Tree of Life Mothering

August 2026 Thrift Haul #frugalfriday and Decorating With Seasonal Picture Books

Posted on September 18, 2026 by treeoflifemama

It’s Frugal Friday! I finally have the time to share my August 2026 Thrift Haul. I went thrifting once a week last month. I found some gems, as evidenced in these photos. I went specifically looking for some back-to-school and family themed books. Bear with me before I share the haul to talk about why I went looking for those books.

See, I have these ledges above my windows and doorways in my front room/school room/dining room that I love to use to display seasonal-themed books. See below. It gives me so much joy to decorate these!

I finally (ahem) took down my Independence Day books. For September, I wanted some books that reflect fall/harvest, back-to-school, classics, love of family and love of learning. I’m not ready to get out my full-on fall decorations in terms of Halloween/Thanksgiving. I will do that in October when it’s really fall. Technically, it’s still summer. Some call it hotumn. It’s definitely still hot, often in the 80s, and still feels like summer. I like to do decorations that go with the themes in my family devotionals ebook, which you can get over here for free.

August’s themes are family and family vacations so I had toyed with the idea of doing beach/ocean decorations, family and family vacation picture books in August but I just didn’t get to it. August was busy! Maybe next year. I lived that month book decoration-wise vicariously through my married daughter, Virtue. She does a similar thing in her home but uses outward-facing book shelves. For August she displayed books about water. See below. She has three little boys to enjoy these books with her.

So fun! I already found a lighthouse book to use next August and I’m confident I will find more books about oceans, beach, family vacations reunions by next August as well.

I’m combining the family theme I missed in August with September’s theme of love of learning and school and harvest. There’s Constitution Day in September too so I might put up one book about that.

OK, back to thrifting in August. I went looking for books as I just described, and here’s what I found. As usual, just read the stuff in bold if you don’t want all my commentary that includes chit chat and miscellany about my homeschool mom life.

The top photo shows my first week of thrifting, at the Provo UT Deseret Industries (DI). Here it is again.

-a BYU fan shirt for whoever in my family wants it.

–Steamboat School, $1.50, a picture book to go with the back-to-school theme. Yay, I found a school-themed book! It’s a fictional story based on the life of a real man, John Berry Meachum, who escaped enslavement. Because of the laws in Missouri, it was against the law to educate African-American children, so he moved his school from the basement of his church to a steamboat on the Mississippi River, which was outside the governance of Missiouri. So clever!

-Tomie de Paola’s Quilt Story, which talks about family. Hey, just a few days ago, this week, September 15, was Tomie’s birthday. Sadly, he passed away a few years ago, but his ebullient spirit lives on in his books.

–Bill Peet’s Autobiography! $1.50. I have wanted my own copy for years, having checked it out repeatedly from the public library. I’ve started reading it a few times out loud and never finished it so maybe now that I’m on my last child in my homeschooling nest I will finish it with him during morning basket time. He has another book called Cappy, about his family’s pet capybara. I’ve started that book a few times as well and want to finish that one this year too! Bill Peet was an animator for Walt Disney, working on the early classic Disney films like Snow White. He definitely shows a love of learning in his book.

–some Christmas chapter books which I wasn’t looking for but when I find good stories in great condition I get them and give some away to friends, like for minsteree sister gifts in thrifted gift baskets, or to family. I got A Stranger for Christmas by Carol Lynn Pearson, which I remember one of my LDS Church Young Women leaders reading aloud to our YW group at church on a Sunday decades ago, and then A Gathering of Christmas by Larry and Lisa Laycock. When I attended American Fork UT High School, Lisa Laycock was a teacher there. I’ve noticed she has become a prolific author.

-the Professor Noggins Farm card game, $1.50. This was such a fun surprise! As a trivia and quiz game geek, I absolutely, thoroughly enjoy these. I’ve found various ones of these through the years when thrifting. Now I have about 10, about half of which I’ve thrifted. I keep these by the dinner table in my pull-out baskets on shelves. Often during dinner, I get one out to quiz during dinner and stimulate table talk. My oldest grandchild is about to turn 8. I’ll probably introduce these games to him soon.

–Uncle John’s Certified Organic Bathroom Reader, $1.50. As a lover of trivia and random stories about real things, I have a collection of these now as well, all thrifted. After assembling this collection, I continue to see these when thrifting and always feel tempted to buy them but I usually tell myself no. I have stopped buying them because I have so many, but I couldn’t resist this one as a crunchy sometimes organic mom. It has interesting stories and factoids about people involved in the green movement, organic food, recycling, composting, Rachel Carson, the electric car, bottled water, and so much more.

–the Good and Beautiful book about rocks and minerals, $1, to go with the school/love of learning theme. It has gorgeous full color photography.

–100 Things to Know About History from Usborne, $1.50. It is so interesting! I’ve already learned so much from it. For example, did you know that when the settlers came to the New World, they had to change what axe they used to clear the land? The axes they brought from the Old World did not work on the trees in the New World. They eventually somehow made new axes that had longer, curved handles, instead of short and straight, and a short blade. With these new axes, by 1850, they were able to clear land three times faster, and clear land the size of Manhattan Island in 36 hours. So fascinating, right?!

–a World Almanac of the USA, $1.50. Another book for the trivia lover in me.

The photo above shows what I got the second week of August, at the Provo DI again.

-two new tops, $3 each. I just love the pineapple print. That one is Old Navy. I’ve noticed the cutest Old Navy clothes when thrifting lately. Then a floral print shift dress, also Old Navy. Perfect for late summer, early fall. It pairs well with my pink woven flats.

–DK book on Force and Motion, $2. I don’t get every DK Eyewitness book that I see when thrifting. I just love the color photographs and explanations of DK books. I’m teaching a match and science class at my homeschooling co-op this year so I might use this for that.

-Grandad’s Prayers of the Earth, $2. It’s done by one of my favorite illustrators, P.J. Lynch. The cover alone looks fallish. I got it more for the family theme.

–N.C. Wyeth’s Pilgrims, illustrated by N.C. Wyeth, for $1!. Another Thanksgiving picture book, to go with my Thanksgiving picture book collection. Shown enlarged below. I guess because I have a birthday close to Thanksgiving, and have Mayflower Pilgrim ancestry, I just love any books I can find on the true meaning of Thanksgiving. It’s about more than turkey, football, and pie. This will go well with my Thanksgiving picture book collection that I display on my window ledges, as seen here. I love the classical, realist style of N.C. Wyeth and his father, Andrew Wyeth.

For the third week of August, I got to go thrifting with one of my sisters, Emily, visiting from Maine, and my daughter, nicknamed Virtue for the blog. (You can see a recap of my trips to see Emily in Maine, in August 2024 here, at the end of that post, and October 2025 here.) We had so much fun! Emily brought 4 out of her 6 children with her. My youngest child, nicknamed Bugsy here on the blog, met up with her son, his cousin the same age, a boy. The boys had fun looking for their stuff, clothes and computer stuff. Cousin E. was thrilled to find a computer that he bought to stick in his suitcase for his trip home. Then the 3 daughters of my sister just looked at clothes, as far as I know. They found so many! Virtue, Emily, and I looked at books and clothes and Virtue looked at household goods too. My haul is above.

-The book with the boy reading on the cover shows Joseph Smith reading the Bible. Titled The Golden Gospel, it is a graphic novel retelling of the Joseph Smith story. What a gem of a find! It is currently $37 on amazon. I may resell it. Joseph Smith received the plates from the Angel Moroni in September, on a day that was being celebrated as the Feast of the Trumpets by the Jews, September 22, 1827. So for that it goes into my September book display, as well as for the love of learning theme. Joseph loved to learn. Many of the revelations he received were answers to questions he asked God in prayer, as shown in the Doctrine and Covenants book of scripture.

-two Christmas picture books, The Miracle Maker, which I’ve borrowed from my public library and enjoyed, and C is for Christmas. I have the companion book, E is for Easter, also found thrifting. I love the illustrations of both. So lovely!

–Stranger in the Woods is for my wintry hyggy picture book collection. I remember seeing it in the now defunct Chinaberry book catalog decades ago. (Chinaberry had the most darling books and gifts. It was wiped out by amazon sadly. It featured so many good things for cultivating hearth and home. Any day when the Chinaberry catalog arrived in my mailbox was such a dreamy day.) It’s a cute story about observing wildlife in the woods.

–Jesus Calling, an Easter picture book. I featured it in a list of Easter picture books over here, but didn’t have my own copy yet, and now I do. I love that it tells the story of Christmas and Easter together, by starting with the story of Christ’s birth, then continuing on through Easter.

-the dragon book is about grammar, for my homeschooling son

–another Reader’s Digest songbook! Here are some of the fun songs inside:

+”As Time Goes By”

+”Tennessee Waltz”

+”Misty”

+”Shenandoah”

Here’s my cart, above.

Here’s Emily’s cart. Her three daughters found so many clothes. They ended up leaving an hour after I did, so they could try them all on. Virtue and I left before to head to my mom’s because the baby was getting fussy and I was hungry. I found the striped dress above and showed it to Emily. I was hoping one of her girls would get it. It’s just so cute! It reminds me of her other daughter who wasn’t there because she is serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It seems like something she would have worn when she was 12 or 13.

