Five Favorites

Today, my five favorite things are...

...this cereal. I love it for its simplicity. It's not too sugary and the ingredient list is a manageable size. Delish.

I'm also loving this castle, which was a Christmas present for Anna from Grandma Banks. Anna plays with it often, but I love it today because she played with it for like an hour straight. Thanks, Swan Palace.

This book. I just finished it for like the forty-leventh time, the first time being when I was maybe 13 or so, and I'm not sure if it's sad or not that I probably love it just as much now as I did then. I'm thinking it's not sad. I get more out of it now, but it's still a fun, well-written, poignant story and worthy of the Newbery. I know I've written about Madeleine L'Engle before, but I just love her. I envy the way she balances the flow of the story with meaningful commentary on the human condition, using such a grounded, sensible voice. I love how normal and functional and also mature the Austins have always seemed. (As a sidenote, when I did an image search for this book cover, I found out that the book had been made into a movie a few years ago starring Misha Barton and Dean from Gilmore Girls. What the hey?)

On a different note, I'm also loving this pre-treating laundry soap. It seriously gets out almost any stain imaginable. It worked wonders on poo stains when Anna was a baby, and now it works its weekly magic on grape-juice, blueberry, and marker stains. Like. A. Charm.

And these. I am in love with these chocolate chips. I don't bake with anything else, and the chips are also good for snacking on WHILE you're baking with them, so it's a win-win. I just made some peanut butter bars with these on Sunday and they were basically a little bit of heaven in your mouth.