Tag: books

Our Cozy Little Life

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized15 Comments

Hello everyone! We are getting closer and closer to Wyatt’s next follow up appointment and we can’t wait. We go next Friday and we are hoping they ease up on some of his restrictions a bit. Now that he is feeling better he is restless! He won’t be able to jump right back into things, the healing from this surgery is considered a year, but it would be nice to resume a few more activities.

We got out of the house last weekend thank goodness. It was a beautiful sunny, breezy Sunday and we decided to drive to Belle Isle and take a look around since it has been a while. We stumbled upon a cricket game in progress and we thought since that is not something we see here everyday, we would stop and check it out. Wyatt and I lounged in the back of the Subaru and Billy popped open his camp chair and we just hung out for a bit watching and cheering, although we had no clue what was happening. We had so much fun, just being out and taking a slow Sunday.

Last weekend we also celebrated Mermaid Girl’s birthday in the most casual, relaxed, fun party. They came over to our house to make things easier for Wyatt, and brought the cake and ice cream. The kids played, we chatted, we had delicious vintage cherry cake, which was the name from the bakery, and just had a great night. Mermaid Girl immediately started using her gifts from us; she loves drawing and wants to be an illustrator, so we got her some more “serious” art supplies for that, as well as a set of our favorite alcohol markers and a cute coloring book just to keep it young and fun. She drew and colored most of the night, when she wasn’t hanging out with her sister and Wyatt.

The past few days have felt like fall. I know that it is not here to stay, but I am enjoying it while I can. I even posted a fall books post, the first of a few that I have planned. I want to get them posted kind of early in case people are planning their fall TBRs and are looking for seasonal books. I have somehow amassed a huge list so it made more sense to break it up into a few different lists. I am going to however have the full list of all of the books available for people if they want it, once I figure out how to share it.

Our life has been very simple and slow lately. We are restless, but I am trying to make sure that we also have some fun things “during our confinement”, even if they are small. We check out our Little Free Library, to see if anyone has used it, and get excited whenever we notice books gone or new books left behind. We have been enjoying our animals and our books and our creative projects. I bought a new table that is easier for Wyatt to use with his wheelchair and he really loves that he can just roll up to it and use it without any issues. Our old table had the table legs in the middle, it was a fold up table thing, with leaves, is this a drop leaf table? Anyway, there was only so much room for his chair, the front wheels couldn’t fit between the legs, he had to line himself up exactly, and it was just a pain. Now, it is a bit lower, it is narrower so he can reach most of the way across, and the legs are at the far corners so he can use it very easily. I can’t wait to paint that room now, even more! I am thinking October, when the weather is nicer and the paint will dry better. Then I want Billy and our friend Nathan to tackle storage in that room during mid-winter, and build a whole wall of shelves, with areas for school supplies, art supplies, books, games, and the geckos that live in that room. I might be wishing for a lot there, but you never know! Poor Billy. This is what happens when I have too much time to sit and think. I also have some summer plans for our yard percolating, including a small pond area, and… the thing I am super excited about… a tortoise enclosure! I don’t want a big tortoise, like a sulcata (although, those of you in warm climates could do it, just saying) just a smaller one. I have seen the coolest little outside homesteads for tortoises on Instagram and I just think it would be so cool. We have an old playhouse of Wyatt’s we could probably convert over… see? This is a problem! It might not happen next summer, but I am hoping it will. I am going to spend the winter learning all the different things about tortoises, and their care, especially overwintering them, if they need to brumate/hibernate, etc. It’s a big project. But I mean, just look at this. This woman has the coolest setup for this tortoise, and she also has informational reels as well. Like I said, it is something I am going to research very well and make sure that it is something that we can do and something that is humane for the tortoise as well, and that we can care for one appropriately. I am trying to convince my friend Kelly to get one too, then we can have tortoise playdates. I had happened to see that two tortoises were in rescue together, which gave me that idea. I am such a dork.

