Tree of Life Mothering

This is a picture of my little girl at three months. Every time I see it, I smile back! Who says that newborn babies aren’t social and intelligent?

Ladies, did you know you have a superpower force? Yes, I know you can multitask on the phone, while baking bread and teaching your child Spanish all at the same time, but I am talking about your nutrititive, biological superpowers. Let’s talk about your beauty, health and life-giving forces that are all wrapped up with your fertility and breasts: you can make a child that doesn’t need glasses or braces. You can make a baby that is free of allergies and tendencies to crave sugar or alcohol.

You can make a baby that is robust and sturdy, able to embrace all of life’s thrills and challenges without chronic disease or need for ongoing medication. In addition, you can be free of stretch marks, swollen feet, varicose veins, and morning sickness when pregnant. As a mom who has suffered through several pregnancies with feet that look and feel as heavy as bricks, this is GREAT news! Sign me up!

You can make a baby that has the ideal beauty proportions that come from a wide smile and non-narrow face. Not by JUST eating the typical boring, ho-hum diet we hear about of grains, fruits, and veggies (those are good foods, don’t get me wrong, but they must be eaten with some caveats to get their full nourishment), but ALSO by DAILY eating the sacred, shiny, super-fat foods of our traditional-eating ancestors.

Learn all about it! This is a message that every mom and mom-to-be needs to know! It’s a message for every young woman to know before she gets married, even before she gets married! Ladies, we have such incredible power in us that comes from our two trees of life: the placenta and the breast ducts. (You can read about how those anatomical parts in women are like trees in my book, see the “my book” tab above and read Chapter 3).

Most every Jo on the street knows that everything we eat has the potential of harming a baby, but how many of us have known we can increase our baby’s health and beauty by the good things we eat? By good things other than fruits and veggies and grains? Let’s harness this power consciously! Why haven’t we known about this sooner?! I don’t know, but I am so grateful that a young mom, Kristen Michaelis, has researched the work of Weston A. Price and boiled down his teachings for child-bearing moms. Hooray!

You can learn all about your beautiful and healthy baby making superpowers in this new book, pictured below, by Kristen Michaelis, mom and blogger over at Food Renegade:

This book is for every adult female! If you struggle with infertility, it might help you get pregnant. If you are a grandma, and have passed your baby-making days, get it for your daughters or daughters-in-law. Get it for your pregnant neighbor. I wish I had known about this when I was first pregnant, 20 years ago this year. (You can read my thoughts on pregnancy and nutrition HERE.)

By the time I had babies #5 and #6 they had weight gain issues after they were born. Knowing these things would have prevented that I think.

And here’s a juicy-bonus to make your uterus quiver and jump for joy: if you preorder the book by March 18th you can get FREE enrollment in Kristen’s online course called Beautiful Babies Online Nutrition Course. I have been lusting after that course since I first heard about it over a year ago, and now I can get it!

Here’s the scoop from Kristen:

I believe this message needs to be heard. I want to shout it from the roof tops.

That’s why I’m giving away a free enrollment in my Beautiful Babies Online Nutrition Course to everyone who pre-orders a copy of my book from Amazon by March 18th.

That’s a $199 value!

And I’m giving it away.

How to get your free enrollment.

STEP ONE: PRE-ORDER THE BOOK

Click here to pre-order the book from Amazon.

STEP TWO: EMAIL ME YOUR ORDER RECEIPT

Email your order receipt to booklaunch@foodrenegade.com.

It’s that easy!

After I verify your pre-order, I will email you a coupon that you can redeem for your free enrollment.

Can I give the free enrollment as a gift?

Yes. Please do. When you enroll in the online course, you’ll have a chance to put in the student name and email address. Just put down your loved one’s contact information instead of your own, and BOOM, they’re enrolled.

If you want a preview of the course, you can sign up for the FREE mini ecourse here.

You can get a sneak peek at the first lesson of the complete online course here.