Then here’s Virtue’s cart below. She got some books for her little boys, a super cute top with embroidered flowers (Old Navy popping up again with such cute design!), and a metal wastebasket.

Then here is my last haul of the month, this time from the Orem UT Savers.

–Some Little Golden Books to add to my collection, although I may give the Barbie book to Virtue for her birthday as a little add-on. Just because with three boys in her house she has a lot of testosterone and might appreciate a girly book.

Then there’s the snow bear book for my wintry hygge collection of picture books, a tiny book about love and romance to also go with my hygge winter/Valentine’s decorations and an Usborne lift the flap for when the grandchildren visit. The flaps are all intact but there’s ball point pen ink on the cover. A light rub with some rubbing alcohol should remove that. Then the Crayons Christmas book. I don’t love the art but the plot/storyline of the Crayon books are always so witty so I gave in and got it. All these books were $1-$2 each. After I came home I realized I already have the I am A Jedi Star wars book so I’ll give this new copy to my second son, nicknamed Honor here on the blog, since he loves Star Wars the most out of all my 7 children. He can read it to to his two little children.

That’s it! Feel free to share any fun finds you’ve thrifted lately in the comments below. I’d love to hear about them!

Want more thrifting fun? Watch the videos below and read my other thrifting posts here.

10 Top Tips for Using a Yoto Player and its Technology

Posted on September 14, 2026 by treeoflifemama

You’ve probably heard all about the wondrous devices called Yoto Players. My two grandsons, ages 5 and 7 enjoy theirs. In case you don’t know what a Yoto Player is, here’s an explanation. A Yoto player is a rugged, kid-friendly portable box that can play audio files. I would have loved having one of these for each of my children! My youngest is 17 so we missed using these as they came out after all my kiddos grew up, but I’m glad my grandchildren can benefit from them. It would have been SOOOOO nice to have a device to hand to my children so they could listen to audiobooks without having to use my CD player, my mp3 player or phone. Watch below to learn all about them.

It’s a modern, smaller, wireless version of the Walkman, especially for the under-12 set. It provides screen-free, stress-free entertainment for children. They can listen to books, podcasts, music, sound effects, and more! All while the parent maintains control by filtering and curating the content.

Here are my top 10 tips for how to use the Yoto player and benefit from its technology beyond playing audio files.

Get a tote/box/case for your Yoto Player. My grandsons have had theirs for years, but it wasn’t until my daughter, their mom, got these handy dandy cases for them that that they consistently started using them. These cases solved several problems: keeping the cards with the player, keeping the headphones with the player, and keeping the player charged. Each of these things left undone often made a few steps to get going with the Yoto player, which meant less frequent listening.

Then she found these storage/carrying cases or totes on etsy that keep the player, the Yoto cards, headphones, and the charging cords all together. The case even has a portal to allow the player to be charged while staying in the carrying case. Check etsy over here to find a variety of cases. You can even get them personalized with the child’s name! (That’s what’s under the yellow coloring in the photos above.) Just remember to get the right size tote for your player, the original or the mini.

How wonderful! This is the Maria Principle in action!

2. Use a Yoto player with your children to encourage quiet reading time. If I had little children at home, I would definitely be using these for a 1 hour quiet time after lunch. How wonderful to have an audio file playing device you can leave with very young children in their bedroom and not stress about them breaking it, like you would with a CD player. It just sounds so fun to be playing with Legos or Calico Critters or paper dolls or coloring while listening to a story. Then Mom gets a break to have quiet time on her own, to nurse the baby down for a nap and/or take a nap herself or do her own creative stuff.

See Sarah explain why it’s great to have quiet reading time every day for your child, below.

Then learn below how Hannah uses a Yoto player for her three year old for quiet time.

3. See if your public library has Yoto cards to check out like mine does. You don’t even need a Yoto player to use them, you can just use the Yoto app on your phone. So I encourage you to check out your library to see if they have these, and if they don’t, ask them to get some. You can explore different cards and what they sound like without buying a player yet. Just like with books, it is nice to borrow an item and check it out before you buy. Some things are worth having for life, and some, just temporarily, on loan. You can find such a variety of stories and songs by borrowing them, and then if you really love a particular one, go buy the card. My library has the Chronicle of Narnia stories, Muppet Stories, and so much more.

4. Did you know that you can make your own cards for your Yoto player? Yes you can! So that’s tip #4, make your own cards. See below.

5. Use this website, yotoeverything, to ask and answer questions, hear samples of all the cards in the playlists, see independent reviews of the players and accessories, and get more tips and tricks.

6. After you learn how to make your own Yoto cards you can also use this website: yoto.space to get even more content for your Yoto player.

7. Go outside the Yoto ecosystem and get stories from storynory.com or librivox.org. The video above talks about that. The dad in the video above says to use audiobookloader.com, a site he coded, to help with transferring the files.

8. Learn EVEN more tips and tricks about Yoto cards from these parents below. Which should you buy? the original or the mini? Watch below to answer that question and learn everything else you would ever want to know.

9. The generic name for a Yoto card is an NFC tag. The items use an NFC chip that communicates wirelessly (NFC stands for near field communication). You can use this technology for more than just a Yoto player. You can buy your own stickers with NFC chips to do so much more for your household and homeschooling efficiency. Consider using this technology for your rhythms and routines, including Morning Basket time. Watch below at about the 7:30 mark.

For example, Katie in the video above says you can digitize all your books and songs you use for homeschooling, put them in a Google drive, then let your children access the files with NFC tags by tapping a phone next to the tag. You can put an NFC tag on your washing machine (if there’s a plastic part) or next to the washing machine, if it’s all metal (she says below not to put the tag on metal). When you tap your phone on that, it automatically sets a timer on your phone to remind you when the cycle is done. Watch homeschool mom Katie below tell you all these ideas to make your life more efficient with NFC tags.

10. Here are some videos of favorite Yoto cards of some families.

11. Think a Yoto Player is out of reach of your budget? If you use funds from Open Ed or other charter schools, a Yoto Player is probably reimbursable. Or use birthday or Christmas money to get one.

12. Yoto is about to come out 4th generation versions, which have a new green button to allow the child to quickly get through a playlist. Watch above to learn if it’s worth getting the 4th gen. Yotos.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged homeschooling with a yoto player, how to make your own yoto cards, NFC technology, yoto player, yoto player review | Leave a comment

The Power of His Name + Jesus Knows Us By Name

Posted on September 13, 2026 by treeoflifemama

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the power of a name, and the power of Christ’s name.

It started with a discussion of this talk, below, in my Relief Society meeting a few weeks ago. (Relief Society is the organization for women in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)

The discussion question for our meeting that morning, based on this talk, was “How has someone showed up for you in an unexpected way because he or she knew your name?”

One sister, Sister N., shared a story from her newlywed days. She and her husband were renovating a house. They hired a plumber. When they went to pay the plumber, the plumber noticed their last name, which starts with N. He said their name out loud, and then said, “Are you related to so-and-so (with the same last name) of Bear Lake?”

“Yes, he’s my uncle.”

“He saved my life when I was born— he was the only doctor in Bear Lake. When I was born my mom had a lot of trouble. He doctor saved my life. You don’t have to pay your bill. It’s all on me. I’m so grateful!” Such is the power of a name.

As I’ve blogged already, Christ has many names. They are all powerful: Redeemer, The Light, The Way, The Truth, the Life, The Good Shepherd, and so many more. I’m sharing photos of Christ’s beautiful creations in this post to show examples of one of His names, Creator.

Today was like a Part 2 for my thoughts on Jesus and names. All three speakers at our church service today (sacrament meeting) had the topic of names (our name and Christ’s name) for their talks.

A young man, Brother M., one of my son’s friends, gave a powerful sermon about names. He first talked about the Middle Ages. He said during that time, if you dropped the name of a powerful Lord, you could get whatever you wanted. Then he went back to the ancient Romans. Caesar’s name was associated with the most powerful empire at the time. Everyone knew his name, it was synonymous with the Roman Empire. Next He mentioned different stories from the scriptures. Jesus gave himself the name the Great I Am, which is synonymous to Yawveh or Jehovah, in Hebrew. (See more here.) Then when Jesus spoke to the Pharisees He called himself the Great I Am, or God. the Pharisees didn’t believe Him, and felt He was being heretical. Names hold power. God knows this.

So when God has spoken to His children on earth, He hasn’t said, “Hey, you, I have something to tell you.” No, instead He has called and does call the person by name.

Examples of this: Mary, Joseph, Saul who changed his name to Paul, and Joseph Smith.

The next speaker, Brother G., talked more about the topic that Jesus knows our names. Some of Brother G’s points:

-when he’s in a crowd of people talking, like at a party or meeting, his children know that they can catch his attention by calling out, “Dad, dad…” and then if he still hasn’t heard, they say his name. He immediately hears it and replies. He says we can all hear the sound of our name over the many voices of the crowd.

-“The fact that Jesus can call each of us by name means He knows us, He loves us, He atoned for us.”

