Tree of Life Mothering

This is my adorable niece, Little Miss Q

I was talking to my friend who recently met another friend Caralee, my informal nutrition mentor, at our last Veggie Gals moms potluck lunch. Caralee is a Weston A. Price chapter leader and has a blog here http://amodernpioneeringfamily.blogspot.com/. She’s the one I’ve blogged about before, a recovering vegetarian of about 12 years and homeschooling mom of 7. She started eating meat and raw dairy when her teeth were almost falling out. She healed her cavities because of that and has felt so much healthier. Her story about that is here http://treeoflifemothering.ning.com/profiles/blogs/more-from-my-girlfriend-who-is-a-recovering-vegetarian.

So my friend, who I will call Jane, was saying that she had had repeated miscarriages (after having 9 kids) at our Veggie Gals lunch. She would really love to have another baby, even though she’s 45. She told me that Caralee later gently shared with her that repeated miscarriages could be a sign of a diet lacking in certain nutrients, nutrients that come from following a Weston A. Price diet.

I asked Caralee to share more about this, and I am sharing it here in hopes it will help someone. This is not to induce guilt. I’ve had a miscarriage, so I know personally the feelings of “What did I do wrong?” and the agonizing emotional roller coaster that happens with the next pregnancy. Everything I read said that miscarriages have no preventable cause. Now I’ve learned that that is not always the case. Good nutrition can prevent some miscarriages. We will probably never know which ones couldn’t be prevented by an increase in diet and which ones could, but I’m all for increasing your chances!

Here are the resources Caralee shared, the second one is about miscarriage and diet.

I always loved jelly beans at Easter time during my childhood, especially the black ones! But they are definitely not on the “whole foods” list, so I haven’t bought any for my kids in years.  We usually get “healthier” candy at the natural foods store, like chocolate-covered raisins, nuts, and yogurt-covered pretzels to put in our plastic Easter eggs. I had given up hope of ever finding a whole foodsy jelly bean. But then I discovered Surt Sweets Jelly Beans. If you have ever wanted to get jelly beans that are better for you than the regular kind you find at the grocery store, try Surf Sweets Jelly Beans. http://surfsweets.com.

The spring mix, perfect for Easter, are pastel yellow, pink, orange, and white. They come in six flavors:

• tropical punch
• lemon
• mixed berry
• pineapple
• tangerine
• watermelon

The lemon and tangerine were a bit sour, as to be expected, but the rest were sweeter. My husband, who usually avoids sugar, liked them so much he asked for more! They are definitely a hit at our house! I think my kids will be surprised to have jelly beans this year.

These jelly beans are so wholesome that they are Feingold-safe. What does that mean? It means that the are approved for the Feingold diet, because they have no artificial colors or flavors. The colors come from natural sources (black carrot juice concentrate, believe it or not, and turmeric) and the flavors come from natural fruit juices. Regular jelly beans use artificial flavors and colors that are derived from petroleum, sad to say. See http://feingold.org for the ugly truth. It doesn’t seem to bother some kids, but these dyes and flavors can cause the monster (ADHD behaviors, as well as a host of others) to come out in other kids. See the link I just mentioned to read about the symptoms.

These jelly beans are sweetened with organic evaporated cane juice and organic grape juice concentrate. Here are the rest of the ingredients for you discriminating moms: organic tapioca syrup, pectin, citric acid, ascorbic acis, natural flavors, confectioner’s glaze (that might be a fancy way of saying “white sugar”, so I am not saying these are totally healthy for you, just healthier than regular jelly beans because they don’t have the artificial dyes and flavors), carnauba wax, and organic sunflower oil.

Now you can give your children jelly beans at Easter time and not worry about the effects that the coal-tar derivatives in regular jelly beans can cause them. I’ve never seen any effects on my kids from the few pieces of artificially-colored candy they get outside the home, but this is good news anyway.

