gift ideas for minimalist kids

December 5, 2019 Megan Rodriguez

Oh, hey! I have a blog! It’s been over a year since I posted. We’ve been busy adding a new member to our family (well, two if you count the cat and baby), following Dan Rodriguez around the country here and there, and just living life. I’m hoping to get back to this space a bit more regularly in the months to come and hope to share more about our sweet baby boy, Alder Chapman, as well as other aspects of our little life. However, with the holiday season upon us, I thought I pop on here and share a few of our favorite kid gifts that we received/given over the past few years.

We live in a little house with less than 1100 square feet of finished space and we love it. With a small space, two kids, and two cats, though, we have to get creative with how we organize and what we bring into our spaces. Because of that, we’ve learned how to be rather specific with the types of kid things we welcome into our home, and that includes gifts. For Oak’s first Christmas and birthday we asked for wooden toys or quality/long-lasting plastic toys, books, and no batteries and we’ve held to that standard ever since. Our families have mostly respected those requests and it as helped us to keep the simple home that we desire and value. Through all of that, we’ve found a handful of kid gifts that have been wonderful additions to our home, so I thought I’d share a few of those with you. Keep in mind, we have two boys, ages 3.5 years and 8 months.

Dan and I use the rhyme “something you want, something you need, something you wear, something you read” to guide our gift buying for our kids, so I’ll break down gift ideas into those four categories.

Something You Want

Let’s talk toys. What makes a good kid toy? How do you pick ones that will keep their attention, that will last, and that are sustainable? We’ve found that the more open-ended a toy is, the better. When you look at a toy, ask yourself - what different things can this toy be/become? For example, wooden blocks can be used as houses, towers, castles, fences, but they can also be used as pretend food, to make up games, to learn counting/math, so much more. Even better, take magnet blocks as an example - they can be all the afore mentioned things, but they can also be airplanes, cars, people, animals, etc. The more things a toy can be - the longer it will be played with and cherished. A batman toy will always and only be a batman toy. As for quality, we love wooden toys for babies/toddlers/preschoolers. They are durable and often very well made. We have added a few plastic toys into the mix as Oak has grown and when we do, we choose solid plastic toys that are not easily breakable and that don’t have/require little pieces that can easily be lost. Some of our favorite plastic toys are Schleich farm animals, dinosaurs, and Hotwheels cars (which Oak called Hottires last week. Ha.) For sustainability, choose wood or choose things that will live beyond your kids’ use of them - things that can be passed on/down.

Our favorites so far:

Tegu Blocks - we LOVE these!! They are magnetic wooden blocks, built sustainably and made to last for generations. Love, love, love them. They now carry a toddler line, so we’re going to give Alder one of their cars for Christmas this year.
Regular Wooden Blocks - any brand will do, but you can some great sustainable options at Bella Luna Toys.
Lincoln Logs - we’re excited to add these to the mix this year! Did you know they are made in the U.S.?
Waldorf Wooden Toys - Bella Luna Toys has great options for these. We have little Waldorf people that we’ve been using for our Fairytale Preschool (If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen me post about that a bit. I’m planning to blog about that soon!) and they have been such a hit. The people can be ANY kind of person! Soooo different from an action figure or even a Playmobile person. They are so open-ended! We are planning to give Alder these houses for Christmas. They can so easily be played with with the people, the plastic animals we have, the blocks, and the Lincoln Logs. The options are endless.
Games!! We love games. A few favorites we’ve added are Count Your Chickens and Animal Upon Animal. We also play UNO and Go Fish a lot.
Puzzles! Melissa and Doug has great floor puzzles for this age, as does Crocodile Creek.
Schleich Animals - Oak has a wooden barn that Dan built for his second Christmas and we love the Schleich animals that we’ve filled it with. They are so sturdy, beautifully made/painted, and very realistic in both size and design.
Wooden Play Kitchen - both of our boys play with our wooden play kitchen on a regular basis. There are so many options out there. We found ours secondhand and have been so happy with it. I think all of their play food is Melissa and Doug and it holds up well and is pretty open-ended.
Cars/Trains - There are so many options out there. We have the IKEA wooden train and it works great. The Melissa and Doug wooden cars also work with the train - as do Hotwheels. Think wooden or secondhand. The wooden cars/trains we have are safe for babies, which is a plus.

Something You Need

We use this category for anything from stainless steel water bottles/lunch boxes, to winter gear, to wool long johns. This year Oak will be receiving a new knitted hat and mittens and Alder will likely get a water bottle or a pair of insulted mittens from Polarn O. Pyret.

