Oscillococcinum, pronounced, “oh-sillo-cox-anum,” or “oh-sillo” for short. This is a homeopathy remedy from Boiron, a company in France. You can get this from a health food store in the homeopathy section. It is packaged in a small box, as shown above. Inside the box you will find these teeny tiny tubes full of teeny tiny balls, coated with the homeopathic medicine. According to Dr. Tom Cowan M.D., in this article, it helps relieve flu symptoms. He says to take one of the tubes twice a day. If you read the comments below the article, one reader says that what works for her is not following the full dosage instructions. She says to take just take 2 little balls every 15 minutes until symptoms subside. That’s a much cheaper option! We did that and we still have some left over after all 5 of us using the box and getting better.
According to Boiron’s website here, Oscillo “Works best when taken at the first sign of symptom. The latest study published in a British scientific journal found that when patients took Oscillococcinum within 24 hours of the onset of symptoms nearly 63 percent showed ‘clear improvement’ or ‘complete resolution’ within 48 hours.” (This is also the remedy that healed us a few years ago, when I really wanted to go see Mary Poppins Returns in the theater as a family before my mother-in-law had to fly back home after a visit, which I blogged about here.) It is magical stuff!
2. Cod liver oil. Before you ran away gagging, hear me out. Why would you want to take this? Because the flu comes from a Vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D is in cod liver oil. We use Green Pastures brand because it is recommended by the Weston A. Price Foundation. Take 3 capsules three times a day.
3. Chicken brothor bone broth. There’s truth to the old saying that chicken soup is good for illness. My husband gobbled it up when I made it for him. Dr. Boz has a great recipe for gelatinous broth in the video below. I didn’t bother getting the chicken feet, LOL. I am interested in making the recipe though to have my broth look as solid as flubber like in the video! I am going to get my chicken feet from a grocery story that caters to Hispanics, next time I’m there.
4. Plenty of fluids. We used water of course, plus Throat Coat, Breathe Easy and whatever herbal tea sounded good to the person. Hot lemon ginger tea, as pictured above, sounds yummy but I never thought of that.
5. Plenty of rest. Sometimes you just have to let go of your commitments and stay home and rest. Enjoy reading and watching some movies and videos, and taking naps.
6. Used the humidifier at night. The humidifier really made a difference for the two nights when my throat was so tremendously sore. Before I used it, every time the furnace would kick in, I’d wake up with my throat feeling as dry and raw as the Sahara Desert. Ricola cough drops helped too, but don’t use those within 15 minutes of taking homeopathy. We ran it in everybody’s room at some point.
I’d love to hear what any of you use to cure the flu. What works for you?
Marriage is definitely a vow to cherish. So, when I have date night with my husband, a time I dedicate to strengthen our marriage, I would rather watch a romance movie that reflects the honoring of marriage vows than some silly rom com when boy meets girl, loses girl, boy makes up with girl, but then in the end, I am left hanging. Do they get married or not? Even though it’s fictional, I want to know if they get married! If they don’t get married, I don’t really want to watch it. I do have a place for escapist silly rom coms that don’t involve marriage but that’s only about 5 percent of the time. Usually, I either want to watch a romance movie leading up to marriage, or better yet, a movie that shows romance in marriage, and married people overcoming trials together with each person’s character improving to be more selfless. I also don’t want to watch any movie that mocks marriage, glorifies extramarital affairs, or treats marriage as a prison sentence.
So, I have been searching for and watching romantic movies for great married date nights for years. Therefore, I present to you…Tree of Life Mama’s Top 12+ romantic movies to watch for your married date nights this year! Most, if not all show characters who are already married or get married in the end. I deliberately left off all the Jane Austen movies because all of us already know about those and that they are worth watching, even if they don’t show marriage. These movies are lesser-known. You can watch one of these a month and have some left for next year. Some of these I have already reviewed on the blog. If that’s the case I will link you to the review. If I haven’t already reviewed it here on the blog I give a quick summary below. I will be adding to this list as I learn more so check back often. OK, here we go…
A Vow to Cherish. This movie shows what true married love is all about. It shows a business executive responding nobly when his wife gets a debilitating disease. Ken Howard plays the husband so that’s a plus, because he reminds me of my early 80s tweenhood, as he was the star of a TV series about basketball back then. White Shadow anyone?
