Tree of Life Mothering

Who is ready to learn how to finally conquer the bad habits that have been keeping you down your whole life? Do any of you feel addicted to staying up late, sugar, Pinterest, Facebook, or general Internet surfing? Do you feel your kids deserve a mom who takes care of herself and also is committed to being present with them?

If you are ready to break free of self-defeating habits, I encourage you to take the Mothers Who Know class written by LDS marriage and family therapist Maurice Harker.

Mothers Who Know

A Book of Mormon-based Addiction Prevention Mentoring Course for LDS Moms

over the phone

Wednesday afternoons

Aug. 28 to Oct. 16 2013

1 to 3 PM MT

12 noon to 2 PM PT

2 to 4 PM CT

3 to 5 PM ET

for LDS Mothers Who Want to Mentor their Families to Be Addiction Proof

The Book of Mormon-based principles used in this course, when applied, will help any mother to minimize self-betrayal tendencies, so she can succeed at daily habits and goals. She can also then mentor her children to be self-disciplined, which is necessary for staying away from addictions. The Book of Mormon as Pres. Benson said, was written for our day, for so many reasons. I am convinced that one reason was to teach us how to fight battles against satan, not just physical battles, but the battles he starts in our heads.

As I’ve pondered the porn epidemic that is sweeping our world as a plague, I am convinced that as mothers, we must fight back with a deep knowledge of his tactics. We must fight back by arming ourselves with more knowledge of how satan works at getting anyone addicted to anything from as young of age as possible. he wants to get us addicted to sugar, food, video gaming, screen time in general (Netflix, YouTube, social media, DVDs) yelling, getting angry, gossiping, reading fluff books, talking negatively, depression, anxiety, complaining, alcohol, drugs, and of course, porn, the king of addictions.

G.K. Chesterton once said, “Woman is the center and pillar of health.” This applies as much to physical health, in terms of preparing nourishing food for our families, as it does to mental and spiritual health. Addiction prevention starts in the home, and it starts with mothers: mothers who know what moral decency is, mothers who know how satan works to lower our standards of decency, and mothers who know how to fight satan and how to teach their children to fight satan and come off conqueror.

Do you want to be a Mother Who Knows? Do you want to be equipped with full knowledge of satan’s brain chemical warfare so you can teach your family how to kick his fanny? Then join us for this course!

Cost: $197. This includes a journal, Maurice Harker’s book, Like Dragons Did They Fight (pictured above), DVD, and 16 hours of phone mentoring.  You pay $147 to Tree of Life Mothering and $50 to Life Changing Services to order the journal, book and DVD. We will meet once a week for two hours, in a phone conference call, at the times above, for eight weeks. If you register by Wed. Aug. 21 midnight you get the early bird discount price of $97 for the tuition, and then you also pay $50 for the materials (journal, book, and DVD). 

Register by going to paypal.com and paying $147 (or $97 if done by midnight Wed. Aug. 21, 2013) to info at treeoflifemothering dot com.  (Put the @ and the dot in the right places.)

Payment installments are available! Send me an email to info at treeoflifemothering dot com or call 801-544-7548 for payment or registration questions.

When you are registered, I will then send you the phone number for the call and information on ordering the book, journal and DVD.

The course is written by Maurice Harker, a licensed therapist, founder of Life Changing Services.Here is his description of the Like Dragons They Did Fight book:

This book bravely bridges the gap between the Spiritual and the Temporal (physical) factors of addiction and addiction recovery. It pulls the essential elements of many psychological theories and fits them into an eternal paradigm as can only be seen through the eyes of those who are inspired by God. The reader will be taken on a journey from seeing the battle from high in the heavens down to the gritty and sweaty clashing of swords a warrior must experience day to day. We live in a time when many are in bondage before they are aware that there is a war. As with many examples in world history, one cannot get out of bondage with just will power and thought control. Warriors must be trained, and then trained some more, in the classroom and on the field. They must learn, how to escape the bondage they find themselves in, as did warriors thousands of years before:

You can watch his video below, which gives a basic intro into his amazing insights into how satan works. His mission is to help LDS young men recover from porn addictions especially before their LDS missions or if they are sent home from a mission. For help for your son and porn addictions, go here. There is help and hope! These principles that Maurice draws from the Book of Mormon apply not just to porn and masturbation addictions, but to all self-betrayal and addictive tendencies. If your son attends the porn addiction class, either online anywhere over the globe, or in person in Farmington, Utah, it would be great for you to do this class for mothers so you are learning the principles alongside your son.

