Tree of Life Mothering

My husband has a big beef about the phrase “Fourth of July.” He insists that we call it Independence Day. He points out that the holiday is not about a number, it’s about a concept. If we keep calling it by the number then we are more likely to forget what the holiday is about. I agree, but Independence Day just doesn’t roll off the tongue like “the Fourth” does.

(This is the park we celebrated at three years ago with my parents and sibs but for this year we met only my husband’s sister and her fam there. Since my brother wasn’t there we didn’t have the cool canoes like we did three years ago, but I like using old pictures. Besides, everyone is asleep so that translates into no teenage technical assistants around here and I still don’t have it figured out how to get pictures from my cell phone onto the computer all by myself. I took a bunch yesterday with my cell phone since my nicer camera is still on its way coming back to me after losing it. It’s pretty rare to have a park in Utah with a pond where you can canoe.)

We celebrated with the usual flag raising ceremony at our city’s amphitheater. I love going to these because the organizer is a conservative who used to be on the city council. She always has speakers that don’t just say feel good phrases, so you feel that you can pat yourself on the back for being an American. These speakers always say that our nation is in trouble and we should return to the principles in the Constitution.  Usually the organizer has a quiz about early American history and my family wins most of the prizes, since we are so knowledgeable about history. Homeschooling helps. The prizes are usually copies of the 5000 Year Leap. I guess she and her helpers heard we were coming again and didn’t want to give us any more prizes because they didn’t do the quiz this year. The speaker was someone I am unfamiliar with, a former state legislator from Kaysville. At this event in years past, I have enjoyed hearing Chuck Baldwin, who was a third party candidate for U.S. president, and Stephen Pratt. Hey, maybe they can get David Barton for next year. At my last Stephen Pratt sighting (see http://libertyandlearning.org) I found out that David Barton of http://wallbuilders.com fame is coming to my neck of the woods in September for Constitution Day. I am really excited about that!

My 15 year old daughter Virtue did her hair very prettily yesterday and miracle of miracles, she convinced her 5 year old sister Princessa, to let her do her hair and put a flower in it. Miracles never cease! I am so glad that we finally figured out that Virtue looks better without bangs. Maybe tomorrow I can get a photo up of them from the day.

While the rest of the family went to the city parade I stayed home, as usual, and made food for later in the day. After I did my daily Book of Mormon listening I tuned in to BYU’s radio station, Classical 89.  My husband’s sister called weeks ago and said they would be in town on Ind. Day. Then my family was getting together in the evening for a barbecue and fireworks. I was really stressing about having to fix two picnic meals. I finally called his sister the night before and said, let’s just eat at home before we meet later after lunch because this is overwhelming to think of two meals for me to pack and eat  six hours apart over an hour from my home.. She happily agreed.This is my sister-in-law who studied to be a midwife at the Utah College of Midwifery in her life BK, before kids. Here’s her blog. http://happyhoffmanhome.blogspot.com .She and her sister Sally were part of what got me to do home birth over 13 years ago which I ended up doing four times and hope to have another one. (Not that that’s an announcement. I am still working on improving my health before I get pregnant again.) She is not as into natural remedies and natural living as she used to be but that’s OK. They moved to Colorado from Arizona last winter and have been on a summer vacation back to AZ.

After listening to the Book of Mormon I tuned in to Classical 89, BYU’s radio station. I love the Thinking Aloud program and it was time for that. They always have interesting scholars and sometimes they have the program themed to the holiday. I wasn’t disappointed!  I listened to storyteller Syd Lieberman be interviewed. Wow, I love listening to storytellers! He has written a story about 1776 called The Summer of Treason. Get it free here http://sydlieberman.com/recordings/index.php. Just scroll down the page to find it.  I am looking forward to digging into the other stories he has for free here, like the Jewish folktales and the WWI story. I have yet to listen to the whole thing of the Summer of Treason but so far I like it.

I also learned more about the history of the Star Spangled Banner. We sang it in sacrament meeting and then again at the flag raising ceremony and then Cowboy sang it again in the evening as we went outside after the rain cleared up to do fireworks. It was nice to learn more about the history. I convinced Honor to apply for another scholarship to help him go to GWC, regardless of his winning of the Andau, and the theme was What the Star Spangled Banner means to me. So I did a little research on my own to inspire him. I shared what I learned but he wrote something totally different from his own head and wrote up an essay for this scholarship/essay contest. 

