Tag: heartwood hotel

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn books and reading36 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! We had a very quiet week around here, and so far, a pretty quiet weekend. It’s been nice actually. I’ve been working on a new enterprise along with Billy, making journals that I sell over on Amazon through their self-publishing service, and I have been enjoying working on them whenever I can catch a moment. So far I have made camping and caregiver and medical journals to take to doctor’s appointments, as well as a line of nature journals that Wyatt designed the covers for. It’s been really fun!

I’ve also been making my final decisions on the curriculum that Wyatt and I are going to use next year. It is one of my favorite things to do! I’ve been toying with an idea of a YouTube channel to talk about homeschooling, and homeschooling a special needs child, our crazy life and adventures, but…I don’t know if I would feel comfortable being in front of a camera like that. I prefer being behind the scenes and behind the camera, but I feel like I get so much out of the YouTube channels I watch, information wise, that I wonder if I have something to offer with our experiences as Wyatt’s parents and how we all choose to live. It would also offer an opportunity for more conversation with other families like ours and opportunities to learn from. I don’t know though. And here I am just blathering on this morning, I guess I couldn’t wait for my coffee catch up day.

Let’s get to the books!!

Read Last Week:

So last week I ended up starting The White Hare and I absolutely am in love with it. I am not quite finished yet but I will finish today or tomorrow. It reminds me of a Barbara Michaels or Mary Stewart book and they are two of my favorite authors to read! I have also been listening to Braiding Sweetgrass. I read it a few years ago but there is something very special about listening to it as well. Robin Wall Kimmerer reads it herself and that adds such a lovely additional dimension, her words in her voice. I definitely recommend listening to it.

Wyatt and I FINALLY finished The Wild Robot. We had some big pauses in our nightly reading with his surgeries even though we tried a few times, but we finally got off that island. I do like that book and Roz and Brightbill but if you have a sensitive child I would recommend reading it yourself first to see if it will bother them.

Reading This Week:

I keep seeing so much about this Shady Hollow series that I am going to give it a go. I think I tried once before but didn’t end up reading it. And Wyatt and I have started Heartwood Hollow book 3, Better Together as our before bed read. I guess both of us are all about anthropomorphism.

Posted Last Week:

Wednesday Morning Coffee Catch Up

The Spring of Cary Grant: My Favorite Wife

Book Review: Watership Down

Watching and Listening:

We have been watching When Calls the Heart (Billy, you are such a good guy), and The Brokenwood Mysteries. I am so excited Brokenwood has a new season, I just love that show. Then Lisa from Boondock Ramblings mentioned that Newhart is on Amazon and when Billy told me he had NEVER EVER watched it, we had to add it to our line up. We watch it when we need to watch something quick and funny because Bob Newhart always cracks me up with his deadpan delivery. I remember watching it when I was real little kid with my mom and dad – just like Wyatt does now. I wonder if he will grow up wanting to live in New England in an old home in a small town, sort of like I did? I am pretty sure Newhart influenced me (but better Newhart than Dallas which I also watched with my mom…)

We also watched My Favorite Wife as part of our Spring of Cary Grant.

I haven’t been listening to podcasts since I have been listening to Braiding Sweetgrass.

Musically, we generally ask Alexa to play Classic 70s Folk, and that is our go-to. Although I always always skip Joni Mitchell because her voice is beautiful but sounds so mournful to me, and also that Cat’s in the Cradle song that always makes me want to sob.

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

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What Wyatt’s Reading – January

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn book review, books and reading14 Comments

Hi everyone!! It’s been a fun reading month, full of wolves and snow and adorable woodland creatures! We hit up our library at least twice a week, so I am not sharing all of the books that we read together, but I am sharing some of our favorites. I am also back to buying more books than I had been so some of these are from Wyatt’s own personal home library.

This post does contain Amazon Affiliate links. If you were to purchase a book using a link, I would make a small commission at no extra cost to you.