-He knows our sins, our feelings, our temptations, our proclivities, our doubts, and our questions. We don’t have to ever feel ashamed. We can talk to Him about our doubts.

-Because He knows our feelings, you can try this experiment. Brother G said he has done this experiment while he was preparing this talk over the past week or so. Every time you feel a feeling, pause and ponder that Jesus knows your name. He knows your feeling. Tell yourself those things. Tell yourself that He knows where your feeling is coming from. He knows why your feeling is happening. If you do this, you will find that you have an advocate before God the Father in the form of His son Jesus Christ. You have an understanding advocate, not condemnation.

-When we accept His love, because we know He knows our name and is our advocate, we will want to know and follow His voice. Our name stands out to us. In the same way, His voice can stand out to us.

-When we recognize His voice, things happen. His voice helps us to:

+see a better way

+put away unkind feelings and thoughts

+let go of doubts and unbelief

+forgive

+overlook small things

+commit to get through big things

+begin to feel love for others and even love from others

-This love fills us up and makes up for the lack of love we feel and heals borken relationships.

-When we pray we increase our ability to hear His voice.

-He told the story of his family’s pet goat. This goat will not came when called, even when called by name. Brother G explained that’s typical of goats and that’s why Jesus likens His followers to sheep, not goats, because they follow when called by name.

-The word “goat” used to mean a bad thing. Nobody wanted to be called a goat. He said that up until a few decades ago, it was known to mean failure. Charlie Brown was the goat of his baseball team, because of his dropped flyball and bad pitches. Then in the 1990s, he said, Muhammad Ali popularized the acronym G.O.A.T. as meaning “the greatest of all time.” Ever since then, the name “goat” has been a great name people aspire to.

-He told a story from a shepherd about what it’s like to call sheep and that they follow the shepherd. This story comes from a BYU Speech/Devotional given by Elder D. Todd Christofferson in October 1999. It is from Elder Christofferson’s aunt, Adena Nell Gourley. Go here to read it.

Here are some excerpts from that letter of Elder D. Todd Christofferson’s Aunt Adena, in her words:

“I thought how some of us, who are all God’s sheep, are bound and unfree because of our sins in the world. Standing there on the back porch, I silently thanked my Heavenly Father that there are true under-shepherds and teachers who are patient and kind and willingly teach us of love and obedience and offer us security and freedom within the flock so that, though we may be far from the shelter, we’ll recognize the Master’s voice when He calls, ‘Come on. Now you’re free.”

As Elder Christofferson said in that speech, “Our choice in this life is not whether we will or will not be subject to any power. Our choice is to which authority we will yield obedience: God’s or Satan’s. As Lehi stated, it is a choice between liberty and captivity (see 2 Nephi 2:27). If it is not one, it is necessarily the other.”

Our yielding to God and His right to rule and reign over us brings other blessings. Among the foremost are the faith and confidence that permit us to live with peace.”

The Shepherd wants us to be free. When we follow him as sheep, and not act like goats who won’t follow, we can become free.

-Brother G. concluded by saying, “Jesus knows our names. He knows our hearts. He atoned for each of us. We know His voice. The result is peace.”

The third speaker, Brother E., cotinued with the theme of Jesus knowing our name. He talked about how whenever he hears this phrase from the theme for the Aaronic Priesthood: “I am a beloved son of God and He has a work for me to do,” that he feels the Holy Spirit so powerfully bear witness to that truth.

I felt the Holy Ghost too as he said that. I thought of the complementary statement for the Young Women, from over here:

“I am a beloved daughter of heavenly parents, with a divine nature and eternal destiny.” It’s safe to say that each statement can be used for everyone. Brother E. said that these statements are powerful testimonies that Jesus does know us by name.

Brother E went to to say that knowing evidence that Jesus knows our name is in the following:

-blessings, including blessings for healings and comfort and patriarchal blessings. He told a story that recently some friends of his family had a daughter who was in trouble. She reached out to her parents in Boston and asked for help. They reached out to him and asked him to go find her and gave him directions. So he and, I presume another priesthood bearer (he said “we”) went and found her and gave her a blessing of healing and comfort, using her name. He said he could immediately feel peace and guidance from that blessing.

-callings

Then he said that the most powerful way we are called by name is through the atonement of Jesus Christ.

The name of Jesus Christ is powerful. All wonderful things are either done in His name, by His name, because of His name, or through His name, even unconsciously. He knows our name because he atoned for us. Thus He is our Advocate, another name for Him. Because He is our Advocate, we are not doomed to death and sin. Praise Jesus for His mercy and atoning glory!

It was such a lovely sacrament meeting. I am so grateful to bask in the peace and love and truth of it forever more.

I’ll close with the words of the song “In His Name” from the Scripture Scouts New Testament Album by Roger and Melanie Hoffman.

“In His name, the blind can see the way.

In His name, the evil goes away.

In His name the sick are healed, In His name the water’s stilled,

There is strength, there is power, in His name.

In His name, I pray for one who’s hurt,

In His name, I help a wounded bird.

Yes a child can do His work, I can serve as Jesus served,

I can show I believe in His name.

He is strong, He is wise, I am just a little child,

But there is much I can do, there is much I can do in His name.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Relative Race Season 17 Starts A Week From Today!

Posted on September 6, 2026 by treeoflifemama

Credit for Photos Above and Below: Relative Race Instagram Page

The G.O.A.T. TV show is premiering its Season 17 a week from today!

It’s Relative Race, on BYUTV. Go here to watch all previous episodes of all previous 16 seasons. Then on Sunday September 13, 2026, you can watch Season 17. It’s free and it’s fun! Binge watch alert!

Relative Race is the best show ever because it brings the spirit of Elijah into one’s heart. President Russell M. Nelson said that the Spirit of Elijah is “a manifestation of the Holy Ghost bearing witness of the divine nature of the family.” (Read the talk here, watch below.)

So what does the show feature that brings the Spirit of Elijah/Holy Ghost into one’s heart? It brings together family members who have never met before, ever. These are usually people who were adopted at birth or a young age and their biological parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins. That moment, especially if it’s a adult meeting his or her biological parent for the first time, is so electric. I tear up sometimes as I imagine how wonderful it must feel to finally meet your parent, after decades of wondering and searching. Or to suddenly find out you have a sister or a brother that you always longed for. It’s just so marvelous to think about this and witness the real life joy of such discoveries.

You can watch video clips over here on the YouTube channel of these magical unions. Have a box of tissues handy!

The show is full of laughs, heartwarming moments, fights, and tears. It’s reality and it’s raw, just like families are. I highly recommend for watching anytime, and especially on Sunday.

Then this page here has some behind-the-scenes stories and interviews with executive producer and RR show host, Dan Debenham. Dan is the Man! I hope you enjoy this show as much as I do! It’s so beautiful to watch! I’m so excited for another season!

Posted in family | Tagged byutv, Dan Debenham, relative race byutv, Russell M. Nelson, the Spirit of Elijah | Leave a comment

Get Outside More + Read Aloud More = Your Homeschool Year Will Rock!

Posted on September 5, 2026 by treeoflifemama

Credit for All Photos in this Post: Read Aloud Revival YouTube Channel

This video below provided the most laugh out loud moments I’ve had all week. Oh my! It was so funny! Only other mothers will laugh at it too, sorry dads and kids. It features Sarah Mackenzie of readaloudrevival.com fame and Ginny Yurich of the 1000 Hours Outside podcast.

Oh my goodness! As one YT commenter on the video said, “I want to go have coffee with these two ladies every week!” I do too, only for me as a Word of Wisdom observer and coffee abstainer I’d substitute a protein-based carob drink or herbal tea.

Click to watch above. If you must only listen and not watch because you are multitasking, such as shucking corn, LOL (watch the video to get that inside joke) go ahead and do so, but at the 38:43 mark, you have to pause your work and watch Sarah’s body language as she reacts to Ginny’s story. She tells of the neighbor across the street she had when she was growing up. Sarah’s reaction is so hilarious to see!

Anyway, the two nuggets of truth in this video are homeschooling gold! As a veteran homeschooling mom of 30+ years, I heartily agree!

Here they are:

Read aloud to your children every chance you can get. For me it was: while the children did the breakfast, lunch and dinner dishes, during morning basket, during closet/Spark Station time, while riding in the car (use audiobook if you are driving, if someone else is driving, then read aloud to them yourself) and then at bedtime. I never thought to do it while we were outside, but now that I have listened to this podcast/video, I wish I had! For schooling, reading aloud is the number one thing to do, regardless of where your children attend school, because it’s cheap, it’s fun, it changes their brains, it makes happy memories, it teaches them many things, it develops empathy, and it strengthens the bonds between parent and child.

2. Let/send/make your children be outside more. You don’t have to program the outside time with yard toys and play structures. As Ginny’s homeschooling girlfriend Angela told her, “Bring food, water and a friend” when you go beyond your backyard. Aim to get 1000 hours each year. Ginny gives so many reasons/benefits as to why outside play is SOOO important for children. Getting that time in is easier than you think!

Watch Ginny with Emily of Really Very Crunchy Mom fame discuss what outdoor time is worthy.

