In addition to sharing healthy eating ideas, homeschooling helps, board game reviews, gameschooling inspiration, book reviews, picture book reviews, marriage tips, movies to watch, large family and homemaking ideas, breastfeeding encouragement, homeopathy healing stories, and all the other stuff I’ve covered over the years, I’m going to share one website a week. This week I’m covering the one shown above, myliveactiondisneyproject.com. Whatever your feelings about Disney and its current wokeness, you might want to benefit from this site.
We watched this one 7 years ago in AZ. The story is fun, the singing and dancing are great, I love the costumes, but it’s so long! It’s loosely based on a true story of an eccentric millionaire.
I so wish this had been around when I was a young mom! As you have all probably figured out, if you are a parent, just because a movie has “Disney” on it, it’s not necessarily a great movie. As a child of the 70s and 80s, I remember when the VCR came to our neck of the woods. In the fall of 1981, our neighbors bought one and rented some videos from one of the now defunct video stores in town. The neighbors’ daughter, close to my age, had all the girls ages 9-11 in the neighborhood over for a slumber party where we watched The Black Stallion for her birthday.
I can’t believe he gave this movie an F!!! It’s a decent movie with great acting and great truths! Plus it’s fun to see Karl Malden as the preacher.
I realize that’s not a Disney movie, but thus began the subconscious quest in my heart to find any good wholesome movie ever made and watch it, if not in the theater, at least at home on the mini-screen, Disney movies and beyond. My sisters and I watched a lot of Shirley Temple, Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, Debbie Reynolds, and Disney movies at home on VHS tapes with the neighbor girls. As we watched, we snacked on big bowls of popcorn and glasses of homemade orange julius-es, precursor of the 90s smoothies. Among other movies, we saw Pollyanna and The Three Lives of Thomasina and enjoyed those together.
This one got an A plus!
This was back in the prehistoric dinosaur days when classic animated Disney movies were not available on demand. They were released every seven years or so in the theater. I’m not sure what the schedule was for the live action Disney movies, but it was probably similar. Gradually, as you might know, many of them were released on VHS tapes and then DVDs but I’m not sure what the schedule was. Now they are on Disney+ for livestream.
Dean Jones was a favorite of my childhood. I actually saw this one at the Varsity Theater at BYU when I was in fourth grade.
Fast forward to the 2000s when as a mom of 7 children I would look for a movie for my kiddos to watch every weekend while DH and I went out for a date. We had seen all the classic animated Disney movies. I wanted to share with them what I hoped were the oldies and goodies of Disney live action movies. We went through a phase where I borrowed every single Disney live action movie on DVD at the local public library for their Saturday night entertainment. So, I’m talking about The Absent-minded Professor, The Apple Dumpling Gang, the Herbie movies, Shaggy D.A. movies, etc. I had fond memories of watching these as a child.
Amnesia had settled in on my brain, however, as I had forgotten that I can’t count on all the Disney movies to be winners. Like The Boatniks? Yeah, I had seen that one as a kid, in the theater even. It’s entirely forgettable, so that’s why I forgot it’s a flop. I do remember loving Mary Poppins, of course, how could one not, as well obscure ones like Candleshoe with pubescent Jodie Foster before she was a megastar, and Napoleon and Samantha, when Jodie was prepubescent. Even back then, just as now, you can’t count on all Disney movies, whatever the age of the movie, to be of great quality.
Probably my second favorite live action Disney movie, after Mary Poppins. It promotes faith in God and has fun cartoon vignettes about history! It gets a B minus from the site. I give it an A for being charming, despite the fact that Granny lies!
So that’s why I’m so grateful for this site. If this website, which reviews all the live action Disney movies ever made, had been around 10-15 years ago, I would have definitely used it.
I love that the guy who does the reviewing, Mark, has a detailed system for reviewing the movies. See the chart below of his rating of The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, one of the Kurt Russell at Medfield College movies I remember showing the kiddos. Final grade for the movie is B minus.
Using this system, he grades the movies from A down to F, just like grades in public schools and universities. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea gets an A. Old Yeller gets an A minus. Darby O’Gill and the Little People gets an A minus. The Parent Trap (1961), A minus. Herbie Rides Again a B minus. The Love Bug gets an F. I pretty much agree with those ratings. But Pollyanna gets an F as well!? What?! I disagree with that. It gets a B plus in my book, at least. Anyway, I would have used this to vet all those old movies from the library before I brought them home, and ignored the poor rating for Pollyanna, LOL. The great news is I can use it now and watch all the obscure and good movies that are rated above C. These are the ones I have never heard of, even in all my years of watching Disney movies.
I remember getting this one from the library. It got a B minus.
So if you are a Millennial who thinks live action Disney movies are just the remakes of the animated movies, like the 2015 Cinderella, or a Gen X parent like me who just thinks of Annette Funicello, Fred MacMurray, Dean Jones, and Hayley Mills when you hear the phrase “live action Disney movies,” you are in a for a treat. Use this website to find the best and obscure Disney movies and avoid all the duds.
We are going to watch The Biscuit Eater (A minus) with Johnny Whitaker! As well as The One and Only Genuine Family Band (see more about it below)! One can really go down the rabbit hole with this site! Check out the index here and start searching. It’s a work in progress so not every movie is listed yet. I’m interested to hear what he will say about The Great Locomotive Chase, a rare Disney movie portraying a true incident in the Civil War. Fess Parker is fun to watch in it, but this will probably get less than a C I bet, as it’s not a great heroic arc of a story. It ends so anti-climatically. We found it a few years ago and watched it.
Anyone up to watching The One and Genuine Family Band? That’s next up for our family movie night! It got a C plus from Mark but he also “highly recommends it” as a “delight to watch.” Since it’s about a large family playing music together, and politics, I can’t resist! Interestingly, it features young Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, way before they liked each other, I presume. I’ve heard songs from it for years on my Disney Classic Music album but didn’t know where they came from.
I’m also going to watch the Dean Jones movie below that we missed when all the kiddos were home. It got a B plus.
Sometimes, I just need something to watch that’s light, yet not so light that it’s as fluffy as cotton candy for the brain. Often, I want my movies to be light, yet still wholesome in reinforcing my values of strong family relationships and old-fashioned values of honesty and virtue. This site definitely fills a need to help me find those light and wholesome movies! I’ll also use it vet all the new live action remakes. I’ll avoid Dumbo 2019 (D) but maybe watch Peter Pan and Wendy 2023 (A). I’ll especially be using this with the grandchildren!
Every October, I love to focus on heroes for my Morning Basket theme in homeschool. Morning Basket time is when I share what is good, true, and beautiful. More here. I wish I had figured this out more when all my children lived at home. This is what it looks like: get picture book biographies of famous heroes as well as everyday heroes and read them aloud every morning for homeschooling time after morning prayers, scripture reading, and the breakfast dishes are cleaned up with the children’s help.
For graphic novels like this it might take several mornings to finish reading it aloud, depending on your child’s attention span. Totally worth it though! (Image Credit: johnhendrix.com)
Then talk about how the person is a hero and how to apply that in our own lives. That helps set the focus of the month of October so that Halloween can be Heroween. Throughout this post I’m sharing some of my favorite picture books, and graphic novels, of heroes. I’m also sharing photos of my recent hike. More on that in a little bit.
Some of my friends and I at my Heroween party years ago in AZ. We had Anne of Green Gables, Mother of Teresa, Louisa May Alcott, Marmee Alcott, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Jane Austen! I’m sorry to say I don’t remember all the heroes represented.
I’m all for dressing up like real heroes from history who have helped create a “harvest of faith,” then having a party where people share clues and guess who each other is. The fullest extent to this that I’ve done is hosting a Heroween party for my Quest homeschooling class, and then a bonfire party at my home where some homeschooling friends gathered, dressed up as heroes. As we made s’mores, I shared stories from the October section of my Family Devotionals ebook about everyday people who are heroes. Heroes follow the Hero’s Journey, which ultimately was set forth by our Savior Jesus Christ.