And I have probably rambled enough for one day. I will talk to you all soon, and I hope that whatever you do today, you do one thing that makes you smile! Wyatt and I are going to the library and our local fish store for a few new aquarium plants, so we will both be doing happy things today!

And just some random photos!

Short Classic Reads for Autumn Eves

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn autumn, books and reading19 Comments

Ok I am diving in to fall content because I can’t wait. It is still hot and gross and sticky here, so this is a bit of daydreaming on my part. Can’t I just set the AC super low and cover up with a blanket and have some tea and read some scary stories?

Let’s start with these short little classics of horror and mystery, to just give us a little taste of the season to come. A little autumn amuse-bouche if you will, while we wait for the real thing.

The Willows by Algernon Blackwood: Written in 1907, The Willows is described as early modern horror, and precursor to the weird fiction movement, which is something I am reading a bit of these days. This cover is absolutely chilling to me!

The Ghost Stories of M.R. James: My cousin, who I have shared books with since we were children, has told me over and over for years to read M.R. James. Maybe this is the year! And hmm, I wonder if he has this copy for his study; if not I am thinking this would be a perfect gift for Christmas.

The Haunted Hotel by Wilkie Collins: This short story (novella?) is on my list to read this year. And this edition and cover looks gorgeous and spooky!

Autumn Chills by Agatha Christie: We need to have the Queen of Mystery on this list! I think short stories are a great way to get to know an author before diving into a whole novel, and this collection of autumnal stories is a good place to begin!

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson: I love Shirley Jackson, and this is my favorite by her. It is so good and perfect for this transition period.

Carmilla by J. Sheridan La Fanu: This book was so groundbreaking for its time. It pre-dates Dracula by twenty-six years, and the vampire is a woman. It is sometimes referred to as sapphic, but I hesitate to call it that based on a few things. However, it was a scandalous book in its day, and I feel like the focus on women and sexuality and power is one of the reasons why Dracula is more well known.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: Hands down, one of my favorites on this list. I read this in college and fell in love with this whole story. And speaking of feminism, Mary Shelley’s mom, Mary Wollstonecraft, was a pioneering feminist in literature and writing. Just throwing that out there.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: So I haven’t actually read this one. I know the story, roughly, but I should probably read it one day. I knew I had to include it on this list though!

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: A spooky one alright. Is it a ghost story? Or something else? It is open to the reader’s interpretation. It’s been a very long time since I read this so I don’t remember too much about it. Maybe it is time for a reread.

And there we go. A little bit of fall near the end of summer, on this rainy (here at least) day.

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized43 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!! I seem to be in like a fall deep clean kind of mood lately. I have been reorganizing and straightening and getting rid of stuff like crazy around here. Maybe I am nesting, preparing for fall and winter like all the little animals outside are doing. All I know is that our art cabinet is extremely organized right now, and that somehow in my cleaning frenzy I lost one of my sandals. I can only guess that I accidentally threw it out, which makes me sad because I loved it. Lol. However, all of this has had a side effect – now I want Billy to paint our whatever room. A few years ago, we flip-flopped the rooms in our house. It’s a very small house, and we had a room we barely used, the dining room. I realized that we could have more space if we moved our couches and television into the dining room, which we now call the den, and moved all of our other stuff into the living room. So the old living room area now has our dining room table, art stuff, animals, and just leisure activity paraphernalia. But we never know what to call that space! Anyway I am so sick of that paint color and if Billy isn’t able to paint it, then I am going to. I am not a great painter but I just can’t deal with the darkness in that room anymore. Lol.

Phew! Moving on.

Read Last Week:

Last week I read Monk and Robot books 1 and 2. I was gifted this collection edition of both books from an internet friend and I loved reading them back to back. These are just such wonderful stories and I have my husband listening to them as well.

