STUFF I LIKE

Today's post is a bit more laid-back - and less about book-stuff, and more about, well... stuff I like :)In no particular order:1. This white board with lines for writing practice. As we dive into the world of homeschooling this Fall, I love that my almost-five-year old enjoys this tool as much as I do.        2. Bare baby feet sticking out of blue jeans! I just want to kiss them.         3. Crepes. I fell in love with simple French cuisine when I went to France in high school, and ever since I have been hankering to go back just for the food. Hot chocolate and chocolate croissants for breakfast, paninis for lunch, and crepes for dinner. mmm. Thankfully, my husband has perfected the art of homemade crepes, which is cheaper than flying to France... With Nutella, bananas, and strawberries... mmmmm!       4. Making sugar cookies with my kiddos. Particularly with this recipe and homemade icing. They may not be beautiful and elegant (I'm just no good at creating things that are beautiful and elegant, unless its something I've created out of words), but they sure are tasty!        5. Homemade caramel corn. This recipe is in the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. You have to follow the recipe exactly, but if you do, this is a super tasty treat! (And I have never been a fan of caramel corn... but this is absolutely fabulous) (I'm not sure why so many of these items are food... I didn't plan it that way)          6. Chicago Style Pizza - Pal Joey's, Giordanos, Connies, Ginos East... it's impossible to get true Chicago style pizza here in the South. However, not to worry! Because my amazing husband has perfected our own homemade recipe (which we found online and altered slightly). This pizza is quite amazing, and I'm extremely picky when it comes to pizza, so that's saying something!        7. These spoons. We get them at a place called Yo-Belle, which is a frozen yogurt place. You fill your own cup, add your own toppings, and pay by the ounce. Then you get these spoons... and sometimes we go buy frozen yogurt simply to acquire more of these spoons. You see, they are the absolute perfect children's spoons. They are light - so they don't knock over yogurt cups or fall out of bowls - but they are sturdy. They have a wide, flat handle which makes gripping them easy for little hands, and they have an excellent "bowl" that is deep enough that food doesn't fall off of it, but not so deep that it is too big for little mouths. We have solved many of our slow-eating and picky-eating issues simply by having these spoons in our house! 8. Tombstone Classic Sausage Pizza. Which has been impossible to find in Raleigh for the past seven years... and I missed it greatly. However, Target has suddenly started carrying it. I saw it there one day and may or may not have bought a dozen of these pizzas (ok, I did... you can see many of them in our freezer behind the pictured one) LOL Hey, I didn't know if they would keep them in stock... they have... but I didn't know they would! I like to think my enormous purchase swayed their decision to keep stocking this kind!  9. My writing essentials: My laptop (a Macbook, which I resisted GREATLY nearly 6 years ago, and cannot imagine my writing life without now!); Pages (Apple's "Word" program); my laptop desk - a WONDERFUL Christmas present from my sister in law, which I use daily and LOVE; and a 5th Avenue candy bar. It's my favorite (but don't shower me with them, whenever I tell people I really like something, I get billions of them and shortly find myself loathing that item. LOL  10. My little book-worms. I hope they always love books as much as they do now! I look forward to the day I can introduce them to King's Warrior and the world of Tellurae Aquaous!