Tree of Life Mothering

Last Friday we found out that my homeschooled 17 year old daughter got accepted to the two universities she recently applied to: BYU-Provo and BYU-Idaho, to start in January 2014. So we are celebrating at our house! It seems appropriate that this happen at harvest time. It gratifies me immensely to see the fruits of my homeschooling labors in the form of my daughter getting accepted into college. It is also gratifying to see that she has embraced ballet, which I always wanted to excel at when I was young.I started her with dance lessons at age 3.

She has taken dance lessons on and off through the years. For the past year or so she has been back “on” again with dance, to the extent of going three times a week and getting en pointe in ballet. I am so proud of her! She pays for her own ballet lessons with her job at the Lion House as a server. She will be dancing ballet at the school she chooses, which will probably be BYU-Idaho.

In honor of her acceptance, I am FINALLY publishing a blog post I started over a year ago but for some reason didn’t finish. It’s been sitting in my drafts box. I have interspersed it with pictures of my daughter’s growing up years, and examples of the hairstyles she has given me and herself. Here it is:

i have reached a point I never thought I would. My 16 yo daughter now can now do her hair better than I can. It’s actually been that way for a few years. It used to be that I practically lived to do her hair. I anxiously awaited for the day when her thin wispy hair was long enough to put little sponge curls in it or tiny pigtails. That was around age 2.

Then I asked my mom to trim her hair. It wasn’t that long yet, but for some reason, after we trimmed it it went curly. She had this gorgeous head of fluffy blond curls. She looked really cute so for years we kept it short and that made it very easy for me to style. Which was a good thing because as I kept having more babies it was harder for me to get to styling her hair every morning.

By the time she was seven or eight, her hair was long enough to style every day, but at that point I was doing good just to get to it on Sunday.

Then she got to the point where she didn’t want me to style it. In fact, she didn’t want to style it herself either!  We even cut it once because I had to follow through on my threat that if she didn’t even comb it, I would have to cut it.  I endured her not wanting to let me style it all. There were many years where maybe she did want me to but she didn’t let on and I felt like I didn’t have time, especially when I had two babies 18 months apart.

She eventually grew it out, and she grew up at the same time! Meaning, she decided that she would and could style it for herself. Hooray! I went for a few years keeping my mouth shut when I didn’t really like how it looked. But now she has gotten more skilled and always has it looking cute, especially when she uses her Curlformers. I was a little bit disappointed when she asked my sister to chop it all off, but then she showed me that she could still fun styles with it, especially with the Curlformers, even though it was short.

So now I am starting over with daughter #2, who is 6. I have been wishing she had hair long enough for me to do long hairstyles and would let me!

And would not cut her hair by herself! It was just getting long enough where I could do something with it if she let me style it  through bribery. Then the unthinkable happened. She watched Yentl with my husband one night while I was gone and sneaked off and cut her hair, on his watch. I was rather mad but got over it since hair does grow back!

So back to daughter #1…She not only can do her hair better than I can, she can do my hair better than I can. My pride makes it hard to admit this, but it’s true. She can do my messy bun much better, since it’s hard for me to see the back of my head, even with my three way mirror. She can curl my hair better than I can, and give me the pretty loose beach waves. Her updos and twists on me look better than mine. She did my hair above on a whim late Sunday night. I only wish I had had it that way for church. 

This one would have looked better if we had taken the time to smooth the frizz, but it’s still cute!

She can do a fancy weave, like the one below that she did while we were watching the Olympics on vacation in Park City. My husband said it looked like an old granny’s hair, so I don’t think I will wear it in public. My daughter said she thought it would turn out fatter and fuller. I guess then maybe it would be stylish.

One of my favorite hairstyling web sites is http://babesinhairland.com. That one is by an LDS mom with three girls who does some lovely, creative hairstyles. She even has a hairstyle for every letter in the alphabet! Maybe some day my younger daughter will have enough hair so I can copy these styles with her head. As for using it for me, I am not so much into the braids and ponytails for my long hair, as I am the updos and the twists, like this elegant updo here. Those seem more appropriate for my age.

