Tag: writing

Friday Morning Coffee Catch Up

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized10 Comments

Hello everyone!! it is actually cold here this week, and temps next week will be cold as well. I think it is safe to say autumn is here for real.

And it seemed to blow in all at once. We were having a warm sunny day the other day, then all of a sudden it was overcast, gray, and a storm and rain moved in. And that was that. Fall was here in a flash.

We have just been moving along over here. We had a few Halloween events last week, where we gave Wyatt’s costume a trial run, and then a family get together with my brother’s family and my cousin’s family. Billy, Wyatt and I also went to the apple orchard, one of my favorite outings of the season, if not my very favorite.

Let’s start there. It was sort of a neat moment – we went on the same day, October 18th, that we went to the very first time we went to this orchard with baby Wyatt. When Wyatt was a baby, I wanted to find an orchard that we could make our tradition, like I had when I was a kid. The one I grew up going to has turned into a circus, with too many bounce houses and people with tables selling things – it’s just too much. I wanted a more simple experience. Pumpkins and cider and doughnuts and apples – we don’t need anything else. I found one online, Bennett’s Orchard, and off we went with tiny Wyatt. And we have been going there ever since. So this past Oct. 18th was our ten year anniversary of sorts, of going, and it was ten years to the day.

They also have this gentle Lab who will sometimes join you in your wanderings. He has to be getting up there in age now, and is such a sweetie. I love when he joins us.

We had such a good morning at the orchard, although I couldn’t talk Wyatt into wearing a pumpkin hat for old times sake.

The next day was the party at my cousin’s house. He and his partner had it all set up for the kids, and it looked so good! They did a great job making a nice party for our kids of all ages, from 16 years down to 2. There were pumpkins to paint and sticker, doughnuts, pizza, and we brought a jug of hard cider from the orchard to share, while my brother brought different chips and dips. It was such a nice time!

I also picked up my new glasses this week, and just in time, because I broke my only pair! I really like my new pair but I got progressives for the first time and I am finding them confusing. I like them when I am doing stuff around the house, because I only need them for reading and I don’t need to take these on and off all the time, but when I am just sitting and reading and not multitasking I am having a difficult time. So I bought a pair of $7 readers from Amazon that work perfectly for that. It however made for a slower week of reading until I figured out I could do that.

It was a week for reading and hanging out with Brian, my cousin this week, because I hung out with him again on Wednesday! We tried out a place in Detroit called Sip N Read, which is like a bookstore bar. It was cold and rainy and really the perfect night to sit somewhere warm and read. Sip N Read is so pretty inside too! I loved the velvety furniture in shades of green and burnt orange, the space itself was so inviting! There is a small bar when you walk in, and then on the opposite wall are bookshelves. The books are there to be perused and read while you enjoy libations, and they offer wine and mocktails to their patrons. You can either choose to buy the book or not, or just read from different books, or whatever you choose. We had so much fun just reading and hanging out with our drinks. It reminded me of an adult version of when we were kids and would go to the library, check out some Stephen King, and head to his house where we would drink Capri Suns and read together. It was pretty empty but I am chalking that up to the night – it was a Wednesday, and it was so cold and rainy! We had a great time, reading and chatting, and then Brian treated me to the book I was reading as an early birthday gift!

I also did some baking this week – I made cinnamon apple scones, and chocolate chip cookies. I think I am going to be baking more since life is so expensive these days, and the groceries I am buying look different now too. I bought a whole chicken yesterday to turn into a few meals, as it was a better cost value than buying anything else. We are also having meals that turn into leftovers, like chili and stew, and Billy is going to start baking his sourdough again this weekend. Every bit helps!

It’s been fun baking again though. I am not great at it, but I have fun bopping around the kitchen to Oingo Boingo, Taylor Swift, Yaelokre (an Icelandic band my brother introduced me to that has really cool story and lore behind it), and also listening to the In the Meadow Podcast.

All in all, it’s been a pretty darn good week! The leaves are finally turning to fire, the weather is fully fall, and things are getting pretty cozy around here!

