Tree of Life Mothering

I can’t sleep. This is crazy. I am driving 10 people early next morning to St. George and I can’t sleep! I will be driving our 12 seater van pulling a trailer. We were wondering how we could fit all the gear and luggage for 10 people to take a five -day trip, including three people going camping, so we started asking around. My husband borrowed the trailer from his office sharing partner, a man with 15 kids. I am wondering if this friend got it for his family road trips, because of all the stuff his kids bring. Please pray for me to drive safely, as I have never towed a trailer before. (Just don’t back up and drive no more than 69 are my two mantras for the next day.) My son and three of his classmates are going to Elevation, a camp for Williamsburg Academy. See http://wacademy.org/outdoor-program

Our Easter celebration was fun and meaningful. We missed my two oldest kids though for our Easter egg hunt and watching “The Easter Dream.” They are at the age where invitations to go to a party with friends to watch Les Mis and eat pizza or earn money are more appealing than dying Easter eggs and eating candy. I guess that’s part of having kids grow up. Sigh. My husband even chose to work on fixing bicycles instead of doing the hunt. I got the “better for you candy” at the health foods store like I always do to fill the plastic Easter eggs: chocolate-covered raisins, yogurt-covered pretzels, and those sunspire chocolate covered candies, in the spring colors. We find the eggs along with 12 real Easter eggs and then go down the candy while we watch the video and think about the sweetness in life that comes from Jesus.

Sometimes I wonder if it really makes a difference as to the limit of white sugar I give my children. I’ve always been one to limit white sugar for my children just on the principle that it is empty calories. I like sugar as much as the next person and do occasionally eat it, although there have been times when I gave it up for months. When I was first-time pregnant I went off it for nine months because I read in the What to Eat When You Are Expecting book that it shouldn’t be part of a pregnant mom’s diet. Oh, how disciplined I was back then. Hey, maybe that’s why my firstborn is so smart. But I have never been able to be that virtuous since then. When I was a teen, there were times when I would overeat it and I felt addicted to it, but since then I have conquered the addiction and can have some evil white sugar candy around and have some if I feel hungry, and then not gorge, and leave it be. When I was in college I went off it for several months and lost a lot of weight.

I am practicing intuitive eating these days. If my body wants it, I will eat it. At my cousin’s son’s wedding reception last week I was so proud of myself that I bypassed the chocolate fondue fountain. I normally love to eat chocolate but I just didn’t feel hungry for chocolate that night. Wow, that’s a first!

I remember talking to some relatives about white sugar and keeping away from it. Their wife and mother had always taught them it was bad for you, so I thought the whole family was anti-white sugar. They confessed that it didn’t affect them. They could eat it and stop and not have the bad effects of wanting more and more, or getting sick from it like the wife and mother claimed was the effect that happened to her. It hit me that people are sensitive to different things, whether it be alcohol, drugs, allergens, or food.

White sugar is empty, that’s why it’s bad, but some people can have it and they still feel healthy. So ever since then I’ve enjoyed it a bit more, although, it does make me fat. I don’t bake with it but I let my children and myself enjoy it when it’s offered, sometimes. White sugar is bad, but it’s not fake, total “red light” toxic, man-made food like Splenda or NutraSweet.

I felt like I was doing pretty well in the department of protecting my children from too much bad food, i.e. white sugar foods. Then I found out from my friend about petroleum in foods, and that means there’s even more “bad food” to watch out for. I had never heard of petroleum in food and what’s the big deal about it before I met her. I was used to eating pretty much the “whole foods” diet that La Leche League preaches but didn’t know to watch out for preservatives in the tortilla chips we buy or the salsa.

Here’s my friend’s blog, http://gotpetroleum.blogspot.com and what she says:

“Do you have petroleum in your food?
Artificial colorings, flavorings, BHA, BHT, and TBHQ are made from petroleum. They have all been linked to symptoms such as ADHD, autism, sensory disorders, bed wetting, tics, asthma, and several other neuroconnector issues.
Read the blog for always acceptable recipes and great success stories.
For more information on brand name products that do not include petroleum please see http://www.feingold.org/“

She even has a link on her blog to some homemade, petroleum free Peeps.

