book was the perfect pick me up, full of cozy moments, snow, soup, and winged cats. I loved it!

Reading This Week:

I had started Shady Hollow when I finished The Enchanted Greenhouse, so I am reading that, but I also want to read A Land so Wide.

Posted Last Week:

Hello November

Good Book and a Cup of Tea Monthly Link Party

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Randomly Grabbed Off the Shelf

Introducing Soup and Story Saturdays

Comfy Cozy Cinema: The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain

Friday Morning Coffee Catch Up

Watching:

Billy and I must be craving cozy, because we have started our umpteenth rewatch of the BBC farm shows. We just finished up Victorian Farm again, and will probably move on to Edwardian Farm next. The hold these shows have on us! Lol. I am not the only one though. I found this reel on Instagram and it made me giggle. I even commented about how we love to watch this show, blah blah, and a bunch of people liked my comment, probably because they are the same!

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Tonight we are watching the last movie in our Comfy Cozy Cinema line up, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. Then after American Thanksgiving, we will begin our Comfy Cozy Christmas link party where you can all feel free to spread the holiday cheer, all winter holidays in December btw, not just Christmas, by linking up your holiday posts! With the snow today, I can feel the winter holiday season so clearly now!

Internet Happenings:

I’ve already talked about them all a little, but Lisa and I are hosting Comfy Cozy Cinema, then Comfy Cozy Christmas together. We are also co-hosting A Good Book and a Cup of Tea, which is a monthly book linky for anything book related. And finally, I am introducing my new Soup and Story Saturdays. It is, you guessed it, all about soup! Link your posts about a soup you made or have eaten, a recipe if you made it, and either a bit about the book you are reading, or a story you want to tell us about your own life. Pretend we are at dinner together, having a meal and sharing a tale. Because I want to be a hobbit with you guys.

I also just signed up for the Library Love 2025 Challenge – I guess better late than never. I will be watching for next year’s sign up now though, if it continues. 99% of our reads come from the library and I believe wholeheartedly in supporting your local library!

And that is it from me today! I hope that whatever you do, you do something that makes you smile!

Friday Morning Coffee Catch Up

On November 7, 2025 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized15 Comments

Hello everyone!! Today is looking like a low key, read under a blanket rainy day! However, I don’t think my ten year old will let me do that all day. Lol. Maybe I can get an hour or so in though this morning. I did promise him that we would go out for our mother-son book and cookies outing today, which will be fun. The rain will make it even better I bet.

I feel like so much has happened since I last did one of these, which apparently was October 24th!

We carved pumpkins, which is always a tradition around here. Wyatt had a very visceral reaction to touching the pumpkin insides which could have been disastrous, but he held it together. He was very excited to carve them though, and was cracking me up giving his pumpkin kisses before he carved it. He is a super goofball. Last year for Christmas we had given Wyatt a set of Makedo tools (which he loves) and we learned that they are also useful for pumpkin carving! They are designed for cutting and creating things out of cardboard but it was good to know we can use it on different things!

Our Jack O’Lanterns from top to bottom – Wyatt’s smiley happy one, Billy’s classic version, and my dragon/lizard.

The next day was Halloween! Wyatt visited Billy at work in his costume for Billy’s Halloween work party. They go big there for Halloween! Wyatt ended up being entered into the costume contest and won. He was very embarrassed however from all the attention. Ten is a hard age! He did enjoy visiting and they know him there obviously from Billy and from Take Your Child to Work Day. Billy and some of his coworkers dressed together as minions; I didn’t get his entire costume in a picture although it was really cool.

I mean, his costume is pretty amazing. Billy did such a fantastic job making the Toothless head and the rest. I was in charge of the Hiccup/Wyatt while Billy did the rest. Wyatt absolutely loved his costume. My little viking. And strangely, this is the second time that Wyatt was a viking – the first was when he was one. This time it was his choice though.

