Tree of Life Mothering

My three Quest graduates. Quest is a scholar project offered by Leadership Education Mentoring Institute.

Why give your children a “leadership education?” Why watch them go through the pain of scholar phase, particularly the Quest class, formerly known as Thomas Jefferson Youth Certification?

Here is an open letter to all parents who are striving to assist their children in going through scholar phase, as outlined in the book, Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille. One of my dear friends in leadership education, who mentors the Quest III scholar project, wrote the letter. She gave me permission to reprint it here. I have interspersed the text with photos of scholar moments from my kids.

Dear Parents:

My purpose in writing serves two purposes:

1. To hopefully lay aside apprehensions that may be associated with Quest.

2. To lay open the vital purpose this course and a Leadership Ed. has for your child’s success not only throughout the course of Quest, but in life as well.

 You should already be familiar with the learning phases and the skills developed in Scholar levels after having read A Thomas Jefferson Education, by DeMille,  Aneladee Milne’s book, A New Commonwealth School, and having attended LEMI Philosophy training.  Our commonwealth provides the environments where these skills are developed through classes that help them find their voice through reading, discussing, writing, oral presenting, memorizing, acting and simulating (and, yes, Shakespeare IS a life changing simulation.)¹

Up until Quest, the students have mostly written opinion papers, some research, and short reports.  All of which prepare them for Apprentice Scholar level classes which further fine tunes the previous skills.  However, I believe there is much more gained from the Quest course than improved reading, writing, etc.; they gain a new language.

There is a language in our society that only a few understand and use, a language that moves society through political, moral, economical and international waves, or currants, of leadership, wars, government forms and world views.²  It is through a Leadership Education that this language is discovered.

Dr. DeMille’s subtitle of A Thomas Jefferson Education is “Teaching a Generation of Leaders” and our commonwealth understands the system in which this lofty goal is achieved and its success is proven repeatedly by its graduates and their successes. ¹ 

Leaders, by the way, know this language, they know its impact in swaying a vote, leveraging economies, molding an institute, gaining support, creating curriculum, wording a legislative bill, arguing in favor or against, and understanding an opponent. Familiarity with the language helps our children recognize fallacy, in other words, they will be able to discern the truths or untruths in the rhetoric.  This language comes from a variety of sources. Regardless of its source, it will impact your life and your children’s lives and how it influences those lives, positively or negatively, will depend upon those who are involved in the conversation.   Quest I, II and III will bring your children into that conversation. 

I have personal experiences that illustrate that impact from both the negative and the positive.

 First the bad news…

At age 12 my son felt certain that he wanted to “try” public education after being homeschooled up to this age.  I felt he had had a good founding on correct principles and would either be disheartened by his experience, would not be adversely affected, and want to return home for a better educational experience.  I was wrong. This is what really happened.  Against all council from my religious leaders to teach in the home & not let ungodly men (women) teach my child, ⁴ I allowed my son to enter the public school system.  In a World History class, a secular instructor took the liberties to include his own world view.  My son was so intrigued that he embraced it and has since abandoned God, rejected all teachings of his parents and has gotten involved in illegal activities which cost him his liberties.  He is always angry, unguided, depressed, and uncertain of his future, has no goals and hates all authority.  All because one teacher, who held to worldly values, felt it necessary to introduce a “language” unfamiliar to these young immature children in hopes of having them “look at things differently.”  My son did not know the language and was therefore snared into believing something he still does not fully understand.  I am not saying this will happen to your child if or when they enroll into a public school or an institute of higher education…But it might.

Now the Good News…

Another experience has given me even more insight into the importance of understanding this language.  While volunteering at a youth simulation immersion event this past June, I was able to observe the activities.  The main activity was to have the divided groups (nations) conquer the other groups though various attempts of subterfuge, spying, challenges, and verbal persuasion, among others.  Each group had to decide whether to counter or not.  In the end, the group that was the most aggressive won and the government form that ruled all “nations” was a totalitarian despotic leadership.  Granted it was not real and no harm came upon any participant aside from the frustration of not knowing how to avoid this type of leadership or form of government.  In this experience, I realized with a resounding epiphany that had these kids known the “language” and really understood government forms, they would have had a greater experience AND a better outcome AND a superior chance to be effective in the real world. They all needed to attend Quest I, II AND III!

