Hello everyone! I hope everyone is doing well. We had a full week but it was a fun one. We have one more obligation today and then we are all coming home and putting on comfy clothes and decompressing. Lol.
Books:
It was a good week, but I barely had any time to read. I did finish Watership Down for my yearly reread, and I am partway through An Escape Goat.
Version 1.0.0
I loved my journey with the rabbits of Watership Down, as always. And I am loving Zen Goat way more than I thought I was going to! I am definitely going to be seeking out the rest in the series.
This week I am reading more barnyard books. Lol.
Screens:
It was a super busy week, so we did not really watch anything. I did watch a few YouTuber channels here and there though, and I have a few new favorites that I am watching lately.
Rebecca at Literary Wanderings has become a regular watch for. I am really enjoying her vintage sleuths series of videos – and of course had to share them with Lisa at Boondock Ramblings of course, with her love of Nancy Drew!
Rebecca is also the channel where I learned about Gladys Taber last winter. She has some great recommendations and information, especially about older books.
I also enjoy watching Shelby’s Cottage. She only produces a video maybe once a month, but they are always really well done. I love her slow living ways. I can’t reproduce her routines at my house, but it is nice to pull maybe a little suggestion out that is manageable. I also find it interesting that I am drawn to YouTube channels where the person is an artist as their occupation, a painter or designer or illustrator. I have a type! Lol.
Last week I did manage to post a lot!
Books With Disability Representation – this has evolved into a passion project. I am either creating a website or a page that will be a searchable database of books that have disability representation. I have a feeling it is going to take a while but it will be worth it!
We celebrated Independent Bookstore Day! We popped into two of our local bookstores, and picked up a few books. One had a few other vendors there as well, including a sourdough bakery, so we also purchased a loaf of rosemary sourdough and some sourdough sugar cookies which were phenomenal. This was our haul. I tried to support independent authors (Pattern of Betrayal) and local authors (The Busiest Place You Know). I got Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead as a free ARC from making a purchase at one of the stores. It has a crazy title but I have heard really good things about it.
We also celebrated my mom’s 79th birthday! We all went over and had ice cream and hung out and told stories.
And with that everyone, I will say goodbye for now. I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!
And just a reminder:
Lisa of Boondock Ramblings and I host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea. This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!). Each link party will be open for a month. You can find that link up for this month here.
Hello everyone!! I hope you are all doing well. I feel like the past few weeks or so have been set at whirlwind, we have just been so busy. Good busy though.
First, I have been keeping up with going to yoga on Tuesdays with my friend Kelly. This is something I had wanted to get back to for years, and like a lot of adults these days, I just never prioritized time for me. It always feels like we have all kinds of responsibilities and obligations, that it is easy to tell ourselves that we should stay home and finish the laundry, or the dishes or any myriad things that pop up on the daily. It’s hard sometimes to just say, nope, I am going, I am doing this, my body needs this, my mind needs this, etc. To let ourselves stop for a minute. With that being said, I am going to have to find a new place for six weeks while Wyatt is in Little League. Lol. Because isn’t that how it happens? But I am going to make myself keep doing it, despite the hitch in my plans.
I know that Deb from Readerbuzz mentioned how hard it is to find an instructor whose flow resonates with you, especially if you had a teacher you loved and then they stopped teaching. I was lucky that my new instructor has a style much like my old one, from years ago. And I really like the “studio” space she is using, which I have mentioned before. It is the third floor of an old building, that was first a Masonic Lodge and is now an arts center. The room is creaky, old, vast, and she turns the lights down so it is blissfully dim.
Speaking of Little League, Wyatt starts next week! We are all super excited. We took him out on Saturday to get his glove, and he was all smiles!
On Saturday, we also went out for dinner, at an Alpine inspired restaurant in Detroit called Alpino. We had a blast and ate so much food. You can read more about it on my post about Heidi, but I am going to share the photos here again.
Wyatt and I also had a zoo day with our friends S. and Z.! It was a beautiful day and the zoo was very busy! We all had so much fun just being outside, and we saw the baby gorilla and the baby lion cubs! I wanted to go play with them like they were giant kittens but that would probably be a very bad idea.