Another site I like is http://rapunzelsresource.wordpress.com/. This blog is by a young woman with gorgeous, long red hair. I like all the buns and twists and updos. Then there’s Princess Hairstyles.

It’s nice to finally have my own live-in hairdresser. I’ve always dreamed of having someone who could do my hair every day while I sit and read. I have wished I could have someone make decisions about, and deal with, my often unruly, irregularly-wavy, sometimes decently curly hair, that has a mind of its own. I just didn’t realize she would grow up in my home. Now please don’t go away to college too soon!

Today’s Sunday School is about chiasmus in the Book of Mormon. Chiasmus is an ancient Hebrew literary form. Enjoy watching this video as you learn about the beauty and wonder of chiasmus!

Imagine a dynamic school where children from ages 2 to 16 are actively engaged in discovering and playing. Imagine a school without desks, grades, report cards, bells, a PTA, certified teachers, professional custodians, paid principals, and textbooks. Imagine a school based on principles and classics, where you are free to talk about God, religion, the scriptures, and the Ten Commandments. Imagine a school where the moms are the principals, the teachers, the nurses, and the administrators. If you can, you will be imagining the kind of school I wish that I had been able to attend instead of public school. You will be imagining the school my five children attend with me in tow once a week.

Every Thursday my kiddos (5 out of the 7, from ages 4 to 15) head out at 8 AM to our school in Bountiful UT. We are gone  all day until we get home after 4:30 PM. We have something for everyone at our new school! It’s based on the Thomas Jefferson education philosophy. This school has been running for around 15 years, when Aneladee Milne started it with some other moms. It is based on Aneladee’s philosophy as outlined in her book, The New Commonwealth School. At the time the school started, it was for scholar phase, ages 12 and up. But as of this year, for the first time, we have classes for ages 3 to 12, the core and love of learning phase children. This school is a supplement to our homeschool. This is not a drop-off school. If you have a child in the school you have to stay there and contribute to the teaching while the child is in a class. The parents have turns helping in the nursery and cleaning up at the end of the day.

If you have read the Thomas Jefferson Education book, this book pictured above is the next book to read to get you prepared with a vision of what a TJED Scholar School can look like. I found out from this book that the “conveyor belt education” phrase did not originate with Oliver DeMille, it came from the author that inspired Aneladee to write her book.

The littlest ones, ages 0 to 4, attend the nursery, unless they want to be with their mom. This little guy stays with his mom and nurses often. I think he’s so cute! (Sorry, my tech help, the 12 year old boy and 17 year old girl, are gone and I don’t know how to rotate pictures on my laptop. I usually use my desktop and can easily rotate pictures on that.)

The core phase children ages 4 to 7 or so, attend the Ten Boom Class, named after everyone’s favorite WWII hero, Corrie Ten Boom. They are hearing stories based on the inspiration that came to my friend Katie as she has studied the Hebrew alphabet. These stories reinforce what they learn at home about the importance of obeying mom and dad and choosing the right.

The children rotate through different stations that allow hands-on learning for exploring math, history, science, and language arts concepts. They have lots of chances to dress up and role-play.

My three youngest have been attending this class, which my four year old fondly calls “The Boom Boom” Class. Katie has developed the curriculum along with Aneladee. Katie is also teaching the four basic skills of self-government taught by Nicholeen Peck by using Nicholeen’s picture books. This project is kind of like “TJEd meets Montessori.”

The Ten Boom class meets from 8:30 AM until lunch. During the Ten Boom class the love of learning kids, ages 9 to 12 or so, are attending the da Vinci class. This class is totally based on using storytelling to spark interest in all subjects. The kids are guided by the mom mentors asking  them questions about their stories. The children are then encouraged to create their own projects based on  the answers they give to these questions.

While these classes are going on I am teaching the Sword of Freedom class, a “LEMI scholar project”  based on what I call the War to Prevent Southern Independence. This is for younger scholars, who are usually around 12 to 14 years old. I am doing my best to introduce these scholars to some challenging concepts about the War. Like the idea that the North was not the good guys and the South were bad. The war was a lot more complex than that.  When my 20 year old son took this class seven years ago, I never would have thought that I would someday be in a season of life where I could be teaching it myself.

