New Resource on the Book of Mormon for Millennials and Others!

Posted on February 3, 2020 by treeoflifemama

I’m so pleased to announce this new resource! It’s a nonprofit organization, called Book of Mormon Central. It exists independently of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The organization affirms the Book of Mormon’s truthfulness and answers questions about it, typically asked by Millennials. My husband’s cousin, Lynne Hilton Wilson, a co-founder, is a scholar of the Book of Mormon and the Bible, having a PhD in Theology and American History. She has taught at the CES Institute that serves students who attend Stanford U. She tells the story of Book of Mormon Central’s founding in the video above.

Book of Mormon Central has a podcast, a YouTube channel, a website, and two apps:

  • one app is called Scripture Plus. This app provides videos and articles to ponder in conjunction with each week’s Come Follow Me study. See video below for more about that, including a testimonial from former NFL quarterback Steve Young.

 

 

Here’s what the organization says about the KnoWhys:

 KnoWhys are daily features produced by Book of Mormon Central in the form of short essays, videos, memes, and podcasts. Each KnoWhy is designed to provide unique insight into the details of the Book of Mormon, through the explanation of both researched information and personal application. It is our hope that through KnoWhys, the reader will come to better understand both the “know” and the “why” of the Book of Mormon, strengthening his or her testimony of Jesus Christ and his gospel.

The KnoWhy app offers instant access to the hundreds of KnoWhys produced by Book of Mormon Central. Read the text, view the images, and read through the references right from your iPhone or iPad.Book of Mormon Central is an organization committed to increasing understanding of and faithful engagement with the Book of Mormon. Our team of archivists, researchers, writers, editors, reviewers, illustrators, narrators, audio engineers, video engineers, web designers, web and mobile developers, graphic artists, and social media publishers are working together to share the wonders of this inspired masterpiece with the world.

 

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Check them all out! Here are some of their videos below. One series of Book of Mormon Central’s videos has Come, Follow Me supplementary insights.

 

 

 

 

 

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#abookandagameaday Fri. 1/31/20, Gameschooling Day #20 of 2020

Posted on February 1, 2020 by treeoflifemama

 

For Friday 1/31/20, I read aloud the above book. It’s a great book to go along with January’s theme of new year, new goals, and vision boards. (As a family we made vision posters a few Sundays ago, after watching these videos. Putting images in front of your brain day after day with positive emotion/thoughts ((cue the Rocky theme music)) really does work to increase your chance of creating that thing in your real life. I already attracted one thing I put in my vision book two weeks ago!)

I love the above book by Valerie Ackley because it points out that so many everyday things in a child’s life first started out as a mere thought. I also love that it shows that we can change our attitude the very first moment when we haven’t even left our bed in the morning. It shows that positive thinking attracts opportunities to create our goals.

After our read-aloud we played flag football, per my 15 year old son’s request. I’m giving a child the pick of games for a day when it’s their birthday. His birthday was before I started the rule, so now I’m making it up to him.  Here in southern AZ we have no snow on the ground in January so I had no excuse not to play. Years ago I bought the following set below which we used.

We played as teams of two moms and two girls against three boys. The boys won, only because they have more experience, not to mention faster legs and no issues with 7 baby post-partum bodies/bladders :-). I actually had a lot of fun, despite biffing it after a mad dash to make a successful first down. After all these years of taking boys to football practice, I am beginning to feel the magic and fun of football! I regret that it took me so long. I hope to convince the remaining boys at home to play only flag football though. After seeing my older son get four football-induced concussions, I am, ouch, not wanting to see any more in our family.

After our rousing game of flag football, we settled inside to rest up a bit and play Spontuneous. This is one of my absolute favorite games! I love that everyone can play every turn, and that many people can play at once. I also love that I can customize it to certain themes or holidays, or the Sabbath, using religious songs. It is the perfect game! I’m so grateful that I found it for 3 bucks while thrifting last November! My angels were definitely guiding me to it, knowing how much I would love it!

 

Check out my tips for building a gameschool collection on a budget here, and see what else we’ve played for gameschooling here. 