You can watch a sample video here

Hi Celestia, I hope this is still your email address. I have been on a path of trying to eat healthily through mostly a vegan diet with meat sparingly, etc. Basically I have followed the teachings of Dr. Christopher, Traci Sellers, & Green Smoothie Girl. I have had the Nourishing Traditions book for some years now and have just always dismissed it because it is basically opposite of what I have learned. However, recently, I for some reason decided to pick it up again and try reading the beginning of it to see what it’s about. I think it was all the hype lately that I have seen about it why I decided to read some on it. Anyways, I had never read the sections on Protein and Milk/Dairy before and after reading it tonight I’m curious to find out some of your and other lds people’s take on it. My main concern is that in D&C we are told that we should only eat meat sparingly and “it pleases Him if we do not eat it at all only in times of cold, winter, or famine. ” I also think about Daniel’s diet and how he showed the “healthier” way of eating. I guess I’m a little confused after reading some of the book tonight and I’m very passionate about trying to feed my family as the word of wisdom says the best we can and strive to be the healthiest naturally. The things I read about in the NT book tonight made sense but I just couldn’t keep wondering about the word of wisdom, the things I’ve learned and felt were true from the resources listed above, etc. I guess what I’m looking for is a discussion from another lds mom that I think is a firm believer in the Weston a price diet so that I can learn and try to figure things out of what I feel is right/wrong too. I would greatly love to hear what you have learned and why you feel this way of eating is the healthiest and how you think it relates to the word of wisdom. Thank you in advance! : )

So it’s been a few months since the presidential election. I was reminded of the event when the BYU Magazine appeared in my place of leisurely reading in my home (i.e. the bathroom) last week with Mitt on the cover. I didn’t realize that he and I are both alumni of the Y. 

You can read it here.

For some, the defeat of Mitt Romney was a trial of their testimony of the LDS Church. How could he lose? Isn’t he a favored son, voted most likely to succeed? I visited my sister on Election Day and she was so worried about the outcome that she practically had an ulcer. Her baby girl, however, played contentedly, oblivious to all the stress that was defining our nation in one day.

I admit it, I was disappointed he didn’t win, even though I was pretty sure he wouldn’t and I didn’t vote for him. Many conservatives felt gloomy for a long time afterwards, depressed that we as a people didn’t choose the better candidate. But I have to wonder if the whole election wasn’t rigged. Maybe most of the people did choose him. Really, how can we know for sure?

Then my friend emailed a link to a speech by Joel Skousen that sheds new light on the whole event. Joel gave this speech the Friday before the election. He basically predicts that Mitt will not win, and he says it’s a good thing. You will have to listen to find out why he says that, but it sounds reasonable to me.

Here’s a link to a speech by Joel Skousen.

Here are some quotes I got from my sister’s sister-in-law which seem especially applicable during this time:

Sometimes people become so concerned about what has happened to our
> >> country
> >> that they feel there is no hope for America . Here is a wonderful quote
> >> from
> >> President Harold B. Lee affirming that America will not fall. It is 
> >> still
> >> the promised land of the Book of Mormon, the “choice land” that Moroni
> >> speaks of.
> >>
> >> http://www.latterdayconservative.com/quotes/harold-b-lee
> >>
> >> http://candacesalima.blogspot.com/2009/08/this-nation-shall-not-fail.html
> >>
> >> Harold B. Lee’s Quote on America
> >>
> >> “Men may fail in this country, earthquakes may come, seas may heave 
> >> beyond
> >> their bounds, there may be great drought, disaster, and hardship, but 
> >> this
> >> nation, founded on principles laid down by men whom God raised up, will
> >> never fail. This is the cradle of humanity, where life on this earth
> >> began
> >> in the Garden of Eden. This is the place of the new Jerusalem. This is
> >> the
> >> place that the Lord said is favored above all other nations in all the
> >> world. This is the place where the Savior will come to His temple. This
> >> is
> >> the favored land in all the world. Yes, I repeat, men may fail, but this
> >> nation won’t fail. I have faith in America ; you and I must have faith in
> >> America , if we understand the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
> >> We
> >> are living in a day when we must pay heed to these challenges.
> >> I plead with you not to preach pessimism. Preach that this is the
> >> greatest
> >> country in all the world. This is the favored land. This is the land of
> >> our forefathers. It is the nation that will stand despite whatever 
> >> trials
> >> or crises it may yet have to pass through.” (Ye Are the Light of the
> >> World,
> >> 350-51)