We went trick or treating a few hours and a nap later with his cousins, my brother’s children, Mermaid Girl and Little Bit. Mermaid Girl was Coraline, and she looked amazing as well. Little Bit was Elsa, but we had a little excitement and tears earlier when she fell face first onto the pavement and scraped her nose up horribly. Poor baby. She didn’t let it slow her down or diminish her joy of trick or treating though! Although she did have a really long much deserved cry beforehand. She loves Wyatt so much though that she was distracted from it when her parents told her that he was on his way over. She calls him Wy-ee and was waiting at the door and windows for him. It is so sweet and warms my heart!

We had some much needed downtime after the whirlwind that was October! We did however, teepee my brother’s house for their anniversary on the 2nd. Kids need a little good old fashioned mischief sometimes.

And then my brother is set to repay us, I know it because he was mad he missed when we went out for our anniversary on the 4th! Lol. He had thought we were waiting for the weekend but instead we went out on our actual anniversary. His kids were disappointed they didn’t get to return the favor but I assured him there will be plenty of future opportunities.

Billy and I actually were celebrating our 25th anniversary. I have known this guy a long time I guess! We started dating at 17, got married at 24/25 and here we are, much grayer, a few more wrinkles on our faces, but still all in love and all that sappy stuff. He is my guy and my other half and I have known that since the summer we started dating. We didn’t go big for our anniversary, we didn’t have much time available, as it is hard for us to have anyone watch Wyatt but we went out for dinner together and I was so grateful for it and for him. He surprised me with a unique gift as well. He had bought a silver Indian spoon, that depicts a shadow puppet or puppet, and he built a shadow box for it to hang in. When you shine a light on it, the shadow is cast on the inside of the box and it is really cool. He is so clever! He also got me two little anniversary red cherry shrimp for one of our tanks. (Ok that wasn’t really part of our anniversary but I am saying it was lol)

We went to HopCat which is a place I have been wanting to go, and we had a blast. It was a very fun vibe there. Although my hair looked terrible. I decided to straighten it and it was so bizarre looking.

And that is it for now! I will have more to share soon!

I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!

Comfy Cozy Cinema: The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain

On November 6, 2025November 6, 2025 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized19 Comments

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are back to watching and sharing about comfy cozy (and as we move closer to Halloween, spookier) movies for the fall season. Feel free to join in with us!!

This week’s movie is The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain. A very long title for a cute little movie.

This was such a sweet little movie about one of my favorite things, a quirky little small town that is full of community. Rotten Tomatoes describes it as “With an ample serving of Huge Grant’s trademark charm, a quirky Welsh town comes together to put their town on the map in this feel-good folksy tale.”

And that is a very simplistic way of looking at this film, since there was a much deeper story under it all, but I will get to that later.

On the surface, this movie is about well, a man (and his boss) who arrive in the small town of Ffynnon Garw, Wales. WWI is still raging, and most of the younger men, sons, brothers, fathers, are off serving in trenches in France. It’s a rough time for people, wartime, full of worry and hardship. But one source of pride the townspeople have is their claim to fame -their mountain.

The rug is pulled out from under them however when two English surveyors (Hugh Grant as Anson and Ian Macniece as Garrad) come to town, and remeasure the mountain – and find out it is a hill. It’s almost like the town visibly deflates. And the Reverend and his nemesis, Morgan the Goat, decide that the English are not going to steal this from them (lots of English vs. Wales banter in this movie). Morale is low, and they need every bit they can to keep a stiff upper lip and all that.

And from there the shenanigans begin. The town works together not only to build up the hill an extra twenty feet to put it over the measurement required to make it a mountain on the map, but to delay the departure of Anson and Garrad. Anson is sheepish, adorable, and affable, while Garrad is a bit of a dandy curmudgeon. His outfits and poses cracked me up. The scene where they were going up the mountain and Garrad was just sprawled out on the ground made me laugh and almost wake my child up. He always looked fabulous though despite his attitude.

