July 23rd, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

For Things I Love Thursday, I thought I’d share some of our favorite children’s music. I find the cd shelves at the library a bit daunting… it’s always nice to have some leads on good things to try!

Here we go… in no particular order.

Steve Green’s Hide ‘em in Your Heart cd’s are fabulous for Scripture memory. There are two different volumes, both are wonderful. Frequently when we discuss different things from the Bible or learn a new memory verse, AG will excitedly say, “that’s like in my Bible verse songs!” She has learned quite a bit of Scripture without realizing it! Steve Green also does a little introduction to every song explaining the context of the verse or a child-friendly application.

Beethoven’s Wig – Oh, my goodness. These things are hilarious to me! There are four cd’s (I think) in this series, all filled with funny spoofs on famous classical pieces. They have legitimately good opera singers and musicians seriously singing songs like, “Please keep your bull out of the china shop.” “It’s the same every verse” is my favorite, while “Stuck in the saddle again” is by far AG’s favorite! [This song lends itself well to riding our stick-horse with gusto!!] These cd’s introduce kids to a large number of famous classical pieces in delightfully silly and memorable ways!

On the Farm with Ronno is cheesy but very educational and actually it doesn’t annoy me for some reason. Our favorite song, hands down, is “Hooray for farm machines!,” closely followed by “Wake up, Farmer John!” (our Little People farm lends itself to singing this song since the farmer gets flung out of his bed with a lever!) I don’t know how many times we have gotten this at the library. I noticed that used copies are on amazon for under $3. I should just order one… the fines would eventually pay for it. ;)

For pure marching/dancing silliness and accompaniment to our percussion set, we do enjoy some Laurie Berkner. Under a Shady Tree is our favorite – I think I probably sing “Who’s That? [lookin' in the mirror]” almost every day, and “Drive My Car” often seems quite appropriate when we… drive cars. Real or play. “Boody Boody Ya Ya Ya” was one of the first songs AG could “sing,” and our friends found it quite amusing that if you started singing the “boody boody” she would finish “ya ya ya.” We also like her “We are the Dinosaurs” and sing that frequently, especially when our dinosaur pull-toy is visiting. When AG would hear this song come on, she used to run as fast as she could to find the dinosaur to take for a “march!”

Do you have some favorite childrens’ cd’s that we should try?

July 16th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

I do love my coffee. It doesn’t even necessarily have to be that great of coffee, as long as I have some good flavored creamer. This morning I actually heated up some leftover coffee from yesterday in the microwave. I know… all of you coffee purists are falling off your seats in shock right now.

I have heard it said that we drink coffee because it is socially unacceptable to drink creamer straight out of the bottle.

Needless to say, we go through a lot of creamer. That stuff isn’t cheap! I found a recipe this week to make your own vanilla creamer, and although it isn’t quite the same, I find it enjoyable both because it is tasty and because it is much less expensive!

1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cups milk (I used whole to make it creamier)
1 Tbsp vanilla

Pour all that stuff into a recycled creamer bottle, shake well, and enjoy!

For more Things I Love Thursday fun, hop over to thediaperdiaries.net – and she has a giveaway going! :)

July 9th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

One of the side benefits of hosting Bible study in my home on Wednesday nights is the excellent motivation it gives me to get my housework done at the beginning of the week! With weekly study here, my weekly cleaning schedule has been changed up a bit… perhaps that will be another post for another time!

All that to say, Thursday mornings have become one of my favorite times. Laundry is done, folded, put away. Bathroom and kitchen are clean. Everything is vacuumed and dusted. Kids are bathed. What’s left to do? Blissful!

This morning was lovely out – temps in the 70′s, partly cloudy, gentle breeze… it was the perfect morning to go to one of our favorite places – our local park!

One major advantage of the location of our house is it’s proximity to this park. Sometimes you just have to strap the children into separate seats in the double stroller and get out of the house in order to save everyone’s sanity!! :) Today being ideal to burn some time there and give the kids some outdoor playtime (and me some exercise!), we spent over 2 hours there! Here are some pictures from our morning of adventures.

