Spotify - I've been a Pandora fan for quite a while now but they were losing my loyalty with their limited selection of children's music and Lucy frustration with my lack of ability to play requests. So we switched to Spotify. She still gets annoyed (or scared, depending on the ad) and runs over to tell me "no, no, no" when an ad starts but by the time she gets to me, they are almost over. And a few ads are worth it the ability to play Raffi's "There's a spider on the floor" ten times in a row, I guess. Of course, I just heard that Spotify's free usage is soon to be pretty much worthless to the mom of a repetition loving toddler but we'll enjoy it while we can and then use it to test drive cds before we buy them.
Soft songs - Of course, with spotify, you actually have to know what you want to listen to. Our current favorites include:
You Are My Little Bird (Elizabeth Mitchel) - If I had to personify this cd, it would be a little girl in a yellow dress dancing in a meadow. It's just lovely.
Hide 'em in Your Heart Vol I and II (Steve Green) - Bible verse songs. I had heard good things about Seeds Family Worship cds (one of which is available on spotify) but I've found those to be a little two contemporary* for my tastes while Hide 'em in Your Heart songs are just our style, sweet but fun.
Reverse Engineered Lara bars - I finally got around to buying kitchen stewardship's Healthy Snacks to go e-book and now I'm addicted to her lara bars, especially the Chocolate peanut-butter delight version. Lucy and I consumed an entire batch in less than 24 hours and they only lasted that long because I hid them from her.
Duplo blocks - Lucy got some for Christmas and has pretty much abandoned all her other toys (excepting Baby of course). She really likes me to play with her and build her things, but if I can manage to get her going, I can often slip away and get some emails sent or even read a chapter of a book. Oh Happy Day!
Angry Birds - Admitting this isn't as hard as admitting that I liked the Twilight series, but it is up there. When I downloaded a copy onto Craig's Kindle Fire, I didn't know what would happen to us. It's bad. But really, this game is addicting. And all that physics is good for my brain right. Right? Right?
3x5 Cards - Who doesn't love a good 3x5 card. I always have but I'm working on a couple projects as a part of my new years goals and they are saving the day. From bible memory work to chore charting, they just get the job done. Only problem, I can't seem to find a 3x5 card box. I might actually have to, GASP, go to Wal-mart.
Pickles - We grew a bunch of cucumbers last year and turned them into pickles. But when we tried them a couple months ago, they weren't very good. They weren't exactly bad, they just tasted like soggy cucumbers - no flavor. But we left them down on our canning shelf in the basement and honestly, I forgot about them. I didn't have much hope but we recently tried them again and they are delicious! I guess they just needed more time to be imparted with that wonderful picklish flavor. Now we are all on a pickle kick. Which is good because we have approximately 3 million more quarts of pickles to go.
Non-fiction - I'm not sure if I'm into Non-fiction or just struggling with fiction. I don't want to read anything sad because who needs that when life is a hard enough struggle. But I don't want to read anything too happy either, that's annoying. And even my normal diet of mysteries is failing me. Most involve death of some sort and I just don't want to go there right now. So non-fiction it is. Some of my latest few non-fictions include: Organized Simplicity, From the Garden to the City, Large Family Logistics and A Love that Multiplies.
So what are you into lately? Got any good non-fiction or cd suggestions?
* I almost said to "rock-n-rollish" but felt like I needed to be smoking a pipe and yelling about the evils of Elvis if I wanted to pull that off. But I am very particular about the style of music I want to expose Lucy's developing brain to. I blame Andrew Putewa.
Next thing you know, you'll be yelling at those pesky kids to "get off my lawn!" Just kidding. I share your concerns about children's music (particularly scripture songs - my kids ought to be able to sing them in church without people wondering what it is).
ReplyDeleteLove Elizabeth Mitchell's music. Her version of "Crawdad" is one song we played over and over again for Sweet Pea when she was little. Almost makes me cry to hear it now! ;)
Elizabeth Mitchell's Little Liza Jane is Eliza's theme song. It's a bit different from Johnny Cash & James Taylor's O Susanna. :) I hope I can find a name/song combo for the next baby, whenever that might be!
ReplyDeleteWe're crazy into Play-Doh around here. Zuzu will "cook" for a good long while at the kitchen table. It's made getting through Eliza's nap much easier.
I just finished reading Pollyanna for the first time. It was much better than I expected (and free in a Kindle edition). Perhaps when you feel up to fiction again.
I'm reading Organized Simplicity. I'm so excited about getting rid of clutter, but I can't seem to get things actually out the door because everyone but me has been sick this week. Here's hoping next week I make more progress.