5 Things I Love...That You Have to Try

Okay, here's another "list" for you. I just thought I'd recommend a few things, but I couldn't think of 10. Here's this week's "10 Things I Love" list with only 5 things:

1. Peppermint: I love the smell of natural peppermint and I read recently that if you have fresh peppermint on hand often and smell it, you will eat less. This got me started on a peppermint "kick." Not only did I plant some mint in a pot the other day, I also bought some pure peppermint extract from the store and started putting it in my tea and water. Let me tell you that this has been wonderful! I love the sweetness it provides without having to add sugar or sweetener. There's also this wonderful cooling sensation as I swallow it. It's great!

2. High-Quality Cheese with Wine or Grapes: The other day, I went to the Knoxville Farmer's Market and bought some locally made sheep cheese. It is a bit expensive, but it's sooooo good! Good, high-quality cheese has to be eaten slowly in small doses because it has such a strong taste (kind of like dark chocolate), so this forces me to eat less. Having sheep cheese along with grapes or a good glass of red wine is a great combination and leaves the most wonderful aftertaste. Speaking of wine.....

3. Protocolo Red Table Wine: This is great stuff and it's CHEAP! Professional wine tasters always rank this wine as one of the best wines out there and it only costs $6 a bottle--less if you buy it in bulk. We don't buy wine often because our budget doesn't allow it, but when we get the chance, we always get Protocolo! Try it with some good cheese (see #2), a steak, or some very dark chocolate.

4. Seeds Family Worship Albums: You guys all know that I am dead set against listening to kids stuff because I don't want to spend my roadtrips listening to cheesy kids crap. My kids have been raised on Dylan, The Beatles, Led Zepplin (the un-raunchy stuff), The Band, Joni Mitchell, Patty Griffin and Ryan Adams, among other brilliant artists that Aaron and I love. We also listen to lots of worship music, but it has to be stuff we, adults, like. While we still enjoy our grown-up music most of the time, we have bent the rules just a little bit for this one series of albums. It all started when I began singing at our church on the kids worship team. Obviously I had to learn the songs that I'd be singing, so I listened to this series with the kids and loved it. It's all Scripture-memory stuff, so it's straight out of the Bible. Plus, the singers and instrumentation on these albums are actually good! Click on the link at the top of this blog entry to hear a song from one of the albums.

5. "The Cow Who Clucked" by Denise Fleming: This is a children's book that my mom bought the kids several months ago. It is so clever and cute and my kids love it! We've been reading it a lot this week and I had forgotten how fun it was.
There you have it! You are all tagged to write 5 things you love that you'd like to recommend, if you want. I hope you are having a good week!