Books, Screens, and In-Betweens

On March 29, 2026 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized10 Comments

I am linking up with Deb at Readerbuzz, Kathryn at Book Date, and Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well! We had a pretty quiet week around here last week, which was nice!

Books:

Last week I read Trixie Belden, which was a blast from my past, and it was a crazy ride. I enjoyed returning to the world of Trixie and Honey!

I also read the second in the Enchanted Garden series. This series is just what I am needing right now; it is light and easy, keeps my attention, and makes me think spring with all of the garden and flower talk.

This week I am planning on starting two books, maybe three if the third in the Enchanted Garden series comes in for me at the library.

I plan on starting these The Sugar Rush by Peter Gregg, and Heidi. I am reading Heidi as a buddy read with Lisa at Boondock Ramblings and I am looking forward to it. I haven’t read it before! I missed this one in my childhood somehow.

Screens:

Not too much here on the tv/movie front, again. I have been going to visit my mom in the evenings, so I don’t get home until later and by the time Billy and I sit down to watch tv together we are pretty tired out. This usually means we watch a comfort show, and we are revisiting Brokenwood. I love that show so it is not a hardship.

I did post a few times last week.

Springtime Book Tag

Top Ten Tuesday: My Spring TBR

Coffee Catch Up

Also, just a reminder that Lisa and I cohost a link up, A Good Book and a Cup of Tea, for bookish links all month long. Anything book and reading goes! You can find it up in my header area.

In-Betweens:

We had a mostly quiet week last week, but we did go out yesterday to the Dance for Mother Earth Powwow in Ann Arbor. We had a great time, ate some fry bread, shopped a bit, and watched some of the dances and the grand entrance.

Today we have a birthday party for the Hurricane. She is turning three! It was supposed to be last weekend, but illness just keeps getting in the way these days. My dad and stepmom can’t make it today actually, because they have Covid!

And I will leave you with just a few photos from my roll before I leave.

And with that I will end here! I hope that you are all doing well, and that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!

Friday/Saturday Morning Coffee Catch Up

On March 28, 2026 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized4 Comments

Catch up. That is what I feel like I have been doing for weeks now, catching up. On bills, on school, on therapy, on emails and phone calls, on blogging, just about anything that I need to maintain. However, today is the first day of our spring break! I am so excited – it is the reset that we need.

Today I think we are going to do some baking and independent art/project time. We are also going to start the Oregon Trail strain of sourdough that I sent away for! It is from 1847, and I just thought it was so cool that we could have this actual, physical connection to the Oregon Trail. Now, we just need to revive it, and keep it alive…. one of my projects for today and I am looking forward to it.

I don’t know what else I want to make. Chocolate chip cookies? Or sugar cookies shaped like snails? I am thinking whimsy might win. Today is supposed to be cold and snowy, so it might be a nice reminder that hopefully soon we will have good weather again.

Last Friday was actually beautiful, 68 degrees, sunny, breezy. It was perfect. It was also the first day of spring and I had to acknowledge it somehow. Something I did, just out of the blue and randomly, was cut like 5 inches off of my hair. I just felt like it was weighing me down, and I needed the freedom of a shorter cut. I need to get it sort of shaped, since now I look like Roseanna Roseanna Danna but I am still enjoying the ease of it, and the lightness. It is so bouncy and swishy!

Wyatt and I also started some seeds in honor of the first day of spring. Right now they are living in their starter cells in my office since we have a cold snap again. (It will go back and forth like this for a bit while spring and winter duke it out here in Michigan. ) I dragged out my container of seeds and we went through and chose some that we were able to actually start indoors. Some early season seeds needed direct planting and the ground was still a bit frozen so we had to wait on those. We planted way more than we are going to need: 3 types of tomatoes, 2 types of radish, beets, luffa fours, tigger melons, and orange watermelon. When the ground is soft enough, I promised Wyatt that this year would be the year he could plant watermelon and pumpkins. I am sure they will all be eaten by the squirrels and birds by fall, but we can try!

We also finished up the whole process of enrolling Wyatt in Little League teeball. He is on a special needs team with two of his friends, and is getting pretty excited! In therapy the other day, his therapist switched up her plans for the day and instead of his normal exercises and walking, she and Wyatt worked on hitting a ball off of a tee. We were both surprised at how well he did “right off the bat”. His hand-eye coordination was darn good for never doing anything like that.