So we went on the Feingold diet, hoping that it would cure my daughter’s frequent stomach aches. Honestly, I did not notice a difference and neither did she. My boys did not stop fighting or doing stuff that makes me want to tear my hair out. My friend says her boys’ behavior improved dramatically and her son was able to go off all his meds. That’s great! Apparently her boys’ were sensitive to food dyes. Either my kids aren’t, or we just weren’t eating that much food dye before to notice a difference. I am wondering, does it really matter for every person, or just some people? If these toxins don’t affect us or our kids now, with the symptoms mentioned above, do they accumulate in our bodies and cause cancer later? I don’t know.

So if your kids have challenges like ADHD or autism, look into the Feingold diet, which is a diet free from petroleum. Maybe red licorice or strawberry milkshakes are what makes your child turn into a monster and you haven’t made the connection yet. It might make a difference, but apparently, it has not for us. People are sensitive to different things. For the most part, I will continue not to buy things with food dye in them or artificial flavorings or preservatives, although come to think of it, that Easter candy I bought is probably not Feingold safe.  But if I am hungry away from home and someone offers me “bad food,” or if I am feeling a tight food budget, I just might cheat a little.

It does sound awful to know that any food that is artificially colored, like Easter jelly beans or Peeps, has petroleum in it. “I will not partake of things that are harmful to my body,” is one of the LDS Gospel Standards sweetly emblazoned on posters and in the Friend magazine. Whenever I see that I smile and chuckle, and wonder about how far I am willing to go with that standard, and how far other LDS are willing to go. I am super sensitive to ideals.  So I start wondering if that means things that are potentially harmful based on the theory of empty foods, i.e. junk foods and food that theoretically sounds harmful because of petroleum, or are we talking about food that is proven to be harmful, like the Word of Wisdom no-nos. From the amount of candy and junk sold at the BYU bookstore, especially during Education Week and Women’s Conference, I think most LDS are thinking of the latter.

But for this road trip I am taking in the next 24 hours, I am keeping a stash of artificially colored Easter candy handy that my visiting teacher brought over.  You just never know when the desire for some peace from a 1 year-old strapped in a car seat for four hours overwhelms the fear factor of cancer and behavioral problems.

Last night my oldest son and my husband took a long drive to Hobble Creek Canyon to meet some of my husband’s rich cousins to celebrate some of their kids’ graduations from BYU. My mother-in-law, the social butterfly that she is, really wanted us to come. As much as I would have loved it, I chose to stay home with the rest of the kids because it was such a long trip and I didn’t want it messing up the younger ones’ sleep. It’s not the first or the last time that my kids come before my social life, even if it is a social life with just relatives. There have been lots of times when we just throw schedules to the wind and go wherever and however long it takes to be with extended family, but I am wanting to be a little more sensible nowadays that I have more kids and more obligations. It’s no fun to come home in the late night, only to have your sleeping-in-the-car baby become wide awake as soon as you make the transfer.

Anyway, it got me thinking…it was this time, 19 years ago, that I graduated from BYU. Wow, has it really been that long? Going to BYU, having roommates, having church in the Testing Center of all places, being single, then becoming a newlywed, that all seems like a different life. The previous year before I graduated, during the springtime, was when I dated and fell in love with my husband. So this time of year always makes me remember my BYU and falling-in-love days.

I absolutely loved college. I also loved being done with it. I remember being so happy that I could finally read whatever I wanted and not worry about doing “fun” reading that took time away from what I was supposed to be studying for school. It felt so good not to have to jump through any more hoops, so to speak.

Now my firstborn will be going off to college in the fall (he hasn’t decided on where. He just got a scholarship to BYU and has been accepted to SVU as well). I have a houseful of kids. My life has taken some unexpected turns in the path. All I can say is, despite all the trials, troubles, bitterness, and sadness, life is good, thanks to Jesus. Rejoice evermore! If we turn to him, any situation that is bad won’t be permanently bad, and everything that is good will be eternally good.

(Credit for Image Above, Jesus Praying in Gethsemane (Christ in Gethsemane), by Harry Anderson: churchofjesuschrist.org)

I found this great talk (have you noticed that it’s mostly Latter-day Saints who use the term “talk”?) by Cleon Skousen, about Easter. I think you will enjoy it. It’s called “The Meaning of the Atonement.” Watch below.

It’s very touching. Brother Skousen explains how he was mentored by Elder John Widtsoe (not Widstoe, as many Mormons say) to understand why Jesus died on the cross. Cleon asked Elder Widtsoe questions about Easter and Elder Widtsoe gave him several scriptures to take home and study in order to find the answers. I am still listening to this download over and over to fully comprehend it. He states that he discovered that because of Jesus’ atonement, love and mercy overcame the law.