Our favorites so far:

Klean Kanteen - we love their sippy lid water bottle. We also have a ThinkBaby stainless steel water bottle with a sippy lid and a straw lid. It is fine, not super durable and can leak, but it has handles, which made for a good first water bottle. The Klean Kanteen is much better. The only downside is that it doesn’t have handles, so it’s a little harder for a baby to use.
Winter Gear
- REI - affordable/quality kids outerwear
- Polarn O. Pyret - great wool options and outerwear!
- Ella’s Wool - great wool options!

Something You Wear

We’ve mostly used this category for winter gear as well. As I use a capsule wardrobe method for our boys, we don’t tend to need much for clothes at this time of the year as we are already a ways into winter. This year I’m using an old men’s wool sweater I found at a thrift store for $5 to make them matching long johns. This could also be a good time invest in some quality organic clothing. I know quite a few friends who get organic pjs for their kiddos each year. Some good companies for organic clothing are:

Something You Read

Books…I don’t know where to begin. We love picture books in our home and love giving/receiving them. However, we also love our local library and because of that, we keep our book purchases to a minimum each year. Read Aloud Revival is a FANTASTIC resource for book lists. I visit her picture book lists each month and choose books from the library from those lists. Here are a few of our all time favorite picture books that you may not be familiar with:

Sleep Tight, Farm
Big Snow
Flora’s Very Windy Day
Up in the Garden, Down in the Dirt
Over and Under the Pond
Over and Under the Snow
Sonya’s Chickens
City Moon
Bear Snores On
The Whatamagump - our friend Tyronne Wells wrote this one and it comes with an EP of awesome kids’ songs!
Thousand Star Hotel - our friends the Okee Dokee Brothers wrote this and it also comes with an album of great songs!
Cat Tale
Steam Train, Dream Train

It’s hard to keep kid stuff to a minimum, but it IS possible. Be specific in your lists for family members and purchase things mindfully for your kids and others that you buy for. The simplicity that comes with fewer toys and more meaningful toys is so very worth it.

a different kind of fall

October 12, 2018 Megan Rodriguez

You know that place of decision that we each find ourselves in at different points in our lives? The one where we have two choices (or more) and there are such great positives and some negatives about both and the pro/con lists just don’t help make the decision?

That’s the place I found myself in this past spring. We had just lost a baby to miscarriage and my plans to be home with a toddler and a new baby this fall were gone. We firmly believed another baby would come soon, but what would life look like in the meantime? I loved my job (teaching ESL at the University of Minnesota), but life was also feeling a bit out of control with my part-time work schedule, Dan’s periodic touring paired with his gigs and studio time when not on the road, and childcare situations that just weren’t ideal or consistent. We had been planning that I would stop working, so maybe that was the answer even though November was no longer bringing a new baby into our lives. But then there was the job I loved…the students, my colleagues, using my brain in ways that home life and motherhood often don’t…what about all of those things??? Would I regret prematurely ending (or putting on hold) a job that I loved so much? But then there were those times in the classroom where I found myself thinking about the next picture books I should get at the library for Oak and wishing we were playing and exploring in the woods together instead of being apart while I worked…those strong pulls were there too.

It was in this decision making process that I began to remember all of the dreams that have always been there — that my one desire, if I did nothing else in my life, was to raise children who have a love for life, a love for people, and a love for Jesus. Being a mom was what I had always wanted and here was an opportunity for me to fully and wholeheartedly embrace that identity, that role, and that season, and let it fully fill my days. The decision was no longer so hard. Would there be regrets about what I was giving up? Maybe. Would there be regrets about the time I got to spend with my sweet Oak? Probably not. Would there be times that I would need a break from full-time stay-at-home mommyhood? Absolutely. Would it allow us to simplify our lives and create a more peaceful home? Yes, more than ever before.

And so I said my goodbyes-for-now to my sweet colleagues and moved into a typical summer followed by a different kind of fall. This is my first fall since kindergarten where I haven’t been either in school or working/teaching in a school. I love fall and I love the new beginnings and crispness that comes with the new school year. So, instead of digging into school books and schedules, we’ve been digging into this fall with picture books, artwork, nature walks, and lots of time at home for playing. I thought I’d miss the school life/working life more, but that has yet to happen. I am loving this life. I love our daily rhythms that include relaxed mornings with (relative/attempted) quiet reading time in the living room, morning time at the table with breakfast, Bible stories, and nursery rhymes, after lunch story time, and before dinner play or art time. And our weekly rhythms of errands, nature adventures, days at home, walks, and playdates with friends/neighbors. As of now, every week is looking different, but the overall flow of the weeks are the same and it’s creating so much consistency and predictability. I’m already seeing the benefits of that with how much more easily Oak can enter into pretend play or transition from one thing to the next without a battle. And the extra time at home has opened doors for me to follow a few other passions of my own.