His first game is in May. He gets a uniform and a photos on a baseball card and I am really looking forward to it as well.

** Ok – I stepped away for a minute and it turned into the rest of the day. So I am finishing up now. Lol **

This morning we are heading to a Dance for Mother Earth Powwow in Ann Arbor. I went in college once, and I think it would be a great event for Wyatt to experience. They welcome everyone as a guest, and encourage cultural learning and connection. I think it is good for everyone to experience different cultures authentically and respectfully, which is what I hope Wyatt learns today from me, and I also want him to have fun as well, which I am sure he will.

After I will probably go sit with my mom for a bit, then head home for a family game night.

I also am trying to line up some activities for next week’s spring break. I want to take it easy, reset, but we also need to do some things or Wyatt will be bouncing off the walls! We just renewed our Detroit Zoo membership and our Henry Ford Museum/Greenfield Village membership, so either of those should work in a pinch. (although the village isn’t open yet. That will happen sometime in April.)

Annnnd I think that is it for now. I am going to get ready soon for our outing, but first I want to finish this cup of coffee.

I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!

Books, Screens, and In-Betweens

On March 22, 2026March 22, 2026 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized30 Comments

I am linking up with Deb at Readerbuzz, Kathryn at Book Date, and Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

Hello everyone!

Books:

I finished this one up last week, and I adored it. It was just cute and light and easy which was exactly what I needed. I already have the second in the series in my stack to read.

I also read Agnes Aubert, finally, and I absolutely loved every minute of it!!

Which leads us to my reading plan for this week! I have a few I am wavering between so we will see where I land.

These are the two currently on deck for this week. I loved Trixie growing up so I am looking forward to reading at least this one again. And this cover for Nightshade for Warning! So many things that appeal to me – the colors and flowers and the little corgi! I love it.

On Screen and Off Screen:

Not much happening on this front. When we watch tv we are watching old episodes of Brokenwood, one of my favorite shows.

I joined the Analog Life project in January and it is interesting to see how it is has really unraveled in our lives. I will say, my house is a wee bit messier on days now, since all of us have our various projects scattered in little piles here and there as we work on them. My journaling supplies, books, stationary, embroidery, Wyatt’s drawings and colored pencils and paper spread out everywhere, Billy’s leatherworking and painting. I picked up a free puzzle at the library yesterday as well, so we may try that this week too.

We do still watch television though, don’t get me wrong. And I still do scroll and read the internet and watch YouTube videos. Just not as much. I think today we are going to have a family art session and then watch The Phantom Tollbooth with Wyatt. He loved that book so much that I think he will like the movie as well.

I posted a few times last week as well!

Top Ten Tuesday: Green Covers

Wednesday Morning Coffee Catch Up

Mini Book Reviews and a DNF: The Hounding, Daisies for Innocence, La Vie, and A Bit Much

In-Betweens:

Things sort of began to fall into a routine again last week. I am a creature of routine, and it was good to find a new rhythm. I got the few last loose ends for my mom tied up, and now we just work on getting her recovered. Wyatt and I also did some book shopping and refreshed our Little Free Library from the library book sale. On Wednesday last week my husband also gave me orders to take it easy, so I had fun with all of my various hobbies and hanging out with Wyatt playing. It was a much needed rest day. I wrote a few letters to pen pals, experimented a bit with watercolor, worked on my journals – I have my reading journal and my whatever journal that I am playing around with.

I also made it through my Super Tuesday! It was a tough one, ten wheelchair/car transfers y’all with my little guy, and I was whipped. That was one reason Billy insisted on me resting on Wednesday, and like I said, he was so right. But we got a lot of good stuff done.

I’ll leave you with some randoms from my phone – beware, there will probably be lots of photos of Max and Mouse!

And with that, I will leave you for today. I hope that whatever you do, that you do something that makes you smile!

Wednesday Morning Coffee Catch Up

On March 18, 2026March 18, 2026 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized14 Comments

Hello everyone! I am under strict orders from my husband to take it easy today. He told me to blog, catch up on my life, and recharge so I guess I am doing that. And he is right, I do need to do that.