The other supporting characters and actors in this were fantastic as well. Colm Meany as Morgan the Goat, was a bit of a slimy character who I didn’t really care for. But Betty played by Tara Fitzgerald was my favorite, besides Hugh Grant, of course. I am sure they are everyone’s favorite characters though. (also adding I love her in I Capture the Castle) She was drawn into the plan to stall the two surveyors by Morgan the Goat, who wanted her to charm and seduce Anson, whose head was turned but he “was a gentleman” which melted Betty’s heart in turn. She made me laugh as well, with some of her comments, like when Anson and Betty were talking about the beauty of some flowers and Anson said they were pretty, and Betty replied with “Not as pretty as me… YOU’RE supposed to say that.” It was just a cute little moment.

There were some serious issues however tackled, regarding the war, especially the PTSD, or shellshocked as they referred to it back then, that the returning men suffered. Johnny Shellshock just about broke my heart, and doubly so knowing that this is such a real thing, then and now.

This whole movie is based on a folktale, and I legit thought it was true because of the ending of the movie, but after reading about it this morning, I learned it is not. Which I am sort of sad that it is not, although I was a little weirded out by one part and was glad that it didn’t really happen.

And now, just some gratuitous images of Hugh Grant because he is adorable.

Overall, this movie is a fun, charming, sweet movie. One for a night when you need a bit of cozy and happy to fill your soul.

You can find Lisa’s post here!

Next week is our last movie this time around, and we are watching The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry.

I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!

Introducing Soup and Story Saturdays!

On November 5, 2025 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized12 Comments

Hello everyone!

Winter is coming here in the cold north of the United States and with it long dark nights, and chilly temperatures. For some people this is a nightmare. I however, look sort of forward to it. It is good to slow down, and winter here forces us to do just that.

“Many human beings say that they enjoy the winter, but what they really enjoy is feeling proof against it.” – Richard Adams, Watership Down

I do look for things to make the winter cozier though. I am all about the cozy and comfy over here, and spending time with a book under a blanket on a cold evening is something I love. Especially if my tummy is full of soup.

Weirdly, I had this idea before I started reading my current book, The Enchanted Greenhouse, and if the idea was just turning over in my brain when I started the book, halfway through this book it was a full fledged one. This book takes place in winter and they eat soup, a lot.

So the idea: On Saturdays, we share a soup we made or ate during the week, or maybe just one we really like, and if possible, share the recipe. Then, of course, we share a story. You can tell us about the book you are reading, or if you want, just share a story of something that happened to you over the week. Maybe even a story of a memory, since I feel like winter and fall make us more reflective. Think of it like we are all sharing a table together, feeling proof against the winter, enjoying our warm food and companionship. And now, I feel like this is so hobbity and I am even more excited!

I will have a linky so we can all pop around and visit, and our first soup and story Saturday will be November 15. I am really looking forward to this!

Top Ten Tuesday: The First 10 Books I Randomly Grabbed from My Shelf

On November 4, 2025November 4, 2025 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized49 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Today’s Prompt: The First 10 Books I Randomly Grabbed from My Shelf

So today’s prompt is so random and fun! I unfortunately don’t own as many books as I once did, I use the library most of the time so I didn’t have as many books to choose from here but it was still a lot of fun!

We were supposed to “stand in front of your book collection, close your eyes, point to a title, and write it down. If you have shelves, point to your physical books. If you have a digital library, use a random number generator and write down the title of the book that corresponds with the number you generated. You get bonus points if you tell us whether or not you’ve read the book, and what you thought of it if you did!“

So, let’s get started!

Shady Hollow: I listened to this once on audio, and now I am excited to read the physical book. I want to read the whole series and need to remind myself about it.

A Natural History of the Hedgerow: I have not read this yet! Maybe this winter.

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands: I have not read this yet either. I think I will next month.

Inkspell’s Enchanted Holiday: Not yet, I am saving it for December. I don’t know much about it but I bought it from a book festival of independent authors last month.

The Honey Witch: I did read this and I loved it!! This was a gift from an internet friend.

