Tree of Life Mothering

What do you do with a loved one who has an addiction?

How do you help a son who is addicted to not doing his homework?

How do you prepare a daughter going off to college so that she doesn’t get in bad relationships with porn addicts?

How does a woman who has been in a bad marriage that ended in divorce reenter the dating world?

How does a wife not allow herself to be mistreated when her husband misbehaves, either abusing her or retreating to addictive behavior?

What is the one question that all women should be asking their husbands regularly?

Find the answers from the recording of “Midday Monday with Maurice, an LDS Marriage and Family Therapist” right here.

I heard about this story in the 2011 Christmas Devotional from the prophet Pres. Monson. It is a beautiful story about overcoming selfishness.  You can listen to it here. It’s part of a collection of short stories on that page, scroll to the middle to see it. The above cover comes from the Deseret Book publication of the story, with beautiful illustrations.

Then there’s the Cinnamon Bear. This story was originally written for the radio and involves 26 episodes. I have listened to a few of them with my younger children. I haven’t decided if it’s brain candy or a true classic, where you can learn something new every time. I do know that my 6 and 8 year olds clamor to listen to them, which we do while folding laundry or doing dishes.  I will let you be the judge. All the episodes can be downloaded here.

I started listening to this next one while I was making Christmas treats to send to my missionary son. I haven’t finished it but it is promising, if not a little sentimental. You can listen to it here.

booksshouldbefree.com says this about The Christmas Angel:

Disagreeable old Miss Terry spends her Christmas Eve getting rid of toys from her childhood toy box. One by one she tosses them onto the sidewalk in front of her house, then secretly watches the little scenes that occur, which seem to confirm her belief that true Christmas spirit does not exist. Then the Angel from her childhood Christmas tree appears to show Miss Terry that she has not yet witnessed the final act of each of those little dramas…

Living Age magazine in 1910 observed of The Christmas Angel, “Not since Charles Dickens laid down his pen forever has there been a prettier Christmas story written, one more full of the real spirit of Christmas or conveying a more seasonable lesson.” (Summary by Jan MacGillivray)

Here’s Librivox’s version of a Christmas Carol. We listened to it in the car last Sunday as we drove to a Journey to Bethlehem simulation last year.

Here is the Mormon Channel’s version of Dickens’ masterpiece, A Christmas Carol, fully dramatized. It’s so dramatized that it was a bit too scary for me and some of my kids so we prefer the librivox version.

I picked the story below because it sounds full of old-fashioned outdoor winter amusements with rambunctious boys. We’ve listened to the first few chapters and so far it is a great story. You can find the audio version here.

The next goodie is actually a play intended to be performed by children, written by Shepherd Knapp. I actually have not found an audio version, but it sounds so fun I am including the link to the text version here. If anyone finds the audio version please let me know. Here are the author’s words about the play from the preface:

This play is intended, not only for acting, but also for reading. It is so arranged that boys and girls can read it to themselves, just as they would read any other story. Even the stage directions and the descriptions of scenery are presented as a part of the narrative. At the same time, by the use of different styles of type, the speeches of the characters are clearly distinguished from the rest of the text, an arrangement which will be found convenient when parts are being memorized for acting.

The play has been acted more than once, and by different groups of people; sometimes on a stage equipped with footlights, curtain, and scenery; sometimes with barely any of these aids. Practical suggestions as to costumes, scenery, and some simple scenic effects will be found at the end of the play.

What sort of a Christmas play do the boys and girls like, and in what sort do we like to see them take part? It should be a play, surely, in which the dialogue is simple and natural, not stilted and artificial; one that seems like a bit of real life, and yet has plenty of fancy and imagination in it; one that suggests and helps to perpetuate some of the happy and wholesome customs of Christmas; above all, one that is pervaded by the Christmas spirit. I hope that this play does not entirely fail to meet these requirements.

If you have any favorite Christmas stories on audio, please share below.

Merry Christmas and Happy Listening!