My 12 year old attends Key of Liberty during this time, which is a LEMI scholar project about the Revolutionary War and the Constitution. I love seeing him read great books for this class. So far he has read The Red Scarf Girl, and the Landing of the Pilgrims. Right now he is reading about John Adams! I love this! 

The moms and  the younger kids all eat lunch in the lunch room. It’s kind of strange to be back in that mode of “who will talk to me at lunch? Who will sit by me?” I like sitting by my kids but I have let them go off and be with their friends and then I want to talk to adults, so I usually start a conversation with someone close by me sitting with her kids. It has been fun to watch my little 7 year old girl, who has only one sister, ten years older, and brothers surrounding her in age, to go off with the bunch of girls her age.

After the first week I noticed that she started putting her hair in a ponytail (she never wants me to “do” her hair) and wearing some pretty pastel striped pants instead of the jeans she usually wears. It is also fun to watch these girls interact. They have a game going on right now where they are an all female “family” where each one of them is either a grandma, mom, daughter, or baby. 

In the afternoon we have Boys Club, Girls Club, and Bring Your Own Genius, which is for the love of learners who don’t want to be in the Boys or Girls clubs. I helped teach the Boys’ Club last month. They are a rowdy bunch of 11 boys. If you ever want to have a challenge, just go be in charge of a group of boys for an hour and a half, and keep them from hurting the property or each other. It has been fun! We have been doing simulations based on the letter of the Hebrew alphabet that the Ten Boom kids are learning. I asked Aneladee for some ideas and she gave me some. I found out her secret weapon for finding simulations: YouTube! I found some on there as well and related them to the symbolic concepts were are covering in the Hebrew alphabet. I did one of the same activities in the girls’ club yesterday as I did with the boys. It was fun to see the differences. The boys were a lot louder, although the game I did with them required enough concentration that they were silent for more than a few minutes!

The older scholars do the Shakespeare Conquest class from LEMI, different variations of Pyramid Project, a math scholar LEMI project; a simulations class based on principles, and then an economics class taught by Aneladee’s husband. My oldest child is in that class so that means we have to wait until 4 PM, which is when it ends, to go home. By that point I am ready to be home! It is so fun to see my 12 year old reading Shakespeare and watching Shakepseare plays for this class! This is something that I never would have been able to motivate him to do on my own, shy of bribing him with money. My kids are loving this school, especially yesterday when they played football, first indoors, and then in the rain in the parking lot. 

I love that our newly revamped school accommodates the whole family. For the first time in 8 years, my little core phase and love of learning kids get to go to the Commonwealth School on Thursday. I love that it is is based on an organic, holistic education philosophy, which recognizes that children learn differently than adults and according to stages of natural development. I love that the curriculum is based on principles. I love all the hands-on learning, the simulations, the active play for the younger kids, and that we can talk about God and the scriptures. I love that it is agency-based, not compulsory-based. I love that for the younger kids we aren’t tied to a strict curriculum. The moms are given some basic guidelines and asked to come up with their own “lessons” and activities. It’s a perfect complement to our homeschool and I look forward to many fun days full of learning, discovery, and friendship.

You can see more about our school here.

I just got to preview this wonderfully encouraging and enlightening book about nourishing fertility. It’s launching this week as an ebook, so if you are one of the 1 in 8 women who faces the challenge of infertility, this splendid ebook is for you!

There is nothing else out there, I assure you! That’s because this ebook takes a holistic approach, based on two complementary philosophies. The first is the Nourishing Traditions philosophy based on the work of Dr. Weston A. Price. The second is the Chinese medicine (CM) philosophy. Combine these two and you have a plan that will definitely increase your odds for getting pregnant.