This Easter season, I am so incredibly grateful that we each have a personal Savior who is so full of infinite, sweet, delightful, cheerful, happy love. A Savior who always did the right, peaceful, loving thing. A Savior, who, even when he was treated so horribly despicably, was able to say, right in the midst of his suffering, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Where else can we find such peace and happiness and goodness than from this man? Not to mention salvation from sin and death? Truly He is The Way, The Truth, and The Life.

Whenever I am feeling mad at somebody, I eventually remember this example and it helps me so much, even though I haven’t even been physically harmed, just had my feelings hurt. It’s so amazing that this loving man is not just a great teacher and example to us, but that He is our elder spiritual brother, a god, and our personal savior who saves us from eternal death and hell.

I’ve always wished that I had inexhaustible resources of money to cover whatever material wishes I have. Wouldn’t it be great to have a check made out to you for millions of dollars? The beautiful, happy, most splendid thing is that each of us has a spiritual check made out to each of us worth an infinite amount of spiritual dollars, thanks to our Savior. Because of Him, and His atoning sacrifice, we have unlimited spiritual potential. As Nephi says in the Book of Mormon, “I glory in my Jesus!” Because of Him, we can each have happiness in this life, despite the sorrows, and eternal life in the life to come. I know He lived, and He lives again. Joseph Smith saw Him, and restored His gospel to the earth. His prophet, Thomas S. Monson, lives on the earth today and speaks for Him. Thank you, Jesus. Happy Easter!

Even though I consider myself a TJEd fan, I have always had a hard time with the key of “inspire, not require.” (see http://tjed.org/about-tjed/7-keys/) If you have kids that never fulfill academic requirements but only produce when they feel inspired, you will have a child who is not ready for college at 18. 

I love my children to be home with me as much as the next mom, but by the time they are 18, I am wanting them to be totally self-governing, completely self-directed scholars who are ready to go to college. Call me conveyor-beltish. If they are not ready for college at 18, it becomes easier for them to drift away from college as the years go by. Doors can shut for them that would have stayed open had they worked harder when in the teen years. I want each of my children to have a college education. If you are wondering about the need for a college education, read Major Decisions for College by Henry J. Eyring. It will convince you. See the book here on archive.org.

(It is written from an LDS Christian perspective but it has fantastic information that anyone can benefit from. Eyring makes many points that totally fit in with leadership education. You can get podcasts and excerpts from the book. I will definitely be listening to these and sharing them with my son who has been accepted into college for this coming fall.)

Oliver DeMille says that “inspire, not require” is one of the keys of great teaching and learning. If you listen to his talk on CD, “The Seven Keys of Great Learning” he says, however, that the keys are “phase specific.” This is a huge clarification! He then goes on to say the following:

For core phase, the key that applies is:

1. You, not them

For love of learning he says the next three keys apply:

2. Inspire, not require

3. Structure time not content

4. Simplicity, not complexity

He says that the others apply to scholar phase

5 Quality, not conformity

6. Mentors, not professors

7. Classics, not textbooks

Aha, so “inspire, not require” is not for scholar phase! It is OK to have requirements in scholar phase! I’ve been thinking about this a lot because some TJED youth and mentors talk about “inspirements” instead of “requirements.” The mentors say the youth don’t have to do the work. But then they feel frustrated or even mad when the youth don’t do the work. We have to be really clear here. Are we willing to let the youth fail, that is, not do the work, or do they absolutely have to (be required) to do the work? We can just throw the whole issue out when we see that Oliver says that “inspire, not require” is for  love of learning, not scholar phase. 

I just listened to a conference call Aneladee Milne did that discussed the issue. Aneladee is the cofounder with Tiffany Earl of Leadership Education Mentoring Institute or LEMI. She says that “inspire not require” is not a hard and fast rule set in stone (like one of the ten commandments). That’s good to know! In other words, Oliver is not a prophet, and what he says is not the gospel. (I have been guilty of thinking this, I admit.) She says there are different interpretations of “inspire, not require” in the TJED world. She admits that youth have to learn that yes, there are certain things you have to do, (requirements) if you are going to succeed in this world. Like taking a shower every day or getting up in the morning at a certain time.