Nancy Drew The Bungalow Mystery: I did read it and I am going to read it again I think for Lisa’s Nancy Drew November. (I am not sure if this is linky event or if she is just doing it) Or maybe I will just get a new one since there are so many. Lol.

The Echo of Old Books: Jeesh, another no! But now that I have had it in my hand again I think I will soon!

Seacrow Island: Yes! I loved this book! I definitely recommend it.

The Blue Castle: Another yes, and another recommendation. And, another book gift from a friend!

The Salt Path: Yes, I read this and I enjoyed it. I did not however like the second book, sadly.

And there we have it!

Bookish November Link Party!

On November 3, 2025 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized2 Comments

Hello everyone!! A new month is here, and that means a new link up for the bookish link party that Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I co-host every month!

It’s just all about books!

So, some guidelines.

1. For Bloggers, you can link unlimited posts related to books and reading. These can be posts about what you’re reading, book reviews, books you’ve added to your shelf, reading habits, what you’ve been reading, about trips to bookstore, etc. You get the drift.

2. Link to a specific blog post (URL of a specific post, not your website). Feel free to link up any older posts that may need some love and attention, too.

3. Please visit at least two other bloggers on this list and comment on their posts. Have fun! Interact! Get some book recommendations.

4. Readers can click the blue button below to visit blog posts.

5. If you add a link you are giving me permission to share and link back to your post(s).

It’s just another fun way to build our bookish community!

You can link up here!

Hello November!

On November 1, 2025November 1, 2025 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized15 Comments

Hello November!!

We had a whirlwind October, and so I am looking forward to a less busy November. I want to fully embrace a slower fall, now that Halloween and October is over. We went all out for October because Wyatt had such a crappy summer, and we definitely had a blast. But, now we are ready for relaxing!

Most of the month should be pretty quiet, although we do have two milestone events this month. First, happening Tuesday, is Billy and my 25th wedding anniversary. It seems unbelievable that we have been married that long, but I guess it is true. I am pretty sure we are still only 17.

Which leads me to the next milestone – guys, I turn the big 5-o this month. What the heck? I really really can’t be that age. It sounds insane to me, but again, here we are. Honestly, I’m not really that hing up on the number. I feel every year is a privilege. I am not sure what sort of celebrations we will be having, but I am sure they will be pretty simple affairs. I do know that my besties here are planning a night out, with a bit of fun at the tie dye place downtown followed by dinner at Ima, a noodle house I have been wanting to go to for awhile now! I am the oldest of our group, by one year. Jill is a year younger than me, Kelly two, and Chrissy – well. Nine. Nine years younger than me. I am very much looking forward to our night out though. I miss my crew and life gets in the way a lot of us hanging out. Kelly has a senior in high school this year, and is busy with all of the events and different things happening in her daughter’s life, Jill works so hard – she is a respiratory therapist at two different places, a full time job during the day and then some night shifts at the hospital. Chrissy works and has two children, one of which is a toddler. So it will be nice for us to have some time together, hanging out and having fun.

Billy has plans for our anniversary, dinner out at an old favorite of ours, and he took the day off to hang out with Wyatt and I. We are hoping for a hike somewhere, full of fall colors and brisk weather.

Outside of these two big events, the rest of our month should be quiet, with the exception of Thanksgiving, of course, but my brother is hosting so I just need to provide a few dishes, including my Nantucket cranberry pie.

I want to try to repair my vintage quilts this winter. I don’t know how though. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know. I plan on making a post about this, with photos of them as they are. I love them so much, they are so soft and warm but they need some help and I don’t want them destroyed. But I do want them to be used.

Wyatt also wants me to make some mini-felt animals. He found a book at the used book store with photos and patterns, don’t ask me how, of little animals and wanted me to sew a few. So I am giving that a whirl to this winter. He wants to sew too, but I can’t figure out how to do accommodate that for him yet. He has full use of his left hand, he is a lefty, a natural one so that is good, but his right hand is more of a helper, and he does not have much in the way of fine motor skills with that hand. More like big movements that are sort of clunky. So I do plan on researching that a bit for him.