I love how this ebook gives you a full package of resources for help in getting a bun in the oven. It talks about the importance of diet, sleep, minimizing stress and environmental toxins, and fertility signals. I love the huge emphasis on diet. The diet it recommends is not the typical boring, plain diet recommended for pregnant women in mainstream magazines (eat whole grains, lean meat, low fat, and avoid sugar) but the Weston A. Price diet, which is much, much more exciting and flavorful. That’s because it involves lots of saturated fat (have you noticed that low fat means low taste?), bone broth, properly prepared grains, and lacto-fermented foods. The authors tell of ancient South American proverbs stating that lots of broth in pregnancy will ease the pains of childbirth. They also share about the sacred foods that most of us know so little about and tend to disregard. These sacred foods are powerful because they are so nutrient dense. More nutrients increases your chances of having a healthy, robust, beautiful baby. If you want to see the power of nutrition in pregnancy, go to the Weston A. Price Foundation beautiful babies photo gallery here.

This informative ebook details specific conditions that involve infertility, like endometriosis and PCOS. It gives the conventional and the holistic approaches to solving these conditions, including CM. I love that it explains that the best prenatal vitamin is real food. It goes into great detail about that. It also addresses the importance of Vitamin A and getting real Vitamin A, not synthetic and addresses the idea of too much Vitamin A.

This book is regularly $29.95, but you can get it for 20% off if you use the coupon code LAUNCH. Click here to visit Holistic Squid and buy it by clicking on the pink stripe across the top. The sale with the coupon code for the launch lasts until midnight PDT Thurs. Oct. 17, 2013.

PAID ENDORSEMENT DISCLOSURE: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog.

It’s almost the second Wednesday of the month! Come learn about building a happy, healthy family centered on God’s family planning method.

Tree of Life 

Natural Family Planning Support Meetings!

For: Latter-day Saint (LDS) married couples who are interested in Natural Family Planning, based on the teachings of LDS Church leaders.

This is a place to get information and support for practicing NFP.

When: the second Wednesday of every month

next meeting is Wed. October 9, 2013. Topic is avoiding pregnancy with NFP.

6 to 7 PM MT

7 to 8 PM CT

8 to 9 PM ET

5 to 6 PM PT

These will be over the phone as a conference call! They are free.

Conference Dial-in Number: (610) 214-0000
  
Participant Access Code: 738747#

We will rotate through a series of four topics, doing one topic each month:

1. The Importance of Natural Family Planning (great for engaged couples, newlyweds, and anyone thinking about NFP)

2. Getting Started and Overcoming Obstacles to Using NFP to Achieve Pregnancy

3. Getting Started and Overcoming Obstacles to Using NFP to Avoid Pregnancy

4. Ecological Breastfeeding, Weaning, and the Impact of Nutrition on Fertility

Do you ever find yourself  maddeningly frustrated at the health food store? The scene plays out like this. You, in your newfound naturally crunchy paradigm of wanting to be “all natural, organic, and toxin-free” start perusing the colorful shelves looking for some pure deodorant, hand soap, facial cleanser, and lotion. You pick up product after product, reading the ingredient label carefully. Do you start wondering why so many toxic ingredients can be found in products at the health food store? Do you buy the questionable products anyway because the kids are tugging at your sleeve, you need to get home and fix dinner, you can’t bear another stop to find something else, and you want the product NOW?

Or the scene may play out like this: you find some natural DIY recipes for personal care products here on the fountain of all wisdom, the Internet, you try them out, and they don’t work? Do you ever feel like pulling your hair out over this conundrum?

May I present to you the answer to both scenarios. It’s a lovely ebook full of gorgeous photos of recipes that really work:

This PDF ebook, written by mommy blogger Heather Dessinger of mommypotamus.com, is chock full of DIY luscious recipes for personal care and beauty products that are naturally pure, toxin-free, and some even tasty enough to eat! It’s on sale for 25% off until Thurs. Oct. 10th. Just Imagine all the fun you can have whipping up mint chocolate body butter, see recipe below,  or coconut soap! All of these recipes would make fabulous gifts for Christmas, if you are in to homemade gifting.