If you go to the link above you can click on “where to buy” and plug in your zip code and see if there’s a store near you that sells them, or you can order online. I noticed that the Good Earth Natural Foods Store and Harmon’s in Orem UT sell them, or at least carry the Surf Sweets line of candy. Cool!

So do any of you have any naturally healthy Easter treats? Please share in the comment box below.

If you would like to enter this giveaway contest for a chance to win a small bag of spring mix Surf Sweets Jelly Beans, please comment below. Then  “Like” Tree of Life Mothering on Facebook as well as Surf Sweets.

The contest will end Monday April 2 at 2 PM so I can have time to get these out in the mail to the winner to be there in time for Easter on April 8.

Here is a link to a recipe from my friend Rhonda so you can make your own marshmallow eggs, http://theprovidenthomemaker.com/1/post/2011/04/homemade-marshmallows-and-whats-preparedness.html

Sounds yummy and fun! You can make them out of honey if you want to be purely white sugar free. Thank you for the recipe Rhonda!

My friend Donna Goff, member of this site, and fellow traveler on the LDS homeschool journey, has some great Easter resources to help you have family devotionals preparing for Easter.

The first is specifically for LDS families http://store.moorhouseacademy.org/p/6/family-devotionals

It is 30 Days of Bible based content designed to be used as a daily devotional to focus our hearts and minds on Jesus Christ. Each day’s content includes a: scripture quote poem, song or hymn, as well as excerpts from powerful talks/testimony’s of Jesus Christ given by our modern day Prophets and Apostles. 128 page booklet for $14.99.

The second is for non-denominational Christians http://store.princessacademies.com/p/14/family-devotionals

This contains 30 Days of Bible based content designed to be used as a daily devotional to focus our hearts and minds on Jesus Christ. Each day’s content includes a: scripture quote poem, song or hymn, as well as a inspirational short biography of a man or women from history who lived and/or died for their testimony of Christ. 168 page booklet for $14.99.

Until the storm hit Monday morning that made us feel like the Wicked Witch of the West was blowing in, I was loving this spring weather. I love seeing all the blossoms and flowers! We’ve got popcorn popping on the apricot tree! I love it! I’ve also got lots of springtime surprises popping everywhere.

The first was that my husband at the last minute, like the night before, found out he could staff the Royalty and Romance Marriage seminar put on by Kirk and Kim Duncan of http://3keyelements.com. He brought home these cute little booklets “for him and her” to strengthen marriage by asking questions so you can treat your husband like a king and your wife like a queen. I am now scheming of when to actually use them by asking the questions contained therein. I love the theme of royalty for marriage and family, because of course it’s patterned after our Heavenly Parents. Blog post coming soon…

Friday afternoon my son Valor, who is away at college, called and surprised me by asking/announcing if it was OK if he drove to Burley, Idaho the next day for a mission farewell of his Williamsburg Academy friend that he met at Elevation last spring. He also wanted to know if it was OK if he picked up his 16 year old sister, Virtue, on the way with a borrowed van of one of the girl’s parents. He was driving with friends, all youth/teenagers. They would stop at our home on the way to Idaho to get another friend and Virtue. All the boys would stay at the missionary’s home and the girls would sleep next door in basement of the empty neighbors’ home.

I had to think about this one. He is 18, and technically an adult. I don’t chaperone him any more. He is away at college after all. But this was one loooong group date, and included a sleepover. We have a family rule of no sleepovers, except with cousins. And what would they have for dinner and breakfast? Did I trust these teens to be together for that long, and not get into any trouble?

I am still figuring out my dating rules for my kids. I really like the Duggars’ system, basically that you don’t date until you are ready to get married. Even then, you have chaperones. There’s more to it but that’s all I will go into for now. My husband and I are still figuring out what will work for our family. So far our youth just have the basic rule from the LDS guide, For the Strength of Youth, of not dating until after 16, with only group dates, no steady single dating, until after the guy is home from a mission, because then he is supposedly ready to get married. Sometime I will have to blog more about dating and my thoughts about it as I’ve been talking to other moms. What exactly is pairing off? When kids are on a group date, my son tells me, there has to be pairs, or it’s not considered a date. But isn’t that pairing off? Or is just pairing up? This is a continuing friendly debate in our home. He doesn’t count this trip to Idaho as a date because they weren’t paired up with each boy asking a girl out. But I think it was a date because it was young men and young women together, without adults chaperoning, at least for the car ride.