2. Expecting a Miracle. This one I review here. It reminds me of my trip to Mexico over 20 years ago with my husband.
3. Marriage Made In Heaven. This is one of Robert Krantz’s movies. He’s a guy devoted to making clean funny family movies. It seems he does it just so he can show off his dancing. So far every movie I’ve watched of his has him as the star, and they always have a dancing scene. It’s clean and funny with an It’s a Wonderful Life angel/mentor.
4. About Hope. This one shows a man who has to choose between wealth, fame, and true love after he finds the Ms. Right he’s always dreamed of. I love that it shows family life, with having dinner together and playing Charades.
5. Faith Hope and Love. Another Robert Kranz movie. It’s about a single father who gets paired up with his daughters’ dance teacher for a dance competition. I’m sure you can guess what happens. She’s a bit scantily clad in the big dance scene which surprised me with the purported wholesome theme.
6. Christmas with the Karountzes. Another Robert Kranz movie with more dancing. It’s hilarious! I review it here.
7. A Match Made in Heaven. I can’t find a trailer for this one so you get the full movie above. It features Olympia Dukakis as a matchmaking mother getting a true love for her son played by John Stamos. For some reason, my husband thought this one was so romantic.
8. Falling to Heaven/Midway to Heaven. It is called by either name. I review it here. The full movie is below. A sweet movie about a widower finding love again. it’s based on a novel by Dean Hughes.
9. A Song of Love. This is one is based on the true story of the marriage of composers Robert and Clara Schuman. It’s lovely but sad so watch if you are in the mood for sad. It stars the award-winning actress Katherine Hepburn. Definitely a classic!
10. Fireproof. Has anyone not seen this? It’s a good one, about how pornography threatens a marriage, even though the male lead, Kirk Cameron, a teen TV star from my day, reminds me of all the immature males I knew in jr high and high school.
13. Loving Leah. I absolutely love this! It’s so tender! It involves the faith tradition of Orthodox Judaism. Here’s my review.
14. Though None Go With Me. This one features Cheryl Ladd! If you don’t know who that is, well, never mind. That just means you are young. Here’s my review. I love the 1940s fashions!
15. American Underdog. Based on a true story about a guy determined to play NFL football.
16. When We Last Spoke. This is the only movie I’ve found so far about a married couple in grandparent mode. Let’s see more of those! Melissa Gilbert of Little House on the Prairie TV show fame (LOL, I started typing “Laura Ingalls Wilder” for her name) plays the grandmother. It has an interesting plot twist at the end and totally shows the deep married love possible between husband and wife who have been married for decades, and how that deep love helps them face trials together.
17. Lost Holiday. This is based on the true story of the Jim and Suzanne Shemwell family. In the movie, Jim and Suzanne, a married couple who were separated, get stuck in the snowy mountains right before Christmas when a snowmobile trip goes wrong.
Then there are the more commonly known ones like Yours Mine and Ours with Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball, and Cheaper By the Dozen, and the modern remakes of those. They are fun but not quite as meaningful as the ones I just listed. I’d love to hear if any of you know of any. Please comment below.
This is a great game to introduce children and adults to well-known and little-known players in the STEM fields through history. Famous people like Marie Curie, George Washington Carver, and Blaise Pascal, and not-so famous people like Hypatia, Al-Khwarizmi, and Sophie Germain. The game has a lot more than those people too. It’s easy to play and the illustrations are beautiful.
The game reminds me a bit of Disney’s Villainous, in that you can attach items to the heroes (or villains in Villainous), and that at the end of your turn you replenish your hand up to 6 cards. It’s a lot simpler than Villainous, though, thank goodness. (I love the game Villainous but it can feel overwhelming to learn at first.)
The goal of the game is to get the most points possible by creating a scientific method timeline with a card for each step of the scientific method: observe, hypothesize, experiment, analyze data, and publish results. As soon as someone creates that timeline the game is almost over, with everyone getting a final turn to even turns up. You create the timeline by playing hero cards that match up in color with a step in the scientific method. Once you get the hang of it, you can play a game in 10-20 minutes. I love that the game comes with a little booklet with mini bios of the heroes to introduce you to all the different characters. Cards that feature items, locations, and special powers spice it up a bit. You could make it super educational by talking about each person or item a bit when that card is played or not, if you are playing with people who don’t like to do that. I love that it features women as well as women and people of color and from different continents, not just Europe and America. I give it 5 out of 5 stars! Pair it with a picture book about one of these people to give you that perfect harmonizing #bookandagameaday feeling. Many of these people have picture book biographies about them so that would be easy.