The Quest course is not separate levels; it is a continuous progression to understanding what virtue looks like and the language that is so powerful today; a language that is undermining our culture.⁶ In order to counter that subtle and not so subtle attack, we must be in the conversation and have a handle on the sophistic rhetoric world leaders are using to sway and gain support- A Support that includes your children.

As a parent, I want my children to be contributing citizens upon entering the world as an adult.  But, what does “contributing” mean?  Is it a taxpayer, a business owner, a loyal employee, a skilled craftsman, an Olympic athlete, a college graduate, a professional, a missionary, a parent, a public servant, an international dignitary, or maybe all of these things?  Does it mean more than just being successful in these fields? Isn’t it more than just living day-to-day? Isn’t it more than just obeying the laws?  Isn’t it more than a college degree?

It is more.  They need to have more than just “making a living”. They need to be able to hold their ground, to know what they believe, & to know correct principles in order to be a contributing citizen. ⁵ They need to be able to influence for good outside of their family or community circles.  They need to be solidly centered on their core values in order to counter at the right times in an appropriate, confidant manner.  They need to recognize when laws are violating rights and freedoms and battle against them. ⁷  That is my vision of contributing and this is what scholars will become following a fabulous exposure to various leadership models in Quest I and II, and then introduced to the basics of world views, its languages and its various sources.  All of which are revealed for their true intent and purposes in the news media, entertainment, speeches, films, curriculum, literature, and even in the local political arena once the language is understood.  Truly, if you want your child to succeed in the upcoming difficult times, they must be part of the conversation.  They must know of and have a firm conviction to their own world view.  One way this can be accomplished is by knowing what other views are saying, then comparing it to the Word of God.^2,8

I am not proposing that your son or daughter become the President of the United States (or am I?) What I am stating is that your child will be in leadership positions in various levels and degrees in their lives.  Let’s help them succeed in the capacity in which they will be called.  Let’s not forget the purpose of a Leadership Education in the swirling mists of socializing, diploma, degree, ACT, college, scholarships and good grades that equal an “education” and equate “success.”  Success (and higher education) can be obtained outside of public institutes AND they’ll gain the best education in ALL fields of experience.  Let’s not limit our children to a “career,” let’s give them the world. ⁸

Maybe, about now, you are wondering who I am and what makes me so sure.  What qualifies me and why am I so passionate?

As the mentor of the Quest III class, I am well versed in the language.  Since my birth, my father spoke of these world views and used their language when discussing the news and other current events.  He was actively involved in politics up until his 80^th year.  From the Young Republicans, Masons, John Birch Society, Independent American Party and numerous attempts at vying for office on such principles that to him “…seem[ed] most likely to affect …Safety and Happiness” for his country and posterity.  He loved the Constitution of the United States and instilled this devotion into his children and grandchildren.  He revered the Founding Fathers and the great documents they penned and he was able to detect with clarity when their teachings and Constitutional principles were violated. 

This is the legacy I inherited.  In turn, I studied and got involved.  I have taught Constitution Courses, held political party positions for 12 years and run for state government offices twice. All of which have immersed me in the dialogue.

In regards to my qualifications for mentoring at Liber Academy, I have been trained in Key of Liberty, Writing Tutorial, Quest I, II, III, & mentored Quest III class for two years.  I have attended all of the Face to Face with Greatness Seminars including the World Views and Mathematics Lectures. I have sat on Liber Academy’s Supreme Court simulations as a judge on four separate occasions.  I have also gone through the 5 Pillar Certification program, thus reading the books for this class at least three times. (Have you seen the bulk of Noebel’s, Understanding the Times?)   One book in this course that has influenced me the most is Steven R. Covey’s, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  I now thoroughly understand my Center, what it looks like and how it guides me in all aspects of my life.  From my continuing studies of Hebrew, the way of the Jews, The Holy Scriptures, Economics, Mathematics and mentoring manuals, I can bring insights that assist the scholar in discovering the correct connections to all that is learned within an eternal perspective.

