Kristin Hill Taylor

Seeking God as the Author of Every Story

How to have quality time with your kids

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I’m not much of a get-down-on-the-floor-and-play mom, but I still have quality time with my kids. Here are some ways that happens around here. 

Hang out in the kitchen together

Cook dinner or even try to bake together — you know us moms find ourselves in the kitchen often anyway. In 2020, when we were home so much more than we are now, my oldest, Cate, helped me with dinner almost every night. We’d chat or listen to music while we cooked for the rest of the family. My son doesn’t help in the kitchen as much, but he sure does love when I make a big breakfast of French toast and bacon or buttermilk pancakes with sausage. Honestly, I miss that slower time. 

Cooking for a full family may feel like a chore, but bringing others in helps me enjoy it more. Of course, my kids, especially my girls, may prefer to bake. Chocolate chip cookies and chocolate chip banana bread are our go-to baked goods around here, but maybe we’ll try these meringue cookies sometime. 

Remember the basics

I do quite a bit of online shopping. Ben and Rachel love to get out the Sharpies and make a rocket ship or house out of the big boxes. Sometimes we break apart the smaller boxes and they use the paint pens on them. Of course, anytime a simple activity is turned into a contest, they’re all in! Other simple toys like Perler beads and decks of cards can keep them entertained for hours too. 

Get outside

I’m not much into camping, but I do like to gather around our firepit for s’mores. Instead of getting just Hershey bars, get some other chocolate like Kit-Kat and Reese’s Cups to see which one makes the best s’more! During the summer, we spend much quality time around the pool and eating meals together on the porch. Weather permitting, we also love to ride or walk around our property together, sometimes making new discoveries about what grows and lives around here. 

Watch a show 

Another perk of older kids is finding a show everyone likes. Right now, that’s “Survivor” for us. Watching the reality show competition together gives us something to talk about. Plus, a couple of my kids love cuddling together on the couch. My son and I were feeling puny after recent COVID-19 vaccinations, so we started watching “Alone” together. One a day we didn’t feel like exerting much energy, the reality survival show gave us something to talk about. 

Play board games

We love game nights! That’s another thing I miss about the slower pace of 2020, but it’s still one of our go-to activities when we have a free evening together. I’ve put together a list of our favorite games, if you need some entertainment inspiration. 

Get tickets

One of my favorite Christmas gifts for Cate and Ben was tickets to see a TobyMac concert. Gifting experiences to concerts, sporting events, and theater shows is a great way to get some quality time on the calendar. I’ve also found when you get a kid somewhere that interests them, like a water park or science center, they tend to talk about whatever is happening plus whatever else is on their minds. It’s the same reason I’m glad two of my kids are old enough to sit in the front seat of the minivan with me! 

How do you spend quality time with your kids?

The Wonder of Creation

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Our family has been busy, busier than I’d like, really, so I’ve been trying to make the most of our time together. That means sometimes we eat dinner at a fast food restaurant instead of our kitchen table or read a devotional on the way to school rather than sitting perfectly still first thing in the morning together. 

I’ve always found lessons in faith right in my everyday life and I want the same for my kids. We’ve been reading “Roar Like A Lion” by Levi Lusko on the way to school most mornings. When we are finished with that one, we’re moving on to “The Wonder of Creation” by Louie Giglio. My sixth-grader Ben and kindergartener Rachel will especially love all the facts and information about animals, planets, and the world around us, but I know my high school freshman Cate and I will benefit from hearing the truth too. 

I’m thankful for books like “The Wonder of Creation: 100 More Devotions About God & Science” that have a solid scripture foundation, keep my kids’ interest, and prompt discussions about our actual lives. Louie Giglio does a good job creating a book that does that for us! 

About the book

In this captivating follow-up to the bestselling kids’ devotionals “Indescribable” and “How Great Is Our God,” discover more mind-blowing, faith-building scientific facts and biblical truths about the wonder of God’s creation from author, speaker, and founder of the Passion movement Louie Giglio. It’s fine if your family hasn’t read the other devotionals as this one stands on its own with 100 devotionals. 

Giglio wants kids to notice, enjoy, and marvel at God’s creation. In “The Wonder of Creation,” children will find new delight in God’s creativity with devotions that explore animals from honeyguide birds to flying snakes to white rhinos; space including black holes to volcanic moons to gamma-ray bursts; people from optical illusions to brain freezes to our immune systems; and Earth from rainbow rivers to blue lava to flowing glaciers                                                    

With engaging illustrations and striking photography, this fun and informative book is ideal for children ages 6 to 10. Each of the devotions features a scientific fact or an easy activity for exploring faith, a short Bible verse, and a closing prayer. This book is ideal for science-loving kids, Bible-loving kids, and any child ready to go deeper in faith; continues a well-loved devotional series that has impacted over a million children, parents, and teachers; includes informative content call-outs inviting kids to “Explore the Wonder”; and makes a great addition to a homeschool STEM curriculum or a bedtime reading routine.