I also read Pat of Silver Bush, which now that I think of it, was another gift! I was blessed with some book mail this summer! Pat is a mixed bag for me. I loved so much of the book, but then, I didn’t like some of the other parts. Review I hope this week, but if you want a sneak peek of it, check out my Instagram. I almost always review there first. I feel like it is a good place to sort of form my thoughts. I don’t know why it makes a difference but it does for some reason. Maybe because I feel like I need to be more succinct, which inspires me to really think about what I am saying instead of just rambling like I am right this minute. Actually this whole post is sort of a ramble!

I tried reading a romance, Out of the Woods, but there was a heavy topic in there that I was not feeling up to so I put it aside.

Reading This Week:

This week I am reading another in the Campers and Criminals series, Hitches, Hideouts and Homicide. I seem to have developed an addiction to these books. I also am reading The Convenience Store by the Sea, which sounds so good.

Posted Last Week:

Our Cozy Little Life

10 Books of Summer Update

Watching:

Last week Billy and I watched Nautilus. It is not the greatest, in terms of production, but it somehow makes it feel more camp. Like we are watching a sci-fi show from the 50s or 60s, sort of over the top and silly, but despite that, we really like it. Or maybe that is why we like it! I feel like mid-season it really started to gel a bit more and get a bit better, and I love the set of the interiors. It just looks so cool, like old school nautical mixed with Victorian era . I also really like how this series does not shy away from the horrors of colonialism, and denounces it, with many characters in the show being survivors of what they call “the Company”. It makes for a very diverse cast and shines a light on some of these historical events that perhaps today’s students don’t know about. I also really like the main female character, Humility, and her enthusiasm and talent for engineering and science. It had a lot going on at first, but it all started to settle in together nicely. We have one episode left that we are going to try to watch tonight, but we also are watching K-Pop Demon Hunters today, so it might be tomorrow instead.

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

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized32 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 was a pretty good week around here. I have been catching up on a lot of projects and work that I haven’t had time for, and it feels good to get those things done. We also had the grand opening for Wyatt’s Little Free Library last Sunday! He was so excited and proud!

As far as reading goes, I started Pat of Silver Bush and it was slow going at first to get into it. I had a hard time with reading Judy Plum’s dialect and it was just distracting me and I would read about two pages and put the book down. I finally was able to settle down with it yesterday and now I am on a roll. I love how Pat is such a little homebody.

I will be continuing to read this, and when I finish I have this one all lined up.

This wasn’t on my August TBR but I found it while at the library and I thought the cover looked so happy I had to pick it up.

Posted Recently:

Top Ten Tuesday: Beachy Reads

Mini Reviews: Chlorine and Seacrow Island

Hello August!

Thursday Morning Coffee Catch Up

Watching:

Billy and I finished up Season 3 of Dark Winds and it was amazing. That show is so well done. I already can’t wait until Season 4. We also watched Death Valley, which I really enjoyed, and we just started watching Nautilus. Nautilus is like the perfect amount of cheese and action. It reminds us both of Firefly for some reason.

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

Thursday Morning Coffee Catch Up

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized19 Comments

Hello everyone!! I am feeling pretty good this morning – I had an actual whole night of sleep and it was amazing. I feel ready to take on the world! Or maybe just my patch of the world. That works too.

We are still at home, and going a bit stir crazy. Wyatt is feeling pretty much back to normal but still has all of the restrictions, which is a difficult pairing. But we are managing. He has really only felt this good beginning this week, and I am so happy that we have gotten to this stage. I just need to shift gears now a bit and figure out this new conundrum. We will get it though. We are through the worst of it now, thank goodness.

His recovery timed nicely with the completion of his Little Free Library! We had the grand opening on Sunday, and Wyatt was so happy and proud of it. We had goodie bags for the kids who came, and my dad came and brought balloons.

Our first visitors were two of my nieces, Mermaid Girl and Little Bit! They promptly plopped down on the lawn and got busy with their goodie bags, and flipped through books. Then we had some friends stop by with their children, and our little neighbor girl has been flitting back and forth to it all week. I need to find a way to keep the inventory “fresh” for the kids who come a lot, like the neighbor girl. Wyatt even got a super cute card from some friends down the street.

