Tree of Life Mothering

I’ve been reading this book, Invincible Louisa by Cornelia Meigs, aloud to my littles almost every time while they do the dishes after a meal. I love it. I have always loved Louisa May Alcott, the subject of this biography, ever since my mom read Little Women aloud to me when I was a young girl. L.M. had such a heart for goodness, family, determination, and hard work. I kept feeling, as I read the book, that she was probably related to me since she has New England roots and I do too, and because I just couldn’t shake a “kindred feeling” while I was reading it. 

I have learned so many things from this book! Did you know Louisa May was friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau? You probably know that she modeled the character of Jo after herself, and the March sisters after her sisters. But did you know that she was the one who went off to help with the Civil War, not her father, like in the story? 

I finally did some sleuthing on puzzilla.org, which makes it easy to see at a glance several generations on a family tree. Sure enough! Louisa May Alcott and I are fifth cousins four times removed, assuming that the data in the Familysearch database is correct! The relationship is through the same line of which I am descended from William Bradford. Louisa May and I share the same ancestor of Thomas Barnes, born 1621 in England. She was fifth cousins straight across with my third great grandfather Lorenzo Johnson, a Mormon pioneer who was born in Connecticut and crossed the plains. He was the first mayor of Springville Utah and helped to build sawmills.  

My interview with Rebecca Bohman of the Luminous Mind was published today! You can listen to it in the following ways:

Start watching this video from the 18 minute mark and you will learn about some ideas about why Zarahemla in the Book of Mormon may be across from Nauvoo, Illinois and how the Mississippi River could be the river Sidon. This video is of a presentation given just last Sunday April 12th. 

I am guessing it was held in conjunction with the Book of Mormon evidence conference that was held for three days last week in Orem UT. Here’s a powerful presentation, below, from that conference last year, given by my children’s 2nd cousin, Jake Hilton. Jake was a presenter this year as well. I checked out the speaker list for this year and the topics and speakers looked exciting. One of them is my husband’s cousin, Larry Hilton, who started the sound money movement here in Utah. I like that they included some holistic health topics. My mother-in-law, who moved to a place about four blocks away from me, invited me to go this year with her but I had conflicts and couldn’t go. I hope they put the presentations on youtube. Here is the Youtube channel of the organization behind the conference, called FIRM. I think some of the videos may be of previous presentations from the conference.

Guess what?!? The elves behind the marvelous Eternal Warriors class that I teach, which I call Mothers Who Know, when I teach it to mothers, have added FOUR new lessons. I am so excited to share these with you! I am adding them in starting with the next Mothers Who Know session that I teach, which begins Wednesday April 29th. You can go here to get all of the details for the new class. Basically, it will be ten weeks instead of eight, and I will cut down on part of the old class to add in these new lessons. The tuition cost has gone up by $30. So the early bird price is now $127, and the regular price is $177. Graduates of the “old” class can attend for $67 early bird, $77 regular price.. 

I love to give away a free registration of the class anytime I teach it, so this is the announcement that I am doing so for this class. Please comment below to enter the random drawing to enter the free giveaway. If you win, you get free tuition for the class, but you still get to buy materials for the class. I will do the drawing on Saturday April 18th.

Here are the topics of the five new lessons:

• what’s the big deal about porn and how to teach your children what to do when they are accidentally exposed to it
• be still and know that I am God (how to connect with God when you experience negative body chemistry)
• how to remember your values with vocal affirmations
• what is shame and how to let go of it
• passion projects, why they are important and how to identify your passion projects!

Come join us! 

Here are some new videos from blogger Cara Comini, over at healthhomeandhappiness.com. She blogs about the GAPS diet for kids and eating grain free. If you have heard about the benefits of going low carb, or even grain free, but the whole thing felt daunting, these video tutorials will help you see that it can be done! Cara’s daughter healed from autism by being on a GAPS diet for a few years, so it can definitely change lives. 

The above video gives ideas on preparing fruit, vegetable, and easy meat snacks for kids. Then the video below is about how to make grain-free crackers that kids will actually eat.