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

Friday Morning/Afternoon/Evening Coffee Catch Up

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized15 Comments

Good morning! I am trying to drink my coffee at super fast speed this morning, as Wyatt has two appointments back to back. One for a wheelchair eval, since he is growing so fast, and the other because he either lost a tooth or broke part of it yesterday. So a trip to the dentist for him! I have to leave shortly but wanted to get this started.

We have a new pet! It is a tarantula, so if you don’t like spiders scroll super fast past its picture. We named her Dungeon Crawler Carl after the books, and because Carl will be living in Billy’s office in the basement after he makes room for her.

She was abandoned and then turned in to a pet store, where she was left in her really dirty enclosure, which was way too small for her. My friend saw her week after week in this condition and finally talked me into taking her if she paid for her. So, we now have Carl! She was in terrible condition when we got her, and I was worried she was going to die – she was in the death curl position, which indicates death is coming or severe dehydration. It appears Carl was dehydrated because she drank so much water after we moved her into her new, spacious home. I have to say, I never wanted a tarantula but Carl is endearing herself to me. She loves to watch Sid the fish, who is her neighbor, and sleep in her little burrow. We have had her a week and she looks so much better already!

We have been working hard at home and in school when we can around appointments this week. It was just one of those weeks. I will be grateful for when things settle down and we can just get to our work and routine. Wyatt kicked butt at therapy again this week, and stood assisted again but with less assistance, so he is getting stronger and stronger, week by week. We are pretty faithful with his exercises, and he is really good about doing them which makes it easier.

Billy has been busy too! He has been working super hard on Wyatt’s costume, and it is unbelievable. Like seriously. I have to brag on him a bit here. Wyatt is going as Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon this year, and I was like that meme, following Billy around with my bag of ideas, and said to him, “You know what would be really cool? If it looked like Wyatt was riding on Toothless.” So, Billy made our dreams come true, turning Wyatt’s wheelchair into Toothless. Here is a preview. Has my house turned into a war zone, filled with craft supplies and art stuff? Yes, yes it has. But it is worth it. I can’t wait to see it all come together on Halloween. Like Billy literally made that Toothless mask, out of foam and paint. It is crazy to me. He is so talented.

Our Halloween decorations served a practical purpose the other night when we suddenly lost power! Sunday night, the entire north end of town lost electricity and it was right at dinnertime, and the sun was getting ready to set, and in fact already had begun the process. Billy ran up to McDonalds for Wyatt, and I ran outside and gathered all of our pumpkins from the trees that Billy had put solar lights in last weekend. They made perfect little lanterns for dinner and inside until the power came back on. It was hilarious to eat by pumpkin light and later read by the same light.

We are back from the dentist’s office and it’s all good. He has lost two teeth that they said were probably already loose as they could see the new teeth erupting already. So thank goodness that turned out well. We were having ice cream of all things, when it happened. Wyatt had chocolate peanut butter with frozen tiny Reese’s cups and they were apparently rock hard. I heard a crunch, saw blood, it was a mess. He was fine though, and was more upset that I wanted to look inside of his mouth than he was about the teeth. I am assuming the ice cream helped, perhaps made the area cold and slightly numb.

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

And here are just some random photos from the past week!

Comfy Cozy Cinema: The Young in Heart

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized12 Comments

 Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are back to watching and sharing about comfy cozy (and as we move closer to Halloween, spookier) movies for the fall season. Feel free to join in with us!!

This week’s movie was The Young in Heart, starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Janet Gaynor.

This movie was such a cute little movie.

It starts off with the Carleton family – Sahib, Marmy, George-Anne, and Richard – working their charms on the unsuspecting rich vacationing in the Riviera. George-Anne and Richard are pretending to be people they are not, while hoping to score a rich partner. That is, until their plans are foiled by the police. They are ordered out of town, practically run out on a rail(way) as they take the first train out.

Once on the train, George-Anne tells her suitor, who I thought was much cuter than Douglas Fairbanks (sorry Lisa, it was the Scottish accent), that she is not good enough for him, and for him to just leave her alone. She meets the sweetest elderly woman, named Miss Fortune. Billy and I both were like, hmm, Miss Fortune, or … misfortune? Well played, movie.