Then Tuesday and Wednesday I was my own whirlwind. I had yoga Tuesday, and afterward visited my mom, which is my routine. Billy then surprised me by telling me that he had taken Wednesday off so that he and I could each have four hours of “me” time. I thought this was genius and while I missed my guys, it was also soooo nice to have all that time to just do whatever! I ended up meeting a friend for coffee in the early a.m., then going off to the thrifts to see if I could find any treasures. I ended up finding a huge stack of books, some of which are going on my Pango, that were .60 each! I also found the cutest little whimsical teapot that I cleaned up and stuck on my desk. I absolutely love it. I then headed off to TJ Maxx, because they have journals and stationary sometimes so I thought I would see what they had. However, I fell into their beauty products section instead. I picked up the cutest little manicure set in its own little cat carrying case, a set of K beauty face masks, and a bar of soap that is citrus scented (of course). Billy is in love with the soap, weirdly, so I going back to grab a few more bars.
When I got home with my treasures, I took Wyatt out for ice cream which made him happy. I figured he needed a treat as well. Then, to top it all off, I met my cousin and brother for coffee that night and didn’t get home until an hour later than I had anticipated. But, that happens and we were all cracking up and laughing until we cried. It was a good time.
However, now I am ready for a few slow days to balance out all of this fun!! Not to mention, all that laundry is still waiting for me…
And now some random photos from my camera roll!
I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!
Hello! In honor of Disability Book Week, I wanted to share a small list of titles that promote disability representation in books. I know how thrilled Wyatt gets when he sees someone in a wheelchair in a book or in a movie, and I look for books for him that have wheelchair users or characters with cerebral palsy, that are represented in positive ways. We all like to see ourselves in books, or recognize small bits of us at least, and I am glad that writers these days are being inclusive of all or are at least working on it. This is especially important these days, when so many books are being banned, especially books that contain characters from marginalized communities.
This list is mainly comprised of books for elementary up to YA age groups, but that doesn’t mean that adults can’t read them!
*The longer I work on this list, the longer the list gets. I am going to put a few representative books on here, then make a dedicated page with a list of just titles and authors that is more comprehensive
Hello everyone!! It’s been a crazy week, weatherwise, around here. We had a middle of the night, 2 am tornado warning on Tuesday (or sometime mid-week), where we stumbled down the basement to take cover. A tornado was confirmed to have touched down a few miles away in our neighbor city, so that was fun. Michigan had 9 tornados confirmed that night. I don’t know who moved tornado alley up but I am not enjoying it. It also rained all week, with our only nice day being Friday. Now we have a freeze warning and possibly snow in the forecast for tomorrow! It’s crazy around here!
Books:
Last week I read two bunny books! Well, I have not finished my umpteenth reread of Watership Down yet, but I did finish Raising Hare. It was really interesting reading them at the same time, even though the lagomorphs in Watership Down are rabbits not hares. I have a few book reviews coming up, but I will say I loved Raising Hare and it should not be triggering for those who are sensitive to animals and animal death, like I am. Feel free to ask me about it if you want. I hate when people gatekeep that info!
This week I will finish up Watership Down, and I plan on starting a cozy mystery and a middle grade.
I love the idea of goat yoga, or any yoga with some animal. Lol. I am going to be looking for one around here to try once. I couldn’t get this book at my library, so I bought it on Pango for $3! I love Pango, it is a platform for people to sell their used books. I have a link in the sidebar where you can get $5.00 off your first purchase if you use the code CRACKERCRUMBLIFE at checkout. My process for finding books is library first, then Pango, then I have to decide how badly I want a book. Lol. Anyway I didn’t mean to turn this into a Pango ad. Sorry about that! I just wanted to share that.
I am also reading Roll With It, a middle grade book about a girl with Cerebral Palsy.
Screens:
Billy and I are still watching Young Sherlock. I think we have two episodes left? On nights that we are tired we watch episodes of Brokenwood that we have already watched. We’ve been on the go a lot lately, and later than I want to be on the go, and our routine has been off so it’s been more Brokenwood than Young Sherlock lately!
In-Betweens:
I have started going to yoga! I used to go all the time before I was a mom, and I have finally finally prioritized it in my life again. And of course, now that I have been going and enjoying it, wouldn’t you know that Wyatt’s Little League schedule has games on yoga night? Arrgh! Lol. His season is only 6 weeks though, and my friend Kelly and I are going to switch to a different class somewhere else during that time. My plan is to go back to the original class though, because it is held in a very old building, on the top floor, and I love the feel of the room. It has a good vibe and sometimes while I am in savasana I think about all the people who have been in that room over the decades and their purposes.
I also want to mention that it is Disability Book Week this week. I didn’t realize this was a thing until a few days ago when I saw it on Instagram and I am very excited about it! I will be more prepared next year but this year I am going to participate how I can. I am including a video from the website that explains more about it. You can also find a list of suggested books for different ages here.
And just a reminder:
Lisa of Boondock Ramblings and I host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea. This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!). Each link party will be open for a month. You can find that link up for this month here.