Did you know that the average American child spends 4-7 minutes a day outside and 4-7 hours on screens! That’s awful! Let’s change that! I’m so pleased that My married daughter, Virtue, has done Forest School the past few years with her boys to get them outside. They meet all school-year long, rain, snow or shine.

My favorite quote from the video “Mother Nature is another mother to my children.” Ginny said that when she took her children outside, she could count on having uninterrupted time to read a book while they played, as opposed to when she was inside and her book reading was interrupted. That’s true! Except I always have had girlfriends when I’ve taken my children to the outside beyond our yard so I always talked with them. When my older kiddos were younger we did weekly city park play dates for the La Leche League Group I was a part of. My children had so much fun with their friends and I had so much fun chatting with my friends. As my brood got older, and I retired from being a LLL Leader, those park play dates got replaced with our homeschooling co-op weekly summer park days. I’ve heard it said that many cases of ADHD are really a nature-deficit disorder.

This podcast/video episode of RAR reminds me of a different podcast I listened to a ways back where the guest told this story of how a few times a year, she and her mom girlfriends would gather in one of their homes with the babies and toddlers. Then they’d tell the children to play like they were Boxcar Children, aka orphans for the day. They sent the children to play outside all day. They were allowed to come to the door “begging” for food for their lunch. Sounds so much fun! I can see how my children, and my nieces, who had an orphan-playing jag for months, would have loved doing this, with the right group of friends. It might be dangerous too. I’m thinking of one particular time when I would not have trusted one of my sons with a certain friend for a certain time, unsupervised, LOL.

Ginny says that at about the ages 11-13, your children will naturally start just visiting with friends in a circle instead of actively playing when you go outside with your friends. That’s perfectly normal.

After you watch the video above, I highly encourage you to get the books by Sarah and Ginny pictured here in this post. They will help you so much on your homeschooling journey. As I’ve written over here, the only things you really absolutely need to successfully homeschool are a math curriculum and a public library card, for reading aloud. A homeschooling co-op on top of that is nice.

Want more about reading aloud? Go here and here. Aside from teaching your child about God and Jesus Christ and how to pray, it’s the best thing you could ever do for your child. Getting them out in nature for long periods of time is the next best thing.

If you do those things, your homeschool year will rock! I promise!

Posted in book recommendations, classics, homeschooling, Uncategorized | Tagged 1000 hours outside, Ginny Yurich, homeschooling, read aloud revival, reading aloud, rock your homeschool year with reading aloud and outdoor time, sarah mackenzie | Leave a comment

Come See What the Lord Hath Done in My Life of August 2026: 35 years of Marriage, Blackberries, Meeting Grandpa and Grandma Beck, Peter Rabbit Birthday Party and More!

Posted on September 1, 2026 by treeoflifemama

For this past week’s Come Follow Christ study we were asked to read some of the Psalms, 49-86. I especially love Psalm 66:5, which says “Come see what the Lord hath done.” Here is what the Lord has done for me in my life lately. This is basically another “Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real and Smart” post which I haven’t done in over 18 months.

A sunflower in my front yard flower bed! Every spring I think I’m going to plant some flowers in my flower bed, as well as in my window boxes, and then do some haybale gardening in the backyard, since I don’t have a garden plot any more in this Bungalow house after moving from the Cottage on the Corner. At the Cottage, I did plant a garden, but for two years in a row I haven’t gotten to it. I feel like such a slacker in not gardening, but I also don’t want to “run faster than I have strength.” (That’s a phrase from the Book of Mormon that has guided me well for decades, Mosiah 4:27). I’ve had a heavy load of other stuff consuming my time and energy. So to have a wild sunflower pop up in my front flower bed as a random volunteer plant is so sweet. It is a lovely reminder to me that God knows I love flowers in my own yard and delights to surprise me with one.

Lovely views on morning walks. I am getting better and better at going walking in the morning. I know it’s so good for me to have my eyes exposed to early morning sunlight and feel the fresh air and get movement. I love seeing the flowers and trees and plants and landscaping of my neighbors.

Earlier this summer, I was blessed with a walking buddy. I’ve known a girlfriend, Melanie, for around 15 years, through homeschooling on the Wasatch Front. She is an old school TJEder and LEMI philosophy believer. (TJEd is explained here, LEMI philosophy is here.) We each have seven children around the same ages. It is just so grand to have her move into my neighborhood in June so I can go walking with her. Who would have thought we would ever live in the same vicinity? When we first met we lived about 45 minutes apart. It just does my soul so good to have a walking buddy, to have a kindred spirit, another homeschooling mom of a large family who shares my same religious and educational philosophies. Included in our shared culture is a bunch of mutual friends as well. She really gets me! I have no doubt that God orchestrated both of us moving to live within walking distance of each other for His own reasons, including being able to go walking together and support each other in these last years of homeschooling the youngest of our children her two youngest and my one.

The Clarence and Etta May Jensen Hansen Family Reunion. This is held the first Saturday of August every year, ever since I was 12 or so. This year it was at the Orem UT Golden Corral of all places. Not very many people came this year. I was late in arriving. My aunt saw me walking over to our family group, saw that I needed a place to sit, and offered me her chair. That was so kind of her! I was able to then talk to some of my dad’s cousins. I sat by one of his cousin’s husbands. It was so wonderful to meet him and talk to him. It’s a second marriage for both him and my dad’s cousin. I had never met him before. He was just so kind and easy to talk to. Sometimes you just meet people and even though you barely met you feel like you have known them forever and can get trust them and be friends with them for the rest of your life.

Seeing my nephew hug his mom, my sister, after getting off the plane from his mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Austin TX. Besides the temples, and our homes, I can’t think of a happier place on earth than the SLC international airport where such a concentration of missionaries get to walk into loving embraces of family members who haven’t seen them in person for 18 months to 2 years. My nephew had 21 other missionaries on the plane coming home with him from that mission in Texas! On that beautiful Thursday summer morning, a huge crowd of families waited to welcome these 22 missionaries. The family vibe was so grand, I just loved feeling surrounded by it.

Blackberries!

My ministeree sister/friend invited people to come pick her blackberries. These are so yummy, as long as you pick the ripe, dark black ones. She’s the same friend who let me come pick two years ago here. I am always amazed at God’s bountiful world with fruit of the vine and bush, free for the picking. Despite my carnivore tendencies, I’m not ready to say that all plants are evil.

Being able to see cabbage in a garden, still growing. You might think this is dumb. I don’t care, it’s exciting for me! I have only ever seen pictures of cabbage in gardens, like in the Peter Rabbit stories. It was just so cool to go to a friend’s home for a political meeting, and see her gorgeous cabbages, rooted in the ground, in the space between the sidewalk and the curb, what some people call the “park strip.” These are just so beautiful, I feel like channeling Beatrix Potter and painting pictures of them!

Meeting Grandpa and Grandma Beck at BYU’s Education Week! These are the people behind Grandpa Beck games. I got to talk to them at their vendor table at the BYU Store. They are both super personable and talked to me for a long time. I’ve played some of their games, Cover Their Assets and Skull King. My grandson loves Skull King. I was thrilled to realize that if I got the Expansion Pack for Skull King, that would make a unique and thoughtful gift for my grandson’s upcoming birthday since he loves Skull King. He’s been playing it since he was 6 and seems to have a knack for the strategy that I haven’t even grasped. So I’m super excited to give it to surprise him with it next month! Grandpa Beck told me that games are better for family time than movies, because you are interacting more. I totally agree with him! It was fun to talk to him and find out how he got started making games. More on that later.

Thrift hauls! I’ve been blessed to find a a handful of pretty clothes and lovely books. I even got to go thrifting with my sister, Emily, from Maine, my married daughter, my youngest son, a nephew, and three nieces. How delightful to spend a random Monday morning going through picture books at the American Fork DI (Deseret Industries) chatting about whatever memories and ideas the books stirred up, with my sister and daughter. I found some grand goodies. More on that later! The books above are what I found that magical thrifting morning. Another Reader’s Digest Songbook, hooray! Then the stuff below is what I found the previous week at the Provo DI.

Much needed bigger clothes. Unfortunately, despite my efforts at eating intuitively, mostly keto, since I stopped being strict carnivore in May 2023, and walking 20 miles or more every week when this past summer started, AND doing strength training usually 2-4 times a week, since mid June, I have gotten bigger and can’t fit into most of my much loved clothing anymore. Arrgh. This is the third time since I lost 70 lbs in 2015 that I’ve gained half the weight back. I’m about to embark on a strict protocol again to get back down again. I had a day where I was wondering what I would wear the next morning because none of my pants were available to be worn and life was too hectic to wash more. I have a sister who lost weight (80 lbs or so) over a year ago. The same day I was thinking of that, she got a prompting to clean out her closet and get rid of her “fat clothes.” She said she had no plans to do it that day, and then she found herself cleaning out her closet and didn’t know why. She texted me and offered me some clothes and of course I took her up on the offer. I really wanted some black capris and those were in the big bag she brought over! I had found some last May for a thrift haul but they didn’t quite fit but these ones from my sister fit perfectly! What a great blessing from my dear sister! It’s just SOOOO interesting and maddening how the two of us got the fat genes of the family tree (my dad’s side) and my other sister doesn’t have to think about what she eats AT all EVER and stays as thin as a runway fashion model, because she got the thin genes on my mom’s side. Same with my mom. (I’m not jealous at all, LOL.) Let’s just say there is such a thing as genetics and insulin insensitivity and more at play than meets the eye.