However, this train has an accident and their train car derails! Wyatt was watching this movie with us and he yelled “Whoa!!” when that happened and it cracked me up. Then my favorite line of the movie came up. Duncan came over to see what George-Anne was doing with the unconscious Miss Fortune, who had been injured in the accident and the family rescued, and he notices George-Anne actually appears to be helping someone! George-Anne however tells him to go away, saying “I am up to no good, and you are interfering.” I just loved that line.

The Carleton family winds up living with Miss Fortune, in her big mansion and off of her recently acquired wealth. George-Anne smells potential however for a bigger grift – they should pretend to be upstanding citizens, so that Miss Fortune chooses one of them or all of them to inherit her fortune when she dies. She tells Sahib and Richard to get jobs, when they have never worked a day in their lives, and says that she and Marmy will become caregivers.

However, jokes on them, because it seems living with the kind and gentlehearted Miss Fortune has grown their hearts at least three sizes. After a particularly adorable scene between Miss Fortune and Richard, where she nurses him through a rough morning after a night of drinking, Richard makes it his mission to find a dog like the one that once so captured Miss Fortune’s heart. A white dog, with a black spot like an eyebrow. This was probably my favorite part of the movie, because so many puppies!!!

And I am going to wreck the end for you all – so skip this if you want – but the family turns their lives around and become the fine upstanding people they are pretending to be. I won’t wreck it too much for you, you will have to watch the movie to see the ending, which is super sweet and adorables.

I mentioned I loved that line that George-Anne says to Duncan, but he also has some of my favorite lines. Lines like these:

“You’re a bad-mannered, bad-tempered, outrageous female… ..but I have discovered I cannot live without you. It’s a shameful confession for a sane man to make.”

So I saw that Lisa already talked about the car, which was Billy’s favorite part of the movie. He did a deep dive during the movie to read about it, because it was a spectacular looking piece of machinery. It must have been quite something back then, because it still is beyond impressive today. The movie called it a Wombat, but you might know it more as the Phantom.

Overall, this movie was just a fun delight to watch. It had plenty of funny moments, and it was nice to just decompress too after a long day.

Make sure to read Lisa’s post here.

Our next movie is Coraline! I LOVE this movie, and it is beginning our little trend to spookier movies for Halloween. Little bit of Erin trivia – I once dressed as Coraline for Halloween, and this year, Mermaid Girl is going as Coraline!

Comfy Cozy Cinema: The Five Year Engagement

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized6 Comments

 Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are back to watching and sharing about comfy cozy (and sometimes, chilling) movies for the fall season. Feel free to join in with us!!

This week’s movie was The Five Year Engagement, starring Emily Blunt and Jason Segal.

So this one was my pick. I apologize. Lol. I don’t watch a lot of comedies, but I remembered this one took place partially in Ann Arbor, Michigan and that the soundtrack was all Van Morrison songs, which are two things I liked. I also remembered that professor’s house which was really cool. There is a Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ann Arbor, and now that I am writing this, I wonder if they used it for the movie. I however did not remember the humor or language all that well.

The synopsis: When a series of setbacks interfere with their wedding planning — and their lives — a couple starts to question their commitment to each other.

I mean and that is really it in a nutshell. Jason Segal (Tom) is an up and coming chef in San Francisco, and his girlfriend turned fiancée Emily Blunt ) Violet is a psych grad waiting for a doctorate program. She is waiting for Berkley, but then gets an offer from the University of Michigan, and this uproots their whole lives, despite Tom’s assurances that moving would not be a big deal for him.

I think the point of this movie is that Michigan sucks the life from you, and destroys all hope. It’s these gray skies man, I tell you!

No I am kidding. Although the Michigan parts were not super flattering I still found them funny because they are exaggerated truths, a caricature of Michiganders. The hunting season being a big deal, knitting, making homemade beer and mead and foraging. The crazy facial hair.

I live about 45 minutes from Ann Arbor, and it is the city where Wyatt’s hospital system, Michigan Medical (U of M) is located. We spend a lot of time in Ann Arbor, and it is a pretty cool town. It is very diverse, and you can find million dollar homes interspersed with frat houses and sorority houses and student housing. It has a lot of great restaurants and parks, with theaters and bookstores and in general, it is just pretty neat. It was cool to see places we recognized in the background, and of course the restaurant where Tom ends up working, Zingerman’s Deli, is pretty famous for their sandwiches around here.