And that is it from my corner of the world! I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!
Lisa at Boondock Ramblings and I read Heidi together this month, and it was the most perfect book to read to usher in spring. I didn’t read it as a child, and I am so very glad that I took the time to read it now. We chatted back and forth to each other about how engrossing it is, what a quick, good read, one that made the book hard to put down, and just about some of the things Heidi had to go through, especially in the beginning.
For those unfamiliar, Heidi is the story of a young girl, 7 years old at the start I believe, who was being raised by her aunt after her family passed. Her aunt however, took a job somewhere that she didn’t feel it was appropriate to take Heidi, so she packed her tiny niece up and dropped her off at Heidi’s grandfather’s hut on the mountain. Heidi had never met the man, and he was not reported to be the nicest person, but he and Heidi hit it off right away and had the most precious relationship. Unfortunately for Heidi though, her aunt decided that Heidi could ripped away from her home, again, and sent this time to the city to be a companion child to a little girl named Clara.
Clara was wealthy, and in a wheelchair. I think she had epilepsy but at the time of course they didn’t have medication to help control seizures, so everyone kept Clara’s life quiet as to not trigger any seizures. Her father was away a lot, and she was lonely in her house with just the staff, and the rotten Mrs. Rottenmeier, her governess. Heidi and Mrs. Rottenmeier did not mesh right from the beginning, and Rottenmeier viewed Heidi as some sort of less than heathen from the country. Heidi enjoyed being friends with Clara but desperately missed her home. After a friend of Clara’s father, a doctor, noticed how pale and thin Heidi had gotten, he told Mr. Sesemann, Clara’s dad, that Heidi needed to return to her simple life on the mountain with her grandfather and the fir trees, the wind, the goats, Grannie, and her friend Peter, the goatherder and Grannie’s grandson.
Heidi returned and was returned to her normal happy, robust self. Heidi and her grandpa also had some visitors from the city! And I am not going to tell you the end. If you haven’t read it, I hope that you do.
Lisa and I did come up with a few questions to ask each other, and I wanted to share the questions and answers with you.
1. Quick, the first five words that pop into your head about Heidi.
Joyful, wholesome, a blessing, thoughtful, and kind.
2. Would you slam two big mugs of goat milk back to back, and why is the answer no? What about one mug?
I don’t think I could slam two big mugs of anything, but milk? The thought makes me sort of sick. Lol. I know that Heidi and her grandfather set a lot of store by that milk and its healing properties, and maybe there is. I do know it is more caloric and has more fat, so maybe it would be good to make someone a bit sturdier if that was needed. But I could never just drink down two big mugs quickly, or even one. I could probably drink one at a normal pace.
3. Was Uncle Alp making goat cheese, like chevre?
I know this is a dumb question – it is mine. Lol. The book talked about how Uncle Alp, or Heidi’s grandfather, would make cheese and I am sure it was delicious goat cheese but in my head I kept picturing those wheels of cheese or a wedge. And while I couldn’t gulp down goats milk, goat cheese is a whole other story.
4. Write a beautiful description of a natural place you’ve been to, a sunset, a plant or animal you’ve seen.
This was a suggested activity from the back of the edition of Heidi I bought. Good thing I am going to write something and have it compared to Johanna Spyri and another published author, Lisa.
Ok. Here is the best I can do this morning, with Peppa Pig laughing in the background.
The lake shone like blue glass under the early morning light. All around, birds sang out to each other from evergreens and birch trees, while near the shoreline mysterious underwater creatures created small ripples in the sleeping lake, waking it up gently. A light breeze helped to cool the piping hot cup of coffee that I held between my hands, and I wrapped myself up in the gentle peace of the morning.
5. Heidi, like Anne of Green Gables, loves her home and has favorite aspects, like the fir trees, the wind, the fire sunset on the mountain. Is there anything in nature you cherish about your home, the way that she does?
I saw this question somewhere as well. I am a Michigander, and while we don’t have mountains here, we have water. Lots of water. I love heading down to the river and having lunch or just sitting and looking out across the water. We have even gone for sunrises and sunsets, to see the huge moon above it; it is just a part of our life here and I can’t imagine living somewhere that I was not surrounded by so many lakes and rivers.
6. In the same vein, what are some small things you are grateful for?
Cups of tea, books, walking barefoot in the grass, fireflies. Definitely fireflies. Rabbits in the dewy grass, or congregating in our yard during the winter.
7. Which character, besides Heidi, is your favorite and why?
Clara’s grandmother, or Grandmamma. She was not snobby as I was afraid she would be. She took special time for Heidi, to encourage her and to try to make her happy. As Heidi said, she came and she made everything good and ok.