My mom is all settled in her apartment now, and we have all of her services lined up. It was a herculean effort, it seems, and I will say it again and again that this system should not be so difficult. It should be an embarrassment to these places that it is so hard but we know that this all just trickles upwards, and the people I am dealing with are not the people making the policies. However, when all is said and done, I managed to get my mom into a situation where she is safe and comfortable and taken care of. Since it is still within her apartment at the assisted living/senior living center she is also not as scared as I think she would be in a new place.

On Sunday, I did have a break from everything and it was exactly what I needed. Our Blackbirds group had an outing at a farm to experience the process of maple sugaring, and they had such a good time! I think everyone did, including the adults. The woman who owns the farm is a retired elementary special education teacher, and already knew some of the kids and parents, which is how we learned about it. She was so welcoming and you could tell she was a retired teacher, she was amazing with our kids.

She had everything all set up when we got there. Books, handouts, a video to start, and then she poured sap fresh from the tree into a filter to show the kids, and we were all surprised to see that it was clear like water. Then we all tasted it, which was also surprising. It tasted like water with a tiny bit of sugar. I had expected it to be sweeter!

After this presentation, which the kids all listened to very well, we headed outside to tap a tree!

Wyatt was very excited to be able to dump the sap into a bucket.

After we finished up outside, it was back into the little studio for a craft, where the kids fashioned their own “sap buckets” and ate hot off the griddle pancakes served with fresh maple syrup! Another activity everyone loved.

After we were all done with the lesson and activity, she said we were welcome to explore the property and just hang out if we wanted. She was so nice and has invited us back whenever we want. We are definitely going back next month for lessons on frogs and ponds. And I could hear the spring peepers there, which did my heart good!

It was a fantastic way to start the day, honestly. We all explored and the parents bought maple syrup and fresh eggs and honey. And some of the parents got to live their dream of holding a chicken… that is my friend Kelly I talk about a lot, holding Nora. She was very excited and that made her day.

We all had a great time and it was the breath I needed to start the week.

When we left, we had time to run home for a bit before meeting my brother, who didn’t get to go to the farm because my niece had a birthday party to go to, at our mom’s apartment to change things around. We turned her bedroom into more of a sitting room, so that when she has visitors they have a place to sit while they are there. It looks very cozy and homey in there now, although she still needs more pictures for the walls, something she has needed for awhile now. However, when we left I felt pleased with what we had accomplished. It is a start! It’s hard to make those spaces seem cozy – if you know, you know.

Oh, I forgot to mention Saturday! On Saturday I wanted to get Wyatt out of the house. He has been cooped up a lot, and when he did go out, it was either to therapy or to my mom’s. So we did one of his favorite things – book shopping. One of our local used bookstores is having a buy one get one free sale on kids books this month, so we went there, and he picked out a nice stack (with a few additions from me). Then we hurried to another bookstore to get there before closing so I could use the last of my birthday gift card on a book I have been wanting for months, Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter.

That Trixie Belden is for me. When I was a kid I loved those books so much that I wanted my parents to call me Trixie. Lol. I also added Betty Before X to his stack, and Fever 1793.

So, while things have been rough around here, we did fit in some time to relax.

How are you all doing? I hope that you are taking time to do things that make you smile as well!

Books, Screens, and In-Betweens

On March 15, 2026 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized30 Comments

I am linking up with Deb at Readerbuzz, Kathryn at Book Date, and Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

Hello everyone. It has really been a tough two weeks around here. I shared on here the other day that my mom had a stroke and it has been very emotional and stressful and scary. She is now out of the hospital and in more long term care. She is actually better physically than she is emotionally? I am not sure how to describe it. I did read that this is common for people who have suffered a stroke, so we are just making our way through things day by day. She is also sleeping a lot, and I think she is in a sort of healing cocoon. When we sleep our brains heal and I think that is some part of what is going on. Plus, she does need rest, she went through a huge ordeal and was in the hospital for almost a week. She also had surgery for blood clots. It’s been a lot for her but everyday I see mini improvements, inchstones.

Books:

I haven’t read too much. I am still working on the book I started a few weeks ago, although I am enjoying it. I just keep falling asleep pretty fast at night. Lol.

I hope to finish it in the next day or two, and when I do I am going to start this one!

