Hello everyone! It has been beautiful here lately – finally! We had been hit by constant rain for a week or so straight, and the past few days have been sunny and not too hot. Perfection!
It’s been a few weeks since I posted one of these! We just have had a lot of life stuff that hasn’t been all that interesting, like a flurry of doctor appointments, appointments for equipment for Wyatt, school stuff, just the minutia of daily life. I also started going through areas that I rarely weed through to get rid of things and reorganize. Fun stuff here guys.
I have recently gotten into genealogy again, and have been tromping around cemeteries. There is one that Wyatt and I visited together, but I didn’t want to leave him in the car too much while I searched so that was more of a scouting expedition, that I followed up with a real exploration later that weekend with Billy and Wyatt. I found my mom’s grandparents, but for the life of me I could not find my dad’s great grandparents. My dad, Wyatt, and I went last Friday and finally found them. I told Wyatt we were standing in front of his great-great-great grandparents graves. I don’t think he was particularly enthused, but one day he might be!
If you read my post about my genealogy saga, I had a mystery about an ancestor, Marie Domaine and her mother Josephine Bernard. Well, I still haven’t solved that puzzle yet, and I ran into a new head scratcher. My great grandfather was born in Ireland, moved to Pennsylvania and was a brick layer in the Pittsburgh area. However, I found a passport application that states he was planning to go to Colombia for a month for work, which sounds sketch. Then later, he died after being struck by a car, which isn’t really that suspicious unless you are plotting some sort of criminal story in your mind, like I did. Was he in the mob? Who knows? Lol. Well that might be a stretch but I do enjoy making up these narratives about ancestors right now.
Speaking of my dad, he recently had a birthday! Number 78. We went to his house for a very casual get together and had a great time. The kids had fun playing and visiting their grandparents. There were also three different birthday cakes for us to choose from, so lots of cake!
We kicked last weekend off by making lunches to be distributed to the public. I wanted Wyatt to start becoming involved in community service projects occasionally, and of course our church is a good place to start with him. He was a great helper and I was very proud of him, although I did not have him help make sandwiches. His grandmother did that. Wyatt, Billy, and I were an assembly line of filling the lunch bags instead, which was a much more suitable job for a ten year old.
When we got home, it was time for our Drop In Crafternoon that Lisa at Boondock Ramblings and I are hosting. We had a great time hanging out, chatting, and crafting with the fellow bloggers who have joined us. Since it is drop in, it is all very casual, just come for however long you can or pop in when you can. Send me an email at crackercrumblife@gmail.com if you are intestested!
On Sunday, we went to a nursery garden center that was new to us. Wyatt had gotten a small garden bed for Easter, one that is raised so that he can access it from his wheelchair, and he needed some plants to fill it! He made some good choices – dahlias, a delphinium, and a strawberry plant. It looks really nice! Billy and I had too much fun in the bonsai area and the terrarium areas, poking around. We ended up buying a tiny little silver needle tree (?). It says it gets like 6 feet tall, but we can’t find anything about it online, so I am thinking it has a different name than what it said on the tag. It was in the bonsai area so I am also guessing we can do that with it? Right now it just looks uniquely pretty. I also picked out a teeny tiny little tiger head planter and stuck a succulent in it. I love it.
Afterwards we stopped at Lowes for dirt, and ran into my brother and his family. They were also getting supplies, for Mermaid Girl’s fairy garden.
These guys came over on Monday to hang out, have some dinner, and enjoy the evening. It was a nice time. My mom came too, and was not happy I made her wear a big hat. But it was really sunny and I was worried she would burn. She did it, and I told her she looked like a Dame. She will also be unhappy if she knows I posted this photo of her on here, so don’t tell ok.
I hope you all have been having some good moments filled with smiles and laughter.
Hello everyone! Have you ever had those mornings where the coffee just hits perfectly? That is my morning coffee today. I don’t even know what I am drinking today, it is just good.
It was a bit of a week this week! I think our weeks are going to be like this for a while, while we are in the run-up to Wyatt’s surgery. Just a lot of different appointments and phone calls and arranging equipment, and so on. And if any of you have dealt with insurance companies, you know how many hoops you need to jump through first, and the amount of phone calls you need to make! However, it does look like things are starting to all come together, and as a person who needs things prepared and ready, I am starting to at least feel better on that front!
I made a joke yesterday that my whole week has been spent between doctors appointments and the fish store, because it has. Who knew this new fish tank would give me (and Billy) such a headache! It is our first community tank so it is a learning curve. We had a few losses right away, because our parameters were off, but we have been diligently doing 75% water changes almost daily and running up to the store for water tests. We have three lemon Tetra, that we named the Lemon Sisters, two albino African dwarf frogs who have had a few different names, we can’t settle on any, and one Khuli loaches. Once our water is perfect (and we are soooo close!) we are adding two more loaches because they prefer to live in a group. I read that they will actually die of loneliness if they are the only one in a tank! Ours should be ok since it won’t be that long of a wait – I asked Sam at the fish store to make sure! It seems like our little frog likes it though, and they hang out together. So maybe the loach doesn’t feel so lonely. That group needs a name too. If anyone has any name suggestions for the frogs and loaches, I would love to hear them! (and I snuck a photo of Wyatt’s favorite fish, Moon, into the group here, even though he lives on his own)
Wyatt and I also went for a stroll and browse through my favorite nursery the other day. I still haven’t given up on my plan to plant a tree or trees in my yard. I had originally wanted to plant birch trees, but with the new ramp I don’t think it will work. So I am thinking maybe a Japanese Willow now? I also liked the look of the Whipcord Red Cedar, but that might be a bit much too, lol. Wyatt found the name “Crabapple” tree hysterical, and laughed about the whole time we were there. I did buy two little rue plants to put on the deck, as a small offering to the butterflies.