Anyway, the more I learn about history, the more I am learning that the American way is the Hebrew way, which stands for limited government,  and the British way is also the Roman way, which stands for unlimited government. Most of the world through all of history is into the Roman way, in various forms of nanny statism, socialism, communism, fascism, etc. They are all just different flavors of unlimited government, which is BAD government.

America was meant to be different, according to Book of Mormon prophecy and also according to the Founding Fathers. The Americans at Fort McHenry were being bombarded by the British who had broken their promises they made at the end of the Rev. War. At the end of the assault, these Americans put up an even bigger flag than had been flying previously, to show that they could withstand the best that the British had to give them. Francis Scott Key saw the flag and felt inspired to write a song about it. So my question is, are we Americans going to withstand the best that the British/Roman way is giving us in the form of socialism? Are we going to restore the Hebrew way by returning to our roots of freedom, which only comes from God? On Independence Day we celebrate freedom but when you look closely, we are not as free as we should be. We don’t always have liberty.

Liberty means being able to choose the right.  Stephen Pratt explained it this way. He said that recently he built a new home. He wanted to have numbers on his home wherever he wanted them. That is right, isn’t it, to put a house number on your home where you would like it to be, according to what pleases you aesthetically? Instead he was forced by the city to have them in a certain spot. That’s not liberty or freedom. That’s just one little example of multidinious examples of how government gets in the way of life and liberty.

Aneladee Milne came to my home Thursday night with at least a dozen people to hear  about how to get your teen to do scholar phase.

Aneladee shared three keys for getting a kid to do scholar phase:

1. Create a community that fosters leadership education

You can do this in person but if your community is small you may have to do it online. 

2. Be a formal mentor to your child by having weekly mentor meetings to discuss your child’s goals, dreams, upcoming homework assignments and deadlines, and schedule.

3. (this is the hard one that people fight her on) Do a scholar phase for you. You can’t give your child what you don’t have. You can’t give them a scholar phase if you haven’t had one or aren’t doing one. She said that it has to be more than just a once a month book club.

She said a lot of other cool stuff, all from the top of her head. Maybe as I remember it I will add more later. 

Here are some ideas she shared and my ideas too for doing the number three step/key above:

• attend GWU online
• do a Five Pillars class or a LEMI scholar project for adults like The Gathering or the Freedom Project
• attend Abigail Adams Academy online http://abigailadamsacademy.com
• Go to the GWU website http://gwu.edu and look at the degree programs and just start reading the books listed. Find people in your area or on goodreads.com who have read the books and ask each other about the books. Read about the main points of the books on wikipedia.org. Write what you learn, with names and terms and their definitions.

If you live on the Wasatch Front in Utah, you are lucky because you can come this week and hear more about getting your teen to do scholar phase. Tiffany Earl, who was personally mentored by Oliver DeMille, cowrote the book with him called The Student Whisperer, and owns LEMI, is holding a free seminar on mentoring teens through scholar phase this Thursday in downtown SLC on July 7, from 9 AM to noon. It’s at the SLC downtown public library 210 E 400 S. Park across the trax, north of the library at the rear or underground of the SLCC college building. Email officelemi at gmail dot com to put your name on the list of registrants.

My son shows how excited I feel on days when I have a Veggie Gals party!

Joni Hilton, an LDS author about my husband’s age, from the boomer generation, has this book out called Ten Cow Wives Club. It’s about a group of girlfriends who are LDS and have known each other since childhood.  They grow into middle age together. They meet together for lunch and share recipes and laughs. It’s a fun read but there’s nothing really deep there. It’s a brain candy book that I would read only once. I was bothered that the main characters don’t really show joy in building marriages, having babies and breastfeeding and homemaking.

Some day when I am done with the other four books I have planned, have my year’s supply of food thoroughly inventoried, my home organized, my children all in independent scholar phase, and all my family history and scrapbooking done, I am going to write a book called Veggie Divas. It will offer deep meaning every time you read it. Well, at least the first three times you read it. I will base it on my Veggie Gals group of girlfriends. We met through La Leche League of Provo/Orem over 14 years ago and as an offshoot to our LLL meetings we started having unofficial dinner parties with kids and breastfeeding babies in tow. We wanted to meet to share recipes for healthy eating and have an outlet to talk about whatever we wanted. At the time healthy eating meant no meat or dairy but I think all of us have changed our definitions of healthy eating to include meat.

Two days ago my Veggie Gal friends met at Joyce’s home to have a reunion with Michelle, my girlfriend who has moved to Guam. Our friend Annette who moved to Park City also came and some others who don’t come as often to see our long gone away Michelle.

