I had hoped to blog about my Splendid Spring Mother Curriculum by now. I enjoyed a Merry Christmas Mother curriculum as seen here, and a Wondrous Winter one, shown here. I haven’t shared my spring one yet. In the meantime, I’m sharing today about some lovely music and books to add more sparkle to your springtime days, especially if you are homeschooling. This is the most wonderful time of year as the standard public school year winds down and whatever classes we are doing that are tied to that schedule wind down as well. It’s a great time to make a new schedule for your personal learning!
The video below by Olivia Grace Cook shows some books similar to Anne of Green Gables for your spring reads.
Here are the books mentioned in the video.
She recommends all the volumes in the Emma M. Lion series.
I have read most of these books, and the ones I haven’t read (the two castle books and the horse book) have been recommended to me by people I trust so I recommend those too. The Emma Lion Vol. 1 ended too abruptly for me with an unsatisfying ending, but it’s part of a series so the first book was just an intro to her story. I have read Vol 2 and Vol 3 and enjoyed those more. They are all the rage right now. The video above recommends the whole series (9 so far with more to come). The Susan Branch books are a trilogy. They do show a couple living together without marriage and then the heartbreak that comes when the relationship falls apart. I review some of Susan Branch’s cookbooks here and here. These cookbooks are a delight to read!
I’ve enjoyed most of those books above as they are “girly” but none of the them show a mother in the trenches, finding joy in ordinary marriage and mothering/homeschooling life.
So I add to those books above this one below as a super great, inspiring read for homeschooling moms. The author, Sarah Janisse Brown, shows the joy that comes from pursuing chaste, Christian-based courtship, marriage, and motherhood. She has accomplished so much: being a teen model for Seventeen magazine, being homeschooled as a child, marriage, motherhood to 15 children, including adoption of 5 from Ukraine, homeschooling the 15 children, helping her oldest daughter with dyslexia, writing books, owning and running a successful business publishing her books, and public speaking. Now she is running for Congress in Indiana. Amazing! To think that she failed third grade!
Now how about some lovely music to listen to while you read? Here is some springtime-themed music below. When you hear it, you will feel like you are frolicking with Peter Rabbit in a garden. I’ve been listening to it as I do a drawing lesson each morning with the book below while my 16 year old son does his math in Mathusee. So dreamy!
Is it time to get a few spring/summery items of clothing, decor, or books? You can get those things for a fraction of the cost at thrift stores. Here is Rachel, of the Sweet and Simple Home YouTube Channel, with some thrift hauls for spring and summer.
I can’t mention spring culture without including a book about gardening. So here’s a gardening book, by the gardening/farming/homesteading pro William DeMille. Go here to watch a video of him presenting some of what’s in this book.
Lastly, here’s another book for your spring mother culture, appropriately called Mother Culture, by Karen Andreola. I’m hosting a random giveaway of the book this month of May 2026. Go here to read my review and enter the random drawing of the giveaway.
Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers and mothers-to-be! Where would we be without mothers? We wouldn’t be here. They are so indispensable to life. Fathers too of course. Ideally, they are a team.
Here are some memories of my mom with some videos that give inspiring counsel for mothers or show inspiring stories of mothering.
Some of my favorite memories of my mom are the following:
-when I started kindergarten I remember my mom curled my hair often the night before school and then styled it the next morning to look wonderful with her artful touch.
-she also sewed almost all of my clothes for the first few years of my public school career. I have fond memories of the different jumpers, tops, and dresses she sewed for me. I felt like a princess going off to school with my beautiful hair and clothes.
-when I was 5-7 I had to have a series of doctor visits culminating in a surgery, where I was hospitalized for 2 weeks. My mom always coached me through theses visits and procedures, including injections with needles. I remember her distracting me one particular time in a doctor’s office, telling me to look at the USA map on the wall as the needle was about to go in, asking me where Nevada was. (Nevada was her home state.) I felt such a calming presence with her there.
-also in my young years ages 5-12 I saw my mom paint and create beautiful art. That set an example for me, cast a vision for me, and inspired me to be an artist. I drew a lot of pictures when young then put drawing aside to focus on other interests as I went through jr high, high school, and college. But that creative seed she planted in my heart by me watching her is finally blossoming forth as I’ve delved into learning to draw for the past 18 months or so. Eventually I will get into painting. I also always knew my mom studied art in college and graduated from college. Knowing that she graduated from college cast another vision for me to graduate from college, which I did.
-I remember living in Illinois when I was about 4, and it was that week between Christmas and New Year’s. I remember my mom playing with my older brother, who was 6, using a Batman toy and other action figures on the couch in the living room. That cast a vision for me to be OK with playing with my own children. I wish I had played more with my own children but felt like I hardly had the time, so I’m making up for it more by playing with my grandchildren.
-my mom read aloud to us. I remember her reading the picture books above and below, among many other books. When I was 8-9 we lived in upstate New York. My mom read aloud Little Women to my sisters and me at bedtime. That planted a seed in my heart for that book and others by Louisa May Alcott. (I have blogged a lot about that love, see all my posts here.)
-I remember helping my mom in her kindergarten class as an aide, getting high school credit, for my whole senior year. She has always had a special love for little children and helping them learn. It was fun to see how she organized her classroom and how much those little children adored her.
-My mom (and dad) paid for piano lessons for years starting in first grade, off and on till I graduated from high school, and violin lessons when I was in high school. I never knew she could also play the piano until I was a teen, because they were so busy with work and family responsibilities. (Then when I was an adult, mother of 5 maybe, I discovered that my dad can play the piano too!) I enjoy creating music to this day on piano, violin and organ, and credit for my parents for paying for my lessons. I am not a natural at music and would not have picked up on it on my own without lessons.
-I remember camping at Yellowstone with my family when I was about 10. I remember being inside the tent and my mom was setting up sleeping bags and cracked some kind of joke. That was the first time I realized my mom has a sense of humor.
-My mom has helped me out after the birth of each of my children, often being there in labor to give me moral support. It was so fabulous to go be there last August when I assumed that role and watched and helped my daughter during her labor and childbirth, and then babysit my older grandchildren afterwards, just like my mom did for me.
-When I was in the throes of young motherhood, homescholing in Layton UT with seven children at home my mom would randomly offer to come visit and help out with my kiddos. She has babysat for me through the years at her home too. I so much appreciate the breaks she gave me.
So thank you mom for guiding me through the years and helping me so much when I became a mom!
Mothers have so much influence by setting down habits for their children for life. I’ve never wanted to be a CEO of a company or any other high-powered career outside the home when my children were young because I knew I had all the power I wanted for eternity being a wife and mother. I have enjoyed being joint CEO with my husband of our family, with the high-powered career of being a Queen and Mother in my home.