If you watch the next one below you can learn how to make 100 grain-free meatballs at once. You might be wondering why you would ever want to do that, but if you have a bunch of kids like I do, and you want them to have some kind of portable protein lunch without bread these would be just the thing to include.

Lastly, you can learn how to always have beef stock on hand in the video below. You can do it by creating a bulk batch of homemade beef stock bouillon cubes that don’t take a ton of space in your refrigerator to store, like liquid beef stock does. If you have ever tried the GAPS diet, you will appreciate the idea of having bouillon cubes whenever you want, as beef stock is one of the chief stapes of the diet.

Easter came early this year. I didn’t even get my decorations out until the night before. It’s wonderful and tricky at the same time when General Conference falls on Easter Weekend, as it did this year. Then there are more activities to pack into two days! We as a family have to prepare more on Thursday and Friday. I definitely felt the Spirit over the weekend testifying to me of the Easter message: truth of the Savior’s atonement and resurrection. I loved General Conference, especially Elder Holland’s talk on the atonement. I think we all somewhat wonder as fiery Elder Holland approaches the podium, “What’s he going to say this time?” don’t we? He has always , since I learned this year that his wife is my mom’s second cousin. He told the story of a rock climber who almost plunged to his death on a fall, but was saved by his brother. It was a wonderful analogy of the Savior’s rescue of our possible spiritual death. My speech and debate trained son called this “thematic metaphor.”

We did our Saturday morning chores on Friday morning and then dyed Easter eggs late Friday afternoon so we could be ready for General Conference on Saturday morning (after sleeping in). I planned to have the Easter Egg hunt Saturday around 5 PM. The only one interested in dying the eggs this year was my 9 year old daughter. Maybe because she is the only girl left at home? Her older sister, who I call Virtue, is away at college, along with my firstborn, a boy, who I call Valor. Valor came home for the weekend with a friend from college so they could attend General Conference in person. I love these zealous returned missionaries (RMs). It was later, through the grapevine, Valor’s brother, that I learned that Valor was planning on meeting with a girl to escort to Conference. It’s fun to see this RM son dating, although I am in no hurry for him to get married. 

This early spring that came means the dandelions in the backyard are out of control!

Usually dh and I go to his mission reunion but since I am avoiding sugars and starches and other things on a new diet I did not want to go and see all of the tantalizing foods served after the program, brownies and chocolate chip cookies and such. Instead we stayed home and watched a movie for our date. It was Baptists at the Barbecue, which I found free online. We read the book years ago and I thought it was good and funny, but the movie was definitely brain candy. It started out so corny.Towards the end it got more meaningful, but now I am thinking I wish I had watched something deep. I am going to get better at detecting brain candy before I watch the whole thing. Next time we do a movie night, we will finish Mr. Holland’s Opus and then I am going to insist we watch some kind of bonnet movie/Jane Austen story which are definitely not brain candy.

I love being able to see the mountains from my front and back yards. I wanted to focus on the blossoms on this picture, and in the one below I focused on the mountains.

