Hello, October!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized17 Comments

Finally it is October! My very favorite month of the year! I love love love fall and all that goes with it. The chilly mornings, crispy leaves, apples and pumpkins, sweaters, jeans, boots – just everything. I feel like I started the month off right today. I met my friends at the park for a morning walk, coffees in hand, and it was such a great way to start the day, even though our feet were soaking wet by the end of it from the dew on the grass. But we had great talks and spotted some new mushrooms, and also, more leaves on the ground, that had changed color. When I went a few weeks ago, the leaves were still green and on the trees; today, the leaves were starting to change and fall to the ground, red and yellow and orange.

I love the drawing in and quieting down that fall signals. We are still running around, busy, but I know that soon we will be tucked up at home, cozy nights with soup and tea and blankets, good books, board games. I love our fall and winter evenings, having dinner around our table, music playing in the background as we enjoy the time together, usually Carole King or Lord Huron or the The National Parks, connecting with each other about our days. Weekends spent outside in the chill, coming home to chili that we turn into nachos the next day. Fires and cider with my brother and sister-in-law as our kids play in the yard then snuggle on our laps once it gets darker.

And it is also spooky season! I love scary books, witches and ghosts especially. I used to love scary movies but I have become a bit of a wimp – now I am very choosy about what I watch. And I am lining up all the Halloween kids movies to watch with Wyatt this year – Disney’s cartoon The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Beetlejuice, Casper – and I saw that there is going to be a Muppets Haunted Mansion movie too! I am super excited about it! Wyatt and I have watched the trailer a million times! He loves Halloween too, and is looking forward to trick or treating again this year, masked up, but trick or treating. He wants to be Pete the Cat and he is going to be an adorable. I might be biased though, just a little.

We’ve been slowly adding in our Halloween decorations, and Luna decided to get in the act and pose on her castle. Soon my SIL Chrissy and I are going to get the kids together for an autumn walk after school to gather leaves to dip in wax and string up as a garland, and of course, the traditional visit to the orchard to get apples, doughnuts, and pumpkins!

Do you do anything special in the fall? What do you most look forward to?

A Few Short Book Reviews

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn book review2 Comments

My reading has taken a turn lately … into the supernatural and spooky and weird. I always try to read and watch creepy type things this time of year, and so far I am succeeding.

Let’s start with… Small Favors by Erin A. Craig

Out of the three I am reviewing, this one is my favorite! I love the worlds that Craig creates, I find them so unique and unusual, slightly darkly whimsical with imaginative plots and interesting characters. In Small Favors, the book starts off gently, with the working of beehives by a father and daughter..then slowly, slowly things start to go off the rails, building to a crescendo of an ending. Ellerie is a great mix of strength of vulnerability, even if the vulnerability is hidden. And, I loved the character Whitaker so much that I named one of my released butterflies after him. I highly recommend this read if fantasy/horror is your jam.

Next up.. The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

This one was my least favorite, however, that doesn’t mean I disliked it. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. I feel like it was a bit rushed and I would have liked to hear more about these characters, especially Nella, and about the mystery in the past of the “apothecary murders”. I felt the ending was a bit hurried, but overall I did like this book. When I checked this out from the library, there was a note from another patron who had read it that said “Good book. Fast read”. And I would have to agree. (although, this cover is my favorite. It is gorgeous right?)

And finally, the mind bending book that was Bunny by Mona Awad.

This book was crazy insane; my mind felt broken after reading it. I felt like I had lived through some sort of nightmare. It made me uncomfy. The writing was brilliant, and made me think of creepy bars with concrete floors and bad lighting, unfamiliar feeling and intimidating. I absolutely loved it, although I don’t feel like I can definitively explain what it was about. I was trying to tell my husband about it last night but instead sounded like I was telling him about some sort of drug fueled fever dream. It is lonely and busted and reminded me of Alice in Wonderland but told by Chuck Palahniuk. It might be one of the best books I have read all year, based more on the actual writing than the plot which was…confusing… It was crazy, but also crazy good.

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Sunday-Monday Post16 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’s fall!! At least officially on the calendar. And I am so excited! I love autumn – everything about it, even the rainy days. Fall means more fires, crunchy leaves underfoot, trips to the orchard and pumpkin patch, ciders and spooky reading and scary movies – I could go on and on. I am sure I will talk about it much more before winter…

Today is the birthday of Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman). We are celebrating him today, by reading a few books, visiting an orchard, and of course, eating apple pie. I find his life and personal philosophy interesting. When I was younger I always thought he was fictitious, like Paul Bunyan then of course learned that he was indeed a real person. Anyway, I could probably go on for a while about Johnny Appleseed too. Lol.