A beautiful picture book about Jesus by John Hendrix. Photo Credit: johnhendrix.com
It’s great to hear and read stories of famous people who are heroes. (See a list of picture book biographies here and scroll down on Sarah Mackenzie’s page here for ideas.) It’s important to give equal time to people who aren’t famous and just as heroic. Like people who go to work everyday, working menial and/or thankless jobs, so that our society functions. I’m talking about garbage collectors, letter carriers, custodians, factory workers, teachers, store employees, nurses, construction workers, caregivers, parents (especially stay-at-home moms) etc. It’s harder to find picture books about those often invisible people.
In one of my current favorite blogs, which is Holladay Happenins’, the precursor to singlemomonafarm.com, Marcie, mom of 10, the “Single Mom on a Farm,” shares how one of her sons, when he was younger, before they lived on their farm in Virginia, but in the suburbs of SLC, UT, had a fascination for garbage trucks.
So every week when the garbage truck came by, Marcie and her children would go out to watch the truck driver do his job and say “Hi” to him. Sometimes they gave him treats. He came to love their family and their appreciation. He was so sad when they moved to Virginia. Before the move, they found out that he decided to go on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because of a hitchhiker he picked up from Virginia. I want to know the rest of the story!!! So interesting!!!! Amazing!!! Garbage truck drivers are heroes. What would we do without them?
We live among so many heroes, both famous and not famous, the unsung heroes who plod along doing humdrum work without complaint. Yesterday in church, I heard two talks that made me think more about this. First was a talk by a woman named Jane. (She happens to be my children’s second cousin but that is beside the point, just so interesting. First we moved here, then over a year later, she and her husband and two children moved here without any communication or coordination. I’ve enjoyed getting to know her and her little family. Her mom is my husband’s cousin.) Sister/Cousin Jane shared the story of how when her family moved across the country to our neighborhood two years ago, they left a wonderful school with a great kindergarten that her son had just participated in. After they left, the school shut down.
It was just recently that Jane learned that her son, for the whole previous two years, had thought that the school shut down because his family moved and wasn’t able to function without his family paying tuition. She said how amazing that was that she, as his mother, the person closest to him, didn’t know he had that misconception. She then said how amazing it is that children can be told the truth, but somehow in their brains, they misconstrue the facts. Then they go about laboring under misconceptions. Then she compared that to all of us. All of us are children of Heavenly Father and sometimes, just like physically little children, we have misconceptions we are walking around with. So how does that relate to heroes? Heroes are people who somehow do something or say something to help us clear up our misconceptions so we can live more joyful lives, living the truth. They do this as they are living their ordinary lives.
Then Brother Ron told the story about how he once went hiking. He wanted to go hiking around the mountain in Pleasant Grove UT that has the “G” on the side. So he decided to go hike up Battle Creek Trail, find a connecting trail to Grove Creek Trail, and hike back down, on Grove Creek Trail, on the other side of the mountain.
One of the amazing views on Grove Creek Trail
Coincidentally, I just hiked up and back down Grove Creek Trail! It was two Tuesdays ago with some friends on a Wild Edibles Hike. So the photos of nature you see on this post of are from that hike. I have a Veggie Gal girlfriend whose husband is passionate about plants. He was excited to to share with us about local edibles.
Anyway, Brother Ron missed the turn-off to get to Grove Creek Trail. He ended up hiking for a much longer time. His feet started hurting to the point where he felt he was dying. He sat down and prayed, asking God to please help him get home. Soon a man named Larry came by with a truck and gave him a ride out down the mountain. Ron talked about how God somehow knew Ron would need help and sent Larry, via a prompting of the Holy Ghost, out on his truck to go up the mountain, even though Larry didn’t know why he was going up the mountain. Larry was Ron’s hero that day. Ron talked about how today, God is prompting us to do things so that minutes from now, hours from now, even ten years or more from now, we can be prepared to act on promptings from the Holy Spirit to go rescue people who will be praying for help. It’s just amazing and wonderful to think about how God orchestrates all of our talents and capacities to be instruments in His hands, everyday heroes, to help those in need, throughout all time and space.
I think of how God prepared an ordinary single woman, still living in her childhood home in her 50s, who worked in her father’s watchmaking business, to save some Jews during WWII. He had prepared her for generations before as He answered the prayers issued in cottage meetings that her great-grandfather organized in the 1800s for the Jewish people to establish Zion. Corrie tells this story in her book, In My Father’s House.
As President Kimball once said:
Here are some of my favorite stories about not famous, everyday heroes.
–Walter Stover, a man who emigrated from Germany before WW2, and started out working in a mattress factory in the U.S. for $20 a week
–an unnamed woman standing in line at a grocery store (written by Stephanie Meyer, could this be the Stephanie Meyer of Twilight fame?)
Want more hero stories? Go here to get my Celestial Family Devotionals Ebook and turn to the stories in the October section.
Want to learn some songs about Christian heroes? I’ve got some!
–Here’s one about Nephi of the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ.
–Here’s one about heroes from the Bible and Book of Mormon.
-Then here’s one about more scripture heroes with music by Janice Kapp Perry
Those are some examples of what’s in my Family Devotionals Ebook. Go here to get it with links to a ton more songs and stories!
Want to watch a fabulous movie about an everyday hero? Watch Greater! I love that it shows an ordinary “Clark Kent” type of guy, Brandon Burlesworth, who works diligently every day to overcome his obstacles and achieve his dreams. He is a hero because he testifies of Christ, reads his Bible every day, works hard, stands for truth, and inspires other people to work hard to achieve their dreams. It’s a true story!
Here are more ideas of what to watch in the days leading up to Heroween/Halloween.
I got this teapot to celebrate LLLI’s 50th Anniversary back in 2007, at a LLLI Conference in Chicago.
Every year I think I will do this and then I forget to do it on the actual day. Well I’m not forgetting this year! I’m not letting October 17 pass us again by without me mentioning that it’s La Leche League’s birthday today!
What is La Leche League International (LLLI)? It’s a nonprofit breastfeeding support organization founded by 7 Chicago area housewives and breastfeeding mothers. This was a much needed thing in the 1950s when bottlefeeding of artificial baby milk was considered an “advancement” over mother’s milk coming from the breast. The word “breastfeeding” was even taboo, with the word nursing used a lot more. It’s because of these 7 women that breastfeeding has become a lot more normalized, as it should be, in our culture. LLLI was founded on October 17, 1956. That’s when the first LLL meeting was held, at one of the founding women’s homes, in Franklin Park, Illinois.
I will be forever grateful for LLLI. I was a La Leche League Leader for about 15 years and thoroughly enjoyed my time with this organization. That means I helped facilitate monthly meetings where women could come get questions on breastfeeding questions answered. I also answered the phone calls of nursing moms seeking help. I also went to several LLLI Conferences in my early days of mothering. At those wonderful conferences, I heard from fabulous speakers like Dr. Sears and his wife Martha Sears, Dr. Harvey Karp, and Mary Sheedy-Kurcinka. Those amazing events, on top of the monthly meetings I attended, gave me a lot of validation for my mothering choices. I met a lot of kindred spirits through my LLL meetings, chief among them, my Veggie Gal girlfriends. I’ve had these girlfriends for over 25 years; they are my closest and dearest friends. We met through LLL and started a spin-off group outside of LLL where we would meet regularly outside of LLLI meetings to have a potluck lunch or dinner and relax. How fitting that today, on LLLI’s birthday, that I spent time with one of those girlfriends!
I love that in the early years of LLLI, the most elegant Princess Grace of Monaco spoke at a LLLI Conference, endorsing breastfeeding.
Here are 12 lessons I learned from my time in La Leche League:
Nursing is a beautiful, empowering thing. Despite what popular culture with ads from beer to cars might lead to believe, a women’s breasts are designed for nurturing a baby. It’s so amazing that these orbs of flesh can eject a magic liquid that makes a baby grow and thrive, without any other thing given to the baby.
It’s OK to nurse your baby in public. Women who nurse in public deserve to be supported for doing what’s best and biologically normal for their baby, not shamed. They shouldn’t have to hide or use a tent or tablecloth to cover themselves, unless they feel that helps the baby nurse better without distraction.