Click here to view the details and to buy and use coupon code SAVE25 to save 25% off, through Thurs. Oct. 10th. It’s regularly $24.95, so you can get it for $18.71 with 25% off.

If you buy the ebook you will get 50+ recipes of homemade treats for your body. How do these sound?

• Cinnamon and Vanilla Winter Scrub
• Sweet Orange and Honey Shampoo
• Beetroot Lip and Cheek Tint
• all natural hair gel

Here is one of the recipes from the ebook that Heather has allowed to be shared:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup of cocoa butter, grated
• 1/2 cup mango or shea butter (you can also substitute another 1/2 cup cocoa butter. It will be a smidge less “light” when whipped up, but it is amazing!)
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1/2 cup of jojoba or a mild olive oil (almond oil can also be used but it will decrease shelf life because it is more vulnerable to oxidation)
• 1-2 teaspoons peppermint essential oil (depending on preference)
• 2 tablespoons pure cocoa powder (if you would prefer a “white chocolate” version that is not a bronzer, substitute arrowroot powder or non-GMO
• cornstarch)
• 2 teaspoons naturally derived vitamin E (optional)

To Make

1. Prepare an ice bath by filling a large bowl with ice and fitting a smaller bowl inside. The inside bowl needs to be able to hold at least 4-5 cups of liquid.
2. Using a double boiler or a pot of boiling water with a smaller pot fitted inside, melt cocoa butter and mango butter over a low simmer.
3. Add coconut oil and melt until completely liquid.
4. Remove cocoa butter/coconut oil mixture from heat.
5. Measure 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder into a small bowl and gradually add several tablespoons of jojoba/almond/olive oil. Mix thoroughly and then add to cocoa butter/coconut oil mixture along with remaining jojoba/almond/olive oil.
6. Place mixture in chilled bowl (which should still be resting above the ice bowl) and allow to cool for 10 minutes.
7. Add essential oil and optional Vitamin E once mixture has cooled, then remove mixture from ice bath and whip on medium/high until stiff peaks form. If after a few minutes it does not seem to be thickening return the bowl to the ice bath and whip there.

Store in an airtight jar – amber or cobalt are best but a clear jar is fine if kept out of direct sunlight (which promotes oxidation).

 

Shelf Life

The oils and butters in this recipe have been selected because they are naturally antimicrobial. Cold-pressed, high quality oils are recommended as lower quality oils can go rancid quickly. Assuming quality oils are used this body butter can be expected to stay fresh at room temperature between 3-6 months without the optional Vitamin E. With the Vitamin E it can stay fresh for up to a year. Always use clean hands when scooping out a little whipped decadence!

If this butter is stored in a very warm environment it will melt. No fear, though, just chill and re-whip into decadent body care goodness!

That’s just a sample of what you are in for if you buy the book! You know you want to! Think of the money and stress you will save, never needing to pore over the shelves at the health food store ever again. Click here to buy and remember, use coupon code SAVE25 to save 25%.

PAID ENDORSEMENT DISCLOSURE: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog.

Now that October is here, General Conference is over, and the first snowfall in northern Utah came while we were sleeping early Friday morning, I am reluctantly saying that summer is over! I am sad to see it go. I am a diehard summer lover and hate to see it go every year. I feel like running back to it whenever the first chill seeps through the air. 

I’ve spent the past month of September adjusting to our new homeschooling year with our Family School meeting once a week, with its new format of having the moms be there all day. i am getting used to being gone all day one day a week with all my kids! It is quite the deal to get me and six kids out the door with provisions for all day of teaching, learning, and eating, by 8 AM! I will blog soon about our Hebrew-based Family School.

I just found this great resource for all you homeschooling moms here. It is a sample of audio content from Media Angels. It features the presentations “Dinner is Ready” and “The Seven Rs of Successful Homeschooling.” (Excuse the references to fast food and caffeinated drinks.) It will give you helps for a great homeschool year. I look forward to listening to it myself.

In the meantime, I keep meaning to blog at the end of every month with pictures that sum up the month. Here is a summary of all the summer months we enjoyed. Every summer gets better and better!