Books! Last week I read:

This was such a great read. I still haven’t read Gichigami Hearts- it always takes me a while to get to books on my Kindle rather than physical books. But, I do plan to start it this week. My Kindle is charged up and everything! I also picked this book up too! I need something scary, and a reviewer on Goodreads said this book is like Heathers meets The Craft meets Frankenstein, which makes it sound amazing! ( I LOVED Heathers and The Craft in high school and then Frankestein in college when I understood it more)

Posted Last Week:

Franken Fest

Field Trip: Fossil Park, OH

After Dark Musings

Watching:

We are still watching Agatha Christie’s Marple (BritBox) which is fantastic. We also finished LuLaRich (Amazon Prime) which was fascinating. We also started Owl House on Disney+, which we thought Wyatt might like but we like it better than he does.

And that is about it from around here! What’s going on in your world?

After Dark Musings

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized8 Comments

Somewhere along the line I gravitated from night owl to early riser. This is late for me. I am usually tucked up in my bed about now, reading a book. Tonight though, I didn’t feel like reading.

Night time used to be my favorite time to sit outside, late when everyone else was sleeping, neighborhoods quiet except for the creaking of the crickets and the distant whoo-whoo of the trains that constantly run through our town. I’m not outside tonight, but curled up in my office chair, cats at my feet, Luna the leopard gecko sprawled out on her rock, Freddie the frog in his water bowl, Harry doing who knows what in his house in the other room. I can hear the crickets and the trains, the cars whooshing by on their way home or their way out to a party, a bar, to work.

I am content here in my home, with my child sleeping across the hall, Billy working in his office for a bit. There used to be a time I would have loved to be out and about, soaking up the night and hitting all the restaurants and staying out way too late. But now, I am about different things. My family and my animals and my plants, my books and my thoughts. I am happy. I know some people, friends of mine, who were in such a rush to be back to “normal”. And while I want some things to be back to the way they were, I don’t mind this new part of me that enjoys being home. I always have different projects going, books to be read, notebooks filled with ideas and lists of those books or shows to watch or topics to learn more about, things I want to try. We have embraced new patterns and routines, found joy in in the smaller everyday moments. Things that used to seem so important don’t anymore; activities I once merely poked about with I am now making much more time for.

Living slower. More deliberately. Isn’t that what Thoreau moved to the woods to do, live deliberately? To live on purpose, carefully. With intention. Not rush about to the point that we no longer are enjoying our lives, which I feel I may have done, just spinning wildly from one thing to the next. We may not have moved to the woods away from it all, but the past year and some months our lives were stripped bare, leaving plenty of time for re-evaluation for what we wanted to resume. For some, that does mean resuming it all over again, those who thrive on activity and crowds of people. But I have realized that never really served me or my soul. My soul has been ready for quiet. For enjoying slow times with my own little family, my parents, my brother and his wife and my niece. A few of my closest friends.

I am sure tomorrow morning I will read this and think to myself what a strange mood I was in when I wrote this. And maybe even feel embarrassed to have shared so much of my innermost thoughts. But this is where I am tonight, so I am going with it. And with that, I think I will get tucked in, to my book and my bed. Sweet dreams everyone.

Field Trip: Fossil Park, OH

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn family, homeschooling9 Comments

One perk to homeschooling – being in charge of your own field trips. So if we felt like packing up early and driving to Ohio to check out a fossil park on a Monday morning, no big deal. Bonus – going at that time pretty much assured we would have the place to ourselves. Which we did.

I had been looking for some places to take Wyatt to introduce him to the idea of fossils and rocks- we are about to begin a whole rocks and minerals unit in science and when I can get him outside or hands on, I do. I found one north of us, about four hours away, and then my brother sent me the link to another, this one only an hour drive south. This is where we ended up going – Fossil Park, Ohio.

I will admit at first look it is a bit underwhelming. Like a place teens would go to have fires and beers or like a crumbling parking lot somewhere. I was like, well, regardless of how this turns out, Wyatt will have gotten out to play in an environment that is unlike any other he has been to before. There wasn’t too much to see, just gravelly ground, a large container of water, and a few little tables and benches. Pretty simple set up.

We were optimistic, as we generally are. I had read the website and printed out a few materials before we left, including an information sheet that had illustrations and descriptions of the types of fossils we could hope to find, which we had reviewed in the car on the drive. Fossil Park is the remains of a shallow sea bed from the Devonian Era, 375 million years ago. No dinosaurs. We had our milk jug with the top part cut off, also suggested per the website, to use to keep our treasures in. After a brief glance around, we plopped onto the ground and started searching.