It’s good to respond to your baby’s needs and tune in to your gut instinct about your baby. It’s OK to keep your baby close to you day and night, even wearing your baby in a baby sling or pouch. It’s OK to nurse your baby more often than every three hours and to give your baby nonnutritive sucking on your breast instead of a plastic object.
It’s OK and normal to nurse lying down and have your baby sleep in your bed. Your baby will not grow up weird for having slept in your bed and will not still be sleeping in your bed when she’s 17.
A child’s development should be considered when determining what behavior is reasonable to expect and how to discipline your child.
Fathers play an important role in supporting the mother and baby relationship.
Fellow nursing women play an important role in supporting the mother and baby relationship.
Nutrition is important for everyone, baby, mom, dad, and the whole family. It affects quality of life.
We can listen to everyone’s story with respect.
The way childbirth happens, ideally naturally, can help breastfeeding get off to a better start
Nursing, and mothering in general, can be made more fun and enjoyable with the right knowledge.
Mothering is important and beautiful, and deserves to be respected.
A woman is like a tree with seasons of life, and a baby is the fruit of her womb. Her baby will only be a baby once. It’s a privilege, joy, and source of womanly empowerment to be the mother of a baby and nurture this baby to adulthood. There’s nothing else like it! Embracing the seasons of a woman’s life is the a source of true woman’s liberation!
My involvement with exploring all aspects of breastfeeding led me into discovering so many other things. Going down the path of discovery of these things has led me become who I am today. These things are: whole foods nutrition, holistic health, alternate modalities of healing, ways to make childbirth less painful and more empowering, midwifery, water birth, home birth, gentle discipline, not letting a baby cry it out, cloth diapering, whole family roles, respectful communication and empathetic listening, lactational amenorrhea, natural family planning, natural cycles of a woman’s body, joy in mothering, joy in breastfeeding, joy in homemaking, cooking from scratch, homeschooling, gardening, homesteading, DIY life, homeopathy, home funerals, children’s picture books, reading aloud, family traditions, and so much more!
LLLI definitely helped contribute to who I am today, so it is with fond memories I wish LLLI a “Happy Birthday of 68 Years!” I treasure all the memories I have of my LLL friends, all the wonderful books I discovered from the La Leche League list of approved books, and all the fun meetings I attended. I even got to meet the 7 founders at an LLLI Conference, where all 7 women graciously stayed for several hours to autograph copies of the Womanly Art of Breastfeeding till the last woman standing in line had her book signed. See above and below. It was interesting that Mary White, one of the founders, wouldn’t sign the 5th edition because it had omitted statements about natural family planning that the 6th edition included.
I feel so happy seeing my daughter and daughter-in-law repeat the legacy of nursing, by nursing my grandchildren. A bonus blessing I got this past year is hearing my 20 year old son tell me, as he waved his hand at my bookshelf full of homemaking/mothering/nursing/whole foods cookbooks during family dinner, that he wants to give those books to his future wife after I die. That makes my heart so happy! I’ll probably give them to her before I die, when they will be more needed. The ripple effect of La Leche League lives on!
Most of the wonderful books I acquired through my association with LLLI. I was the librarian for my LLLI group for a time and LOVED getting to know all the books, as an unabashed bibliophile. I keep these on my homemaking shelf right by my kitchen. Notice the cover of my Whole Foods for the Whole Family is missing. I used that cookbook so much that the cover fell off!
A wonderful example of a La Leche League meeting is below, with one of the founders, Marian Tompson, sharing her wisdom.
Some of the delightful books I’ve checked out from the public library lately.
Another school year is in full swing! It’s been fun to share “Back-to-School” photos with my extended family in our family group texting chat on our phones. Even my 59-year-old big brother is back to school with his wife for linguistic training for a new job. I’ve had fun with the Back-to-School photo sharing even if I am, as the only homeschooler of the bunch, more of the type who loves to celebrate “Not-Back-to-School.” Over the years, I’ve had fun taking my homeschooled children to Not-Back-To-School parties involving waterslides and watermelon while public schoolers are inside sitting at desks, during August and/or September.
Anyway, if you homeschool like me, “back-to-school”, and “school” in general looks differently than it does for a family whose children are out the door and off to a different building for six hours a day, Monday through Friday. When I was a mom of children ages one and three, I remember my homeschooling neighbor, a mom of seven, giving me some homeschooling advice. Even when my children were that young, I considered myself a homeschooling mom. I had planned since I was 14 to homeschool my future children. At the time I received the advice, I didn’t appreciate it. Oh, how I appreciate it now! She said the best thing you can have as a homeschooler is a library card.
Actually, maybe she said, “The only thing you need to homeschool is a library card.” The details are fuzzy as this was almost 30 years ago. At the time I thought the following (of course I didn’t say this to her, I just politely nodded and smiled): “Okay, that’s how it works for you, but I’ll be different. You’re just telling me this because you are a cheap frugal mom of a million kids who can’t afford to buy all the stuff you want to buy for your kids. When I’m officially homeschooling, I won’t rely on the library. I’ll be able to buy everything I want so I can access it whenever I want!”
Oh the hubris/pride of my young motherhood! Little did I know how foolish that attitude is. Little did I know I would someday be a cheap frugal mom of a million kids myself, LOL. Since then, I have learned the following lessons:
First of all, I don’t have the space to store all the things I have ever wanted as a homeschooling mom.
Second of all, I don’t have the money to buy everything I want or have ever wanted.
Third of all, it’s not wise to do that anyway as some things prove not to work out for my family.
Boston Public Library, Photo Credit pixabay.com
So yes, I have seen the wisdom of her words. She was mostly right! Mostly right if her words were, “The only thing you need to homeschool is a library card.” But if she said, “The best thing you need for homeschooling is a library card,” then she was 100% right!
The current books from from the public library that I’m using in my homeschooling for Morning Basket time.
I add the condition/qualification of “best” because of what I’ve learned after my 30 plus years of homeschooling. I’ve learned if your goal is to get your children into college, as a scholarly saint with a stewardship mindset, especially if you want them to get there on a scholarship, then all you NEED is a library card, plus a math curriculum. You may want more, but that’s all you truly NEED.
Looking back, if I absolutely had to buy only one thing for our homeschool, because of dire poverty, to add to all the resources I can get from the public library, it would be the Mathusee curriculum. That’s the only curriculum I have bought and stuck with after all my years of homeschooling. I used it with my oldest who is 31, starting when he was 5, and I am still using it with my youngest, who is 15. It has proven itself for our family. (My only complaint is I wish it had more space on the pages in the student workbook to work out the problems.) My children have learned math well using the Mathusee curriculum to prepare for college. My oldest three children have graduated from college. Numbers four and six are currently in college. Number five doesn’t want to go to college, and number seven is the only one left who is in my homeschool (sob! I’m going to miss it when he’s done). I love Mathusee because it is so visual. I’m not just talking using integer blocks to show how addition and subtraction work. I’m talking about being able to see visually what’s going on with multiplication, division, negative numbers, even algebra. An example of that for pre-algebra is here.
It’s created by a math genius, Steven Demme. Charlotte Mason said to find teachers for your children who love the subject and can pass that love on to the students. You can tell when you watch Mr. Demme teach these lessons he loves math, he’s a genius at it, and he’s a genius at how to teach it. Math makes so much sense when he teaches. All the lessons for the books go with DVDs of him teaching the lessons. Unfortunately, you can’t check out Mathusee books from the library. Maybe eventually you could get the DVDs and teaching manuals, but the compatible student workbooks are consumable so not check-out-able.
Coincidentally, in the past few weeks, as I’ve been working on this blog post, I saw that Marcie Holladay, from singlemomonafarm.com, has shared a YouTube video about homeschooling for free, which for her, and for me, involves using the library for homeschooling. The above and below photo are screenshots from her YouTube Channel. I’ve noticed from reading her blog she loves to have reading parties for her children. She says the big tip for doing that is to go to the library with your children, and not have anything planned afterwards. Then when you come home you spread out the books and let them feast on all the fun new, FREE choices. A reading party! Yay! What a great way to inculcate a love of books in your home.