This movie is pretty simple, but it has a great ending. I also love a scene where Violet and Tom are arguing, and Tom says he needs to be alone, and when Violet gets out of bed to sleep on the couch he tells her not to leave because he wants to be alone with her there. It is so something I would say.

Overall this movie is about the journeys a relationship can take, from the very high highs to the not so greats, and back again. With maybe some drifterish, serial killer facial hair, knitted tuxedos, and old stale doughnuts.

And I was “wright!” It is the Frank Lloyd Wright House!! According to the blog upstaged by design, it is known as The Palmer House (and you can rent it if you have the cash) and was built in 1950. They have lots of other neat trivia about the design and architecture in this movie on their blog, so it is worth a read to pop over there too! You all know I am sucker for the setting and details like that.

Again, I apologize. This movie was weird. I didn’t remember it too well and I should have watched it again before picking it. Lol. It was much raunchier than I remember!

Next up is The Young in Heart, starring Frank Sinatra.

Don’t forget to pop over to Lisa’s blog as well!

Friday Morning Coffee Catch Up

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized12 Comments

Hello everyone! After a few hot weeks after a false fall, we had a cool night last night. There was an actual chill in the air, and it was glorious. We stayed outside until the fairy lights came on then headed inside where we made sure all the windows were open. This morning I was practically freezing making coffee in my kitchen! I of course loved it before retreating back to my bed with my hot cup of coffee. It is cooling on my nightstand as I type!

We have been having a good time around here – in school, and out of school. Last weekend we woke up and headed down to Toledo early on Saturday morning to meet my cousin and his family at the Muddy Maumee Book Festival. Well, we really met Mike’s wife Michelle, and their three boys, because Mike was working there. With Wyatt added, there was big boy energy happening! My cousin Mike is the Chief Engagement and Enterprise Officer (a title I just looked up because I knew he was some sort of administrator there but I didn’t know what) and I am so proud of him. Anyway, we will get back to that part in a minute. Let’s start with the book festival.

The festival was all independent authors from around the area – some even as far away as Grand Haven Michigan and southern Indiana! This was the first year that it was held at the Glass City Riverwalk in Toledo, which seemed like a perfect place to have it. They all had their books on display, and were happy to answer any questions the kids had. My cousin’s oldest boy is also a bookworm and asked the authors great questions about the books. Michelle and I were lucky to get out of there with only a few purchases each! Billy ordered a set of dragon books for Wyatt from Ryan Null, a clean fantasy author based out of Indiana, called The Flare Chronicles, and I picked up a book for myself from Michigan author Mark Love, who writes romance! I bought an early copy of a collection of short stories by various authors, including Love, called Inkspell’s Enchanted Holidays. After we shopped and chatted and I gathered bookmark business cards from every author, we had a nice lunch at the restaurant there, called The Garden by Poco Piatti. They had the best pizza, seriously.

After we ate, my cousin gave us a guided tour (using an 8 person golf cart which Wyatt thought was awesome) around Glass City. We hit all the major attractions of this 70 acre park. It has a 7 mile loop around the river with a 1,000 foot long trail (The Ribbon) for ice skating in the winter – and they even provide skating sleds for the disabled community, and cute little huts for fires and s’mores and whatever when you need a break, which you can reserve. We saw it all – the mural, the field of histories, which was my favorite. They are a field of glass orbs, and each one has a laser engraved image from a member of the Toledo community, that relates to their own personal history. Then each one has a code that can be looked up online to read more about the object. It is really well done and intricate, and ties it personally to the area. I absolutely loved it. History and art and community connection!! We saw the slag ladles, which is something Billy and I are familiar with living in an area with lots of steel mills, the kayaking cove and even some sites that are soon to come, such as a place to camp! It was really amazing, and for some reason I never put it together that it is called the Glass city because of all the glass manufacturing that happens/happened there, by companies like Libby and Corning.

We had a great time and headed happily home, full of books and history and moments with family.

Billy and I were having a big day Saturday, because we also went on our first date in like a year. I had bought tickets for an Edgar Allan Poe speakeasy all the way back in August and the day had come! Billy’s mom came over to watch Wyatt for us, and we made our way to another big city on the river, this one north – Detroit, of course.