Seeing interesting books to read to add to my TBR list. See to the right and below.

Celebrating my wedding anniversary at a restaurant my husband and I dined at when we dated, over 35 years ago. This date in March 1991 involved going to a Cinderella Ball after dinner, at La Dolce Vita in Provo UT. That date has a providential story behind it, which I’ll have to blog about another time. The restaurant we returned to wasn’t the actual building, but next door. It’s Utah County’s best Italian restaurant. If only we had just watched the movie Solo Mio that night, it would have felt so harmoniously perfect. We saw that one back when it came out last spring.

We celebrated our anniversary over three days. Other years we’ve done more activities in 3 days (like here), but this year with time and money restraints this is what we could fit in this year:

Day 1: we had a party with my children who were currently living in town, eating pizza and reading books together. I brought a gift of a new book for each family member who was there. This was a reading-in night which I used to attempt every week when more kids lived at home. (See point #4 from my list over here.)

Day 2: we attended church in the morning and had a family zoom birthday party to include the out-of-towners. Go here to see how we did it.

Day 3: We saw the new movie The Brink of War from Angel Studios in the movie theater. Of course it’s romantic to sit in a dark room and hold hands with your husband, but the topic of the movie itself was not super romantic. It was still interesting, though, especially since we both like to study history and politics and were alive in the 80s. There was a tiny bit of romance in it showing the marriages of the Gorbachevs and the Reagans. I enjoyed the actor who portrayed Raisa. She was fun to watch. The one who played Nancy didn’t get to have any fun with her role, although she did a good job. The most interesting thing she got to do was talk to Ronnie on the phone while in bed, then read a horoscope article in the newspaper. I kept hoping she would fly out to Rejkjavik to be part of the drama and show up Raisa but it never happened.

It was cool that the movie used real dialogue from the actual event. Anyway, after the movie we went out to eat at La Dolce Vita.

I loved wearing my pretty, summery new dress, shown above, that I got at the Provo DI back in July for only $6. (See July’s thrift haul here.) It is Old Navy brand. I have noticed a recent pattern in that all the super cute clothes I have found thrifting in the past year have been Old Navy. I am loving those clothes! So now I’m on the lookout for more. The pineapple top and the flowery dress in the thrift haul photo a few photos above are some examples.

I listened to the Power of 8 book in July and August and did the seed experiment at the end with my new Power of 8 prayer group. It worked! Seed A grew 6 inches and the Control Seed B did not grow at all! Amazing confirmation of the power of words and intention!

For the Shumway Sisters’ Book Club I listened to this fun book above. It was so delightful. Kudos to Courtney Walsh for writing such a fun, clean rom-com that is also not complete brain cotton candy. It does have some brain meat to it.

Losing my glasses and then finding a surprise new identical pair which I have no memory of buying or storing away. I lost a pair of glasses and looked and looked for them. I couldn’t find them. Then another day I was looking for something else and found an identical pair that I had forgotten about in a place I have no memory of placing them. So hooray for that! It’s almost like God just put a new pair for me in that nook under my bedside table. Maybe He did. I have no memory of buying two identical pairs. This is possibly a miracle!

Being able to play Huggermugger with my sister, niece and nephew! My sister Emily visited from Maine with her family so we had a few wonderful days together, including a joint birthday celebration for her daughter, my son and grandson. Almost every time I see sister Emily in person we get to play Huggermugger. It’s a fun word game from the 80s that I found thrifting, which we both adore. It was fun to see my nephew’s sketching on his paper after he played the game. He’s an animation student at BYU. He’ll graduate in spring of 2027 so hey that’s another reason for Emily to come to Utah so we can play Huggermugger again!

Helping my mom dejunk. Another thing that often happens when Emily visits is dejunking for our mom. Emily turned it into a full-blown family project with her husband and children helping. I helped my mom let go of a bunch of old calendars, papers, and address labels and masking tape that is impossible to use. I took two boxes of stuff to DI for her. While all the females left to do the activity below, my amazing brother-in-law, Em’s husband, stayed behind to clean up the mess. Bless that man!

A Pride and Prejudice movie party with my sisters, nieces, daughter and son-in-law. This was my son-in-law’s first time experiencing any form of Pride and Prejudice, book or movie. We watched the Kiera Knightley version. He and my daughter, named Virtue on this blog, got a movie projector last month to use in their huge basement rec room. They show the movie on the blank wall. So that’s how we watched it for this party. We started watching it early in the evening at 5:15 even though not everyone was there, because Emily had a commitment to get to at 8 PM. When my other sister arrived, we three sisters sat out from the movie to catch up on our news. It was so great to be with both of my sisters, first time in over a year, and chat with them. Then another niece came late after the movie was over. I got to talk with her, my daughter and son-in-law about which P&P version is best. Virtue and I prefer the BBC version, niece prefers the Kiera Knightley one. My son-in-law made an interesting point that I had never thought of before, which is, was Darcy really being noble in paying for the wedding of Lydia, or was he doing it just to get Elizabeth to like him? After all, he does say, “I did it all for you,” to Elizabeth. Now I want to read the book to examine all the details in the book.

It was also my grandson’s birthday that very day. We had already celebrated a few days before with his uncle and cousin, and then we would celebrate again at a party later just for him. Even though we didn’t have cake or ice cream that night, my daughter gifted my grandson his main present, the ball tower below. She said she got a ball tower for him because she remembers that her younger brother, Venture, got a ball tower when he turned one 25 years ago. I just love hearing that my children remember little things about their childhood involving joyful things like birthdays, wholesome toys, free play, and books. They don’t talk about these things all the time so when they do I treasure it up as a joyful memory. This was also the day Dolly Parton died so I’ll always remember that. I had just been talking about Dolly Parton the Sunday before with some of my in-laws. They said if she were to be in a concert they would go to it. Anyway, It’s fun to see my daughter’s crunchy mom puristy principles come forth in getting a wooden ball tower instead of the Fisher Price plastic one I got 25 years ago.

Speaking of Venture, I felt extremely blessed that he traveled safely from Kentucky back to Utah two Sundays ago. He had been in Kentucky on an internship studying exercise science and is now back in town to attend BYU for fall semester. He drove that long road trip in two days! I was thrilled that he thought to call us in the evening on Saturday while we he was visiting Adam ondi Ahman on the way. He then drove more until late at night before he found a place to sleep in Nebraska. Then he drove to Utah the next day. Such long days driving makes me worried that he might fall asleep at the wheel. I’m so grateful he arrived with daylight still left, the next day, on Sunday, after a safe trip, to see my parents, some of my siblings and some of their posterity at the family dinner and birthday party for his brother, cousin, and nephew. They each have a birthday on three successive days in row in August. My son, nicknamed Bugsy, turned 17, my niece turned 13, and my grandbaby turned one. So we sang happy birthday to all three with one candle for each in a tub of ice cream. My birthday boy requested chicken enchiladas, for his birthday meal, which we made together after church earlier that day. It was a big hit at the family dinner! Thanks to the Pioneer Woman for the recipe in her red cookbook.

At the party above I found out one of my nieces, Sarah, shown below, has a business selling cloaks and other fun stuff for medieval cosplay and role-playing. She quit her previous job and does this full-time with her amazing husband, Scott, also shown below. Check out their site here and get some fabulous birthday and Christmas gifts for the LOTR and D&D fans in your life!

Jury duty got canceled! I got a notice in July that I was being summoned to jury duty for August and September. So I filled out the online form, then got notice that I was to report in SLC on 8/31. I was gearing up for the grim task of having to get up early, miss out on a day of normal work and play, driving up to SLC and back with all that traffic, having to hear about stuff I don’t want to hear about it, and being gone all day. Then I got notice that the hearing was canceled so I didn’t have to come. Whew! Much as I am willing to fulfill my civic duty, it’s nice that I didn’t have to. I am still on call for September so we shall see. Why is it that my husband who has a legal brain and training never gets called for jury duty and it’s happened to me twice now?

Virtue hosted a Peter Rabbit birthday party for her baby who turned one. It was just another little God wink/surprise that He blessed me to find these Beatrix Potter mini board books in my neighborhood Little Free Library the week before the party. I traded in books to get them and gave them to my daughter to use as decorations. Her party would have looked beautiful without them, but it was just fun to have more Beatrix books.

Especially since I had just been wondering, a few days before, where the four Beatrix Potter board books had gone that I had bought for my firstborn over 30 years ago. I guess I gave them to DI during one of our moves. So this was just a little nod to me of God saying, “I heard your wondering in your heart about those books, so here you go…here are some to replace them and your grandsons can now enjoy them.”