Even more coincidentally, she also talks in the video about how she has used Mathusee for her children’s math, like I do. Interestingly enough, she says she has stretched her use of the Mathusee books by having her children do one or two pages for each lesson, instead of the 12 (two pages per exercise, six exercises per lesson), so she can pass the book down to the next child. For me, what I’ve always done, is to tell my children if they can get 100% on four pages in a row, they can skip the rest of the lesson and go to the test, then move on to the next lesson (if the score is at least 80% on the test).
So, if I had to buy only one thing, Mathusee is what I would buy. I could rely on a library card for everything else, IF I had to. Notice I said “if.” That’s a big if. I’m glad I don’t have to, but I could if I had to. Once upon a time many years ago with five children twelve and under, when I was pregnant with number six, I felt too poor to even buy Mathusee books for the coming year, so we did this online charter school. I won’t name it, but I did it so I could get all my curriculum shipped to me for free. We didn’t enjoy it very much and I was glad to quit after one year. I have been blessed to buy Mathusee books ever since then, so many years’ worth for seven children that I have the whole K-12 curriculum, except for trigonometry and calculus. (Knowledge of calculus isn’t needed to do well on college prep tests, and basic trig questions can be studied online for those tests.) My married daughter even asked for me to pass down the set to her.
Some board games to check out at one of the libraries I frequent.
Thank goodness I haven’t had to just rely on the public library for all of my other resources. Even so, for all my years of mothering/homeschooling I have loved going to the public library at least once a week to access books and other resources, such as games, CDs, and DVDs, to make homeschooling, and SAHM life in general more enjoyable.
In those early years of mothering, it was the library, plus my church meetings, plus La Leche League meetings and my Veggie Gals girlfriend dinner parties that kept me sane. My husband traveled a lot for business (three to six days a week) so I was often the only adult at home 24/7, who had to do all the childcare and housework, day and night. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy mothering, but I needed some recognition, validation, adult interaction, and breaks, which I gleaned in some way or other from the aforementioned resources. I would put the three oldest kiddos to bed and then do the dishes without interruption while listening to cassette tapes I checked out from the library of speeches and presentations (Yes, I’m old. Now I use podcasts, YouTube, and audiobooks). I’m just sooooo grateful for the resources at the library. They are like old friends who have always been there through sunshine and rain. Eventually I learned to train the children to do the dishes, and they would either listen to me read aloud books or audiobooks, checked out from the library.
In short, you can’t homeschool effectively with JUST a library card, if you want your children to go to college, because they need a solid foundation in math, from a solid math curriculum you can’t check out from the library. If you want your children to get into college then you could homeschool with a library card and I would say, Internet access, to access free math courses online. So you’d be paying for the Internet, but it might be a bit cumbersome for when you don’t have Internet. I guess there are some moms out there who would be okay with just using a library card and no math curriculum, online or otherwise, and make up their own math worksheets based on their own knowledge or math books they find for free, but that takes way too much time and energy. I like having “open and go” curriculum for math. These same homeschoolers might be the same ones who think you can learn enough math for life just by reading and cooking, doing fractions, which is not true. (Another post for another day.)
So to sum it up, you can homeschool effectively for college prep with just a library card and a math curriculum. Other curriculum is not needed. This makes homeschooling so simple!
Do you understand the implication of what I just said?!
It means the following:
You don’t need spelling textbooks, science textbooks, literature textbooks, or history textbooks to homeschool.
Our homeschooling, in all the years I’ve done it, has involved (off and on, as I haven’t been perfectly consistent but this is the general pattern I followed):
– a morning devotional with prayer and scripture reading
-some form of “Morning Basket” time (which used to involving singing and/or poetry recitation) This is where I share what is good, beautiful, and true, beyond the scriptures that we study earlier in the morning.
-the Closet (which I talk about over here) for ages twelve and under
-LOTS of reading aloud of classic books, and weekly co-op classes, especially for when they are twelve and older.
On top of ALL that, I also had them all help with household chores from the age of two. By the time my oldest was thirteen, he was doing the family’s laundry, the younger kids did the dishes and bathroom cleaning, and I did the cooking. Then eventually I divided up the cooking so I got to retire from that for a time. I read aloud for Morning Basket, I read aloud when they played with stuff from The Closet, I read aloud when they did the dishes, once they were old enough to do it without me being next to their side, I read to them in the car on long car rides, I read to them at bedtime, and we listened to a LOT of audiobooks, especially for road trips.
I did buy two resources to teach my children how to read: Reading Reflex and Diane Hopkins’ Happy Phonics Kit. (Buy that here). I tried Teach Your Child to Read With 100 Easy Lessons but returned it to the library. It didn’t work for us because my daughter could not pronounce one of the sounds used in the first lessons. I’ve heard it works for lots of people though. This is where I’m so glad I could borrow something from the library to try it out first. I could probably have borrowed Reading Reflex from the library as well.
I did buy a spelling curriculum once when the oldest was 8 maybe but then I gave it away because it wasn’t working for us, after two lessons. So I am here to emphasize you don’t need a spelling or literature arts curriculum to homeschool, nor one for science! I did have a simple spelling dictionary with common words they could refer to when writing. I also once bought an Apologia science textbook that my older kids read some on their own. I also have bought the Universal Model science books and workbooks to go with them but I haven’t consistently used them in my homeschool, which goes to show my children didn’t need to use them to get into college. Oh, and I have bought the two Tuttle Twins history “textbooks,” Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. We have used those, and I love them. They are more storybooks, not textbooks, which I love. I’m looking forward to seeing all of American history explained by the Tuttle Twins with more volumes to come out.
My favorite way to teach history to children, really to anyone, is to read aloud picture book biographies together. That’s because they teach history with a story and pictures. It’s really hard to latch onto history without an engaging story to put dates and names into context. That’s what picture book biographies do. You can learn so much from these, and the library has a lot! Just go to the 920s in the juvenile nonfiction section for picture book biographies, at least at my library. I love these so much I’ll share lots of images of them below, interspersed among my tips about library services that completes this post. (I have some recommendations here and here on my blog.) This is how I started teaching history to my oldest back in fall of 1998, when I bought the set of D’Aulaire picture books biographies shown above, from Beautiful Feet Books. Those books and Mathusee were the first things I bought, along with the Charlotte Mason Companion book by Karen Andreola. You can probably find those, and all the picture book biographies shown below at your local public library.
Some picture book bios I currently have checked out from the library.
Oh how I digress. What was I talking about? Oh yes, homeschooling for free with just a library card. That leads me to into my next main point, which is, library services are a HUGE help for the homeschooling mama. Without further ado, here are the things my local public library offers that make life as a homeschooling mom so easy, so that you can MOSTLY homeschool with just a library card. If your public library doesn’t offer these services, please ask the library to do so. These things are so helpful!
Mini library card to put on your keychain. You might forget your wallet with your library card (which I’ve done) but you will never forget your keys, if you are driving. If your mini-card (a duplicate of the big library card) is attached to your keychain then you will never forget it, unless you walk to the library.
2. Ability to reserve books online. This is called putting books “on hold.” This wasn’t available for me back in my pre-smartphone caveman mothering days. I remember dragging my four young tots, ages four, two, and zero, with the zero year old in my baby-sling, to find books I wanted at the public library. It gave me such the dopamine hit/thrill of finding the books I wanted. I so enjoyed that, just as if I was on a safari, but it did take a lot of time. I save so much time just looking for the books online and clicking the button to reserve the book. Then I pick them up when I get the notification they are ready.
3. Ability to pick up the hold/reserved books without asking for them at the circulation desk. It wasn’t until I moved from Utah to Arizona I was finally able to do this. At all the former libraries in Utah I had to ask at the desk for them, after reserving them online. Now I’m back in Utah, and I can just go to the library shelves set apart for the “holds,” find the section for my last name, and pull out my books that are ready to pick up.
4. Self check-out. If you have a screaming baby in your arms it would be better to go to the circulation desk for their help while you wrestle with the baby. If not, it’s usually faster to just check them out at the self check-out.
