Our Cozy Little Life

On November 10, 2025 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized15 Comments

Hello everyone!! We had our first snow of the season yesterday, which made us all feel like hibernating. We had a perfect, cozy day.

We hurkle durkled together for a few hours, just reading, scrolling, making lists, and watching Frog and Toad. Wyatt and I have been watching these episodes like crazy lately. They are just so cute and sweet, full of the best things, like baking cookies, and reading, and sending snail mail and flying kites. I got very excited over the Christmas episode too. It is just a great comfort show when you need something fun and childish and whimsical and cozy. I am an adult who is not ashamed to say that they love cartoons.

After a while I decided I needed to get up and do something. So I attempted my first batch of cinnamon rolls! My goal this winter is to make really good cinnamon rolls, and for my first attempt, these were pretty darn good! The flavors were great, they were just maybe a bit more breadlike than cinnamon roll. I really liked them though. I decided to switch up the icing, and found a maple glaze online that I swapped the regular icing for, and it was a good choice. The cinnamon and the maple together were delicious. Billy and I split one for breakfast this morning and the flavors mingling with the coffee…yum!!

While the cinnamon rolls were proofing, we all painted together. I am not an artist, and the past few days I have been attempting the Andrea Nelson Art tutorials from Instagram. She is a watercolor artist and her reel tutorials are approachable, whimsical, and geared for people who can’t art. Like me. They might even be for children, but whatever. I am learning and having fun and that is what matters. I think too, that doing small things like this might help get rid of that art police in my head.

Afterwards I popped the cinnamon rolls in the oven, and the house filled with the most cinnamony scent. I made Christmas plans with Wyatt, talking about other things we might bake and things we want to buy (or receive lol, as he was making his list), and Billy was working on a project in the basement. I eventually wandered back into the kitchen to start dinner, which was chickpea dumpling soup, something I used to make years ago and haven’t for a while. I remember it being very filling and warm on snowy nights, and it was. I think I used to make it a bit differently though, as this was more like a bowl of beans and dumplings – the broth was non-existent. I must have used more before. It was still very good though.

While I was cleaning up, and Billy was getting Wyatt ready for bed, I listened to one of my favorite podcasters, Vic at In the Meadow. If you want a cozy podcast, full of simple goodness, give her a listen. How this young woman has such a wonderful view on life is amazing to me; you attribute that to aging, but I feel like more and more I am learning from the younger generations.

After Wyatt was all cleaned up, it was my turn to do his bedtime routine, which includes a cozy YouTube and a book. Last night we watched Shelby’s Cottage, one of her older autumn videos since she is new to us, then we followed it up with reading Bunnicula. Then it was time for Billy and I to be lazy and loungy together. We chose to watch an episode of Victorian Farm, and I worked on my embroidery while we watched.

I slept so good last night, after such a relaxing cozy day with my guys. And woke up to more snow this morning!

Welcome September!

On September 4, 2025September 4, 2025 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized21 Comments

A few months ago, I was thinking to myself, I just need to get through summer to fall, then we would be on the other side of Wyatt’s surgery. And then, it seemed so far away. And now here we are. The other side. A new season, a new journey.

I have been reading here and there on the internet about people who prefer fall and winter to summer, how we like these months because there isn’t the pressure to feel busy, to feel like we are soaking up every single second in activity and making the most of the sunshine and hot weather. There is probably some truth to that. I do like to embrace fall for the coziness. It does seem more acceptable for some reason to work on my embroidery in the autumn, to spend more time reading, to fiddle around with all of our little creative projects. But I also just love the weather, the cool crisp days, the chill in the morning. I love wearing jeans and sweaters and boots, I love the crunch of the leaves underfoot. I love fall baking and making soup, bopping around my kitchen listening to Stevie Nicks and Van Morrison and Taylor Swift (especially her Folklore album). I love that mosquitoes die and tea can be hot again. I love wearing darker lip colors in the fall, something new for me. I love scary stories, and bonfires, and fall hikes, owl prowls right on the cusp of winter.

I am actually busier in the fall than I am in the summer. We have back to school, and now Scouts-turned-Blackbirds. Our calendar for September and October is filling up, with field trips and get togethers, a special date night at the end of the month, a baseball game, festivals. I would like to take Wyatt to a high school football game this year, to hear the crowds and the band, because I know my kid is not going to care much about the actual game. He is more like me, and gets wrapped up in the atmosphere.

