If you are feeling any sense of burnout from homeschooling, listen to this talk above about “Mother Culture” by Karen Andreola. If you don’t have her book, The Charlotte Mason Companion, get it below. It’s one of the very first books I bought about homeschooling, in the 1990s. Check out her blog here as well, it is sure to refresh you any time you go there!
image credit: momentswithmotherculture.blogspot.com
I love the above photo of my daughter giving her Key of Liberty mentor, my friend Olivia, a hug after she got presented her key with ribbons in a shadow box. Key of Liberty is a class for jr. high age homeschooled kids to study the Founding Era of the U.S. My daughter got the key for doing some of the scholar requirements. The look on Olivia’s face is sheer joy. I feel that it perfectly captures how surprised by joy all of us homeschool moms have been at the end of our first year of our newly formed liberal arts based family school. The expression on my daughter’s face below also shows the joy we all feel after finishing a year of this school.
Another name for this kind of school is a “liber family school.” (Liber is pronounced “lie-ber.” We as homeschool families met once a week all day from 9:15 AM to 2:30 PM. All the moms of the kids helped mentor the classes. We had a nursery for the under 3s and then classes for kids from ages 3 to 17 We used the Crowned With Virtue curriculum for the girls 8 -11 and Mastering Knighthood for the boys of the same ages, for afternoon classes. Most of the classes for the kids under 12 were designed just for this year by the moms. Then for 12 and over we used LEMI Scholar Projects. I got to mentor the Quest Scholar Project for the older teens. These photos capture some of the great moments of the year. Sorry these aren’t the best quality of photos, but they are better than nothing.
These photos show our delightful rendition of Shakespeare’s As You Like It, the culmination of our the LEMI Scholar Project Shakespeare Conquest. The kids did such a fabulous job! I got to be the backstage mama who helped the kids be in the back wings, ready for their cues to go onstage. So I never did see the whole thing from the “front.” I can’t wait to see the DVD so I can!
The three older kids who still live at home got to be in the play. My oldest still at home got to help mentor the class. He was a big help to the mom who taught the class. Great job, Mr. L!
We also had a Constitution Bowl, a competition of quiz questions between our two Key of Liberty teams and a team from Phoenix. My son spent more time trying on outfits to wear to the competition than practicing the answers to the questions, but his team won anyway.
We had such a great year! I am ready for a break but so excited about next year!
To learn how to start a homeschool family-based school like this in your area, go to New Commonwealth Schools and click on the button that says, “Get in Touch.”
We had lots of fun this week having an all-day play date with another homeschool family from our once-a-week liberal arts based family school that ended a few weeks ago. We went hiking to a cave and then explored the inside. It was soooo much fun! It was just cool to see the inside of this huge cavern. It was the length of a football field and had a big wide hallway plus a little side hallway and interesting little twists and turns and tunnels. So fun for the kids to explore! I really do want to get out in nature like Charlotte Mason talks about, to help my children be “keen observers.” We’ve been indoors far too much this past school year! This is such a shame since I live in AZ with a nice temperate climate, close to tons of hiking trails. Hopefully this is the beginning of a hike at least once a week through the summer and into the fall.
Then we had a picnic outside the cave, at the base of the trail to it. We found another example of teamwork in nature, like I did last year, in the form of these ants by the picnic table carrying a dropped Cheeto. Then we came home and had a cookout on our patio and a bonfire with s’mores.
On the hike my homeschool mom friend said, “I love rocks!” In addition to seeing tons of rocks at the mouth of the cave and inside the cave, we saw this interesting boulder that had these ridges that looked like they had frozen in an instant on the outside of the rock after the lava that made the rock flowed out and cooled.
It got me thinking about rocks. We’ve been learning a lot about rocks in our homeschool by reading Vol. 1 in the Universal Model. We are learning that instead of the old theory of 3 classifications of rocks, there are actually 9! Yes, 9! I won’t go into all the details, I don’t want to spoil the fascinating answer to many long-held mysteries that the Universal Model answers in regards to rocks. Go here to order Vol. 1 and read about rocks in the chapter on the Hydroplanet Model. Everyday I read one or two pages to the kids, as part of our homeschool, usually just the captions to the pictures and diagrams because the language is geared towards adults. I have the digital copy so that it’s super lightweight and handy to open on my iPad.