> >> Mark A Peterson, former member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles
> >>
> >> http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=6145
> >>
> >> “What is that destiny? You will be surprised when I say this, but it is
> >> nevertheless true. The destiny of the United States of America is to play
> >> an
> >> important part in helping to prepare for the second coming of Christ. It
> >> is
> >> that important. That is the reason the United States was set up.
> >> The preparation for the second coming of Christ depended largely on the
> >> restoration of the gospel. There could not be a restoration of the gospel
> >> without freedom. God provided this country as the base of his operations
> >> in
> >> these, the last days, a place where there would be freedom, where he 
> >> could
> >> restore his gospel. Therefore, the United States was given and is yet to
> >> be
> >> given a great mission in respect to the second coming of the Lord Jesus
> >> Christ…
> >>
> >> The restored gospel is already going from this land to all other free
> >> nations. It does so under the protection of the United States , and we who
> >> travel do so on American passports. Eventually America will be the center
> >> of
> >> the final gathering of God’s people as the Millennium approaches, and our
> >> flag will fly right on into that blessed time.”
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Brigham Young said:
> >> “When the day comes in which the Kingdom of God will bear rule, the flag
> >> of
> >> the United States will proudly flutter unsullied on the flag staff of
> >> liberty and equal rights, without a spot to sully its fair surface; the
> >> glorious flag our fathers have bequeathed to us will then be unfurled to
> >> the
> >> breeze by those who have power to hoist it aloft and defend its 
> >> sanctity.”
> >> [Discourses of Brigham Young, p. 360]
> >> So America will not fall. It will have to go through a cleansing, 
> >> however,
> >> so that wickedness may be abolished. But the nation as such will not 
> >> fall.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> President Harold B. Lee also said:
> >> “The Constitution will stand even if it must be saved by the elders of
> >> this
> >> Church. This nation, founded on the principles laid down by men whom God
> >> raised up, will never fail. I have faith in America, and you and I must
> >> have faith in America if we understand the teachings of the gospel of the
> >> Lord Jesus Christ.” [ Deseret News, 27 October 1973]
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Then President Joseph F. Smith, one of the great, inspired prophets of
> >> latter-days, said this about the United States :
> >> This great American nation the Almighty raised up by the power of his
> >> omnipotent hand, that it might be possible in the latter days for the
> >> kingdom of God to be established in the earth. . . . His hand has been
> >> over
> >> this nation, and it is his purpose and design to enlarge it–make it
> >> glorious above all others, and to give it dominion, and power over the
> >> earth, to the end that those who are kept in bondage and serfdom may be
> >> brought to the enjoyment of the fullest freedom and liberty of conscience
> >> possible for intelligent men to exercise in the earth. [Gospel Doctrine,
> >> p.
> >> 409]
> >>

In the talk on mp3 by Joel, he says that America will fall, but that society will be rebuilt again. But these LDS Church authorities quoted above are saying that America will not fall. My husband has maintained for a long time that he knew of no scripture or prophecy that said the Stars and Stripes will reign forever over this land. I will have to show him these quotes and see what he says.

Maybe the way to reconcile it is to say that America, meaning the America that was based on the Founding Father’s principles (the Hebrew way of limited government and justice for all), will be rebuilt. It’s already fallen most of the way, just read the Uncle Eric books by Richard Maybury here to learn all how America has left its Hebrew way to become a Roman system of government. I used to think the term “Roman” was complimentary but after reading Maybury’s books i realize it’s not. Didn’t the Romans give us great things like beautiful architecture and art? Yes, but the Roman way is a belief that government can solve everything. No thank you. I want the government out of my business. So, yes, America will fall/is falling in that way but I believe that it will be rebuilt upon the Hebrew model of limited government, as outlined in the Bible. So the Roman way will fail, because of all the things Joel says, including its fiat money and debt. But the Hebrew model of America will ultimately not fail because it will be restored.