This picture perfectly captures the joy I felt at this year’s Moms’ Retreat last weekend! I encourage you to all come next year! This year we had Carol Tuttle come. She is shown above on the right, with four moms sitting, one representing each of the 4 energy types that Carol describes in her book It’s Just My Nature. Melanie, the founder of the Moms’ Retreat, is standing in the back. Carol had just said something funny that got everyone laughing. You can go to her site and sign up for her free course of Dressing Your Truth here.

the four moms pictured above have all taken the course and shared about how it changed their lives. It was fun to hear them relate how knowing the energy types has helped them to be better mothers.

Here are some pictures and ramblings about what happened at the Retreat. Thank you to Melanie, Kelli, Tammi and the board and their husbands for providing such a beautiful time.

My friend Katie was my co-Cabin Mother. Our role as Cabin Mothers was to provide a warm, nurturing place to help the moms feel love and belonging. Katie had this great welcoming activity using word cards and journal writing. She asked us to each pick a word card and write about it how that word resonated with us, and then we shared. It was a great ice-breaker! She brought everything we needed to do this, even notebooks in case somebody forgot.

Katie is on the left. She also brought the flag banner for the moms to put pictures of their family on. She is so awesome. She and I have many common interests, including a love for homeschooling, natural mothering, and the Hebrew language. Her son and my son are best friends so we had a lot to talk about on the trip up and back and as we set up the cabin. Thank you Katie for being so creative and doing the more creative parts of the Cabin Mother job.

Here are the moms that were in my cabin. They were each so kind, gracious, and lovely! Thank you ladies for such a wonderful time!

True to her nature of Type 3, Carol admitted that she didn’t think of all the details and she forgot her cash box to sell her books. So all the books were only $10, instead of $24.95. I bought The Child Whisperer. I know it will help me be a better mom. i started reading it and enjoy it already!

I got my book autographed!

That cheesecake looked pretty and yummy…but I stayed true to my Girl Goal of no sugar! Thanks to drinking my coconut milk I felt too full to even want to eat it.

Katie brought her guitar so we had some lullabies before we went to sleep.

Kenneth Cope shared the following story from Beth Moore. She testified of how God works in our lives personally. God spoke to her telling her an old man sitting by her in an airport needed his hair brushed. This was a very sweet story that made us all cry. I hope we can all be instruments of God to bring about His will. That is what this Moms’  Retreat is all about. Thank you Kenneth! God does know each of us and He knows what he needs. We can hear His voice and give each other what we need, creating Zion in the process.

Is there more to great, vibrant health than buying whatever “health foods” appeal to you at the health foods store with their colorful packages and labels that tout “organic,” and “natural” and “zero fat”?

There certainly is. And by “great, vibrant health” I mean more than just being able to get through your day as a mobile person. By great vibrant health I mean, being able to play with your kids with whatever they want to do, be it hiking, playing football, swimming, or just going for a walk. I mean being free of cavities. I mean having no pain or fatigue or yawning half a dozen times a day. I mean feeling like you can conquer the world. If you are ready to take your health up several notches, so that you can safely navigate shopping at your local health foods store and not get sucked in to buying products that don’t really contribute to your health, I recommend you start with this book, Get Your Fats Straight by my favorite blogger, Sarah Pope.

I finished this book recently and give it five stars! If this was the only book you could read to get your head cleared out of the misinformation about what healthy eating is, this would be it.

The author just did an interview about how to raise healthy children. Click here to listen and get more educated about raising healthy children.