5. Ability to request books for the library to purchase. If you can’t find a book you want, you can ask the library to buy it. Ask your librarian how to do this. It takes about a month for this to be processed, at least the last time I did this years ago, so if you need the book right away, interlibrary loan is the better way to go. See below.
6. Ability to request books from other libraries. This is called “interlibrary loan” or ILL. It’s not promoted but your library probably does this already without you knowing. This is what you can do if you can’t find the book you want at your own local public library, and don’t want to wait for them to decide about buying it for the library’s own collection. After you put in the request, the library staff sends out a request to other libraries in the whole country for that book. The majority of the time another library has had the book I want this way. Some libraries charge a small fee for this ($1-$2). Other libraries offer the service for free. Not all books can be found this way but most can be. I found the above book, Pickle Chiffon Pie, in the Chinaberry book catalog (now defunct) decades ago, and my library didn’t have it. So I asked for it through ILL, got it, and thoroughly enjoyed it. The best picture book about the power of pure love I’ve ever read!
7. Host used books sales. This scratches both my thrift-loving self and my bibliophile self. At my library, this happens every quarter, and the books are one dollar, and audiobooks and lectures on CDs and DVDs are only ten cents! My library also has a permanent section in the library for on ongoing sale. I just got the books above on sale from it, one from the seasonal book sale, and one from the permanent book sale. I don’t know the rhyme or reason for what books go on for which sale, I just enjoy what I can find.
8. Have more than just books. This means offering board games, CDs, DVDs, book club kits, and activity boxes based on a theme, like astronomy or origami. As an avid board gamer, I love being able to check out board games, from not just one, but two libraries. Many of the board games I review for this site are games I borrow from these two libraries. I watch YouTube video reviews of board games, and then see if my library has the game, and if it does, I check it out. If it doesn’t I ask the library to buy the game. Eighty percent of the time the library buys the game.
9. Have curbside pickup. This is a boon if you are sick and don’t want to go into the library. I wish had had it when I had lots of littles at home. Ask your librarian about this. I’ve only used it once, when I was sick, but if it had been around when I was a young mom I probably would have taken advantage of it a lot!
10. Host programs and events. I’m not talking about story time. That never worked for us. Maybe because my kiddos knew they could get whatever story they wanted at home with me reading it to them? They always wanted to wander around and pick out books instead. I’m talking about events like meet-and-greets with authors (I got to hear Shannon Hale in person this way!), craft nights, trivia nights, open mic nights, D&D nights, etc.) If your library isn’t big enough to have the money to have big authors come in person, the staffers could probably swing a Zoom meeting with one. During the plandemic my library had some fun Zoom meetings like a class on how to use an InstaPot, and Zoom visits with authors.
11. Sturdy baskets for patrons to check out and haul the library stash of books home. This has been very handy for me. As a young mom, I finally figured out to keep all the library books together in a box in the corner of the living room, and not let them get scattered over the home. It’s not aesthetically pleasing to do this, and neither is a big plastic basket, but I’m okay with that. Life would have been easier back then if my library had had those big plastic baskets for storage and transportation back and forth.
12. No book limit. My library does this and I love it! Between the four of us at home who currently use the library, we always have around 100 books checked out.
13. No library fines. My library does not do this (yet) but I hear it’s becoming a thing across the USA. A girl can always dream! My library in Arizona had a grace period once a year around New Year’s when we could ask for our fines to be forgiven, and have them wiped away, which you can bet I took advantage of. Despite my best intentions, I still accumulate overdue fines, which I consider my reasonable service fee of using the library with its tremendous resources.
14. A mobile app for the library. This allows me to quickly browse the library’s catalog to place holds, check for overdue books, renew books, and see upcoming events, all on my phone.
15. Delivery of books. This takes curbside pickup several steps further literally, with the library bringing your books to you. I haven’t tried it out yet but it sounds perfect for homebound mamas.
Whew! Did I cover everything? If there’s something more your library offers I didn’t list, please share below!
It just makes me so happy that when my older daughter went on her honeymoon, one of the places she took her groom was to the public library of her childhood when she was under eight years old. She has so many great memories of that place she was excited to share it with him. I love it when my children catch my love of learning, books, and libraries!
Here is a fun family game to review some highlights of the October 2024 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, held October5-6. The photos in this post are from our weekend celebration of General Conference, which I aim to make feel as special as Christmas and Easter. Go here to read more about all my efforts and musings on that. I’m not there yet, it’s a work in progress. Here is my recap of favorite moments of this past conference.
It’s a tradition to do this world puzzle at Conference time, to remind ourselves that the gospel is for the whole world, that Christ’s Kingdom is over the whole world, and that the Savior Jesus Christ is the Light of the World.
I call this game “Fun Facts General Conference.” It is based on the tabletop game below, which is simply called Fun Facts, by Repos Games. This is such a great party game! You can read my review of it here. You can read the rules here. I highly recommend you buy a copy of the game as soon as you can, then use my questions below to turn your Fun Facts game into a General Conference-themed Fun Facts.
OK, here goes. Use the questions below to play the game. If you read the rules linked above, you can probably come up with a DIY version of the game, with small colored index cards cut in half or colored post-it notes or even just scratch paper with each person’s name on the paper so people know whose guess is whose.
Sister Emily Belle Freeman spoke of her husband going through treatment for cancer and being hospitalized. She said that as she visited with her husband in his hospital room, they got to partake of the sacrament. She felt the power of the ordinance despite not being in a chapel, where she usually partakes of the sacrament. How many times have you been hospitalized?
2. Elder Renlund wore a necktie with a yellow background and purple paisley shapes. How many paisley items do you currently have in your closet?
3. Elder Renlund spoke of the amazing combination of nitroglyecerin with kieselguhr, to form dynamite. The kieselguhr stabilizes the nitroglycerin so it doesn’t explode. He compared this combination to the combination of Christ’s gospel with Christ’s restored church. He said that this spiritual dynamite can shatter obstacles in our path. What combinations can you think of that you love because they are so amazing? (for example, movies and popcorn, ice cream and toppings, Luke and Leia, Buzz and Woody, ham and cheese, bacon and eggs, cinnamon and sugar, Donny and Marie, pie and whipped cream, Batman and Robin, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett, etc. Write them all down if you need to and count them up for your answer.)
4. How many people do you know have ever sung in a choir for General Conference? If you think the answer for all or most of the group will be zero, then use this question, “How many people do you currently know sing in a choir for church?”
5. Elder D. Martin Goury spoke of playing football behind a church as a 5-year-old boy in Cote d’Ivoire. He heard the preacher of the church call out that it was time for the people to to get ready for the coming of the Savior by cleansing their clothes. Young Martin took this message literally. He interrupted his game, went home, and asked his mother to wash his clothes so he could be ready for the Savior’s coming the next day at church. He was disappointed when the Savior did not arrive. Years later, when he took lessons from the missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he read this verse in the Book of Mormon: “And no unclean thing can enter into his kingdom; therefore nothing entereth into his rest save it be those who have washed their garments in my blood, because of their faith, and the repentance of all their sins, and their faithfulness unto the end.” He learned of the importance of spiritual cleansing, aka, repentance to prepare for the Second Coming of the Savior.
It’s easy to get clothes dirty when playing football. On a scale of 1-100, how much do you like to play football (specify which one: American football or football as the rest of the world calls it, soccer)?
All done with the puzzle!
6. Elder Ulisses A. Soares wore a red necktie with a gray floral pattern. How many items of red clothing do you own?
7. Sister Kristen Yee spoke of her experience as an artist, making a portrait painting of the Savior Jesus Christ. On a scale of 1-100, how much you desire to take art lessons if they were free and you had all the time in the world to do it?
8. Elder Jorge M. Alvarado shared a story of a guy who robbed a woman of her purse. The purse contained a copy of the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ. It was wrapped up in pretty paper to be given away as a gift. This man was disappointed initially to unwrap the gift and not find an expensive worldly item. His heart was changed as he read the Book of Mormon and prayed about it. He wrote a letter to the woman apologizing for stealing her items. In the letter, he wrote that he felt that he had come to learn that the book was a holy book, that he was a changed man for reading the book, and that the woman had a light emanating from her. This story is amazing! You can read the talk with the story contained therein here.