Here are some mothers I spotlighted last year who have made tremendous difference as mothers, following the natural seasons of a mother’s life.
Here is my review of one of my favorite inspiring books for mothers, A Lantern in Her Hand.
As a Gen Xer, I am old enough to remember the Osmonds, watching them sing and dance on TV. I’ve always loved their music and have fond memories of the Donny and Marie show. I never had the Donny and Marie fashion dolls (like Barbie dolls) but some of my friends did.
Hey I never knew about the Jimmy doll! Photo Credit: ebay.com
Watching the Osmonds reminds me of my childhood and the tame, peaceful way the world was compared to now. Sure, we had Watergate and Vietnam in the 70s but that’s nothing compared to now! So I’m sad that Alan Osmond, the oldest brother of the performing group, recently passed away, due to complications of multiple sclerosis. Here is his funeral below and then some videos below showing fun memories of him and his family. He and his brothers were the original boy band.
Alan’s younger brother Donny conducted the funeral. I have always loved watching Donny just because he’s kind, talented and good-looking, same as his brothers. But Donny was the cutest, just sayin. Everybody loved him or they were jealous of him for those reasons. I was too young to have a crush on him but have always admired him. It’s funny though that I ended up marrying a man close to his age. My sister saw Donny once at ToysRUs in Orem 20 years ago so that made me envious. She said he was wearing a purple sweater. If you know anything about Donny that makes sense.
I could go on telling Donny stories, but this is about Alan. Here is a video of Alan’s sons practicing a song for their dad’s funeral. So sweet!
Some of these boys made up the Osmonds 2nd Generation. Here the they are in a Disney TV pilot.
It’s so wonderful that Alan and his wife Suzanne Pinegar Osmond created a family life of 8 sons who continued on with his legacy of music. 8 boys, wow! I just continue to marvel at that! They each speak at the funeral in the top video above.
This video below of Alan dancing and singing Stevie Wonder songs with his brothers and Cher is so fun and so 70s! Those colors and those pants, oh my!
Thank you Alan for your legacy of living a testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, singing beautiful harmonies with your brothers, charitable fundraising with your Children’s Miracle Network, and offering wholesome, showstopping entertainment, including the annual Stadium of Fire in Provo UT. Here is Alan’s story and testimony of Jesus Christ below.
Want more of the Osmonds?
Go here for the story of Alan’s mother, Olive Osmond, giving a copy of the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ to the Queen of England. At the same post you can watch the funeral of Alan’s brother Wayne, just scroll down to the very bottom.
Go here and scroll down to the middle of the post for Donny talking about playing Joseph and the coat of many colors on Broadway. He also mentions, in the video below at the 45:28 mark, of the parallels between him and Joseph. That’s so fascinating.
Here is a call to action for all seekers, believers, and defenders of truth. I encourage all to watch these videos and join the fight to stand for morality, liberty, life, light, and Christ. These videos all feature Merrilee Boyack. She is one of my favorite nonfiction authors. (I read her book The Parenting Breakthrough years ago as a young mother. It totally revolutionized my life, giving me the mothering spine to enforce chores done by the children. That resulted in a much smoother, joyful mothering life. I also enjoyed her book about marriage.)
In the first video below, Merrilee shares the horrific fact that in the USA we have 200,000 elective abortions happening a day! This is the greatest evil of our time.
What can we do about this? We can start by talking about with others to raise awareness. She refers to an article here about Latter-day Saints shutting down conversations on abortion by saying, “We can’t talk about that, it’s political!” She explains what to say when people say that. “It’s not political, it’s doctrinal.” Elder Neil L. Andersen brought up this same phrase in a General Conference talk a year ago, which you can read here.
I appreciate her emphasis that we as women have a unique moral compass. She quotes President Russell M. Nelson from this article here.
The videos below show what we can do about this evil.
Thank you Merrilee for you tireless dedication to fighting this evil. Here is Merrilee’s site, Abortion Free Utah. Here is the Latter-day Saints for Life site. May all truth defenders everywhere be able to tell our posterity that we did something to stand up to this plague of evil.
If you want to learn one young woman’s story of having two abortions, and then going from working at Planned Parenthood, an abortion provider, to becoming a pro-life mother of 8, go here. Listen to her podcast here.
Mother’s Day is less than two weeks away! To celebrate I’m blogging about a wonderful book that is geared towards mothers, especially homeschooling moms. It’s Mother Culture by veteran homeschooling mom Karen Andreola. I’m also doing a giveaway of this book. To enter into the random drawing for the giveaway, please comment in the comments section at the bottom of this post. I will announce the winner on Monday June 1, 2026 around noon MDT. When you make your comment, please include your name and what chapter in the book you are most interested in learning, as shown below in the two images featuring the Table of Contents.
This book is such a wonderful, refreshing gem! Reading from it is like sitting under a shady tree on a pleasant sunny day, minus any annoying bugs; sipping lemonade as you chat with experienced homeschooling mom girlfriends. Actually, I take that back. It’s more like having a slumber party, wait, no… a month-long moms retreat in a cabin by a lake, with other homeschooling moms, eating your favorite food, talking, laughing, learning and hugging. It’s like having a vacation as in the chick lit book Enchanted April, but for homeschooling moms, with no drama, some comedy, some married romance, and a lot of encouraging love to keep on with the homeschooling journey. (Enchanted April is actually mentioned in this book, LOL.) Mother Culture allows you to glean wisdom from the author, who homeschooled her own children in the 1980s and 1990s using the Charlotte Mason philosophy of home education. Now she is a grandmother, which adds another layer to her depth of wisdom.
I was delighted a few years ago to find out that Mrs. Andreola has continued to be a voice in the homeschool world, since my early days of homeschooling in the late 1990s. I bought her first book, A Charlotte Mason Companion, when my oldest was 5, in 1998. Mrs. Andreola continues to write to spread the good news of Charlotte Mason. Astute observers will notice that this book, as shown below, is featured as the top book in the pile to the left of the mother’s elbow on the cover of the Mother Culture book, shown at the top of this post. Mrs. Andreola’s son, Nigel Andreola, is the illustrator. How fun!