Aneladee explains that with LEMI scholar projects, the students have requirements that they must do, not to get a grade, but to attain the incentive. The incentive is different for each scholar project. For the Shakespeare Conquest scholar project, in the Commonwealth School that Aneladee has been involved with (also the one that I have been involved with, I’m on my third child) the students get a trip to the Shakespeare festival if they complete all the requirements. Different projects have different rewards.

In The Student Whisperer book, Oliver DeMille’s latest, which Tiffany co-wrote, Oliver declares that there are three types of education. Not conveyor belt, professional, and leadership, but stick, carrot, and love affair. Stick education is learning to avoid pain. Carrot education is learning to get a prize. Love affair education is learning because you love learning.

So I am thinking, wait a minute, so are these scholar projects that have prizes and requirements of the carrot education kind? Yes, they are. But that’s OK. Wait, I thought that by the time a child is doing scholar projects with LEMI that they are ready for scholar phase, that they have completed the love of learning and therefore they love learning for learning’s sake. Why do they need prizes?

It’s because, in reality, most children at the Commonwealth School age are still struggling to master love of learning. They need something to trick them into loving learning.  At the same time they are practicing scholar phase. The phases of learning have fuzzy edges. Aneladee said in the conference call that the Shakespeare and the Key of Liberty projects are for practice scholar. She should know, she and her daughters wrote those classes/projects. Pyramid Project is the math and science practice scholar class. Then QUEST (formerly known as Thomas Jefferson Youth Certification/TJYC) is designed for the student to transform into self-directed scholars, ready to take Edison project, which is a scholar project for self-directed scholars. These are the true scholars of scholar phase, the scholars Oliver DeMille is talking about who study 5-6 hours a day. Pyramid Project has a prize but TJYC doesn’t. Somewhere along the line, the student doesn’t need the carrot any more and realizes that learning is fun and hard and worth the pain. They push past obstacles and pay the price because they love learning.

I’ve seen it happen with my college-bound son and now I am seeing it happen with my 15 year-old daughter. My 13 year-old is just starting to choose the pain of learning. Yesterday he was doing math problems. He complained, “They take so much time. They are so annoying.” I commiserated with him, and told him that he is starting to see that learning sometimes does involve pain, and that’s part of scholar phase.

So requirements are OK. They help students to qualify for goals and prizes. They give a feeling of accomplishment. They help to trick students into seeing that learning is fun and hard and worth learning for learning’s sake.

The phases of learning are organic like the seasons. That means they aren’t clear-cut, they have messy edges. In Utah even though it’s spring, we are having winter weather. It has snowed or hailed or rained almost every day in April so far. With the phases, you have overlap as well. You have kids who say they want to be in scholar phase one day but they actually exhibit love of learning behavior. They need to be inspired by prizes to anesthetize the pain of learning. Eventually they taste the fruits of studying and don’t need the prizes. 

Requirements are OK in education. You have to be able to have some kind of verification or certification by examining with requirements to know that the student has learned what you what them to learn as a teacher or mentor. This is where the keys of scholar phase come in, one of which is “quality not conformity.”

In order to know the student has done quality work, you have to examine the work and be certain, or “certify” that it is quality. I think “quality, not conformity” is slightly misleading. They have to conform to some level in order for the work to be quality.

So let’s face it, you can’t escape requirements. But hopefully you can “require and inspire.”

After my blog post yesterday, I realized something! I could just call my aunt up like once a week, with today’s technology of conference calling, and have her tell one of her stories. It would be recorded through freeconference call. Then I could transcribe the story. One story a week might be doable, maybe. Then I would just compile them together and do a book of Aunt Myrna Stories. I don’t have to wait until I am an empty nester so I can go live with her for a month to do this project! Hmmm, maybe after I get the four other books I have been thinking about out of the way.

I highly anticipated last Saturday night. For weeks, the night was going to be the night of our Commonwealth School’s Spring Parents’ Meeting. If you don’t know what a Commonwealth School is, go get the book about it here and read it http://shop.lemimentortraining.com/The-New-Commonwealth-Schools-by-Aneladee-Milne-and-Tiffany-Earl-105.htm

It’s a way for you to have the five environments of learning for your homeschooled youth written about in A Thomas Jefferson Education without doing it all yourself. It helps you create a community of youth and parents involved in a liberal arts education.