With summer in full swing, let’s talk about swimsuits and modesty! If you haven’t already watched the above video with fashion designer Jessica Rey, I highly recommend you watch it. Especially if you have daughters, and especially if you have daughters who want to wear bikinis. Watch it, and then talk about it. This video got a lot of shares on Facebook. Ms. Rey refers to a scientific study that confirms what any modest woman has known all along, which is, modesty protects you from unwanted attention from men! According to the study, men look at you differently when you hardly have any clothes on. Is that really news, people? Do we really have to have scientists study men’s brain waves when they look at scantily-clad women to know what is going on in their heads? The LDS Church leaders have shown a lot of wisdom through the years by asking female church members to cover up when swimming.

Over 12 years ago when I was pregnant with #4 I bought a maternity swimsuit, to upgrade to a more stylish suit compared to the one I bought when I was pregnant with #1. I thought my new suit was perfect! It was stylish and feminine in classic black. I hunted high and low to find it. It matched my black nursing swimsuit that I already had which I got from Motherwear, which allowed me to nurse at the pool without taking half my swimsuit off. I have to confess, I  wear both these suits now even when I am not pregnant. I like the dress attached to the maternity suit to help cover me up. I also wear black shorts with it. Sometimes I even wear all three.

That’s because  when all I wear all three, my upper thighs are covered, as well as my cleavage.The dress attached to the maternity suit makes the whole outfit look more feminine. I think when I was pregnant I was a lot, shall we say, bustier, so that helped to hold up the bust part up. Now that I am no longer nursing or pregnant (first time in 20 years when I am not doing one or the other or both!) I am having second thoughts about both of these suits. I had thought they were modest when I bought them both over 12 years ago, but since then I have learned about a stricter definition of swimsuit modesty. According to the Duggars, modest swimwear covers the shoulders and upper thighs, in addition to the other parts of the body that I’m used to covering for a “modest” swimsuit.

Jessica Rey’s swimsuits are pretty. I love the classic, elegant looks with the nod to Audrey Hepburn, but for some people, like the Duggars, they are not really modest. 

So I appreciate the Duggars’ modesty, but those Wholesome Wear swimsuits just look kind of funny. Why can’t the girls just wear diving suits like the boys? 

When I first learned about a new definition of modesty in regards to swimsuits, it was from Diane Hopkins and her Modest Swimwear. It gave me a lot to think about. Well, I thought, I know the LDS Church leaders encourage young women not to wear sleeveless or backless dresses, because they are not “modest.” So why would swimsuits that are sleeveless and backless be OK?

Here is what it says in “For the Strength of Youth”:

Immodest clothing is any clothing that is tight, sheer, or
revealing in any other manner. Young women should avoid
short shorts and short skirts, shirts that do not cover the
stomach, and clothing that does not cover the shoulders
or is low-cut in the front or the back.

If you go by that guideline, pretty much all the swimsuits available out there are immodest!

I think most of us grew up wearing regular one-piece swimsuits, with straps over the shoulders and then with the leg holes cut above the thigh. I always thought of these as modest. But if I use the “For Strength of the Youth” standards, they are not OK, because they are tight and don’t cover the shoulders. But maybe swimsuits don’t count as clothing? I am not wanting to be facetious or split hairs, I am just really wanting to have a discussion about what modesty in swimwear is. I just bought a swimsuit for my little girl and didn’t have time to save up the money to buy a more modest swimsuit that costs upwards from $60. 

I think the Swim Modest line is prettier:

These swimsuits are prettier, but do we really have to pay over $60 to have a modest swimsuit? Sigh, Diane, I guess maybe so. You do get what you pay for. It makes sense that if you have more fabric to cover up more of your body, then you are going to have to pay more than the $10 swimsuit I found that fit my budget for my daughter. I think I better start saving for the next time we go swimsuit shopping. Here’s one mom’s solution. I think it’s very creative, and affordable, at less than $20, but sorry, nice woman who made the video, I just don’t think it’s very fashionable. 