ACMC was my first “how to homeschool book” that I ever bought, and I still have it. That book is a primer for parents on how to homeschool the Charlotte Mason way. I view Mother Culture as a companion to that book, maybe a sequel? It shows mothers how to nurture their souls so they can better nurture their children, by using the Charlotte Mason method. I learned so much from the ACMC: knowing the difference between living books vs. twaddle, the power of reading living books aloud, the power of narration, the value of short lessons, the value of getting your child outside into nature, and the importance of establishing good habits for children, among other truths. Charlotte Mason’s idea that good habits are like railroad tracks that give your child a solid foundation to life was in my mind and heart a lot when I was in the thick of mothering my seven children. It helped me to persevere in helping them form good habits. (I’m now at the end of homeschooling, with only my youngest child in the nest.) One of my first homeschooling conferences was in the fall of 1999 that featured a Charlotte Mason expert (Not Karen Andreola). I attended it with my husband and two other couples who are still great friends. We had so much fun that day, such that I have happy memories from that conference. I also joined a Charlotte Mason email support group and felt blessed to have all that guidance. Even though I haven’t been strict about using the Charlotte Mason method as in, I haven’t used the Ambleside Online curriculum or been a faithful nature journaler, I have benefitted much from the CM philosophy. That means I have used the aforementioned truths to guide my homeschooling. So to find this “new,” at least new-to-me book by Mrs. Andreola is such a delight!
Here’s a little bit of what I enjoy about the book:
-the author intersperses her big sister/grandmotherly counsel with lots of interesting stories from her own marriage and homeschooling family life, living in different places, including England, Maine, and Pennsylvania
-the author mentions books and movies that are sure to delight and inspire you. One of them she mentions is Room for One More, starring Cary Grant, which my husband and I watched last week and thoroughly enjoyed. I’m always looking for movies about wholesome family life, and this one delivered. I look forward to watching the other movies and reading the books she mentions.
-the child discipline tips in the book show respect for children and their developmental stages as well as how to establish your authority as mother.
-Biblical scripture is expounded on and shown how to put into genuine Christian living.
-the author writes about how to help siblings become best friends
-every chapter begins with a quote from a classic work of literature, or an author of a classic work
-the vintage line drawings showing domestic felicity are just so lovely. The above image is a sample. They come from Mrs. Andreola’s own collection of antique books.
-the author’s emphasis on wifely and motherly femininity is fun, with her fashion and homemaking suggestions, including the story of designer Laura Ashley
-it’s fun to read about the author’s pleasure in knitting mittens for her children and grandchildren
-the importance of having regular quiet time in your homeschooling day and how to do it
-the importance of “play” for a mother
That’s just to whet your appetite! This book has so much more for you to enjoy!
The images below, again courtesy of amazon.com, show the opening pages of the book.
Here is a lovely video with the author talking about Mother Culture:
I give this book 5 out of 5 stars! If you have a homeschooling mother in your life, this would be such a wonderful gift for Mother’s Day or any day! Pair it with a pretty notebook and some colorful pens for her to keep track of her ideas as she reads the book and she will be thrilled! You don’t have to be a homeschooling mom to benefit from it. It’s a wonderfully charming book that shows what the author calls Charlotte Mason’s Gentle Art of Learning for a happy, cultured mama life. An alternate title for this book is “The Homeschooling Mom’s Guide to Maximizing Joy and Preventing Burnout.”
Mrs. Andreola has also written three works of fiction to show the Gentle Art of Learning in story form. I haven’t read those yet and can’t wait to digest them all! See above and below. They comprise a trilogy that follow the journey of a mom named Carol. You can follow her as she applies what she learns from Charlotte Mason’s book Home Education. Carol desires to love her husband, treasure her children, and enjoy homemaking and home learning.
These books look amazing! How rare to find works of fiction that shows happiness in marriage, homemaking and homeschooling!
Once again, if you want to be entered into the random drawing for the giveaway of a copy of the Mother Culture book, please comment below with a mention of which chapter shown in the book’s Table of Contents (shown at the top of this post) that you are most interested in reading.
Here’s another video featuring Mrs. Andreola, interviewed by Sonya Shafer of simplycharlottemason.com. I hope you glean at least one thing from these videos that blesses your mothering and homeschooling. May it be just the beginning of a wonderful journey resonating with Charlotte Mason’s principles! They are compatible with other philosophies of homeschooling and are truly timeless.
Want more of Mrs. Andreola? Go here for her Charlotte Mason Research site and here for her Mother Culture website.
This video shows some amazing things about the signs and wonders of spring 2026. As it says in the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ in Alma 30:44:
“…all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator.”
A rare photo where I actually was able to see and capture a full rainbow.
Here are a few recent stories of my life from March and April 2026 where I felt God blessing me. These stories either involve God blessing me with thrifting angels, inspiring me through the Holy Ghost, or inspiring others to minister to me. I’m also sharing some photos of springtime happenings from my observations and my friend Heather’s flower garden.
One half of the same rainbow shown above, on Y Mountain, just east of BYU.
Back in February or so we received a bill for one of my son’s out-of-home educational activities that complements our homeschooling. It’s a significant chunk of money. We’ve been wondering how to pay it. In late March, I got an email about an envelope of cash, given anonymously, that was available for anyone to go pick up at a specific drop-off place in our neighborhood. So I told my son and he ran over there and got over $100 cash! He has also been blessed with some work opportunities from a neighbor to earn money too. So we’ve paid part of the bill. Then today at church I found out that a neighbor is willing to pay him to teach her son drum lessons. So he can earn money that way too.
The other half of the rainbow.
Recently I had a very overdue library book. I’m talking about a picture book I checked out for Christmas. So way overdue. I looked for it a bit but couldn’t find it. I asked the library to look for it as I was pretty sure that I had returned it. They looked and said they couldn’t find it. I asked them to look again as I was beginning to think I had never checked it out. I couldn’t remember every reading it. On the way home from the library I felt the Holy Ghost tell me “Look under the couch.” So I did as soon as I got home and found it! I was as happy as the woman in the Bible who finds the lost coin. I returned the book later that day and got all my library privileges restored. Now I can use the Libby app again, use the self-check-out and don’t have to pay a $20 fee. Yay!
Just this last Friday my husband showed me that his laptop wasn’t working. It wouldn’t let him log in even though he was using the right passcode. He had already taken it to two places to get it fixed and they couldn’t fix it. I thought for a few moments and then remembered our son-in-law, who is techy. I suggested my husband talk to him. So we took the laptop to him. He fixed it! This is just so glorious, because my husband uses his laptop to earn money from home. He had a big project starting the following Monday that required him to have a computer. He would have had to use mine, 9 hours a day, and then that means I can’t use mine very much. Or he could have used our desktop PC which is old and slow. So we are feeling so blessed that our son-in-law fixed it.