I’d love for any of you to listen to Joel’s talk and tell me what you think about how to reconcile it with what these prophecies say. Please comment below if so inclined.

What do you think?

I recently inherited my missionary son’s smartphone when he left to serve the end of november. So christmas came early for me. I’ve been having so much fun with it. Here are some of my favorite things to do: 1. Listen to my daily quota of scriptures with the gospel library app. 2. Listen to general conference, I like to do one talk a day. 3. Prepare my next primary lesson by listening to it on the gospel library app. 4. Read to my kids from the Friend during our breakfast devotional. 5. Find out what gas station has the cheapest gas prices. 6. Watch BYUtv. 7. Listen to classics being read aloud at librivox.org or play classics being read aloud for my kids. 8. Listen to presentations on youtube.com 9. Get recipes. 10. Listen to Thinking aloud podcasts. 11. Watch doterrapro.com videos.

Here’s the first interview, in podcast form.

Here’s the link to the other show, scroll down the page to see it.

Have you heard? A new movie documentary is coming out about why breastfeeding has been marginalized in the United States. It’s called Bottled Up: the Film. Here’s the web site for it. I love that it features Dr. Jay Gordon, who says, “As soon as you leave breastfeeding behind, you’re asking for trouble.” I also love that not only are the filmmakers asking all these uncomfortable questions about why breastfeeding, especially breastfeeding in public, has decreased in our cultural landscape, but they are doing something about it called The Madonna Mosaic. This involves using photographs of nursing moms to create a mosaic of The Madonna nursing her baby. How Tree of LIfe Mothering-ish! Their goal is to normalize and glorify the breastfeeding mom. You can go to the link and upload your photos of nursing your babies.

Here’s what the web site for the movie says about why the producers made it:

In the most successful ad campaign in history, formula companies convinced mothers to trade in their breasts for bottles, and the baby bottle swiftly became the most recognizable symbol of infancy. The phenomenon of the nursing mother has all but disappeared from our cultural landscape as the sexual breast supplanted the mothering breast. The simple act of nursing a baby engenders a plethora of reactions from society, especially when done in public.

Conflicting advice abounds leaving new moms bewildered and wondering if they are doing it “right,” or they simply opt out entirely. Countering nearly a century of medical procedures that separated babies from their mothers and medical advice that informed women that their milk was not good enough, Bottled UP! captures how mothers can access their inner knowledge and trust their own body’s wisdom and why they should. Women’s stories, leading lactation professionals, archival footage, religious iconography, and formula advertisements, tell the story of how mothers relinquished authority to medical professionals, and succumbed to cultural pressure to forfeit their nourishing breasts in favor of a highly sexualized model.

This film shows how women can reclaim their birthright and restore the nursing mother archetype. More than a breastfeeding promotion film, this is a film by, for, and about women. It is about the knowledge that inherently resides in every woman, how to access that knowledge and how to trust what we already know. It is a film that will inspire women to say, “I can do that!” “I want to do that!

Bottled UP! is a documentary exposé about Breastfeeding in America. Our mission is to restore the Phenomenon of the Nursing Mother to the cultural landscape of America.

The mantra is everywhere – “Breast is Best.”  In the US 75% of all mothers attempt to breastfeed, but a startling few succeed. Despite overwhelming evidence that it is the healthiest way to feed a baby, a meager 15% of American women successfully breastfeed.

Our film asks, “Why?”

Why do so many women start out breastfeeding but find themselves up against overwhelming obstacles?

We will take you on a journey that will outrage and incite, enlighten and inspire, as we expose the social programming that derails breastfeeding, and explore:

• Why this is happening?
• Who benefits?
• What is at stake?

Join us on our mission to elevate the nursing mother to a place in society where she receives all the necessary support to successfully nurse a child, where scientific evidence overrides marketing influences, and a woman does not fear breastfeeding in public.