This is our forsythia bush in the front yard.

I had a long talk with my husband about this proposal and finally decided it was OK. I felt the Spirit telling me it was so. I knew all the parents of the kids involved, some of the the moms are members of this site. At least I thought I knew them all, later I found out there were more kids on the leg of the trip between Provo and Cedar.

He ended up coming through my town right when I was listening to the prophet at the YW’s General Meeting. (which I loved btw. I want to know what wrinkle cream Sister Dalton uses. She claimed it doesn’t work but I disagree, she looks like she’s 20!) So I left the meeting (I had gone to the stake center with Virtue even though I know we can watch it on the Internet, just so we would have no interruptions!)

So I got to see Valor briefly and his friends and give them my blessing for the trip. Virtue decided to go at the last minute and hopped in the car.

So that left me with entertaining some homeschooling moms and daughters I had invited to come over after the broadcast. I wasn’t sure if anyone was coming, because I had put out calls and text invitations and gotten no confirmations.

By 8 PM nobody had come so I started finishing some housekeeping that I was supposed to have done before I left for the meeting while dh put the little kids to bed, or so I thought. (He later claimed that he didn’t know he was supposed to put them to bed…they were playing games at 10 PM! Time to brush up my Fascinating Womanhood skills of being very clear of asking for what I want.)

I was nicely surprised when my friends Leah and Karianne and their daughters showed up. We had a nice little visit. Leah is my friend who is Helen Andelin’s niece (Helen of Fascinating Womanhood fame). She had just been to the funeral of her great-aunt, Helen’s last surviving sibling, Maydene. I will have to do another blog post about all the fun things Leah told me about Maydene and Helen and her extended family. She ended my day with more delightful springtime surprises. I am so grateful for friends! I didn’t catch a picture of her but here is one I caught last year, she’s on the left, when she did the catering for my youth conference. My good friend Shelly is on the right with her baby.

The next day Virtue and Honor came home. Another big surprise…the home that hosted the dinner for friends and family after the sacrament meeting non-farewell was the home of the Headgates lady, Keri Tibbetts. Keri is a TJEd mom who caused quite a stir when she published and distributed her interpretation of TJEd here http://www.headgates.org/resources/, the first one listed as “Headgates” is the article I am talking about. She was the missionary’s aunt. I so wish my daughter had swiped her brother’s smartphone and taken photos of what their 15 toys are. Virtue said the home was beautiful and immaculate and the children were all well-behaved.

My little girl picked these blossoms and arranged them for me for another surprise.

The following is written by one of my friends:

“This week I watched my goats give birth to their first kids.

“They were my first farm births.  I grew up far removed from my animal products: milk, eggs, and meat came in cartons.  When my husband and I got married, we talked about how wonderful it would be to live more naturally and produce more of our own food.  For years and years it was just a dream.

“Two years ago we were able to buy two acres in Oklahoma, complete with a fenced pasture and a stable.  And now that the dream was falling into my hands I realized I had no idea how to care for farm animals. They were a big investment and responsibility– what if we messed up?

“Chickens came first, and I remember how nervous I was the first few days with them: when should we lock them up at night and what would happen if we didn’t let them out right away in the morning?  Were we giving them enough food?  What should we do when it rained?

“Well, the chickens survived just fine and we figured things out.  And we love our chickens.

“Then came the goats and again, once I got over the initial worries of whether or not we were inadvertently going to kill them I was completely delighted by how much fun they were.