It was a really good day!

I joined a Little Free Library group on Facebook, and posted about our new library, and asked for suggestions on how to keep the momentum going, and they were all so welcoming and had great ideas. Just what I would expect from people who love books! One person suggested that I get a map and have Wyatt mark on the map where everyone who responded to my post has charters, or show him how to use the LFL map, which I didn’t even think about doing. Other suggestions were to post on the NextDoor App, in our city’s Buy Nothing group, and to start a FB page just for his library. So I guess I will be doing all of that pretty soon.

Right now though, I am busy planning the school year, or at least up to December. I need organization to stay on track with life, so I have been working very hard this week on plans. I have a good chunk finished and I am pretty excited about how our fall is shaping up. We do have two days of physical therapy that we will be working around as well, as part of Wyatt’s recovery. I am leaving those days light for now.

And because I am who I am, and don’t have enough projects in my life, we made a big change with Cub Scouts. We ended up deciding as a group to continue meeting and doing all of our fun stuff and community work, basically stay the same as what we were doing, but without the umbrella of Cub Scouts. So we are now starting from scratch, sort of. I am going to register our group as a nonprofit organization with the state, and get a name and motto and oath and all that together, so that the kids can still have the bond of an organization, and then also design some ranks and badges. I have a few ideas percolating..

And then in the midst of all this, my long suffering husband turned 50!! I am unsure how he is 50, it feels like we are still the teenagers we were when we started dating. We didn’t do much to celebrate this week, but we are hoping to go out together this weekend. We are just now feeling comfortable leaving Wyatt with a grandparent for an hour or two without us. It will be nice to go out together, even for a short time. I am thinking a hike and a drink somewhere might be fun.

And I feel like I have prattled on long enough this morning! I hope that whatever you all do today, that you do something that makes you smile!

Mini Book Reviews – Chlorine and Seacrow Island

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn book review, books and reading15 Comments

I have two book reviews up for today, one middle grade translated fiction, the other horror/weird fiction.

Let’s start with Seacrow Island.

Seacrow Island was written by Astrid Lindgren, who is best known for her character Pippi Longstocking. Confession time: I never liked Pippi. She was too unpredictable for me and I didn’t care for that. So I never read any of Lindgren’s other books, assuming I wouldn’t like them either. And honestly, the next one I tried was last year for language arts with Wyatt, and – we didn’t like it. We tried reading Ronia, and we were so bored, so I put that one down and we read something different. However, I saw this book online and I was like, ok one more shot Astrid. And I am glad that I took the chance and read it because I loved it. It was cozy and delightful, filled with quirky characters and animals.

This is the perfect little summer read! I was transported to this small island, filled with family and friends and wonderful animals. I absolutely adore the loyal Bosun, Pelle and his love for all creatures great and small, from wasps to seals and dogs and everything else under the sun. I did have a little cry but overall this book is just perfect for reading and daydreaming. It reminded me of The Penderwicks and the dad reminded me of the father from The Winter Cottage by Carol Ryrie Brink, a little helpless and haphazard. It’s just a wonderful story of children being children and idyllic childhoods, and like I said in my post the other day, now I want to find a small island in the Baltic to summer on with my family.

Chlorine by Jade Song is a a debut book, but it’s a powerhouse. It is a short read, but not a fast one. It is intense, complex, visceral. That was the word that kept coming to me while reading it and describing it to people around me, visceral. Raw. Sort of gross and fluid filled. You forget actually, that you are reading a horror novel, and not some modern classic coming of age, although it is that too. The horror is a slow unraveling; the is a book about ascending and transcending and descending. I didn’t want to put it down while reading, and the times that I did have to come up for air, I was thinking about the book, because there is a lot to think about. I could never do it justice in a review.