Before Valor left on Easter Sunday to go back to college I got to visit with one of his roommates who he snagged a ride with. For the purpose of this blog, I shall call him Stalwart. Stalwart shared how he got his testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. He said that when he was 15 1/2, the missionaries had been teaching him the lessons. As soon as they taught him the plan of salvation, he felt something different, something wonderful. He said he had the feeling that he was learning something that he had always had a question about, like a missing puzzle piece was finally falling into place. He later learned that what he was feeling was the Spirit. The missionaries set a baptism date for him and asked if that was OK. He said yes. Then Stalwart got baptized and continued to go to church. He prayed for a confirmation of the truth of the Book of Mormon one night, as he knelt in his bedroom. He expected Angel Moroni to walk into his room. When that didn’t happen he was disappointed. He went to the bed and then a few days later he attended church. He had been good at this habit, even though sometimes it meant he had to walk or catch rides with people because his family did not support him going to church. That first Sunday after he prayed, his ward had a changing of the guard with a new bishopric announced. He was sad to see his old bishop be released as this man had greatly helped his family. Stalwart said that when the bishop bore his testimony, Stalwart felt a feeling he ahd never felt before. It was an overwhelming feeling of warmth pounding into his chest, like a ramrod stuffing explosives into a cannon. He started crying as he felt this overwhelming feeling of love and truth. He knew this was an answer to his prayer when he asked if the gospel was true. As he listened to each one of the other men, from the old and new bishopric and then the stake president bear his testimony, he kept feeling those feelings of love and truth and he kept crying. Then once the amen was said, he stopped crying. He knew at that moment that he would continue going to church, pay tithing, obey the commandments, follow Jesus, and serve a mission. Stalwart did end up serving a mission, to Brazil, along with half of all of the other missionaries out there. One of my brothers served there, as well as my husband’s uncle, as well as my nephew. It’s not really half, but I think I heard it’s like 1 out of every six missionaries go to Brazil. I will have to check that stat. 

Here’s the 13 year old with the long hair searching for Easter eggs. I am allowing him to grow because of the Shakespeare play coming up, in which he has the lead role. After he gets back from Shakespeare Showdown, I will be delightedly chopping it off. Even though I was born in the 70s, the Brady Bunch long hair on boys look from that time is not my favorite.

I hope you all had a great Easter. My life is certainly far from perfect right now, with a lot of unanswered questions and uncertainties about the future. But I do know one thing. Jesus Christ lives, and He knows each one of us and loves us. His grace allows each of us to overcome all sorrow and pain. If you haven’t yet, read the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ to know of God’s love for you. It brings me great peace. I read the following Book of Mormon scripture recently, and it fits perfectly with Easter. It’s from 2 Nephi 9:3-11:

3 Behold, my beloved brethren, I speak unto you these things that ye may rejoice, and lift up your heads forever, because of the blessings which the Lord God shall bestow upon your children.

4 For I know that ye have searched much, many of you, to know of things to come; wherefore I know that ye know that our flesh must waste away and die; nevertheless, in our bodies we shall see God.

 5 Yea, I know that ye know that in the body he shall show himself unto those at Jerusalem, from whence we came; for it is expedient that it should be among them; for it behooveth the great Creator that he suffereth himself to become subject unto man in the flesh, and die for all men, that all men might become subject unto him.

 6 For as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfil the merciful plan of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection, and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall; and the fall came by reason of transgression; and because man became fallen they were cut off from the presence of the Lord.

 7 Wherefore, it must needs be an infinite atonement—save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption. Wherefore, the first judgment which came upon man must needs have remained to an endless duration. And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more.

 8 O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace! For behold, if the flesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more.

 9 And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father oflies, in misery, like unto himself; yea, to that being whobeguiled our first parents, who transformeth himself nigh unto an angel of light, and stirreth up the children of men unto secret combinations of murder and all manner of secret works of darkness.

 10 O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit.

 11 And because of the way of deliverance of our God, the Holy One of Israel, this death, of which I have spoken, which is the temporal, shall deliver up its dead; which death is the grave.

Easter is coming! Are you ready? If you want to create more meaning than the crash after a sugar high eating a chocolate bunny, here are 12 ideas for creating a Christ-centered Easter.

1. Watch the new video by the LDS Church, called He Lives, pictured above.

2. Get ideas from the book below, A Christ-centered Easter. It’s marvelous! I am rather partial to it, since my husband’s cousin wrote it. She gives ideas for a Passover meal, a Bethlehem supper, an Plan of Salvation Treasure hunt, and more.

3. Have an Easter egg hunt with health-ier treats from the health food store, and then gather in the front of your DVD player or the Internet to watch Finding Faith in Jesus Christ (a movie produced by the LDS Church, embedded below the picture below). I look for treats in the bulk room of the health food store and in the bulk natural foods at my local grocery store. I still read labels on the bins, and avoid the candy with the artificial food colors. Lately my mom has been having an egg hunt in her backyard every year. She often puts non-food treats in the plastic eggs, like miniature bottles of bubble-blowing solution, stretchy bunnies, plastic jewelry for the girls, and bouncy balls. 