Are you addicted to sugar? Take this quiz in the photo above. Dr. Annette Bosworth M.D., aka Dr. Boz, is in the photo. She says she got the test from Dr. Becky Fitness. If you need more explanation of the questions in the quiz, watch the video with Dr. Boz below.
How did you score?
If you scored 2-3, you have a mild addiction.
If you scored 4-5, you have a moderate addiction.
If you scored 6 or greater, you have a severe addiction.
If you are patting yourself on the back for scoring 1 or below, think about taking the quiz again. This time, substitute the word “carbs” for carbohydrates, whether it’s complex carbs, like whole grains, fruits, and veggies, or refined carbs, like white bread and white pasta. You may not be addicted to white sugar, but are you addicted to carbs? If you scored 5 or more, you may be addicted to carbs.
Why does it matter?
The bitter truth about sugar is that it can lead to addiction, which involves too much insulin in the body, aka, hyperinsulinemia, which can cause all of the following diseases in the image below. The same is true for addiction to carbs. Whether it’s addiction to food with white sugar, like candy, or food full of complex carbs, like brown rice, lentils, and sweet potatoes, the end result is the same, hyperinsulinemia, the plague of prosperity.
If you want help with your sugar addiction, please take my March 2024 Kick the Cravings to the Curb Keto Class. If you engage in the class and follow the guidelines, you will get the “chemistry set” Dr. Boz talks about in the video that will allow you to easily resist sugar and/or carbs. I’m giving away one free registration to the class. Go here to get all the details and comment to be entered into the random drawing. Deadline to enter the drawing is Friday 3/1/24 midnight MST. Early bird deadline to save $300 on the course is Saturday 3/2/24.
As part of the upcoming RootsTech event later this week, the RootsTech has announced publication of the RootsTech Favorite Family Recipes Cookbook.
Here’s what the team says:
“Over the last 8 months we’ve collected the most heartfelt and delectable family recipes from all over the world to create the RootsTech Global Family Recipes Cookbook! This cookbook contains over 150 recipes that have been passed down for generations and includes all the family stories and photos behind the recipes themselves. We want to share this cookbook with you!
“Register for RootsTech online today and we’ll send you the free e-cookbook on Feb 29.
“Physical copies of the cookbook will be made available for purchase in the coming months (make sure you are subscribed to the RootsTech email list here to stay informed).”
Register for RootsTech here. Online participation is free, in person participation involves a cost. Happy cooking and baking!
It’s still February, sigh, and we woke up to snow. Cabin fever is definitely a probable situation for most of us. Hygge definitely helps with that. Here is another thing to help. I’m sharing today about ways to entertain children indoors. Even though my youngest child is 14, I’m still interested in the topic of how to entertain children, as I teach two weekly classes for children under 12 at my homeschool co-op. My co-mentors and I hope to do more than entertain the children, we also aspire to educate them. I always want the class to be fun and educational, so these ideas will help. My grandchildren visit me more than once a week so I’m always thinking about what do with them when they come. My goal is to read at least one picture book and play at least one game with them. We actually did three picture books last week, played with our family’s wooden train set, and played two games, so that was a success!
I also love the super-sized Bates family, of whom Erin Bates Paine, is a part of. So, I love that Erin shared a video last fall of “Top 5 Ways to Entertain Kids.” I’ve listed the 5 things below, and at the very bottom of this post I put the video.
#1. Audiobooks. Erin specifically mentions the Your Story Hour series. I discovered these when my children were young, and yes, they are a bit cheesy, but I still like them. I used to get them from the public library. If I were to do it over again, I would definitely invest in them to keep. You can find these on amazon, or at the website yourstoryhour.org.
I also recommend these other two resources:
-Jim Weiss’s stories. Jim is a master storyteller. He has recordings that span lots of topics, including history, fables, fairy tales, classics, and more! Go here to learn more.
-Adventures in Odyssey from Focus on the Family, here.
-Focus on the Family Radio Theatre here. On a magical glorious day about seven years ago, I found the FOF Narnia set while thrifting in Phoenix, AZ. All the books in the Narnia series, dramatized with different voices and orchestral music. It was brand new, still in the shrink-wrap! So, no scratches on the CDs. What a treasure! My son is listening to it now! I love these!