This process of discovery is most effectively facilitated by you, the parent.  When you keep them close, immerse them in scriptures, read the same materials they are, discuss them with your child in an informal manner, have weekly mentor meetings to “plan” their day, week, year, future, YOU will bring them closer to Greatness with a velocity that will astound you.³   You will no longer wonder if they will make it in the world, because they with full capacity will want to lead the world.

Come, bring your children, and embark on a wonderful journey of discovery.

LINKS of interest and noted in body of letter:

¹ Liber Website: http://liberacademy.org/about-us/philosophy-methodology/

Read the section titled Philosophy/Methodology under the “About Us” menu

² Understanding the Times new Edition website for Introduction and Islam Chapter. The Intro discusses the point of seeing patterns to recognize if something is of God. Islam is an influential emerging WorldView and should be understood, especially because of US Executive Branch sympathies.

https://understandingthetimes.com/contents/ 

 On this page: Choose the “Click here to download…” options

³ TJED site for Parent Interviews

http://www.tjed.org/?s=weekly+interviews

 ⁴ “A School in Zion,” by then President of BYU, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

http://aims.byu.edu/sites/default/files/foundationdocuments/A_School_in_Zion–Jeffrey_R_Holland.pdf

 Ensign/Conference Articles:

Proofs that our Religious leaders also know the language and are sending out warnings.

⁵ “What is Truth?” President Dieter F.  Uchtdorf  https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/ces-devotionals/2013/01/what-is-truth?lang=eng

⁶ Relativism: Elder D. Todd Christofferson’s “Free Forever, to Act for Themselves”  https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/free-forever-to-act-for-themselves?lang=eng

⁷ Secular Humanism: Elder Dallin H. Oaks “Stand as Witnesses of God.”https://www.lds.org/ensign/2015/03/stand-as-witnesses-of-god?lang=eng

⁸ President Ezra Taft Benson

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1975/04/the-book-of-mormon-is-the-word-of-god?lang=eng

Other:

⁸Scholarships

https://www.ldsjobs.org/ers/ct/articles/scholarship-sources?lang=eng

For Day 5, Part 2 of our trip to Nauvoo, we attended the temple. First my four oldest kids attended while my husband and I and Grammi took the littles on the ox cart ride. Then the kids all went swimming at the family inn while the adults, including my 21 year old son, attended.

This was a dream come true, in more ways than one! When I was a kid, this temple did not exist. I heard stories in church of how the Saints had to abandon the temple when they left to go west, and then that it was destroyed by arson. I was always sad to hear about that. I thrilled to hear the announcement by Pres. Hinckley, when I was a young mom of 2 or 3 kids that the temple would be rebuilt in the original design on the same piece of property. This temple was completed and dedicated when my fifth child was a year old. I still remember attending a satellite broadcast of the temple dedication. I was a harried mom who found respite and peace at the temple dedication. My third-great-grandfather sacrificed to build the temple. I am sure he was smiling down from heaven as we attended.

My firstborn, my mother-in-law, me, and my husband.

God provided a tender mercy for me and allowed me to run into a married missionary couple, inside the temple, who are family friends of my parents while I was growing up. We were in the same ward, and the husband was one of my religion professors at BYU. So that was a fun reunion. Then when we came out of the temple to take pictures, we asked a passer-by to take the pictures and he turned out to be a professional photographer. Sometimes we get these little blessings to remind us that God is watching and cares about us in little ways. I am so grateful for temples and the peace I feel when I look at them and go inside them. It was amazing to see the artifacts inside the temple halls. I am going back next summer, and every summer hopefully!

Later when I got home from our Nauvoo trip I learned the story of how the land for the temple to be rebuilt was acquired for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A man named Wilford C. Wood had a passion for LDS Church history. God gave him a vision to have these old properties where church history took place to be rebuilt so later generations could come and learn and strengthen their testimonies. Here is the story. I hope you read it and feel the Spirit. Here is a pdf photoessay about his pursuit of many Church historic sites. I also found out that Brother Wood’s family has created a museum in his honor, about 20 miles from my home. I definitely plan on visiting! It just goes to show how important vision is!

