Welcome to Friday Favorites #2! This week we’ve got some goodies for your home, your heart, and of course, your tastebuds. :)
Snow days with kiddos: If you know me, you know I’m not a cold weather person. I’ve got a sensitivity to cold air that makes it hard to stay outside for more than a few minutes at a time when it’s super cold out. But I will tough it out to make sure I get out at least once or twice with my girls in the snow. Where we’re located, we usually only get a couple decent snow storms each year, so when they do happen, I have to make sure to grab my real camera and get some fun pictures. And there’s just something about watching little kids experience snow and toddle around in it awkwardly that simultaneously makes me laugh and warms my heart.
2. Keys for Kids: Speaking of good for the heart… I’ve been loving this online Bible devotional. It’s fun, practical daily devotionals for kids, usually featuring a little story and then a practical Biblical application. Ellie and I have been reading it in the mornings while she eats breakfast, and it’s been a great way to start the school day off in the right mindset. There’s also an app you can download, but I just look up the daily devotional on the website: https://www.keysforkids.org/
3. Tidying Up with Marie Kondo: So I know it’s totally a popular thing right now and I’m probably not introducing you to anything new here… But if you need some inspiration to clean out your clutter, Marie is your girl. She is simply the cutest, and she has a ton of awesome practical ways to attack even your worst clutter. Growing up in a super clean, wonderfully organized house, you’d think I’d have no trouble in this area. And I definitely feel way more at peace when my living spaces are completely tidy and clutter free, but the reality is, my house is definitely a work in progress, and there are always areas that seem to need help, sorry Mom ;) So while I haven’t completely “Konmaried” my house, it’s been fun to at least make some progress, like getting my clothes cleaned out. And a bonus, Ellie has actually been having a lot of fun folding her clothes Marie Kondo style. :)
4. DIY All-Purpose Cleaner: A while back, I stumbled on the Clean My Space youtube channel, and instantly fell in love with Melissa’s humorous but informative take on house cleaning. She also has a blog, but honestly, it’s easier to watch videos than read a whole explanation most of the time. She’s big on simple, effective ways to clean pretty much everything in your house with easy DIY ingredients. And one of my favorite things that I started making on my own is all-purpose cleaner. You can find the recipe here: https://cleanmyspace.com/all-purpose-cleaner/ The essential oil I usually add is tea tree oil for it’s disinfectant properties, and I throw in some white vinegar for good measure. I’ve been using this for a few months now, and I love it. So after you tidy up your house with Marie Kondo, you can make your own inexpensive all-purpose cleaner and make sure your house is really nice and clean. :)
4. Cullari White Delight: Aaaand then, when you’re all finished cleaning, you can sit down and treat yourself to my new favorite wine. Matt and I love sweet dessert type wines, and I can’t handle the dry red wines, so this one here is perfect. So if you don’t like the sweet stuff, you probably want to try a different one, but we love this one. We’ve lived in Lititz for several years, but only recently discovered the Hershey-based Cullari Vineyards and their Lititz location. They also have wine tastings available there, which sounds like lots of fun, so we’ll have to try that sometime. Confession time, I was thinking about including this in my first Friday Favorites post, but we ended up drinking the bottle we had on hand before I got a chance to get a good picture of it. Oops, haha. So this week Matt brought home another bottle, just so I could make sure I got a picture of it for the blog post. And now we can enjoy some this weekend! And yes, we do even break out these fancy glasses for it too! ;)
Alright, thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed this week’s favorites! Let me know if you’ve tried any of these and if you love them as much as I do!