Over a month ago my husband and I had a big disagreement. I was so mad at him and he was mad at me. I prayed to God for help. God spoke to me through the Holy Ghost, telling me to ask my husband if I could fix him some breakfast, the next morning after the big fight. That got us talking. Then the Holy Ghost told me to ask my husband if I could give him a hug. Which I don’t want to do when I’m mad at him, but I asked anyway because the Holy Ghost told me to. So I did and that completely diffused the situation because my husband said yes. We forgave each other and moved on with peace restored.
For our Easter Sunday celebration a few weeks ago, I wanted to get a non-edible gift for everyone in my family who lives in town and would be celebrating with us for Easter Sunday Dinner, for them to get in our Easter egg hunt. I had plans to go to the Provo Deseret Industries (DI), Orem Savers, Springville DI, Five Below, Dollar Tree, and Hobby Lobby, all in one afternoon, to shop for these gifts. Yeah, that was way to ambitious of me, to do all that in one afternoon. Anyway, I wanted to get beautiful and useful and/or fun gifts. I also thought it would be fun to find some new clothes for me, my husband, and my last child in the nest, my 16-year-old son.
I went to the Provo DI first. I found so many wonderful things. I found these books above and below so everybody got at least two books. So many classics! Plus a Spot It! game. (The Winnie the Pooh game I accidentally put in this photo. It actually was from the Springville DI thrift haul, shown below.)
–The Virginian by Owen Wister! That title was the answer to a clue on Jeopardy! just last night. (Boy did I feel smug when I got the answer right and none of the contestants did, even Jamie Ding, who is on a 30 day streak. Chalk up a victory for the education I’ve received as a homeschooling mom, especially from TJEd, as to how I knew that answer. I’ve read the book and loved it and was happy to gift it to someone in my family.)
–A Midwife’s Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich! My daughter had a homebirth with midwives last August so I thought she would enjoy it. Maybe I will pick it next when it’s my turn for Sisters’ Book Club.
–A Girl’s Guide to Heavenly Mother! I wish the art were more my style but I love the text. I wanted one of my girls to get it, and my married daughter did. My other daughter lives with her so hopefully she will read it too.
-A guide to discovering the world of the Bible by a man who used to be our next-door neighbor, D. Kelly Ogden. He was a great neighbor and BYU professor of religion. I saw reconnected with him randomly about two years ago in the parking lot of a Walmart. His wife is wonderful too.
-A book on how to grill for my son-in-law. He said he has used many times so far and enjoys it.
-a drawing anime book for my oldest grandson and younger daughter to connect over. She draws extremely well and he’s learning how to draw.
-some chapter books, The Great Brain and The Moffats for my oldest grandson
-two picture books for my second oldest grandson, a classic, Mike Mulligan, and a Little Golden Spiderman book
-I also found a gardening-themed board book for my baby grandson and a cute little stuffed bunny toy but my photos of those got lost
-a book for teens by Sean Covey for my 16-year-old
-a book about George Washington and his spy ring which I got for any of the adults. One of the little boys got it so it will default to be read by the adults in the home I hope (my daughter and son-in-law)
Two of the books I already owned but threw them into the mix, the Viva Le Repartee, which I got at a little free library last fall, and the Action Storybook Bible, which I found thrifting at DI sometime last year. My daughter said her oldest son is getting into graphic novels so that’s perfect because it’s a graphic novel and it’s about Jesus. Then an ESV Bible, another graphic novel, and a biography of Pres. Henry B. Eyring, to replace the one I gave away to my dad for his birthday last summer. The book about angels I kept for myself, as well as the yellow book in the lower right. It’s a chapter book about a girl studying ballet. I may give it to my older daughter later after I read it. I read the How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton Christensen earlier this year. I was excited to find another copy to give away.
Then I found these shirts below for my husband and son. The button-down shirt is Lands End, looked brand new, and was $6. The Van’s T-shirt for my son was $4.
I found this shirt below for me that I can wear with a variety of pants for everyday, or a skirt and dressy sweater on Sunday. I wore it on Easter Sunday with a cream-colored sweater and a cream-colored skirt. Definitely a piece that dazzles my heart with the flowers in a heart shape, the sun peeping up behind, and words that say, “Meet me in paradise.”
I was delighted to also find those three books across the top of the photo and the snowflakes book to add to my hygge winter/Valentine’s Day picture book collection. You can see how I use them for decorations over here, under Point #4. Then the Little House on the Prairie picture book, which I can read aloud to my grandchildren. I have two others in the picture book series, but this is the basic intro book which is exciting. I like reading Cleon Skousen’s stuff even though I don’t agree with everything he says. The Third Thousand Years tells part of the Old Testament story which my church is focusing on this year for Sunday School and home study.
Now for more from the Provo DI. A light blue top for me for spring and summer! I’ve been wanting The Quiltmaker’s Gift for so long, as in decades, every since I saw my little sister Emily receive it for her birthday from a friend when I had three kiddos not seven, and she hadn’t married yet. It’s such a gorgeous book that illustrates the perfect love of Christ, called charity. I will add it to my hygge wintry picture book/Valentine’s Day picture book collection. I’ve also been wanting an acrylic pitcher that looks like glass, and I found the one above for $2. Plus another Reader’s Digest Songbook! To add to my collection of RD Songbooks. These give me so much joy when I play the music in them on the piano. So far I have the Christmas one, which I got for my 16th birthday, and then three others that I have thrifted: Children’s Songbook, Family Songbook, and Popular Classics. So the Great Music’s Greatest Hits makes me a collection of 5. Then Cold Sassy Tree! We are reading this book this month for my Shumway Sisters’ Book Club. Then a book about Joseph Smith as America’s Greatest Educator by Neil Flinders, who was a colleague of my father’s at BYU. His writings on education helped inspire the Thomas Jefferson Education movement.
I got the book in the lower left corner because it’s a Christmas songbook and it has a few Christmas songs I don’t have. The orange thing in the middle left of the photo that is a key shape is a Jr. Learning Wrapup educational toy to have in my basket of puzzles/games/toys in the dining room when the grandsons visit for Sunday dinner or playtime. The book in the middle that says “Joy” is a book about a musical family, which I’m fascinated about. See it below. I love reading books about family life and then to have it be about a musical family adds a cherry on top. I just started reading it so I have yet to discover why the cover shows a spoonful of lentils and dried legumes. Maybe because music fed the family’s soul while they lived on beans and rice?
I also wanted to find some books for my ministeree sister. That is my name for one of the women in my congregation/ward who I am assigned to minister to. She loves to read and I was hoping to find something Easter-y and/or springy for her as an Easter gift. The book on the left below fits the Easter theme and the tree book is for the spring/nature theme. The book is historical fiction about Joseph of Arimathea.