The question for #8 is: “How many names for Christ are mentioned in the Book of Mormon?” Answer: 117. (The point with this question is not to get the right answer but as a group see if you can put your guesses in order, which takes guessing as to who is the most likely to know, and if that person is likely to guess low or high.)
9. Another question, regarding #8, “How many questions does Jesus Christ ask in the Book of Mormon?” Answer: 35.
10. Elder L. Todd Budge told a story of his friend who does calligraphy in Japanese characters. On a scale of 1-100, if the lessons were free and you had all the time in the world to practice, how interested are you in taking calligraphy lessons?
11. Elder Stevenson spoke about the four divine responsibilities involved in making the next ten years “days never to be forgotten.” They are the following: 1. Live the gospel 2. Serve others 3. Share the gospel and 4. Unite families for eternity on both sides of the veil. He spoke of a boy who served his community by spearheading a food drive to collect jars of peanut butter and jelly for a local food bank. On a scale of 1-100, how much do you like eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?
12. Brother Brad Wilcox spoke to the youth, addressing the question, “Why does God command us to live differently?” He compared our mortal journey to a voyage on a cruise ship. “On a scale of 1-100, how much do you desire to go on a cruise?”
13. Regarding #12 above, “How many people do you know personally have been on a cruise?”
14. Regarding #12 above, Brother Wilcox compared covenant people to lifeguards on a crew. “How many people do you know personally who have ever been or is currently a lifeguard”? Alternate question: “On a scale of 1-100, how much do you desire to be a lifeguard?”
15. Regarding #12 above, Brother Wilcox spoke of the children’s book, Children’s Letters to God. “On a scale of 1-100, how many children’s books have you read in the past year?” (Estimate if needed. Of course, I had to get a mention of children’s books in this list of questions 🙂 ).
16. President Henry B. Eyring wore a navy tie with small white polka dots. “How many navy items of clothing do you own?”
17. Regarding #16, “How many items of clothing with polka dots do you own?”
18. Regarding #16, “On a scale of 1-100, how likely are you to wear a clothing item with polka dots out in public?”
19. President Eyring spoke of his ancestor, Mary Bommeli, who practiced civil disobedience by preaching the restored gospel of Jesus Christ in Germany where it was illegal at the time, in the 1800s. She was put in jail for doing so. She spent all night in jail writing a letter to the judge who would be at her hearing, preaching the restored gospel, including the doctrine of the resurrection, and calling him to repentance. “How many times have you pulled an ‘all-nighter’?”
20. 17 new temples were announced! See the list here. “How many different temples have you visited, including visits as a patron and visits as a guest to open houses before the temple was dedicated, in your whole life?”
21. Regarding #20, “On a scale of 1-100, how likely are you to visit the temple open house for at least one of these temples when they are finished?”
22. Sister Tracy Browing spoke of the solar system, and how scientists used to call Pluto the thing at the very edge of the solar system. Then they learned of things beyond and put Pluto in a different region of space, beyond our solar system. On a scale of 1-100, how much do you desire to take a trip to outer space?
23. Elder Dallin H. Oaks spoke about flying kites. He said that our lives are like kites, which can soar, and the strings are like the commandments of God. On a scale of 1-100, how much do you enjoy flying kites?
If you want more inspiration from General Conference, watch the videos and read talk summaries here. Sessions without summaries from this past Conference and other sessions are here.
If you want more General Conference fun, check out my General Conference Wits and Wagers here.
Here are more gospel-themed Wits and Wagers games. Book of Mormon Wits and Wagers is here, and Gospel Wits and Wagers is here.
Do you have any Fun Facts October 2024 General Conference questions? Please share below in the comments box if you do! I’d love to hear them! Please make the questions relevant to a talk from the October 2024 General Conference. In your question, please refer to which talk your question relates to.
Here is a particularly wonderful talk from an long gone session of General Conference with Elder LeGrand Richards. Enjoy!
This is an interesting video of an evangelical pastor and his wife, Joy. They tell of their experience attending General Conference, the semiannual meeting for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which was held last weekend. I enjoyed watching it! I hope you do too. Watch below.
I love that they say that their favorite moment was the children’s choir, when the choir sang the song, “Gethsemane” by Melanie Hoffman. (I’ve blogged about the backstory of the song with the link to the sheet music here.) My son is friends with one of the members of the choir, a young man age 12. We happened to see him at a homeschooling class a week ago on Wednesday, where he told us he would be singing in the choir. So to think that this young man, Nathan, was part of the choir that touched the pastor’s heart warms my heart. (My favorite moments of Conference are over here.)
I also loved that Pastor Jeff met David Boice, the guy I blogged about over here. He’s the guy who checked out 52 churches in 52 weeks to decide what church to join. It’s nice to see a pastor and his wife genuinely curious about my church, and genuinely respectful of my beliefs. We can agree to disagree and all be kind to each other. (Btw, does anyone else think Pastor Jeff looks like Matt Meese? Watch below and see if you agree. Matt’s the guy with the Union Jack shirt.)
I am feeling so nourished from the feast of a weekend we just had with the October 2024 General Conference. We had a great family gathering after the Sunday afternoon session with the three children who currently live at home, my married daughter, her husband and two little boys, and my husband’s sister’s family, including her mother-in-law. It was especially fun to see her! It’s been a while. She is a great conversationalist! We had a fire in the firepit and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows (not the latter for the carnivores, including moi).
Some of us also dined on crustless quiche and beef smothered with melted Grueyere and Swiss cheese. The latter happened because my fondue plans fell apart when it turned out the xantham gum, the thickener needed to hold the fondue cheese together, was not in the Walmart order I placed on Friday. (Does that happen to anyone else? You think you put an item in your cart online and then it turns out you didn’t?) A fondue recipe without xantham gum or alcohol is as elusive as a turquoise unicorn. I was so happy to finally find one at least without wine, but it did have xantham gum, which I guess is OK for low-carb/carnivore in the small amount called for, but then to not be able to make the recipe, I was so disappointed! I will have to make it soon after I finally get the xantham gum.
Anyway, I loved hearing the announcement of 17 new temples. See the list below, copied from here. I am so excited for all these people who live in these places! That makes 367 temples in all, announced and operating. President Nelson has announced 0ver half of those, 185. Amazing!
Juchitán de Zaragoza, Mexico
Santa Ana, El Salvador
Medellín, Colombia
Santiago, Dominican Republic
Puerto Montt, Chile
Dublin, Ireland
Milan, Italy
Abuja, Nigeria
Kampala, Uganda
Maputo, Mozambique
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
Queen Creek, Arizona
El Paso, Texas
Huntsville, Alabama
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Summit, New Jersey
Price, Utah
I loved noticing a few promises of the speakers. I especially loved President Nelson promise to each person with four points:
Every sincere seeker of Jesus will find Him in the temple.
We will find mercy in the temple.
We will find answers to our “most vexing questions” in the temple
We will find the joy of the gospel in the temple.
Because of those promises, that one by President Nelson was my favorite talk. My second favorite talk, containing my favorite story of the whole conference, was Elder Jorge M. Alvarado’s. He shared the story of a guy who robbed a woman of her purse, in his home of Puerto Rico. The purse contained a copy of the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ. It was wrapped up in pretty paper to be given away as a gift. This man was disappointed initially to unwrap the gift and not find an expensive worldly item that he could sell. His heart was changed as he read the Book of Mormon and prayed about it. He wrote a letter to the woman apologizing for stealing her items. In the letter, he wrote that he felt that he had come to learn that the book was a holy book, that he was a changed man for reading the book, and that the woman had a light emanating from her.
This story is amazing! Here is a copy of the man’s letter, copied and pasted from here.