How do you as a homeschool mom mentor your child in scholar phase? This is the period of a young person’s education that happens hopefully between ages 12 and 18. It is described in the book, Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille. Some of the most wonderful news on the planet is that this has already been figured out by the people at Leadership Education Mentoring Institute (LEMI). So you don’t have to reinvent the wheel by starting a new program for scholar phase! You can get this training from LEMI and bring scholar projects to your homeschool community. Go here to learn more about all of the scholar projects LEMI offers.

It was 11 years ago this month that I first met Aneladee Milne, one of the founders of LEMI. I attended her “Mentoring the Hero Generation” seminar when my oldest child had just turned 11. Since then, Aneladee has had a huge impact on my children’s education. First because she started the commonwealth school that we attend, second, because of the mentoring she has given my children, third, because of the Eternal Warriors program she created, fourth because of all the parent mentoring training I have received from her, and fifth, because of the scholar projects she has created, like the Edison Project. So I am celebrating the fact that my three oldest children have had successful scholar phases in part from Aneladee’s influence by posting these videos of LEMI Philosophy training, and photos of their scholar moments through the years. Then the bottom two videos feature training on how to use the Shakespeare Conquest mentor manual and how writing is taught through the LEMI Scholar Projects.

These are some of the marvelous trainers LEMI recruits to train parents on how to teach the scholar projects.

Hooray for youth! Hooray for scholar phase, and hooray for LEMI! My children have vision, mission, abilities, and skills because of what they have learned from these LEMI scholar projects.

So I am off my no grain, low carb diet for a time, after losing 64 lbs. It’s been a long journey (six months) and I am transitioning to “normal eating.” So for me that means eating to hunger, and avoiding processed foods (for the most part, you know, the 80/20 rule). Maybe I will do the keto diet and limit my carbs to 20 grams a day because I feel like I have 20 lbs more to lose but need a break from the 6 month diet I was on. I have been enjoying some sweets in moderation, made with whole sweeteners. I had a hankering on the Saturday night of General Conference for something that was fall-ish that would make me feel sweet, cozy and warm. So I made butterscotch topping for homemade ice cream. It fit the bill! Of course the ice cream was cold, but I ran out of time and energy to make hot apple crumble to go with it. If you make this, you will not regret it!

Go here to get the recipe! I learned so much from Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist, by reading it. I actually have wondered what the difference is between caramel and butterscotch, and she answers that question in the post. If you like to eat sweet-salty foods, then you will love this butterscotch sauce. If you don’t, then I suggest cutting the salt portion in half.

So my mind is going wild with possibilities of what to use with this butterscotch topping. Like I wrote, we had it over homemade ice cream and oh my, it was so divine! The next night, of Sunday General Conference, we tried it on my grain-free brownies, and it was the best dessert I’ve ever had! It’s the perfect fall treat, because the sauce is warm and the brownies are so thick, filling, and toothsome. What a great thing to eat to feel cozy on a chilly fall day. When the sauce is cold, after being stored in the fridge, it’s perfect for dipping apples because it is thicker. I’m wondering how popcorn balls with this sauce would work. Would it firm up at room temperature? Time to experiment!

What did you all think of General Conference? I loved it! Frankly, my little kids, however, don’t always love it. It’s always a battle to get my kids to be quiet and listen. I make packets of coloring pages and puzzles and such but those don’t keep their attention for longer than 15 to 20 minutes, especially my three active younger boys. We still struggle with them getting up and wandering from the room during Conference, wanting to talk and giggle, or wanting to wrestle or go outside and play. I still have hope that they will grow up to be like their older siblings who actually take notes during Conference like I do. I have to admit, when I had kids younger than 5, General Conference was even more of a struggle. I felt like I was wrestling with babies and toddlers and couldn’t take notes. Now that my youngest is 6 I can take notes and for that I am grateful!

I totally enjoyed what I read on my dear Veggie Gal friend Becky Edwards’ blog here. She wrote about her observation of Pres. Eyring giving the same talk four times in older General Conferences. I plan on internalizing it and paying more attention to repeated themes in General Conference from now on!