Ren’s mother gifts her a mermaid book as a small toddler, still in daycare. She is a very gifted child and even though the book is far too advanced for her age, she can read it. Her pre-school teacher refuses to believe it though, and tests her on reading the book at different times during the day, trying to trip her up. Which is totally despicable to do to a child, but it sets the tone for Ren’s life. Always under pressure, always being tested, always needing to live up to different expectations. Not from her parents; her parents were not like that. They had expectations for Ren, but they were not “tiger parents”. They just wanted the best for her, but mostly stayed out of her way, especially her dad who lived in China. Her mom wanted to make Ren happy, that was obvious. She loved her daughter.

On the surface, this book is about a young girl and her obsession with swimming, with mermaids, with perfection. Once you dive deeper though, there are other themes that stand out. Pain. Isolation. The betrayal of her body, of men. And then the shocking climax to it all, and then the murky ending – Ren exerting bodily autonomy, searching for freedom.

Ren’s love of mermaids leads to a desire to join the swim team, which then turns into a journey to perfection, staying a star swimmer, pleasing her coach, who is not only mercurial in temper but also inappropriate and lecherous. He has exacting expectations for their diets, for their performance, but particularly for his top swimmers, for Ren. The pair make for a good team in terms of swimming and winning, but it is also very destructive for Ren, so much so that when she gets a concussion she goes to practice too soon, before she is healed.

I have a lot to say about this book, and just like when I read The God of the Woods, I am not comfortable typing it out because of spoilers. If you want to listen to me ramble about this, I am posting a video, but beware that I will be giving away spoilers in talking about it fully. I will probably post tomorrow, and make a new blog post with the link.

This book is amazing. It is also gross, repellent in some places, and requires many trigger warnings. In fact they are listed in the author’s note at the start of the book. They are listed as racism, misogyny, self-harm, eating disorders, homophobia, depression, and sexual violence. It was not an easy read at all, but it was a read that I absolutely ended up being glad that I read. It is not feel good. It is not cozy. It probes your brain and makes you think and is horrifying and sad. It is well written though, and I can see this becoming a book that is studied and dissected in university classrooms. It is powerful and alarming and weighty, for a book about needing to stay afloat.

Chlorine is a five star read for me.

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized34 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 was a pretty good week last week, with a good doctor’s visit for Wyatt. Today I have to mega clean the house, and then later my nieces and brother and SIL are coming over to hang out. I am looking forward to seeing them!

Read Last Week:

I read Seacrow Island, which I absolutely loved, and I also read another in the Campers and Criminals series. Seacrow Island made me want to find an island in the Baltic Sea to summer on with my family. It put me in mind of The Penderwicks and also of Winter Cottage by Carol Ryrie Brink in some ways.

Reading This Week:

This week I feel like reading something a bit weird, but also wanting to finish up a few I had started earlier this summer. I will be reading Chlorine, hopefully finishing Otter Country, and then making some headway into Pat of Silver Bush.

Posted Last Week:

Top Ten Tuesday: Books Set in Japan

Friday Morning Coffee Catch Up

What We Are Watching:

We finished up The Great Canadian Pottery Throw Down, and watched a few episodes of Brokenwood that we have already seen. I would like to start from the very beginning again so I might have to do that on my own. Not sure I can get Billy to commit to that. We also watched The Haunted Mansion, and a movie called Finding You, which was yes, a bit cheeseball, but I absolutely loved it for how Hallmark it felt. Sometimes you just need that, and last night I definitely needed it. Plus it had Saoirse-Monica Jackson in it and I love her. It actually could have had more of her in it honestly. The setting itself was absolutely gorgeous, a small coastal town in Ireland.

Around the Interwebs:

I am planning on catching up on commenting on blogs this week! It’s my big blog goal. I am all about catching up around here. And while I do that, I am also thinking about fall and fall movie watching. And Comfy Cozy Cinema!

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

Friday Morning/Afternoon Coffee Catch Up

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized14 Comments

Hello everyone! I have already had at least two cups of coffee, and taken a journey to the hospital with Wyatt and am back home again. We had an early morning appointment today for his surgery follow up. We had to get up at 6 am, but it was worth it because it was a good appointment!