I found a piece of a trilobite right away, and I felt very victorious. Giddy almost. Billy was systematically combing through the dirt, I was sort of attacking things a bit more energetically and also trying to teach Wyatt, who was busy stuffing his overalls full of rocks and fossils, neglecting the milk jug in his excitement. He was pretty proud of his collection.

Let me stop a second and talk to you about these overalls. This is not an ad or affiliate or anything, I just really love them. I bought them for him in the spring – as Wyatt scoots a lot right now while we work on walking, he literally goes through pants like crazy. Anything harder than grass just tears the seat right up – and eventually, him, if I don’t watch. These Key Apparel overalls are like the toughest purchase I have ever bought him. They have withheld an entire spring of playing outside, and now, a rock quarry. They are a little worn but still intact. I can’t stress enough how durable these overalls are! They are from a farm supply outfitter, so they are made for hard work, but if you have an active kid that goes through clothes like crazy, I highly recommend these overalls. I only wish he could wear them in the summer – but the very thing that makes them so durable would also make them too hot for the summer. So we will count our blessings and be happy that he can wear them at least in the spring and fall.

Back to the fossil hunt. We were busy at work, Wyatt and I near the top of the quarry, Billy near the bottom, sifting and examining. I was explaining different things to Wyatt, showing him different pieces. We were alone in the quarry for quite a while before a man came walking in, and after a few minutes he came up to us. It turned out that he was the Parks Project Manager and super nice! He told us about what we could find, and even dug with us for twenty minutes, giving us his finds and telling us what they were. It was really cool and like having a personalized guide. He was telling us as well, that they have big plans for the quarry and next year it will be built up more.

We stayed quite a bit longer than I anticipated, almost two hours. Wyatt had fun, and so did Billy and I. I felt sort of like a kid again, sitting in the dirt, just exploring and looking for neat things. I think Billy did too.

We came home with a nice collection in our milk jug! We found a bit of trilobite (top of the big rock), brachiopods (the shell looking piece), and then lots of crinoids, which are bits of sea lilies. I am holding a bit of stem (the long cylinder) and then bits of the stem, the flat washer looking cheerio thing.

If you plan to visit: Expect to get dusty! We were cracking up at how much dust we had on us. Also, when Wyatt’s overalls came off at home tons of small pebbles fell all over the floor, so expect that too. You can only take your collection jug/carton, and water on hot days, no eating or drinking is allowed in the quarry. You can take a brush to dust your specimens. As for being ADA accessible, I would say it is pretty accessible honestly. There is a wheelchair ramp leading down to the quarry, and while it would be a rocky ride inside it can be done. It would be trickier if using a walker or crutches, unless the person scooted like Wyatt. Alternatively, you can sit at the tables and benches and collect from the pile behind the tables as well. Also check the website – it is really informational, and has great printables available, including how to use your visit in your lesson plans.

Overall, we had a really good time! We would definitely go again.

Franken Fest

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Detroit5 Comments

My husband is more of a social animal than I am, and for the duration of COVID, has been locked down pretty tight due to our son’s different needs. I know he has been missing the liveliness of being somewhere that has high energy, people, things to see… so Saturday left the house early, masked up, and went to Franken Fest.

Franken Fest has apparently been around, but this is the first time it was in the Detroit area. We are huge Halloween fans and love monsters and cryptids and spooky stuff so we thought this event would be pretty neat to check out! Bonus – it was on the site of Fort Wayne in Detroit, which has been around as a fort since the War of 1812, and was used by the military until as “recently” as Vietnam. My dad actually shipped out from Fort Wayne. Now however, it is a series of crumbling buildings that historic preservationists are trying to save. We are going to go again one weekend when it is not a festival, the grounds deserve their own post..

Back to Franken Fest. I learned about it through the reptile rescue group Saving Scales Reptile Rescue. I want to adopt a rescue tortoise sometime this winter and was doing some research – in particular, I wanted to see a Russian Tortoise in person to get an idea of their size. Saving Scales was doing on the spot adoptions (I did not give in to temptation and adopt a tortoise…this weekend at least) so we headed there first. I enjoyed talking all things reptile with the volunteers and meeting their adoptable animals – leopard geckos, snakes, tortoises…all so cute! They also do educational outreach to schools and parties so I met their educational assistant, a blue tongued skink named Emma. I have never seen one in person like that and I was surprised at how big it was! I

After checking out the animals, we walked around the festival, perusing the art and creations. Since we were there at the time it opened, 11 am, we were really the only ones walking around, which was nice. Everything was scary, horror themed which was different from what we usually do. It was a fun change! I found a few really cool booths and creators! I did not buy anything, only stickers from an artist whose store is called Monsterologist. He had stickers and patches and posters based on legends like the Loch Ness Monster, Mothman, Sasquatch – it was fun! Wyatt picked out a mothman sticker, I chose a Loch Ness Monster sticker, and we bought a mothman sticker for my brother’s family, since this summer they vacationed in the area that legend derives from. (Not intentionally) There were also a few things I have never heard of – what is the story behind that frog, I wonder?