I’ve been wishing for a cute picture book that told the story of the famous letter that Virginia O’Hanlon got from the editor of the New York Sun back in 1897, telling her that, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus…”

Here it is! I love the gorgeous, illuminous, gleaming illustrations. Every page is a feast for the eyes! I really like the author’s details that take this real event and makes it into a fictionalized, fun story with twists and turns. I like the emphasis that the Santas we see in stores are not real Santas. I like that it says that we can all be a “Santa” by giving to others.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars because I wish it would tell the history of the real Santa Claus, St. Nicholas. If you read this story to your kids, be prepared to answer their questions and have a discussion. It emphasizes a little too much that the “spirit” of Santa is real, without saying that this really is a spirit or feeling. I wish it would gently say that there is no such person who wears a red suit and lives at the North Pole. Kids might end up being confused. I also wish it at least alluded to the real story of Christmas, the true and real story of the baby Jesus being born.

For the absolute best story of Santa Claus, see my review of the best Christmas classic right over here.

Last Friday night we won the lottery! Not a real lottery, but the Mormon “lottery.” I know, we are not known for gambling. The closest thing that comes to the lottery for Mormons is the annual offering of tickets to the Christmas Concert with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Orchestra on Temple Square. They always have at least two “big name” guests come, like Natalie Cole or Jane Seymour. You can’t buy tickets for it, you have to enter for a drawing of the tickets, and you do it online. You can only enter once per household, and you can only get up to four tickets. My missionary son entered for us from his mission in North Carolina and he won! He surprised us with an early Christmas present by mailing the tickets to us right before Thanksgiving!

So this almost makes up for the concert I missed four years ago, a snippet of which is posted above. That was the year that my now-missionary son performed as one of the dancers, and Natalie Cole and David McCullough were the guest artists. I can’t figure out which dancer is my son, but he was there! I stayed home with my four month old nursing baby boy and my three other little children. I was so jealous! But I knew I didn’t want to leave my baby. It was hard though not to go watch my firstborn and see those famous people! My dh took two of our adolescent kids and one of my daughter’s friends. 

So this year it was my turn to go as the baby is now 4! I said it was also time for the next two boys to go, who were 8 and 5 four years ago but are now 12 and 9. It was so UH-MAY-ZING to see this show! They had Deborah Voigt, a famous opera singer, and the guy who plays Gimli in the Lord of the Rings trilogy movies. Ms. Voigt sang so gorgeously. Her voice is a luxurious treat for the ears, and Gimli’s voice is too, in a deeper, mellower, way. He acted as the Ghost of Christmas Present with a guy who played Charles Dickens, and they actually flew over the audience! But the best moment of the whole show was Richard Elliott’s organ solo. Talk about athleticism of the legs, feet, arms, and fingers! He got a standing ovation! I have posted a previous year’s solo below to give you an example. 

Afterwards we met up with my teenage daughter who works at the Lion House. We walked through the City Creek mall and got to see the Berlin Candy Bomber window display at Deseret Book. My boys ages 9 and 12 had a blast playing with the parachutes being puffed out by the blaster. We got to see Ms. Voigt and Mr. Rhys-Davies autographing books. I was disappointed I couldn’t show my daughter the Type 2 dress that Ms. Voigt had been wearing. It was a dress that Anne of Green Gables would have approved: bright red (although Anne maybe would have worn it green) with puffed sleeves, shirring or ruffles along the V-neck, a bow, and a long flowing train in back that got caught on a poinsettia as she exited the stage.

She had changed into something less fancy for the autographing. Now her outfit seemed more Type 4-ish, as it was all black, and my daughter has been telling me that only Type 4s can wear solid black. If you don’t know what I mean by these types, just google “Dressing Your Truth” by Carol Tuttle and the veil of secrecy will be lifted. My daughter spent the whole time as we walked through the mall pointing out to me the Types associated with each outfit we saw for sale. It is fun to see her take off with this knowledge. Every day now she is watching videos on thecarolblog.com and making comments to me about Types and what Types all her family members and friends are. 

Oh, before I sign off on this post…you can watch the whole concert on Christmas Eve on Utah’s Channel 7 or on BYUTV.org. Google and you can probably find the exact times.

I meant to post this a few months ago and had a hard time getting the pictures uploaded. I am finally posting it now. 

Some fun things going on in my life that made me smile in September and October.