8. What character did you like the least and why?
Mrs. Rottenmeier, of course. She was a mean curmudgeon. How could she be such a jerk to a small girl, who has been stolen away from her home and family? I also didn’t like Heidi’s aunt, she was so careless and thoughtless about Heidi and treated her like a suitcase.
9. There is a part in the book where Heidi longs for home. Has there ever been a time in your life where you have longed for home?
Yes. When I went away to college I was absolutely miserable. I missed my house, my friends, my family, Billy. I moped around even though I made some really good lifelong friends there. I took every ride share to my area that showed up on the ride board. I was a sad sack for a little while. I got over that level of homesickness but I did transfer to a university closer to my home and commuted instead after my freshman year. I honestly do think some of it was that I felt very landlocked! I was attending Central Michigan, in the middle of the state, and I was just nowhere near a river or a lake and it was weird. I know that in Michigan we are never more than 6 miles from a lake or water, but those were small rivers, maybe creeks, instead of the watery shores I was used to.
10. Do you think you would like to live in a small hut in the Swiss mountains, miles away from a town?
Hm. Like in this day and age, as me now? I probably would not want to live there full time, but would love to visit for a month or so at a time, like Clara and the doctor did. Or if I lived close enough, on weekends or as a getaway whenever I needed one.
Have you read this one? I know a few of you told me that you had beautifully illustrated versions as kids, which must have made it even more special.
For Lisa’s version of this post, pop on over here!
Lisa of Boondock Ramblings and I host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea. This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!). Each link party will be open for a month. You can find that link up for this month here.
Today it is my goal to visit the posts there and also go blog visiting!
And with that, I am going to say goodbye until later! Whatever you do today, I hope you do something that makes you smile!
Hello everyone! It’s so cold and dreary here today, at least right now. It is supposed to warm up though this afternoon, to 76, but we will see. I am having a hard time believing it!
Books:
Over the last two weeks I read three books.
Heidi is a buddy read with Lisa at Boondock Ramblings. We were going to stretch it out over the month but I accidentally read it all the other day. I think Lisa is pretty close to finishing it as well. I am so glad that we read it; I absolutely adored it!
Marigolds for Malice is part of the Enchanted Garden mystery series, and is book 3 of 3 according to Amazon. It was pretty good and I am bummed the author stopped writing this series. I feel like there was more to tell about Ellie and her garden and the town of Poppyville!
Finally, I finished up Stillmeadow Daybook by Gladys Taber. It is funny that Lisa and I both were reading this at the same time, and didn’t realize it! I loved this one even more than Stillmeadow and Sugarbridge which I read at the beginning of the year. I loved Taber’s voice, and perspective, and so many of her thoughts are valid still today. (although there were some outdated references and signs of this book being of its time) I had so many book tags sticking out of the library copy that I ended up buying my own. That is a sign to me I need to own it! I was lucky enough to find a copy it and also Amber: A Very Personal Cat being sold together for seven dollars on Ebay. They are paperback which is my preference, so even better!
This week, I am visiting my old friends, the rabbits of Watership Down. If I finish, I feel like it will be a good time to also start Raising Hare!
Screens:
Billy and I have been watching Young Sherlock. It took me an episode or two to get into it, but I am really enjoying it now.
I also subjected my family to the original cartoon movie of Watership Down the other day. It wasn’t as bad as I remembered? Wyatt was not traumatized either so I was relieved. Wyatt hasn’t watched much with violence in it, just How to Train Your Dragon and The Mummy, so I was nervous but he did good. He seemed more excited that he was watching a movie version of my favorite book.
In-Betweens:
Do you ever have weird coincidences happen, that are not algorithm related because we know that those are not actual coincidences, but where something pops up where you are not expecting it? This happened to me this week. I had just finished Stillmeadow Daybook, and started Marigolds for Malice, when I encountered a reference to Gladys Taber in the cozy mystery! It was so weird!
I have to agree, reading Taber always relaxes me with tales of her life.
My cousin’s daughter also got her first job! And I was excited to hear that it was at one of my favorite local shops. So of course I had to go and visit, and of course I had to buy something..
I found this distinguished gentleman for half off, and had to bring him home. He is actually a vase, so I need to buy a few flowers to pop into his little ears. Lol. I have named him Hazel. Of course.
Other random photos from the week:
And just a reminder:
Lisa of Boondock Ramblings and I host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea. This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!). Each link party will be open for a month. You can find that link up for this month here.
And that is it from my corner of the world! I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!
