In this episode we get casual and chat about 10 things that we’re loving right now–with no real categories or limits to the list! Everything from news sources, to books, to things we’ve been doing with our toddlers! We provide links (when applicable) to everything below!

1. The Pour Over

The Pour Over newsletter (and podcast, Xan’s personal choice of method of consumption while making her morning coffee) summarized the biggests news of the day in a digestable, understandable way. The best part is, it’s accompanies by a quick Christian perspective on the subject.

You can sign up for the (totally free) newsletter and read more about it here!

2. A clean & minimized playroom

We recently did an overhaul organizing our toddlers’ playroom and it has been worth every second of the time investment. With the toys that have a bunch of little pieces out of reach (so we can limit how many of them are out at a time), and only a few options accessible, they are engaging in way longer periods of independent play and cleanup at the end of the night only takes a few minutes.

10/10 recommend spending a couple hours doing a purge and organization streak in your kids’ playroom if you’ve been considering it.

3. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney

Nathaniel read this book years ago at the start of seminary, but Xan recently started reading it and it’s as good as he’s said it is for all these years! Don Whitney breaks down each of the spiritual disciplines in such an easy-to-understand way, and what we love is that it really focuses on the purpose of the disciplines being to grow in godliness.

4. Reading with our girls

We’ve always tried to be intentional about reading books with our kids, though admittedly more when they were babies than when they turned into squirmy, distracted toddlers, but after reading a book about the importance of read alouds lately, we’ve really reignited our intentionality in that area.

We’ve been able to see a noticeable difference in their desire to read, too! First thing in the morning they’re bringing us books and asking us to read them

5. Bluey

Okay, kind of ironic to follow up our intentionality with reading to our kids with a kids TV show, but hear us out. Bluey is the real deal. It’s a show of this wholesome family (that are dogs) and really does inspire us to be more engaged with our kids, because they’re always playing fun games together and just doing the most wholesome activities. If you have any screentime in your family and haven’t watched it yet, you need to check it out.

6. Pizza & Movie Friday Nights

We’ve started a tradition over the past few months of having “pizza and movie nights” with our fam every Friday nights. We don’t do any TV time during the week, so it’s a treat to the kids to kick off the weekend with a family movie and pizza that we order from a local shop.

It’s such a simple tradition, but it’s become one of the highlights of our week and something to always look forward to!

7. The Theologian Haus Bible studies

Not to turn this into a shameless plug, but we truly have been loving doing these deep-dive studies alongside the community within the Theologian Haus. In April, we worked through 30 days in Esther, and we’re kicking off a study of James in May. It’s just so good to go so deeply into these passages and to do it alongside others and hear everyone’s thoughts!

If you want to be a part of the Theologian Haus studies with us, you’ll also get access to our entire library of theological lessons (aka seminary-esque classes without the seminary pricetag) for just $9/month: JOIN HERE 🙂

8. Playing hide & seek with our 3 year old

This is one Nathaniel especially loves, as he’s a 5-year-old at heart. But we’re officially in the “game playing” stage of childhood and it is just so pure and fun. Our three year hides in basically the exact same place every time, but it never gets old. If she were to wake Nathaniel up at midnight to play a game of hide & seek, he’d be down honestly.

9. Frothy Coffees in the mornings & Magnesium at night

We’re big beverage people (Xan, especially). We make a pretty extra coffee concoction every morning (inspired by a pro-metabolic book Xan read earlier this year.) Here’s the full run-down of what the frothy cream part is made up of, but here’s the gist:

• Organic half & half
• A shake of cinnamon
• A scoop of collagen (we love this one from Perfect Supplements – SIBLEY10 will getcha 10% off too!)
• A pinch of salt or some drops of Trace Minerals
• Sometimes a little bloop of vanilla extract

And then for the PM drink, a scoop of magnesium supplement in water is the best for getting us all nice and relaxed and in deeeeep sleep! This is our fav!

10. Giving each other extended workdays

Our work schedules look pretty unconventional given what we do (run the podcast, Theologian Haus, our other courses and all that goes along with those), but something we’ve loved lately is giving each other full work days to get stuff done while the other is with the kids. Before, we’d been doing a few hours at a time, but for extended projects it was getting tricky.

Most times, Nathaniel will take the girls to the zoo or a park while Xan works, and Xan will do the same when he does. It’s been working out really well!

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Curious about why the podcast is called One Degree? Read the deets here!