I also have some other goals, that are pretty small but I am looking forward to. I want to make really good cinnamon rolls, for one. I am not a great baker but I like to try and focus on something until I can perfect something, and have it be like, my good version. I have the nantucket cranberry pie, chocolate chip cookies, scones, and gingerbread cookies under my belt, and have my sights set on cinnamon rolls next.

I am also thinking of doing a little Soup and Saturday Stories feature on my blog. Doesn’t that sound cozy? Maybe make it a link up, and we can all share the soup we are eating, the recipe, and the book we are reading? I love soup. It is one of my favorite things about fall and winter, that it is soup season! And I have Billy reinvigorating his sourdough mother that has been sleeping all summer, because sourdough pairs perfectly with soup and stews.

I am of course thinking about Christmas. I would like to try my hand at painting some Christmas cards, but if that proves to be too much for my talent, I am going to just purchase some. I have been listening to the podcast In the Meadow, and Vic has been talking about how analog and doing things the way we did just two or three decades ago, can make such a difference in our lives. Screens, quick information, the digital life, has its good points, but it is also good to step away sometimes, do something like send Christmas cards again, or letters. Maybe use an actual clock or watch. A radio. You get the idea. I am going to start small – Christmas cards. What better way to connect?

So that is where I am mentally tonight, on this cold dark night already, the day after Halloween. I am sitting in the den with my husband and son, Billy watching some documentary on tv, Wyatt playing with his magna-tiles on the floor, my cat purring asleep next to me.

How are you doing?

Comfy Cozy (Creepy) Cinema: The Mummy (1999)

On October 30, 2025October 30, 2025 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized13 Comments

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are back to watching and sharing about comfy cozy (and as we move closer to Halloween, spookier) movies for the fall season. Feel free to join in with us!!

This week’s movie was the 1999 film The Mummy, starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, and Oded Fehr.

I absolutely love this movie, for many reasons. I think it is a wild rumpus of a movie, cheesy in parts, creepy in others, with goofy little funny scenes, and Oded Fehr. Yes, he is a reason I love this movie. But we will get into that more later.

Google Overview: “The Mummy is a rousing, suspenseful and horrifying epic about an expedition of treasure-seeking explorers in the Sahara Desert in 1925. Stumbling upon an ancient tomb, the hunters unwittingly set loose a 3,000-year-old legacy of terror, which is embodied in the vengeful reincarnation of an Egyptian priest who had been sentenced to an eternity as one of the living dead.”

I love movies with academic women going out on expeditions. I love books with that as a theme as well. And I think this is the movie that started that love for me. Evie is an awesome female heroine; intelligent, beautiful, human with her mistakes and clumsiness, brave, and best of all, a librarian! Rachel Weisz plays her part so well, she is charming and adorable and funny.

On the other hand, of course like in all movies like this, she is paired with a rough and tumble adventurer, Rick O’Connell, played by Brendan Fraser. And whew his cardio for this movie had to have been intense. Billy and I think he spent 90% of the movie running! All of them really because it was one action scene after another.

The duo is rounded out by Evie’s brother, Jonathan, played by John Hannah, who is a bit a wastrel but she loves him and he loves her. And he does have some worth, as he can also read and speak ancient languages, which is important later on in the movie. Although it cracked me up how many scenes he raced into, to skid to a stop in horror before joining the fight. Despite being comic relief, he is also a valuable member of the team.

And then there is Oded Fehr. He plays Ardeth Bay, a Medjai warrior and chief who is dedicated to preventing Imhotep from returning to life. I guess he wasn’t counting on a librarian spoiling those plans! He rounds out the group as the action and danger really begins.