Last night we had Cub Scouts!! It was a very chill, easy meeting this time, with the kids working on windchimes to hang in the yards. I would have said they were for their mother’s as gifts, but in our group, the mothers are there with their children and helped them make them. Our little pack is getting so close and it makes me so happy. Wyatt even allowed one of the other kids to push him in his wheelchair, which is unusual! He usually only lets family do that, so Billy and I were happily surprised at that development! Wyatt was playing, and with someone other than his cousins! He was slightly apprehensive, I could tell by his face, but his desire to play was greater than his apprehension. Progress!!
The kids all seemed to have a good time designing their wind chimes, choosing the best and most “aesthetic” beads as one little girl kept saying, and putting them together. The parents all seemed relaxed (even me!) and it was just a fun night.
Next month we have a few things lined up- a fishing derby, a meeting, and then the kids are helping my church pack bag lunches to hand out free to the community.
I even had an outing, all on my own! The clinic where Wyatt has therapy hosts a Mother’s Day event every year, and it so fun to go too. This year it was Kentucky Derby themed, and we had to dress up a bit and wear hats or fascinators. They had games, good food, prizes, and lots of togetherness. We all shared our wins for the past year, and there were some tears among us moms of special needs kids, feeling the hardships and pain, but also celebrating the wins, big or small.
And then that was our week! It was a week of ups and downs, but I think that is what life is, isn’t it? A series of ups and downs? We enjoy those up moments, and then rally together for the hard ones.
And I will say goodbye for today! I hope that whatever you do today, that you do something that makes you smile!
This week’s prompt: Authors (or books by authors) Who Live In My State/Country
I chose to go with authors from my home state of Michigan, or who lived in Michigan for a part of their lives. I apologize in advance for the length of this post!
Angeline Boulley: “Angeline Boulley, an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, is a storyteller who writes about her Ojibwe community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She is a former Director of the Office of Indian Education at the U.S. Department of Education. Her debut novel Firekeeper’s Daughter was an instant #1New York Times bestseller and recipient of many internatioanl accolades including the ALA Printz and Morris Awards; the YA Goodreads Choice Award; the Walter Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature; and is Carnegie Mellon nominated. Angeline lives in southwest Michigan, but her home will always be on Sugar Island.” (from Macmillan Publishers)
I have loved both Fire Keepers Daughter and Warrior Girl Unearthed. I can’t wait to read her new one, Sisters in the Wind, that comes out in September. So far both books have been set in Michigan, in the area that Boulley is originally from.
Beth Nguyen: “Beth Nguyen is the author of four books, most recently the memoir Owner of a Lonely Heart, published by Scribner. Owner of a Lonely Heart was a New York Times Editors’ Choice pick and was named a best book of 2023 by NPR, Time, Oprah Daily, and BookPage. Nguyen’s three previous books, the memoir Stealing Buddha’s Dinner and the novels Short Girls and Pioneer Girl, were published by Viking Penguin. Her awards and honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Book Award, a PEN/Jerard Award, a Bread Loaf fellowship, and best book of the year honors from the Chicago Tribune and Library Journal. Her books have been included in community and university read programs around the country. Nguyen’s work has also appeared in numerous anthologies and publications including The New Yorker,The Paris Review, The New York Times, Literary Hub, Time Magazine, and The Best American Essays.
Nguyen was born in Saigon. When she was a baby, she and her family came to the United States as refugees and were resettled in Michigan, where Nguyen grew up.
She received an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan and is currently a professor in the creative writing program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.” (From https://www.bethminhnguyen.com/bio)
I read Stealing Buddha’s Dinner for book club years and years ago it feels like, and I found it a very interesting read! It is a memoir and takes place in Grand Rapids, MI.
Jeffrey Eugenides: “Jeffrey Eugenides was born in Detroit and attended Brown and Stanford Universities. His first novel, The Virgin Suicides, was published by FSG to great acclaim in 1993, and he has received numerous awards for his work. In 2003, he received the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Middlesex (FSG, 2002), which was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and France’s Prix Médicis. The Marriage Plot (FSG, 2011) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and won both the Prix Fitzgerald and the Madame Figaro Literary Prize. His collection of short stories, Fresh Complaint, is from FSG (2017). Eugenides is a professor of creative writing in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton.” (From Macmillan Publishers)
I have read this book and watched this movie so many times, and it never fails to make me cry. What an absolutely heartbreaking story. I have not read any of his other work, although I feel like I should.
Christopher Paul Curtis: “Christopher Paul Curtis won the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Award for his bestselling second novel, Bud, Not Buddy. His first novel, The Watsons Go to Birmingham–1963, was also singled out for many awards, and has been a bestseller in hardcover and paperback. His most recent novels for Random House include The Mighty Miss Malone, Mr. Chickee’s Messy Mission, Mr. Chickee’s Funny Money, and Bucking the Sarge. Christopher Paul Curtis grew up in Flint, Michigan. After high school he began working on the assembly line at the Fisher Body Plant No. 1 while attending the Flint branch of the University of Michigan. He is now a full-time writer, and lives with his family in Windsor, Ontario.” (From Random House)
I have this book on Wyatt’s list for next year!
