My Five Faves for the First

I love when friends share referrals of books, products, recipes or any other idea that makes life a little easier. Pinterest is great, but scanning through thousands of ideas/products overwhelms me. On the first of the month, I'm going to try to post my five favorites from the past month. If you blog, please join with me on the 1st of the month. If you are not a blogger, comment below on some of your faves or comment in the Facebook post. I would love to hear about the stuff you enjoy.

1. Melissa & Doug On the Go Water Wow coloring books

We recently made a 24 hour roundtrip road trip with 3 toddlers all 4 years and younger. My mom gave these coloring books for our older girls (4 and 2) to use on the way home. These coloring books were a HIT! The pen/paintbrush has a refillable cartridge you fill with water. The coloring pages reveal colors when wet. The best part about this: when the pages dry they turn back to white and then you color with water all over again. Melissa & Doug products are some of my favorite kids toys but this one is genius for road trips and flying with toddlers.

2. Hershey's 3x Dark Chocolate Cookies

Need I say more?! Big shout out to my sister for passing this recipe to me.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, cold

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 Tbsp hot water

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder

3.75 oz Hershey's Special Dark instant pudding mix

2 cups Hershey's Special Dark chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Using a mixer, beat the butter until smooth.

3. Add the brown sugar and sugar. Beat for 1-2 minutes, until nearly creamy.

4. Add the eggs, one at a time and mixing in between additions.

5. Dissolve the baking soda in the tablespoon of water. Add both the baking soda and the vanilla to the mixer and mix well. Mix in the salt.

6. Add the flour, cocoa powder, and pudding mix, and mix until dough forms.

7. Mix in the chocolate chips.

8. Scoop dough by tablespoons onto parchment lined or silicon lined baking sheet, 2 inches apart.

9. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

3. Essie nail polish "As Cute as a Button"

I love Essie products as they are long lasting and rarely chip. I picked up this color a few weeks ago and love that it is a coral so goes with any color combination. This will be my go to polish for summer.

4. "Mended" by Angie Smith

I received this book at a ministry conference last year but am just now picking it up. It is great read for anyone with a busy schedule. It is written almost like a devotional and has 31 chapters that are each around 3-4 pages. 

5. Kari Jobe's newest album Majestic

This worship album is powerful. Listen to "Forever" and I promise you will be hitting repeat.