This is funny, but I wish it didn’t end so abruptly…

Last week was fun with tending to sick kids, celebrating my little girl’s birthday, and getting ready for my cooking class. All of the six kids have had a few days of the flu now. They’ve taken turns in pairs. I think we’re done for the season, knock on wood. In the midst of it all I got sick myself. Thank goodness for my essential oils, they gave me speed healing. I came down with a terrible cold on my daughter’s birthday. It’s really no fun to be planning festivities and baking a cake when you are feeling like your head is going to explode with congestion. But thankfully, it was just a cold and no flu. Thank goodness for the oils. Within two days I was feeling much better.

Last week marked another birthday as well, that of Roe vs. Wade. Can you believe it’s been 40 years since that landmark Supreme Court case? I am encouraged to hear that good people like the Duggars, in the video above, have joined forces to create an organization called LifeUnited to say that every life is beautiful. Every spirit formed in a mother’s womb is precious and should be protected. Their organization aims to increase public awareness of the sadness of the millions of lives of babies that have died since abortion was legalized with Roe vs. Wade. Just as World War II witnessed the Holocaust with the lives of millions of Jews being killed, my generation has witnessed a holocaust of lives killed with abortion.

Here’s what Jim Bob and Michelle say about this new organization (copied from the web site mentioned above):

Michelle recalls, “Our family visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. The designers of the museum did an incredible job telling the tragic story of over 6 million Jews who were brutally executed. The purpose of the museum is to educate others on what happened, so that hopefully, something like this will never happen again! A couple of weeks after we went to the Holocaust Museum it dawned on us that there is a holocaust taking place right here in America!”

The holocaust she referenced is the epidemic of abortion in America. After that trip the Duggars began to pray about what they could do to help end abortion. Their first call was to Dan Pennell, CEO of WMtek, a Fort Pierce, FL based web development company, who immediately caught the vision. Working with Jim Bob Duggar and Mathew Staver of Liberty Counsel, Dan formed the powerful coalition of pro-life groups that has become LifeUnited.

LifeUnited is a collaboration of 8 singleminded but unique groups united to end abortion in America. The team includes Life International, Learn, Inc., Liberty Counsel, Living Waters, National Center for Life and Liberty, Family Research Council, The Justice Foundation, and the Duggar Family.

Their first initiative called upon WMtek to pioneer a unique web experience that would, as Dan states, “tell the story of the American Holocaust, motivate others to get involved, and give them tools to activate their passion.” The compelling result is LifeUnited.org set for release to coincide with the January 25, 2013 March for Life in Washington, D.C. “This site is a powerful vehicle to express our hearts,” says Michelle, “We want every

American to know that each child is a special creation of God being formed in their mother’s womb.” LifeUnited.org is a great start.

To commemorate the start of this new organization, some of the Duggars attended the March for Life in Arkansas recently, and then Josh and Anna Duggar attended the one in Washington D.C. last weekend. Josh was interviewed by Tony Perkins on a radio show along with others fighting for life. Here’s the link to the show, scroll down the page to the third show listed, the Washington Watch episode of Jan. 25, 2013.

(Photo credit: Josh and Anna Duggar, from the blog here.)

In November 2012, a group of people got together in Utah to learn about what agency-based education looks like. Agency-based Education is based on the book “Teach the Children” by Neil Flinders, PhD, a former professor of education at BYU. This book is sadly out of print. If you ever come across a copy at a thrift store, snatch that treasure up.

For many people, agency-based education means homeschooling. For some it means using a school that is formed by many parents coming together to form a charter school or some kind of co-operative school. These videos explore the philosophy behind what agency-based education is and how to implement it. Watch and learn! These videos have a lot of gems. I was putting up these videos one at at time, and I will continue to do that, but now I have them all in one place. Enjoy!

Oak Norton, founder of the Agency Based Education organization, asked why aren’t we getting better results from public school educated children when we are putting more money into education then ever before? He quoted Bastiat who said that socialism is a “religion of greed.” Bastiat also said that government-based education can not do everything for everybody . Oak then gave a history of compulsory, or public, education. It is based on socialism.

