January Favourites // Little Loves

As January rolls towards it's close, I am wondering where it has gone! Whiled away in quieter hours, daily routines and much needed rest. I am feeling so much more like myself this month. December was wonderful, but hectic and chaotic and mad and everything that December always is, and January has been a welcome reprieve. My yearly friend who instills a little calm into the madness and mayhem. I always do love January...



And January has afforded me some time and space to do some things I enjoy again. I haven't been running backwards and forwards between two homes, I haven't needed to make decisions about radiators and light switches and the position of kitchen cupboards... I've been doing a few last bits; returning things, putting on finishing touches, looking into blinds and curtains and bits and bobs, but there's been no pressure, no time frame now (other than the arrival of baby in 4 months!)

And so I thought I'd share a few of my favourite things from January, jump back into #littleloves for my monthly check-in and share a few recommendations. One of the things I love about other blogs is getting a few ideas of things to add to my own list of things to try out!

Enjoy, and do share any of your own January favourites in the comments!

Read

The Children on Troublemaker Street // Astrid Lindgren
Oh! How we loved this book... we laughed out loud at the ever hilarious Lotta, enjoyed Mia-Maria's perspectives and delighted in the adventures of the mischievous Jonas (always a bonus when one of the characters has your kid's name!) The girls and I loved it. There is something wonderful about discovering a fantastic children's book that you never read yourself as a child! It is typical Astrid Lindgren (for any of you who already know the authoress of the infamous Pippi Longstocking!) - witty, mischievous and yet so life-like! We literally read the whole thing in a week (which is good going for a chapter book for us!) and I can't recommend it highly enough... the best bit? There are more in the series, and we shall certainly be returning to them!

They also have the cutest illustrations, don't you think?!

Musings through Mark // Sarah Woodall
This little gem was a Christmas present from my brother- and sister-in-law and I'm loving dipping into this little thought-provoker every morning. Beautiful words of truth etched into stunning prose... its challenging, inspiring, and a great little daily read. I'm enjoying using it to kick off my days in the best of ways at the moment!

The Green Parent

One of Dave's colleagues handed this copy of "The Green Parent" over to us as it had a whole section on the concept of Hygge, and being a half-Scandi family, it seems to be the buzz word associated with all things Scandinavian at the moment. Anyway, I dug straight in and lapped the whole thing up. It's not often I find a magazine in which I'm genuinely interested in every single article, but this one had me...

It has loads of interesting articles on purposeful parenting, on education, on wholesome, natural living, and I'm now investigating a possible subscription... do I dive in?!

Very interesting article on the benefits of foreign language acquisition for kids, and as a trilingual family, particularly relevant!

Fascinating stuff all round!

Watched

Captain Phillips... oh my word... literally on the edge of my seat the whole way through! What an incredible story... and, of course, Tom Hanks is his usual genius self. The film is the true story of Captain Phillips and his crew and their experience with Somalian Pirates. Absolutely fascinating, and terrifying, and edge-of-your-seat thrilling... and all the while knowing its a true story!

I also really enjoyed the Bronte drama that was on after Christmas, "To Walk Invisible"... it was quite slow-moving, and a real wake-up to the hardship of lives for those three women, but what achievements they made in their all-too-short lives. I didn't know much about their story before, and there were certainly a lot of themes you saw which translated into their writing from their own experiences... really interesting (and available on iPlayer if you missed it).

Made

It through the build! We are back home and pretty much fully adjusted to our new space... it's been a long old 9 months, but totally worth it! Moving home was strange, it felt like we'd moved to a new house and all felt very surreal, but it didn't take us long to feel fully at home in our new environment! I guess in terms of "making" this month, I've just been making this house a home again!

I have a post in the pipeline with some more pictures, I know many of you are like me and love nothing more than a good nose around other people's houses (or am I on my own in that?!) so I'm working on it!

I also have had fun making up new variations of essential oils for my diffuser... if you are interested in the whole essential oils journey we've been on, check out this post I wrote earlier this week!

Wore

Maternity gear - I feel like I'm wearing all the same old things and was feeling a little down about it (anyone else feel they struggle to look "nice" when pregnant?!), but then yesterday I discovered this shirt that I had totally forgotten about and was so pleased to have something "new" to wear... I feel like I can't justify buying any new maternity wear this time... We're not planning to be doing this again, and with 15 weeks til D-day, we're well over half way now!

Heard

Let there be Light - Hillsong
I got this album for Dave for Christmas, and its pretty much been our soundtrack this month... the children are already belting out the tunes (Jonas especially!!)

Planet Earth II Suite
For homework/school time, the kids have had this on in the background... its such a varied, inspiring, contrasting piece of music and the perfect backdrop for little workers!

Another great little soundtrack for background work-music is the soundtrack to the movie "Belle", the kids and I are really enjoying that one too...

And then there's my usual podcast haul!

Here are my continued favourites...
- Read Aloud Revival
- The Simple Show
- At Home 06
- Storynory

I really want to find some really good British podcasts, so wing me your discoveries people! I'd love to broaden my podcast repertoire!!

And Finally...
I'm trying to blog a bit more again... I have missed this little hobby of mine, but basically the build took over, so I'm excited to get back to writing and photography and reflecting a little bit more again! Exciting times ahead!

What have you been loving this January? Please do share in the comments below!