Simple Meals + Honest Book Reviews + Practical Living
Summer at home with little kids can feel like a beautiful, chaotic blur — especially when they’re constantly asking for snacks. To help our days flow more smoothly, I’ve found that a few simple Sunday habits go a long way. These six tasks aren’t complicated or time-consuming. They’re quick, realistic, and they truly help reset our home — and my mindset — for the week ahead.
One of the quiet joys of parenting small children is discovering which books actually earn their place on the shelf. Not the ones that look beautiful or feel aspirational—but the ones that get pulled down night after night, the ones with cracked spines, memorized lines, and children who shout, “Read it again!” before you’ve even finished the last page.
This post is a love letter to those books. These are the picture books and early readers that have held our family through toddlerhood, preschool years, sick days, early mornings, and bedtime rituals. Some are funny, some are tender, some gently teach emotional literacy, and others are just pure delight. None of them are accidental favorites.
Below, I’ve fleshed out each book (or series) with a few thoughts on why it works so well—especially for young children—and what makes it worth returning to again and again.
It’s hard to wrap my head around Ezra’s labor and delivery. The timeline still leaves me and my husband, my mother, and the midwives scratching our heads.The short version of my labor with our second baby: I went from 3 cm to holding our son in less than three hours.
We love having scones for breakfast! The adults love them in the morning with a cup of coffee, and the kids love them in the morning with a glass of milk. …