Happy gameschooling!

 

 

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3 Ingredient Keto Pancakes or Chancakes

Posted on January 31, 2020 by treeoflifemama

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I heard about chaffles, which are keto waffles made out of cheese and eggs. They appear to be all the rage. Cheese + waffles = chaffles, get it? It sounds strange or gross, to have waffles made out of cheese and eggs, I admit, but they really taste good!  The idea appealed to me, but I wanted chancakes (cheese + pancakes) because I don’t want to lug out my big waffle iron and then clean it if I make waffles. Every recipe I found online for chaffles/chancakes seemed so complicated with more than 3 ingredients, or imprecise, not telling me exact amounts, just a range. Or I would find a recipe in a YouTube vid, but the video wouldn’t show the amounts in print and I had to keep listening to catch them. Then I found a recipe that works, but then it disappeared and I couldn’t find it again. So…I’m putting this recipe here, once and for all, for future reference for me and for all of you to enjoy as well! They are super yummy and easier than all the other recipes I found! I use this recipe when I want a keto/Trim Healthy Mama (THM) (S) recipe when I make pancakes for the rest of my family. I have a THM (E) recipe here but they take more work and I often want low carb pancakes, not those higher carb (E) pancakes made out of oats. To make 2 medium or 3 small pancakes use the following ingredients:

  • 1/2  c grated white cheese (either monterey jack or mozzarella, so the taste is a lot more mild than if you used cheddar)
  • 1 egg (use only egg white if you want the result to be non-eggy tasting. Using the whole egg results in a slightly egg-y taste)
  • 1 T almond flour (if you don’t have almond flour, you can just use equal parts white cheese and egg white)

That’s the three ingredients! If you want to get a little fancy, then add:

  • cinnamon to taste if you like it
  • a few blueberries if you like

Mix all ingredients together. Cook like you do regular pancakes. I haven’t tried the recipe in the waffle iron yet so I don’t know if they work in one but I assume they do. I like to triple or quadruple the recipe so I have leftovers, as one batch just makes one meal. I multiply the batch on Saturday then I pop the leftovers in the toaster during the week for a quick meal.

Keto Pancake Syrup

Boil together:

1/2 c Lakanto monk fruit sweetener or 1/2 cup Trim Healthy Mama Super Sweet blend or copycat blend

2 cups water

1/4 t mineral salt

1 tsp molasses or maple syrup to give the syrup a brown color

After you bring this all to a boil, whisk in:

1/2 t glucomannan powder (it’s important to keep whisking as you add the powder so you don’t get clumps. If you do get clumps, blend in blender. The syrup will thicken as it cools, especially after you store it in the fridge.)

Taste and adjust the salt and sweetener so you have the right balance of sweet and salty. Let cool slightly so the syrup thickens up.

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#abookandagameaday, Thurs. 1/30/20, Gameschooling Day #19 of 2020

Posted on January 31, 2020 by treeoflifemama

 

 

Here’s what we did for #abookandagameaday on Thurs. 1/30/20…

On Thursdays we drive 90 minutes one way to participate with other homeschoolers in a co-operative type school run by homeschooling moms. At this co-op, I teach a Hero Project class on the World Wars. In that class, we read aloud the poppy poem for World War 1 written by John McCrae. Then we listened to this book, above, about a woman who wanted to give tributes to WW1 veterans by giving them poppies. See video below.

 

 

Then we played the Chameleon card game to facilitate a discussion of The Faithful Spy, a graphic novel about Dietrich Bonhoeffer. We played the game the day before with my kids and some friends, and then we got to play it with my Hero class. I was so excited to pair it with The Faithful Spy! The book is so amazing, about such an amazing man! You’ve got to read it! My favorite part of the whole story is how he had a dream at the end, about Jesus, that was such a gift to give hope as his life was ending in prison. My second favorite part is how it was visits from his beautiful sweetheart, Maria, in prison, that also gave him hope that he had life beyond what the Nazis were doing to him. Such is the power of the love of a good woman!