A Thing Called Snow was pretty loved universally around here, by the whole family. Zommer’s books are oversized and just beautiful. In this one a fox and a hare, born in the spring and about to experience their first winter, are on the lookout for snow. My Winter City was more my favorite, not Wyatt’s. I just loved this look at what winter looks and feels like, all the little details from frost in the dad’s beard to slushy bus rides. Noisy Night was all Wyatt. This one was pretty cool because you feel like you are going up a floor in the building with every page because the residents all complain about the noise above them, until we get to the very top. It was pretty cute. And finally, probably the favorite book of the entire month, No Fuzzball! Any cat lover will be delighted by this one, and how Queen Fuzzball adjusts to a new little kitten face in her kingdom. It is absolutely adorable and also, made us chuckle. Definitely a keeper.

Wyatt loved Wolfboy. I knew he would – he considers himself a wolfboy half the time. And I could certainly relate to the grumpy feelings of being hangry!

We finally got some snow around here the other day, so Wednesday afternoon, after playing in the snow, we came in, had hot chocolate, and read a stack of snowy picture books. When It Starts to Snow and Blizzard were two of our favorites! When It Starts to Snow is a book that feels slightly poetic, with how it keeps asking the questions “What if it starts to snow? What do you do? Where do you go? These questions are answered by all of the little woodland animals and made us feel all cozy, because we knew what we were doing on our snowy day. Blizzard was fantastic- we both loved it! The author John Rocco tells his story about the blizzard of 1978, and the part he played in helping his neighbors and community, along with his memories of that time. We both really enjoyed it! It probably was our favorite right after No Fuzzball.

I Love Books in the Otter series is one of Wyatt’s go to grabs right now. He loves it because he too, loves books, just like Otter, and going to the library.

As for longer read alouds, we read the second in the Heartwood Hotel series, The Greatest Gift. Wyatt loves these books about the animals who work and live and stay at the Heartwood Hotel. After we finished up The Greatest Gift we moved on to Fantastic Mr. Fox – we are still reading this one and while things seem grim for the foxes right now, we have faith that Mr. Fox will come up with something to save his family!

Have you read any of these?

What Wyatt’s Reading – November

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn books and reading5 Comments

I can’t believe tomorrow will be the first of December! This year flew by! We have had so many trips to the library this year; I am always so thankful for them and allowing me to check out like 35 books at a time. We go through so many books, especially this time of year! Not only do we have our homeschool books, but now we have holiday books too! I won’t share them all, it would be a crazy post, so I will share our favorites!

Granny Gomez & Jigsaw was one of my Wyatt’s top favorites this month. Granny Gomez loves her baby pig Jigsaw, and they are great companions. Until Jigsaw grows too big for the house, and has to move to the barn. The solution made me smile, and Wyatt smile too. It is a very sweet book. Wyatt has a thing for pigs right now so you will see quite a few pig books in this list.

The Pumpkin Fair is a fun, festive autumn book with an obvious emphasis on pumpkins. It was just a cute little read. And while I Want My Hat Back was pretty cute too, the end surprised us! Although maybe it shouldn’t have….

Every year, we read Thanksgiving in the Woods. It is our very favorite and we all talk about how cool it would be to actually have a Thanksgiving in the woods one year. This book is based on real life events – maybe I can crash their holiday one year.

Bowwow Powwow was a great book! I liked all of the representations of the different dancers. I liked this one more than Wyatt did. Same with In November. I love Cynthia Rylant though so I get as many of her books as I can get my hands on. In November, is just such a wonderful autumnal book to usher the month in with.

Yep – we have begun reading holiday books. Wyatt loved all three of these! I was not as much of a fan of the Peppa book but Wyatt loves Peppa so..yeah.

First, If You Ever Want to Bring a Pirate to Meet Santa, Don’t! was hilarious. And who knew how closely a pirate could resemble Santa? Wyatt is also all about pirates right now, so it was cool to find a Christmas pirate book.

Christmas Cricket was delightful. We read it right before bed on a chilly night, and we were both feeling cozy and warm. This book is about a sad little cricket who escapes the cold rain by heading into a bright warm house. He feels tiny and insignificant, until he hears something that uplifts him.

Poppleton in Fall. This portly stylish fellow buys a new winter coat, tries to order pancakes, and watches the geese fly south. We also started the Heartwood Hotel series which is adorable. Wyatt really likes books with animals as main characters and this was a cute little read.

And that my friends, is a wrap of our favorite November reads!