We also really liked this booth. Artist Jess Sheeran creates these adorable little critters! We are thinking of maybe gifting some at Christmas time, they are so cute! There was one with a mushroom themed headband that was cute, and also the little “nuggets” are so squishable!

Artist Stephanie Ellis really captured my attention though, with her more nature based art. She had prints and t-shirts, and I loved that she will reuse vintage t-shirts or t-shirts that are thrifted to screenprint on. Can you see why she caught my attention?

Finally, the art at the Gnarled Barnacle was definitely worth stopping in for a chat. They make “electric art” which I had not heard of but Billy had. They somehow use electricity to burn the wood, like a lightning strike in my mind but I am sure it is not that dramatic. Billy just told me they are passing an electrical current through the wood so I don’t think I was that far off. And how perfect was their booth for an event called Franken Fest!

After about an hour of wandering around, it started filling up so we decided it was time for us to go. We had seen everything anyway so we were ready. It was nice to do something different though and now I feel like I am really ready for fall!

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized23 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

We had a pretty ordinary week last week. Which was perfectly fine. Homeschool, I worked for my cousin, and that is about it really. Yesterday we attended something called FrankenFest which was neat, and then later on had a late night fire with my brother and his family. The kids were up late, we were out late, it was fun. I remember those occasional late nights when I was a kid and they always seemed so magical.

Read Last Week:

I read this book in two days – it was a fun fast read! I hope to do a review post of a few of the books I have been reading this week.

Reading This Week:

I have been wanting to really work on reading more own voices books for various reasons and seem to have fallen down a rabbit hole. I started Onigamiising last week and am really enjoying it. And when I requested Gichigami Hearts from NetGalley I didn’t realize the two books were written by the same author!

Posted Last Week:

Snippets of Life Lately

Our Butterfly Project – The Final Update

Watching:

We are still watching Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple on BritBox. They are so well done! Although in the last one that we watched, one of the characters at the end killed another character very unexpectedly. My husband and I looked at each other in surprise and he said “Well that got dark quickly.” Which made us laugh since we are watching murder mysteries. We also started the LuLaRoe documentary LuLaRich and we are fascinated by it.

Snippets of Life Lately

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized9 Comments

Life lately hasn’t been anything too out of the ordinary, just the regular comings and goings, homeschool, appointments, drinking coffee, taking care of my wee creatures, visiting with friends, reading some books. Wyatt and I picked flowers from the garden and pressed them. Nothing exciting but I am a person who is happy and content with a low key life. In fact, Billy and his co-workers all put money in to buy lottery tickets together as the jackpot was some large amount of money, and they were all talking about what they would do with it if they won. Some of the answers were buy property (this was Billy’s answer too), pay off debts, vacations, shopping sprees, etc. When Billy asked me, I said I would buy two mourning geckos and two dart frogs. In case you are wondering, this would cost about $100. And a few books too. I apparently dream big y’all. Although, buying property would be awesome, but Billy seems to have that under control.

Yesterday I dropped Wyatt off at my mom’s in the morning and met my sister-in-law for coffee and a walk in the woods. Where we promptly nerded out looking for mushrooms. At one point we were crouching down on the ground grabbing a shot of a mushroom and had to laugh at what anyone stumbling upon us might think. It was a great way to start the day though, with conversation and coffee and a walk in the fresh air.

I also got my glasses this week! It is so nice to have them while working on the computer and when reading. Since I only need them for reading up close, I bought one of those eyeglass chains to let them hang when I don’t need them. I love them – they have decorative bats on them, so I felt like they were seasonally appropriate.

I also took my mom to a pain management specialist. She has been having issues with her back for a while now and was dragging her feet about going to a doctor. We finally got her to go and we learned that it is more than likely her SI Joint – and the treatment sounds very promising and like it is easily treatable. It was a great relief to finally get an answer and to find solutions! Pretty soon my mom will be back to her own level of mobility again.