Somehow my 9 year old is spooked and the six year old is mad but it’s a great pic of my other kids, sans my oldest.

We don’t meet as often as we used to. It used to be once a month for dinner at someone’s home. So far this year we’ve only met once, two days ago. As our kids have gotten older it’s harder for us to meet and I think the need is no longer there for us to meet so often as we are getting our emotional needs filled in other ways.

Anyway, I always laugh so hard when I get with these girls. They are so hilarious. Over the years I have been so emotionally nourished by them with their entertaining antics. We’ve talked about so many fun things that most people don’t: colonic irrigation, natural childbirth, homeschooling, muscle testing and energy work, healing with food, natural sweeteners, the molecules of emotion, eco-friendly funerals (Joyce’s speciality), how to attract more money, praying for angels to help when things are lost, and more. We’ve laughed over Joyce’s fetish for cabbage and we love swapping recipes.

Here’s the latest and greatest recipe. Natural Lemon Sauce that is great for dipping cookies or whatever you want. It’s from Heather. I am hoping to get the cookie recipe that came with it. They were so light and melted in our mouths. Um, yum! Too bad I didn’t get a picture. I did remember to use my cell phone to snap a few of the ladies talking.

“Lemon Curd from Heather Beecher

-4 eggs
-1/2 C. honey
-1/2 C. fresh lemon juice (maybe 3 lemons?)
-1/2 to 3/4 tsp. stevia powder
-lemon zest (whatever you can get from the lemons you juice)
        -(p.s. zest lemons before juicing them)
-dash of salt
-2 to 2 1/2 Tbsp. coconut oil or butter

Whisk eggs and honey very well until eggs thin and become frothy and lighter. Add the lemon juice with the stevia and salt dissolved in it and whisk some more. Cook gently over med low heat on the stove and whisk continually until it thickens like a stirred custard. If you cannot stand there and whisk it, you need to use a double boiler or you will turn it to scrambled eggs very quickly. As it thickens, have a silicone spatula handy to stir it, to really make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom, so you don’t get lumps. Once you feel the eggs are sufficiently cooked (some people only barely cook it), remove from heat and add the oil, a tsp. at a time and incorporate it. It will help remove bubbles and smooth out the texture. Add the zest at the end (keep zest covered as you cook so that it doesn’t dry out and lose its lovely oils to the air). I also added some fresh chopped mint for interest – totally optional. I have also heard of adding minced ginger or other green herbs like lemon thyme or rosemary. Chill. It is great for a sauce or dip or spread or glaze on breads, cakes, cookies, fruit, and even some meat and vegie dishes.”

Joyce claims to have the secret natural alternative to invasive procedures that erase wrinkles between the eyebrows, which she got in answer to prayer while she was driving. She was pleading, thinking, there’s gotta be a better cure than duct tape.

My son on the right with his cousins.

Are you ready for the answer? It’s Breathe Right Strips. She says she puts them on every night and she now looks as good as Botox. Hey, she does. And she’s 45 and could be a grandma soon. I’m going to get me some!

Another girlfriend shared what she has been learning from going to a life coach for help with her marriage. It was interesting to hear this. Ten years ago it was Michelle who was really struggling in her marriage and now it’s this other friend. Michelle shared her favorite books for marriage: The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work and Why Marriages Succeed or Fail by John Gottman. Our other friend who I will call Joy said that she has learned that life coaches are great for marriage therapists because they ask, what do you want to experience out of life, instead of, what’s wrong and how can I fix you?

Joy also said that our marriages come from what you learn to expect based on childhood wounds. That’s a fascinating thought for me that I am still processing.

My hunk of a hubby and my smiley little girl.

So far I feel like we have packed a lot into our summer: planting a garden, going to TJED Land, doing the shows for the summer reading program at the library, playing at grandma’s house, playing with cousins, going swimming, going to parks, and keeping up with the housework and yardwork. For my own growth I am doing the Abigail Adams economics class, teaching my own finishing school for LDS moms and daughters, and going to LEMI Training next week.

If your summer needs more excitement or structure, I suggest you go to my friend Mary Ann’s site and get her Dozen Weeks of Fun. She has some super ideas to keep kids unplugged and actively engaged in learning exciting things. Go to http://home-school-coach.com/summer-fun-package-activities-crafts-ideas/. You are going to love it!