My son Ventur (my alias for him) is showing a lot of initiative in his practice scholar phase class called Key of Liberty. it is so fun to see him so creative in doing his presentation. He worked on it many weeks before class and decided to use the overhead projector we inherited from our neighbor, who cleaned out the church office and brought it to us. I had to explain to the kids what this ancient artifact was. They all took a liking to it and Venture decided to use it for his presentation on weapons of the Revolutionary War. He has passed off all his requirements for the class! I am so pleased with him!

We had a super fun Harvest Ball that my wonderful friend Katie put on. I loved that all of the music was wholesome and nobody wore ugly, gruesome  costumes. I didn’t feel like I had to shout to be heard by the person I was conversing with right next to me. It was my favorite Harvest Ball I’ve been to (I’ve been to many) even though there were no decorations and I didn’t eat any of the sugar (It was Day 6 of no sugar!). Probably because the conversation with some dear friends was so enlightening. The kids had fun with their friends and my dear husband was happy because he brought a book to read in the foyer. He does know how to dance (after all he was on the BYU Ballroom Dance team that won the International Championship in Blackpool England the first time in the ancient history time of the 1980s), but he doesn’t always want to do it. My 15 year old son impressed all the ladies with his dance moves.

My Sword of Freedom class is sooooo much fun! This is a class I am teaching to a group of homeschooled youth about the “Civil War.” I love learning about the War to Prevent Southern Independence right a long with my students. We had a Gettysburg Simulation and that was a blast! We even had it on a hillside, just like the real thing. You know, the “higher ground” things. We used air soft guns. I had no clue what I was doing so I let my 15 year old son and his 14 year old buddy organize it all. I had fun except I lost my purse which I thought I left right by a bush so I could go up the hill unencumbered. When I went back I could not find it! I wasted a whole hour looking for it! Luckily my son found it! The adversary was really having a heyday spinning my brain with visions of stealthy black-costumed ninjas sneaking across the hillside to snatch my purse, dig out all the cash and credit cards, then tossing the purse in the garbage and running away! I am so glad that was not true at all!

My little 4 year old guy is always telling me, “Mom, I love you!.” None of his older siblings were ever this much verbal about loving me at this age or any age. It makes me wonder why this guy is so sweet.

In our Liber Academy homeschool group we played with dry ice. Even though I have a bachelor’s degree in science I didn’t know that metal touching dry ice makes it screech. The kids had a ball exploring that. I also didn’t know if you put a layer for film across the top of a bowl of dry ice that a huge bubble will emerge.

This fall seems more technicolorish than usual. The leaves are now fallen from my favorite backyard tree, the apricot, but when they were still on they looked almost unreal with their fluorescent yellow and green shades. I felt God taking especial joy in delighting my eyes with the beauty.

We had a birthday party for one of my sons. Yeah, his birthday was a few months ago but who says you have to celebrate right on the day? Lest you think I am a neglectful mama, we celebrated with our immediate family right on his birthday. But since he turned 12 he gets a friends birthday party. I was so swamped with reunions and road trips taking me through the red rocks of Utah and Arizona, preparing for and unpacking from, that I postponed the party indefinitely. Life finally settled down enough that we could do his party. The setting was beautiful and the weather perfect. He and his buddies had a great time air softing each other. I wouldn’t let him come to the Gettysburg Simulation which was at the same place the week before so this made up for it.

This is one of my favorite picture books for Christmas! I know, I am saying that about almost every one that I blog about. We have so many wonderful Christmas picture books to enjoy! I like this one because of the sweet story, the family love, the gift of service involved, and the quiet, subdued illustrations of moments in the early morning by Mark Buehner. Pearl Buck tells a wonderful story of a little boy who decides that the best gift he can give to his dad is the gift of himself in service. It’s a great way to discuss with your kids about what gifts of service they can give their family members. For the preface, the illustrator, Mr. Buehner, tells of hearing the story read aloud in church (which I imagine was sacrament meeting since Mr. Buehner is a Latter-day Saint). He says the story inspired his children to stay up one night cleaning the house as an early Christmas present for his wife. I have read Mr. Buehner’s other books, like Fanny’s Dream, and his other illustrations tend to be more cartoony. I like that his illustrations in this book are more realistic and soft. I give the book 5 out of 5 stars! The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, via its university, BYU, made a movie out of it way back in my childhood, and you can watch it below!