More and more I am hoping to make it so General Conference days have a holiday feeling, so that they kids look forward to it as much as Easter and Christmas. Just as it says here, we can have special food, service and activities like we do at Christmas. I had never thought about it much before, but it’s true! We can also have special decorations and music. We don’t usually get tangible gifts at General Conference time, but we get spiritual gifts that can be just as exciting or more so. For example, I was especially touched by the following talks and the gems of wisdom that touched my heart:

• Sister Neill F. Marriott with her sharing of how she lets the sacrament ordinance affect her heart every week to stay on the covenant path of repentance

• Elder Larry Lawrence for his suggestion of what we can say in our prayers, namely, “God, what would Thou have me do to improve myself?”

• Elder Jeffrey R. Holland for his comparison of mothers to the Savior (which resonates with Chapter 2 of my Tree of Life Mothering book here)

• Elder Russell M. Nelson for his very personal story of how his wife had the vision to spiritually pick him up and dust him off. This was after two of his patients (from the same family) died after a heart surgery he performed. She had the vision to tell him that he couldn’t quit his work on pioneering open heart surgery, because he had future people to help. One of those people was the future Pres. Spencer W. Kimball. Think about it, if it weren’t for Dantzel Nelson’s vision of Elder Nelson’s work and her encouragement, Pres. Kimball would have died a lot sooner! What vision of our husband’s work can God give to each of us? Becky Edwards blogged this wonderful post here about Elder Nelson’s talk.

Every six months we get to hear these beautiful, amazing stories from the hearts of apostles of Jesus Christ and His other leader/teachers. They each have a lifetime of wisdom and inspiration, and at every conference they give us a portion of this wisdom. We get so have a spiritual feast at every General Conference as we get these morsels of spiritually dense food!

So here is how I plan to make General Conference to feel like Christmas!

• I’ve been doing this for years, and plan on continuing with it. About a month before General Conference, I pull out my special sheet music I took from some older Friend magazines and I sing these songs with my younger kids around the piano. We do this every weekday morning for our homeschool devotional to cement in their minds that General Conference time is a cherished time to hear the words of a living prophet of God. Here are “When I Listen to the Prophet’s Voice,” by Matthew Neely, “At Conference Time” by Brad Wilcox and Steven Kapp Perry, and “I Like to Listen to the Prophet” by Ruth Gatrell.

• have special food for the meals of the two days. Preparing food and cleaning up after food on General Conference has always been a sore point for me. I have wished, “Can’t we go for two days without eating and just feast on the spiritual food?” I feel like I am racing the clock to get breakfast done and cleaned up before the AM session, the lunch prepared, served, and cleaned up in the two hours between sessions, and dinner prepped and served before the men in my family have to go to the priesthood session. As I write this I realize that all of that has happened because I would always sleep in on both mornings, so that’s why I was behind. It’s time to repent! So, here is what I am going to do. First, make sure I wake up at 6 AM on Saturday morning so we can have breakfast of something easy but special, by 8:00 AM, so there’s still time to clean up, and do grooming and be settled before the 10 AM session. We can have cinnamon rolls on Saturday morning with my newly discovered butterscotch topping for the glaze. I am still figuring out what we will have for lunch. This year we had sandwiches which was quick but not really special. Maybe we will have these sandwiches from Jocelyn Christensen’s blog. For Saturday dinner we had pizza I bought from the store. That way I can pop it in the oven right at 4 PM. Then we can eat dinner at 4:30, and the men have plenty of time to change clothes and be out the door to meet friends 45 minutes away for the Priesthood meeting like they did this year. Then for when they get home we will have apple crumble or brownies with ice cream.  For Sunday morning we will have something like pumpkin porridge, in the fall, or this jalapeno cheddar quiche for the spring. Then for lunch we will have something totally simple: popcorn. Then for the dinner, we might have white chicken chili from the above mentioned link at the blog of Jocelyn’s, that I prepare the night before and stick in the crockpot Sunday morning. If I am really ambitious, we also might have a second night of dessert, like pumpkin bars, in the fall, or homemade strawberry ice cream in the spring. With planning, involving my kids to help, and using food I totally look forward to, prepping and serving food will be much less of a chore at Conference time (and any time, really!)