I totally enjoyed this birthday party, talking to different family members and friends of my daughter’s little family. It did my heart such good. When I first got invited to it, it looked I wasn’t going to be able to go because I had a prior commitment. I’m so grateful I was able to shift things around and go.

Just like with her Winnie-the-Pooh baby shower that she had last year, Virtue had darling themed signs that detailed the food being served at the party, courtesy of an etsy shop.

The lavender lemon tea in the drink dispenser below was so yummy, without any sweetener. I’m going to get her recipe.

She had the cutest birthday cake: a cheesecake with a blackberry topping. She also used a cake topper that she bought for her wedding over 8 years ago.

It’s really wonderful to see my daughter excelling at things that I yearned to do but never did well. I remember wanting to do a nice birthday party with decorations for my children but never felt like I had the time and money to do it.

I was doing well just to get a cake baked, gifts bought, and string a “Happy Birthday” banner across the living room window, and maybe some balloons. It’s so marvelous that my fantasies get fulfilled in succeeding generations! (If the book A Lantern in Her Hand were a movie, I would cue that soundtrack right now.) Baby Grandson looked so adorable in his blue short-sleeved sweater outfit and his sun hat tied around his neck. My daughter is living up the old-fashioned Little Lord Fauntleroy clothing aesthetic as much as she can before he asserts the desire to wear other stuff, like his older brothers have already done.

I contributed the lacy tablecloth too. That was a wedding gift from my Young Women president.

To top off the month, the same day as darling grandson’s darling birthday party, I watched the closing ceremonies that Bugsy was in for the Heroic Youth Quest and Summit. Our family has been part of this since he was born. One of his older brothers, Honor, attended right after Bugsy’s birth. I remember babywearing Bugsy in a sling when we went the following year as his older siblings participated. Hopefully next year my grandson will participate as he will be 8 years old, the minimum age. Then we will have two generations of Shumways there.

This past summer has been a mixture of laughter and tears. I’ve dealt with some heavy things. So all these wonderful things I’ve detailed above have helped to ease the pain and bring more light into my life. I know the Lord numbers our days. He lends me breath and strength to arise out of bed, to work and to play, to bless others and to be blessed. See Mosiah 2:21. I remember hearing from a young mom in a church meeting her story. She said she had a period of time when she was so sick she couldn’t get out of bed and walk, for weeks. She treasures her ability to walk more than ever now after getting better, to get out of bed and get to work. That story helped me too feel so grateful for my ordinary life of work and play, despite my burdens. I keep reminding myself, it could be worse!

I also give praise to God and gratitude that a huge blessing I desire is on its way, as one manifestation of the greatest power of Christ that has yet to be revealed. As President Nelson has said in this talk, “In coming days, we will see the greatest manifestations of the Savior’s power that the world has ever seen. Between now and the time He returns ‘with power and great glory, He will bestow countless privileges, blessings, and miracles upon the faithful.” I so look forward to these privileges, blessings, and miracles!

That is what the Lord has done in my life for August 2026. Praise God for whom all blessings flow!

Posted in come follow me, Family life, Uncategorized | Tagged 35 years of marriage, Beatrix Potter, blackberries, Come Follow Christ, come follow me, Courtney Walsh, Dungeon Delver Supply Co, God's hand in my life, Grandpa Beck games, Heroic Youth, Huggermugger, jury duty, La Dolce Vita restaurant Provo UT, LDS missionaries, LDS missionary homecoming, Old Navy clothes for women, Peter Rabbit Birthday Party, Pride and Prejudice, Psalms, The Brink of War, The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley, The Power of 8 | 2 Comments

#52Stories: Fun Easy Family Game You Can Play in Zoom to Celebrate a Wedding Anniversary/Family Birthday

Posted on August 22, 2026 by treeoflifemama

Credit for Images Above and Below: familysearch.org

I recently celebrated my wedding anniversary! Yay!!! 35 years! See the times I’ve blogged about past years’ celebrations here and here.

I call our anniversary our family’s birthday. To celebrate it, one of things I love to do is a family zoom meeting involving all my children even if they live out of state, or out of the country. Currently one of them lives in Ireland with his wife. It’s tricky to get everyone’s schedule to mesh what with them in Ireland and another son in Texas with his wife.

With those factors, we got most everyone together recently. During that celebration, we played a simple game to get to know each other better. That’s my favorite type of game.

To play the game I shared this page over here from familysearch.org called the “52 Stories, 52 Questions” feature with everyone in the family via text. Then I asked people to pick one of those questions and then answer it by texting me the question and their answer to it.

Here are the questions below:

Next I asked everyone to get some paper and pencil to take notes, or take notes on a phone, so they could keep track of all the questions and answers.

Then I read off the questions and the answers without revealing who picked that question and answer.

Then I asked them to match up who said what answer with what question.

Then I read each question again one by one and revealed the answers.

We all had a great time! Among other things, here are the fun interesting facts I learned about some of my family members:

-my younger daughter remembers having a collection of rocks when she was a child

-my older daughter wants to travel to Europe to see Rome, Paris, London and Venice.

-Son #1 has lived in 14 places not including the 9 places during his mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and 2 places he doesn’t remember before he was 2.

-The most exotic food my husband has eaten is cow tongue and turtle egg soup, from Mexico, when he was a foreign exchange student.

-Son #5 and youngest child remembers these as family traditions: me playing the piano to wake the family up in the morning, being bribed to stay wearing church clothes all day in order to have dessert on Sunday evening, alternating who says family prayer by going through birth order, having a Bethlehem supper for Christmas, using the Angel Moroni on the top of our Christmas tree instead of a star, reading Luke 2 on Christmas Eve, and singing along my piano playing of Christmas carols and hymns as we act out Luke 2.

I hope you will find this simple game with questions useful and fun in strengthening connections in your family! The best part is that you can play this game via videochat with people who live far away.

Want some tips for creating a lasting marriage?

Go here to see my girlfriend Joyce’s tips.

Go here to see my tips for a strong marriage, which I wrote after 30 years of marriage.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged how to celebrate your family's birhtday, wedding anniversary | Leave a comment

Job and the Amazing Truths We Learn From His Story

Posted on August 16, 2026 by treeoflifemama

It’s been so enlightening for me to listen/watch this video by Jared Halverson about Job’s story. The images in this post are from the video.

If you want a full understanding of Job then please watch/listen and learn with the video below. I hope the quote above from Victor Hugo tells you why it’s important to study Job. Brother Halverson starts out the video talking about “theodicy” which he says is the problem of evil. Why does it exist if God exists? Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?

(It’s funny, every time Brother Halverson said “theodicy” in the first few minutes of the video, I thought he was talking about “The Odyssey,” which has been on my mind with the new Odyssey movie, LOL.)

As Brother Halverson says, Job is the poster child for theodicy.

Brother Halverson says he knows a modern-day Job: his father-in-law. He lost his wife to leukemia after they had seven children, then one of his children, then his business, then his home, then his freedom, when he had to go to prison for something he didn’t do. Amazing!

Job came to know the intimate-ness and infinite-ness of God through his trials. These trials allowed him to know who God who truly is. If you want a summary of the video above, watch the one below.

It all boils down to the idea of proving. As it says in Abraham 3:25: “And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them.”

Can one taste, even eat, the bitterness of life without becoming bitter towards God? That’s what the proving involves. We each get to answer that question as we face the tests, traps and trials of mortal life. I pray that each of us will stay true to God in these challenges. He is there for each of us, I testify of that, in the name of Jesus Christ amen.

Posted in scriptures, Uncategorized | Tagged bible, Jared Halverson, Job | Leave a comment

Wise Traditions for Baby’s First Foods with Kate Pope

Posted on August 14, 2026 by treeoflifemama

This interview with Kate Pope about baby’s first foods is very enlightening. Mainstream culture pushes rice cereal, bananas, squash, and other pureed fruits and veggies as the best foods for babies. What could be better? Listen to this interview with Kate Pope, a mom of two and founder of the Mom Baby Biome Project, in the video below, to get the answer. Kate is a holistic chef, nutritional therapy practitioner, and certified GAPS practitioner (NTP, CGP), and founder of Regenerative Cooking School.

Kate Pope, photo credit: wisetraditions.org

Kate says on her website here, “From the womb to your child’s second birthday is the highest nutritional impact we can have on their gut, brain and immune system in their entire lifetime.”

It’s amazing how much power a mother has! Kate has a first foods plan that focuses on cultivating a healthy biome in your baby’s gut. A baby’s healthy gut allows for healthy skin, happy mood, and much more. She has dramatic before and after photos of babies healing from eczema and other problems here.

It all started when the birth of her son did not go as planned. She breastfed him and he was constantly spitting up.

She says, “I used a specific method of starting solids, one that focused on his GUT more than anything else and with food alone, my son’s rashes disappeared, he started pooping daily (no mucous, no blood, no constipation).” Go here to learn more. If your baby suffers from eczema, digestive issues, immune reactivity, histamine intolerance, CMPI, FPIES, and more, get relief with Katie’s food plan for babies.

If you want Kate’s free guide to starting solids, go here.