“This week it was time for our goats to give birth for the first time.  I didn’t think I would see it happen.  I figured they would do it in the middle of the night.  But one evening recently, while I was working in the garden, my son came up to me and said, “Mom, I think Annabelle’s in labor.”

“Well, labor is something I do know about.  I have done it five times without drugs.  I went to go check on Annabelle.  She was laying down and she had been methodically pawing the ground.

“I thought to myself, “I know that pain management technique!” I remembered rubbing my hands against things to provide a distracting sensation to take my focus off the contractions.

“I immediately felt this female kinship with her.  I had been through this and I knew how it felt.  It all came back to me quite clearly.  I wanted to help her.  I wanted to be a goat doula. I wanted to rub her back and find her pressure points and make things easier for her.

“But I knew what she really wanted was to be left alone.  So I just sat there and watched.  Though I must admit that sometimes I whispered encouragement to her: ‘You’re doing great, Annabelle.  You’re going to be a mommy soon.’ Annabelle herself didn’t make a sound.  She seemed very calm and relaxed through the whole thing, even though I could tell she was in pain.

“The birth happened smoothly.  It was beautiful.  One thing that surprised me was that as soon as the little nose presented I could see it twitching and wiggling, even though the baby was still covered by the amniotic sac.

“Her pushing stage was just like a human’s: two or three pushes and then a rest.  Once the front shoulders were out, the rest of the kid came quickly.  And then I got to watch as Mom discovered her first baby and began licking it dry and clean. Oh, how well I remembered!

“I know that this experience is very commonplace for farmers (and indeed most people who have ever lived throughout history) and after I’ve been through it a few times with my farm animals I won’t get nearly so worked up over it.  But I hope I’ll never forget this first time when I saw it through fresh eyes.

“The thing that struck me the most was the firsthand realization of how natural a process birth is.  Our bodies know what to do.  If we can stay calm and relaxed, most of the time things will be just fine.  There are definitely exceptions both with goats and with humans, and at that point a skilled birth attendant will save lives.  But for the most part we need to stay relaxed and trust the beautiful, natural process of birth.”

I went to this amazing wedding reception last week for Aneladee Milne’s son Brady. The bride had come up with the most gorgeous theme ever. I never would have thought of this for a wedding reception, even though it is such a familiar theme: fairy tales. Her decorations were objects that represented fairy tales. She had Cinderella’s glass slipper and pumpkin, a rose and a lantern from Beauty and the Beast, and an apple from Snow White. These are all pictures from the reception. It was held on the 18th floor of the Zion’s Bank building kitty corner from the Salt Lake Temple, in the Founder’s Room. I loved seeing the portraits of the prophets on the wall.

Why didn’t I think of this? It was so charming!

Every little girl, if raised in a healthy way, dreams of growing up and marrying a Prince Charming. This is born of an in-born natural knowing that we are daughters of a King, our Heavenly Father. We are princesses, each a queen in embryo.

The beautiful bride Alicia. (Sorry for the glare on the photo, I was being rushed out the door by family members who were so ready to be done and I didn’t have time to retake the picture with the flash off. )

I remember my wedding day, when I got married in the Manti LDS Temple. As my parents drove me to the temple and we reached that last stretch of road that goes to the temple, I felt like a princess going to my castle to get married to my handsome husband.

A few weeks ago I discovered this treasure of a book pictured above at our public library, The Parable of the Princesses by LDS singer Jenny Phillips. It tells the story of the plan of salvation with a princess motif. The artwork by Dan Burr is absolutely gorgeous and the story is powerful. It also comes with a CD of music by Jenny. My husband read this as a bedtime story to my little girl as she fell asleep in her sleeping bag on the floor of the living room with a fire glowing in the fireplace. The Spirit burned as bright as the fire as he read the story. Dh and I had been to the temple that afternoon, my first time to the Salt Lake Temple for an endowment session. It was the perfect way to cap off the evening.

The next day my older daughter read the story and it helped her through an emotional problem. I am grateful for beautiful books like this. Thank you Jenny for writing it. I only wish the cover was pink!