Then the meeting got postponed. I was disappointed because I always look forward to socializing with adults but also thrilled because that meant that I could go to the wedding reception of my cousin’s son in Provo. I wanted to see my aunt, grandmother of the groom, and visit with her. She is my mom’s sister. She is such a storyteller that according to my husband, you can’t get within ten feet of her without getting sucked into hearing a story.

Sure enough, she was there. I was so excited to get to visit with her. She lives in Seattle so I hardly ever see her. I remember when I was growing up, whenever she would come visit, she and my mom would stay up until 3 or 4 AM talking. For some years she and her husband were temple president and matron of the Seattle Temple. I have been getting into family history research and temple work lately so I wanted to talk to her about that. When I first heard that she was called to be a temple matron I wondered what that involved. I pictured her sitting on a throne in the temple, surveying her kingdom. I asked her about the job and if my image was correct. She laughed. “There’s hardly any time for sitting. You are constantly being asked questions and going here and there. ” She explained that her husband once came in after a long day of being a temple president shaking his head. “I have been a partner in a law firm for years. I have been a stake president. I have never seen anything so complicated as running a temple.”

(The taller young man on the right was the groom at the wedding reception.)

I asked her if people who visited the temple shared any stories with her. She smiled and said they did all the time. She said that she especially asked those who converted to the LDS Church as adults to share their conversion stories.  “I can’t count how many women told me that they joined the church because of Donny Osmond!” According to her, Donny Osmond once said that he would never a marry a woman who wasn’t a Mormon. So all these women joined the Church. Then she told me a really neat story of a lady whose ancestral homeland was Spain.

This woman said that back in 1912 in Spain, two young brothers were very curious about the deep questions of life. They went to their Catholic priest and peppered him with these esoteric questions. The priest said, “Only the Mormon Church has the answer to that question.” They asked him why he wasn’t a Mormon and he said that it was because then he wouldn’t be able to make his living as a Catholic priest, and that’s all he knew. “Are there any Mormons here in this city?” they asked the priest. He was pretty sure there weren’t.

So these two young men went to the harbor in their city where cruise ships would dock. Every time a cruise ship would come in, they would stand by the gangplank and ask each passenger who walked by, “Are you a Mormon?” Finally after asking many people, they found one! The Mormons took them to a hotel and answered all their questions and gave them the address of the LDS Church headquarters. These two young men then started a correspondence with the LDS Church. Who was assigned to answer their letters but a young Gordon B. Hinckley! These two young men eventually had two female sisters assigned to come teach them the gospel (they weren’t official because the church wasn’t officially established there) and they were both baptized. One of the female missionaries married one of the young men. That was the parents of this woman who told my aunt the story. They came to America and started a new life, new family, and religion here.

I would love to take a month off and just go stay at my aunt’s home and transcribe all of her stories and put them in a book. She knows so many interesting people, like Bill Gates. Hmmm, Maybe I should put that dream on my vision board.

Yesterday I went to a Weston Price chapter meeting at my friend Caralee’s home. I absolutely love going there. She has a farm and a lovely place. It’s like my dream home, full of kids, with a big kitchen, a big homeschooling room, and lots of shelves for books, a sandbox, swingset, and tramp in the backyard, and a farm with a cow and chickens. See pictures of Caralee’s place here http://amodernpioneeringfamily.blogspot.com

We got to taste-test three new flavors of cod liver oil: peppermint, ginger, and licorice from the Blue Ice/Green Pastures brand. See http://greenpasture.org/public/Products/CodLiverOil/index.cfm.

Ooooh, that licorice one was yummy nummy! I could eat it all day. I seriously had this feeling of instant deep satisfaction come over me. It tasted like candy. The other ones, ginger and peppermint, were good too. I can see that fats definitely can make you happy. Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, PhD, La Leche League Leader, and board certified lactation consultant, blogs at the Uppity Science Chick. She has a great article about fats making you happy. See http://uppitysciencechick.com/can_fats_make_you_happy.pdf.  I can believe that after eating this licorice cod liver oil. In the article she talks about different sources of omega 3s. I am thinking, I don’t have to stress about finding a source of omega 3s, gagging down ground up flaxseed or flax oil anymore. I will just go for taking a bunch of licorice cod liver oil every day. Remember Mary Poppins giving Jane and Michael cod liver oil? It really is great for everybody, not just kids. It’s full of Vitamins A and D, which work together. If you have too much Vitamin A but not D then your bones get soft. Vitamin D helps your bones and Vitamin A helps you get sick less often. Then the omega 3s help your brain.