Anyway, I think that God made rocks so universal because He wants us to remember that his priesthood and His gospel are universal, they for everyone. They are solid and foundational just like big, solid rocks. They are truths for us to build our life on. The priesthood is God’s power. He shares it with His children to bless them. He gets to decide how it is used. He requires humility in the use of it. It is to be used unselfishly to bless others, not for money or self-aggrandizement. Jesus Christ told Peter, that upon “this rock” will I build my church (Matthew 16:18). “This rock” means revelation. His priesthood is to be used by revelation. You can see scriptures relating rocks to Jesus and the gospel here.
Here is a fascinating talk from an LDS philosophy professor that I listened to recently about revelation. This talk is by Professor Ross Baron, a favorite philosophy professor of my older kids at BYUI. His daughter is also good friends with my married daughter, they were classmates at BYUI. He shares a story of being at a meeting and being challenged about what The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stands for. He claims it is based on what the Bible claims to be based on, which is revelation from God. Here is the full talk, at the BYU-I’s web site here. You can see a clip of it below.
It takes humility to receive priesthood power and to use it to bless others. What if you thought you held the priesthood power only to be confronted with the truth that your church was not the authorized holder of this priesthood power? It takes humility to recognize that truth and change. Here is a story about that, called “Tell Me It isn’t True!” In this story, we see a chaplain from the Church of England who finds the restored gospel of Jesus Christ from two LDS missionaries. He doesn’t want to think their message is true but in the end, he humbly submits and is baptized. He gives up his job, his home, and his friends, in order to start a new life being baptized in the restored gospel. For him, healing came in the form of receiving the whole, restored gospel of Jesus Christ and the true priesthood authority. He says that he realized that with the restored gospel he could drink of the living water of Jesus Christ instead of feeling that he was getting water from a stagnant pond.
This story makes me think of my own dear son who is serving a mission. Missionaries truly are the weak things of the world (see 1 Cor. 1:27) who are taking the gospel to those who are humbly searching for truth. The above story is an example of the stories I have curated in my Family Devotional ebook, which you can order here for $4.99 through June 5.
Today’s story is to continue my commemoration of the restoration of the priesthood power for this month of May. I love this story because it shows the power of promises given in priesthood blessings. In this story we see young Elizabeth Beardall Mower living in England with her family and searching for religious truth. They find Latter-day Saint missionaries and start to think they have found the truth. Then Elizabeth gets sick with scarlet fever. The young missionaries give her a priesthood blessing to heal her. All the promises that the missionaries give to her in the blessings, including healing, are fulfilled, including the blessing that she will grow up and become a mother in Zion.
Read Part 1 here, “The Blessing.”
Read Part 2 of the story, “Elizabeth’s Decision,” here
Read Part 3, “Elizabeth Alone,” here.
This is an example of the stories that are included in my curation of LDS stories in my Celestial Family Devotionals Ebook. You can read more examples and order the book here. It is $4.99 until June 5, then the price goes up to $9.99.
If you haven’t read the above book, you are in for a treat. If you have, you are still in for a treat, because…not only does the author have four more books in the Penderwick series, but she just did a new interview. The author, Jeanne Birdsall, appeared on the Read Aloud Revival Podcast just this week to do an interview with Sarah Mackenzie. (I just found out Sarah is coming to a homeschool convention near me this summer, but I will be out of town so I will miss her! Bummer!)
Listen to the podcast interview here. Then watch her TED Talk below.
Get these fun books from the library and read the whole series aloud to your kids all summer! They remind me of books by Louisa May Alcott, Elizabeth Enright and Eleanor Estes, because they show kids enjoying being in families, relating to the natural world and the people around them.
Friends, forget about December, this month, this time, this, THIS is the most wonderful time of the year! I looooove this time of year as year-long school commitments wind down and the summer lies before me like an open book, an empty beach, an uncut cake! I feel like singing!!!! Last week I had four trips for our kids’ homeschool group over an hour away, a trip each day for four days in a row, as we participated in the last day of classes and end-of-year award meetings and parties. What a great way to wrap it all up! Now, this week, I am luxuriating in staying home!
I am going to fill up my extra time not driving with reading! I got the above book through interlibrary loan, recommended by my friend Heidi. I am so excited to read it! So far, it is the perfect balance of learning and fun. I do add a cautionary note for reading this book. The chapter entitled “Class Break: Red Velvet Dinners” between Chapter 9 and 10 has a risque scene so skip that chapter.
