Restoration Home with Jennifer Pepito

Welcome to episode 169 of the Restoration Home Podcast! Beth Ann Menger, a mentor mom with the Restoration Home Community, joins Jennifer Pepito to talk about making living peaceful with planning and prep. She shares amazing and simple steps to reduce decision making and create more time and brain space for connecting with your family, and so much more. Beth Ann is a well loved figure in the Resto...

Books shape the way we view the world, they even change how we narrate the experiences of our life. When we read a book with a happy and courageous heroine, we began to narrate or describe our lives through the lens of being happy and courageous women.  In 2025, we loved the Emma M. Lion books for the gentleness and joy and whimsy they brought into our lives.  We loved Ronald Rolheiser for the les...

Welcome to episode 166 of the Restoration Home Podcast! Justina Auck, a mentor mom with the Restoration Home Community, joins Jennifer Pepito to talk about prayer and work, sacred homes, working with your kids, and how to build a domestic church.  This is the perfect podcast to kick off your 2026 planning and dreaming for your home and family.  Episode sponsored by the Peaceful Press !  In this ep...

Welcome to episode 166. Greg Gunn is the creator of Family ID, a website dedicated to helping families make goals, create a plan, lay the foundation for a godly offspring, and be a family with a multi-generational vision.  This is one of the most beautiful and inspirational episodes for families. We are so excited for you to listen to this, be inspired, and enjoy your family as you head into Chris...

We have a beautiful Christmas bonus episode for you to enjoy while you wrap gifts, while driving around, or as you soak in the season with a cup of coffee and a snowy view.  Jennifer and Amber O'Neal Johnston, creator of Soul School , author , friend, and inspiration, is back on the podcast to talk about her latest book, a series of essays, Homegrown . In episode 166, the conversation envelops Cha...

For Episode 165, we're bringing back a beautiful and timely conversation with Sarah Clarkson. There is so much to glean from this conversation. Enjoy! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As we continue to move into the holiday season, Sarah Clarkson joins Jennifer Pepito in episode 110 of the Restoration Home Podcast. We're excited to bring another episo...

Abbie Halberstadt, author of M is for Mama and her newest book You Bet Your Stretch Marks, is a returning Restoration Home guest. She is full of passion and commitment to raising Godly children who go against the grain of modern expectations.  If you're wanting more for your family and have a heart for holiness and virtue, but are battling the headwinds of scars from your childhood, lacking motiva...

Nicole Brignolle, a beloved friend, mentor mom in the Restoration Home Community, and creator of the Lovely Bits Substack, joins Jennifer to talk about lessons learned from Christmas in Tuscany. The conversation with Nicole strikes right at the heart of so many values we espouse at the Restoration Home: quietness, rest, the gift of quiet, and shifting our values to gratefulness and connection. The...

Welcome to episode 162 with Evegniia Arasim. Evgenia joins Jennifer Pepito to talk about nourishing your body and your spirit during the Holidays. The Holidays can be so much about celebration that it can we almost feel pressure to "celebrate", sometimes to the detriment of our peace, our health, nourishing our bodies, and feeding our souls. ` This episode is all about ways you can nourish yoursel...

Welcome to Episode 161 with Abby Kuykendall. Hospitality is not a calling of a few, but of every Christian. Abby, joins the podcast today to talk with Jennifer about how to do hospitality for the naturally inhospitable and the gregarious.  Hospitality is about being vulnerable, offering the comfort and the presence of Christ through open doors, warm food, and a place to rest. It doesn't have to be...

Welcome to episode 160 with Jennifer and Emelie Pepito.  The holiday season is an amazing opportunity to shift your educational goals and create a Christmas school that allows your family to enjoy a slower pace of learning and the opportunity to apply learned knowledge to skills like engineering a snowman, baking cookies, sewing needlepoint decorations, or developing your family's bespoke Christma...

Welcome to Episode 158 of the Restoration Home Podcast.  The heart of the home for a child is the tenderness and connection between parents. A good marriage is also one of the hardest endeavours an adult can undertake, and one of the most rewarding. But what do we do when our relationship is dogged by betrayal, unhealed trauma, and ugly pain? This conversation with Joanna and Mathew Raabsmith is s...