I spent so much time at DI that afternoon enjoying the bounty of books I didn’t have time to go to all the rest of the places that afternoon, just the Springville DI and Dollar Tree. It just had so many great books!! I didn’t buy everything I saw even. I definitely had to restrain myself and leave some treasures behind. I finally left there after being there for almost three hours (!), went home for a quick pitstop, then I had ten minutes at the Springville DI before it closed and found the following things below.
A new dress for me that can be dressed up for Sunday with pearls and a sweater and dressed down for casual days with no accessories and just sandals. I got the Charlie book for my oldest grandson. I hope to read it aloud to him and have his parents read it aloud to him too. I want us to stop reading at certain exciting points to encourage him to read more of it on his own.
Then the next day, since it was General Conference, I only had time to go to to the Orem Savers and Daiso on the halftime break. I went to Daiso in search of a cute Winnie the Pooh bag to replace the worn-out, tattered and torn box shown above. I found one, as shown below!
The illustrations are just so cute in the classic WTP style. What a perfect match for a matching game!
I was really hoping to find something related to Narnia after stating in my blog here that if I could rewind the clock and go back and do not junky Easter baskets (here and here) I would give something Narnia related each year to my children. I was thrilled to find the 7 volumes in 1 book Narnia book below.
All 7 of these volumes, shown below,
are combined in this volume below, which I got for around $3 at Savers. My BYU-attending single son got it as part of our Easter celebration. I hope he keeps it to read aloud to his future children.
-For over two years, I have been wanting to get the LaDawn Jacob resources fixed on my page here. When I closed down one of my Google accounts the files disappeared. I had restored two of them but still needed to fix two more. It had been a slow process. Just in the last month of March, I felt the Spirit urging me to make another effort. I reached out to LaDawn and this time I was able to go to her home and get the physical files and digitize them, as she said she had lost the digital copies and couldn’t email them, like she did the others. I have met her before, but this time I got to have a longer visit, the first time in her home. It was just so delightful! We talked about the mutual friends we have. She said something to me that just made me feel so loved.
I confessed that not all my children play musical instruments like hers (11). I said I just didn’t have the wherewithal and the money to get them instruments and lessons and make them practice. She said, “Well not every family has that mission.” We talked more about it and she concluded our conversation by saying, “I’m confident you raised them in the way that was best for them.” I felt such peace at hearing that! Yes, my family’s mission was homeschooling not focusing on raising musicians. She did not homeschool, and she focused on making musicians out of all of them. Not that you can’t do both, as witnessed by The Happy Caravan family, but for me, homeschooling was what I was called to do and that stretched me to my limit. I couldn’t add raising musicians on top of that. I was just doing good to homeschool them, keeping their body and spirit together with my marriage intact during all the trials I have faced, raising 7 children. I did expose all of them to the piano, with some getting formal lessons when we were awash with money, then the money and the lessons fizzled away. One taught himself to play the drums and one the guitar. For decades though I’ve been comparing myself to her, thinking I was a somewhat of a failure for not having a family orchestra.
It sounds silly but that statement she made to me is such a beautiful blessing. I felt like as a wandering sinner I had just been absolved by a fatherly priest of all my mothering guilt. All the guilt I’d been harboring for decades for not raising them to be more musical. So thank you LaDawn!
I got the files digitized quickly thanks to the wonders of a copy store with an automated scanning machine. Now everything is back on the page, so go check them out here and dive deep in the motherly wisdom of LaDawn. As they say in La Leche League, take what works for you and leave the rest! Don’t let any comparison sneak in, just move forward one baby step at a time with what God is telling you to incorporate from her writings, for you in your family’s life.
(If you want to learn how one mom with not much money has raised her musical family, go here, where I contrast that method with another family’s method. If I had known her approach I would have tried it. But I did the best I could with the knowledge I had so I’m at peace.)
That’s all for now! May God’s richest blessings be upon all of you! I’d love to hear from any of you in the comments below as to how you have seen God’s hand in your life.
I was so thrilled to attend this meeting last week featuring my dear friend Patti Rokus, one of my amazing Veggie Gals. She is the artist behind the rock art I’ve shared here on the blog, over here and here. One of her other many talents is healing. She explains in this presentation that true healing can be reduced to one page, and explains how to find it. So fascinating! Thank you Patti!
The chart for the Emotions Code by Dr. Bradley Nelson that she refers to in the video can be found here.
She tells an amazing story of helping an autistic 9 year-old son of a single mom to sleep in his own bed, after never doing it before. The mom was desperate to get his 200 lb body to sleep away from her and Patti facilitated the solution, all over the phone!
Patti does rock art too! Check out some of her Bible videos here.
I hope to extend the Easter season with a few more activities from now till Pentecost, but here is a recap of what 2026 Easter-themed events happened in my life up through Easter Sunday, 4/5/26.
I learned about extending the Easter season until Pentecost, which is 50 days after Easter (May 24 this year) from Lani Hilton. So whatever I didn’t do before and on Easter, I hope to do after.
One of the best things that happened for my Easter celebration so far this year is that I found my Gospel Art Kit, which was missing last year, as I blogged here. Hooray! So I made my timeline of Holy Week events with the pictures from the New Testament section of that kit, just as I have for many years. See above.
I also had so much fun decorating my front room window ledges for Easter. As I took down books to read aloud from, and added new books, the look kept shifting.
Speaking of books, here are a few that I’ve been enjoying reading aloud with my son for Morning Basket for the Easter season. We didn’t finish by Easter Sunday so will continue to enjoy them and hopefully finish this spring. A homeschooling girlfriend gave me the one above, and the rest I found all at DI, in the past few years since I moved back to UT from AZ. The ones from DI all looked like new, never used, and were $1 each. It is amazing what you can find thrifting!
This one tells the stories behind Easter eggs, egg hunts, the Easter bunny, new clothes for Easter and so much more.
I love anything by Brad Wilcox. He has such a gift for explaining things.
The one below is historical fiction, about the faith journey of one of the shepherds who beheld the angels announcing Christ’s birth.
I found two copies of the one below, one in softcover and one in hardcover. I remember hearing about this book at a homeschooling conference done by Joyce Kimont over 25 years ago. I’m finally reading it. I enjoy reading the words of a real live shepherd and how Jesus is our true shepherd.
For the children’s class that I’m in charge of at the homeschooling co-op we attend, I read aloud the two books below. I’m still figuring out how to incorporate the reading aloud of the first one for my family’s celebration, for next year. I just might make a video of me reading each section and send it to my adult children and my grandchildren to watch and encourage them to do the activity on their own for that day. Or read it on Palm Sunday with whatever grandchildren are with me and talk about each activity like I did with the co-op children. This year I read it on Easter Sunday and crammed it into our celebration with too many other thins. I wish I had done it earlier.