We spent a lot of time with friends and cousins. We kicked our spring off in late April  with a visit to the This is the Place Hertiage Park. Then we went back to the park with our friends the Wedekinds on Memorial Day. They were in Utah enroute to Japan to live there after being in Guam.

Here are my daughter with my friend’s daughter who have known each other since they were babies. We first met at a La Leche League meeting in Orem 18 years ago this December.

We also went to Youth for Freedom, Pipe Springs National Park, the home of our pioneer ancestors, a family reunion by Zion National Park, a family reunion in Phoenix where we saw Elvis’ jumpsuit and Taylor Swift’s guitar. I got to go to Idaho and then went to southern Utah twice in one week.

So, hello fall! I embrace you with the cooler weather and more time at home with no road trips!

Here are some fun facts about General Conference. My favorite talk yesterday was Elder D. Todd Christofferson’s about women. I can’t wait to hear the talks today!

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1

Here is a fun quiz to review last spring’s General Conference. Enjoy!

Last week I hosted a Girls’ Night Out after the Relief Society General Meeting. (By the way, my favorite part of the whole meeting was when one of the speakers said that all of our trials and problems that we have are not a surprise to God. He knows it all and because of that He is there to help us.)

The purpose was to talk about the book, Visions of Glory. This is a book by a man named “Spencer,” as told to John Pontius. My mother-in-law had been visiting for a whole week and I thought it would be enlightening for her to share her insights with my friends. The book has been a hot topic among my circle of friends for months. My mil has had the chance of meeting with Spencer 3 times. She had the chance to visit with him because her nephew knows people who know him. She found out that she missed the big meeting/fireside that John and Spencer had a year ago after the fact, and when she complained to her nephew, who had gone, he said, “Oh, I will get you two together. You can meet him.”

So she got to meet him as he still takes clients. If you’ve read the book you know that is a professional counselor. She said that he is the sweetest man, so full of love. I know his book has not been received 100% positively, including a poor review on FAIR’s web site. What do we believe? Is this book from a truthful man? 

Yes, I think so. At least based on what I can tell and have researched so far.

Is this book 100% prophetic? Only time will tell. But…I think it’s important to know that some of the things can be fulfilled literally, and some symbolically. Just like in the scriptures.

Here’s what I got out of the discussion from Saturday night with my mil and the ten ladies who came. Sorry it’s not more juicy or fantastic. If you read the book you will get enough juicy fantastic stuff.

1. We have to have the Spirit to understand the spirit of prophecy.

2. The Spirit will tell each person what that person and her family need to do to be safe in these latter days, in addition to what the Prophet tells us.

3. As our Article of Faith #7 tells us, many spiritual gifts are available to us: visions, healings, prophecies, interpretation of tongues and so forth. This book really opened my eyes and mind to the broad expanse of spiritual gifts that come to us and just how thin the veil is between life and death.

One of the moms who came, a great friend of mine, shared that her dad has had many visions and experienced the gift of healing. She had an older sister when she was growing up who swallowed a needle, if you can believe it, while she was sewing. Her dad took her to the doctor and he did an x-ray that showed the needle inside. The dad didn’t want to do surgery just yet, he said, let’s wait and see. He gave her a priesthood blessing asking for healing. They did an x-ray a bit later and the needle was gone! This is the kind of faith I want to have! 

4. It’s so important to build our faith in what the Prophet and what the Spirit tells us to do and practice perfect obedience now, so we are ready to act when new revelation comes.

Have any of you read Visions of Glory? What do you think about it?

If you haven’t ever read this book, you are in for a delight! This book will remind you of the glory that comes from being, dare I say it, an old-fashioned mother!

You can listen to it for free here. Or you can read it here. 

Mothers have so much power. With our kitchens, and our determination to say no to the fast-food and big food industry, we control what food our families eat. What our families eat determines their health. 

Then with the power of our mentoring we control the opportunities our children have and the education they get. Their education controls their future. Read this book and listen to what God tells you He wants you to do to be a better mother-mentor and then do it!