It’s time for the second installment of “What I’m Loving” where I get to share the trivial and the sweet and the yummy and whatever we are generally loving at our house.
I hope it’s fun and you get a new idea or two. And, in the spirit of caring and sharing, I’d love to hear what you are loving for yourself, your kids, or your home in the comments below!
What I’m Loving…
For my kids:
1. Magna-Tiles®. When we visited new friends for the weekend in December, we had the chance to play with their sets and loved them. Two sets immediately went on the wish list for Christmas.
Let me tell you a little about these toys. As a general rule, we try to keep toy volume down and prioritize open-ended toys. And we all love these toys. The kids love them so much, in fact, that they often fight over them. Ha ha ha.
No, but really. These toys can be used in so many different ways. My kids build with them, pretend they are bad guys/good guys, use them in their play kitchen, make Transformers or starships, and who knows what else. Molly is also happy to smash everything or to just carry a pile around the house.
Besides giving ample opportunities for lessons on sharing and kindness, they’re great for encouraging problem solving, creative thinking, and coming up with new ways to play. Hearing my preschoolers talk about needing certain triangles or squares, seeing them figure out which shape is best and why their structures collapsed just reinforces why I think these toys are worth the money.
2. The Boxcar Children Books 1-4 After finishing a handful of Classic Starts books, I was excited to start reading this series to my boys. I loved these books when I was a kid and remember a lot of the stories. So far, my boys love them too.
As an adult now, I appreciate these stories even more. I love the relationships the siblings have with each other. I love how resourceful and thankful the children are. And I love how the stories are ones that stick in my kids’ minds so that I find them recreating them in their play. I don’t want to underestimate the value of filling their minds with examples like these.
For me:
1. Dark Chocolate Espresso Trail Mix -Target brand. This is the best trail mix ever. Except I wouldn’t ever actually take it on a trail. But when it comes to munching on handfuls around the house, this is amazing. Just don’t expect it to last long.
{Chocolate-covered & praline almonds, mocha pecans, chocolate chips, hazelnuts & chocolate-covered coffee beans}
2. Shepherding a Child’s Heart— Tedd Tripp. I’ve read this book before when my oldest was still a baby. It was incredible then and is proving to be just as profound and encouraging now. It’s a parenting book that does so much more than simply give you strategies to make your kids nicer to be around. It goes much deeper than a quick fix.
In our home:
1. Getting creative together. I’ve been dealing with a lot of fatigue, and likely just as much laziness, this past month. Which translates to not doing much of anything in the afternoon hours during nap time and immediately afterwards.
In spite of all the snow, or perhaps because of it, I was a lot more motivated to do things this week. We managed a picnic, some homeschool preschool activities, and then today, we gathered around the kitchen island and got creative together.
I am immensely happy when we are together sharing an activity, especially when it’s a creative activity. These moments with each other, talking and learning, are among the things I most look forward to about my children getting older and us continuing to be home together.
I don’t want to miss these moments because I’m being lethargic or lazy. Today was exactly the kind of reminder that I needed.
At the table:
1. Dark chocolate granola. I’ve been cutting back on treats and sugar over the past few weeks. Let’s just say that things had gotten out of hand. So instead of baking cookies or brownies at night or sneaking something sweet while my kids are napping, I’ve been eating dark chocolate granola with milk or yogurt.
2. These whole wheat waffles. We had a fellowship night at church last Sunday night where we all bring a dish to share and then spend time talking, encouraging one another, and singing. Not really sure what I wanted to bring until the last minute, I finally decided to bring my waffle iron to the church and make waffles there. I mixed up the batter and made a yogurt berry sauce as a topping before we headed out.
The waffles were so delicious I decided to make another batch for breakfast. Check out the recipe for this mix. It’s for a big batch that you keep in the refrigerator until you’re ready for to bake them.
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