A Prairie Home Companion

Every Saturday evening on the long drive back from church, we all snuggle up and listen to A Prairie Home Companion on the radio. It's a radio variety show hosted by the famous author of the Lake Wobegon books, Garrison Keillor. It's the perfect blend of humor, song, and skits performed by a unique cast of characters. (My favorites of course, are the reports from Lake Wobegon and Guy Nior.) Our little one loves all the different varieties of music that are performed from spirituals to blue grass.

It's a great time for us to sit and relax and share in a program that doesn't seem to over stimulate you. Disappointed by commercial television programming, the radio is a nice alternative for us "commuter families" that have a long drive to and from almost anywhere. But commercial radio can be just as disappointing and C.D.'s can only go so far before everyone is bored. We are big fans of this type of entertainment that doesn't try and hit viewers or listeners over the head with advertising, graphics or over the top scandals.

I have to thank the Writer's Guild Strike. Before, my husband and I would turn on the television after a crazy day and sit still in the semi-quiet after the little one went down. (AHAHAHA) But now, there is very little worth our precious time on television. So, we have resurrected some of our old favorite movies. We remember a time that was a little simpler and share some happy memories from the past. It is inspiring us to recapture some of that simpler time. We can't go back, but we can move forward with a better understanding of what is important to us.

So, I invite you to tune out the commercial television and radio in your life and find simpler and much more entertaining ways to enjoy the people in your family. Play board games, card games, resurrect an old movie, listen to a radio program, (They have great C.D.'s of the old ones from the 40's and 50's, if your kids are a bit older.), or just share some old stories. It's a bast.