I thought it would be fun to get a photo with all three of my cats, but you can guess how that went. LOL. Max stuck around though.

Screens:

Nothing too exciting here either. When I am upset I want familiar shows, so we watched old episodes of Brokenwood.

In-Betweens:

I have been so grateful to all my friends for the support they have been given me this past week or so. My in person friends and also my online community. I also have gotten a few letters from pen pals this week that have brought a smile to my face. Thank you to Tina for the happy mail – Wyatt and I are excited to start the seeds soon! Yesterday I set up a small table next to my mom’s bed while she slept and wrote a few letters back to my pen pals, and it was a very therapeutic and calming activity.

I an hoping to be back in this space more this week as well. I am trying to establish a new routine to accommodate some of the changes in our lives for the moment. I just work better when I have a plan and order. I haven’t had one and things are just a mess here. No planned dinners have led to my family eating more fast food and junk than I like, the house is cluttered, things have just fallen by the wayside, even with my husband doing all he can to help. I have been a bit of survival mode, even with Wyatt’s homeschool, focusing on reading and math only and his home therapy routine. So I am working on a plan for the week.

Tuesday is going to be a nightmare friends. Send good vibes! Lol. It’s not really that bad, but between Wyatt and my mom I have three appointments one right after another with just enough time to drive to them all in between!! Not any appointments I am particularly worried about, it’s just the actual scheduling of them.

Around the Internets:

I have shared some posts in the past two weeks:

Little Life Updates

Friday Morning Coffee Catch Up

Top Ten Tuesday: Cozy Mysteries with a Gardening Theme

Also, just a reminder as well that Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I have a link up for anything bookish! You can find it here!

And that is it from me today! Whatever you do today, try to do something that makes you smile!

Little Life Updates

On March 11, 2026March 11, 2026 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized18 Comments

Hello everyone. It ‘s been a crazy week and a half around here. I mentioned the other week that my mom wasn’t well and she had a diagnosis of an UTI. It turns out she also had a stroke, which we learned as her condition began to deteriorate instead of improve throughout the week. She has been in the hospital since Saturday night, and it has been a confusing, emotional, stressful time. I would like to see the adult in charge please?

Despite everything she has been going through, she is doing ok. The stroke affected her left side, and mainly the vision in that eye, and her arm. Her arm however seems to be doing better, and it seems as if her vision is as well. Before she wasn’t turning her head to the left at all, and now she will track me if I move around the room, from one side of the bed to the other. Yay for improvements!

I feel so guilty everyone. I am not able to be there all the time and I feel awful. But I have a son who is also medically complex who needs me as well. It is hard for my husband to get time off easily, and I am there as much as I can. This is such a very difficult situation for me- and I feel so bad. This is all just so hard.

I actually spent all morning this morning speaking to the hospital social worker, insurance, and the place where she lives, basically negotiating for care for my mother. I hate that this is our system. It is absolutely deplorable. However, I managed to get the best I could for her, with her resources and the hospital timeframe. I think I have a good plan in place and it gives my brother and I more time to research if this is the best option. We were told my mom needs long term care and was not recommended rehab, but also where she lives, she wasn’t receiving all those extra services, plus, they wanted to send her back today. Make it make sense people. She needs long term care but send her back to independent living? I managed to set everything up and they will discharge her tomorrow.

Needless to say, I am exhausted. After I visit my mom tonight, I am going to come home and take a dark shower, do some serious skin care, and crawl into my freshly made up bed for the remainder of the night. Maybe watch an old Brokenwood, have some tea.

This weekend I do have something fun lined up for Wyatt and his friends. Our little Blackbirds group is meeting at a local farm that is currently in the process of maple sugaring. So the kids will be able to see and participate in that process. The farm owner is a retired special education teacher as well, and she is very excited to be hosting our scouts.

We also had two birthday parties over the weekend, despite my mom’s hospitalization. It was not easy honestly, but we did it. I think they went well even with everything that was happening.

I am going to end here today, but I will be back to blogging again on the regular again soon, hopefully.

Take care of yourselves out there, and help others when you can!

Friday Morning Coffee Catch Up

On March 6, 2026 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized12 Comments

Hello everyone! I’m going to be honest, this was not our best week, my mom hasn’t been well, although it did start off celebratory and fun, with Wyatt’s birthday! I can’t believe my kiddo is 11. Where has time gone?? He was just a teeny tiny peanut when he was born and now he is almost the same size as me!