We were supposed to go on a camping trip starting Monday; however I looked at the weather forecast and it was promising storms so I made the decision to cancel. I am not a great camper and I didn’t want Wyatt’s first camping trip marred by storms and rain either. A wet camping trip does not sound fun to me. Billy agreed on that as well, but he still has the time off so I think we are going to take a few day trips next week. I have some ideas but nothing concrete. Today we are actually going to a Franken-Fest at Fort Wayne in Detroit. I have no idea what to expect but if it is not fun or too crowded, we can still walk around the grounds. It is sort of spooky there – the old fort and out buildings are crumbling, although they are being worked on by a historic preservation society. They have been there since the civil war, I think? I will find out today!

I am starting to feel surrounded…

How are things going for you? Anything exciting? Or just living life?

Our Butterfly Project – The Final Update

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn butterfly project11 Comments

So here we are. All of my monarchs have grown up and flown away. I have about twelve black swallowtails in chrysalis, and one straggler caterpillar I found the other day outside and brought in before a big storm. I worried it wouldn’t make it, so I have one last lonely caterpillar hanging out.

I think we are all going to miss them, even the cats.

As you can see, two decided my hair looked like a good place to hang out. I was pretty nervous that they were going to get all tangled up in it and get injured lol. I carefully extracted them and they flew away. I think it was a goodbye.

I released my last monarch on September 12. I named her Persephone and she took off before I could get a photo. She was quite large, and I believe she was a super monarch, heading for the south. Hopefully she will return to me next year, that would be pretty cool!

As for the remaining black swallowtails, they can overwinter. On October 1st, I will be putting them in cold storage to protect them until spring.

Next year, I am definitely tagging. So next fall all of you down there in Texas be prepared to check tags on monarchs and see if they came from my house!

The statistics: This summer I released nineteen female monarchs, twenty male monarchs, nine male black swallowtails, and six female black swallowtails (of my own). When Chrissy was gone I released about fifteen butterflies that were hers that she had raised. And I named all of mine – all 54!

Starting from the beginning, July 5th, the first day I released butterflies this summer: Arthur Blue, Barbara, Marion, Jerry, DeWayne, Faye, Janet, Larry, Scarlet, George, Peter, Frank, Captain, Wendy, Penny, Loki, Thor, Odin, Freya, Cavendish, Kerouac, Jack, Sarah, Ice Cream, Fitzgerald, Orion, Wilde, Andromeda, Bellatrix, Cordelia, Leo, Oberon, Juliet, Orlando, Apollo, Soleil, Cielo, Cosmo, Portia, Konane, Leilani, Makani, Skye, Maisie, Millie, Jinx, Winnie, Hazel, Mamie, Guthrie, Percival, Primrose, Whitaker, and finally, Persephone.

I may still end up with a black swallowtail or two but my numbers won’t change too much now. I am already looking forward to next year! Next spring I plan on writing a post on how to do this yourself if you are interested in it. It is easy and inexpensive, and I love it. It never gets old watching a butterfly eclose or waking up to see one had been born overnight. Then setting them free, watching them fly high and wondering where their journey will take them next! And just being part of something that helps out their population is so rewarding. If you are curious about the next step, you can read about it here!

I can’t express how much I enjoyed this. I can’t wait until it all begins again next year!

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized22 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

We had another great week of homeschooling! We are still finding our way through the new school year, but everyday gets easier. I am having my own time management issues, juggling house stuff, blog stuff like visiting everyone’s blogs, and just plain taking a minute to breathe and relax, but I will get it together. We have been sticking pretty close to home right now, without many outings lately – just taking care of business around here lately. I feel a bit like the squirrels running around our yard, stealing apples, burying nuts in our lawn, preparing and organizing and doing. And reading – I have been reading more in the past few weeks than I read all summer! I am ready for the slowness that fall and winter bring.

Read Last Week:

Small Favors by Erin A. Craig : I loved this book and could not put it down! It was such a good read! It’s a toss up which book of hers that I have liked more, House of Salt and Sorrows or this one – right now, I would say this one, but I love them both.

Reading this Week:

I have both of these and I don’t know which to start first!! Gichigami Hearts or The Lost Apothecary – both sound excellent.

Posted Last Week:

First Day of School, Flowers, and a Frog

For the Love of Mushrooms

Late Summer at the Village

Homeschooling: Our Curriculum

Watching:

We have not watched too much or anything different. We are still watching Schitt’s Creek, a rewatch for me, the first time for Billy, and Agatha Christie’s Marple. We are always startled when we see a “big” star in that show – Carey Mulligan, Julian Sands, Richard Armitage, Timothy Dalton (although I 100% think of his role in Hot Fuzz when I see him now) As we move deeper into fall, we will be adding in more scary, spooky movies and show too. I am ready!

And that is about it from our little house here in the mitten. What has been going on in your world?