Photo Credit: Jocelyn Christensen of beinglds.blogspot.com

• have special decorations, like the banner and quotes page shown here from Jocelyn Christensen’s blog and the General Conference wall over here, 

Photo Credit: Jocelyn Christensen of beinglds.blogspot.com

• watch it on a big screen with our projector, like we did last weekend thanks to my R.M. son’s ambition to set it all up. It really makes Conference much more special

• bribe my younger kids to take notes with some special non-food treat, like an outing with their friends

• have a FHE Jeopardy-type quiz contest with prizes after Conference is over

• Listen to the priesthood session while we make a treat for the men to come home to. I am so grateful the Church now streams it live over the radio and Internet. It used to not be that way.

• print out the Conference at a glance summary page that Becky Edwards’ posted here, on my bedroom wall

• gather round the piano and sing songs after the dessert, which I will serve after the General Priesthood meeting. I never thought my family was much of a song-singing family. This past Conference my 17 year old son got a group of his friends together with his dad and brother. They gathered at one of the young men’s home after the meeting, and they sang songs around the piano. When they came home, my husband was telling me how wonderful it was. I told him, “Wow, now that I know you think singing around the piano is so great, we will do this a lot more often!”

• keep that Conference spirit alive with follow-ups to the “calls to action,” which Sister Jocelyn Christensen writes about here

So I am looking at these ideas not as more things to add to my checklist, but things I “get to do” to invite the Spirit more into our home. I have to admit, many times when Conference rolls around I haven’t felt ready. I have groaned inwardly and thought, “Yikes, I’m not ready for Conference, I don’t want to have the kids clean the house on Friday and give up a day when I have all this other stuff to do!” It’s time for me to repent of my Martha attitude. 

Please share any ideas you have for making General Conference a less-harried, more Spirit-ful time.

Image credit: picturesimagesclipart.com

Columbus Day is coming up! Here are some inspiring resources to use with your kids so that they know he discovered the New World under the direction of the hand of God.

Here is an article from the 1992 Ensign

Here is a story in mp3 format for kids about Columbus

This pdf here is a study guide that accompanies the above audio story.

I am not into crafts much, but if that makes your heart sing, you will find a bunch here.

The October 1992 Friend featured an article here.

Just for fun, here’s a “hidden pictures” worksheet from the Friend showing Columbus.

Here’s a printable of a Columbus paper doll.

For FHE or on a homeschool morning, you could do a readers’ theater. Here’s a script! We always do a readers’ theater play every year for FHE on Columbus Day.

Clark Hinckley, author of the book about Columbus with an LDS perspective, wrote this article here. Hopefully it is a decent summary of the book, as I don’t want to add any more books to my to-read list right now.

Glenn Kimber wrote this book here about him.

And last but not least, here is Columbus in his own words, well, at least, his words translated into English. He felt a call from God to go explore. He said, “With a hand that could be felt, the Lord opened my mind to the fact that it would be possible to sail, and he opened my will to desire to accomplish the project. . . . This was the fire that burned within me. . . . Who can doubt that this fire was not merely mine, but also of the Holy Spirit . . . urging me to press forward?”

I find it fascinating that he fulfilled Nephi’s prophecy in 1 Nephi 13:12 which says, “… I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my

brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and 

wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of 

my brethren, who were in the promised land.”

I finally got the podcast feature fixed on my iPhone. When I went to listen to some podcasts, I was delighted to find a new unplayed episode from the Luminous Mind involving my dear friend Aneladee Milne. Aneladee has played a key role in the education of me and my children. She helped create LEMI, which trains parents to teach the scholar projects that my four oldest children have benefited from. She created New Commonwealth Schools, which our family participates in, the the form of Liber Academy. Liber Academy is the original commonwealth school that Aneladee started over 15 years ago.

Aneladee helped create The Edison Project and Eternal Warriors. The Edison Project is the self-directed scholar phase project that two of my children have taken. Eternal Warriors is the brainchild of Aneladee and Maurice Harker. I took that class over 3 years ago with my daughter and then trained to teach the class. It changed both of our lives, and inspired me to offer the class to moms, in the form of Mothers Who Know. I’ve attended many parent mentor trainings that have featured Aneladee, for our school, including on the past month of September. Here’s a recap of a meeting with Aneladee I hosted in my backyard on how to get your teenager to do scholar phase.