 

I made new topic cards for the game, with all the topics coming from Bonhoeffer’s life, as mentioned in the book. Then I asked discussion questions in-between game rounds, mostly from this study guide over here. I tied the questions into the study guide. The Chameleon game was perfect to use because Bonhoeffer had to be a “chameleon” and appear to have allegiance to Hitler, in order to blend in as a double agent spy and take part in the plot to assassinate the evil tyrant.

 

 

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Check out my tips for building a gameschool collection on a budget here, and see what else we’ve played for gameschooling here. 

Happy gameschooling!

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#abookandagameaday, Wed. 1/29/20, Gameschooling Day #18 of 2020

Posted on January 29, 2020 by treeoflifemama

Image result for value tales patriotism francis scott key

Today was History/Geography Day for our 2020 #abookagameaday gameschooling challenge. So we did the above book, featuring the backstory of the Star-spangled Banner. Because of this book, I understand how the Star-Spangled Banner came to be. I already knew about Francis Scott Key and Dr. Beanes, from a different picture book, but I didn’t fully understand why they were being held captive through a battle, and why Francis Scott Key was a patriot until I read this book.

I found it used years ago at a thrift store and got it for my little boy’s birthday. (Through the years I’ve attempted to always get a book for a child’s birthday present in addition to a fancier, more wanted gift, to send the message that I highly value books. Just to make sure they know, LOL! I haven’t always been able to afford a brand new book but I can always scrape together enough money to get a used one.)

 

When I was a kid my grade school had the whole set of these “PowerTales” books with the accompanying cassette tapes. We were allowed to listen to/read them during our lunch break in the “Media Center” with clunky headphones. It’s fun how each real-life person chronicled in each book has some little sidekick/gadget/animal who narrates the story. What great memories! Years ago, my mom got some great deal on the companion “ValueTales” series and bought a set for each of her children to benefit the grandchildren. While I don’t love the cartoonish drawings, I do adore the stories, and that each one shows a value lived out without being overly preachy. We will be reading these each Wednesday this semester. They are long though so we will break each one up into two days’ readings. These books are out of print but you can scout them out at yard sales, thrift and online stores. They are worth finding and reading over and over! 4 1/2 out of 5 stars, just because of the too-cartoonish drawings.

 

 

For our games, we played the following, as requested by one of our January birthday girls:

 

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First Chameleon. This is such a fun game! It doubles as a great party game as well as an educational game.

 

 

You can adapt it to discuss any kind of theme involved with any class you are teaching by making your own topic cards that relate to your theme(s). So tomorrow, I am using it in my Hero Project class when we discuss The Faithful Spy, a graphic novel about the German Christian theologian-turned-spy Dietrich Bonhoeffer. What good fortune I have! I picked it up in practically new condition from a thrift store for $4 in November. It’s the perfect game about spying, because in this game, “chameleon” is synonymous with “spy.” So I am making topic cards using keywords and phrases from Faithful Spy, and interspersing discussion questions to ask between rounds of play. It should be so much fun and meaningful as well! I can’t wait! Bonhoeffer had to be a chameleon in his efforts to foil Hitler, for sure! One of the pages in the book shows him saluting Hitler, when in reality, he was a double agent who did not like Hilter and was working to get him assassinated.

I give the game 5 out of 5 stars. It’s for 3 to 8 players. So I love that it can be for a big group.

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Then we broke up the group to play some two-player games. The birthday girl chose checkers. So because we couldn’t all play checkers, some of us played Bananagrams, some tic-tac-toe, and I got to play Chick-a-Pig with my little guy. I discovered this game from a friend at church. She loaned it to me and my little guy liked it so much I got it for his “fancy” gift for Christmas. We played it a ton on Thanksgiving Day. After many times of him beating me, over the past two months since knowing about it, I finally learned his tactics. Using them against him today, I won! This is such a clever game. I love that it combines elements of chess, soccer, and pinball with a farming theme. Very fun! It’s a 2 to 4 player game. 5 out of 5 stars. It’s extra cool that it was developed by the guitarist Dave Matthews. It teaches strategy and looking ahead (vision), as well as sportsmanship for when you consistently get low rolls of the die. That happened to my son today, while I got several high rolls of the die. That definitely helped me win.