The above video features Gayle Ruzicka. Gayle started homeschooling in Idaho in the 70s or 80s when it was extremely unpopular. She shares some humor and wisdom about how to homeschool a large family.

This video involves Jack Monnett. Jack wrote a book Revealed Education: the History of Education in the public schools. Jack shares some of the history of public schools in early Utah, how they were came to be modeled after compulsory education models from back east instead of the LDS Church educational model. Few of us realize that the seminar program of the LDS church is a watered-down version of what could have been if the early saints in Utah had followed the prophet instead of wanting what the rest of the US wanted. He doesn’t go into all the depth of that story in the video, you have to get his book to get the whole story.

This video shows Janet Summit, a homeschooling mom from Cache County Utah. She shares her success story of starting a cooperative school for scholars where the moms and dads divide the teaching load.

In this video you will see a lady who helped start Paradigm High, a Thomas Jefferson Education-based high school in Utah.

In this video you will see Jesse Fisher outline the history of compulsory education in America. Most of us don’t realize that in the “land of the free” we have a system of education that came from Frederick the Great of Prussia, which is based on force and teaching students to accept without question in order to be obedient soliders, instead of learning to think for themselves. He also gives several examples of schools that operate on a completely different model of freedom.

Alisa Ellis tells us in this video all about Common Core: why it’s so awful and sneaky and complicated.

I am so excited to hear this…but it almost sounds too good to be true. I’m always searching for tips on easing pain during childbirth.

Today on her blog, Sarah Pope, The Healthy Home Economist, shared a secret for pain free childbirth. What great timing, as I am nearing the seven year anniversary of my last natural birth. It’s hard to believe that something so cute and little can cause so much pain. But she was well worth it. I can’t imagine life without her. (See her adorable picture above at six months of age.) Her birth was so painful that I sought out an epidural when I had my next baby three and a half years later. And I am a huge advocate of natural birth! (Of course, the stress I was undergoing in my last pregnancy pushed me over the natural crunchy momma edge, but that’s another story for another time.)  The memory is still fresh in my mind of how painful that birth was seven years ago. Yes, my little girl turns seven years old next week and I still remember how freaked out I became at the end, right before transition, right upstairs in my bedroom as I labored away.

Here’s my baby girl last summer with her look-alike cousin at a family party.

I felt like I had a washing machine agitator inside of me. You would think that with her being my sixth child, my fifth natural birth and my fourth home birth I would have felt uber confident and known when I was hitting transition (that feeling of  “I can’t do this any longer! Help!”) but I still felt scared and ignorant of what was going on. I thought I still had hours of the pain to go when in actuality, she was born within minutes of the intense pain. Wooh, I could go on and on about this birth, but instead, let’s get on to the secret. Are you ready?

It’s….

raw milk from pasture fed cows! Sarah says that the calcium in the raw milk comes with an enzyme that makes the calcium absorbable by the mom’s body. And it is calcium that lessens the pain of uterine contractions.

You can read the blog post here about it.

I really want to believe this and am going to try it! I want at least one more baby, but I am not quite ready to be in the TTC mode. But when I am, after I finish this GAPS diet I started, I am going to guzzle the raw milk!  I am also going to do the diet for pregnant and nursing moms that the Weston A. Price people recommend. With my last natural birth, I ate whole foods and whole grains but I didn’t know anything about the WAPF pregnancy diet and did not do the sacred, traditional fats. I also didn’t soak my grains. I think a lot of my “good nutrition” was washing out of my body as I didn’t have enough good fat for the fat soluble Vitamins A and D to stick. I just learned last night from the HealThy Mouth Summit that healthy fats are fuel for the adrenal glands to help you feel rested and able to cope with life. I had also been vegan and/or vegetarian for years before I got pregnant with her and I think my nutritional stores were still depleted.

What do you think about consuming raw milk to prevent pain in childbirth? Sarah also says it’s great for combating morning sickness.

Do any of you have experience with using raw milk for either of these challenges?