Traffic was awful so we got there right at his appointment time – not ideal. I called from valet parking to say that we were there and on our way up – I was so afraid they would cancel our appointment! We made it up only a few minutes after his appointment time and they sent us right to X-Ray. From there, we went to the appointment with his surgeon. I really like his surgeon, he is very soft spoken. I also think he is very amused by my jokester son, and slightly amused by my hovering, worried momness. He looked at the x-rays, he looked at Wyatt’s legs and incisions, and gave us great news. Wyatt can stop wearing the braces and wedge pillow during the day! He now only has to wear it at night, and he can also use his regular wheelchair. He no longer needs to keep his legs straight out all day long. What a relief! Billy and I walked out of there feeling so much better about things! Wyatt’s braces were causing superficial sores on the backs of his legs, so I am so happy that we can take those things off for a while. Wyatt is currently sitting happily in his chair, watching tv. His job is still to spend the next month healing, and then we go back to see the doctor again. Then hopefully we get the clearance for PT.

That is my most important and best news, obviously. We also stopped at the gift store so Wyatt could get a sticker to add to his water bottle, which he was very excited about.

In other news, we are getting closer to Wyatt’s little free library getting done. All we have left is to put shingles on it, and plant it! I am thinking about having a little Grand Opening, and leave gift bags inside as Book Worm Starter Kits for kids. The only thing is, what should I put in there? Bookmarks for sure, gummy worms, what else? I am not at top form over here, and I am having a hard time coming up with ideas! I need a little help. Lol.

We are still reading a lot over here. I have been reading my books, and of course, going through stacks of books with Wyatt as well. I can’t just have him watch tv all day, even if he wanted to. And some days I think he would be happy with that. Lol. The first week I definitely let him, but as he started to feel better, we broke it up with activities and reading. Wyatt has been so blessed with people who have sent him gifts to keep him occupied, as well as videos to cheer him up, and all sorts of well wishes! Billy and I were also overwhelmed with gratitude about all the help we have received as well. Everyone has been so kind to our family, and we are so thankful.

I don’t really have too much to add, so I am going to just share some photos I have taken, and say goodbye for now. Thanks again everyone for all of your kind words and well wishes and gifts and videos! I hope that whatever you do today, that you do something that makes you smile!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books Set in Japan

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized57 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

This week’s prompt:  Books Set in/Take Place During X (Pick a place, time, era, etc. Examples: Books set in Europe/Italy/Australia/Chicago, books set in Regency England, books that take place during the 1900s, books set in imaginary worlds/post-apocalyptic/dystopian worlds, books set on the ocean, books set it castles, books that take place during WW2, etc.)

So, a few years ago I read a book that changed my reading. I picked up the book, What You Are Looking for is in the Library, and I loved it. I was hooked. I needed all the cozy fiction/translated/healing fiction. I am so happy that I read a book outside my comfort zone because now it is a favorite genre for me. These titles are a mix of books I have read and books on my TBR for this year. These are all set in Japan, but some of the others that I have read were set in Korea. It was hard to choose the setting for this post!

The Kamogawa Food Detectives || What You Are Looking For is in the Library || The Full Moon Coffee Shop

The Kamogowa Food Detectives made me so hungry. The descriptions of the food, the memories that accompanied these dishes, made this book such a delight to read.

What You Are Looking for is in the Library is still one of my favorites. I could revisit this one over and over again.

The Full Moon Coffee Shop was… interesting. It was not my favorite of these but it was definitely unique!

The Easy Life in Kamusari || Butter || Days at the Morisaki Bookshop

The Easy Life in Kamusari is a gentle easy read set in the mountains. I loved this little mountain village and its inhabitants.

Butter is completely different and I still haven’t read it. It sounds crazy and is based on a true story! It is “about a female gourmet cook and serial killer and the journalist intent on cracking her case”. It is on my fall TBR list.