4. Tell the Easter story with plastic eggs. You could even include the eggs with the token symbol for each part of the story, with your regular Easter egg hunt, and then gather everyone to share the story while they eat the treats and open up the eggs with the token symbols.

5. Do a service project for someone in your neighborhood, such as pulling weeds or yardwork for a family who can’t do it on their own.

6. Read Easter stories from March and April issues of the Friend.

7. Make Christ-centered Easter crafts, found in the link above, and also found here.

8. Make Easter foods that remind you of the Savior and His resurrection, in the two links in #6 and #7 above.

9. Read Easter picture books (click on link to get a list).

10. Read the Easter story in the scriptures. In the book by Janet Hilton Hales that I mentioned above, she has scripture readings for every day for the week leading up to Easter.

11. Watch the Easter Dream by the LDS Church, featured below.

12. Watch the Lamb of God

I don’t know how much of the footage in the above films is duplicated in the movie below, but just in case you want more to watch, I put the full movie that the LDS church produced about Jesus Christ below. Happy Easter everyone! If you have any more ideas on how to celebrate a Christ-centered Easter, please comment below.

OK, OK, I give in. I’ve been resisting the Family School curriculum, sold by Latter-day Learning which is part of the American Heritage School in American Fork Utah. This is an LDS-based private school, and Latter-day Learning Family School is the curriculum the school sells for homeschoolers. I thought it was too “conveyor belt” and “artificial.” As a long time homeschooler, I have come to know myself really well as to what works for me and what doesn’t. I do not like having a curriculum hanging over my head, telling me what to do every day. Maybe it’s my Carol Tuttle Type 1 randomness and rebelliousness coming out. I don’t like feeling I have to do x amount of work to get “done” in 9 months every “school year,” or to think I have to cover so many subjects every day with all the kids.

I don’t like staying up the night before rounding up things for a lesson, like paper clips, boiled eggs or pipe cleaners, not to mention poring over lesson plans. I prefer to equip my children with scholarly skills like reading, writing, and computing so they can go through a curriculum on their own when they are scholar age. So that’s why I didn’t jump on board when the Family School curriculum first came out a few years ago. I am sure it has wonderful content, but it’s just not my style to use any kind of boxed curriculum, except for math. ( I do use mathusee.com workbooks for my kids with the accompanying DVDs). I am very eclectic and random when it comes to homeschooling. I like every day to look different as to what we study according to their interests, after morning chores, devotional, and math studies are done. So far, my “method” has worked, as my two oldest kids are in college now on academic scholarships. I am having a paradigm shift however by reading the Brainy Bunch, written by a homeschooling mom and dad of ten kids, which is a post for another day.

Anyhow, I couldn’t resist this offer. Now through March 31, 2015 Latter-day Learning is offering online access to the curriculum for only $1, and then starting in September they will charge $19.99 a month, and you can cancel any time. they call this the Founding Family 2015 offer. So you can preview the curriculum and try it out for practically free this spring and summer, and then continue to pay more if you love it. This is how I plan on using the curriculum: I am going to read the curriculum (randomly of course) and share what I learn with my kids during devotional and mealtimes, not by sitting next to them making sure they put the right answer in the blank line in the workbook. Just watch the video below to learn how to sign up.

This video shows two ladies who wrote a lot of the curriculum, Jane Mack and Nannette Wiggins. They are sisters and long-time homeschoolers in Utah County, Utah. I attended a few events to hear them speak over a decade ago when I lived in the Provo/Orem area. They used to homeschool together when their kids were at home. How fun to have school with your cousins!

Here’s another video with Jane and Nanette, explaining the “Family School” Way.

Here is my cute friend Dana, in the video below. She is one of my Veggie Gals girlfriends. She loves the curriculum.