I also had a huge crush on him after this movie all the way back in 1999. In fact, last night when he came on the screen while we were watching it all together, Billy turned to Wyatt and said “Your mom thinks he is handsome,” in that singsong type of voice. Lol. I couldn’t deny it. And then when I texted that to Lisa, she had a little confession of her own about him as well. Sorry Brendan, had we been Evie our affections would have been for a different man.

Sigh.

Ok, back to the movie. There is a race to the treasure, because of course. Former associate of Rick’s, Beni, an opportunistic thief is leading his own group of men to Hamunaptra, which is said to contain treasure. Evie is interested in a book, because she is a librarian.

Of course, all manner of disasters and mishaps and calamity ensues. People die (all offscreen). Imhotep is obsessed with reincarnating his girlfriend, and plans to use Evie to do it.

This movie has a bit of everything – action, adventure, comedy, horror, romance. A little something for everyone!

However, how much did this movie get right about Egyptology? I was surprised to read that an actual Egyptologist did work with the film, a man named Dr. Stuart Tyson Smith. According to a post from Egypt at the Manchester Museum, there were quite a few things that were accurate, including some very small details. One such detail was the book that Evie was reading near the beginning of the movie, while onboard the boat during their journey to Hamunaptra, is actually a book that someone studying or interested in Egyptology would have been potentially been reading at the time. It was The Dwellers on the Nile, by E. A. Wallis Budge, and was published in 1885. I love that the filmmakers and Dr. Smith thought abut keeping this small little detail so accurate!

I also got sucked into this analysis by Dominic Perry on TikTok. If you are interested in any of the history surrounding this movie, give this a watch. It is fascinating.

Overall, I absolutely love this movie. It is just fun and cute in parts and I don’t think it is particularly scary, but that is all subjective to the person watching of course. Billy loves it as well, and Wyatt seemed to be before he fell asleep. Lol.

Next up, we turn back to the cozy and comfy, watching The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain.

And with that, I will wrap this up and say goodbye! Don’t forget to check out Lisa’s post here.

If you are interested a few years ago I also wrote a post about librarians you would not want to mess with.

I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!

Spooky Season Superlatives

On October 29, 2025October 28, 2025 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized7 Comments

Hello everyone! Remember the senior superlatives in school? I was never nominated for anything, but Billy was chosen twice, as Most Unique and Most Artistic. I was not surprised, he was and is both of things, unique and artistic. (and many other things as well). Anyway, I thought it would be fun to “award” superlatives to book characters for this spooky season!

Cutest Couple:

Ellis and Cooper from Falling Like Leaves. They are just adorable! And if you want a book that fully immerses you in the fall season, pick this one up.

Best Dressed:

Clio from Play Nice. She is a fashion stylist and an influencer and as she says in the book, if she says something is fashionable, then it is. She sets the trends.

Most Likely to Succeed:

Is there anyone else who wants so bad to achieve perfection as Annie? She wants to make everyone happy, solve all the problems and look good doing it. She is motivated and driven and has magic up her sleeves as well.

Best Entertainer/Class Clown:

The answer, obviously, is former theater kid Tristan, who turns his ghost tour into another way to play a roles and entertain the crowds.

Biggest Chaos Monster:

Eliza from The Late-Night Witches. She is like the younger sister who just bumbles into all the messes, but has a good heart.

Most Artistic:

Maeve from Uncharmed. I don’t want to give too much away, but she is a very talented young artistic witch!

Most School (Town) Spirit:

No one loves their town more than Sophie!

Most Responsible:

Cassie is basically a single mom of three, who also feels a maternal responsibility for her little sister Eliza (see above). She also becomes the chosen one who has to save humanity. No big deal right? Cassie has a very large sense of duty, and one could definitely rely on her to do the right thing.

Most Daring:

Evie from The Clackity. She is so brave!!

Top Ten Tuesday: Halloween Freebie

On October 28, 2025 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized46 Comments

Today, let’s talk about haunted houses! I love books with ghosts or pretend ghosts or even sentient houses because of mushrooms, haunted by memories – just creepy houses. Gloomy houses. So today’s list is all about the haunted houses.