Here’s what the Green Pastures web site says “Many of the great historical cultures had one sacred food which they relied on to ensure strong mind, body, and spirit; fermented fish/fish liver oil. The Might Roman Soldier was given a daily ration of fermented fish oil. The Stoic Scandinavian Viking had a drum of fermenting cod livers outside the door of his home. Grandma always had a bottle of cod liver oil in the back cupboard.” Cool!

I was hoping the meeting would be relaxing for me, but I was disappointed. I left feeling more frazzled than ever. I made the mistake of taking two of my children. I am as attachment oriented as the next mom out there (I have nursed most of my children to ages three and four, and I cosleep. I take my baby everywhere I can, even on weekly dates with my husband), but sometimes, when kids are no longer babies, but toddlers and older, I say it’s better to leave them home. I felt so distracted during the meeting. I was in and out tending my two young children, intervening when another little girl was being mean to my daughter and then getting my son off the trampoline. I also had got summoned on the phone by my husband for emotional support because he was at a Kirk Duncan seminar being asked to do hard things. Then my 17 year old son called to talk to me about his babysitting and chauffeuring duties at home. My daughter kept jabbering and asking for things that I felt like I didn’t have any time to visit and ask questions.Towards the end I was thinking, “Will you just go away and play and leave me alone?” My visions of them playing happily in the sandbox all evening while I lingered with the adults talking never materialized. At one point I realized I wasn’t going to get my adult visiting done and settled in to reading a scientific paper on cod liver oil while my two children played with blocks in the family room.

So sometimes I get disappointed by events that I build up in my mind that are going to be really relaxing, social, and fun. C’est la vie.

I did glean one thing from Caralee. One of the other ladies there asked about having balance in the diet. As we feasted on baked potatoes with sauerkraut, Latin American sauerkraut, butter, onions, gomasio, mineral salt, sour cream, and more, Caralee explained. She said it’s good to have something that’s lacto-fermented at every meal. When you have potatoes or any vegetable, it’s important to have fat, like butter. The butter provides the Activator X that helps you to absorb the vitamins in the vegetables.

Caralee was vegan for many years. She said she ate tons of vegetables but she got sick because the nutrition was just going through her, she wasn’t absorbing it. She also said that when you eat potatoes or something like that that is full of carbohydrates it’s best to eat gobs of butter and sour cream with it. That slows down the digestion of the sugars, and makes it so that you don’t overeat.

Right after she said that, as I was digging in to my second helping of potato, I all of the sudden felt full. I couldn’t eat anymore. I gathered my stuff and children up and went home. After I went home as the night came on, I felt sicker and sicker, like I was going to throw up.

We had a Relief Society class a week or so ago featuring my neighbor, who studied at the Christopher School of Natural Healing. See http://schoolofnaturalhealing.com/ She gave us a handout so I referred to it to see what it said about treating stomach troubles. It said that peppermint is good for any digestive troubles. So I got out my peppermint essential oil, put a drop on my wrist and licked it. Within a minute, my digestive trouble was lessened because I vomitted. I felt better, but still a little sick. Then I took more peppermint and threw up two more times. My husband wanted me desperately to help him do his “homework” for his Kirk Duncan seminar so I stayed up late helping him and throwing up. It was quite the night. I felt like I was on my deathbed and my husband was wanting me to write material that would knock people’s socks off.

So now I know why peppermint is good for digestive problems, because it makes you upchuck. At least it did for me last night. I felt a lot better after doctoring myself.

I listened to this podcast by my friend, and member of this site, Aneladee Milne, and Tiffany Earl. It is called “Forms and the 21st Century.” Get it here http:///lemimentortraining.com on the right side of the page (scroll down a bit). It is excellent! If you are homeschooling a teenager, it will be especially helpful to you. Tiffany has just released a book she wrote with Oliver DeMille called The Student Whisperer, which I recently finished. It’s excellent as well. I am really excited because Tiffany has agreed to do a conference all for Tree of Life Mothering about how to homeschool teenagers. Watch the site for the announcement of when it will be!

My email friend Rhonda Hair who is a member of this site sent the link to her recipe for homemade marshmallow eggs. Sounds yummy and fun! You can make them out of honey if you want to be purely white sugar free. Thank you for the recipe Rhonda!

http://theprovidenthomemaker.com/1/post/2011/04/homemade-marshmallows-and-whats-preparedness.html