Tree of Life Mothering

Why is Hebrew so important, and why would I want to study it?

The first five books of the Hebrew Bible and most of the rest of the Hebrew Bible, are written in Hebrew. As we study the original Hebrew words used in the Bible, we can unlock meanings of the scriptures that were lost in translations.

For example: the word father in Hebrew, ab, comes from the letters aleph and bet. These letters come from ancient pictographs that look like like an ox head and a tent (which is what a house was for the ancient Hebrews). So a father literally means “strong as a tent, or tent pole.” The father was to be a strong leader of the home. Cool, right? If you watch the video above, you will see a presentation by a man who makes totally amazing connections between Joseph Smith, Hebrew, and reformed Egyptian, which the Book of Mormon was translated from.

Hebrew is so fascinating! When you learn these ancient pictographs behind the Hebrew alphabet letters, a whole new world of meaning is unlocked. Come learn with us! 

Martin Luther once said, “If I were younger I would want to learn this language [i.e. Hebrew],for without it one can never properly understand the Holy Scriptures. For that reason they have said correctly: ‘The Jews drink out of the original spring, The Greeks drink out of the stream flowing out of the stream, The Latins, however, out of the puddle.”

“I have learned so much!  Thank you for giving us this opportunity.  This class has been life-changing!”  RaNae, UT

It’s no secret that I love the Duggars! I think the best thing I love about them is that they have created their own happy culture, based on the beliefs that Jesus is our Lord and children are a blessing. I love that they teach the kids to be their own best friends and to love and serve each other. I also like that they homeschool their kids, limit their children’s exposure to media.I love that they provide lessons for their children to play piano and violin, because that’s what I learned as a kid as well. I feel I have a lot to learn from them in teaching my own children. Today Jill Duggar Dillard announced she is expecting a boy in March! I am so happy for her!

These are two of my favorite Duggar videos. I love the song about Jesus that they sing in the above video, and I love the poem Michelle shares in the video, about relying on fences instead of ambulances. If everyone were as self-governing as the Duggars, we wouldn’t need any metaphorical ambulances!

The the below video shows the kids creating a dinner show for their parents anniversary. It is just the sweetest thing! I would be so thrilled if my kids did the same thing! (hint, hint…kids…not that they ever read my blog!)

All my friends rave about The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom and justifiably so. It is such a beautiful, loving story about the power of a family to create its own culture of love and caring that reaches beyond cultural borders to stand up for what’s right. My dear friend Katie Hansen has created a “TJED” based project for core phase children called “The Ten Boom project.” It’s an education for young children based on organic principles. You can get a taste for it here at her House of the Book web site. 

I met someone a while back who had never even heard of The Hiding Place, in my disbelief. I urged her to read it because how can someone go around not knowing about the wonderful ten Boom family and their heroic rescue of some Jews in World War II. If you haven’t read it, please do. It will be one of the best books you ever read.

Did you know there’s a book about Corrie’s life as a child? Yes, it’s called In My Father’s House. I read it in August and feel my life is so much richer and better for reading it. I will be putting up some of my favorite little stories and nuggets of truth about it in the next while, I hope.

Here’s one cute story from the book that plugs ecological breastfeeding and natural child spacing: Casper, Corrie’s father, didn’t like pacifiers for babies because he thought they were “telling a lie to a baby.” Fooling them into thinking they are getting something for all of their sucking. One more reason why I like that man! 

Here is a cute catchy song to memorize the names of the First Presidency and the  Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If your kids don’t know their names, this is a great way to teach them! Knowing their names will help them enjoy watching General Conference. I think we as moms take it for granted that our children know who these wonderful men are, because we already know who they are. 

Here is the song:

Here are some links to the sheet music and cue cards to go with the song!

The September 2014 Friend has “Special Witness” cards of the First Presidency and the 12 Apostles right here. You could use these to make 

• a board or file folder game to match the names with the Apostles (see video below)

• and a General Conference “smash book.” Go here to get directions for it.