We are also expecting a new baby in March and so I’m treasuring these few months of special time with Oak before we grow in love and people in this little house of ours.

I love how our hearts can answer so many of the questions and decisions we face in our lives, but it’s so easy to let the “shoulds” of societal life guide us instead of listening to what our hearts are quietly trying to tell us. I’m so glad I listened. And so glad I went against what seemed like a more financially stable option and went with what was a better choice for the overall wellbeing of our family and home. There is beauty in less. There is beauty in the simple. I’m so excited to continue to embrace that beauty.

happenings 'round the homestead

October 13, 2017 Megan Rodriguez

Fall is here and it is lovely! Our days have been full of great things, both in and outside, both with friends and family, and a good balance of play and work. We've really been enjoying this fall so far!

Things around our little urban homestead are going well too, for the most part. We are down to 8 chickens, from 11 earlier this year. We lost 2 of our pullets this summer - one to sickness, one to a hawk, and one of our older hens to sickness or egg-binding, as well. And while all of that is not great, we are happy that the 3 remaining pullets are starting to lay and our egg production is slowly increasing - just in time to drop off for winter! Ha! Out of the breeds we got this spring, I'm loving our Golden Sexlink! She is an egg-laying machine! She's been laying for several weeks now and I don't think she's missed a single day. We will definitely be adding more sexlinks to the flock next spring. As for Oak, that boy loves his chickens. Yesterday he played outside for about an hour and a good portion of that he spent sitting on a stump by the chicken coop, just talking to his chickens. They have good talks, he and his ladies.

The garden is slowing down, just as it should be at this time of year. We had our first frost this week, but my sheltered garden seems to have been spared. I think I'll pull the tomatoes and peppers this weekend, though, and try to get a cover crop to sprout before the hard freeze happens. The temps are cool enough now that the remaining green tomatoes are unlikely to ripen. All that will remain, then, will be the green beans, a few carrots, and the cover crops I planted in early September. Not bad, for the middle of October!

We added a few new structures to our little backyard this summer and we've so been enjoying them! Dan built us a shed, a firewood rack, and a fantastic sandbox for Oak! The benches of the sandbox fold in as a lid, in order to keep all of the neighborhood kitties out - as well as any free-ranging chickens. It's so fun to see the backyard become more and more of what we need/want for this season of life. Our backyard may be small, but we're making the most of the space and I love it.

garden notes :: may 2017

May 29, 2017 Megan Rodriguez

I can't believe there is so much going on in my garden at the end of May! The garlic is huge, the herbs are going strong, the seeds and seedlings are planted, and the peonies are blooming! I even picked my first radishes!

As I mentioned in my last garden post (which was my last post...life has been busy!), I'm taking a bit of a different approach to the garden this year -- I'm planting a wider variety of vegetables, which means I'm planting a smaller quantity of each. I'm hoping this leads to more food that can fill our table throughout the summer, more of a continuous harvest from the garden, rather than nothing in June/July and everything in August/September, and less waste from too much coming in at once. We'll see! The only thing I'm a bit concerned about not having enough of is green beans. I freeze a lot of green beans and we eat them all winter long. I'm not sure that planting fewer beans was the right decision, but hopefully the cucumbers and acorn squash that will grow in their place will make up for it, especially since I usually buy both at the farmers market on a regular basis. I'll keep you posted.

The creeping thyme that I've been slowly working to grow as a ground cover between the steps in the garden is stronger than ever in some spots this year and completely dead in others. Maybe someday I'll have a carpet of green down that path...maybe someday.