Anissa Gray: “Anissa Gray was born and raised in western Michigan. She is the author of the critically acclaimed 2019 novel The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls. Gray is also a journalist whose work has been featured in The Washington Post, CNN, The Cut and Shondaland. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her wife.” (From https://anissagray.com/about)
I have had this book on my TBR for a while now. I didn’t know she was a Michigan native!
Joyce Carol Oates: Oates moved to Detroit in 1962 with her husband, Raymond Smith. The two were English Professors at two universities in Detroit. Oates worked for U-D Mercy, while Smith worked for Wayne State. At this point in her life, she had not yet published a novel. Her time in Detroit is said to be very influential on her work, as she took in the city as it was then. She was here during the riots in 1967, a time that has not been forgotten for anyone who was around then. My mom remembers the curfews, Billy’s dad was living in the city as well and remembers the violence of that time. She eventually moved across the river to Windsor, where she wrote the book, Them. The Detroit Free Press says about this book, ‘In her first months in Canada, Oates finished her novel “them,” in which Detroit is a character, just like human characters, scuffling, hurting, prone to violence. “All of Detroit is melodrama, and most lives in Detroit fated to be melodramatic,” the narrator says.” (Detroit Free Press)
I have not yet read this book. I went through a time where I binged Joyce Carol Oates and I am pretty sure it plunged me into almost a depression of sorts. It was all just so heavy and violent and tragic and sad, and I have not gone back to that well. She is an amazing writer – I just don’t recommend binging her work all at once!
Chris Van Allsburg: From his bio on Penguin: “As long as I can remember, I’ve always loved to draw. But my interest in drawing wasn’t encouraged very much. Growing up in the 1950s, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, boys were supposed to be athletic. Certain peer pressures encouraged little fingers to learn how to hold footballs rather than crayons.
My early love for drawing developed into a love for telling stories through pictures. Stories begin as fragments of pictures in my mind. I create a story by posing questions to myself. I call it the “what if” and “what then” approach. For example, for my book Jumanji, I started out by thinking “What if two bored children discovered a board game? What if the board game came to life? What then?” The Polar Express began with the idea of a train standing alone in the woods. I asked myself, “What if a boy gets on that train? Where does he go?” After the boy got on, I tried different destinations out in my mind. “What about north? Who lives in the north?” Then ideas of Christmas, Santa Claus, and faith began to take shape.”
He has many books, but Jumanji is my favorite.
Elmore Leonard: “Author Elmore Leonard was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1925. His family moved frequently until 1934 when they settled in Detroit, Michigan, when his father got a job with General Motors. Leonard joined the navy after graduating high school in 1943, and served during World War II. After three years, he left the navy and enrolled at the University of Detroit, majoring in English and Philosophy. Leonard worked at the Campbell-Ewald advertising agency while still in college.
Around 1950, Leonard began writing and publishing short stories and western novels for magazines, with the first being The Bounty Hunters in 1953. Some of the other most notable works were Three-Ten to Yuma also published in 1953, as well as Hombre, in 1961. Leonard then moved into educational films and crime novels. His first big crime novel was The Big Bounce in 1969; He followed that novel with titles such as Fifty-Two Pickup in 1974, and Swag in 1976. His breakout novel however, was his crime thriller Glitz, in 1985, which followed a Miami detective being stalked by a criminal he had sent to prison. Leonard based most of his novels in Detroit and Florida, and was known for his working-class protagonists, damsels in distress, and particularly colorful and sleazy villains.
Leonard and his novels have been nominated for numerous awards, such the PEN Lifetime Achievement Award. One of his short stories, Fire in the Hole, became the basis for the television series Justified. Some of his other short stories and novels such as Rum Punch and Three-Ten to Yuma have been made into films. Rum Punch was adapted into the Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown.
Other well-known works by Elmore Leonard include: City Primeval, Stick, Freaky Deaky, and Get Shorty. Elmore Leonard passed away on August 20, 2013, following a stroke.” (From the Detroit Historical Society website)
Leonard is an author I have never read, but my dad enjoys reading him so I wanted to include him for sure!
Jim Harrison: “Jim Harrison was born in Grayling, Michigan, to Winfield Sprague Harrison, a county agricultural agent, and Norma Olivia (Wahlgren) Harrison, both avid readers. He married Linda King in 1959 with whom he has two daughters.
His awards include National Academy of Arts grants (1967, 68, 69), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1969-70), the Spirit of the West Award from the Mountain & Plains Booksellers Association, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2007).
Much of Harrison’s writing depicts sparsely populated regions of North America with many stories set in places such as Nebraska’s Sand Hills, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Montana’s mountains, and along the Arizona-Mexico border.” (Goodreads Summary)
He has been on my TBR for ages. Maybe this is the year to read him.
Ok this last one… I debated on and then decided to just do it.