It’s the true story of a woman, the author, Kathleen Flinn, who trained at a prestigious culinary school in Paris. She notices a woman at a grocery store in the Seattle area buying boxes and boxes of processed food. Kathleen then finds out the woman doesn’t know how to cook from scratch so she gives her a few tips in the grocery store and helps her find less processed food. That random encounter inspires her to teach other women how to cook from scratch for free. So she sets up “The Kitchen Counter Cooking School,” hence the title of the book. I would love to discuss it with anyone who reads it too! See video below for Kathleen’s simple lesson of how to make vinaigrette. I watched it with my daughter, and then a few days later, she volunteered to make it without any prompting from me! Score!
‘Tis the season for spring fever and young love! I am at the age when I have older children dating, courting, and getting married. Same with a lot of my girlfriends. So I am sharing, with my girlfriend’s permission, an email she sent to me. I hope it helps any of you out there help your children to “marry well.” Even after children leave the nest, they still need mentoring to help them navigate the choices of adulthood.
The following are my girlfriend’s words:
Here is a letter we formulated to send to our future son in law, who has been dating our daughter at college, in advance of meeting with him in order to gather more information. I really feel like as parents we need to work on helping our young people to thoroughly investigate a potential marriage partner in order to see clearly what they are getting themselves into. The goal is to be completely transparent so each party knows what kinds of challenges they are taking on.The past generations of parents have been too uninvolved. We want to be more involved to help our children get a good start in life. The divorce rate indicates many problems and one of them seems to be inadequate knowledge about the marriage partner BEFORE getting married. So take this letter for what it is worth. Talk with your kids about it and help them start getting a mental map of what things they can and should talk about during courtship. Like Geoffrey Botkin says “Courtship is not a time to go miniature golfing”. Need to spend time on things that really matter.Just so you don’t think we are coming at our future son in law with figurative bazookas, we have been doing all kinds of things with him and our daughter this past month. Weeding the yard, painting the house, making and eating and cleaning up dinner together, helping a family friend move and clean their entire house, my husband went golfing with the kids and other side of the family. So far, I’m impressed. He is a good worker, thorough cleaning of paint brushes, doesn’t complain about working, able to take a task and make it happen, can lift heavy items, and kill spiders without wincing. He even knows how to cook from scratch!!! Im in for a treat. So I’m learning how to develop a relationship with a potential in law. My husband is the peacemaker and I’m the bull in the china shop. I think we make a good match. Heavenly Father certainly has his hand in this endeavor.I love what Dieter Uchtdorf said and I’m paraphrasing since I cannot find the source. He said something like “even if your parents don’t like your choice of partner, if both of you will keep the covenant and remain faithful to your promises you make, you will grow together and qualify for the highest kingdom”.Here is the letter: Hope you enjoy and use what you can when your children are seriously considering another person for marriage.
“I had a fun time at the driving range with you, your Dad, and my daughter on Saturday. Thank you for taking the time to get to know us better the past few weeks.“We have discussed with our daughter some things that are important to talk about in a courtship. Rather than all of us meeting, I felt it would be appropriate for me to take you to dinner so we can talk.
“We feel that it’s our duty and responsibility during courting/engagement to do all we can to make sure that important topics are discussed so that there aren’t any issues that could be a problem in the marriage that haven’t been resolved or at least known fully before the marriage.
“Recently, after hearing of two sad marriage stories from two close friends, it has made us more aware of the importance of asking specific questions before marriage so that any important or serious issues can be discussed and fully understood before the marriage.
“One of our friends’ daughter’s marriage began 5 years ago and after 3 little girls have been born they are divorced because he had a porn problem before and during their marriage that he never disclosed. The other story is of our family friend who married a young man after a very short courtship. They are now separated and divorced after 8 months because he never disclosed some traumatic events in his life that still affect him today. Transparency before marriage is crucial to what happens after marriage.
“We realize that you two are adults in age and have spent most of your time discussing intimate details of each other’s lives. As parents of your girlfriend who has been away at college, we haven’t had the time nor occasion to get to know you well. We hope that you will consider the intent of our questions. It is really to help this process become completely transparent so that you and our daughter can honestly evaluate each other as you make the marriage covenant for time and all eternity.
“Knowing that this is a sensitive subject we want to give you this list of questions to help you prepare for a discussion on these matters when we meet soon. Here is the list of questions that we would like to discuss:
“Pornography:
1) Have you had a serious pornography habit?
2) If so, how often, how many years, and how recently did you have this habit? And any in the last 12 months?
3) Did you ever seek help for the problem? Please tell us what kind of help you sought.
4) If it is a current problem, have you confided in anyone and sought help?
5) What are your goals as far as staying clean?