How about you?? What's happening in your garden these days?

sugaring

March 24, 2017 Megan Rodriguez

We made maple syrup! Dan's been talking about tapping our trees for a few years now and this year he made it happen! We really didn't know what to expect going into it. We have 3 very large silver maple trees and our neighbor has a medium-sized sugar maple that he let us tap, as long as we promised not to kill it. Dan did all the research, gathered the supplies, tapped the trees, and collected the sap. After less than 3 days, we had collected about 20 gallons of sap, mostly from the two trees on the front of our lot and from our neighbor's tree. For some reason the sap from the tree behind our house ran slower than the others. This past Sunday, Dan spent the entire day outside boiling the sap down over a fire. He built an outdoor stove-like fire pit out of bricks and our neighbor's camping fire grate, on which a fire burned from about 9:00 am until 9:00 pm slowly boiling down our 20 gallons of sap. Oak and I joined him outside as we could and several friends and family members joined us around the fire throughout the day. It was fun to make a day of it with family and friends, just sitting around, drinking beer and tea, watching sap boil and a fire burn. It was quite lovely, although a bit chillier than the forecast had predicted. Around 9:00 pm we brought the boiled down gallon of sap into the house where we reduced it even further down to half a gallon. We used a candy thermometer and a drip test to help us know when we had reached the perfect syrup stage. After straining and bottling it, we ended up with over 4 bottles of honey-colored maple syrup! The syrup is delicious, with a slight earthy flavor, which we really enjoy. By the time we were done with the whole process, it was after midnight and we were very ready for bed.

The overall process was easier than expected. The sap collecting was simple and productive. The boiling process was also simple, but it took a long time. For next year, we have hopes of burning the fire hotter and speeding up the boiling process a bit. While we definitely didn't come out ahead as far as costs go, as we had to invest in the necessary supplies this year, it was well worth the cost, time, and effort. We are so glad we did it and we're excited to make it an annual tradition on this little urban homestead of ours!

earning their keep

February 20, 2017 Megan Rodriguez

We FINALLY have eggs again after at least a 2.5 month break! I haven't posted about our chickens in quite awhile, but they are still here, healthy, and slowly getting back into earning their keep around this place. 2016 was a rough year for us in the chicken department. We lost Chicken, the chicken to the cold in the winter. We lost Trudy in the summer after we found her egg-bound and decided to cull her as she wasn't likely to make it through the night. And we lost one of our two pullets, Fingers, to a raccoon in the early fall. So, we now have 6 chickens, 3 of which are 3 years old and not very productive any more. March will bring some new chicks into our home, which will be fun for us all and will be very helpful for our egg supply. I'm looking into a few new breeds and am excited to add a few more heavy producers and bit more variety to our flock! Raising organic back yard chickens in the city is not very economical, but the eggs are so delicious and watching our baby boy get excited to see and touch the chickens makes it all worth it!

berries, a baby, and nap-time jam

June 24, 2016 Megan Rodriguez

I've dreamed for years about berry picking with my little ones. Picking berries and tucking them away to be used all year is something that I'm rather passionate about and so the thought of sharing that with my children and teaching them about the importance of local, seasonal food has been something I've been looking forward to for years. In my dreams I imagined picking berries for hours with a happy, little baby on my back. The reality of that looked somewhat different, but in the end I did pick strawberries with a baby on my back and I'm so glad I did! He wasn't too pleased about the whole back thing and a short morning nap made for a tired, fussy baby while picking, but he eventually fell asleep and my friend Amy and I were able to pleasantly pick berries and chat. Over the years, I've found that the berry patch is a wonderful place for deep conversation. Your hands are busy with a menial task and so it's easy to open up and really share what's going on in life and I love that.

I ended up with 10+ pounds of strawberries and was able to go home that afternoon and put them all into their assigned places! Three pounds went into the freezer to be used the rest of the year in kombucha, smoothies, and sauces. Some were sliced up to be eaten with brownies and ice cream for a gathering of friends that evening. Some were put into a second ferment of kombucha and others into a pint of vodka (Spiked Strawberry Mint Lemonade, anyone??). Some were set aside for a pie. Some were put in the fridge for fresh eating. And the rest were made into jam! Nap-time Jam, that is! It's amazing what a determined mama can accomplish during a decent nap-time! By the time that boy of ours had woken up from an afternoon nap, I had successfully washed, hulled, and put away all of the strawberries, made and canned jam, and cleaned up the kitchen! Success!! It felt amazing, I must say! Now, if only all nap times were that productive!

Strawberries! I do love them. And I love being able to enjoy their summer freshness all year round. It makes their short season so very enjoyable. How about you? What do you love to do with seasonal strawberries?

happenings 'round the homestead

May 11, 2016 Megan Rodriguez

It's been a full few weeks around this little homestead of ours! With all things baby, a trip out to Michigan to visit family, and spring springing around each corner. Flowers are blooming, perennials are up and filling out, the garden is waiting for seeds and seedlings, and the chickens are enjoying the longer days, the rain, and the sun! I love the softness of the spring blooms--lavenders, whites, and light pinks. The flowers tend to be small and delicate, just like spring.