I mean, look at my hand next to him. Lol. He was 2 lbs 15 oz and 17 inches long. He is a miracle honestly.

We were trying to figure out what to do to celebrate his birthday. It has been so cold and yucky out, and germs have not slowed down out there at all. Wyatt had wanted to go to the Toledo Art Museum, but then I learned that it is closed on Mondays – along with just about every art and history museum. I didn’t know this was universally a thing, but it is. So we owe him a visit to the art museum. We pivoted and headed for the Toledo Zoo instead, and had a great time!

It was a Monday morning, cold, gray, and we pretty much had the entire zoo to ourselves. There were a few animals not on exhibit, and most of the buildings were still shuttered and not open, but that didn’t stop us from having fun.

We saw otters (my favorite there!), elephants (which Wyatt loved because one of them did something that young boys find hilarious), wolves, among other mammals, and went into the aquarium, conservatory, and natural history museum. The reptarium was under construction sadly but that just gives us a reason to go back. The conservatory was so cool – it had reptiles just loose and free in it! We all had to watch where we were going so we didn’t squish any. I also did something purely out of love for Wyatt – I sort of am weirded out by fish, and they had two open aquariums where you could pet a sturgeon and manta rays (or some sort of rays) and Wyatt was not quite tall enough in the wheelchair to do it, so I did it for him and described it and it was super gross, which Wyatt thought was hilarious.

That 80s looking building up there used to be where all of the big cats lived in the 1980s. I remember visiting them there when I was a kid and before zoos became more knowledgeable about habitats and what is appropriate. Now it is used as a restaurant! I swear we could eat in that building even then, while the big cats lived there but I might be misremembering. That was a long time ago!

I mean just check out this photo quality! Lol. I am the second from the left, and my little brother is in the red shorts next to me, and my cousin Brian is the other big kid. Check out the giant thermos jug my Aunt has! Lol.

We spent a few hours at the zoo, then headed home. It was just about time for dinner when we pulled back into our driveway, after having stopped for a family size mac and cheese, which was Wyatt’s request for dinner. And that was that! Wyatt has two little family parties this weekend to celebrate as well.

The rest of my week has been sort of split, with a lot of time being spent doing things for my mom. She has a UTI and it has really affected her mentally and physically. So I have been in contact with lots of staff and being there in person and juggling all that with Wyatt’s school and his appointments. Watching your parents age is really really hard!

And I don’t want to end on that so we will talk about… the book of poetry I just read. It is called A Bit Much, it is so good! I absolutely loved it. So many of the poems resonated with me. You can find the author, Lyndsay Rush, on Instagram as @maryoliversdrunkcousin. Lol. I have been sharing poems from the book with friends all week, like this one I sent my friend Kelly.

View this post on Instagram

And with that, I will sign off for today. I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!

Friday Morning Coffee Catch Up

On February 27, 2026 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized11 Comments

Hello all! February has just been a month. Yuck gray skies, cold, surrounded by illness, we got Covid – we are ready for March and hoping that it holds better things for Michigan and for us. However it did have small happy moments of joy, and those are the things that keep us all going, really, aren’t they? Moments like singing with your child while he shoots a big grin at you, your husband surprising you with your favorite chocolate bar when you are having a bad day, a phone call or a message from a friend that brightens your day. And that is how our month has been, nothing big or exciting but full of these moments. Watching the Olympics all shmooed out on the bed with family and cats and blankets, those few days where the sun peeked out and the skies were actually blue, Wyatt getting excited about the history or art lesson, opening the mailbox to find a letter inside rather than junk mail – you get the idea.

Wyatt’s birthday is Monday! I can’t believe my teeny tiny baby who was literally as big as one of our kittens when he was born is going to be 11. My silly goofy happy boy. He fills our hearts with so much good everything, everyday. We had to postpone his birthday party though unfortunately-everyone around us is sick! Hopefully they will be better by next weekend and we can celebrate with our family. This weekend the three of u will eat the cake we ordered the party, and I will just order another. And we will figure out what we are going to do. Will we brave the weather and go to the zoo? Will we brave the germs and mask up and go somewhere inside? Only time will tell!