6) Do you have tools that you have found to be effective in keeping you clean? Would you like to get more tools and support?
“Media Standards:
1) Do you ever watch rated PG13 or R movies, or watch a lot of movies or TV series/shows? Tell us about your movie standards and amount of movie and tv watching.
“Emotional Health:
How do you handle stressful situations? What is your tendency when you get stressed? If someone else is overstepping their bounds (infringing on your person, property or rights) how do you handle that situation? Are you able to stand up for yourself?
“Relationships: Do you take responsibility for your problems? Many people choose to blame others when anything goes wrong. Also, many people in marriage have the unfortunate problem of being overly critical. The best way is to never criticize, condemn or complain. That doesn’t mean you never disagree just that you have constructive conversations to discuss disagreements that can be talked through in a kind way and worked out to a resolution.
“The Family a Proclamation:
Father is responsible to provide for the family. The ideal is for the mother to be at home with the children not working full time.
Do you and will you treat our daughter with the proper respect and kindness at all times. Not being physically, verbally or emotionally abusive? Yelling, physical abuse, and emotional abuse should never be a part of your relationship. But Love, kindness, patience, and charity.
“Post Traumatic Stress Disorder:
1) Have you ever experienced PTSD symptoms from your experiences in the Army or other stressful situations?
2) If yes, what treatments have you sought? If you havent had any treatment, do you think you would benefit from receiving treatment?
“Faith and Commitment:
We would like to know how you feel about the Savior and his gospel. What are your current habits and practices that would give us an indication of your level of commitment and faith?
“Temple attendance
Scripture Study
Prayer
Fasting
Sabbath Day Observance: How do you spend your sabbath? What things do you feel are appropriate or inappropriate for the Sabbath day? (Super Bowl, movies, etc)
“Money management:
1) How do you currently manage your money?
2) Are you a spender or saver?
3) What debts if any do you have? What do you feel is ok to go into debt for?
4) Buying a home and rental properties
“Discipline of Children and Education:
1) How were you disciplined as a child? What do you feel is an appropriate way to discipline children? Do you believe in corporal punishment? If so, what kind?
2) Have you discussed children and how many children you can see yourself having?
2) What are your beliefs about current modern day education? Are you open to homeschooling your children? Would you support our daughter in homeschooling if you decided this would be best for your children?
” General:
Is there anything in your life that you believe we should know about that would influence Natalie’s decision to marry you? This includes anything that the spirit would tell you to reveal to give her a better idea of who you are and what you’ve experienced in your life including past mistakes, significant events, periods of repentance, life changing incidences, spiritual experiences that have shaped who you are, etc.
What is your greatest weakness? Do you know what our daughter’s greatest weakness is? Have you openly discussed this together so that you both have an understanding of who each other is, weaknesses and strengths. “
Today’s story that is linked up to the collection of LDS based stories in my family devotional ebook is in honor of the restoration of priesthood power. Today, May 15, is the anniversary of the restoration of the Aaronic priesthood to the earth. So I am celebrating tonight with my family with some cake after dinner! First time I’ve done this. (I didn’t plan it this way, we just happened to have leftover cake from my perfecting my Wheat-free Basic White/Yellow Cake.)
On May 15, 1829, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were ordained by John the Baptist, to hold the Aaronic Priesthood. With this power, Joseph and Oliver now had authority from Jesus Christ to baptize. See Joseph History 1:65-73. The Melchizedek Priesthood was given to them sometimes after that. We are not sure of the exact date for that event.
So this week I am going to take a break from sharing stories about moms here on the blog and share stories about priesthood power. The priesthood power is God’s power, and because of that, it is amazing. The April 2018 issue of the Friend has a beautiful song that my children and I are learning this week in our devotional that reminds us of all the wonderful things the priesthood power can do: create light, stars, the moon, the sun, create worlds with land and sea, cause people to see, raise the dead back to life, heal the sick, guide, lift, and bless, among all things. I know this is true!
Today’s story is called, “The Letter.” It is about a young missionary serving in Austria who was imprisoned because of false understanding of his purpose as a missionary. While in prison he got word that his companion was sick. He wasn’t able to visit his companion to give him a priesthood blessing, but God made up for that inability, through priesthood power. You can read the whole amazing story here. I know that priesthood power is true and real and blesses us all in many ways.
Happy Mother’s Day to all of you! Last year I had a horrible Mother’s Day involving a car crash In Las Vegas (let’s just say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!) so I’m looking forward to having a much better one tomorrow, safe at home! I get to hear from my missionary in the comfort of my home instead of skyping on a tablet at a gas station in the boonies of AZ, like I did last year. I’m so grateful to stay home this year.