Ernest Hemingway: “Ernest Hemingway’s connections to Michigan began when his parents first brought their six-week-old son there for three days in September 1899. His father, a young physician, practiced medicine in his hometown of Oak Park, Illinois, and his mother was an artistically inclined woman who enjoyed the cultural aspects of their Chicago suburb. The previous summer the Hemingways visited Walloon Lake (then named Bear Lake) and were so taken with the area that they purchased two hundred feet of waterfront property. The 1899 trip was to finalize plans for the building of their cottage, Windemere. They took pictures, selected the exact site on the property where it was to be located, and arranged for construction during their brief stay. The next summer would be the first full one there for the family, and Ernest would return to Michigan each year until he was married in 1921. Even today members of the Hemingway family either summer or live year-round in the area.”
Hemingway is not a favorite of mine, but I do think it is cool that he visited Northern Michigan for so many summers, just like I have. He has a few books set there, including The Big Two-Hearted River (and just an FYI, there is also a Michigan craft beer named Two-Hearted as well). I think it is neat that I have walked in and vacationed in some of the same places Hemingway did, and found peace in.
And my friends, that is my very long post of Michigan authors! I can’t wait to hop around visiting this week – because it will take me all week probably to visit everyone!
Hello everyone! I am sitting here typing away, with my coffee on one side, and Wyatt on the other. He is flipping through a book, and watching Frog and Toad, which incidentally is the cutest little cartoon. He is also chattering away so please ignore any typos. Billy is in the kitchen preparing the sourdough so that he can make a few loaves for Easter. It’s a pretty good morning.
It was a very busy week this week – our appointment season is almost over though! There are times of the year when we have all of Wyatt’s specialist appointments in a row, like a month or so of them, and it is crazy. We had his epileptologist appointment this week, and it went really well. We had nothing but good things to report and his doctor was very pleased! His EEG in June looks like it will only be one night now instead of two, so that was welcome news.
Last Saturday we had a little guest at our house. We watched my littlest niece, who we call The Hurricane because she is a whirling dervish causing mayhem. We had such a great time with her! She kept us soooo busy but it was really cool to hang out with her. We have time with her older sister all the time so it was nice to hang with just E. She went from one thing to the next to the next and so on. She loved our fish so much, they were a big hit. I had to stop her a few times from trying to reach inside the aquariums to grab them though.
Sunday we had a birthday party for another of our nieces. It was so cute to see T. full of excitement at her party. She had all of her friends and family there, and she was happy that she had all of her aunts there at one time. It doesn’t usually happen for some reason and I loved that that made her happy. She had an axolotl themed party with very delicious cupcakes!
This week we also had some sunny warm days, finally!! We are trying to get outside as much as we can on these nice days between now and Wyatt’s surgery. Wyatt and I spent almost all afternoon Wednesday playing basketball outside. It meant lots of rounding up basketballs for me though, so I got quite a workout. I need one of these nieces to come over and fetch for us! We also had dinner out there as well. Wyatt loves picnics, so we had a picnic, then he and his dad played outside until bedtime. It was awesome. This might not sound like much, but before the ramp was built, Wyatt was not able to go outside and play. Wheelchairs are not great on grass, and just getting to the yard was very difficult for the two of us. I would have to carry him out the front door and around the house to the back, which doesn’t sound too hard, but imagine the person you are carrying is 70 pounds. I am not a big human either, so it was getting sort of rough and we just didn’t do it very often. Now though, we have our freedom back and it has been wonderful. Using the ramp all winter to leave the house whenever we wanted, now using the ramp and being able to utilize the deck space, has transformed both of our lives. We were able to get out some yesterday as well. Today is going to be really warm apparently, so we are going to go out on his bike too.
Speaking of his surgery, we are working on preparing for it the best we can. We have pivoted from walking as much in therapy to more strength training, both there and at home. We have added a few extra home exercises to build up his muscle strength, which will help him recover easier, and are just trying to get him to move any body part as much as possible between now and then. We scaled back on school for the moment, focusing just on the essentials (I mean, I think it is all essential but we are sticking a pin in a few things for now – like the Revolutionary War and artist studies).
I also started thinking about what we will need during recovery. What will we do to entertain this kid while he is in bed, or stuck in traction for weeks? What special clothes might we need? Bathing, how does that happen? So we are looking for these solutions right now. I have a whole list of books I made the other day for us to try during that time. I think we will reread some old favorites like Frog and Toad and Mr. Putter and Tabby, introduce some gentle reads for that first week home, like Paddington, and then as he feels a bit better, add in books like The Hardy Boys. Then we will see what else he would like to read.
We had had reservations for Providence in August, which are obviously now cancelled. So, I put together a list of some books for myself as well, that focus on the seaside and the coast. They are not all New England based, but some are. That is the great thing about books, we can travel anywhere with them. And Providence will still be there in the future. The whales will have to wait!
Wyatt and I also convinced Billy to use some of the leftover lumber from the ramp to build little free libraries for us! We want one that two houses – one that is the typical height, and one that is lower for children and wheelchair users. We are also going to have Billy install a camera so we can see into the backyard while we are in his room if we want – we have three cats that like to hang around and I know Wyatt will want to keep updated on them. We have the neighbor’s cat, Knox, who is super sweet and we can actually pet. Then there are two cats that we don’t if they are stray or not. One is a big tabby, and I have named him Angus-Fergus, and there is one that just showed up, a big rough looking guy who has been around. He is white with black splotches, and we named him Brando. I don’t know why they like our porches so much but they do. And that is ok.
And jeez, I feel like I am just rambling away today!! I should wrap this up! Lol.
I hope that whatever you all do today, whatever you do this weekend, that you feel safe and loved and do something that makes you smile.