The busyness over the past few weeks has made it a bit difficult to get the garden up and running as I'd hoped. The soil needs to be worked and there are peas and raddishes to get in the ground. However, it will all get done eventually, it always does! I did get my pots planted on the deck with lettuce, swiss chard, and arugala. The garlic, rhubarb, and herbs in the garden are also doing well! The rain we've had over the past few days has made things really start to take off! We'll have garlic scapes in no time!

We got two new chicks a few weeks back and they are about ready to join the older ladies in the coop. They been spending their days in the yard and nights under a light in the garage, but they are very curious about the older hens and can often be found looking at them through the fence. These two little ones bring us to a total of eight chickens. The time has come for us to begin to stagger our flock and keep it young and productive. We have decided to cull two of our hens this summer/fall for meat. More on that later...but for now, aren't our new little chicks cute?? Their names are Violet (the brown Ameraucana) and Fingers (as in Chicken Fingers...yes...). Fingers is a Maran and she will lay chocolate brown eggs! I'm so very excited!

Next week will hopefully bring lots of sunshine and time in the garden! How about you? What's happening around your homestead?

cold, quiet january

January 13, 2016 Megan Rodriguez

I love January. I think it's a month that often gets overlooked and even gets looked at in a negative way. People tend to dislike it because it's cold and sometimes a bit lonely feeling, but those are exactly the reasons why I love it so. Being an introvert, January is the perfect refresher after the hubbub of the holidays. I love the holiday season, but by the end of it I am so very ready to become a hermit for bit and the cold, quiet January that follows is simply perfect.

These past two weeks, I've been cleaning, organizing, and purging things around our house--it's partly due to the nesting stage I'm in and partly due to January being the perfect time of year for those types of projects. Cupboards have been cleaned, important papers have been filed away, and the sewing machine has been running. There has also been time for quiet relaxation and reflection too. I think I've read more in the past few weeks than I did over the few months that preceded them. What else is one to do when the temps are below zero and the days are short? We often live such fast-paced lives, I love how January forces us into a bit of quiet at home. What a great way to refuel the body and the soul.

So, take advantage of these next few weeks. Let the cold and the quiet dictate your schedule. When the roads are icy and the temps arctic, allow yourself to say no to the activities and commitments and just stay home. Take some time to let your body relax and refuel. There will be plenty of time to be busy later in the year.

winterizing the ladies

November 20, 2015 Megan Rodriguez

Wow! What a crazy couple of weeks it has been! With mid-semester grading, baby preparations, winter preparations, choir rehearsals and concerts, and my best friend visiting, I feel as though I've been running non-stop! Thankfully, though, we've had a enough time to get a few of the winterizing tasks checked off the to-do list, and just in time as the cold weather arrived yesterday and seems to be here to stay!

One of those tasks has been to get the girls ready for the long winter months ahead. They were in need of a good coop cleaning, but they've also been in need of a bit more space. When we got our two new chicks in the spring, we knew that we'd eventually need to figure out a solution for the limited run space that we have for our ladies. For the summer, we made a makeshift fence that connected to the run and allowed them a bit more space in which to roam, dig, dust bathe, and do their chicken things. This worked great for the summer when we were home so much during the day, but it was not a great solution for the fall, winter, and spring since the ladies had their ways of escaping their confinement. So, a couple weeks ago, Dan made the fence around their chicken yard, as I like to call it, a bit more permanent! He also expanded it to include the space behind the coop next to the covered wood pile. The ladies love it! They have more places to explore, hang out, and escape from any possible predators. It's a perfect solution to our crowded run! Hooray! Over the next few weeks, the opening from the run to the chicken yard will also become a closing door of sorts with a latch to help protect our ladies from possible nighttime predators.

The ladies' water heater has also been returned to them, along with their run light which extends their daylight hours a bit. Once the snow starts blowing, they'll also get a layer of plastic wrapped around the lower half of their run to protect them from the elements a bit more. They seem pleased with all these changes, both in scenery and weather. However, at least four of our five older chickens are in the middle of their fall molt right now and so this sudden cold front may have caught their naked little bodies by surprise. Naked chickens...really, you'd think they'd have more decency!

Alas, it feels so very good to have the ladies ready for the long winter ahead. I know I'm ready for the shorter days and the cold quiet evenings. I hope they are too.