So, this event was four readings from Poe, each one preceded by a drink pertaining to that reading. It was amazing. It was run by just six people, from start to finish, the drinks, the serving of the drinks, the readings, and it was all done so smoothly. When you get there, you are directed to a waiting room, that has drinks and just a few snacks, and tables. My cousin had been to this performance a few days before, and tipped me off that you can wait in line at about fifteen minutes to start, which we did. When they opened their doors five minutes later, we were among the first to find our seats – center stage, second row. Perfection. Then there is the intro, the first drink was served, and the first performance began. And that continued for the next 90 minutes. I did not drink all of my four drinks, I would have fallen over or died or something. So I drank about a quarter of each drink, so that I could taste it and enjoy it but still have the ability to watch the performance, try the other drinks, and not be a puddle on the floor when it ended. No need to get all messy. The performers did a phenomenal job setting the mood and atmosphere, and delivered a magical performance. I was spellbound! They did readings from The Pit and the Pendulum, The Fall of the House of Usher, Annabel Lee (I love it!) and Cask of Amontillado. It is hard to pick my favorite, so I won’t!

Sunday we spent just relaxing and resetting for the week, which I greatly needed. Then most of this week we spent schooling, therapy, and other just life things, except for Tuesday. Tuesday we met my brother and the Hurricane at the Henry Ford Museum. We had a great time, walking around, hanging out with the kids, putting Wyatt’s little flat George Washington places, until it happened. Wyatt threw up. He still occasionally has nausea from his meds and it got him on Tuesday. He threw up however, right in front of the lunch counter where I was paying, in a restaurant with a bunch of people eating. It was one of those horrid moments, where you feel terrible for your kid but also want the floor to swallow you up. My brother was there thankfully to lend a hand, cleaning Wyatt up for me so I could clean myself up, as I took the brunt of it and then I took my kiddo home. He napped for about 30 minutes and woke up perfectly fine. It was just not a great meds morning. We are having a redo next week, when we go to a different museum with Devin and Hurricane girl.

And Marsha, those pumpkins made me think of you!

And that is it for today! I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile.

Friday Morning Coffee Catch Up

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized10 Comments

Hello everyone!! We have been busy around here lately – a weekend full of fun events and then a week of appointments.

Let’s start with the blah. Wyatt had an extra therapy appointment, so we had three trips to his therapy this week. Then I had my regular routine bloodwork appointment that we all have to get, and then I also had my mammogram this morning. I scheduled it super early in the morning so that I could get it done before Billy had to go to work, and it was super eerie out when I left. Pitch black and quiet. I was the only patient in the building. It was a weird feeling but it was a very quick appointment! I even got my results already – I’m good. I had put off all of my regular appointments for Wyatt’s surgery and recovery, so I now have to catch up on them. Yuck. I go to the eye doctor soon, but I am excited about that one. I am ready for some new glasses!

It was nice heading into this super busy week off of a really awesome weekend. On Saturday, Billy and I took Wyatt out on our first big family adventure post-surgery. We drove down to Ohio to visit some of the marshes there, and did a little hiking on the trails. We were only about an hour from home, and it was nice to be in nature again. I really needed that! We heard so many birds, and we saw a mink dart across the trail! The water levels were really low – you could tell that our area has been in a drought.

We went to two different state parks, located literally right next to each other, Magee Marsh and Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge. Both had fantastic visitors centers, nice trails, including a driving tour, and to Wyatt’s delight, a gift shop.

Sunday was another busy day! We had our Blackbirds outing to the Detroit Tigers game, and it was such a blast. We didn’t go for the whole game, but arrived during the fifth inning. I knew Wyatt would not make it through the entire thing, and a few of the other families from our group did the same. The wheelchair area was only about 3 rows up from where our group was sitting so it was nice, we felt like we really were there all together. It was a beautiful day, not too hot, although it did rain briefly! Instead of fighting to get back up to the main concourse with Wyatt we just plopped a poncho over him and waited it out. He loved being in the rain. Everyone else in the lower section where we were had headed up and it was funny to see the rows so empty!