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop was another slow, gentle read. And I learned there is a whole area of Tokyo that is known as Book Town that has hundreds of bookstores!

Letters from the Ginza Shihodo Stationery Shop || The Convenience Store by the Sea || Dinner at the Night Library || The Vanishing Cherry Blossom Bookshop

These four are the tops of my list for this genre right now, with The Convenience Store by the Sea as the next up. I have a hold request in for it and I am waiting – hopefully this week! After that Dinner at the Night Library sounds fantastic for fall.

And that is it from me today! I look forward to visiting your posts all week and seeing what you all chose!

Thursday Morning Coffee Catch Up

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized19 Comments

Hello everyone! We need all the coffee over here these days. It’s been a learning experience and a challenge for a bit, but we might be sort of settling down. Hopefully. Fingers crossed and all the prayers at least.

It’s been one week since Wyatt’s surgery, and the first couple of days, as expected, were the most difficult. He is doing better; things are still tough but he is more himself the past few days. Coloring, drawing, smiling and laughing. I can’t tell you how much I missed seeing his smile and hearing his laugh! Right now he is drawing and laughing and singing loud and I love it. His energy level, again as expected, is much lower than normal but it is good to see him regaining bits of himself.

We have been so blessed for such supportive friends and family, who have really been amazing, sending things to help Wyatt, to keep him busy, to make him smile. They have also sent food and well wishes, and Billy and I feel so overwhelmed and grateful by the kindness we have been shown. These gestures have made a hard time easier. We have also gotten so many messages of support and prayer for which I am also grateful. I am so appreciative of the love people are showing my kiddo. He still has a long way to go, and it is helpful to know that so many people love him, care about him, and are pulling for him. Thank you everyone for all of your gestures and messages of support. They mean a lot.

In the down times, I have been working on a new embroidery project, listening to audiobooks, and reading. I have learned I can only read books that are pretty fluffy, not too complex, are entertaining, and quick – and I am making my way through the Campers and Criminals series by Tonya Kappes. I think I have read three since the surgery now? I am heading to the library to return the ones I have and to pick up my new holds today. I also have been reading Nightmare of a Trip.

My new embroidery project is cute too! I am working on it super slowly, but I have two more from the same creator so if I do finish it before the month is up, I have some waiting in the wings.

We had a few really good days too, before surgery that I wasn’t able to share. The best being working on Wyatt’s little free library! We decided we are going to name it Wyatt’s Sunshine Little Free Library, and it is going to be painted blue and yellow. We did start painting it – well, Wyatt and my dad started primering it the day before surgery. My dad was a house painter when I was little and he was going to college, and he takes it super seriously. I loved him passing on his skills to Wyatt, who did a great job. He even got the thumbs up from my dad, which is tough! Then when Billy got home from work, Wyatt and Billy painted the door. We are hoping to finish it up in the next week or two as Wyatt begins to feel better.

I am really excited to set it up. It is huge, Billy being Billy made an enormous version, and it will have space for kids books on the bottom, where Wyatt can reach, adult books on the top, and in the middle, space for whatever else I feel like making it that week. Rocks, seeds, mugs – I am getting excited and Wyatt is too.

Something else we have been doing – ordering odd and strange things. So far we have ordered Oxy-Clean washing machine cleaner, an At-At walker fish tank decoration, and a floating betta hide. Our little menagerie has been so soothing for all of us and I guess I wanted to decorate something.

Billy also bought a water filtration system and installed it yesterday, but that wasn’t an odd purchase but unfortunately a necessary one, as it is has come out that our city’s water is crap, and “poses an immediate health risk.” Our city has its own water and electricity, and while I still love that we produce our own power the water situation is scary. The city is telling us that it is fine, but I am opting for safety instead of blind faith here. So Billy put the filtration system in, and now we feel a little better. If the city is right and it is fine, its still no harm done in having one.

And I feel like I am rambling sort of assorted and random things, so I am cutting this off here. I probably need more coffee. Have a good one everyone!