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
Hello everyone! I hope that you are all doing well! We are doing ok over here, just keeping on keeping on. We had a pretty busy weekend that was full of family!
Read Last Week:
I’ve been reading monstery books this spring. Not sure how that happened, but it did. I absolutely loved Wormwood Abbey, and I can’t wait to read book two in the series. Greenteeth… I had higher hopes for it. I love this cover, I loved parts of the book, but it was a bit slow maybe? There was something about that I didn’t love. Maybe I was just too excited to read it; I grew up reading about fairies and loving faery lore and Jenny Greenteeth was one of my favorites so maybe I had too high of expectations. It still was a pretty good read.
Reading This Week:
This week I am stepping away from my monster books and starting my yearly reread of Watership Down. I can’t wait to get back to this little world again!
We have been hopscotching about, and doing less binge watching lately! This is unlike us. Lol. However, we are enjoying all of our shows that we are watching. Lately, that list has included Poldark (why did it take us so long to watch this!), Our Flag Means Death, Wheel of Time, Murdoch Mysteries, and Beyond Paradise.
We are also three movies into our Springtime in Paris movie watch! This week is Paris Blues with Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier.
And that is it from around here today! I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!
Hello everyone!! It has been a very very long week. I am so glad that today is Friday. Wyatt and I have no real plans except a little school. I try to keep Fridays open for field trips, library trips, reading, and art. Fridays are the best. Plus we have pizza every Friday as well so I don’t need to plan and make dinner!
So, this week was a bit crazy. Some of it fun, some of it was not as fun. Let’s start with a fun day, Tuesday.
Tuesday I woke up and the sun was shining and I wanted Wyatt and I to get outside somehow. My friend Sarah has the most magical yard, and I had the idea a few weeks ago of Wyatt using it as a small ecosystem study for the spring and fall. We will miss summer in person due to his surgery, but Sarah is going to send videos for him. Anyway, we had been trying to get the day together but it kept raining on us! Tuesday morning I texted and was like, it is sunny, are you busy? And she texted me back to come on over! (and also that us winter people are crazy because it was pretty darn cold!) So big thanks to her for having us cuckoo winter folk over on a chilly sunny morning when she is a high summer type person.
Can I just say, she was so accommodating to my boy. So concerned and thoughtful about his wheelchair and maneuvering her yard, and wanting to show him things. She even had a fire lit for us to sit around. It was a very lovely start to our day.
The fish were awake and swimming, and very greedy to be fed. She told us to come back and feed them some worms so we are looking forward to that. (well, not really me. Wyatt) We had coffee and we caught up with each other and we talked with Wyatt about all the signs of early spring. About the life we could see emerging, and about what was coming. There were signs of life everywhere. Flowers pushing through the cold ground, birds feeding at her numerous bird feeders, seeds germinating in the earth in her greenhouse, the fish in the pond, and knowing that soon there will frogs and toads lining the rocks that ring the pond. She told us stories of raccoons on roofs, swimming in the pond, the possums that come and hang out in her garage. It was a great time and I am so thankful she is sharing some of that magic with Wyatt.
Later that night, I met up with my friend’s at Kelly’s house. It was the first time the four of us had all been together at once since the holidays and it was so nice to hang out!! I also took Lisa’s book with me and we all fun trying to find different spots to take its picture around the house for my Instagram post.
If you follow me on Instagram, then you know that I went with the last photo for my post. Which one would you have chosen? I am curious!
Then we started our gauntlet of appointments. Wyatt had three appointments this week in two days. It was rough, especially on him. The first appointment was at 7:30 am on Wednesday, where we learned that Wyatt is not having just one hip done in July, but both. To say that I have been struggling with this since getting the news has been an understatement. I am terrified everyone. This is my baby. But his PMR doctor, who we have known since he was a baby, told us that if he is going to end up having the other one done eventually, it is better to do it at the same time rather than separately for a few different reasons. It doesn’t necessarily make it easier emotionally or physically for Wyatt though while he is going through it. We sat there listening while wind and rain were whipping against the windows, wishing she was telling us different news. It was like the weather was reacting to it as well. Angry and upset and full of grief that it has to happen.
We headed home where we had more coffee (me) and toast (Wyatt) then waited for his therapy appointment a few hours later. The weather was a bit nicer when we went there, and he had a good visit.
Our last appointment was yesterday morning, when Wyatt had to go to the orthotist to get fitted for his braces. His regular orthotist is semi-retired and is training a new person. However, this appointment was going to be tricky with Wyatt’s hip pain. George, his regular orthotist, and the trainee were concerned because Wyatt’s muscles were pretty tight and they had to maniuplate him into leg positions that were painful. George told me that if they couldn’t get a good cast in the office yesterday, they would have to do it as a home visit with sedatives. It was pretty tense, and I even had a job, to hold Wyatt’s thigh in a straight position up off the wheelchair, while pushing down on his knee at the same time with my other hand. I could tell he was uncomfortable and in some pain, but I distracted him with stories and trying to make him laugh, and he toughed it out. (If you have read Watership Down, I felt a little like Bluebell to Wyatt’s Capt. Holly) But my kid was a trooper. He got the job done and even was giggling at times. George came in after and told Wyatt how proud he was of him, that he couldn’t believe he had even heard Wyatt laughing when he had been afraid he was going to hear crying. I hate that Wyatt has to be tough, but he really is. When he was in the NICU, we had a sign made that said Team Tough Cookie and that is really Wyatt.