Spring is here! The little purple flowers have popped up through my flower garden, despite the weeds. I think it’s a miracle every year that they come back, always between St. Patty’s day and the first day of spring. How do they know it’s time? 

To celebrate the first day of spring, the core phasers and the love of learner in the home and I planted some Easter grass. Every year at Easter time I complain to myself about how messy our fake Easter grass is. Every year I recall some vague directions I read somewhere about how to have real Easter grass in your Easter baskets. The basic idea is to sprout some seeds, like wheat berries, in a thin layer of dirt in your Easter baskets. I have never remembered in the past to plan ahead and do this, but this year, with Easter less than 3 weeks away, I remembered!

We have some spelt kernels that my mom in law brought up when she visited last month so we used those. It was such a welcome break to forego our regular school routine, and as soon as the breakfast dishes were done and the laundry folded, to break out the Easter baskets and decorations. Venture eagerly went to our garden patch and dug up some good black dirt into a bucket and brought it inside. We lined the baskets with aluminum foil so the dirt won’t fall through the holes and then put some dirt in and then the spelt and then a little bit of water. While we were at it I figured it would be fun to start some other seeds sprouting in egg cartons, so we planted some peas and other seeds. 

I am also remembering another thing to do for Easter ahead of time, and that is purging! The book that my husband’s cousin Janet Hilton Hales wrote, A Christ Centered Easter, recommends that you dejunk your home as part of your Easter preparations. This is symbolic of Jesus cleaning out the moneychangers from the temple on the Monday of Easter week. For us, it takes much more than the Monday before Easter to deep clean. So yesterday we worked on cleaning out under the boys’ bunkbeds. We are going to focus every morning, from now until probably past Easter, on spring cleaning: purging junk out and scrubbing! It feels good. It is so liberating to know that for homeschool it is OK to do chores with the little ones. Not all learning comes from academics.

I highly recommend this book and suggest you get it now from deseretbook.com to prepare for a Christ-centered Easter.

Did you catch this? Go Ron Paul! I like what he said, “Santorum is a fake conservative. Conservatives are supposed to be for less government.” He also said that Romney flip-flops.

I got heavily involved with TJEd, or Thomas Jefferson Education, over six years ago after I moved to Layton, UT. About then is when my oldest started  a commonwealth school.  That’s the model of a scholar phase school  that Tiffany Earl of Leadership Education Mentoring Institute created. (I think it’s funny that not all schools are for scholar phase, but that’s the truth of the matter.)  I also bought the TJEd planner for him. It is not the traditional planner though, and it didn’t come with instructions. I have been wondering how to use it ever since!  I ended up getting a different planner for my son and then, happily for him, he graduated to using an electronic device, which he loves. I still think the TJEd planner is good, I just didn’t know how to use it.

Tiffany Earl, the creator of the planner,  just did a webinar to teach people about it, with her good friend Aneladee Milne as the presenter. I am excited to finally learn how to use it.  Here is the link to watch the webinar http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/617389-adult-leadership-webinar-or-conference-call, when you get there scroll through the options and pick the Feb. 11, 2012 one. 

I think it would be really cool to start over and use one of these so that all of my lecture notes are indexed. Right now they are scattered through about a dozen notebooks. Maybe in my next life I will index them, but for now I can get my kids started on a more organized scholarly foot.

My friend Stacy Harmer is a beautiful, principle-based woman, a wife, and mother of many. She has gone through some trials but has not only survived but thrived! She is doing a free conference call this Friday March 23 for women who are looking for breakthroughs. Here is her message:

During the past year I’ve witnessed a number of miracles in both my immediate and extended families.  A little less than a year ago my husband and I traveled to China to welcome our little daughter Gabriella Grace into our family.  We’ve been privileged and blessed to watch her transform from a malnourished, lethargic 20-month old into a thriving, energetic, contagiously happy member of our family.    

