Friday Tea: 2026 Edition

2025—that five 2020s in a trench coat year—is behind us, thank goodness. While 2025 truly was an annus horribilis, there were bright pockets, and I’m trying to focus on those today.

My brain wasn’t up for much this year, but here are a few of the books/shows I truly enjoyed:

• The Myth of Good Christian Parenting
  I love supporting Marissa Franks Burt and Kelsey Kramer McGinnis when they write excellent books! (Plus, an ACNA blogger in the Southern Tier hated it, so you know it’s a good one. IYKYK.)

• Liturgies for Resisting Empire

  I struggled to stop sending pictures of every page to my friends. Kat Armas has written the book I needed in 2026—brave, beautiful, and full of holy resistance.

• A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping

  I devoured this cozy novel about a quirky witch who shares her house with a resurrected aunt (and resurrected chicken skeleton), a dubious witch trapped in a fox’s body, an autistic girl and her handsome historian brother, and other hilarious boarders.

• The Residence

  With an eight-episode arc, this is the perfect murder mystery for a weekend or two. It’s a show that focuses on the White House and its staff, which is particularly compelling now that the East Wing has been destroyed.

Things I’m looking forward to in 2026:

• Building networks of resistance, one soup party and chat thread at a time.

• Turning 40! Other than the heartburn and bunions, growing older has been a privilege. I aspire to be a formidable old lady with red lipstick someday.

• Continuing my Wisconsin Homeschool Alumni Oral History Project. The interviews I’ve conducted so far have been enlightening, heartbreaking, inspiring, and so much fun.

Happy 2026, folks. May your weekend be kind to you.