Growing up, Christmas was magical. My parents made first things first, and gave us consistently quiet, deeply magical, family-centred, Christ-focused Christmases. As I grew up, I realised how truly rare this was, as so many friends expressed distaste for the holidays because their parents were stressed, or they were introverts dragged from event to event.  So often, we get caught up in the hustle...

Welcome to Episode 157 with Kate Strickler. Kate is the author of the New York Times Best Seller, I Wish I Had a Bigger Kitchen.  This delightful book takes you through all the little lies that can cause you to compare your lives to others or derail your plans when you sink into the trap of envy and comparison. The book and the episode are about setting real priorities for your life, your space, a...

Welcome to Episode 156. Our guest today, Angela Hanscom, developed Timbernook, a research-based outdoor play programme. She is an occupational therapist who has worked with young children on development and is passionate about prioritising physical and neural development through play in the outdoors.  It is so important to get your children outside and playing for their social and emotional learni...

Emily Jones, the creator of Home Tribe, joins Jennifer to talk about politics, the reasons we homeschool, protecting ones values from state incursion, and so much more.  It is important to be reminded of why we do what we do. Plus, if you're looking to get more involved in your community, this is a great episode for you.  Episode sponsored by the Peaceful Press ! The Peaceful Preschool Volume 2 is...

Overwhelm, stress, feeling like a chicken with your head cut off? Jennifer, with 32 years of parenting, entrepreneurship, missionary life, homeschooling, community living, knows all about overwhelm, and this episode brings in Jennifer's experience, her wisdom, and tips on dealing with overwhelm.  This great conversation is made possible by the Peaceful Press ! The Peaceful Press supports healthy h...

Welcome to episode 153 with Jessica Smartt. Jessica is the author of several books, but her most recent one, Come On Home , is a beautiful expose on how to build a family that loves each other and returns to your home.  We want to build a family with good habits, self-discipline, and holiness, but perfectionism cannot replace connection, grace, and laughter. Sometimes, we have to let go of perfect...

Dear Mama,  It's been a long week of sad news. It can feel hard to hold your heart in rest, to be at peace, and to know how to shelter your children or when to allow them to begin glimpsing the pain in the world they are inheriting.  This episode is a little different from our regular podcasts, but we hope it encourages you to grieve, to be the mama your children need in this season, to guard the...

In episode 151, Jennifer and Emelie talk about some of the homeschool questions we get on repeat and the most common concerns homeschool families face. As you begin your new homeschool year, this conversation should inspire you with fresh ideas and strategies to make it a great year, and, more importantly, take some pressure off. With a little consistency and a lot of adventuring and margin, your...

Amy Hughes is the author of the newly released Words Like Honey: How to Avoid Unintentional Harm, Model Kindness, and Nurture Your Child's Faith Through What You Say. The use of words to lift up instead of tear down is a mission near and dear to the Restoration Home. For Episode 150, it was delightful to have Amy on to talk about how we use our words to bless our toddlers and connect with our teen...

Emelie and Jennifer are hitting a big topic today: spiritual warfare. This is a great conversation with experiences, scripture, and stories.  This great conversation is made possible by the Peaceful Press ! The Peaceful Press supports healthy habits and responsibility by incorporating practical life skills into each day.  For great resources that help with habit building into every day, check out...

Kim John Payne is the author of Simplicity Parenting and a friend of the pod. We have admired and recommended his work for so long, and it was an honour to have him on the podcast. This episode is like calling the emergency hotline on parenting and having your hand gently held, while you are walked through the simple, attainable ways you can restore peace and stability into your home and create an...

When we're little, friendships are built around being in the same place together, whether through school, church, or family gatherings. However, as we get older, friendships become increasingly more important and, sometimes, harder to build.  Friendships, and the community built around them, are a cornerstone of both our Christian faith, well-being, and doing life well. So, how do we build great f...

Amber O'Neal Johnston is the creator of Soul School , author , friend, and inspiration, and we are so excited to have her on the podcast. She quit a successful job in the corporate world, and with her husband and four children, embarked on a Charlotte Mason Education. However, early on, she took ownership of it to find and curate beautiful living books that more closely resonated with her family's...