I went to the LDS Holistic Living Conference on Saturday. It’s a long story, but I had a free ticket and will for as long as the conference happens. Anyway, so I have lots of ideas after going and will gradually post them here as they come forth. So keep checking back. (These photos I have put in here have nothing to do with the conference, there are just here to make you want to read my post. I lost my camera at Youth for Freedom and forget that I can use my cell phone’s camera, which I haven’t lost thank goodness and did have with me).

I went to this amazing class by Cristie Gardner about eternal laws. It was just what I needed. I felt such peace and definitely the Holy Spirit during certain parts of it.  I also met this passionate woman named Kristen Bowen from Cache Valley, Utah who makes natural body care products as well as magnesium water. She has a site and a podcast and so far I like what I see. She gave me an idea for where to hold my next natural LDS moms conference so hopefully that will bear fruition! Her site is http:/kristenbowenstudios.com

Here are my musings and nuggets of truth that I gleaned:

• people have different interpretations on what “natural” or “holistic” means, just like they interpret Christianity differently. One supposedly natural product at the vendor fair had an ingredient list a mile long with tons of hard to pronounce names. To me, natural means that it comes from nature. It’s made by God. You can go pick it off a tree, dig it up, or catch it. Those ingredients came from a  man-made laboratory, not a tree.

• now I want to read Elder Sterling W. Sill’s book The Laws of Success. Cristie Gardner quoted this awesome quote from it. It was something about how everywhere you look in nature you see richness. I guess if you are in some barren wasteland like the Mojave desert you have to look deep and see the richness of the sand, but it’s there. God wants man to be rich like nature is.

• healing can come from many sources, including laughter, news about a loved one being more spiritual, or emotional work
• The five keys to joy, according to Cristie Gardner, are 1. Be grateful, 2. Be obedient, 3. Be humble, 4. Ask for what you want (be prayerful) and 5. Release your hold on things that don’t matter eternally.
• Not all presenters are created equally. Some are very organized and have all of their content ready to be delivered and it flows in an orderly way. Others don’t plan much and just want to have the class members ask them questions.

• Some very creative people in Utah are working hard to be enterpreneurs.
• A certain kind of essential oil, I think it was Majestic Mountain Sage, works when making soap. Other brands have the odor disappear at the high heat required to make soap but not this brand.
• There’s a product out there that you can spray on your tongue and make it so it can’t taste sweet things. This is supposed to make it so you don’t overeat on sweet things. But I don’t see why if you don’t have the willpower to stop eating donuts and cheesecake and brownies you are going to have the willpower to spray your tongue so that the just-mentioned food doesn’t taste good.
• God really does speak to us through the scriptures. Cristie shared this inspiring story of how her husband, Dr. Stan Gardner, decided to leave his medical practice in Montana because of legislation that made it harder to be a good doctor who wants to spend more than five minutes with a patient. Cristie and Stan had just built their dream home on 20 acres. Cristie did not want to leave and she prayer to God begging him to let them stay in their home. Then she told God she would open the scriptures and whatever scripture she felt guided to read she would accept as an answer. 

• The scripture about “Consider the lilies of the field, how they toil not, neither do they spin,” is in the almost all of the standard works: the OT, the NT, the Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants. That was Cristie’s answer. She didn’t want to accept it and kept turning to a different book to find a different answer! Eventually she realized she was being stubborn and gave in. This answer lead her to leave her dream home and move to Ohio.
• Dr. Stan Gardner sounds like my dream doctor. He is an LDS MD and he believes in alternative care. How cool is that?! See http://stangardnermd.com. If I ever need medical care, I  want to go to him!
• Diann Jeppson, the queen of TJED, see http://tjedmarketplace.com is going to be a grandmother in October. Her daughter married the son of a my sister-in-law’s midwife! Cool!
• I don’t feel alone in my efforts to be an LDS green granola gal. There are lots of LDS holistic minded people out there. This is a movement that will continue to grow!

There were so many appealing classes that day but I had decided my nursing toddler would be missing me too much so I left at lunch. I am hoping to catch the downloads and the handout book when it comes out.

I am transitioning to using my cell phone camera since I am in the process of attracting my nicer camera that I lost back to me. These pics are taken with my cell phone. The darling baby is my new niece and my nephew is holding her in the pic above. Yesterday my nephew had his non-farewell for leaving to his mission this Wednesday so we attended it, an hour away from my home. This nephew is my brother’s son. I remember when he was born! Can I really be this old?! I remember babysitting him when we used to live in the same ward in Sugar House. He was sad that his mom wasn’t there and my husband and I distracted him with Barney.

