Crazy Cool Family

In this episode of the Crazy Cool Family Podcast, we unpack how to teach your kids to fight well, using biblical principles and practical tools. You’ll learn:

• Why conflict isn’t the enemy
• How...

Welcome to our Summer Series! In this episode, Don and Suzanne talk about how to intentionally plan your family’s summer so it’s filled with peace, purpose, and connection—not just chaos.

They introduce the powerful idea of “washing the school year off” your kids—helping them reset emotionally, mentally, and spiritually from the demands and structure of school life.

Topics covered include:

• Creating a loose plan for summer (s...

Madeline Jones (formerly Manning) is back—this time with special guest and fellow summer-lover Sarah Paul—to share how families can make the most of summer through simple rhythms, intentional connection, and memory-making moments. From mission trips to popsicle-fueled pool days, this episode is packed with encouragement, real-life stories, and practical ways to transform summer into a seaso...

Do you ever wish your kids would just share the toy... without a battle?

In our latest podcast episode, we dive into one of the most powerful things we can teach our kids: how to be servant hearted.

Inspired by Jesus washing His disciples' feet, we’re breaking down what it means to raise children who choose to serve others. And don’t worry—this isn’t just about chores or obedi...

In this heartfelt episode of the Crazy Cool Family Podcast, Don and Suzanne reflect on over three decades of parenting, ministry, and the launch of their brand-new resource, the Parenting Playbook. Whether you're in the thick of raising toddlers or navigating relationships with adult children, this conversation reminds you of a simple truth: family is worth it.

Don and Suzanne get real about their early...

In this heartfelt episode, each daughter shared how “mom guilt” has uniquely shown up in their motherhood journey.

Macy opened up about her tendency to feel like she should be punished for both the things she does and doesn’t do as a mom. Mollie described mom guilt as a constant feeling of inadequacy, and McKenzie expressed her desire to be an excellent mom, ...

Next month, our seventh child, Cade, graduates — and with that, we officially wrap up over three decades of parenting. As we step into this next season of becoming almost-empty nesters, we’ve been reflecting on the journey that brought us here… and why Crazy Cool Family exists in the first place.

In our early years, we (Don and Suzanne) felt like we had no idea how to "win" at parent...

In today’s episode, we’re talking about what we’ve learned through the years raising littles, middles, and bigs — and how to parent each age with purpose and grace. We're calling this theme “Crazy Cool Family This,” where we unpack key parenting concepts and make them practical for your season of life. Through it all, one thing remains true: your kids are wired to love you, and you don’t...

We are excited to talk about this because we feel like we prioritized connections within our family and we believe it is the most important thing you can invest in - connections within family are THE MOST IMPORTANT!

Here are the talking points:

• What is more important - obedience or relationship?
• What does Jesus say about connections?
• Reasons to value...

Easter is one of the MOST important holidays within our faith and we have NEVER done a podcast on it. We’ve almost made 300 episodes and looking through them, this is the first time we’ve set aside space to talk about Easter – so let’s dive in.

The goal of today's podcast is to help your family have the BEST Easter EVER.

Here are a few points we discuss:

• Biblical understanding of East...

Mollie joins the podcast to talk about an insight God has been giving her about control vs. being in charge.

Mollie, a mother of two boys, and the oldest Manning kid - reflects on a thought-provoking question she received from her church: "Where are you allowing the Holy Spirit to be in charge in your life?"

She shares that she loves to be in charge, a trait shaped by being the oldest in the Manning Fam. Mollie is used to taking t...

In this episode of the Crazy Cool Family podcast, Don welcomes Marcus Warner, the president of Deeper Walk International and a renowned expert on family dynamics and discipleship. The conversation dives deep into Marcus's transformative FISH discipleship methodology, which stands for Freedom, Identity, Spirit, and Heart-Focused Community. This framework offers a practical and spiritual approach to nurturing strong, meaningful conne...

In Season 7 of our podcast, we are taking time to give practical parenting tips in our episodes. We are using the term, "Crazy Cool Parent This" because choosing to parent God's way is often crazy AND turns out cool.

Sometimes we go deep into a specific topic and sometimes (like today) we like to throw random questions at Don and Suz and see what they think/how they would parent the situation.

In this podcast Suzanne, Macy, and Mckenzie explore the topic of Emotional Intelligence and how to Crazy Cool Family emotions. If emotions feel challenging to you, or if they are taking over your home - you are in the right place! In the podcast we walk through a define emotional intelligence as the...

Spring break is coming up and we want to start the conversation about how to invest in your kids over their break. In today's episode, we discuss how parents can make the most of the time with their kids and how to invest in them at every age.

What does it look like to have CRAZY COOL CONNECTION with your kids this Spring Break?

• No matter what season your family is in, there's a way to make it special!
• Address false mindsets...

Julie Plagens, a wife, mother, and author joins our podcast to talk about her new book, Marriage Interrupted. If you are wanting to invest in your marriage and learn ways to love and forgive your spouse, this podcast is for you!

Julie's new book goes over so many Kingdom principles and relates them to marriage. We focused on forgiveness and how to believe for cha...

The world wants to tear your child down and create insecurity inside of them. Family is the place where we wash off the world and send our kids out - confident, loved, and brave.

Parents, we get to go first in building our kids up - here's how!

Today's talking points:

• What does a confident, self-directed child look like? How ...

On Episode #287, we celebrate Suz's birthday! She is 23 years young😜 and living her best life! We unpack do's and don'ts from her parenting experience. Now that she has 4 grown daughters who are married and multiplying - AND the world's BEST daughter in law, she asked them to...

Love is in the air and we are talking REAL LOVE and real struggles that come with marriage! With Valentine’s coming up – we wanted to take an episode to encourage and challenge you in your marriage.

Don and Suz are talking about the good, bad, and ugly from their 33 years of marriage! They would say their marriage is "the best it's ever been" and "it's the hardest relationship for them to invest in."

They both share how powerful o...