This fall I want to learn how to make cinnamon rolls, really good cinnamon rolls, and apple pie. I also want to make oatmeal cookies, maple cookies, peanut butter cookies. Some sort of baked good every week, like my grandma used to make, every week in the very same kitchen. My grandpa had a sweet tooth and my grandma baked everyday, whether it was a sweet treat or a chicken pot pie or a meat pie. And pancakes on the Blackstone every Saturday morning, while we eat outside on the deck in our pajamas, our coffee steaming, the birds singing.

(I got these images on Pinterest and I am working on finding the artists so I credit. Once I find them all I will update here!)

Fall is afoot in my online life as well! Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are hosting two opportunities to link up together – one for Comfy Cozy Cinema, and the other is a monthly bookish link party for anything bookish at all! Share your bookstore shopping moments, book reviews, fashion inspired by book covers, whatever bookish posts you post. We also host drop-in crafternoons, which are monthly zooms where we just sit around and chat and work on whatever projects we feel like. I have embroidered and colored and once I painted my son’s little free library. So whatever floats your boat! We always have a good group and a good time! If you are interested send me an email!

Comfy Cozy Cinema posts go up on September 25th. We went for comedic, cozy, and then took some liberties near Halloween with some spookier movies.

And here is the linky for the bookish link party for September!

And with that, I think I am going to get moving. I have a small child here waiting for me to take him on our “book date” at Barnes and Noble. I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!

Our Cozy Little Life Update .. and a Mystery!

On May 14, 2025May 14, 2025 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized15 Comments

So, in my mind I view these updates as different from my Coffee Catch Ups. I feel like in my coffee catch up posts, I focus on the big events. In these, which are more rare, I feel like I share more about the smaller, more everyday, the little things in our lives. What we are doing for joy, the small things, our hobbies. I don’t know if that is what actually happens in these posts, but that is what I aim for.

One thing I have been doing is baking more. With prices at the grocery store getting higher, I have been trying to figure out ways to change our eating habits, by making more and buying less processed versions. I obviously don’t have time to make scratch versions of everything we eat- that would be a fulltime job all on its own, I think. But I have started with some easy, quick things. For one, I “make” my own granola to put on yogurt. That is super simple! Just some oats, maple syrup, honey, cinnamon, whatever bits you want to put in it, and then pop it in the oven for a little bake. I eat this almost everyday for lunch!

I have also been making Wyatt’s beloved granola bars. He loves Kind bars, which are a bit pricey. So I searched online for something to make in place of them. I didn’t find an exact replacement, but I found a recipe for crumbly jam bars that looked interesting so I went for it. The first batch I made was half jam, half plain, because Wyatt is a picky kid with plain tastes. Much like his mother was as a child and still sort of is as an adult. He was not a fan of the version with jam in the middle, but loved the plain version. Mine look like sawdust blocks honestly, but they are so good! They are have this brown buttery caramely oaty taste. I can’t describe it exactly, but they are very good. Even Billy, who is not a fan of that sort of thing, will sneak one now and again. The best thing about them is they only use 8 ingredients and take half an hour tops to make! Some of the ingredients were a bit more up front, but when added up compared to buying actual granola bars it is still cheaper overall, because I can make so many with the ingredients. There is no refined sugar in them either, and while the coconut sugar really isn’t that much better for you, it does have a lower glycemic index so I tell myself they are better. This is the recipe that I use, although I do mix it up a bit.

These are the berry oat bars from the blog The Oven Light. The only things that I do differently are using different flour (I use a white wheat flour), and omit the jam since Wyatt likes them better without. They are super simple and take me no time at all to whip up for the week.

We have also been making our own cookies. I found an awesome recipe for chocolate chip cookies, and it makes so many cookies that we freeze the dough in small bunches to use later.

Later this week or maybe the weekend, whenever I have time, I am going to try making English muffin bread, since we only really eat bread in the morning as toast, and also a different cookie I found last night on Pinterest. They are honey pistachio cookies, and they sound fantastic! Wyatt loves pistachios, and eats them as a snack everyday. I think I will sub the sugar in the recipe with coconut sugar since we like it in the bars. This recipe is from Recipe Yumm.

I have also been keeping up with my embroidery, and with my coloring. I love to sit and color in my cute little book with my new markers while Wyatt paints with his paint sticks. I love these darn paint sticks. Wyatt loves to paint and wants to paint every day – and sometimes it is just a darn mess and a pain to do all the brushes and different paint and water, and well you get it. So on days where I just want it to be simple, he uses the paint sticks. He loves them – and so do I. It’s a very relaxing activity, to sit quietly and paint and color and listen to music. I have my tea, he has his water. I love the simple coloring books best. I don’t want complicated. We watch a YouTuber sometimes who reviews adult coloring books – I can’t remember her name but I will update this when I remember it, or look it up.