Speaking of my Wy-guy, we signed him up for a local little league team! They have a special needs team and kiddo is now all ready to play baseball. My cousin has gloves from when her son played little league and he is also a lefty like Wyatt, so she is giving us one of his old gloves, so that is settled. I was talking to her on the phone yesterday about little league, and she asked if Wyatt had a glove yet. I was so confused. Why would Wyatt need a glove? I am not very sporty guys. Two of Wyatt’s friends from Blackbirds are on the team as well, so it will be nice to all go to the games together.

Wyatt will be having surgery again sometime during the season, but the surgeon has told us his recovery will be nothing like the previous surgery. This one will be just a few days and he won’t have any restrictions. He has to have the metal that they put in him in July taken out. That surgery will be happening at the end of April.

I have been really enjoying exchanging snail mail letters with a few different women around the country, and one woman in the Netherlands. It is always such a happy surprise to find a new letter in the mailbox! (thank you Tina for all of your letters! You have one on the way too) It was nice to sit down yesterday with a cup of tea while Wyatt was painting and write a few letters back. We had finished school and his exercises and I had completed a bunch of household tasks (litter boxes, dishes, etc) and I finally had a semi-quiet moment (there are never completely quiet moments when Wyatt is awake – he is always chattering away like a little squirrel), and it was nice. I have also received little gifts inside my letters, stickers and teas, and I need to get something to send back to everyone in my next letters. I am thinking about starting tea journal! I saw someone with one online and it is so cute. I mean, why shouldn’t I have a journal for everything? Lol. I am an archivist at heart!

I am so ready for spring everyone. Like major spring fever over here. I know that March weather is notorious for faking us out, and it is not spring weather yet – Wyatt was born on the coldest day of the winter that year – but this morning the sun is shining, and the temp is supposed to be 50 degrees and it just feels so close. Temps plunge again after this weekend but at least we have a day or two of warmer weather before it does. I am ready to see flowers and birds and to plant things, and try to tempt toads to our garden, and then for summertime fireflies at night and backyard barbecues and bonfires. I want to walk through a wood and hear the spring peepers, to watch people gather around our little free library again that has been sort of lonely little bastion of books out there in the snow all winter.

Is anyone else feeling spring fever? Or if you are in the southern hemisphere, are you ready for cooler temps?

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

Books, Screens, and In-Betweens

On February 15, 2026February 15, 2026 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized25 Comments

I am linking up with Deb at Readerbuzz, Kathryn at Book Date, and Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

Hello everyone! Last week was yucky week! We all ended up with Covid. It was thankfully mild but we were still all super tired. We are feeling back to normal now though thank goodness!

Books:

While I was sick, I didn’t really feel like reading until I started feeling better. I did enjoy reading through Vivian Swift’s When Wanderers Cease to Roam, which was perfect. It was easy to read through, lots of pictures, and cheery. I am only halfway through it, but the chapters on the spring months were giving me life! About midweek I felt like reading again, and I ended up finishing two books.

I am really enjoying my slow “wander” through Swift’s book. Right now I am using it to get through these last dregs of winter, reading about all the seasons we have to look forward to, but I ended up buying a copy from Pango so that I can revisit it monthly or seasonally when I want to in the future.

The Cater Street Hangman is from a book series I used to read like crazy years and years ago. I often go back to it when I am not feeling well or need a comfort read.

And finally, A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping was delightful!! I absolutely loved it. Also another buy from Pango. I also sell on Pango, and one feature of it is that you can earn Pango bucks. You can either have the money you make sent to your actual bank account, or you can choose to keep it on Pango and use it to buy more books. That is generally what I do.

Screens:

Well, I didn’t read much last week but I did watch television. We watched a lot of Olympics. I have such warm and fuzzy feelings about watching the Olympics with my mom as a little girl. It was always so exciting and such an event, especially when we knew figure skating would be on. We would sit under blankets on the couch with our cups of tea and watch all of the skaters. Such good memories. I wanted to make some of these with Wyatt too, but he wasn’t as interested in figure skating. However, he does like to watch moguls and snowboarding. We are watching everything we can, but those are his favorites. Our kittens like to watch too, which cracks me up. They really like the luge and bobsledding, but Mouse was riveted by snowboarding the other day.