After that appointment, I could literally feel my whole body relax and I was exhausted from the crazy week of emotions and running. Wyatt was tired too, and after a quick stop at Barnes and Noble, where he got a book about otters and I got a set of two new blank books, we headed home where it looked like Wyatt was about to just pass out in the car. When we got home I popped him into my bed, where he conked out hard and I vegged out.
Then we had to get ready for Mermaid Girl! She came over last night for Mexican food and crafts, and we had such a good time with her. She is so full of energy and light, and bounces all over house, telling us story after story. We love having her here. I had also made chocolate chip cookies for dessert and they were delicious! My brother, SIL, and little Hurricane came over to pick her up and hung out for a while which was nice too. And they ate a bunch of cookies which is awesome because that recipe made like 500.
And that leads us to this morning. I am going to have another cup of coffee, hopefully have a pretty easy day.
Just me hanging in there!
I hope that whatever you guys do today, that you do something that makes you smile!
Hello April!! The sun is shining this morning for the first time in days and I am so happy!
April is so many things. This month, it is Easter. It is also my mom’s birthday month, and she will be 74 this year. It’s also the Springtime in Paris movie event that Lisa and I are hosting, and I am hoping to find some fun French things to do this month to really lean into the theme. (I have a few ideas but we will see!) I am currently working on a new embroidery project that is French themed so there is that!
It is also the month I am going to reread Watership Down again, for the whoknowsthenumber time.
Let’s start there, with Watership Down. Reading this book is liking walking down a path that I have traveled so many times, it is well worn, it is well known – yet I always find something to surprise me. Depending on my frame of mine, my life at the time, different parts resonate with me more than others. It’s even hard to say now why exactly this book appeals to me so much. I know that it is upsetting to some people, some people don’t like anthropomorphic characters, etc, but to me this book is about bravery, and friendship. About community and resilience. About breaking free to live the life you want. Perseverance. Adventure. And it is all wrapped up in a little story about rabbits, a story that Richard Adams never intended to write and publish, one that he just started making up and telling his children and they eventually encouraged him to put it on paper. I am so thankful that he did, because I have loved this story of brave, clever rabbits for thirty years.
Sometimes this time of year, I am yearning to get outside and in the garden. We had some plans for gardening this year, but Wyatt’s surgery has been scheduled – July 9th. So instead, Wyatt and I are going to start some pumpkin seeds today. They will grow through the spring and summer, and then, when Wyatt is hopefully through his recovery, the pumpkins will be ready as well. And that is the extent of what we are planning. Billy may throw down some wildflower seed, and let them flourish, I am hoping to maybe maybe make a small water feature on the deck so that Wyatt can see it and access it until his surgery. Maybe it will attract a frog or two.
I am thinking long term these days. Something we can start, that will take us through to fall, as we are going to have some rough months ahead. Something to hope through, look forward to.
Switching gears here – back to now, back to April. I have some really cool stuff planned for homeschool this month. I am very excited about it and I hope that Wyatt likes it and finds it fun. I have a whole concept for a sort of immersive type learning, for language arts and science. We are reading The Wheel on the School, which is new to me as well, and Wyatt will be learning about the Netherlands and habitat loss and restoration, windmills and renewable energy, dikes and climate change, among other things. We will talk about white storks, and eat Dutch babies, and stroopwaffel and try limburger cheese. We will learn about tulips and wooden shoes, about canalboats. I am very excited about this everyone! Can you tell?
I plan to post this week about our March homeschool too, which was also pretty fun but not as immersive or wide in scope.
I have some field trip days planned this month as well. The Detroit Institute of Arts, the zoo with a homeschool friend, member preview day at Greenfield Village. Maybe for that one we will take a blanket and throw it down somewhere, and enjoy a little picnic. Wyatt loves picnics -maybe because I read Wind in the Willows to him for the first time when he was 6 weeks old and just home from the hospital. He came home April 13th, after being in the NICU since March 2nd. The day he came home was rainy and cold and gloomy, but I always say he brought the sun because then it seemed like the days were sunny again, and I had open windows with warm breezes filling the house, and I would look out and see our apple tree in full glorious bloom. We haven’t seen it like that since that year, which sounds fanciful but it is the truth. Right now our tree has tiny buds on it, but no blooms yet.
And I will leave you with one of my favorite poems, a poem by Mary Oliver.
Why I Wake Early by Mary Oliver
Hello, sun in my face. Hello, you who make the morning and spread it over the fields and into the faces of the tulips and the nodding morning glories, and into the windows of, even, the miserable and crotchety–
best preacher that ever was, dear star, that just happens to be where you are in the universe to keep us from ever-darkness, to ease us with warm touching, to hold us in the great hands of light– good morning, good morning, good morning.
Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.
Whatever you do today, try to do something that makes you smile!
Hey everyone! It is cold and gray here today, with a chance of snow! What the heck! Wyatt and I are going to hole up inside today. We have a huge day of school, and then I think we will make muffins.
