In the Trenches with Bugs

*Disclaimer on this post - no, we do not have lice or other bugs. The bug reference is to a kid's CD I'm recommending. That's all.

Christmas is a distant memory already, but the gifts keep on giving. Two things we received for Christmas deserve recommendation, so here goes.

This book, Loving the Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches, by Rachel Jankovic came highly recommended to me by several friends. I bought it for a few friends for Christmas and then bought myself a copy too. It's one of those books that is so honest and funny and convicting that you can't really put it down and you want to be friends with the author. How convenient too that it's about motherhood. The good and funny and hard parts of motherhood. Rachel has five kids under the age of five(!) -- one set of twins in there -- so the book is divided into really short chapters (she doesn't have a lot of time to write books I'm sure) about things like training emotions in your kids, dealing with conflict while keeping fellowship with one another, reasonable expectations, "me" time for moms, etc., etc. I didn't even make it through the first chapter without stopping to seriously chew on some things she was saying. It is clear that she is a very godly woman with a deep understanding of the Bible and how God's truth must define how we raise our kids. It's also clear that she loves her kids tremendously and has a lot of fun with them.

If you're a young mom, if you know a young mom, if you're a grandmother who has lots of daughters and daughter-in-laws and granddaughters (hi Jan!) you will want to get a copy of this book. Read it and pass it along. Or keep it and read it again, which is what I'm planning to do.

The second thing I want to talk about is bugs. Technically, Slugs, Bugs and Lullabies, which is a kids CD we asked for for Christmas. The kids music we had previously listened to was deplorable, but with Liam getting older and the radio (even Christian radio) not being any better, we wanted to get something that we might all enjoy. We're not the kind of people who listen to a wide range of music and are always looking find the next "cool" artist. We just needed something we could listen to driving around town and not want to jump out of the car while it was moving. Enter Slugs, Bugs and Lullabies by Andrew Peterson and Randall Goodgame. I hadn't heard of them before, but my friend introduced me to this song by Andrew and I was hooked. I know, super sappy, but sweet too.

The best part of Slugs, Bugs and Lullabies is that we honestly enjoy listening to it. The songs are original, clever and catchy. And actually, I don't mind having them stuck in my head, which is a lot more than I can say for most kids music. Even better, Liam really likes it too and gets excited when the Tractor Tractor song comes on.

If you want to check it out more, here it is on Amazon. Now they have a second volume and one for Christmas too.

So there you go -- some new things for a dreary January day. Oh and bonus to my dreary January day? My dad sent me spring flowers! They are beautiful. I should blog about things I want more often. :)

**I was not compensated in any way for the recommendations here. These people have no idea who I am. Just passing along things I enjoy.