This 208-page hardcover devotional is published by Thomas Nelson (Nov. 16, 2021).

About the authors

Louie Giglio is pastor of Passion City Church and original visionary of the Passion movement, which exists to call a generation to leverage their lives for the fame of Jesus. Since 1997, Passion Conferences has gathered collegiate-aged young people in events across the US and around the world. Most recently, Passion hosted more than 700,000 people from more than 150 countries online at Passion 2021.

Louie is the national-bestselling author of more than a dozen books. An Atlanta native and graduate of Georgia State University, Louie has done post-graduate work at Baylor University and holds a master’s degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Louie and his wife Shelley make their home in Atlanta.  

Co-author Tama Fortner is an ECPA award-winning and bestselling writer with more than forty titles to her credit. She has collaborated with some of the biggest names in Christian publishing to create inspirational books for both children and teens, as well as adults, including the wildly successful Indescribable Kids series and Jesus Calling for Kids series. But her greatest accomplishments happen in a happy little home on the outskirts of Nashville, where she lives with her family and an incredibly lazy dog, who doubles as a footwarmer.

About the illustrator

Nicola Anderson has been an illustrator and graphic designer since she could hold a crayon in her hand but has been working professionally since 2001. After many years working in the design industry, she now crafts imaginary worlds from her home studio, AndoTwin Studio, in Manchester, UK. During this time, she has worked with an eclectic range of clients and has loved every minute!

Rachel really wanted a picture of the book with the cats – more evidence of God’s creation!

Giveaway 

And I’m able to share it with one you! Who wants a hardcopy of this book for the kids in your life? Tell me what in creation encourages your faith in God. Leave your answer as a comment on this blog post or the posts about it on Facebook and Instagram and you’re entered to win. This giveaway is open to U.S. residents and a winner will be randomly chosen on Nov. 29, 2021. 

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Many thanks to HarperCollins Christian Publishing for providing this devotion in exchange for review. Opinions are 100 percent my own and I only recommend products I would use with my own family. I add this book to my list of family devotionals on Amazon, if you’re looking for other suggestions. 

What adoption looks like years later

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When a family is preparing to adopt and bringing a baby or child home, you may hear much about it. There’s such anticipation and preparation. Perhaps you’ve given money to an adoption fundraiser or prayed for people waiting and working through a pile of paperwork. 

We brought home three kids through three separate private adoption processes. Now those babies are 14, nearly 12, and 6. We don’t talk as much about adoption in our everyday conversations.

But we still talk about it. 

A dear friend who adopted kids and has worked with families in the midst of trauma advised me: If you can’t remember the last time you talked about adoption, you should talk about it. That really made sense to me and I’ve carried that truth into this season of parenting that is less about how they came to be Taylors and more about what it means to be Taylors. 

Rachel is the age Cate was when she met her birth mom for the first time. Rachel had multiple coffee and lunch dates with her birth mom and me in the months after she was born. She may not remember but I do. Ben hasn’t met his birth mom, but we’ve told him more and more details as he’s gotten older. He expresses less interest but wonders more about what ifs. Cate is very matter of fact about it all. Rachel is still asking lots of questions. 

While their adoption stories have similarities, they also are as unique as their personalities. Adoption has common themes regardless of the details, but each story comes with its own highs and lows. And that’s okay. 

We have a community of other families created through adoption, so, thankfully, it’s not weird for my kids to know others know how God built our family. These stories are our testimony of God’s faithfulness. While some details are private, we never wanted to hoard the celebration of God making ways through the wilderness.  

In Rachel’s kindergarten class, four of the fourteen kids were adopted. One of Cate’s closest friends has two brothers who were adopted. Her health teacher knew she might not have as much medical history as her classmates. When Ben was a kindergartner, I got to be friends with a classmate’s mom because we were both adding to our families through adoption and our families still share life together. 

These ties and others that bind are strong and valuable — and that’s one of the reasons we will always talk about adoption. 

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I’ve written much more about bringing these babies home in my book, “Peace in the Process: How Adoption Built My Faith & My Family,” which is available on Amazon or from me directly. I also have some free goodies, including a sample chapter and lists of resources, available on my website.