Do you know your husband’s and children’s love languages?

If one of the love languages is Gifts, Valentine’s Day is certainly a day they’ll be hoping to be shown some special attention with a special gift or treat.

In our family, we’ve been more aware lately of how much added sugar and food additives our kids are consuming at school and at other outside activities, so we’re trying to stay away from the typical windfall of candy that tends to happen around the holidays.

Instead, we’ve been on the lookout for more family friendly purposeful gifts that can help us celebrate our love for one another.

Unique and Beautiful — the Perfect Gifts!

I’ve been thrilled with the variety of options available through a new-to-me online company called Uncommon Goods. As the name suggests, the site specializes in curating a plethora of unique gift items.

Not only are the products creative and original to other things you’d find online, but the company is focused on providing products that serve a purpose, solve a problem, or stun us with their beauty. The company’s founder is committed to connecting makers and their creations with people seeking truly unique items for their homes or as gifts. (learn more about the company’s philosophy)

My father is a master woodworker, painter, and craftsman, creating stunningly beautiful pieces of custom furniture and gifts, so I’m keenly aware of the value talented artists and their creations bring to the world around us.

As I searched through the Uncommon Goods site, I found some lovely family friendly gift ideas that I loved and think you will too!

Celebrating Love as a Family

Valentine’s Day is the perfect occasion to celebrate the centrality of love in our families, especially those of us who are seeking to parent with purpose.

I’ve picked out my favorites from the site to give you an idea of some family friendly Valentine’s Day gifts for your own family:

Love Is Pillow

This Love Is Pillow showcases the famous love passage from 1 Corinthians 13. I think having this pillow prominently featured in our living room is a great way to highlight the importance of scripture in our homes. It’s just one of many unique items for our homes on the Uncommon Goods site.

Personalized Family Pillow

As our family is growing again soon, we’ve been talking to our kids about the importance of viewing our family as a unit. We’ve named ourselves the Taylor Tribe and I think this fun family pillow brings that concept to the front of the kiddos’ minds. Plus, it’s super cute! (Check out more personalized family gifts…there are lots!)

Baby-on-the-Way Scratch Calendar

For those of us adding new little ones to our families soon, this Baby-on-the-Way Scratch Calendar is a great way to get the rest of the family involved in the excitement of the miracle of growing a baby.

My kids are always asking “what kind of fruit” the babies are right now (for a size comparison) so I know they’d also love learning these little nuggets of information as the babies are growing and changing.

Personalized Pushpin World Map

While this is marketed as one of many truly unique personalized wedding gifts available on the Uncommon Goods site, I think it’s also a perfect Valentine’s Day gift for the family.

Our family values traveling together and makes family trips a big priority. Kids are so visual, so I love the idea of documenting our travels in a way we can display them in our home and easily reminisce about our family adventures.

My Life Story – So Far

The writer and memory maker in me couldn’t pass this journal up. What else could be better than to – as a family – document our history, our story, and the legacy we’re trying to leave together. This would also make a great gift for grandparents!

What kinds of family friendly Valentine’s gifts are you trying out this year with your family? I’d love to know your favorites! Share in the comments below or connect with me on social media.

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Thank you to Uncommon Goods for partnering with The Mosaic Life as a sponsor to provide you with this post reviewing some of my favorite products on their site!

Today my youngest turns 2 and my little corner of the internet celebrates 4 years online. It’s been a wild ride with both of them!

In the midst of my go-go-go life with three little ones 7 and under, sometimes I forget to slow down and celebrate both the big milestones and the little moments worth savoring.

Psalm 16:11 reminds me though…

You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

So today, in light of gratefulness for the joy God has filled me with these past few years, I’m taking a moment on this snowy North Carolina Saturday to savor and celebrate both the life of my sweet daughter Haven and the life of this little blog.

Haven means “a place of safety or refuge” and my prayer is that she will grow to be that kind of light and hope in people’s lives around her.

I hope The Mosaic Life blog has also been a place of safety and refuge for your heart, as we realize together that it’s refocusing our perspective daily to see ourselves as God sees us that makes the biggest difference in how we live out our daily lives in service to Him and others around us.

In case you’ve just recently found this corner of the internet, here are some of the most loved posts in the past 4 years:

Parenting With Purpose: Creating a God-Centered Home

100 Creative Ways to Say Thank You to Your Husband

10 Ways to Teach Kids About Easter

Best Podcasts for Christian Moms

3 Things God Didn’t Promise

I hope you find something that’s encouraging to you or something you can share with a friend to uplift them today.

Now…on to the fun part of birthdays…the gifts!

One of my favorite things I’ve discovered this past year is home delivery services. It’s hard to put a price tag on how much more peaceful my life is without trying to wrangle three tired and hungry kiddos at the store to pick up some last minute item I’ve forgotten for dinner or for the house.

In addition to investing in Amazon Prime for all.the.things including the all-important delivery of diapers, wipes, and the random household organizational item I’m needing, I also have been using Grove Collaborative for delivery of natural toiletry and cleaning products and Home Chef for delivery of fresh, ready-to-cook meals.

• Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial
• $10 Credit for Grove Collaborative Products
• $30 Credit to try Home Chef meal delivery

In celebration of my favorite things…I’m giving away a $40 gift card to Home Chef for one lucky reader to try them out and find out if home delivery of groceries for yummy meals helps you as much as it has helped me! (for newbies only…those of you who already know and love Home Chef will have to try for the next giveaway coming soon!)

Just enter below using the Rafflecopter giveaway widget or send me a quick reply to this email letting me know you’d like to win and I’ll enter you as well.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And to all of you in the path of this snowstorm…here’s a virtual snowball headed your way, compliments of my kids’ favorite froggy friend, Kermit! 🙂

Remember to savor and celebrate the moments, both big and small, with those you love!