Want to learn more about baby’s first foods? Go here to learn from a panel of wise and experienced people, mostly parents, who know a lot about ancestral nutrition.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged baby biome, baby gut biome, nutrition for babies, Wise Traditions | Leave a comment

How We Had a Multi-Day Family Reunion on the Cheap and You Can Too + Recap of Our 2026 Family Reunion!

Posted on August 11, 2026 by treeoflifemama

My husband and I just had a family reunion for our descendants just this last month of July. As grandparents and near empty nesters, we are at the point where it’s needed. We only have 1/7 of our children left in the nest, with 3/7 married, 2/7 as parents, and 5 grandchildren. One of them lives out of the country, and over the summer 2 more lived out of state. For four glorious days, all of us (mostly, minus my missionary son, and three other members who missed daytime activities, but were there in the evening: long story) were together for games, eating, and connection. it was glorious!

For July I shared missionary stories to go with the missionary theme of my devotionals ebook, and now that it’s August I will be sharing some family-themed stories and family reunion ideas. The theme for August in my family devotionals ebook, available for free over here, is families. If you want to know why I picked families as August’s main theme, skip to the * at the bottom of this post.

In his General Conference address last October, President Dallin H. Oaks of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints emphasized the importance of family and encouraged family reunions. My sister-in-law took that to heart and has organized a family reunion for my husband and his 8 siblings which will happen next month. I’m so excited about that. I love family reunions! One year, when I was a young mom and pregnant, in 1995, my husband and I attended 7 family reunions in a row in the months of July and August. I just love them so much, we went to all of them, even though I was pregnantl-y huge and it was hot. That baby I was pregnant with, my married daughter, was the hostess for our out of town family members for our recent family reunion so I’ve come full circle in a way. Maybe she sensed a love of family reunions in utero.

So let’s talk family reunions and how to do them inexpensively.

Family reunions can come in all sorts of sizes and flavors. They can be as simple as having a potluck in a park, church or home, or as elaborate as multi-day affairs in a lodge or airbnb. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on them, even if they are multi-day affairs. Over my 55 years of life, I have been to dozens of family reunions for so many of the branches of our family tree, so I consider myself a family reunion expert. You can read about some of the reunions I’ve attended: here, here and here.

This place I found on vacationrenter.com sleeps 10 and is on 50 acres. Plenty of room if people wanted to tent it!

Here’s how you can do a multi-day reunion on the cheap, similar to how we did our recent one for our descendants.

Have housing at somebody’s home that has extra bedrooms. Fortunately, my married daughter has 6 bedrooms and was willing to do this. She hosted three brothers, two sisters-in-law, and a nephew and niece. That’s just on her side. She also hosted her mother-in-law and niece and nephew on her husband’s side from a reunion they had the previous week, AND her sister and her husband’s grandfather live with them. So it was a full house! If you hold the reunion in the summer, which I highly recommend, some people can sleep in tents, and then you have more instant bedrooms! We did this once for a family reunion in Idaho.

2. If #1 isn’t possible, then rent a place far enough ahead of time in order to pay less, and have families who stay there split the cost. This is what we did when we attended my oldest son’s wedding in TX three years ago, to accommodate three families. That was like a mini-reunion since at the time 5/7 children were living out of state. When we split the cost up to stay in this three bedroom home it was cheaper than a hotel. Talk to everyone you know about the type of place you are looking for. Use airbnb.com as well as the alternatives: vrbo, vacationrenter, etc. Read online reviews and beware, sometimes a place with its online reviews can be deceptive. For example, my girlfriend Melanie just told me about a place that had a 5/5 star review which she rented for her large extended family of 50+ to stay for two nights for her family reunion. It turned out to be horrible, with a bathroom missing a door, dead mice in the kitchen, and a live snake! Turns out, as a hunting lodge, it was 5 stars, but as a vacation rental it had only 1 star. So if a place bills itself as two kinds of places, do a search to find reviews of it using both terms.

3. Instead of catering the meals, have everybody on own for breakfast and lunch, then have dinner altogether. Assign groups to make the dinner together so everybody gets a turn helping make dinner. For us it was natural to have each married couple take a night of fixing dinner, since there were four married couples (my husband and I, then three of my children with each spouse). I assigned the unmarried children to help the couples with children. If you go this way, make sure you give space in the schedule for the out-of-town people to go shopping or to make an online order for delivery, so they can get food for their menu plan. The assigned people were in charge of shopping, cooking, serving, and cleaning up after.

4. Alternate activities between staying at homebase and going out. This is especially important if you have toddlers and babies. For us, on Day 1 and Day 3 we went out to places in the morning. Day 2 and Day 4 we stayed home in the morning at home base.

5. This goes with point #3, build plenty of margin into the schedule so people don’t feel they are running a race from 8 AM until 9 PM. Again, this is especially important if you have babies and toddlers. Starting the activities at 10, 11, or noon is better, as well has having breaks in between activities.

6. Have adult children pay their own way for attractions, and keep the attractions cheap. Scout out coupons online for the attractions you want to attend for a group discount. One of my sons found us tickets to Splash Summit in Provo UT for $10 each. We went on Day 1 and had so much fun!

7. Find free stuff to do, things like going to city parks, especially those that have especially big, unusual, and/or extensive playground structures, hikes, picnics, university attractions, or playing board games. We went up the canyon for one afternoon and to the Bean Museum another afternoon. The other day activities were board games. Asking your friends in your local area of fun free things for a group to do or doing an online search will most likely generate answers. There’s always letterboxing as well, which can involve hikes too as you go to the places where the letterbox is.

This is my grandma, at the bottom center, when she was a tiny girl, with her big sister and parents. Isn’t she a cutie?! She graduated from BYU when she was in her 40s and then taught high school home economics. This would have been perfect to use in a family treasure hunt held at home.

8. Do a family history treasure hunt in the home with family artifacts, including family photos. You could use family photos and mementos that you have and family members bring. You could also or instead, do a scavenger photo hunt at a place that has meaning for the family. Have the clues involve family history memories of buildings where people lived, met, and and/or worked. For us it was natural to use the BYU campus, since so many of us (back to my grandma and my parents and aunts and uncles, as well as some of my children and nieces and nephews) have gone there for school, other activities, and the MTC (Missionary Training Center, which is part of BYU’s campus). I had a lot of fun writing the clues. My parents met at BYU, and then my husband and I met at BYU, so I put the buildings where we met as some of the buildings my children had to take photos of.

9. Have a night with the older generation (grandparents) sharing stories of ancestors to inspire courage and sacrifice. I invited my parents to share ancestor stories involving the Mormon pioneer trek. My dad shared stories of our ancestors William and Jane James who were in the Willie Handcart Company. Then my mom talked about Luman Andros Shurtliff, who lived in Ohio and walked to Kirtland Ohio to hear the prophet Joseph Smith speak. It was on that trip that he got baptized and experienced the Holy Ghost revealing to him a confirmation of his belief in the Church and the prophet Joseph Smith. He also received a miraculous healing as he walked home. His conversion story is here, towards the end, in an article by Elder Loren C. Dunn.

Luman Andros Shurtliff, my second great grandfather. He lived in Ohio, crossed the plains as a pioneer and settled in the Ogden UT area.

10. Have a night sharing family stories and memories of the living family members. This always elicits so many “I never knew that happened!” exclamations from me. What can I say, a mother of 7 can not be with every child for every waking moment of the day, protecting them from harm and mischief. If the stories are already well-known, you could have family members act out the stories. You could also spread out some family mementos including art done by family members, especially from when they were little. I thought about doing this but ran out steam in my preparations. Maybe next time.

11. Have a family talent show, or singalong around the campfire. If your family is especially into performing, this can be a night that is separate from #7. If not, you might combine it with #7. A karaoke machine could be helpful with this if your family members like to sing, or a guitarist or keyboardist. Talents don’t have to be musical, they can be skits, dancing, poetry recitation, sharing arts and crafts, or even just inspiring thoughts. I had grand plans do do this but we were in a heat wave and it just seemed too hot to gather round a fire, even in the evening, so we didn’t. Oh well, maybe next time!

12. Take a family photo. I almost forgot to do this! If I had remembered to put it in the schedule that I published before the reunion AND gotten a commitment from every family member, with an appointed photographer in place it would have been better. Then we would have had just one photo with everyone there. I wouldn’t have had to scramble and take two family photos to get everyone, because some people had left for work, sleep, or other activities. (That is the downside of doing a reunion where not everyone has to travel long distances to be there, or where you are not in some secluded place, some of the people will continue to do some of their regular schedule or run errands while you are having the reunion, then gather with you in their down time.) Anyway, at least I got two that when combined show everyone. Can you imagine being the Duggars of the Bates and attempting to get a group photo of those super-sized families?

13. Have a picnic by a natural source of water. A very shallow stream is a safe natural wonder attraction for big and little children and so invigorating when you wade in it.

14. This point only applies if you are have extended family in the same area as where you are gathering: have bookend days, the day on either side of the event, where family members attending the reunion can connect with family beyond the family that the reunion is for. The generation above and/or cousins.