So, I have been very distracted the past few days and it has been hard for me to keep up on anything, other than fretting. Wyatt had an appointment with his orthopedic doctor last week, who follows his spine and hips, and we got some news we didn’t want. We learned that Wyatt’s right hip bone is 50% out of the socket, and that he needs surgery. The doctor actually told us that it was not 100% necessary right now, but that if we waited until it was 100% out, it would be far worse for Wyatt all around – more pain, a longer recovery, a more intense surgery. So of course we are going to do the surgery before all that happens. It just makes me want to vomit, I am not going to lie. I am going to be honest – I am so so tired of my son having to go through all of this. I feel like he just reaches a good stride with things, and then boom, something else happens. I hate this for him so much and I just want to take all this away from him. And I can’t. It is alternately all I can think about but I also can’t think about it. He is literally the toughest person I know, and he is so resilient and despite everything he has gone through in his little life so far he manages to be one of the happiest people I know as well. We haven’t gotten the date for the surgery yet, but it will more than likely be sometime in the summer or fall. If you are a praying person, please send up some prayers for my baby, and we also welcome all the good vibes for him too.
Ok. Phew. Now that I have gotten that off of my chest (but not out of my head or my heart) we have been doing some other things around here too. Yes, lots of appointments because they all seem to fall at the same time, but still having school and some good times too.
We had two family parties last weekend! My cousin hosted a St. Patrick’s Day party for the kids – Wyatt, his two girls, and my nieces. Devin and Chrissy couldn’t make it, since they were prepping for party number 2, a birthday party for my youngest niece, so we took Mermaid Girl with us when we went. The kids decorated shamrock cookies, and the we played a trivia game and the kids acted out charades while the adults guessed, which was hysterical. Wyatt participated too, with the help of his dad, and he absolutely loved it.
The next day was the Hurricane’s second birthday! It was a blast, and she was so funny! In typical two year old fashion, she didn’t want to stop playing with her toys when it was time to sing happy birthday and have cake, and she flung herself face down on the floor and just cried while we sang. She had already eaten the frosting off of four cupcakes so she didn’t care about the cupcakes too much by that point. I was happy that she seemed to really love the present that we got her, which was a set of little houses, maybe ten or twelve, all different colors, that were numbered, and each house came apart and a little plastic animal was inside. She was having such a good time just taking them all apart and putting the animals inside, etc. Success! The two ten year olds also seemed to like them. Lol.
I also had a few hours to myself over the past two weeks! Billy had paid for a massage for me at Christmas time, and I finally cashed it in! I had a lovely hour massage followed up by a twenty minute nap and it was glorious. Then yesterday I had a lovely hang out in our Crafternoon session with Lisa and Cat, where I colored using the markers Billy bought a while ago. We decided a few weeks ago to treat ourselves to a coloring book each, and these markers and we spent an afternoon coloring, Wyatt and Billy and I, and it was actually really relaxing.
Wyatt was also excited because for his birthday month, the local used bookstore gives you a free book, so we took a trip there with my cousin and his girls (his youngest is also a March birthday – we have four birthdays in March!) to shop. Wyatt spent some of his birthday money, and ended up with quite a stack of dragon and wolf books! He was super happy. Nonfiction books were buy one get one free, and they are already half off, so I bought one and got another free. Both were summer crafting books that I thought would be cool to do, either as a family or by myself. I also threw in a Rachel Carson book as well while I was at it. It was a good little trip out.
And that is about it!
Just throwing in some random photos from the roll!
So that last picture of Wyatt. Wyatt lately, like most kids, has been imitating and wanting to make YouTube videos (we don’t but I told him I would try to think of a way maybe if he really wants to). Wyatt however likes to imitate the booktubers we watch and I think it is so cute. I don’t dare say that to him though, he would die of ten year old embarrassment. He also writes down books, like I do when I watch them, and then he looks books up to read on the internet like I do. I have to say that I am flattered that this is what he is imitating, and also love that it is so book centered. That booktuber in the photo is his favorite, Liv of Liv’s Library. Wyatt and I watch her new video together every Sunday night before reading a book before bed.
And that is it from around here! I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile! I will be trying as well!
A book about books and bookshops – I had a feeling I was going to like it. And I did! Takako is a young woman, who was blindsided one day by her boyfriend, when he tells her that he is getting married – but not to her. I think this could throw anyone for a loop! She falls into a depression, and an unexpected phone call from her uncle whom she hasn’t spoken to in years changes her life, when he offers her a job, working for room and board in his bookshop. For maybe anyone else this would be a dream come true. But Takako is not a reader.
I of course loved all of the aspects of being a reader who loves books that is touched upon in this book, but what I loved most was the relationship between uncle and niece. It just felt unexpected, and I found it refreshing. Her uncle Satoro is a bit of a free spirit, and at first Takako has a hard time relating to him. Throughout the book however, their relationship figures itself out, and Takako learns some things about her uncle she didn’t know. I absolutely loved this short read.
“No matter where you go, or how many books you read, you still know nothing, you haven’t seen anything. And that’s life. We live our lives trying to find our way.”
I had been wanting to read Emily of New Moon for awhile, although I wasn’t sure if I would like Emily as much as Anne. Imagine my surprise when I liked her maybe a little bit more? Don’t come for me Anne fans! Lol. I still love Anne!
However, I loved Emily of New Moon. She is feisty and temperamental, resilient and independent. I loved reading her story. There were flashes of Anne, with her whimsy and love of words and writing and poetry, but Emily is her own character. In the foreword written by Kate MacDonald Butler, Montgomery’s granddaughter, she states that Emily was her grandmother’s favorite creation, and that her grandmother has been quoted as saying “People were never right in saying I was Anne, but in some respects, they will be right if they write me down as Emily.”
