My Recommendations

Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz

I don’t agree with everything. Some parts made my toes hurt. But every Christian should read it.

Jill Briscoe’s God’s Front Door

OK, I must confess I haven’t actually read the whole thing. But I did hear Mrs. Briscoe read from it at a conference, and I could have listened all day! **I received this book for Christmas, and it’s just as wonderful as I’d hoped it would be. If you enjoy C.S. Lewis, you’ll LOVE this book. Mrs. Briscoe is obviously influenced by Lewis, who was teaching at Cambridge when she was there as a student, though she didn’t know it at the time, and this particular book was directly inspired by some thoughts of Lewis.

Lysa Terkeurst’s What Happens When Women Walk By Faith

Just so much good stuff!

Lisa Whelchel’s So You’re Thinking About Homeschooling

A glimpse at the varied faces of homeschooling. And if you decide not to homeschool, this book won’t make you feel guilty!

Sara Groves’ Add To The Beauty

I love this CD, especially the song It’s Going To Be Alright.

My family loves the Go Fish guys. I even link them way down on the right side of this blog. Their tagline is “Great music for kids that won’t drive parents bonkers.” And it’s true. They are witty and fun and silly, and they love Jesus. Some of the songs are just for laughs, like the song about a ladybug frying on the sidewalk. So if you don’t like to laugh, you won’t like their CDs. Some of the songs are just beautiful, like the lullabies. I have been known to cry while listening to Little Buckaroo. And my kids have a great time watching the DVD, which has the most entertaining Menu Page of any DVD we own.

Oh, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever — one of my favorites. We love the book and the movie. I used to read this to my elementary students every year at Christmastime. Now, my own children love it and have been known to watch the movie in July.

The Brady Bunch is one of my all-time favorite TV shows. Recently, my sweet husband gave me the complete set — all 5 seasons — as a gift, and I have thoroughly enjoyed this trip down memory lane. I used to watch two Brady Bunch re-runs almost every afternoon after school. I remember being distraught when TBS decided to remove one half-hour of The Brady Bunch in order to show a re-run of Hogan’s Heroes. Anyway, I digress. The Brady kids do say “shut up” and “dummy” a lot, and we’ve discussed that at length in our home recently. But it is fun that when I made a joke the other day about having “porkchopsh and appleshaush” for dinner, my kids all got it.

The Waltons I didn’t really watch the Waltons when I was growing up, and I missed out. Fortunately, this series is available on DVD now. Biblical ethics and morals prevail. Even when characters have good intentions or motives, their wrong behavior is not excused or glossed over. This is an excellent series to watch as a family and discuss together for character training. There is a great mixture of realism and high character. The kids fuss and misbehave and the adults make mistakes and disagree, but consequences are shown and immorality is addressed. And it’s entertaining and clean! And now my kids are tying their books up with belts and walking barefoot. I think we’ll have to plan a field trip to Walton Mountain since it’s really not all that far away.