This one above has gorgeous art on every page. It goes through the alphabet and mentions something to do with Easter that starts with each letter.
On the Saturday before Palm Sunday, we attended our BYU-attending son’s ballet performance. We had front-row seats. He was in three numbers. I always wanted to be a ballerina so to see my older daughter take ballet and then get en pointe (when she was a teen), and now one of my sons progress in ballet just thrills my heart. He was in two of the numbers with much of the company, and then he got to do a pas de deux. So beautiful!
Here he is in the pas de deux. (I got the photo from the BYU Theater Ballet’s Facebook page, so credit goes to the Theater Ballet Dept. for the photo.)
That same day, after the ballet we attended our ward/congregation’s Easter party, then we attended a local Easter concert for our church that involved two stakes, ours and one other. (A stake is a collection of congregations, about 6-8). It was so lovely. I learned a new Easter song, “Lord of the Dance.” The tune is from “Simple Gifts” and the lyrics are about Jesus dancing, even on Good Friday. That part says “it’s hard to dance with the devil on your back.” (Lyrics are here.) My friend Delsa who is super musically talented played this song on the piano with James Welch on the organ for a piano/organ duet. It was amazing!
Here is the basic music.
Here is one line from the song: “They buried my body and they thought I had gone… But I am the dance and still go on.” Yes, yes, yes!!!! The Lord still goes on! He is risen, He is alive! He dances! He appeared to Joseph Smith, established his ancient church through Joseph Smith, which exists in these latter-days as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He continues to dance with each one of us, as much as we let Him. I just love this song to remind that He is the dance. Another name for Christ!
Here is a video I found that I think is the same piano/organ duet I witnessed. So incredibly beautiful!
On Palm Sunday we attended a lovely Easter service/sacrament meeting for church. Our church held its Easter service on Palm Sunday because General Conference was being held the next week. I sang the song below with the ward choir. Our director, Delsa, who I just mentioned, told us later that people told her we sounded like the Tabernacle Choir!
The bishop (leader of our ward/church congregation) has started a new tradition in our ward for Palm Sunday. He grew up Catholic, so he grew up having real palm fronds on Palm Sunday. He chose to get baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he was in college. He likes to have the Young Men and Young Women in the ward pass out palm fronds as we leave sacrament meeting as a nod to Palm Sunday and his Catholic upbringing. It was so wonderful this year that there was no Primary after the sacrament service with the little children are riled up, poking each other with the palm fronds. That is what happened last year.
These lovely lilies were on display underneath the podium at church on Palm Sunday. They are fake but still delightful!
We had dinner with extended family and acted out an Easter Play, using the script found here. It starts with the Palm Sunday scene. It was so cute that for the Last Supper scene, my five-year-old grandson went and got cups of water to serve one to each person. He was being so thoughtful and engaged and serving, doing it all without any prompting from anybody.
Then we played Easter Charades. I had made this play doh/cloud doh out of conditioner and corn starch. It seemed perfect when I left the house. But by the time I opened the lid to it, a few hours later, after dinner, it was all crumbly. I appreciated the fact that my grandsons weren’t critical and played with it anyway. We took turns pulling a plastic egg from a basket, reading the clue on a piece of paper inside, and either acting it out or sculpturing it in the play doh. The words were words having to do with the temple, to go with Cleansing Temple Monday, or the parables Jesus taught, on Teaching Tuesday, both from Holy Week. I got this idea from the book below. My review of the book is here.
On Palm Sunday night, BYU hosted a Palm Sunday devotional service, part of A Journey to Easter. I watched that via livestreaming and my son and husband attended. The kitchen was such a disaster from prepping for our Palm Sunday dinner and the play doh for Easter charades that I wanted to clean up it up before 9 PM. If I had gone to the service we would have been cleaning it up after 9. I enjoyed watching the livestream while I worked and then slipping into my PJs and resting to watch it before they got home. I think I’ll just buy play doh from the dollar store next year! I have failed at play doh two years in a row for Easter Charades. I’ll save so much time and money just getting it at the dollar store, even if it’s one of the things at the store that’s not actually $1.25, like the deceptive chocolate bunnies available there.
During Holy Week, we spent each day during our scripture reading before bedtime reading the scriptures associated with that day, as listed in the Holy Week book above. We also watched the associated videos. I read aloud the Cactus and Cross story by Elder Holland on one of the nights.
Image Credit: amazon.com (Disclosure: that is an affiliate link, I receive a small commission if you buy the markers using that link. Thank you for supporting my blog.)
Tuesday we decorated eggs. My married daughter got the idea to use food grade markers, as shown above. This made decorating so much easier than using dye!
I will be doing this method again for sure! It was so much easier to do details using markers then dye. While we decorated, I had a wonderful time discussing with my daughter and son-in-law the book my daughter and I had just discussed the day before in Zoom for the Shumway Sisters’ Book Club. (Skylight Confessions, btw, a horrible book.) It was fun to see my grandsons decorate their eggs and talk with them too.
Every day in Holy Week, I played at least one Easter song on the piano using my new binder of Easter-themed music. Go here to see my list with links so you can print the music too and assemble a binder. So far my favorite song is “Long Ago Within a Garden.”
On Good Friday, I went thrifting for Easter basket gifts. As I shared over here, my goal was to get at least one nonedible treat per person for my husband, children, son-in-law, and grandchildren who would be with me for Easter Sunday dinner and egg hunt. (Two of my married children live out of town so wouldn’t be there. One is on a mission. So that left four of my children.) This gift would be wrapped, then labeled with a number. Then I put numbers on little pieces of paper and put them in plastic eggs. The numbers in the eggs matched the numbers on the gifts. Then if people got what they didn’t want they could trade.
My thrifting angels were actively helping me that afternoon! I found so much great stuff, mostly books. See above and below. I ended up with at least two things tailored to each person’s reading tastes. Then I also got a tiny game for each grandson and the Jane Austen puzzle shown below for my married daughter. The same one I found back in March for me!
I couldn’t believe that there it was again, in the afternoon, and hadn’t already been snatched up. One of my fellow customers saw it in my cart and congratulated me for the find. I said it was for my daughter and she said, “Oh, you’re such a great mom, I miss my mom getting stuff for me.” It was so pleasant to have a kindred spirit thrifter Jane-ite share in my thrifting joy.