“Mrs. Cruz:
“Forgive me, forgive me. You will never know how sorry I am for attacking you. But because of it, my life has changed and will continue to change. That book the Book of Mormon has helped me in my life. The dream of that man of God has shaken me and I thank God that I found you in those circumstances. I am returning your five pesos for I can’t spend them. I want you to know that you seemed to have a radiance about you. That light seemed to stop me and I ran away instead.
“I want you to know that you will see me again, but when you do, you won’t recognize me, for I will be your brother. I am not from your city. But here, where I live, I have to find the Lord and go to the church you belong to.
“The message you wrote in that book brought tears to my eyes. Since Wednesday night I have not been able to stop reading it. I have prayed and asked God to forgive me. I don’t know if He will but I ask you to forgive me. Please forgive me. I thought your wrapped gift was something I could sell. But it has made me want to make my life over. Forgive me, forgive me, I beg you.
“Your absent friend.”
I just love that story! I testify that the Book of Mormon is true. When one reads it, one can feel the power of Jesus Christ. It brings a man or woman closer to Jesus Christ than any other book.
My third favorite talk was Brother Brad Wilcox, addressing the question many youth have, which is, “Why does God command us to live differently?” Then he compared covenant people to the crew on a cruise. The cruise is our mortal journey, and people who have made covenants with God are like the crew. They are not better than any other people, but they have more responsibility and more privileges. I love the way he closed his talk by saying, “Change the world, don’t let the world change you.” Oh it was soooo good! You can read summaries of all the talks, and watch them all, here.
General Conference is coming up, this Saturday and Sunday! It’s especially for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but anybody can benefit from the speeches given at this conference. It’s a conference where leaders of the Church share holy truths for inspiration and guidance, based on the teachings of Jesus Christ. It’s held the first weekend of October and April every year. You can learn more about it and watch it here.
For our Family Home Evening last Monday, we read a Liahona magazine article together, which I love. It’s 7 days to preparing your family and home for General Conference. Check it out here. Since we have fewer than 7 days to General Conference I’m calling it 7 steps. so you can squeeze in the steps in fewer than 7 days. I love the idea of treating General Conference as a special holiday weekend with special food, decorations, and activities/family traditions. We often have cinnamon rolls, and for the fall Conference I sometimes serve chili on one of the days. I usually do some kind of charcuterie board for both days for the breakfast that people can munch on throughout the morning session.
We used to do Conference Packets of activity sheets but my children have outgrown that, now that my baby is 15. But I just realized that with my grandchildren close by now I could make some for them! For all ages, I like to have a world map puzzle or a puzzle of Jesus on the table so if if people want to listen and keep fingers busy besides taking notes they can do that. That can help certain people stay awake better than taking notes.
This website has a ton of ideas of family traditions for General Conference. Check it out! Here’s another one, over here. Don’t be overwhelmed by all these ideas, maybe just pick one new one to try this weekend. I have a friend who does a General Conference store like the one mentioned in the first afore-mentioned link, but as a young mom with a lot of little kiddos that might have driven me crazy with getting that ready and keeping toddlers out of the stuff. Conference packets and building toys were enough for me to keep them busy.
So far I haven’t had special decorations just for Conference, even though I like the idea. The decorations I do are usually my fall decorations of autumn leaf garlands and pumpkins, but I do like the idea of hanging a banner up and having family members write one or two teachings or invitations on it that they notice. I might do that this year. I also love the banner shown below of the Twelve Apostles but I’m just not that ambitious right now to make it on top of all the other things I want to do.
The article I just referred to mentions a new activity I hadn’t thought of, which is to “Pray about something you can sacrifice to better receive God’s word,” for example, social media, for a specific amount of time, like over the weekend. Day 4 step is to give thanks for how your life has been blessed by previous General Conference teachings. Then it says, “You might even record your thoughts in your journal or share your experiences with loved ones.” I love these ideas. I usually take notes, like in my journal below, but this time around I went to pay more attention to the thoughts I have as I take notes.
If you want more ideas on how to celebrate General Conference time, go here to my pages about it. I’ve got General Conference Wits and Wagers here, which I plan on playing this weekend. We sometimes play General Conference Jeopardy! within a few weeks after GC, using the updated one that Montserrat of cranialhiccups.com usually gets up within a few days after the event. Also check out the pages of questions on how you can prepare your family for General Conference in this book coauthored by Emily Belle Freeman shown below. They start on page 259. They basically are, “How will you prepare a space for your family to learn? What special food will you serve, and what activities could you do between sessions?” Oh yeah, there’s always the question of what to do between sessions besides eat, LOL.
I’m feeling so on top of things! I’m following through on a new intention by getting my recap of September things that made me smile, done before the new month of October starts. Welcome to post #3 of monthly things that made me smile. (You can see July 2024 here and August 2024 here.) After finding a wonderful new treasure trove of a blog, more on that later, I’m using a phrase from it called “pretty, happy, funny, real.” This blog is by Leila Lawler, a Catholic mom of 7 from New England. It’s called likemotherlikedaughter.org. You can see Mrs. Lawler’s pretty, happy, funny, real posts here. I love that phrase! It captures everything that makes me smile, except for maybe “smart.” In the spirit of sharing what was pretty, happy, fun, real AND smart in my life for the month of September 2024, here goes.
First on my Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real Smart list is my married daughter’s pretty shelf above, in her home. I don’t think she had it up the last time I was there. I just love it! We see her and her husband and two little boys weekly for Sunday dinner, at our place. Her oldest boy had a birthday party so we went to her place for the party, where I saw the shelf. That’s the first birthday party for children I’ve been to with no organized games for the kiddos. It turned out well, with the little ones playing with my grandsons’ toys, mostly Legos, and the adults conversing. It was fun to see my son-in-law’s brother, and his wife, and talk with them. They are all such great conversationalists.
Next, my cute friend Heather’s log cabin home. See above the handy baskets for her gardening tools that she has on the back of her home and her darling gate below with the black wrought iron she designed herself. The Veggie Gals had a gathering at her home in September. I finally got to see her place! She moved there over 20 years ago, but this was only the second VG gathering she hosted, and the first one that I attended. The last one happened while I lived in AZ.
I sure do love my Veggie Gals! We always have the best conversation and food! See Girlfriend Joyce’s sourdough pizza above. It just feels like Thanksgiving every time we gather. This time, after hearing Heather share all about the benefits of hypochlorous acid (go here if you don’t know), we got to tour her garden. So beautiful! We also talked about Jesus and politics of course. Two favorite Veggie Gals topics, along with holistic health.
I just love VG Susan’s sunflower top!
Library book envy! Don’t you just love it when you go to the library to pick up your holds, and you see someone else’s books they have on hold, and you want them too? Like, right away?! Here are three below. I took photos so I can put them on hold too and get them as next in line.
(Actually the above book is in Everand so I don’t have to wait! Yay! I can read it on my phone and iPad! Go here to learn more about Everand.)
A new recipe for Sunday Dinner. It’s bacon wrapped around marinated shrimp and zucchini, stuck on skewers and then roasted. For that dinner we had my nephew over. He just come to BYU to resume his studies after getting home from his mission to Costa Rica. We gathered for Sunday dinner and enjoyed that recipe which I got from one of the Pioneer Woman cookbooks I have collected over the years.
I’m embarrassed that I let commercial packaging be on the table in this photo, the gallon of ice cream. Normally it stays in the kitchen to be served out of. When I was a teen I read all of the Miss Manners books, and that’s one thing I remember she said, which is to keep commercial package off the mealtime table.
Thrifting treasures! September was a great month for thrifting! I found another copy of Generations board game, and gave it to one of my VG girlfriends who is really into genealogy. You can read a little bit about Generations here, where I describe it as a game for Sunday gameschooling.
I bought the Anne of Ingleside book because I realized after moving and getting all my Anne of Green Gables books in one place and accessible to me on my new pretty shelves that I was missing three in the series. I bought and read the whole series as a teen and loved them. I wonder if the missing ones are at my mom’s house? I thought I had cleared out all of my stuff decades ago. I resisted buying the book about family dinner for three weeks. I kept seeing it at the thrift store but didn’t buy it, thinking, “Don’t I have enough books already about the importance of family dinner? I don’t need to be convinced.” But after seeing it for the fourth time, I decided I’d get it for the recipes. I tried out the ragu shredded pork recipe and loved it. So I’m glad I got the book. It also has a recipe for spicy shrimp I’m excited to try.