Latter-day Learning also has a YouTube channel with a ton of interesting videos you could watch yourself and share as you deem fit with your kids to make some of the stories you are teaching from the curriculum come alive. Enjoy! Just don’t let the curriculum make you feel guilty that you aren’t going “through” it according to their timetable. 

Have you ever been to carnivals with your family and left feeling slightly depressed? I know I have. Sure, it’s pleasurable to play the games, ride the rides, and eat the cotton candy, but then when I leave I haven’t grown or learned anything to make me a better person. No surprise there, since the word “carnival” comes from the Latin root word “carn” which means flesh. Carnivals are all about pleasing the flesh. It’s time for a renaissance of community-based wholesome family entertainment that involves traditional forms of nourishing the spirit, mind and body.

My friend Katie F. Hansen, pictured in the video above,​ is hosting a “holistic family fair” this Saturday March 28th in Bountiful UT. Come join us for holistic entertainment and crafting. Enzio Busche will give the keynote address at 10 AM. Storytelling, dancing, and wholesome ways to nourish your family will be featured! Watch the video and then go to the link at the end of the video to register. It’s time for a renaissance of community, dancing, and wholesome family recreation! Go here to register! It’s only $35 family. Here’s the schedule for the awesome day! Bring a picnic or plan on buying some of the nourishing food there.

UPDATE: Because of a family emergency, the family history webinar scheduled for today March 17th has been moved to Wednesday March 18th at 2:30 PM. Use the same link that is listed below.

I am sorry for the inconvenience. I will record it so you can catch it later if you can’t come tomorrow.

This spring, at least once a week, on Tuesday or Wednesday, in the afternoon or evening, I will be hosting a webinar featuring a presentation that has to do with all the topics related to this blog: homeschooling, conscious parenting, mothering, mentoring, dressing femininely (which includes fashion, hair, and beauty), fathering, wifing, family history, attachment parenting, breastfeeding, nutrition, cooking from scratch, frugality, natural healing, health and wellness, gardening, homemaking, natural family planning, fertility awareness, emergency preparedness, living the gospel, character education, liberty, limited government, AND probably MORE! (I have a TON of interests and passions!)

So..here’s what’s coming next week!

Wednesday March 18th 2015

2:30 to 3:30 PM MDT

Family History Joy

presented by Celestia Shumway

Do you groan when you hear the words “family history” or “genealogy”?

Do you feel like you have no time to do it?

Do you want to see how much fun family history can be?

Come to this webinar to learn the amazing blessings associated with family history research and temple work and how you can have these blessings of joy and peace, no matter what your level of stress is!

Please click on the link below to join the webinar

https://join.me/treeoflifemama

When you join the meeting, please click on the little phone icon button, and then click on “join by computer”. Then your audio should work.

Wednesday March 18th

7 to 8:30 PM MDT

The Spark Station, aka The Homeschool Closet

by Mary Ann Johnson

Please use the link below to join the webinar

https://join.me/treeoflifemama

When you join the meeting, please click on the little phone icon button, and then click on “join by computer”. Then your audio should work.

Mary Ann Johnson is passionate about families. She is a speaker, trainer, workshop leader and writer for parents who have chosen to home or public educate their children. She has seven grown children, a dozen grandchildren, is the founder of four businesses and is the creator of The Spark Station and Rockin’ Spark Station Packets. Mary Ann teaches parents how to order themselves so they can order their families, to experience more fun, inspired learning, connection and joy.

For parents, keeping their children inspired can sometimes be a daunting task. Coming up with ideas or even seeing what their children are already interested in can be a challenge. Parents want to inspire their kids. They want “school” and learning to be interesting and exciting. Having a tool in place, that helps parents do this, goes a long way to bringing peace to a parents heart and family connection fun to the “school room”. In this presentation participants will learn: • What the Spark Station is and how it can help them connect with their children in fun and inspiring ways • Applications of the Spark Station • Five Life principles which increase Spark Station success • Information on how to actually create, fill and use the Spark Station tomorrow.

If you would like to be featured on my “show” with a passion or interest that relates to the above topics, then please contact me 801-628-8753 so we can schedule!