15. Play board games. I know I said that in Point #5 but it’s such a great free idea (if you already have the games) that it deserves its own mention. Even if you don’t have the games and choose to buy them it’s an inexpensive way to help a crowd have fun and connect. You could also borrow games from neighbors and friends. I’m not talking about the lame-o games from the 60s and 70s like Sorry! and Aggravation. I’m talking about games that involve lots of talking, namely getting-to-know you games and social deduction. I’ll have to do a separate post about this, but here are some names of those kinds of games for starters: Imaginiff, Loaded Questions, Likewise, Truth Be Told, Two Rooms and a Boom, Secret Hitler, Werewords, Chameleon, Moods, Resistance, and Coup.

Plus old-fashioned parlor games like Charades and any twists on that like Times Up and Reverse Charades. Usually a bunch of people in every family love word games, like

Bananagrams, Scrabble, Boggle and/or Word on the Street, Codenames, and Taboo. Those last three are great for a group because you can have teams of any size. You can even get a free print-and-play copy of Two Rooms and a Boom here. It’s also a game you can play with a big group.

Here is our loose schedule/recap to show how my suggestions above played out. I purposefully paced so it wouldn’t be too hectic of going from activity to activity with no margin. I didn’t want to feel like I needed a long summer nap by the time it was over.

My granddaughter taking a nap at the waterpark.

Just remember that relatives usually enjoy more time than you think to chill and just chat. Not every moment needs to be programmed with entertainment beyond visiting.

Day 1: Splash Summit Waterpark for all day. I left the waterpark early and fixed dinner for the whole clan, which was taco salad. Then the evening activity was listening to my parents tell ancestor stories, especially of their Utah pioneer ancestors. We topped it off with homemade ice cream.

Day 2: We played board games for the daytime: Secret Hitler, Code Names and Catan. Then the evening was up Provo Canyon for a picnic by a stream. We had a birthday party for my son and his girlfriend, with a watermelon birthday cake, a tradition for him. Their birthdays are a year and five days apart. It started to rain so we left early at 7 and went to our respective lodging spots for the night. That was a good thing, to give some margin. My married daughter and her brother just younger than her stayed up till midnight talking.

Day 3: For daytime we went to BYU’s Bean Museum (free) and then some went to the BYU Creamery for lunch. Even though it was supposed to be a day where we were gone until evening, the consensus was people were too tired so we cut those activities short and went back to the house and played Carcassone.

My two-year-old grandson watches his cousin “break dancing” at the Bean Museum. He’s probably never seen such a thing before, LOL!

My son, affectionately named “Venture” on this blog with is girlfriend. She’s a serious enough girlfriend that she came to the reunion.

Yay! More board game time! Carcassone is such a fun game! See my review here. I have had it for over two years and finally played it. In the evening we had sharing family stories and memories sitting on the front lawn while the sun set. Like I mentioned above, many memories that my children shared elicited the response from me “I don’t remember that!” I have a feeling that is common for most moms of a lot of children. I remembered to take family photos that evening before we went to bed.

Day 4: We played another board game for the daytime. We are big into social deduction games. Currently the favorite is Blood on the Clockwork Tower. This was our second time playing it as a family, the first being for last New Year’s Eve. It’s hard to find and buy but totally worth it as many people consider it the best social deduction game ever. It sounds creepy but there’s no more blood and gore than in Secret Hitler or Murder in the Dark. It’s a role-playing social deduction game. In it, everybody gets a secretly assigned role, like washerwoman, detective, ravenskeeper, watchman, and the demon. The characters are divided into two sides, the good guys and bad guys. The bad guys are the demon and the minion, the good guys are the townsfolk and the outsiders. Each role has special powers. If you are a good guy you are wanting to suss out the bad guys and if you are a bad guy you want to kill everybody. The games involves lots of acting and conversation. You can read the whole script here. You don’t all sit around a board to play. Everyone can be sitting on a couch with no table. The storyteller keeps the “board” which is really a box that opens like a book, in front of him, which could be a small table or shelf, to keep track of all the characters. The rest of the participants aren’t allowed to see inside. Then the rest of the game parts involve tokens to denote what role each person is. You can sit on chairs, or the floor, or couches and the storyteller passes around a bag for you to claim your token, then collects the tokens and keeps track of them in game box.

My grandson loved playing in the dirt outside the BYU Wilkinson Center

After dinner, we did our family photo scavenger hunt at BYU. We then gathered back at homebase for ice cream and talking until it was 11 after the grandchildren had been put to bed. We had a family prayer and that put our first official family reunion in the books!

The next day, it wasn’t officially a family reunion day, what with my oldest child departing with his wife on the airplane early in the morning, but some of us did gather again. So I got to squeeze in another game! We played Gardening Scrabble, which is soooo much better than regular Scrabble. My married daughter wanted to play Bananagrams which is also a favorite with my daughter-in-law but I couldn’t find it. So Gardening Scrabble it was. You get extra points if you make words that have to do with plants or gardening. Our board is below. Notice the words “toil,” “box,” which became boxy, “pegs,” and “calla.” All of those words got extra points for relating to plants and gardening. Each player gets three seed packets which each has a special power like the ability to make your word go up instead of down, duplicate any player’s score for one turn, or combine your tiles with another player’s. So fun!

Here’s a list of random things I learned about my family at the reunion. This shows how family reunions allow me to get to know my family members better.

-my dad first laid eyes on my mom in the Jesse Knight Humanities Building (JKHB) at BYU on Sunday October 7 1962. They were at church (at BYU the students often meet in campus buildings on Sundays for church meetings), and my dad’s friend pointed out my mom to my dad. He asked my dad if he would like to date my mom. My dad said yes. Then that night my parents met in my mom’s apartment in the old Heritage Halls at BYU when my dad and his friend/roommate came over with a chocolate cake that my grandma had made. They attempted to get my mom and her roommates to believe that they had made the cake themselves but my mom wasn’t fooled one bit. That was the beginning of their romance and marriage, and long life together. I knew most of the at story already, but in prepping for our BYU scavenger hunt, I discovered the date and place of when my dad first “met” my mom. The JKHB still stands but the old Heritage Halls buildings have been demolished to replace them.

-my children can still sing the Singin’ Smart Song Caps on the Map. This is a song that lists all the state capitols, a holdover from their homeschooling years. Of course that makes my mama heart happy!

-my daughter-in-law did the BYU Jerusalem Study Abroad program the winter 2017.

-my son’s roommate when he lived in Austin TX, fresh out of college with a new job, before he got married, was Benjamin Pachev, who I read about it int his article here, a few years ago. I think he’s the second-youngest person to graduate from BYU, at age 17. He was going to graduate school when he was my son’s roommate. He comes from a runner family, as detailed in the article I linked. My son said he ran something like 10 miles a day.

-one of my daughters-in-law likes MikaRose dresses and was able to buy two for $15 each while she was here

-my married daughter, Virtue, had a roommate at BYU-I who thought she was younger than she was and would gloat about falling in love, telling my daughter she had no idea of love, not knowing that my daughter had had a few boyfriends already. This same person thought my daughter was a sophomore when she was about to graduate.

-my son, Honor, invited us to join his wife, his two little children and him on a cruise next spring. They are going to pay for it in exchange for some babysitting on the cruise!

-my son’s girlfriend loves to play in the rain and swim

-my firstborn is going to a 3 day convention soon, solely devoted to playing Blood on the Clock Tower

-my third son, Venture, remembers to this day the time he was walking our big family dog, around age 9. The dog started running causing my son to fall down and get scraped up. For some reason his oldest brother, Valor, was walking home from something on the same sidewalk and rushed to the rescue. He picked him up, helped him home, and bandaged him up.

So there you go! I hope you take what works for you above and plan your own family reunion that reflects your family’s budget for time, money and interests. The important thing is to foster connection, which can happen in infinite ways. God wants you to have family reunions so go forth and enjoy them!

*Here’s why I picked families and vacation as the themes for August in my devotionals ebook.

I have a Hansen family branch, my father’s mother’s line, that has had a family reunion the first Saturday in August every year, (except 2020) for over 40 years. For over 15 years we enjoyed a small waterslide that went down a hill in the backyard of my dad’s cousin, as well as a zipline, plus volleyball as our reunion activities, accompanied by potluck food. Then we stopped having the reunion there. We’ve had it at other cousins’ backyards, at city parks, up the canyon, and most recently at Golden Corral, a restaurant. One year we had this giant waterslide that my children enjoyed, as shown above. We were living in AZ at the time. It was so fun to be there when everybody we knew in AZ was back in school.)

2. It’s the month of my wedding anniversary, which is our family’s birthday, so we always have a family birthday party, in person for those who live around here, along with a Zoom meeting for the ones living out of town. (The way we celebrate changes every year. Here are examples here, here and here. Sometimes I make a slide show of family pictures to share with everyone in the Zoom meeting. Sometimes we play Jackbox or other games in Zoom.)

3. It is the month when many families have one last “hurrah” of vacation or family time before school and regular, responsible routines start in August or September

4. When we lived in Layton our church always had a family-themed activity in August

5. My parents’ church in Highland for years, maybe they still do, called August “Family Month” and had some major family activity as well, similar to what we did in Layton.

Happy family reunioning!

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