This is one of my new favorite Christmas picture books, which I just discovered. I love this story because it shows what to do when a loved one disappoints you, especially in the face of a big holiday event, like the Christmas feast that Strega Nona was planning. Strega Nona, doesn’t get mad. Instead she lets the conscience of the person who disappointed her work on that person. The result is a beautiful story of repentance and making amends. I love this story! Get it from your public library and read it today! There’s a lot to talk about with your kids about forgiveness and repentance. I like that the book mentions that Strega Nona spent time at a church mass, gazing at a nativity and wishing baby Jesus a Merry Christmas. You could then talk about how it’s because of baby Jesus and what he did when he was grown that allows for forgiveness and repentance.

G.K. Chesterton once said, “Woman is the center and pillar of health.”

Do you feel this way? Do you feel that you are equipped with knowledge and the resources to help your family be healthy so they can live up to the dreams and missions God has given them? There is much more to life than treating symptoms and going from one illness to the next. God created us to be vibrant, active, and healthy so we can have joy!

Did you know?

• 8000 drugs are released every year, and 5000 drugs are recalled
  
• used incorrectly, acetaminophen, as in children’s Tylenol, can cause permanent liver damage
  
• the leading cause of deaths in hospitals is iatrogenic (or doctor-caused)
  
• many popular children’s over the counter medications have ingredients (artificial flavors and colors) that come from petroleum which can cause behavior and learning problems, not to mention more illnesses that can happen down the road
  

Is your family free of the pesky problems of warts, canker sores, allergies, stomach aches, strep throat, and other minor physical ailments? Does your extended family have a history of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and other chronic illnesses? Or do you just dread the upcoming cold and flu season and want to know how to get through it without those persistent runny noses, ear aches, scratchy sore throats, and hacking coughs? If your child got badly burned, do you have on hand what to apply to start immediate healing and regrowth of skin?

Would you like to learn natural remedies that really work as an alternative to drugs? Would you like to stay out of the doctor’s office so you can save time and money?

“One grandmother is worth two M.D.s” -Dr. Mendelsohn

Come to a Dr. Mom/Grandma Class to learn the following so you can reduce trips to the doctor this

winter:

• steps to preventing illness

• how to treat ear infections for 50 cents

• shorten duration of cold and flu, or avoid them all together

• beat the wintertime blues

  stop a sore throat in its tracks and more!

   

  This class will be a teleseminar on Tuesday December 17 in the evening. It will last an hour. We will talk about dietary changes and using essential oils.
  

   

  6 PM Pacific Time

  7 PM Mountain Time

  8 PM Central Time

  9 PM Eastern Time

             Call 712-432-0490

I know most of us can barely see beyond Christmas right now, but I am gearing up to teach the January session of Mothers Who Know.  It will start Wednesday January 8 at 1 PM MT.

Normally, the tuition is $97 if you sign up by the early bird deadline of Friday December 27 at midnight. If you register after that the cost is $147. Then you pay an additional $50 for a journal, book, and DVD. With ALL of  this you get:

• 8 weeks of 2 hours of group mentoring over the phone and internet
• knowledge of how to win the battles that the adversary dishes up on you
• specific help in achieving three goals that you pick yourself
• an LDS perspective on psychology, motivation, self-betrayal, and addiction
• lots of encouragement and support in a loving atmosphere!
• peace of mind as you realize that you are not broken, cursed, or defective because you struggle accomplishing the same things after years of working at it
• lifetime access to all of Maurice Harker’s digital recordings, on a variety of subjects. It is so refreshing to have a Godly, Christlike perspective on psychology, marriage counseling, and self-help!
• a new life, empowered by the sense that you are awakened to satan’s modern-day battle strategies of brain chemistry warfare!
• the ability to be a mother lion who protects her home from addictions
• the ability to teach your children how to set goals, track goals, and be accountable
• the ability to shine as a beacon to your children as you escape from your pre-addictions

Please comment below to enter for a chance to win the drawing for the giveaway! I will hold the giveaway on Thursday Dec. 26 around 4 PM MT.