Then I went to Dollar Tree and got wind-up bunnies for my grandsons (and truth be told, one for me). Dollar Tree had several non-junky items. I resisted buying bubbles because none of the containers were non-spillable. I just have too many mom years behind me to know that bubble wands in containers that can be spilled are less than desirable.
and crystal putty contained in colored plastic Easter eggs for the four youngest members of the group, minus the 7 month old baby grandson. In other words, my two youngest children, and and my two oldest grandchildren got the crystal putty.
(I also got a few other things just for me at DI, as shown above and below. I was thrilled to find the three books in the top of the photo above and the snowflakes book to use for my New Year’s/Valentine’s/Hygge reading enjoyment and decorations next year, as shown in Point #4 over here. I also got a cute T-shirt with a heart image made out of flowers. I wore it with a cream-colored skirt and cream sweater on Easter Sunday. And Cold Sassy Tree, which I am reading for my Sisters’ Book Club this month, and another Reader’s Digest Songbook, and a pitcher…OK, I will have to detail all this stuff later when I do a spring thrift haul post.)
I went for all this shopping on Good Friday. In future years I hope to do something together as a family on Good Friday and not go shopping, but to have it all done before Good Friday, just as it is ideal to have all my Christmas shopping done way before Christmas Eve. I heard it confirmed in one of my Holy Week YouTube videos that I binged on during the week, that the Utah State Legislature passed a bill this winter to make Good Friday a state holiday starting in 2027. I’m super excited about this!
The Winnie-the-Pooh game I found at the Springville DI with this cute dress and the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory book, shown above. In the ten minutes between arriving and the store closing I found three little treasures. This was right before I had to get to my son’s band show. I got the Charlie book, The Moffats, and and The Great Brain book, shown above, both chapter books, for my oldest grandson. He’s not quite into chapter books but hopefully if one of us start reading one of these to him, it will motivate him to pick it up on his own. My daughter said he’s into graphic novels so I got him the Action Storybook Bible and the graphic novel about a Chinese American boy.
I wanted an Easter dress, and the above was the best thing I could find in my limited time. Not fancy, and the goldenrod yellow color is more for fall than spring, so I’m not really calling it an Easter dress. It will be fun to wear in the summer with my gold sandals, and in the fall with black leggings and ankle boots. Like I mentioned earlier, I ended up wearing the T-shirt with the flowery heart shown four photos above and a cream sweater and cream skirt on Easter. The Winnie-the-Pooh game made my heart skip a beat, because it’s more of the classic style of E.H. Shepard instead of the Disney style. I knew I could give it to one of my grandsons and my daughter would be over the moon about it because she had a Winnie-the-Pooh baby shower last summer.
The box it came in was beat up though, with some rips and tatters. I figured I could find a Winnie bag to replace the box the next day at Daiso.
On Saturday, we watched General Conference. In between sessions I went to Daiso in search of a Winnie-the-Pooh bag for the matching game. I found one! Look how cute it is! Here it is below with all the cards stuffed inside.
I wasn’t going to go to the Orem Savers, along with Daiso, on the GC halftime break (noon to 2 PM), after spending so much the day before at two DIs, I really wasn’t. I felt a prompting, however, on Saturday, telling me to go, to get one more book for one of the family members. Look what I found, below! All 7 volumes of Narnia in one book!
With my coupon it was $3.19! It’s a bit worn but I had been looking for Narnia, Tolkien, and Hunger Games books for Easter basket gifts. I never did find any Tolkien. I found Hunger Games vol. 2 and 3 but not Vol. 1. I wanted all three so I didn’t get Vol 2 and 3. It was all or nothing. I found one Harry Potter volume but it was beat up. So to find this Narnia book was such a satisfying thrill. It was so surprising that I could find all 7 in 1! I didn’t even know such a thing existed! My BYU attending son ended up getting it at the hunt. I was bummed that the evil White Witch takes center stage on the front cover but at least, 1. She’s not looking happy or right in our eyes, and 2. Aslan is on the spine, looks regal, and is looking right into our eyes. It pairs well the Narnia trivia book I found thrifting last month.
Saturday evening after conference we flew kites after a picnic supper at the park with my married daughter and her family of husband and 3 little boys.
My son-in-law, shown below, was the best at getting either kite to fly the highest and longest. He fell in love with flying kites! Just in the week since, they have gone kite flying a second time and bought a much bigger kite that is supposed to be easier for children to fly.
This is a new annual Shumway family tradition for Easter, for sure. I had heard about it as a tradition people do for Easter in Bermuda. My married daughter and I thought it would be great to get the family outdoors after being inside watching Conference, on Easter Eve. We had just enough wind. I love that both kites, the one I bought, and the one my daughter bought, were butterflies. Butterflies and kites are such great symbols of the risen Lord. My purple butterfly kite is on the top, in the photo below, so high and hard to see. Then my daughter’s is the orange kite below it.
I also bought these bookmarks, on Good Friday, in PDF form from an etsy seller. I had mentioned looking at them in etsy over here. I sent them to a print shop to be printed on glossy cardstock. They turned out so beautiful! Then I tucked one each in the thrifted books I got for Easter gifts. They are Lord of the Rings, Narnia, and Anne of Green Gables themed. I put the one with the green door in the grilling book for my son-in-law, because my daughter and her husband have a Hobbit theme going on at their house. She bought him a door just like that for an interior home decoration as a Christmas gift.
On Saturday night, we attempted to watch Narnia like we did for Easter last year but couldn’t get it to work. Instead, I watched this video below, while I wrapped some of the Easter gifts. My son watched Narnia at one of his friend’s houses, and my husband watched Blue Bloods, his favorite show after Relative Race.
On Easter Sunday I got up early because I couldn’t sleep any more, around 5:30. During the previous weeks, I had thought about getting up early to go to the cemetery where my inlaws are buried and see the sunrise with those in my family who wanted to go. My neighbor had said in church that that cemetery has a cross monument, which used to be in our neighborhood and got moved. So I thought it would be so cool to walk to the cross and see the sunrise, then walk to my inlaws’ gravestones and share testimonies that they will be resurrected because Jesus was. But the night before, at 11, I decided I was too exhausted and wanted to sleep in. So I texted all my children involved that I didn’t want to go anymore. Then I ended up waking at 5:30 anyway. Oh well. It was just as well because my married daughter said her baby woke her up at 2:30 and stayed awake for two hours, so she would not have gone either.
I was greeted that early morning by the best Easter surprise ever, next to the resurrection of Jesus. My second son had sent a text with a picture of his wife holding my first granddaughter! After four grandsons, I have a granddaughter! She had been born early that Easter Sunday morning! They live out of state so I have yet to cuddle the baby. I will get to do so next month when I fly out to visit them. A granddaughter for Easter!!!!! I had already bought some gifts for her on my thrifting trip last month, including the cute robe above.