One of the mothers from our group has a niece that works for the Tigers and is in charge of the kids events. On Sundays, kids can run the bases after the game. Well, our group had it one step better. We got to go down before the rest of the kids in the stadium, take the special elevators down that the players’ families use, and we were on the field before basically alone. We were there while the players and their kids ran the bases, and then we got to go! It was so crazy being five feet from the players while we waited our turn. Even the parents were excited. The kids were all pretty pumped, even though they were a little nervous too. They usually only allow the kids to go, but for our group they allowed Billy to go with Wyatt, and then Chrissy to run with the little hurricane girl. Then afterwards, Billy, Wyatt, and I got a security escort back to the elevators with someone clearing the way for us through the crowd. It was such a great experience.

I am so grateful that our kids had this opportunity!!

We also started to decorate for fall and Halloween. Wyatt and I flipped on some fall ambience video on YouTube and found places for our decorations. (well, mostly me) We still have some to put out but we made a good start. I really love my dresser right now. It looks all fall and has a collection of books that I hope to read this autumn. It is up to ten books. Lol.

And that is it for today!!

I will leave you with some random photos from the past week.

And with that, I am out. It was an early morning and I am going to finish this coffee and maybe try to read a bit.

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

Saturday Morning Coffee Catch Up – Homeschooling and Other Things

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized7 Comments

** so this was supposed to.post this morning.. it did.not..lol.

Hello everyone!

We have been working hard over here, with school and physical therapy! We have been very productive – and I have been pretty tired by the time I get in bed at night. It’s a good tired though, the kind of tired that you feel when you know that you have worked hard and had a good day. Today though we are going to play, and go to a marsh in Ohio, and hopefully see some pretty leaves and enjoy some time in nature.

Let’s start with school. It is weird how we are running into a theme of people protesting, in so many of areas of Wyatt’s learning. We are reading Hoot for Language Arts, and although we have quite gotten into it yet, the burrowing owls living on a live construction site are going to cause protests although right now, it is just mild tampering on the site with stakes being taken out of there spots. In science, we are talking about swamps and marshes, and Wyatt just learned about Marjorie Stoneman Douglas and all she did to save part of the Everglades – and she continued to do it even into a very advanced age. She died at 108! And finally, in history we are right on the brink of the revolutionary war, and we just covered the Boston tea party and Paul Revere.

Yesterday we had a fun Friday for school – I used to save Fridays for field trips and errands only, but now with physical therapy two days a week, we need to use Friday as an instructional day. I figured we might as well make them fun if we are having school on them now. We did so many cool things yesterday!

First, we started with making a lantern, like the ones of “One if by land, two if by sea” fame. We only made one, so our British came by land unlike the real ones that Revere warned of. And he didn’t ride around yelling “The British are coming!” although that would have been cool. It was more of a quiet version, telling people that the Regulars were coming, and only people who needed to know, knocking on their doors and telling them.

I think this project turned out pretty cute. Wyatt’s Aunt Chrissy came in for the win with the milk carton, finishing up her oat milk so that we could use her container.

After making the lantern and watching a reading of Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride by Longfellow, we moved on to our artist of the month, Salvador Dali. We talked a little about surrealism, and looked at Dali’s most famous painting, The Persistence of Memory. Then we started making clay versions of the watches from the painting, which were inspired by melting cheese, of all things. Since we had to wait for the clay to dry (and we are still waiting) we just cut the circles out and moved on for now. When they are dry, Wyatt will paint them.

Next, we made a wetland! We have been talking about the importance of wetlands, swamps and marshes and mangrove swamps, and how they protect the land from flooding and also filter the water, and I thought it would be neat if we could test it out. So, using the directions from a book that I got from the library, we made a wetland out of a paint tray, sponges, and clay. However, we made the unfortunate decision to use a red soap dye to color the water… it looks a little like a crime scene, sorry.

It didn’t filter everything but it did some which was cool!

We also played a reading game but I didn’t get any pictures of that. It was a fun way to learn on a Friday!

I mentioned that Wyatt is doing awesome in physical therapy last week, and he continued working hard this week as well. His therapist was happy with the range of flexibility he is getting, but we need to keep working on strength, so that is what we focus on both at therapy at the center and at his home therapy. Our list of therapy activities for everyday is very long, and I have to be inventive sometimes to work it all in, and combine it with school when I can.