I thought it would be fun to feature these photos and podcast videos of Aneladee and two of her “products” or “fruits” of her educational philosophy: my son Dallin and his friend Jacob. If you have ever wondered if Thomas Jefferson Education works, these two boys are testimonials! They both took the Edison Project last year and have spent many hours with Aneladee. If you want to learn more about the fruits of Thomas Jefferson Education, including the power of classics and mentors, then listen to these interviews with Aneladee, Dallin, and Jacob. I remember mentoring Dallin and Jacob in a boys club that met twice a month at my friend Kim Davis’ home years ago when they were just little sprouts. They have been on many Freedom Bowl teams together. Now they are best friends and amazing young men who work on a blog together. Jacob is an author, blogger, and 16 year old freshman at BYU. Dallin is an amazing young man full of a ton of initiative. He does hard things all the time and is preparing to go to BYU.

It’s Conference time again! Who will be the three new apostles?

In addition to the resources I already posted here, I have found more fun ideas to use with your kids.

On lds.org you can print out General Conference bingo sheets and coloring pages, along with note-taking pages. I like to print out the note pages and then glue the names of the apostles and photos in my own journal as I take notes in my journal for each one.

Here’s a General Conference Doodle book from Jocelyn Christensen, over here.

Here’s a Faith in God General Conference workbook for boys and girls ages 8 to 11.

sugardoodle.net has a collection of packets specific for October 2015, click here.

For moms and dads, here’s a fun “Fantasy General Conference” packet where you predict what will happen.

Enjoy!

Perhaps you’ve seen ads, or even attended, marriage retreats that cost a few hundred dollars. You get to stay in a fancy hotel with meals included in the cost and attend some seminars about improving your marriage. It’s a long date, a time to play, learn new skills, and learn about each other, sans kids. Sounds glorious! Problem is, sometimes some of us can’t pay for it.

Here is how to have a marriage retreat without paying a cent.

1. Get the vision of going on a marriage retreat. Have a kid. Long to return to newlywed days when you can be free of responsibilities like kids and jobs so you can just talk for hours about marriage issues.

2. Have a bunch more kids. Delay fulfilling your vision because you can’t afford a babysitter for more than a few hours, Eventually you actually do go on some overnighters but you can’t count them as a “true” retreat because you always bring a nursing baby or toddler.

One of the aforementioned nursing babies, now grown, with his fingerprints on the doorframe!

3. Have even more kids. Notice some of the older parents in your homeschool group leave for overnighters without the kids because they have teens who can babysit the siblings. Add that to your vision.

4. Find out that your husband is going to a conference for his attorney profession that is 2 days at the Zermatt Resort in Midway UT. Realize that the conference sponsor is paying for his hotel room. Translate. Free hotel room + no nursing babies or toddlers currently in my life = free marriage retreat. Husband has a conference at this hotel for four years in a row. Take advantage of the free room, but sometimes you have to get there late because of your children’s softball and baseball commitments. You never actually get there before sunset and always feel rushed to go swimming, which isn’t as fun because it’s in the dark. Sometimes the kids come with you and then drive home separately, so you can all have a fun free night of swimming together. Find out that the conference room package includes miniature golfing, s’mores making at the fire pit, and tennis. Because of getting there so late every time the whole family can only do swimming.

5. Have the family car’s transmission break on Mother’s Day.

6. Spend the whole summer looking for a second car. You are dead set on getting the best family car ever, the Toyota Sienna minivan with 8 seats, and you want to buy it used, so it takes all summer, since 8 seat Siennas are about as rare as lavender unicorns. Three times you are about to buy one when the person who looked at it right before you talks to the owner, interrupting you with a phone call or in-person approach, and gets it before you. Retreat like a dog with your tail between your legs and quit looking at cars for over a month.