My brother lives in the same ward we grew up in, just around the corner and down the street from my parents. Now he is the bishop of the ward. It was so weird to see him conduct a meeting and be the presiding authority. He’s always been a great brother. the big brother in Laddie reminds me of him.

During sacrament meeting I found myself in a pickle. My almost-two-year old started asking to nurse. I didn’t plan and forgot to bring snacks and water, although I did remember to bring the church bag of quiet toys. I was also smack in the middle of the pew, a consequence of scooting over to let my sister and her little family of seven sit by us. It was close to lunch time and the normal time when he asks to nurse because he’s hungry and tired and sometimes goes down for his nap.

“Should I just nurse here or not?” I started debating. I didn’t want to climb over everybody to get out. It would be so much less disruptive to just nurse where I was. I finally gave in and did it. I was hoping that nobody would give me flack about it. I don’t know if my brother the bishop noticed. The speaker, a female neighbor of my parents who I babysat for when I was growing up, probably did.

I never really gave much thought to nursing in public after I started doing it with baby #2. I got used to it as I learned that mothering with the breast is so much easier than mothering with artificial substitutes and I did it a lot. I started nursing in church with baby #3. Then I stopped because my babies would be so noisy about it, slurping and all. I still nursed all the time in other public settings. With baby #7 I was surprised when my sister asked me at a family gathering not to nurse in the presence of her son. I thought I had always been modest and not exposed my breast. Maybe I have and she still felt I  since he was becoming a teenager with hormones it wasn’t right for him to see me nursing because it might stimulate inappropriate thoughts. I don’t know. I was too shocked to probe. I am still sorting out my feelings over it. It was a wake up call for me to be more careful about what I am exposing when I nurse.

Supposedly there used to be a letter from the First Presidency asking moms not to nurse in sacrament meeting but I have never seen the actual document. If anyone can find it please let me know. I used to be so pro nursing in public. I have always thought, “People need to know what breasts are really for so let’s just keep nursing in public.” But I do know some people struggle with pornography. Perhaps seeing a women nurse stimulates the wrong kind of thoughts. I certainly don’t want to be pornographic material. It’s really sad. It reminds me of the Orwellian phrase I remember Marian Tompson, co-founder of La Leche League said in a speech that I attended at an International Conference for LLL, “We have come to the point like in 1984 where the obscene is good and the good is obscene.”

Anyway, I enjoyed the peace in sacrament meeting that came from him falling asleep at the breast. I took my baby to the nursery while the rest of the family did the rest of the block meeting. I was OK with staying with him in nursery, even my five year old wanted to stay with me.  We had a great time afterwards at my brother’s and my kids loved playing with all their cousins. My son won’t be seeing his cousin for over three years, until he’s off of his mission. I also found out from my aunt and uncle that my cousin got remarried. That was good to hear.

This is me at my last birth with my midwife in the background looking at her phone. She was going to help me in my homebirth  but I switched at 38 weeks to a hospital birth! Quite the story and I have written more about it under the discussion forum topics. She came to the birth anyway just to give emotional support. What an angel!

I like to go to the mothering.com site and get the podcasts. I finally listened to the one by Karen Brody called The Birth Teleseminar. It was wonderful. She talks about a mom who in labor was able to switch from feeling really uncomfortable to feeling in power by suddenly getting the epiphany and then repeating the mantra, “My body rocks!” Karen says that’s her message for every pregnant mom.  Karen has written a play about childbirth called Birth, The Play. You can read her blog here http://birththeplay.blogspot.com

She also started a movement to empower moms by educating themselves about childbirth options. It’s called Born on Labor Day or BOLD. Karen talks about the importance of moms connecting to their true selves when pregnant so they know what choices are right for them for their caregiver, birth place, birthing method. etc. I really like that idea. In my last birth I had to connect to my true self to be led to do the opposite of what I had done in the previous home births. My last baby was born in the hospital. I made that choice after connecting to my true self and it turned out to be just what my body and baby needed. I know I am not done having kids and I hope to have a home birth next time.

This is me, my husband, and kids with my husband’s mom, sister, and niece. They popped in for a visit and we walked around the Bountiful temple grounds.

I started my online Zion Finishing School last Friday. It was great! I have always had a call to be a teacher, that’s partly why I homeschool. But I like the feeling I get from sharing with other women. This coming week we discuss Eve and also gardening. You are all welcome to still sign up. It’s a a lot of fun! Go to http://treeoflifemothering.ning.com/page/an-online-finishing-school-for

Sunday my parents had a big shindig at their home. It was my dad’s birthday plus Father’s Day. My dad said that 49 years ago it was his 19th birthday, Father’s Day, and his missionary farewell on the same day, wow! That means he’s old, and I am old too. Next Sunday my oldest nephew related by blood has his “departing testimony” non-farewell. I can remember when he was born and when he used to watch Barney and only wanted to wear a diaper and sandals. How time flies! Now he’s had a year at BYU and will soon be a missionary in Brazil.