 

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That’s it for today!

Check out my tips for building a gameschool collection on a budget here, and see what else we’ve played for gameschooling here. 

 

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Easiest Birthday Cake Ever!

Posted on January 28, 2020 by treeoflifemama

 

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Here’s how to make the easiest birthday “cake” ever. It’s total, 100% ice cream (with whipped cream frosting) in the shape of a round, two layer cake.

You can use whatever ice cream/frozen dessert recipe you want. So that allows you to customize it for your dietary needs, whether they be dairy-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, etc. You will need frozen dessert and two round cake layer pans. Go here to get my favorite frozen dessert recipes, mostly ice cream, some sorbet, sherbet, and frozen yogurt. If you want this cake to be the easiest ever, then just buy from the store. If you are going homemade, make the ice cream the day before the party so it has time to firm up.

Here’s how to assemble, several hours before the party:

  1. Get your favorite frozen dessert. Either buy from the store or make your own the day before. You will need a gallon of it, either two half-gallons, one each of different flavors, or one gallon of the same flavor.
  2. Soften the frozen dessert so it is scoopable by leaving it out for 5-10 minutes. Then use a rubber scraper to scoop it out and form it into a round cake layer pan. Then put the other half-gallon frozen dessert into the other pan.
  3. Put the two pans into the freezer to refreeze for a few hours.
  4. An hour before you want to serve the dessert, take out the pans. Let them sit for a few minutes to soften, and carefully loosen the edges with a butter knife and tap the frozen dessert out onto a cake pedestal or serving tray/dish. Put whipped cream frosting on the bottom layer if desired, then top the bottom layer with the second layer.
  5. Frost more if desired, Put back into the freezer until ready to light the candles and sing.
  6. Top with candles (work quickly because the ice cream is melting!) and/or sign. The sign in the picture above is a Pioneer Woman sign from Walmart. The pedestal is also Pioneer Woman brand from Walmart, both from the party supplies aisle.

 

Add a board game like Dixit, below, family and/or friends, and you have an instant party! Enjoy!

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Come to the Utah Winter Homeschool Conference!

Posted on January 28, 2020 by treeoflifemama

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I’m excited to announce that I will be speaking at the Winter Homeschool Conference on Saturday, February 8 in Layton, Utah. Come join over 1000 people at this fabulous event! I will be talking about three topics:

  1. Family Finances without Tears and Stress: marriage, kids, and personality differences.
  2. Gameschooling: How and Why
  3. Getting Homeschooled Youth into College

Get your tickets here!

My wonderful friends, Kent and Amy Bowler will be there too! See you there!

 

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#abookagameaday, Tues. 1/28/20, Gameschooling Day #17

Posted on January 28, 2020 by treeoflifemama

 

Today was math and science day. Today’s picture book was the one above. It has beautiful pictures of real snowflakes and explains everything you ever wanted to know about snowflakes: how they form, the different shapes, and why they look the way they do. 5 out of 5 stars. Simple explanations and the photos of real snowflakes are gorgeous. 5 out of 5 stars!

Foxmind, Juxtabo, Strategy Game, Create Patterns with Colored Chips Patterns and Challenge Cards, Colorful 3D Game

 

Then we played Juxtabo, which is all about color and pattern recognition. You build stacks of colored chips to create a pattern on the grid that matches a pattern on your card.  The twist to the game is that the chips have a different color on each side, allowing you to change the colors on the grid. I like that everyone can play at once. Everyone can be looking to find a matching pattern, and call it out. Even then, some of the kids got bored. They gave up too easily and didn’t catch the strategy of looking ahead to win by stacking the chips. The grid changes with every turn as each player has to add chips on every turn. I think it might work better if we had done two groups of four players each instead of one group of 8. We might do it that way next time, and I will emphasize to be looking for patterns even if it’s not your turn and then have a back up plan in case someone messes up your plan.  4 out of 5 stars. Just because the chips slide around easily, especially the higher the stack of chips gets. I wish the manufacturer made them magnetic.