Photo Credit: Jocelyn Christensen, of beinglds.blogspot.com

Jocelyn Christensen, author of the General Conference Smash book ideas, also has the Ultimate Page for General Conference activities right here.

I am so behind on blog posts! I have about a million in my drafts folder. Here’s one of my fun times last month! I got to go to the 2014 Moms’ Retreat, organized by Melanie Ballard, the cute brunette smiling above. They had a leadership session early in the day on Friday for the cabin mothers and board. That’s me up on the rope ladder, focused on my steps. It was fun and I wasn’t nearly as scared as I was when I did a similar course two years ago. I had a healing experience up there, which I wrote about here.

We got to have a pizza dinner and go hiking with cousins from Colorado. The night ended all too soon! They come out about once a year. I wish they lived closer! My nephew on the left was pouting because he was just told it was time to go home, even though we hadn’t finished the hike, because they had an hour drive ahead of them before bedtime. So sad, :-(.

Warrior son got a bow and arrow for his birthday, which was the day of the Moms’ Retreat. We had a luscious birthday party breakfast (with the works: bacon, eggs, waffles, real cream, maple syrup, berries, and more) for him the day before his actual birthday and then it was off to the ropes course for the Moms’ Retreat the very next morning! I was so proud of myself for planning ahead and knowing his birthday was on the same day as the retreat so I got his present early. No scrambling this year, which used to be my old self. My Mothers Who Know course has totally helped me transform. 

My husband’s side of the family had a Hilton Family Reunion at This is the Place State Park, in this lovely building financed by Larry H. Miller. My college attending daughter and her second cousin are in the photo below. I didn’t even know you could have family reunions there! I love family reunions! Seeing where each one is held on my side and dh’s side increases my vision of all the different ways they can happen.The reunion deserves a whole blog post of its own, maybe I will do it soon. I caught some cool pictures, including one of the prettiest jello 7-layer dessert that has ever appeared this side of the Great Salt Lake. Stay tuned!

Photo Credit: DCL, from duggarfamilyblog.com

This sweet video of Michelle Duggar with her older daughters captures a wonderful tradition I want to start in my family! I love the idea of having the mother and sisters of the bride go bridal gown shopping with the bride. Then have a little party where you share letters of encouragement to the bride. I am looking forward to this! Maybe if I am lucky I will even get to go with my future-daughters-in-law when they go shopping too, which I hope, since I have only two daughters so far and five sons! 

So here’s the promised blog post about healing sunburns. I got such a bad burn last July on our trip to the beach in SoCal that it made it hard to sleep for a few nights. We did use sunblock, but I didn’t reapply it. I thought since it was SPF 50 or whatever the high number was that I didn’t need to, but we were out there in the blazing sun for about 5 hours, so maybe that’s why I got burned. Usually I am so much more careful. I remember my days at BYU, one summer I had a job at one of the cafeterias that started early in the morning. I always slathered on sunblock when my job was over for the day before I even stepped outside, and that was just to walk across campus!

Anyway, back to my more carefree middle-aged days. As we were prepping for bed that first night after the day at Corona Beach, some of us were already in pain from sunburns. Instead of reaching for the solarcaine, I found this fabulous natural, toxin-free cure for sunburns, thanks to the Food Renegade, Kristin Michaelis. Basically, you apply apple cider vinegar all over the burn, then lavender essential oil, then beef tallow from grass-fed cows. You would think that ACV would irritate the already burned skin, as it tastes so tingly and sour, but it didn’t hurt at all when I applied it. It actually helped cool the skin off. As I didn’t have any of tallow on hand in our condo, I didn’t use tallow. But I did apply some butter from grass-fed cows after I got home. I did happen to have some of that awesome Kerrygold brand, imported from Ireland, that I have been able to find at the Good Earth Natural Foods store and Smith’s grocery store, here in Utah. It’s rather expensive, so I had been saving it for a special treat. Little did I know I would be treating my skin with it. It worked! After one night, the sunburn had started to fade. The butter helped the skin not to be so itchy as the peeling started. I think the vinegar also helped it not peel quite so much. After a week, it had faded into a light tan.