I only had two criticisms – and a TW – there are a lot of references to cat deaths and also a character that had some off-putting vibes.
Otherwise I was completely sucked into this story that Montgomery has said reflected a lot of her own inner life in childhood.
“Emily had inherited certain things from her fine old ancestors – the power to fight – to suffer – to pity – to love very deeply – to rejoice- to endure.”
I loved this book. I love the idea of green magic, the green wild, the characters. It was just a really fun middle grade read for @middlegrademarch!
One thing in particular that I really loved was the fact that they said they were not witches – they were Botanists who worked with the magic of nature, but not witches. I thought that was just a neat distinction. I also loved that all wore overalls; I too love overalls. The whole Greenwild reminded me of Harry Potter, if Harry Potter was all nature-based and immersed in plants and greenery, greenhouses, trowels, dirt, parakeets. I could go on and on but I won’t. I will just urge you to go ahead and read this! I have already recommended it to all the moms I know who have middle grade aged children, but if you are an adult who enjoys middle grade, like me, I suggest you read it as well!
“Daisy began to feel like a seed taking root. She was insect-nibbled and wind-ruffled and elbow-skinned. Her hair was full of twigs, her fingernails were filthy – and every part of her felt hungry and alive.” That passage just feels so spring to me! It makes me excited to get outside and get my own hands in the dirt, planting things.
Hello everyone!! We have been going hard the last few weeks, and it has caught up with us. Wyatt has a cold – so we are hitting the brakes and slowing way down. We have been doing just small lessons in school this week, and having more free time to just relax and rest up.
I shared last time about Wyatt’s actual birthday, that we celebrated the three of us by bopping around Detroit and hitting a few really cool places. We didn’t do much again until Wednesday, when Mermaid Girl came over for dinner and a makers night. We had hamburgers and Doritos, a Mermaid Girl favorite, and then broke off into groups. I was showing Mermaid Girl how to embroider and chatting with her about different things, while the guys were on the floor making a cup holder for Wyatt’s wheelchair out of leather. This wasn’t a boys and girls thing; I just wanted some one on one time with my niece and it was good for Wyatt to have some one on one with just his dad as well. We worked on our projects for almost an hour, then I got out a chart I have been making for Mermaid Girl. She has been interested in our family tree, so I got it started and then she and I will continue to add to it in the coming weeks. We had a really good time, and loved having her here with us!
The week kept rolling along, way too fast for me. I did squeeze in a girls night though! Chrissy and I spent an a few hours at Kelly’s house, and it was some much needed time with my crew. Kelly has a menagerie of animals as well, cats and toads and frogs. I managed to catch a few in photos while I was there. Her toads are coming out of brumation from the winter and they are so huge!
I also scrambled about making sure I had everything I needed for the party Saturday, along with help from my dad, stepmom, and mother-in-law. Thank goodness for family! We had it at the nature center at a local metropark; now this particular nature center is one Billy and I have been going to for at least twenty years. We are friends with the interpreters and they have known Wyatt since he was born. We had his last big party there right before Covid, and this was sort of a nod to that one, five years later. We had around 40 people there, and it was so awesome to be surrounded with people we love and who love Wyatt, including the interpreters. We had pizza and cupcakes that turned everyone’s mouths blue from the frosting, a presentation by Roni for the kids on different animals in Michigan, and the kids just played and played in the kids area, people took walks nearby on the trails, and there was so much chatting and catching up. Some people hadn’t seen other people at the party since the last one five years ago, and the room just felt full of love and joy to me.
Sunday was bowling! He is hit or miss (lol) with attendance but it is a non-competitive type of thing and it is ok if they don’t go every Sunday. Which is good for us, because we missed on his birthday and we will miss next Sunday for the Hurricane’s birthday. Wyatt had a really good time this last Sunday, although, halfway through he asked if we could leave and go shopping. I swear, this kid! It’s only an hour of bowling so it’s not like it’s too long. Afterwards though, we realized we could go to Ikea for lunch since we were five minutes away – and Wyatt could get his shopping fix in. We had lunch (those meatballs are so good!) and then shopped the main shopping floor and skipped the whole showroom floor. We didn’t buy much, since we hadn’t planned on shopping. We got some chocolate, some small plastic organizing bins that I use for our homeschool and art supplies, a medium sized pot since we ruined one of ours boiling wood for our fish (don’t ask), chocolate of course, and a new bath mat for my mom’s bathroom. I also bought two new plants, since they were $2.99 and 20% off! One of them landed in Luna’s tank vivarium, and another is in our all purpose room.
And then, Wyatt woke up Monday all congested. And now he is in the congested and coughing stage. He is acting normally and eating and drinking so I am hoping this is just a short lived little cold thing. But we have been laying low, and I have been catching up on things here.
I’ve been reading a lot on the interwebs this past week, and I read that Scotland has designed a new tartan to honor the women killed under the Witchcraft Act between 1536 and 1763. Every single bit of this tartan has been thought about carefully and meaningfully, from the thread color to the thread count. I love that this is how Scotland chose to remember and memorialize these women, it is such a living remembrance, organic and fluid and easily accessible. This project was the idea of two women, “Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi, who founded the Witches of Scotland campaign in 2020.” I just thought this was such an amazing memorial for these women, and wanted to share, especially during Women’s History Month.
And I think that is it from me for today! Whatever you do today, try to do something that makes you smile my friends!
Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.. 