 

Over the past several years I’ve had the good fortune to have witnessed or participated in a number of similar transformations, including my own.  As most of you know, six years ago our lovely daughter Olivia suddenly and unexpectedly passed away in her sleep.  Few of you know that I subsequently slipped into, and later recovered from, a deep clinical depression.  Based in part on those experiences, and on years of formal and informal study, I’ve created a 6-week mentoring program to help women move through barriers in their lives to experience major breakthroughs.  I’ve identified  a number of life-changing tools that can transform people’s lives and provide healing, hope, clarity, and passion.  Some of the results you can expect to see from my mentoring program include:

 

Ø  Releasing negative emotions and creating a more open heart

Ø  Discovering your purpose and passion

Ø  Creating the life of your dreams through the power of your mind

Ø  Connecting more deeply to your Higher Power and strengthening your spiritual practices

Ø  Discovering ways to properly nourish your body and lose weight

Ø  Setting up structures and systems in your life

Ø  Sharing your gifts and talents with the world

 

I would love to reconnect with you and have you join me with my next mentor group!  You can learn more about my mentoring program on my website:  www.stacyharmer.com.  When you visit, be sure to click on the side bar to receive my free audio download, entitled “5 Secrets to Bounce Back from Anything!”  

 

I’m hosting a free conference call this Friday, March 23 at 1:00 pm Mountain Time to introduce the mentoring program.  I’d love you to join in.  To access the call, simply dial

 

712-432-0900 

The access code is 389736#  

 

Of course, there’s no cost or obligation to participate in the introductory call.  On the call I’ll outline what is entailed in the 6 week program.  The call will also be recorded if you can’t make it at that time. The cost for the program is $97, but I’m offering the 6-week program for a Spring Special price of only $39 if you sign up by March 31!  And if your finances are tight, please talk to me personally so we can something out; I don’t want finances to preclude anyone from participating.

 

I hope that you’ll consider joining us in creating a community of women to strengthen, support, and encourage one another in living our purpose and passion!  Please send me a quick email if you’d like to participate or know of anyone that could benefit from this.  Thanks so much!

 

Love,

 

Stacy

 

The following are testimonials from women who participated in my pilot program:

This program is life changing.  It really helps to break into baby steps the things you can do to take control of your life and feel increased peace and serenity.  Stacy is a wonderful mentor and has a wealth of knowledge, resources and experience that equip her to motivate and inspire women to discover who they are and be their best selves!  —  Melanie Connell

I had been struggling for years to put my life in order.  I have felt a lot of stress and confusion as I tried to know what to do first and in what order to pursue healing in my life.  I felt like I was always running around, using all my energy, and still not making any noticeable progress.  I was very frustrated and worn down.  This Breakthrough Mentoring Program came into my life at the perfect time for me.  Looking at my life in the symbolism of a tree helped me to put things in order and know where to focus my energy.  One of the most powerful aspects for me was learning how to nourish my mind.  I never thought that taking care of the thoughts I believed would change my whole life for the better.  This program has changed my life in beautiful ways.  I feel so much more whole and peaceful.  What a blessing Stacy and her mentoring has been in my life. —  Christine Isom

This program came into my life at exactly the right moment.  I was so ready to take the steps Stacy outlined.  I felt a loving bond and admiration for all the women in my group. Stacy led the group with grace and charm.  I am so excited to continue on the path the “Break Through Mentoring Program” has set out so clearly for me. —  Kerry Smitheram

Stacy is a caring, inspiring coach and mentor.  Because she lives what she teaches, she has moral authority.  Filling you with ideas and clarity, you are in the driver’s seat and have the wheel, yet she is there to support your life’s journey.  I appreciate the growth I made with this program.  It truly was a break through process for me.  Giving me tools and a plan, organizing it into a lifestyle, and making it easy to implement, it helped me to progress forward with passion and healthy systems.  I became clear on what I really wanted and became a better me, wife, and mother because of it.  Thank you!  —  Debbie Warner