My Mother’s Day gift to you is the following:
Also, I just shared my new cake recipe on my blog along with stories about the power of moms this past week. I will keep posting more of those in this month of May so keep checking back to read more and get my ebook today that has a lot more stories curated from lds.org.
Here’s a great wheat-free cake that is also free of almond flour and coconut flour. Do you realize the awesomeness of this!? Finding a wheat free cake that also doesn’t have coconut or almond flour is like finding a jade unicorn! Not that I don’t enjoy those flours, but I have my reasons to abstain. Avoiding wheat flour in cakes helps keep my blood sugar low, which helps me maintain my 70 lb. weight loss from two years ago. I have inherited a tendency towards insulin resistance so I have to watch my carb intake. But it can’t be so low that my hormones and sleep get out of whack. I experienced that in the fall of 2016, after being low carb for 18 months. I have a sweet spot for the right carb amount every day. (If you want to learn more about finding your sweet spot I suggest the book, The Blood Code by Dr. Richard Mauer.)
OK, back to the recipe! To keep the right sweet spot I have been using Trim Healthy Mama (THM) recipes to help balance all these factors. I do enjoy carbs, but mostly keep them separated from fats. So I love all the THM recipes which allow me to do that. (Scroll below to the * at the bottom of this post if you want to read more of my reasons for making this cake.) (Also see this post to see how to do THM frugally.)
I was inspired to make this recipe by adapting the “Time for Lime Cake or Cupcakes” recipe in the THM Cookbook, p. 306. I took out the lime juice and essential oil, and the spinach, included in the original recipe to make it turn green, as well as the coconut and almond flours. So, as a result, we have a Basic Yellow Cake that is free of wheat, coconut, and almonds. I love this cake, it is perfect for birthdays or springtime festivities!
Basic White or Yellow Cake
Grease a 9×13 pan, or a bigger, jellyroll pan if you want a sheet cake
Mix up the following:
6 eggs
3 cups white or garbanzo beans, drained, and pureed in blender (The white beans make the cake white, as shown in the photo above, the garbanzo beans make the cake yellow, see photo below)
1/2 c ground golden flaxseed meal
1/2 c oat fiber
1-2 c alternate healthful sweetener of choice, like sucanat, if not doing THM (Start with 1 cup and taste test the batter and add more if needed, if you dare the risk of salmonella from the raw eggs, haha. If using a THM sweetener to make this a THM-S recipe, start with 1 1/2 cup Gentle Sweet or 3/4 cup Super Sweet and then taste test the batter and add more if needed. I just know some people like their cakes sweeter than others. I tend to like mine sweeter!)
4 T butter, melted on low heat. Get it melting while you mix in the other stuff!
2 T vanilla extract (replace with 10 to 20 drops lemon essential oil for a lemon-y cake)
1 T baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t mineral salt
Pour batter in pan and bake for 35 to 40 min, until a fork inserted indicates doneness.
Let cool and then frost.
Vanilla Frosting
Mix up the following, unless you want to just top the cake with whipped cream and berries (double the recipe if you want a thick layer of frosting):
8 oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese or Greek yogurt
cashew milk or water to desired consistency (start with 1/4 cup)
1 T vanilla (or use 1 to 2 T cocoa if you want a chocolate frosting, or a few drops lemon EO, if you made the lemon cake)
sweetener to taste
pinch of salt if you use stevia as the sweetener (stevia always needs a little salt to round out its sharply sweet taste)
Frost the cake when cooled and enjoy! Try not to inhale all at once!
The photo below shows the cake made with garbanzo beans.
*The trouble with THM baked goods for my family is that they tend to have coconut and almond flours, which are both in the THM baking blend. I don’t mind almond and coconut flours but my teenage son is allergic to them. The last time he ingested almond flour by accident he was the sickest I have ever seen him! Too sick to go to the end of season banquet for his football team and passed out on the couch, barely conscious. These allergic attacks tend to happen at homeschool functions when he forgets to ask what is in the food being offered, and I’m not with him so can’t remind him. So whenever I make a THM recipe I have to decide if it’s just for me, or for the whole family to share. If it’s for the whole family to share I have to adjust the recipe so we avoid anaphylactic shock. This time I made a Yellow Cake THM-S that was for the whole family, even my teenage son, to share.
Tree of Life Mothering 