Listed below, in alphabetical order by category, are my top favorite online sources of inspiration.
Christian Living
Christian Living
- Blue Letter Bible is a helpful and convenient website for Bible study. It’s my go-to resource for word searches and cross-references.
- Dayspring has a wide selection of free e-cards for any occasion. I love it!
- Set Apart Girl is “Leslie Ludy’s online living room,” where Leslie shares with winsomeness and grace her passion for holy femininity.
- Revive Our Hearts is one of my top favorite Christian ministries. Nancy Leigh deMoss hosts an outstanding daily radio broadcast for women, and her teaching on Biblical womanhood is also available online.
- Plugged In is a ministry of Focus on the Family, dedicated to "shining a light on the world of popular entertainment." What an invaluable service Plugged In provides. Before I watch any movie, I always refer to the Plugged In reviews.
- Quote Garden has an extensive selection of quotations on a plethora of topics. It's my favorite go-to source when I'm searching for just the right sentiment or insight.
- Verity Institute is my alma mater. Verity is an innovative Christian college and discipleship program. I am so thankful for the precious friendships and life lessons I had at Verity, first while I was a student, then when I was on staff. I would not be the person I am today were it not for the godly mentors and peers with whom I had the privilege to learn and live.
Cooking
- Allrecipes.com is a great resource for cooking. One of the features I like best about this website is that it will scale any recipe for whatever number of servings you would like to prepare, regardless of the number of servings the recipe originally calls for. It’s nice not having to mentally calculate scaled conversions.
- Kraft foods has a great website geared for the busy American family. The website features numerous recipes all designed to be family-friendly—yummy dishes that kids like to eat and that mom can prepare quickly. Score! One of my favorite sections on the website is the “1 Bag, 5 Dinners,” which provides convenient weekly dinner menu plans.
- Five Days Five Ways is a fun "Monday-Friday" blog highlighting creative outlets, themed for each day of the week.
- Tea Rose Home is another winsome blog by a stay-at-home mom sharing her love for creating. Her DIY ruffle tutorials are the best I’ve seen online.
- Pinterest is quickly becoming a popular virtual pinboard for sharing pictures and ideas online.
- When I tried a free trial subscription of Brain Pop, I could see why my peers had been raving about the website. I've seen elementary students to undergraduate students love watching the short informative movies, highlighting a variety of topics.
- Puzzlemaker is a great place to make custom crossword puzzles, word searches, and other games, using your own word lists. It's an excellent resource for designing custom party games, as well as fun educational activities.
- HippoCampus provides video lessons on a variety of subjects. These online lessons are a great study supplement for high school and undergraduate courses.
- Khan Acadmey boasts an extensive free online library of over 24,000 video lessons on a variety of study topics. The videos are a helpful supplement for high school and undergraduate courses.
- Education World provides lesson plans, professional development, and many other resources for educators.
- Busy Teachers Café is a resource site for K-6 teachers, with lots of activity ideas, free printable worksheets, etc.
- Scholastic is a major publisher of elementary educational books. The website offers many resources for kids, parents, teachers, and librarians, as well as quick links to the specific websites for popular series and books published by Scholastic.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York has an outstanding interactive section for kids to explore the world of art.
- National Geographic has an excellent section for kids on its website.
- Wonderopolis, sponsored by the National Center for Family Literacy, promotes learning moments by nurturing discovery and wonder about the world around us.
- The Cornerstone is a blog run by a former 3rd grade teacher, who is now an Educational Consultant. She share lots of fantastic ideas, from classroom behavior management plans to learning centers, to organization.
- Mrs. McDaniel's 3rd Grade is a phenomenal website that third-grade master teacher Mrs. McDaniel maintains for her students, their parents, and other teachers. What an inspiration! She shares many great tips and ideas for new teachers.
- Mrs. McGowan's 1st Grade is another outstanding teacher's website. I especially love her list of recommended read-aloud books--it's a gold mine for literature and content area connections.
- EAI Education sells thousands of teaching supplies, classroom resources, manipulatives, and educational games. Even if you don't have a large budget to buy a lot of brand-new items, it's a fantastic site to visit to get ideas.
- Fact Hound is designed to be a safe search engine for kids--"sniffing out facts on the web!"
- My File Folder Games makes available for download scores of printable file folder games for pre-school through 4th grade level math, science, and reading.
Fashion/Refashion/Sewing
- Thread Ethic provides a filtered review of runway fashion, which highlights current trends that are modest.
- La Vie Petit is a delightful fashion blog. Cori has a great knack for putting together ensembles that are vibrant, practical, and modest; and her accompanying commentaries are fun to read.
- New Dress a Day chronicles Marissa’s continuing “New Dress a Day” challenge. Last year she set a goal for herself to make a new outfit every day, at the cost of $1, for the entire year. Her creativity and zest for life are so much fun to follow!
- Welcome to the Good Life is a delightful blog. Sara is a young stay-at-home mom who approaches life with winsome optimism, creativity, and honesty. Her DIY Anthropolgie- and JCrew-inspired outfits, especially, are sensational.
- Dana Made It—Dana is a young stay-at-home-mom who posts a number of excellent sewing and refashion tutorials.
- Wardrobe Refashion was an international online club (now closed, but the archives are still accessible) for encouraging "reducing, reusing, recycling," through refashioning and upcyling clothing. Members from all over the world posted their refashion projects on the WR blog. It's so much fun to see other people's creativity and imagination in their recreations. In their posts many of the contributors also share links to their personal blogs, so WR remains a great resource for the refashion community.
- Scott Kelby is one of digital photography’s forefront educators. I own several of his books, which are terrific references. His photography is stunning, and his photography and photo-editing tips are easy to understand. I’m a huge fan.
- The Institute in Photographic Studies offers outstanding photography workshops and courses.
- Pioneer Woman is an award-winning blog featuring gorgeous photography; hilarious stories about ranch life; mouth-watering, step-by-step recipes; and much more. Pioneer Woman's zest for life is contagious, which she shares generously all over her delightful website.
- Resolved2worship is one mom's "spiritually candid journal"/creative outlet. She shares much wisdom and truth in her posts, and the photos she takes of her children are captivating. What an inspiration!
- I love and admire how each of these photographers creatively expresses the joy in living, through their beautiful, vibrant images:
