Tree of Life Mothering

Great news from the Weston A. Price Foundation

The Weston A. Price Foundation commissioned Sarah Pope, Tampa Bay Chapter Leader and TheHealthyHomeEconomist.com blogger to create a series of beginner videos for the westonaprice.org website…

Here are some of them:

Traditional Fats/Sacred Foods (this is the one above)
A detailed discussion of how Traditional Fats and Sacred Foods confer health and vitality.
http://westonaprice.org/action-alerts/134-2011-action-alerts/2215-traditional-fats-and-sacred-foods-video-by-sarah-pope

Journey Back to the Kitchen
A demonstration of what kitchen equipment and appliances are safe and suitable for Traditional Cooking.
http://westonaprice.org/action-alerts/134-2011-action-alerts/2216-journey-back-to-the-kitchen-video-by-sarah-pope

Pantry Intervention
Sarah helps her friend Alma go through her pantry, refrigerator, and freezer to get rid of any unhealthy items and replace with healthier alternatives.
http://westonaprice.org/action-alerts/134-2011-action-alerts/2221-pantry-intervention-video-by-sarah-pope

. You can also bookmark this video summary page and check back for updates. http://westonaprice.org/action-alerts/134-2011-action-alerts/2212-videos-by-sarah-pope-fl-chapter-leader

So I just signed up for the LDS Holistic Living Conference. It’s Saturday June 25 at Paradigm High School in South Jordan, UT. Some fantastic speakers are coming to give you helpful information about the following topics:

• bio-dynamic gardening, using homeopathics and the position of the stars to increase your harvest
• how to have happy devotionals in the morning with your children
• creating a happy, magical place for your children to learn
• childhood vaccines
• backyard beekeeping, chicken keeping, and goat keeping
• cooking grains
• how keeping covenants improves our health
• inspiring a love of learning in your children
• recipes for meals kids love
• acupuncture from a gospel perspective
• depression
• balancing female hormones naturally
• treating hypothyroidism
• fermenting foods
• natural medicine

And much more! I can’t wait! Go to http://ldsholisticliving.com to learn more! Registration closes June 18, 2011. I am giving away two free tickets! Make a comment below with your name if you want to be in a drawing to get a free ticket.

(I’m having technical difficulties accessing my storage of pictures so I thought I would share photos of my new niece, who is three weeks old now. My sister gave birth to her naturally and snapped these pics when she was about a week old. Isn’t she darling?)

Last week was really hard. Starting on Monday night at the closing social for our commonwealth school, my little guy threw up. He continued through the night and then on and off until Friday. I have this theory that babies are supposed to be attached to their mothers, almost constantly, literally through breastfeeding, and babywearing and almost literally with cosleeping until they are fully mature and mobile. They meet their needs for nourishment that way. They are the fruit of the womb. Their ripeness doesn’t happen when they are born, it happens years after their birth, and it’s different for every baby. I learned from reading Dr. Sears that the ancient word in Hebrew for “wean” means “ripe.” How interesting? Women are supposed to be literal trees of life to their babies through exclusive breastfeeding for at least six months,and extended breastfeeding and other attachment behaviors, until the child is ripe and ready to wean. This could mean three or four or five or more years after birth. Then they detach as easily as a fully ripe apricot falls off a tree.

As they get older, if they get sick in toddlerhood or are not feeling well in anyway, they revert back to that immobile baby state of wanting to be constantly held. They want to be attached to you because they are so needy. When babies are sick , the best thing to do is to keep nursing and holding your baby. When they get better they will detach.

Last week my little guy had a very high fever and was vomiting. I had so many things on my to-do list,like finish unpacking, call everybody about my lost camera, weed the flower bed, supervise children without using TV, inventory my food storage, and get out summer clothes, dejunk all the closets, etc. but I let his illness slow me down and I held him. We nursed, and slept. He hadn’t been taking two naps daily consistently for a long time but that week he did. It was nice for me to catch up on some sleep after our trip to TJED Land the week before.

I remembered the article I read in Wise Traditions, the journal for the Weston A. Price foundation. It quoted an old-fashioned medical doctor. The article was written by the doctor’s daughter, who was passing off his medical wisdom in this article. He said to throw away the Tylenol and ibuprofen and honor your child’s fever so it can do what it is supposed to do, which is to kill germs. So I didn’t give him any medicine, other than my milk, and prayed. After three days, the fever finally broke. The doctor quoted in the article did say that if the temperature goes above 104 degrees, to see a doctor. But he said that if you rush to lower the fever when it’s lower than that, the baby/child will get sicker quicker. Let the fever do its work so your child’s body will be strengthened, otherwise they will get sick again sooner than they otherwise would and, the doctor, added, it will be worse next time.

So I remembered that. The doctor also said it’s normal for a fever to do down in the morning and return later in the day. The real test of whether or not a fever is gone is if the child can go from 4 to 6 PM without the fever. By Friday he was fever free all day. Saturday he threw up again, but he was willing to walk off my lap and play. By Sunday he was perfectly well. I felt like yelling, “We did it! We got through this illness naturally! His body is stronger for it!”

It’s great to be a stay-at-home because when your baby gets sick, it’s much easier to just slow life down. All your projects can wait. You can just hold your sick baby and nurse or read to him. And just breathe and remember that dust doesn’t rot and all those projects will still be there when the baby is well and up to playing.  I do admit I was starting to get a little crazy after nursing sooooo much and he didn’t always went to be read to. So we used Barney. OK, so I didn’t get through the illness totally naturally, if you are counting electronic diversions. And  It was a struggle to just get three meals on the table but we simplified and had soup or popcorn for dinner for the people who weren’t sick. I was going to help volunteer at Simulations Week where my three oldest children had gone off to but that obviously didn’t happen. Thank goodness my son could drive them to it every day, except for the one day that I helped with the carpool.

Moms, you have the power to help your babies get through illnesses without toxic medications! You have the power to strengthen your baby’s immune system. Let the fever fight the germs and use your milk! It’s the best medicine. I heard a pediatric gastroenterologist at a conference say that your milk has the widest spectrum of germ-fighters of any substance on the planet! That’s quite a claim! Just slow life down, keep nursing, and ask for help from visiting teachers or your older family members or neighbors and remember, this too shall pass. Soon the baby will be back to being happy playing and you can do your other stuff. First things first.

(this is my dream home… doesn’t it just look fresh out of Papa’s Wife? That’s a book, if you haven’t read it, read it you will love it. It’s a great summer read.)

Sister Julie Beck stated that LDS women should be the best homemakers in the world. Is that true? I hope so. Home can be truly a heaven on earth and we can be heavenmakers when we increase the order, beauty, and nourishment in our homes. It feels good and fun to be a wife and mother when I have the education and nourishment for myself so I can create a happy environment for my family. Do you believe that you and your daughter(s)  have a mission to be wives and mothers in Zion? Do you feel that you have an education to match that mission?

I am starting an online finishing school for LDS women and girls who want to increase their education in the womanly arts of wifing, mothering, homemaking, and relating in feminine ways.  Here is some of the curriculum:

We will be discussing some of the women each month in The Women of the Old Testament book by Camille Fronk Olson. This will give us a great foundation in righteous women from history.

We will also study:

• Eve and the Choice Made In Eden by Beverly Campbell
• home cooking from scratch according to Word of Wisdom and Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon

• The Ultimate Career by Daryl Hoole
• Fascinating Womanhood by Helen Andelin
• Good Wives by Louisa May Alcott
• Dr. Mom tips
• gardening
• home canning and preserving
• knitting, sewing, and crocheting
• grooming, including hairstyles, to look femininely elegant and modest, not frumpy
• etiquette
• hope chest items

and that’s just some of what we will be studying!

My daughter is an expert in pretty hairstyles.

We will be meeting online once a week, usually on Fridays starting June !7 and going to the end of April, taking December off. If you want more information and registration details (cost is $24 a month per household) go to http://treeoflifemothering.ning.com/page/an-online-finishing-school-for

The prophet Joseph F. Smith once said,

“As a rule the mothers in Zion, the mothers of Israel, are the very best women that live in the world, the best that can be found anywhere. … The good influence that a good mother exercises over her children is like leaven cast into the measure of meal, that will leaven the whole lump; and as far as her influence extends, not only to her own children, but to the associates of her children, it is felt, and good is the result accomplished by it.

And, sisters, you do not know how far your influence extends. A mother that is successful in raising a good boy, or girl, to imitate her example and to follow her precepts through life, sows the seeds of virtue, honor and integrity and of righteousness in their hearts that will be felt through all their career in life; and wherever that boy or girl goes, as man or woman, in whatever society they mingle, the good effects of the example of that mother upon them will be felt; and it will never die, because it will extend from them to their children from generation to generation. And especially do we hope for this in the Gospel of Jesus Christ

We got back from TJED land late Saturday night in one piece but without my camera! Boo-hoo! I went to get it to show my husband the pictures and video I took and it was missing. Has anybody who went down there found a camera?

For those of you who don’t know, I fondly call southern Utah TJED Land because it is where Thomas Jefferson Education sprung (is that a word?). Oliver DeMille, the author of Thomas Jefferson Education, is from southern Utah, and George Wythe College, the college based on the book, is in Cedar City.

Going to TJED Land is as exciting for me as Disneyland is for others. I just get giddy thinking about going. I went to take our three oldest to the summer camp for youth held last week, called Youth for Freedom, at a camp outside Zion National Park.

Technically I could have sent them down on their own since my oldest child can drive but I was not about to miss out on this moment to be in TJED Land. I would get to go to a parent mentor seminar with Jim Rhoades, Aneladee Milne, and Kirk Duncan. I would get to see my sister-in-law Sally and my friend Amy. This was my kind of vacation!

So my kids loved it and I did too. My oldest, Valor, got to shine in the oral exam as a finalist for the Andau Character Prize. We find out in July if he wins. That was a proud homeschooling mama moment for me for sure. All those years of drilling him on the Constitution, teaching him about U.S. foreign policy, the Cuban Missile Crisis and other multifaceted events of American history, the proper role of government, the intricacies of the Civil War and the politics of secession have finally come to fruition . . . ha ha, not really!

He did get asked about all those things, but he did not learn the answers from me. The beauty of TJED is that it teaches a homeschooling parent how to grow a scholar, so that a little child’s natural curiosity and drive to learn real things is preserved into young adulthood, unmarred from forced learning and synthetic distractions, and they go and learn all those things on their own because they want to when they are ready.  I did not teach any of that to him or sit and hold his hand while he studied.

My proud mama feelings aren’t getting to my head because I am feeling quite sheepish for all the mistakes I made on the trip. I feel like Anne of Green Gables, with all the avoidable mishaps that happened. First I took off without my baby sling. I purposely keep one in the car in case I forget my other one, but it is not my favorite, a padded NOJO knockoff holdover from when my 15 year old daughter was a baby. I feel so dated when I wear it. So I took it in the house to get the other one on the night we were leaving and then I got distracted and left the more stylish one. That’s what I get for being vain. My baby is 21 months old now so I don’t use it that often but I knew I would be wanting it to lug him around that camp at the parents’ meeting. I did end up lugging him around or chasing after him but I survived.

I also made a wrong turn coming out of the camp. I had directions to come in and I figured going out was reverse. I went there last year with my friend to pick up our kids but I was a passenger so didn’t pay complete attention to how we got there. I just remember turning right to get out. After driving halfway to Nephi I finally listened to the Spirit telling me to stop and pray. I was listening to Aneladee Milne and Tiffany Earl wax eloquently about scholar phase on the new mp3 CD I got at the parents’ meeting and I didn’t want to turn it off but I did so I could obey the Spirit and pray. I was around Zion National Park where there is no cell phone service. The only way I could know that I made a wrong turn was to get a confirmation from the Holy Ghost. I did not have a map (big mistake, I have learned) only the directions to get the YFF from home. So I stopped and prayed and presented my decision that I think I made a wrong turn.

I was truly feeling quite scared. I had 30 miles of gas left. Since I didn’t have a map and didn’t do research beforehand I had no idea where the closest gas station was. If I had kept going I might have run out of gas, which would have been disastrous in the wilderness with a baby in tow, without a sling, no less. I have never prayed harder in my life. I like Doctrine and Covenants 9:7-9 where it teaches how to pray for answers from God. It says we are supposed to study things out and make a decision and then present it to God for an affirmation. The affirmation is a “burning in the bosom.” I told Heavenly Father why I thought I had made a wrong turn and asked for a confirmation.  I definitely felt that burning and with that I turned around. I am so grateful we have this way of obtaining knowledge, independent of earthly communication.

So I got to a gas station without running out and got to my sister-in-law’s in St. George. I definitely learned my lesson. Next time I go on a trip I am going to have a map, not just directions, and I am also going to do a web search to figure out beforehand where I am going to get gas at the cheapest place. Whew!

The next day I went to the Plato seminar at George Wythe College. I had my toddler in tow so that translates into lots of distractions, being out of the room, and leaving early, despite all of the “ammunition” I brought of toys, books, and snacks. What I got out of it is that Plato taught that the goal in life is to pursue the good, the true, the beautiful, that government is a means to protect life, liberty, and property, so we can achieve those first three goals. I was also reminded that  Jesus is the source of all that is good, true, and beautiful. He is the great I AM, and as we seek for those things we will find Him and come to know him better.

I had a great visit with Amy and the Bowler family and then it was time to go back to get the kids and watch the oral exams. It took a while to get my three children rounded up with all the good byes they want to say and me watching a toddler. I guess that was too much for my brain to handle and I left my camera after taking a boatload of pictures. I was rather upset about when I went to bed that night but in the morning I reminded myself that it’s not like I lost my child. A camera is replaceable, even if the pictures aren’t. So I am feeling peace, but I am still calling the camp often to see if they find out. After all the camera is the Lord’s, and if he wants me to have another one he will help me attract it.

Living Life on Purpose

By Dan Ralphs

“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checked by failure…than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”

-Theodore Roosevelt

For most of us, there is something deep within us that says we are meant for more than to just live and die; something inside longs to be caught up in a higher purpose and to suck the marrow out of life. Unfortunately many of us “live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.” Come and join us as we search out how to begin the adventurous, dangerous, painful, rewarding, “rollercoastery” path of purpose.

Warning: Side effects may include but are not limited to the desire to study long hours, an increased aversion to video gaming systems, spasms of fear, fits of joy and finding yourself randomly in foreign countries.

Where: The Baker Home – 4575 North Alan Lane, Erda, UT 84074

When: Friday, June 3, 2011 — 6:30 -9:30 p.m.

Who: Youth around the ages of 12-18 and their parents

Contact person: Angie Baker—435-882-2781 OR angelabakerspeaks at gmail dot com

Cost: $5.00 a person

Itinerary: Check-in and mingle: 6:30-7:00 p.m.

7:00-8:30 p.m.: “Living Life on Purpose” with Dan Ralphs

8:30-9:30 p.m.: Q & A with Dan and Light Refreshments

Details: This will be an outdoor event. Please bring a quilt to sit on and a light jacket. Also bring a snack/treat to share. In case of inclement weather there will be another location specified in a later flyer.

JOIN US FOR A FANTASTIC EVENING SURE TO INSPIRE!

Ahhh, I think summer is finally here! After a gloomy Memorial Day weekend the sun is finally shining again! Our homeschooling always changes in the summer. Like most of you, unless you are in Phoenix, we spend a lot more time outdoors in the spring and summer. We’ve had lots of rain and even snow (!) yesterday so sometimes we stay inside. In that case we open up “the closet” (Ingredient #33 in the Leadership Education: Phases of Learning book and do school that way (see http://home-school-coach.com for more info on the closet in homeschooling) But when the sun is shining, for school we work on the yard and garden and then if there is time before lunch we go to the park. That’s what summer is for!

The past few weeks we have weeded our front yard and today we planted our garden! Whenever I plant our garden I always think of Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden, in a sweet British accent, pleading, “Please sir, may I have a bit of earth?” Planting a garden with my 9, 6, 5, and almost 2 year olds takes quite a bit of patience and ingenuity to keep some of them more engaged but not too helpful and the toddler less engaged so he doesn’t keep running off with the spade, but it is worth it when harvest time comes. If you would like some practical help regarding planting gardens with little children, listen to master gardener Vernie DeMille offer some tips here http://treeoflifemothering.ning.com/page/free-recordings-from-the-2009

If you want some inspiration for working in the garden, check out this book. It focuses more on container and indoor gardening. How about planting a peanut bush or a lemon tree indoors?  It is written by a grandma,, Sharon Lovejoy,  whose love for kids and projects is infectious.She has other books on gardening as well. I like that she brings back the old-fashioned games and activities kids used to play like making hollyhock dolls and sunflower houses.

Summer is also for road trips. We have a trip planned to southern Utah this week and a trip planned to Palm Springs in July for a family reunion  (ooh, hot! I know I will be enjoying the air conditioned splendor of our condo that week) Let’s talk about keeping kids happy and engaged in learning in the car during road trips. You can have a “portable closet” or bag of books, and educational items/toys to spark children’s interest in where you are going and what you are seeing. Sometimes each child gets his own bag, and sometimes I just have one or two bags, depending on the length of the trip. The canvas bags I collect come in handy for this. You can probably find some at your local thrift store for very cheap.

For road trips it helps if you do some research about where you are going. What are some interesting stops you can make on the way?  What is the story behind the city’s name, or site of interest, and who founded it?  Google the names of the cities or sites to find out. For instance, we are going to southern Utah to take my 3 oldest scholar phasers to Youth for Freedom, a summer camp for TJED youth. My young ones are staying at Grandma’s but if they were coming with us I would perhaps stop at Cove Fort, like we have in the past. I would get some books on pioneers and horses and covered wagons and start talking about that to pique their interest. I know from previous visits that the tour guides give a pioneer toy to the children at the end of the visit so maybe I would get a book about pioneer toys from the library.

The library has so many fun books to help you. I love the The Eyewitness books it has with one word titles such as Cowboy, Horses, and Astronomy. They have great photographs and clear explanations that my children and I both find fascinating. My son is still wearing a cowboy outfit everyday, and sometimes his pajamas underneath, from a photo in that book of what a cowboy wears.

Perhaps I would also get a book on CD about pioneers to listen to on the way, such as a Little House book. If you did more research and were more organized than I you could actually dig into your family history and perhaps find your own family pioneer stories and record yourself to listen to in the car telling pioneer stories as you drove, or read them aloud while your husband drives. You might also do some research on the different rock formations and rock collecting and then get some books about that and some sample rocks to put in their bags. You might even stop at the Big Rock candy mountain in southern Utah and get the song to listen to on the way.

If I were really organized and had planned ahead I would perhaps do even more research and come up with a list of questions that relate to where we are going that they could find the answers to by asking me or the people at the places we were going. One time when I was in a teen in our church youth group one of the leaders did that for a trip our group took to southern Utah. It was a lot of fun.

(The Brigham Young house in Salt Lake City, Utah)

So you could do something like that to help your kids get interested in where you are going, and find specific things to put in the closet that tie in with your trip.

Maybe you don’t want to spend a lot of time researching where you are going and just want some general materials for kids to engage with. (There’s always a DVD player of course to entertain in the car but I prefer to have my kids using their brains more. We have one for the car but so far have not used it with our seven kids. And yes, we have had it for almost a year.) Here are some general ideas for what to put in your portable closet that don’t tie into a specific place. Some of these are also suitable for a bag of quiet toys for church. Hey, now you have a closet for church! We sometimes take closet bags with us during the traditional school year too if I have to be gone all day somewhere.

• Wikki Stix (these are sticks of wax that can be bent into all sorts of fun shapes and animals or people. Get here http://cudge.net/kids_detail16.htm. Just don’t leave in a hot car or they will melt!
• for very little ones I like lift the flap board books. You can find these used at a thrift store. I especially like the ones by Dorling Kindersley because of the clear beautiful photographs.
• Dorling Kindersely also has fun heavy books for practicing handwriting. They use a dry erase marker and wipe clean. See here http://us.dk.com/nf/Search/QuickSearchProc/1,,wipe%20clean,00.html?id=wipe%20clean
• Brainquest card game decks. These are fun trivia quizzes in a deck of cards attached to a peg so they fan out. They are small and portable. I have found these used at  thrift store for fifty cents to a dollar. We keep these in the closet and even some close to the dinner table for when my kids start arguing or conversation lags. See http://brainquest.com
• Books on CD from the library or downloads from http://audible.com
• Brite Music CDs or mp3 files see http://britemusic.com
• Jim Weiss CDs. These are classic stories retold. See http://us.dk.com/nf/Search/QuickSearchProc/1,,wipe%20clean,00.html?id=wipe%20clean. I absolutely love these! Sometimes you can tie these into your trip. Say if we were going to Colonial Williamsburg or Philadelphia then I would get the story Jim Weiss tells of Thomas Jefferson. I learned so much from listening to it.
• Story of the World CDs/ downloads. My five and six year olds beg to listen to these. http://welltrainedmind.com/store/history-and-geography/story-of-the-world.html
• For free classic stories you can download, go to http://librivox.org and http://storynory.com. Just remember to bring your mp3 player with you in the car and have a cord to attach it to your car’s sound system.
• Dover coloring books have great coloring books that have themes relating to real life
• Fandex fan cards have bright photos and facts of items from nature like trees, birds, flowers, cats, etc. along with a list of facts for each one.
• string games, see klutz.com or get a book from the library
• books on how to draw (get from public library if you don’t have any at home)  and notepads and pencils. http://klutz.com has some fun kits that have a roll of paper attached to book, very nice for in the car.
• Magnetic sets are always fun for my little ones. We have one with Noah’s Ark, a house, a farm, Cars, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and Wall- E. Get from Lee Publications http://.leemagicpen.com/catalog/default.php?cPath=34&osCsid=r8qruqi1tk9ddnab4m10ig78h3. This company has lots of fun travel games, including games with a magic pen that kids love.
• For older kids I would get books with riddles and puzzles. Usborne books are great for this.

What if you don’t have time or money to go on a big road trip? Take little trips! Here’s a free fun activity for an excuse to have a road trip, and help get you out in nature if all the places of “local interest” cost money. It’s called letterboxing. It’s basically a treasure hunt with clues you get off the Internet. Kind of like geocaching but you don’t need a GPS device and the treasure is different. Go to http://letterboxing.org and click on “Getting Started” to learn more. All you need is the clues, a notebook, a pencil, an ink pad, and a rubber stamp. This is fun thing I started with my kids about five years ago. Sometimes I remember when we are going on a vacation road trip to look up clues for our destination, but I also use this activity as a reward for a hard day of work and find clues within 20 miles or so. It’s fun!

Hope you have a happy homeschooling summer! The most important thing to remember is that the most important thing you can give your child is to observe what they are interested in, and then respond with questions and materials that help them think more. And your presence is more important than any present/toy/book you can give them. Another thing: not every moment will be magical. The kids might still fight and complain that they are bored. But if you can look back over the week, and hopefully over every day, and remember seeing at least one child with eyes shining or mouth laughing, then count your day as a success. If not, there’s always tomorrow!

Are you looking for something to study for a mom scholar phase this summer? This sounds so cool. It’s from my friend Andrea Rice over at http://abigailadamsacademy.com. I am really wanting to do this!

Here’s her description:

“Why study economics?

Why Austrian Economics?

Here’s a photo montage of the homebirth of my friend who I met through my sister-in-law. It’s beautiful! Enjoy!

Here’s a new Jon Schmidt tune that is soooo totally inventive, fabulous, and  lovely I want to cry and dance at the same time. You’re gonna love it…