We are also watching the tv show The Burbs, and we are both really enjoying it! It is like the perfect mix of mystery and thriller, as well as a comedy. I need to rewatch the movie again now.

Julia Duffy, who will always be Stephanie from Newhart to me, is on it, and she is my favorite character, but I do also really love Tod, who is played by Mark Proskch, or Colin from What We Do in the Shadows. He was hilarious in that, and plays a similar type character in The Burbs. Justin Kirk is also great in this so far, but again, I also loved him in another show, Weeds.

Last week on my blog, I posted:

In Our Homeschool

Friday Afternoon Coffee Catch Up, Minus the Coffee

Wednesday Morning Coffee (Covid) Catch Up

A Cozy Little Life: A Look at Book Journaling

In-Betweens:

Not too much, since we were sick, and I mainly blogged about everything else in my coffee catch up posts, except Valentine’s Day! Billy and I went for a walk and saw the sunset, with our Starbucks teas in hand, lol, and then we came home and he made us all pancakes with strawberry compote that he made himself, because I had weirdly decided I wanted those for some reason earlier in the week. They were delicious and we all loved them!

The kittens go in for their spay and neuter and surgeries tomorrow morning. I will miss them scampering and stampeding around the house while they are gone, and I will worry as well. My poor babies. It’s always so hard, isn’t it? We had our Blackbirds meeting last week, which was a lot of fun, and then this week our Blackbirds are going to a skating event I arranged. I am nervous about that as well! I want Wyatt to have all the experiences that he can though, so I will muster through it. This skating loop has an ice skating sled, that he can sit on and be pushed. There is also a cabana that we rented, a bonfire, and there is a restaurant that serves pizza. It will be fun although I will be a nervous mama until it is over.

And with that, I hope that all of you have a great day, and do something that makes you smile, even if it is something small!

A Cozy Little Life: A Look at Book Journaling

On February 13, 2026 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized18 Comments

Hello everyone!! I am having a slow morning this morning, and it felt like the perfect time for this post.

For the past year I have been keeping a reading journal and “annotating” books, and I have gotten a few comments and questions about it all. I was inspired by a couple of different vloggers on YouTube: Elizabeth at The Plant Based Bride, Cups and Thoughts, and Katie is Reading.

Now all of these vloggers have much more involved and creative setups than I do, and also annotate quite a bit more than I do, but I wanted to share their setups and also Elizabeth’s annotation video as examples of how amazing this can all be, and how detailed you can get. Maybe one day I will be at their level but for now I am happy with what I am doing. It brings me joy and makes me happy and that is what matters. Do I sometimes start pages over, or rethink what I am doing? Yes, I do, but I also don’t compare what I do to these vloggers. For one, I don’t have nearly the number of supplies that they do, and I don’t think that matters. I think if you want to do this, you just need some sort of journal or notebook, maybe some markers, and if you feel the need for more, you can even check the dollar store near you. Ours has started carrying crafting supplies, including stickers and washi tape. Some of you might have a lot of supplies at home already. Whatever you have, you can do this. If you have a printer, you could print book covers, or different images. You could go old school and cut pictures out of old magazines even. The important part is to have FUN!

As far as my reading journal goes, I have a few sticker collections that I have picked up, and markers (that don’t bleed) and just regular journals that I got off Amazon. I did recently purchase some winter washi tape, and I am also using all of these items with my letter writing as well! I am slowly adding to my supplies, but like I said it is not something you need to run out and stock up on unless you want to.

These are just some examples of different pages I did for books I have read. Some are mainly quotes, others I have written more in depth thoughts and questions I had about the book.

As far as annotating, I am not that critical nor do I make that many notes in the book itself. My method is to just flag the passage or quote that I like, and when I finish reading, I look back through, and write my thoughts down from there, or not. If you watch Elizabeth’s video though, she has a fantastic video chock full of information about annotating. She is one of the vloggers I watch who actually challenges me to read more critically. I feel smarter after watching her book vlogs, honestly. They remind me of being back in my literature classes in college, and as a lit minor, I had a lot of those!

So I know I said you don’t need to buy stuff if you don’t want to, but I wanted to share some supplies in case you are interested in what I have around and use.

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