Hello everyone! It is a sunny day with predicted temps in the 50s today. I have a cup of coffee, a kitten on my lap, and a little boy next to me. I am trying to stay centered and present right now these days. It’s been a heavy week, hasn’t it? It’s easy to feel lost and overwhelmed, and we need to do what we can in order to keep ourselves as sane as possible. Right now, I know I have responsibilities and the biggest one is Wyatt. I keep one eye and prayers on current events, and focus on Wyatt who needs me to keep things together here.
That being said, yesterday I just did just that, I kept my ear to the ground and went about my day. I prayed, I lamented, and I also took Wyatt to therapy, where he absolutely blew his therapist and I away. She put him in a gait trainer, which is like a walker but with more support, and he took off cruising, practically running. I couldn’t even get a video because I was so shocked honestly. Neither of us have ever seen him move quite like that! We have watched him use this gait trainer for a few weeks, building back up to it after his surgery last July, with some struggles, determination, and some drama as only Wyatt can provide. Yesterday though, he did it so easily. It all clicked and came together in one boy yesterday.
I also went to yoga for the first time in forever and ever. My friend Kelly and I went to a local class held in an building downtown in our city. It was her first time ever and I was proud of her too! I had to laugh though – we have been friends over thirty years and I have never once seen her sweats and a t-shirt. She is always meticulously dressed. It was so cathartic and restful, and my body and soul needed that. As we sat there, in the old auditorium with it’s wooden floors and antique lighting along the high ceiling, I just felt such peace for a moment. It felt good to be moving my body with such purpose again, feel its strengths (and weaknesses – ugh my core!), and then the final relaxing pose on the mat at the end. I left feeling very refreshed and so did Kelly. When I asked her how she felt she told me that she felt like she really needed that, and I understood exactly what she meant. I am hoping to go every Tuesday night now.
I popped by to see my mom afterwards and she was doing so well. They changed her meds last Friday, and they told us to expect her to be very sleepy over the weekend, which she was. So I was happy to see last night a bright eyed, happy mother. She was chatty and awake, and I saw some real improvement in her. For those who don’t know, my mom had a stroke last month, and she also has moderate dementia. She has some mobility issues as well, but I am hoping with the meds change, we can get her up and out more, at least out of bed. They were really making her very weak and not doing much to help her at all. I went home feeling pretty good about my corner of the world, for at least one day. And that is where I am at these days, one day at a time.
Last week Wyatt and I took some time off for a spring break. We didn’t do too much, mostly just hung out at home and read and played and things like that, lots of art happened, but we had one day out with Mermaid Girl. All three of us are book people, so I took Mermaid Girl with us on one of our bookstore and dessert days! I picked an awesome bookstore too, Coreanders in Grosse Pointe Park. It is designed for kids and is filled with storybook murals and a tall stalk with a sun at the top in the center of the store, shelves of books and cozy reading spots. It even has an ice cream shop and a secret garden. We kicked things off with McDonalds, and then once we were at the store, we spent two hours wandering around, choosing books, chatting, having ice cream. It was so fun.
One of the coolest things about Coreanders is that it is two floors and the elevator is even a mural, all the way up. The door has a glass window and on the wall of the elevator shaft is a mural that follows the path of the elevator, so you are treated to scenes from The Hobbit as you make your up and down. It is really cool.
I didn’t get many photos this time, the weather was gray and gross and the garden has not grown yet, plus I was too busy with two kids and being in the moment, so I will share some photos from the first time I visited.
It is very cool, and it was the perfect little day off. We all left happy and with books (or for me, a journal and some bookmarks) in our hands. The kids also enjoyed ice cream, which was only 3 dollars for two giant scoops! A deal!
Afterwards Mermaid Girl came over and played with Wyatt and Mouse and Max before her dad came to get her. It was a nice time!
We also finally finished up the Gold Rush in history! We celebrated with a “Gold Rush” dinner of beans, bacon, and homemade biscuits, and we sat on the floor in our den on a buffalo plaid blanket. We all decided while the dinner itself was not bad, we certainly wouldn’t want it too often, much less for every meal! Something fun I learned about the gold rush – I mean, Wyatt learned- a bath cost $10 dollars which would have been about $419 dollars today!! Then I read randomly in the Gladys Taber book I just read, Stillmeadow Daybook, that the boomtowns had a rodent issue, so a shipload of I think 3000 cats was sent to California, where they sold to those argonauts for $10- $20 a cat! They were also often stolen from their owners, as they were in high demand!
And with that little tidbit, I will say goodbye. I hope whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!
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.
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!
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!
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.
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!