We always love checking out what wildlife are out and about during our visits… they were cooperative today! (FYI, the blue thing on the stick in the upper right picture is a dragonfly!) :)

This squirrel picture cracks me up!

Playing on the dancing chimes in the children’s garden!

This little potting shed is so cute – there are watering cans for the kids to fill up from the hand pump, so we always make sure that the yellow flowers are well loved. They were declared to be “very hungry” today. There used to be a little cooking pot in the shed, so AG started making us “soup” every time we were there. Now it is a tradition that we sit at the stump table and chairs to eat whatever her pretend kitchen has cooked up for us. On today’s menu: tomato soup.

The “recyclesaurus!” We sometimes bring a picnic lunch to eat in the treehouse behind him!

Being encouraged to throw rocks + water = fun!

This is the first time I’ve taken them up these stairs to the unknown trails up above… I predict we will do this 1,000 more times.

AG loves these alphabet tiles – the garden club plants something starting with each letter of the alphabet next to each one.

The bells starting playing music while we were in the garden! This is the first time AG has really payed attention to them. Very fun!

Greeting the big frog and turtle are always an event for AG, but today LB was quite taken with them, as well. (I just found out that Nate’s aunt is friends with the artist who made them, which I think is neat!) AG also requested that we dance under the pergola today. Why not?

This little vegetable garden is so sweet. Our yard is all shade, so this little patch has been AG’s main introduction to vegetables growing.

Do you have an adventurous getaway that you love to visit with your little ones?

July 2nd, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

It’s things I love like don’t hate as much Thursday! You know I have my ironing issues. Lots of issues. I make progress, and then fall back into my bad habits once again.

During my last ironing marathon, I realized that perhaps my shoddy equipment was contributing to my ironing phobia. I was still using my $20 Rival iron that we bought after our wedding seven years ago. My cheap T-leg ironing board was working fine, but the cover… You know how cheap ironing board covers have this weird string system to hold it onto the board over a tiny layer of foam? I had had a brilliant idea to wash my cover (it seemed appropriate after seven years), and the string had ripped out and the foam was stretched. I couldn’t get the cover to stay on the board – every time I would move the shirt I was ironing the entire cover would shift. So, in between shirts I was attempting to remedy this situation by sewing my cover to the board through those holes in the top. It didn’t work that well. Shocker.

So, I took my envelope of cash from our recent garage sale and started iron shopping. My mom is a long time Rowenta user, so naturally that is what I wanted. I started doing research on Amazon and reading ratings… sadly, the Rowenta’s weren’t faring too well, it seemed! I stumbled upon the Black and Decker Digital Advantage, which had a 4.5 out of 5 star rating after almost 1,000 reviews… and it was half the price of most Rowentas! Sounded promising!

This Tuesday I took my Bed, Bath, and Beyond 20% off coupon and gleefully bought my new B&D iron. [All the time wondering, of course, why I was excited to buy an iron. I hate ironing.] Then I headed over to Walmart and splurged on a new ironing board cover. Extravagant, I know… this model doesn’t even require sewing in between clothing items – it has this newfangled anchoring system called elastic! Luxury!

Tuesday night I started in on my pile. After hours of ironing on Tuesday, and more hours of ironing on Wednesday… I think I officially love this iron. It steams really well and doesn’t drip, it has this (albeit unnecessary) digital system for displaying the heat level and fabric settings, it turns off automatically, and most importantly: it does a great job! I agree with many reviewers that it is Rowenta-comparable!

And I didn’t have to break out my needle and thread once!

I think I might actually start ironing every week! I think I love to iron! Oh, wait… maybe not.

Know what else I love? Blogging! And giveaways! Combine the two, and it’s a marvelous package! Don’t forget to come celebrate my blogoversary with me and enter to win this great Dead Sea Spa package from Great Cakes Soapworks!

Have something you love (or perhaps just don’t hate anymore?) Tell us all about it and link up at thediaperdiaries!