 I finally checked out the book Eat Fat, Lose Fat from the library after hearing about it from my nutrition mentor Caralee. It’s really fascinating! The authors, Dr. Mary Enig and Sally Fallon, say that if you eat fat, the right kind of fat, like cream, butter, and tropical oils, you will actually eat less because you will feel full longer. The fat slows down your absorption of carbs. To lose weight they recommend having a tablespoon of coconut oil 20 min. before you eat your meal and said you will eat less because you will be sated sooner. So I went off and got myself some coconut oil.I am on a Sally Fallon kick, you may have noticed if you saw the new videos I added to the video page on this web site.

I finally got a pic of my daughter and her older look a like cousin together.

For a long time I have wanted to try the HCG diet. My daughter’s TJYC mentor did it and lost 30 pounds.The thing is you also have to restrict your calories down to 1400 a day and I just don’t think I could do that. I love food too much. I’ve been wanting to practice by limiting my meals to one serving of the main dish at each meal but I was always so hungry and gave in to my hunger. Well, since I started on coconut oil I do feel full after one serving. It’s amazing! Mary and Sally (hey, those are my sisters-in-laws’ names) go on and on about how miraculous coconut oil is. They make it sound like the cure all for everything. Maybe it is, I don’t know. They say it helps stimulate an underactive thyroid. I have wondered for years if I have an underactive thyroid because I always feel cold, have cold hands and feet, and have kept weight on.

At my parents’ family dinner on Father’s Day we got there right at 6 but none of my other siblings had arrived. I felt starving and was hoping we could eat as soon we got there. I was looking forward to the delicious tender shredded pot roast and veggies that I had brought. All I had eaten so far that day was two tablespoons of coconut oil, a piece of toast, and one bowl of oatmeal. I’ve found that 9 AM church is easier if I just serve toast for breakfast and then have one big meal, or dinner, at either noon or the evening, and for the other meal  keep it very simple. Since we were having this big dinner in the evening at my parents I planned oatmeal for lunch.

I took my coconut oil which I had remembered to bring and then 20 min later when we finally sat down to eat, I wasn’t able to eat as much as I usually do. So I ate more than 1 main dish serving, I fudged and had 1 and 1/2 servings of the pot roast/veggies. I had two helpings of salad and then one small brownie of the Famous Sheet Cake Brownies that I fixed from my friend Tammie Duggar’s cookbook http:///nourishingfamilies.blogspot.com. (She doesn’t have the brownies recipe there but she does have some other recipes for oatmeal cookies and other goodies to satisfy the sugar cravings. I do quibble with her use of canola oil, I don’t think canola oil is a whole food. Use her suggestion of coconut oil instead.) Usually I can eat a lot more.

So I am starting to believe this book. I do feel more satisfied in between meals and don’t eat as much at meals. Now if the weight would just come off then I will be a total believer.

We’ve been having lots of fun weeding. I have been wanting wood chips every summer to cover up the flower beds once we get them all weeded (the project every morning for me and the core phasers) but I never feel like I can afford the 5-6 bags that I need to cover up all the space. This year I got the bright idea, why don’t I just use grass clippings? I have plenty of that. So we started using that and it looks OK. Now the weeds won’t grow back. Now we will just hope that the wind doesn’t blow too hard.

I am still looking for my camera I lost at Youth for Freedom. Now I am reduced to using my cell phone camera. I am not ready to give up looking though. I keep calling the lodge and the Youth for Freedom people. I read a true story about a woman who lost her wedding ring while fishing at a lake. Twenty years later her friend that she had recenty met playing church bingo found the ring and gave it to her! I’ve had two false alarms but am not giving up hope.

I had an interesting conversation with my sister-in-law about natural family planning this morning. Maybe I will blog about that soon.

The winners of the tickets to the LDS Holistic Living Conference are……  (drum roll, please….)

Janae Thompson and Marilynn!

Congratulations Ladies! Look for a message from me with the free coupon code. The deadline for registration has been moved to June 22 at 11:59 PM.

See you there!

This conference sounds like just the thing I need right now, information to nourish my mothering

mind and soul.