My mom is also starting physical therapy! She got her staples taken out from her cut, and she is getting a physical therapy eval today so that she can start next week. They are coming right to her apartment so that is awesome. I talked to the therapist on the phone, since I am not able to stay, and I discussed her mobility limitations, and what we are hoping for. I would like for them to focus right now on weight bearing on her right leg, and building strength, same as Wyatt. I would also like them to work on getting up off of the floor, and standing easier. I also found a few items online that I want to purchase for her to make things a little more functional for all of us. She has severe osteoarthritis in her hip, which we learned from scans she got last weekend, and that unfortunately, we can’t do much about. So we need to work with it the best that we can. Any suggestions are welcome!

And with that I am off! I hope you guys all have a great day!

Sunday Morning Coffee Catch Up

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized15 Comments

Hello everyone! I think we can all agree that last week was a long week, and I hope that you are all taking care of yourselves and guarding your peace.

In the midst of all this upheaval going on around us, I had a mixed bag of a week myself. I will get the yucky over with first here, because I do have lots of good stuff to share as well. So my mom. I had just finally sighed a breath of relief that she was safe and taken care of – but, I guess I exhaled too soon. On Thursday my brother went over to visit our mom and found blood in her apartment and on her pillow. After searching for the source, and asking my mom what the heck, he discovered the source, which was a small cut on the back of her head. It was small but persistent with bleeding, so the two of us whisked her off to the ER for scans and probably a stitch. We were there only about two hours which is record time around here, and her scans came back good and they put two staples in her head. She is doing well but dang, mom! Lol.

Ok now on to the good stuff!!

It’s been a hot minute I think since I updated here like this. Since then, Wyatt has been seriously kicking butt. He has started back to therapy, and this kid is such a hard worker. It blows my mind sometimes how tough he is. At home, he is a little more… wanting me and Billy to do more for him, but now that I have seen what he is capable of, and getting the all clear from the PT, he will not be getting the kid gloves any longer.

We are also all the way back to school and that is going really well too. We were exhausted from a full week of school, two days of PT, a huge list of home therapy activities to do everyday, and then just everyday things (and some emergencies), but we managed. We also had our first Blackbirds meeting on Thursday! We had such a good time, and the kids were all so happy to be back together. We started the meeting explaining the name change from Cub Scouts to Blackbirds, as we decided to just have our own club, and talked about our new mission statement, motto, and learned the sign for Blackbirds from one of our kids. We passed out the new shirts which my MIL and I had made, and had the kids make a banner for us to hang every meeting. It was a great first meeting back. And for me, the icing on the cake was Wyatt saying “Bye Zane!” to his friend. This is huge. Wyatt doesn’t say hi or bye generally, or any names. However, since this one surprise, he has gone on to say the name of one of his cousins, little wild child, and his uncle Devin. It was an amazing moment for Billy and I.

Yesterday we had a great day of time with family. My dad came to visit and we went out for dinner, and after that I had my two little nieces over for a short time while Devin and Chrissy went out for a quick drink to celebrate Chrissy’s birthday. We had a good time with the girls. We painted nails, played with tons of toys, and played a board game all within an hour and some change.

We also did a little shopping at our city wide garage sale yesterday. One of the animal rescues in our city has a mammoth sale and we headed up there to shop their sale. Wyatt got a book, I got a book, and then I also picked up two mugs as well, because they were so cute! They were also apparently made in Spain. I love them but now I really really do need to go through my mug collection and pick some to have in the cupboard and some to put away for a minute.

And that is it from me!!

Let’s move through this week with grace and peace, for ourselves and for others. Be less quick to reply in anger, to be helpers when we can be. And take of your own self as well. As I say, try to do one thing today that makes you smile.

Bookish, Artsy, Slice of Life YouTube Channels I Love

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized14 Comments

Hello everybody!! Does anyone else like to watch YouTube? I feel like I can find anything on there. I do have favorites though, that I like to watch, especially in that calm down zone that we have with Wyatt. Usually Billy will be in the shower, and Wyatt and I watch half an hour of YouTube together. He has his favorites of our nighttime ‘Tubers as well, which I think is so cute. After that, we read a bit of his book and he goes to bed. It’s a nice way to wind down. I also like to put them on as background when I am doing things around the house as well. These YouTube people are all pretty different, from all walks of life, and different lifestyles and beliefs.