And we haven’t even talked much about modest, according to the new standard, swimsuits for pregnancy and nursing. I would love to hear your thoughts! One of our TOLM network members shared a blog post about modest maternity swimsuits a few years ago, and she mentioned Mermaid Maternity. I like the rash guard shirts and think I would wear shorts with them and then a skirt over the shorts, to just soften and feminize the lines of shorts. 

What do you all do for swimming? 

Today’s Sunday School lesson is this awesome presentation from Blake Ostler about the metaphysics of monotheism and polytheism. Please watch these videos and prepare to have your brain stretched! I am going to have to watch these over and over and look up some of the words to fully comprehend everything he is saying. Watch the other parts on youtube.com. And no, even though the word “fundamentalist” is in the title these videos are not about fundamental Mormons!

Do you ever wish you had access to a “Costco” type of whole foods store? Wait, even better, how about something like Amazon Prime, where you can shop from the comfort of your home with the click of a finger. Some place where you can get deep discounts on real food, supplements, ebooks, online classes, kitchen gadgets, cleaning products, and personal care items that are aligned with the Nourishing Traditions philosophy?

Well, now you can! It’s called the Village Green Premium Network Premium Membership. I’t’s $4.99 a month, or $49 a year. Go here to learn more and join!

Photo Credit

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, the parents of 19 biological children, have a new interview out with Channel Mom. Watch below. 

We recently had a wedding the family, of our niece/cousin, in the Salt Lake Temple. We had such a happy day together! What follows is a bunch of pictures from the beautiful day.

My sister-in-law, the mother of the bride, on the very left, looked so gorgeous! She sewed the beautiful bridesmaid’s dress you see on the lovely girl with the pearls.

We had a reception afterwards with a Mexican buffet and a pinata. Even the bride got in on the act. If you ever want to entertain little kids at a wedding reception, I highly recommend a pinata.

My little guy found a piece of candy that matched his grandmother’s blouse. He’s very proud of himself!

Congratulations Brother and Sister R! May you have a long and happy life together!

Have you yearned to learn how to fix more healthful foods for your family so you all eat better? Does that desire get drowned out by the realities of kids, driving to school, sports, lessons, and other activities, so that you resort to that quick box, can or drive-thru to get dinner on the table? Do you want to learn the secrets of some real life people who have the same desire and challenges you have? Come take this course and learn from real people who eat real food and have mastered the art of eating the Nourishing Traditions way, with all of its soaking, sprouting, growing, and fermenting, without being in the kitchen all day!

To register, go go here and learn more. This course gives you lifetime access to video tutorials, online classes, and recipes so you can fix delicious nutrient-dense food for your family in less time than you thought you could. The course is now being discounted, it is $99, or $69 if you are a VGN Premium Member.

Hurry, the sale ends August 8!

Here is what the creators of the course say:

There’s always so much to be done! As much as we love to cook and provide nutritious meals for our family, sweating over a hot stove all afternoon takes a lot of time. And staring down a mountain of dirty dishes is not most people’s idea of fun.

The good news is, you CAN prepare nutrient-dense meals from scratch for your family — in a fraction of the time. You just need to learn the tricks.

Learn How To:

• Get dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes with 5 ingredients or less
• Make artisanal sourdough bread in less than 5 minutes a day
• Use a pressure cooker to make chicken stock in 4 hours
• Store bulk batches of sauerkraut and fermented veggies in the freezer
• Outsource meal planning — get back hours of your life
• Automate shopping — leverage CSAs and online e-commerce tools and get it off your plate

Get Lifetime Access to:

• 12 Weeks of Online Classes
• Exclusive Content Not Available Anywhere Else Online
• Over 50 Video Tutorials
• Recipes Included

About Your Instructors

We rounded up 17 of your favorite bloggers — people just like you. Busy, working moms (and dads) with families to feed.
As professional bloggers and cookbook authors, we’ve learned a lot of tips and tricks on how to save time. Now is your chance to get up close and personal with your favorite bloggers in their home kitchens as they reveal their secrets for saving time in the kitchen.

Again, please click here to learn who the bloggers are and to register!