Cozy Spaces || Alcohol Markers || Paint Sticks

And then this week, inspired by both Jeanie from Marmalade Gypsy and Lisa from Boondock Ramblings, I have gotten back into my genealogy! I have found out a lot of information, including a little mystery! I had started my family tree a long time ago, before most of this stuff was online, and had a tree of names and was working slowly on sending away for the proof. Well, I was in my early twenties and soon lost interest. I saved everything though, like the little goblin I am, and pull it out every so often and look at it, and dabble. This week though I have gone a little nuts with it. And then I found some information that is super confusing!

Ok so, let me lay this out. My dad’s great-grandmother, Marie, married his great-grandfather, Alexander “Sandy” Walker in 1905. She lists her name as Marie Domaine, and her parents names as James Domaine and Josephine Bernard from France, although they supposedly lived in Pennsylvania, where Marie lived. However, I can only find one of these names, Josephine Bernard. In the 1900 census, a Josephine Bernard, born in France, and her daughter Marie, also born in France (in the same year that our Marie Domaine was born), worked as a housekeeper for a widower named James Cadamore. Josephine was also listed as a widower. Then I find Josephine Bernard later, married to James Cadamore. I find nothing of Marie Domaine or that last name, and no James Domaine. The area is the exact same, the same city in Allegheny county, they have to be the same people, right? But where did the Domaine come from? Did Marie leave home and create a new identity? Lisa suggested that Domaine is her biological father’s name, who if she is the Marie in the census, was born in Belgium. What is the story here? The dates and location and most of the names fit – just that Domaine is weird. What do you all think?

And this is it from me today! I am off to find some more coffee. I hope that whatever you do today, that you do something that makes you smile, my friends!

And don’t forget, we have drop in crafternoons! Our next one is May 24th. If you are interested in dropping by, send me an email at crackercrumblife@gmail.com!

Christmas Coffee Catch Up: Gingerbread and Holiday Lights!

On December 19, 2024 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized19 Comments

Linking up with my and Lisa at Boondock Rambling’s

Comfy Cozy Christmas!

Hello everyone!! We have been making merry in our own way over here! I was trying to not overwhelm all of us with activities this year, and have a slower Christmas and it has been really nice. However, now as we are getting closer to the big day, I am staring to freak out just a bit! You know, all the usual things: Did I buy enough? Did I remember everyone? Will people like what we did get for them, or made for them? Maybe I took it too slow this year, did Wyatt get to do enough? Will it ever snow? What do I need for Christmas dinner? I never did get that Christmas photo of Wyatt that I wanted… And the list goes on…. I am trying to keep it all in perspective though, and enjoy the things that we are doing and not compare them to anything else.

Let’s see. Since I last posted one of these, we have done a few things.

On Saturday, we made gingerbread! I love gingerbread, Billy loves gingerbread, Wyatt loves gingerbread. We are a gingerbread kind of family! The recipe I use is from @ofbeeandbear. This recipe is amazing, and she is a wonderful, beautiful soul. Her recipe calls for types of flour, spelt and wheat; however I use all purpose and wheat, which she says is perfectly fine. Or you can make them using entirely all purpose flour. Anyway, I think her recipe is the perfect balance of the spices and chewy vs. soft, if that makes sense.

We started that morning off right as well, with pancakes, some of them plain, some cinnamon, and some ginger. It was a delicious start to the day!

After Wyatt’s medicine and nap, and a quick trip to the library, the baking commenced!

We danced and sang along to Christmas music as we baked, in the glow of our little Christmas tree, as the day itself was very gray and gloomy. We made our own sunshine though as we all had our jobs to do. I made the dough and also rolled it out, Wyatt cut the shapes, and Billy kept the assembly line from table to oven and out again rolling!

They turned out delicious, if I do say so myself. We enjoyed a few all nice and warm and freshly baked on the floor in front of the tree, and I am pretty sure Oliver was giving us the eye because he wanted some too. Sorry Oliver, geckos can’t eat gingerbread!

On Sunday, it rained all day long. Like all day. Nonstop. We had had plans to go to the Detroit Zoo for the Wild Lights, but there was no way we were going in the rain. So instead we just caught up on things around the house, which was way less fun. Our tickets were open ended thank goodness, so we decided to go to the lights on Tuesday instead. Billy worked from home that day, and when quitting time rolled around, we headed to the zoo!