I have been rethinking the whole sunlight = increased risk for skin cancer idea. After decades of having pasty white legs vanity is taking over me in my old age. I have to admit, after years of being so smugly virtuous about avoiding tanning because I had absorbed the mantra that “tanned skin is damaged skin,” that tanned skin does look better. Not the fake orange tan that some of the cheerleaders in my high school had, but a golden glow. Could it be that golden bronze skin really is a sign of health, because sun helps our skin make Vitamin D, which is needed for so many healthy functions of our body? I mean, even Dr. Mercola is selling tanning beds on his website, right here.

Someday maybe I can write a master’s thesis about suntans, maybe even sunburns (?), being good for you. I would synthesize the following information you might find interesting, especially if you are prone to depression. Maybe sunshine and tanned skin do equal happiness? Maybe the Beach Boys were on to something with their preference for California girls.

This PhD guy here says that the best thing for your skin is to tan gradually.

One of my favorite naturally healthy mom bloggers, Mommypotamus, says that sunbathing is really good for you here.

And if you are pregnant, it actually helps your unborn baby have stronger bones. Who would have thought?

Over here she says that sunlight can actually prevent cancer.

And over here she discusses the idea that nutrition, i.e. antioxidants, can take the place of sunscreen.

I know this blog post is late in the game as summer is almost over, but we still have plenty of opportunities to soak up some sun before winter/yucky inversions settle in. Enjoy the sun wisely and I think you will be happier!

So you like the holistic-minded lifestyle, but do you find it challenging to balance out all of its demands? Taking care of your kids, getting healthful meals from scratch on the table, having a garden, cleaning the house toxin-free, exercising, tending your kombucha scoby, feeding your sourdough start, meditating, etc.

Never fear, because the Healthy Living Bundle is here!

The creators, two  naturally healthy-minded couples, got together and created a life-changing selection of eBooks and eCourses – with a total value of $1,030 – and decided sell them for an insanely discounted price of only $29.97 (PDF version) and $39.97 (eReader version).

The bundle contains a huge amount of information, but there’s no risk of being overwhelmed: their Product Guide will help you identify the most valuable resources for your specific health priorities.

And just to pack in even more value, they’ve persuaded 10 of our favorite natural living companies to provide a special bonus to everyone who buys. The bonuses include a free yoga membership, natural baby products, an amber bracelet, a sourdough start, a yoga membership, and a bottle of healthy stuff for your mouth from the folks at OraWellness and a whole lot more. With a combined value of over $200, the bonuses alone are worth 5 times as much as the cost of the bundle!

But you don’t have long!

Take action now, because The Ultimate Healthy Living Bundle will only be on sale for 6 days – from 8am EST on Wednesday, September 10 until 11:59pm EST on Monday, September 15. And don’t wait until the last moment – there are only 30,000 bundles available and once they’re gone, they’re gone!

It all comes with a 100% money-back guarantee. If you are not satisfied with your purchase, you can get all of your money back. 

Check out all the details and buy the bundle here.

What’s in the Bundle?

Check out all the details and buy the bundle here.

I was delighted to discover this video today. It is of a presentation by Jill Bigelow, a mom and grandma. She also happens to share grandchildren with LaDawn Jacob, who I shared about last week. I have certain friends that I am hoping to share grandchildren with someday. Anyway, I listened to it while I dejunked some of my homeschooling stuff. Yes, the great end-of-summer purge at the Shumway home continues. It feels so good! I am finding missing puzzle and game pieces, tons of stuff to throw away, my missing fabric scissors that I was desperately yearning for (score!), a sewing box in great condition that my Grandma gave me when I was a child that I can’t wait to fill up for my daughter’s birthday, and best of all, empty space and organization! I listened to Jill a year ago and blogged about it here. I felt led by the Spirit to go hear her and was richly rewarded as the Spirit inspired me to institute a family worship hour every morning before we go our separate ways. As far as I can tell, this video is the same presentation as she did a year ago. In the spirit of family love, hard work, self-government, and Christian living (think Duggars with an LDS bent), I present this video to you!