 

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Then we played National Geographic Brain Games. It’s basically a quiz game with four categories: language, vision, logic, and mind and body. On math and science day, I like to just use the vision and logic cards. The vision cards are mostly about optical illusions. We love to engage with them.
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Brain Games - The Game - Based on the Emmy Nominated National Geographic Channel TV Series

Would you like to join us in gameschooling? It’s so fun! Here’s how to build your gameschooling collection on a budget.

Here’s what else we’ve played for our gameschool days.

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#abookagameaday, Mon. 1/27/20, more Gameschooling!

Posted on January 27, 2020 by treeoflifemama

Image result for brave irene book cover image

Oh how I love the above book! We read it today for our #abookagameaday challenge from thewaldockway.com. I love how the central message is the power of mother love, and the reciprocal love a child has for her mother. So tremendously transcendant! Dear William Steig must have genuinely loved his family. This book and his Sylvester and the Magic Pebble exude family togetherness.

We had a birthday girl in our midst today so we played games she chose to help celebrate the occasion. Here’s what we did:

 

Double Bananagrams Game Set - 288 tiles

Have I mentioned before how much I love Bananagrams? Yes! Great taste, girlfriend! 5 out of 5 stars! So much better than Scrabble! We allow abbreviations in our games, hence “P.E.” in the winning grid below. Sorry about the confusing background, I keep maps and US state flashcards under my plastic tablecloth. (You know us homeschoolers, always wanting to capitalize on a captive audience around a table!)

 

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Then Whoonu by Cranium. It’s $64 on Amazon! Maybe I will sell my copy! I got it free when a Veggie Gal girlfriend moved to Oregon and dejunked. “Whoonu” it would get so much loving play out of it years later? This is the third time we’ve played it in a month. The girls especially love it. I guess it’s out of print so the price is high. It’s such a great “getting-to-know-you” game. You get to learn what every player’s favorite things are with guessing cards and a secret envelope. Such a clever concept. It’s great because kids who don’t do well at trivia/academic knowledge quiz games still have a fighting chance at this one. 5 out of 5 stars.

 

Then Reverse Charades. This one is fast becoming the kiddos’ favorite. We have played it two days in a row for gameschooling. The kids get so intense. You have two teams and then one person on each team has to guess the word while the other teammates act it out. I love seeing their creativity to act it out and then see them succeed at guessing, especially when the cluewords are obscure but they still get it. I bought the game for $4 while thrifting in Tucson two weeks ago. Such a great bargain for so many laughs and connection to boot! 5 out of 5 stars.

 

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The Lord’s Hand in History and in Our Own Lives

Posted on January 27, 2020 by treeoflifemama

 

I love this talk over here that President/Elder M. Russell Ballard gave last December at BYUI for its commencement. The video above is from the same trip he refers to in the talk, I am guessing. He talks about how the Lord guided the founding of America. It totally piggybacks on last week’s Come, Follow Me reading that included 1 Nephi 13, where Nephi saw in vision the colonizing of America and the Revolutionary War.

 

 

In hindsight, we can see that those things happened to prepare the way for the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This month’s Ensign magazine has an extensive article right here about the same topic by Elder Ballard. He speaks about God guiding Joseph Smith’s family and then asks us to look for God’s hand in our own lives.

 

As we consider how the Lord’s hand was manifested in the lives of the Smith family, we need to recognize that His hand is also manifested in each of our lives. Looking for the hand of the Lord in our lives takes spiritual sensitivity and, in many cases, time and perspective. Fortunately, patriarchal blessings, personal journals, and personal life histories can provide a lens to see how the Lord’s hand is manifest in our lives.

Yes! I agree! It’s so important to keep journals and go back and read them too! Doing so brings so much peace and joy to my life, helping me make sense out of what sometimes seems like chaos.

Below is a companion speech by David Barton, who shows that the American Founding Fathers were overwhelmingly Christian.

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