The basket with the polka dot fabric liner is so cute! Since moving, I’ve been collecting baskets for storage of various items. This one is perfect to hold all my baby board books for my family room, to replace the unaesthetic and non-crunchy mom plastic bin that I had. The Word Go Round and Izzi games are perfect additions to my easily-portable-games-that-can-be-played-at-mealtime-or-while-traveling collection. The Izzi game also works for something to do while listening to a read aloud book. I keep these games in my baskets in my new bookshelves in my dining room. These just make my heart sing! The fabric shown above is a bedsheet I picked up for $4 at the Provo D.I. to become a tablecloth, as shown below. I just love it! The perfect perky yet neutral print! The picture below also shows my latest Pioneer Woman cookbook for my collection. I get these books not for me to use as recipes for me as I’m still doing keto to maintain my weight. I get them for my children to peruse through to get recipes for them to to fix dinner. Currently I have a 15, 18, and 20 year old at home. I like each one to take one night a week fixing dinner. The PW Cookbooks aren’t as whole foodsy as I would like but I love the gorgeous color photos that step by step show how to make the recipe. Plus all the recipes are delicious. I just adapt with more whole foods as I can. I got the Paw Patrol Phonics readers for my grandson because he is just learning how to read. the Rainbow Valley book I got to help complete my Anne of Green Gables collection. The book about homemade kids is to add to my collection of books about family traditions.
My most recent trip thrifting scored the above items. I have been looking for a Christmas cookbook from Susan Branch for over 2 years! Guess what? It was in the children’s section of books at the thrift store. This is the third time I have found a Susan Branch book in the children’s books section. These are cookbooks, not children’s books. Like the Pioneer Woman cookbooks, they aren’t whole foodsy. I get them for the vibes. I just feel so happy when I read them, because of Ms. Branch’s gorgeous illustrations, the fun stories she shares, and her cheerful energy. She grew up as the oldest of 8 children so I just love her vignettes of large family life. You can read my review of her summer cookbook here. The bunch of fabric in the upper right is another bedsheet to use as a tablecloth. I just love, love the colors. Then some games and a puzzle set to play with the grandchildren!
Look how beautiful the bedsheet looks on my dining room table! I love how the teal flowers match my teal Pioneer Woman tumblers. (Excuse the oddly shaped pillow to the left of the center chair behind the flower centerpiece, my grandson had just run into the room and put his pillow on the couch and ran out.)
And now for something that’s more on the smart side of Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real, and Smart. For my sisters’ book club (my sisters-in-law meet in Zoom once a month to discuss a book we read) we did the book below. It is a wonderfully delicious read! It’s historical fiction. It’s about two people, C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman, who really did fall in love and get married. But the letters and conversation in the book are completely made up. It made C.S. Lewis come alive for me! I listened to this book in Everand (my phone app that allows me to listen and/or read unlimited books) and read parts of it as well. The narrator did a terrific job of changing her voice for the different characters. The lines that the author Patti Callahan gave to Jack, aka C.S. Lewis, made him sound like the most perfect man next to Jesus. He sounds like Santa Claus, the world’s greatest coach, uncle, husband, philosopher, and father, all rolled into one. Kudos to Ms. Callahan for writing such an amazing book! If you are in a book club, pick this one next time it’s your choice! You won’t regret it!
I also read Guts and Glory Civil War by Ben Thompson for my new Sword of Freedom Class/LEMI Project that I’m mentoring. It’s a good overview of the war but I don’t like the oversimplistic self-congratulatory imperialism /siding with the Union tone at the end of the book. The author shows it with his cartoonish description of Admiral Farragut high fiving the Statue of Liberty with a bald eagle flying over head, used as a metaphor to describe the feeling after a battle victory. He does acknowledge that the Statue of Liberty did not exist during the war so I wish he would have just left that part out. Anyway, I discussed the book with the scholars and enjoyed our discussion. This is my third time around mentoring Sword.
Honey Buzz, shown below! I played this game with my 15-year-old for a Friday game night. On another night, we had some of his friends over and played Codenames and Secret Hitler, which you can read about here, in the middle of the post. So much fun! I wish I had taken advantage of the youthful energy of teens and hosted game nights when my older children were that age. I just felt too busy with all their younger siblings. Oh well, live and learn, right?
I started using my Little Women stuff that I got at the Little Women Orchard House gift shop last month. A tote bag, socks, and T-shirt. They are so cute! The little book is full of teaching maxims from Bronson Alcott, Louisa May’s father. Plus I got another visit with my sister Emily, from Maine, who hosted us last month when we visited Orchard House together. She came out to bring a daughter for college, so we got more time together, having lunch at my home. I’m really glad that happened so my daughter, who didn’t go to Maine with us, could see her cousin. Then we went to my parents’ home where I got to play Huggermugger with Emily, her daughter, and my mom. I’m super glad I finally got to play this game with Em after hearing her rave about it for a few years now, after she got it as birthday gift from her husband. Earlier in the day, we got to be at the gift shop at the BYU Museum of Art together, and saw more work from the artist who designed the bag, T-shirt, and socks above. Emily told me that the artist has a company called Rifle Paper, over here. The artist’s name is Anna Bond. The museum gift shop had some note cards, other stationery, and clothing with her signature gouache style. Artist Emily explained to me that gouache is different from watercolor, because the colors are opaque and not transparent like watercolor. I just love her style! I’m drooling over all the apparel options here.
For date nights, my husband and I watched movies this month and ate keto chocolate. We alternate who picks the movie. I think his favorite pick of the month was Charade, with Cary Grant, and Audrey Hepburn. I love the campy elegant classic but unfortunately it’s not about married love. My favorite of my picks was probably The Magic of Ordinary Days. A delightful story set in WW2 about married love. The lead female actor is so beautiful. Watch free here in YouTube.
In closing, here are some of my favorite blog posts at my new favorite blog, Like Mother Like Daughter:
Image Credit: Walter Rane from walterraneprints.com, permission to copy expressed on that website
This past week for my Come Follow Christ study I’ve been reading and listening to 3 Nephi 8-11 in the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ. 3 Nephi 11 tells the account of Jesus Christ visiting the Nephites in ancient America after His resurrection. I’ve always loved this story, because it says that Jesus let each of the 2500 people there come to Him, and feel the prints of the nails in His hands. If I did my math right, that means it took him almost 4 hours to do that, if each person took only 5 seconds. I like to think that He let each person linger as long as they wanted to, so they could feel these emblems of His sacrifice, look into His eyes, and feel His infinite love. So maybe He was there all day, even all night, maybe even another day and or night. Who knows how long this took? It’s so comforting and loving to know that we each have a God, our Savior Jesus Christ, who is willing to spend as much time needed by each of us to feel loved. Also that this God is the only Begotten Son of our Heavenly Father, who also knows and loves us and is willing and able to spend energy on us to feel loved, whatever from that takes. We just have to open our spiritual eyes to see this.
I love the painting by Walter Rane above, which beautifully illustrates Christ’s love during this event. The original painting hangs in the Lincoln Square building owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New York City. That building is being remodeled, however, as when my husband was there with my daughter and her family last month, they attended a meeting for our church in a rented building. (I’ve loved Walter Rane’s work for years. You can see more of it here on his site. Did you know he did the illustrations for the American Girl Kit books? When I grow up I want to draw like him!)
Elder David A. Bednar, an apostle of Jesus Christ, wrote the lyrics to a song inspired by this story in 3 Nephi 11, as well as a book, shown above. Here’s the song below, with the music composed by Paul Cardall. The sheet music is here. The song is so beautiful! The backstory behind the song is here. May we each follow the example of Jesus and minister one by one.
(If you want more music written by other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, get my devotionals ebook. It’s full of links to music, poems, songs, stories of God moving in people’s lives, arranged by monthly themes. Go here to get it.)
Tree of Life Mothering 