7. Finally realize that you better get the second car so that you can drive up to the next retreat opportunity, because your husband has another conference coming up. You want to stay there both nights with the hubs, since it’s only two weeks after your 24th wedding anniversary, so you will count it as an anniversary celebration. You want to go up the first night without kids and have the kids drive the second car to visit at the resort for a few hours on the second day to swim, play, and do miniature golfing, which is part of the free package, and then send them home. You don’t want to have all the fun yourself. Especially since you wanted to do that on a previous visit, but because of the kids’ sports, you couldn’t get there sooner.

8. Have two of your kids come home for a semester break for college so that increases your options of babysitters.

8. Get the second car four days before the retreat. Yes!!!!! Major victory!!! A used Toyota Sienna, clean title, 8 seats, not dirty, no mechanical problems, and for only 6K! And it has an “aux” inlet so you can connect your phone to the car’s stereo speakers.

9. Peruse a super fun website full of dating ideas for married couples. It’s called datingdivas.com. Get some fun ideas for your retreat (wink, wink).

10. Talk to the kids about this upcoming time when you will be leaving them home with the four oldest who are teens/20+ years old.

11. Plan meals and go shopping for food for the kids to survive on their own.

12. Realize that school for your scholar phase kids actually interferes with your plans for this retreat because two of them have homeschool speech and debate and ballroom dance classes on the day you want the kids to drive up. Argh! Can’t summer still go on? It’s not Labor Day yet people! Arrange with your teen daughter whose college semester starts two weeks later (thank goodness!) to do chauffeur duty and bring the brood up after speech and debate classes.

13.  Find out that because of your hectic life with seven kids going different directions to football practice, work, study, and play, that one of them never got the memo about this retreat because he was never at dinner when you announced it. Feel sad that he would rather go to ballroom dance class then come play with the rest of the family.

14. Go to church. Teach your Primary lesson. Have a hard time concentrating because is less than six hours you will be away having a second honeymoon!

15.  Go do your visiting teaching and home teaching because it is next to the last day of the month and you procrastinated, yes, once again! Continue to have a hard time concentrating.

16. Leave your visiting teachee’s home like you are kid being released from the last day of public school before summer vacation. Finish packing and instructing children as you walk out the door. You do not want dishes in the sink when you come home! Drive up with your husband and enjoy the mountain atmosphere. Listen, as you drive, to this article on marriage, about blessing your children by improving your marriage, from the September 2015 Ensign. Discuss your answers to the questions in the article. This gives the perfect emotional setting for the retreat.

11. Create a playlist of romantic music without any interruptions from kids, chores, or phone calls.

12. Enjoy a romantic evening because of what you planned from ideas at datingdivas.com.

13. Have fun writing in journal the next day and sunbathing, playing golf with the kids after they arrive with teen driving siblings. Explore the natural crater across the street at the Homestead resort, with the geothermal spring, and swim with them. Also ride the carousel and have s’mores. Fulfill two dreams in one: to have a marriage retreat for two nights, without any nursing babies, and to have a family day at the Zermatt doing all of the activities.

This picture was taken inside the natural crater. You can go scuba diving in the water! Next time we go I want to do that!

This is the fam, minus me and 17 year old son (the one who would rather go to ballroom class), on top of the crater.

14 Send the kids home. Again feel like you are being released from the last day of school before vacation.

15. Have another romantic evening, thanks to datingdivas.com. Bless you ladies!

16. Wake up to another wonderful day! Do your Power Actions (prayer, read scriptures, and write in journal) in the most leisurely way possible since you can for twice a year (!) while hubs goes off to his dry legal meetings. Feel like Linda Eyre in one of her stories, where she writes how Richard checked her into a hotel so she could have a break from little kids. She tells how she put a pen down on the desk in the hotel room, and when she came back, it was still there! (Only a mother of little children knows the relish that comes from such an ordinary experience.) Write even more in your journal, exploring the resources on the Gospel Library app that you haven’t explored before, do more sunbathing, and go home with your husband after dry legal meetings are over.

Re-enter normal life with all of its demands as a homeschooling mom of 7 with a refreshed and recharged spirit for the new school year!

I was delighted to find this blue flower in the courtyard of the Zermatt. It looks more lavender in the photo but it was blue in real life. I hardly ever see blue flowers.