We had so much fun. It was a chilly night, but not too cold, and thankfully, it was dry. Since it was a Tuesday, there weren’t even too many other people there, which made it nice, especially with a wheelchair. We really did have a blast!

I packed up a few of those gingerbread cookies before we left, and we happily nibbled on those, and shared hot pretzels as well, as we strolled through the zoo, marveling at the lights on disply!

We were enchanted right off the bat! Everything just looked so magical!

We all loved the Enchanted Trail.

There were animals made of lights surrounding us on the trail, larger than life, and glimmering, twinkling strands all overhead. I took a lot of video on the trail and not as many photos, but these are a few of the photos I took.

After we walked the Enchanted Trail, we continued around the zoo. I just loved wandering around and seeing what they had created.

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A post shared by Erin B (@foxandfirthco)

We are making more cookies today and tomorrow, as well as watching a few more Christmas movies all the way up until Christmas Eve. Saturday we have Christmas with my dad, and we always have such a nice, chill, relaxed time. I am looking forward to it!

I hope that no matter what you are doing this December, you do something that makes you smile!

Wednesday Morning Coffee Catch Up

On July 24, 2024July 24, 2024 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized9 Comments

Hello everyone!! We are out of coffee and I am drinking an instant coffee from a Via pack Billy found that was leftover from his camping trip this morning. This does not bode well…. or I can look it like I am lucky that he had that. I think I will view it that way, Billy pulling some magic out of his bag.

Anyway… we have been super busy it feels like. We are just in the middle of so many house projects and taking care of business around here, and also making sure that we have some fun too. It is summer after all.

I mentioned on my Sunday-Monday post that last week was like the perfect quintessential summer week. We had a bike ride, trips to the library, a softball game, ice cream, dinner out (at Wyatt’s request, he is such a homebody but asked to go out and we were so shocked that we did!), reading, and for me, some embroidery as well. Then over the weekend we had our Saturday night game night, and Sunday a party! Let me tell you about all that.

On weekends we have a bit of a routine – Friday night is pizza night, and Saturday night is game night. Wyatt loves game night, which makes me so happy! Usually I put together our little snack tray and it is half cookies/candy or some sort of junk, and then the other half is healthy. This week I let Wyatt pick everything for our snacks and who would have guessed it, but he picked all cookies and candy. That plate by the way is our plate for us all to share, and we didn’t eat everything thank goodness. It was fun though!

Sunday night we had our Full Moon party! We joined the Kids Moon Club from Wilder Child when Wyatt was like 3 or 4, as something to do and make the long winters more fun. I didn’t take him out too much during the winter due to ~germs~ and he was so tiny at the time, my little tiny preemie boy who remained small for a long time. So we did stuff here to have fun. For a year or two we followed the club, doing all the things, and then as years passed, sometimes we would join in, other times not. (it’s a lifetime membership) This year and last year Mermaid Girl started joining us and it has been super fun. This year she has joined us as well, and we have been mixing it up and taking inspiration from the “official” club activities but have been doing our own things too. This month for sure. This month is the Buck Moon but we decided to make it the Blueberry Moon instead, and had a blueberry party! We also invited Mermaid Girl’s whole family this time around, and it was fun to have Mermaid Girl and Wild Child here together for the fun.

We had blueberry drinks – blueberry lemonade for the older kids, blueberry hard cider for the adults, and I kept the menu simple. Grilled cheese all around, with fancy cheese and bread for the adults and kids grilled cheese, with Kraft singles and white bread. We also had spinach salad with walnuts, goat cheese, and blueberries, and a lemon blueberry trifle that was absolutely devoured.

The craft activity this time was painting tshirts, and it was so neat to see what the kids all chose to do- and for Wild Child to get in on it too. They all really enjoyed it. They also made a blueberry moon collage, which turned out really well! After crafting, we went outside, threw down a blanket, and the kids played with a frisbee and with Wyatt’s metal detector. We all had such a good time!

We also added a new fish to our family last week! His name is Star and he lives in Wyatt’s bedroom, near the end of his bed so Wyatt can watch him swimming around. He is super tiny for a betta and I kind of wonder if he is young. He seems to be happy with his new home, as he made a bubble nest! This really has nothing to do with happiness and is actually a sign that he is ready for a lady friend but all betta owners like to think it is because their fish is happy.

Here is little Star! His tank is sort of a weird eerie yellow because the wood (Manzanita) leaks tannins into the water that is actually good for the fish but it makes the water yellowish. It dissipates after a while though, like a week or two or three. Right now it is funny though because it looks so 70s to me. He put so much work into this bubble nest. I didn’t have the heart to tell him though that he is not getting a lady friend.