Anyway, here are some of my favorites lately! I’m also linking recent videos that I enjoyed.

First, in no particular order besides the order they were in as I scrolled through my subscriptions, is Harm’s Honey. Her full name is Harmony but I guess her shortened name people call her is Harm. I just love her vibe and style and energy, although I don’t always agree with some of the things she says or her exact views.

Next, Real Vintage Dollhouse! I love her vintage style from the 1940s, and her channel always includes detailed historical videos of different aspects of life in Britain in the 40s. I feel like her channel gave me the courage to embrace bold color lipstick! Plus, she is awesome because she rescued a pigeon! It is a crazy story, the pigeon actually came up to her at a pub and just wanted to stay with her. So she kept her. The pigeon was injured and had been kicked around at the pub and it was all very sad for a minute. But that pigeon went to the right woman!

Liv’s Library is our favorite book channel. Wyatt loves watching her and calls her the book lady, Liv. When he was in the hospital after surgery in a lot of pain, I put her channel on for him and he was able to relax a bit. I actually sent her an email thanking her for her work and told her about Wyatt and she wrote us back. She was so gracious and sincere! She also reads a lot of fantasy and cozy books, which I also like to read, which is of course why we first started watching her.

I also really like A Moment of Wonder. These are captioned, with music playing, and they are so relaxing and mesmerizing a bit. It is all book talk paired with a delicious looking food dish, usually dessert and a special drink. She acts like the viewer has just come in off the street into her bakery/cafe and they are just so atmospheric.

The Plant Based Bride is next up. I feel like her channel makes me smarter, in that it has challenged me to read my books a bit closer, and to investigate the themes and subtext and remember my Lit Minor roots from college.

We all love Alexis Dahl! This is one we watch with Billy too. Alexis shares history and science pertaining to Michigan, and it is always educational and interesting!

The Wild Pencil is a channel that doesn’t have a ton of video but the videos that are there, are quality.

With Love, Kristina is a vlogger I have shared before. I just really appreciate her honesty, and the realness of her life. It is not all an aesthetic for show and views. She is a real mom, who lives a real life, with ups and downs and struggles and happiness. She also just wrote a book, The Devil and the Midwife.

Finally, I want to mention Drew Binsky. This is another channel we watch with Billy too. Drew travels the world, reporting on “inspiring people, hidden cultures, and wild adventures in faraway places”. It is pretty fascinating!

Do you watch any of these channels? Who do you like? I would love to hear!

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized35 Comments

My Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date

Hello everyone! It was a crazy muddled up week but a good one! Wyatt and I even had a “book date” at Barnes and Noble, where we got books and treats from the cafe and hung out. He loved it, my little book boy.

Read Last Week:

It was a sad reading week for me. I had a hard time settling down with a book after Cat’s People, and I floundered around while also waiting for my library holds to come in. I ended up reading an old middle grade from the 90s by Betty Ren Wright. Still good, still scary, after all these years.

Reading This Week:

I had one book finally come in from the library, and I am waiting on one more that I am going to buddy read with Lisa at Boondock Ramblings.

I am starting Isabella Nagg today, and hopefully The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder comes in within the next few days. I am sure it will. Lisa and I are reading that one together.

Posted Last Week:

Welcome September!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Occupations in the Title

Watching:

We have been sort of floundering around in tv land. I need to find some shows. We started Joe Pickett, and then halfway through the first season decided we weren’t all that interested in it. Now we are watching Renegade Nell, and Billy likes it but I sort of don’t. But it is only one season so I can handle watching a few episodes to make him happy. Lol.

We also watched Lisa Frankenstein last night and it was such a weird, fun movie! I loved the 80s vibes, which were immaculate. It had all the tropes of 80s movies, and the costumes and music were fantastic. It was silly and the horror/gore level was probably reminiscent of The Santa Clarita Diet or my Best Friend’s Exorcism, if you watched either of those. And there are fun little Easter Eggs throughout, from the name Frances Owen (Practical Magic) on a headstone in the opening, to Lisa exclaiming “Damn it, Janet” (Rocky Horror) to the end which is a nod to Notting Hill and also to director Zelda Williams’ father, Robin Williams.

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