Blessings,

One of my favorite things ever is to connect people to resources – people, things, ideas – anything that might be the perfect solution to their problem or concern.

So today I’m sharing my top Thanksgiving weekend sales, discounts, and freebies. These are all companies and services I know and love. I figure if I love them, maybe you will too!

Also, if you’re tight on funds this Christmas like us, don’t miss the free credits to ThredUp, Schoola, ePantry, and Shutterfly. There are lots of items you could use as gifts and you’ll get them for free! 

For Advent…

Truth in the Tinsel

Amanda is a youth pastor turned stay-at-home mom and has created this Advent resource for families to use to share the story of Jesus with their children during the month of December. There’s a Bible story and an ornament craft each day. I love that for the non-crafty moms (that’s me!) she has a printable set of ornaments that go along with each day’s reading.

Curious About Christmas Advent Calendar

Logan has a new book, Curious Faith, coming out soon and to go along with it, she’s released a brand new Curious About Christmas Advent Calendar: 24 Fun Facts and Scripture to Celebrate the Holiday Season. If you’ve ever wondered about the history of candy canes, Christmas colors, or mistletoe, this fun printable is a perfect addition to your countdown to Christmas. It’s free! (update: no longer available)

For Your Closet…

ThredUp

ThredUp is my new favorite way to shop for clothes online. My schedule doesn’t allow for shopping time in stores during this season of life and many of my clothes are hand-me-downs (so grateful!). But ThredUp has given me a new thrill recently…picking out stylish in-season great quality gently used clothes from the convenience of my laptop, tablet, or phone.

Power user tip: narrow down your selection by type of clothing, size, price, and even color to browse more easily. Also, if something you order isn’t quite right, you have 14 days to return it for a credit (postage paid by ThredUp).

Use THIS LINK to get a free $20 credit (free clothes, shoes, handbags & more!). 

Schoola

Schoola is another second-hand online clothing shop with a charitable twist. Schoola offers quality women’s and kids clothing at up to 70% off retail with 40% of proceeds benefiting schools. I’ve donated several bags of clothing and Schoola has sent over $50 to my daughter’s school as a donation after those clothes were purchased by others.

Use THIS LINK to get a free $20 credit. 

For Your Home…

Grove Collaborative

Grove Collaborative is an online service sending quality household products (think: soap, shampoo, baby products, cleaners, and more) right to your door. They have fabulous customer service and I cannot put in words how much I love that I don’t have to run to the store for these items – instead, I never run out!

Use THIS LINK to get a free $10 credit. My suggestion? Try the Grove Collaborative 70+ Hour Orange Thyme + Cardamom Candle. It smells just like Christmas!

Plan to Eat

I’ve used Plan to Eat as my online recipe box, menu planner, grocery list maker, and more for the last three years. I love that it’s a family-owned small business and that they’re committed to continuous improvement. There are WAY too many awesome features to tell you about here but if you’ve ever considered using a tool for your menu planning or keeping up with your recipes, this is it!

Use THIS LINK to get a free 30-day trial. If you decide to sign up, you’ll get your 30-day free trial.

For Your Website or Blog…

A Small Orange (website hosting)

Since I started blogging and tooling around with designing websites, I’ve lost count of the number of people who have asked me about how to start a blog or create a website. My very first suggestion to new bloggers is to get a self-hosted site. Although there are lots of free blogging platforms available, the only way to guarantee that you (not the provider of the free service) actually own the content you create and that you don’t have ads on your site you can’t control is to have a “self-hosted” site.

In the past this could be costly, but I recently switched to A Small Orange hosting company and could not be more pleased with both their price points and 24/7 friendly customer service. If you’ve been thinking about starting a blog or have a need for website hosting, now’s a great time to take that important step.

Use THIS LINK and plans start at $2.92/month. 

For Your Gift List…

Family Christian

Some of my favorite gift ideas are available at seriously good prices right now at Family Christian. You can grab Chris Tomlin’s new Christmas Worship CD (review + giveaway coming to the blog soon!) for under $8.00, the Fisher Price Little People Nativity at 50% off, a ton of books for just $5 each, 75% off planners, and more.

For Your Christmas To Do List…

Shutterfly

I’ve used Shutterfly for years to create photo books, photo gifts, and my favorite….Christmas cards! I always look out for the Thanksgiving deal because they always have codes for FREE cards. This year I get to share a sneak peak of their best discounts. If you grab those free 10 cards you can check at least one thing off your to do list!

Power user tip: If you set up a new Shutterfly account, you can also receive 50 prints of 4×6 size. If you design your own Christmas family photo/card in a program like PicMonkey or Canva in a 4×6 size, you can upload the image and get those 50 prints for free!

Use THIS LINK and the codes below to take advantage of special deals and freebies!

Just Because…

Waterproof Bible 

I just had to share this because I think it might be the coolest Christmas gift idea ever. When I first heard about it on a podcast a couple of weeks ago, I had no idea a waterproof Bible even existed!

But imagine my delight and surprise when I found out that people are buying these for soldiers overseas, for missionaries in remote areas, and for fellow mom-friends as a Bible to leave open in the kitchen without worry of spills and sticky fingers. I even had a friend tell me her husband has taken his in the shower!

Use THIS LINK to see all the translations available. I love that there are several options in camouflage. Perfect for your hunter husband or relatives!

So, that’s a wrap! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and I hope you’re able to take advantage of some of my favorite deals this year.

 

 

 

P.S. Use the links below to share these awesome deals with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, or by email so they won’t miss out!

Affiliate links are included in this post. When you click and purchase, I receive a very small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you. These funds help keep the doors open here at Embracing the Mosaic Life and support Eva, our Compassion International child in Columbia.