I attempted to watch the sunrise from my home but got tired of waiting for the sun to come up over the mountain that I live by/on. This is a shot I took from my front porch, which shows what the western horizon looked like around 7:30 AM. I know the sun comes up in the east so I’m not sure why the western horizon looked like a sunrise too.
I wrapped more of my Easter gifts in the pastel tissue paper as I watched some of the Narnia video below and the Easter Music and the Spoken Word.
Then it was time for Conference! We watched both sessions, and I watched the World Report in between and finished wrapping.
After GC, we headed over to my married daughter’s home for dinner and an egg hunt and the gifts. Before dinner we opened up Resurrection Eggs with the grandsons to tell the Easter story. Then we had dinner, some fish, chicken, and veggies. The hunt was fun for those who did it. As my son-in-law said, “It’s just so so magical to find candy outdoors!”
The wrapped gift thing that matched numbers inside eggs didn’t go as well as I had expected. I had been debating about hiding the number eggs or just putting them in a basket. I finally decided to just keep them in a basket and open the eggs and match the numbered packages, then unwrap the gifts, after the hunt, as people ate their candy from the hunt. So that’s what we did. Then I mixed that with reading pages from the Emily Belle Freeman Easter picture book shown up above. That was just too much. My people enjoyed opening the gifts, but I wanted them to be more fun about trading. I wanted more conversation to happen about the gifts as well. Like the fact that one of the books was written by our former neighbor. The whole thing was too long. I’m still debriefing the whole thing to figure out what to do differently next year.
I found this book at DI for $2 and got it because it’s Bible/Jesus themed and one of the coauthors, D. Kelly Ogden, used to be our next-door neighbor. A wonderful man! He was a BYU professor of religion and lived in the Holy Land for many years.
I wish I had closed our Easter egg hunt and gift unwrapping with singing “He is Risen!” or some other joyful Jesus song. I didn’t have a godly closure to our egg hunt and unwrapping of gifts. I will for sure do that next year. I also planned too much and had too many gifts so will pare down next year, to one gift per person, or enroll other people in getting prizes. I’m hoping to get the family members enrolled early on, like starting on Valentine’s Day, in doing an egg exchange, an idea from Maria Eckersley, as I blogged about over here. I also hid a golden egg that was empty. The symbolism was that it’s empty because it symbolizes Jesus’ tomb, and golden because our future is golden. I of course asked them why they thought it was empty and why it was golden to drive the point home. Next year I’m thinking of putting something in the golden egg but I’m not sure what. Money seems too crass and candy seems too cheap but I’m not sure what else to do. Maybe they’ll be able to trade it in for a $25 gift card to use at a bookstore. I’m always wanting to encourage reading at every chance I get :-).
I just read my blog from last year about how I had wanted to do a family Easter love basket. I had forgotten that was my plan! I’m copying an edited version of it below. If I remind family members starting at Christmas to get ready for Easter with one thing for the family Easter love basket, maybe it will happen!
I think from now on I want to do a family Easter basket, like shown below, just for a little more fun, and say it’s the family Easter love basket, from our family love, not from the Easter bunny. I want to give family members the credit for giving, not some dumb pretend bunny made up to sell more toys. Of course all my kids are older so the ideas for little kids don’t apply. I’ll ask everybody who lives at home, now that I have teen and adult children, to contribute one inexpensive, simple thing the family will enjoy, whether it’s food, socks, a puzzle, a game, or even some pages of meaningful thoughts in the form of a letter or poetry. I’ll ask them to deposit it in the basket after people go to bed. The item can even be thrifted to save money, as I am all for thrifting, as you’ve seen here. In my fantasy life I envision having all the time and money in the world to make gloriously naturally crunchy mom nontoxic, sugar-free treats and gifts including jewelry that promotes faith in Christ, scripture study aids, classic books, gardening tools, items for summer like new beach towels or swimsuits, puzzle books, aprons, kitchen gadgets, and fidget toys. Reality is settling in though to bring me back to the idea of having each family member contribute, even with cheap thrifted items. It just sounds fun and encouraging of generosity to ask everyone to give of themselves in some small way, to remember the infinite way Christ did, which we are celebrating at Easter time.
So if everybody gets one thing and wraps it we can number those gifts and then put the numbers in eggs and hide them. Asking people to each get a prize and wrap it will get them more invested in the activity.
I got these books as an Easter gift for my ministeree sister, a sister in my ward who I am assigned to minister to. She says she loves to read, so I hope she enjoys these books. They seemed suitable for Easter and spring. I felt very grateful to find such suitable books at the thrift store. The Tomb Builder has great reviews on amazon. I’m hoping to find it again so I can read it for myself. It’s historical fiction about Joseph of Arimathea.
Over all I had a wonderful Easter. It was fun to go thrifting for the nonedible surprises. I have loved the music I’ve been watching, singing, and playing this Easter season. I loved the egg decorating and kite flying. I’ve loved reading Easter-related books for Morning Basket. I hope that the gifts grow on the people more as they dive into them. It was fun to hear my son-in-law thumb through the grilling cookbook I got him and hear his exclamations. My married daughter enjoyed the stuff I got her and also said she wants to read the book I got for her sister. I definitely felt the Holy Spirit witness to me that the Easter story is true, that Jesus really did lay down His life for each one of us, because of His endless and abiding love. Because He did that, He gave us each the gifts of overcoming sin and death. That is why each of us has a golden future. My Easter 2026 so far has all been just a taste of even more wonderful and greater things to come, because of Jesus. He’s coming again to rule and reign on earth! We can live joyfully with Him and our families in the next life. The best is yet to be!
Watch below to see what happened to Jesus after He resurrected Himself. These videos are from my dear friend Patti Rokus, a girlfriend from my Veggie Gals group.
On this Good Friday I’m sharing the Greatest Easter Story Ever Told. Listen to Elder Gary E. Stevenson talk about it below.
This clip is from the April 2023 General Conference talk by a modern day apostle of Jesus Christ here.
Here is Lani Hilton elaborating on this truth.
Yes! I invite you tall to read the Greatest Easter Story Ever told, over here. Start in 3 Nephi 11 and read through chapter 28.
Here are some questions for discussion with your family and friends after you read it.
It really is remarkable to think of Jesus visiting the people who lived in ancient America after He was resurrected. Maybe he also visited other people too! After His Second Coming all these secrets will be revealed. How exciting! Here is a beautiful picture book that tells the story, of the First Easter in the New World.
May you ponder how much Jesus loves you because of the events of this week and this day.
Tree of Life Mothering 