My children would never sit still like Erin’s in the photo above to listen to CDs, LOL. I would have been afraid to leave the CD player on the floor in the same room with them! Maybe because I had 5 active boys! Any invitation to sit on the floor quietly would have ended in a wrestling match. I kept a CD player in the kitchen so we could listen to things while doing kitchen chores. If playing in the family room, I would play CDs on the computer and let them play with Legos, Tinkertoys, or other building toys while they listened. My daughter has the Yoto system for audiobooks, a sturdy audio file player, but she says she always forgets to keep the thing charged, so that’s just another step for her to do before her children can use it. So now she wants an “old-fashioned” CD player which she is going to get while thrifting, if she remembers. She keeps forgetting to look when she goes.
Photo Credit: amazon.com
#2. Magnatiles. I saw these at my sister’s home over ten years ago and loved them so much I got a set. I couldn’t bear the thought of paying over $80 (the price on amazon at the time for a basic set) so I bought a knock-off called Picasso Tiles for $50. My set gets regular use from the children in my co-op class and from my grandbabies. Like Erin says, these can be pricey but so worth it. She says to look for them on sale on Black Friday. They last forever so they are definitely something to invest in with Christmas and birthday gift money. I love that so many fancy expansions/add-ons exist, with themes, like farm or city, or the marble run set. One boy in my class at co-op went through a phase for about four years where these were are all he wanted for Christmas.
#3. Sensory Bins
Erin says her kids looooove these items. She gets them from this company here. I had never heard of such a thing but now that I know about them, I want to make some for my grandsons. My mind is going wild with the possibilities of themes like animals or baking or construction vehicles. These would go so well with the Spark Station/Closet, which I talk about over here. You can go over here to learn how to make your own. My number one use for these would be when I would want to read aloud to children from chapter books and want them listening and keeping hands busy.
#4. Paper Crafts
This is a sweet idea but I can see that it might not work for all children. Not all children like to draw. Erin says her children love to draw buildings and people and cut them out and make towns out of them. I know Erin’s oldest child loves to draw, he probably set the example for his younger sisters to love drawing, so I can see that this would work for them.
Image Credit: amazon.com
#5. Favorite Shows as a Family
Erin says they only watch screens about once a week or every other week. They only watch character-building shows, shows about God, so I’m assuming she means scripture-themed shows, or something about nature. Owlegories is one of the shows she mentions. You can get the rest of her five recommended shows at the end of this video below, around the 10:13 mark.
Sensory bins are a great, screen-free way to entertain children. They involve different objects of different textures for children to explore and create different play scenes. Some involve playdough, but if that’s not what you want, you can ditch the playdough and do something else. You can buy them or make them yourself. Here a few DIY videos to get you started. I love the idea of doing themed sensory bins, like construction vehicles or farm animals or babies or bugs, etc.
I want to make some of these for my grandsons, and when I do, I will definitely set up some boundaries. as these are huge potential mess-makers! They definitely won’t be available at any and all times. I might just leave out most of the little pieces and focus on play dough and figurines from amazon, Dollar Tree, or Hobby Lobby, and do play dough kits, not sensory kits. The sensory kits are starting to give me sensory overload, just thinking about them, LOL. These look perfect for putting in a Spark Station/Closet, and only getting out at special times, such as when you are homeschooling/having structured family learning time, and helping older siblings with schoolwork, or reading aloud time. You can read about the Spark Station/Closet here or here.
RootsTech, the world’s largest family history event, is almost here! I hope you join in some way, either virtual or in person. It all starts this coming Thursday, Leap Day, February 29, 2024. You can watch the virtual classes for free. In-person classes do have a cost, but it’s all worth it. It’s all so fun and enlightening! I love this annual event that combines technology with family history. I’ve never been in person, because of time constraints, but even just watching the classes online fills me up. I learn about new apps and websites to help in my family history research, I learn new research skills, and I get inspired to learn even more about my ancestors and collateral lines. The Family Discovery Day for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on Saturday, is always especially wonderful. With classes for beginners to experts, members of The Church or not, there is something for everyone! Just scan the QR codes you see on this screen if you want to register and enjoy learning about your roots!
Some of the classes are recorded, like this one below from last year. You can watch all the archived videos here, if you want to get that RootsTech vibe before it starts Thursday and keep it going all year round. They bring me so much joy!
I love using board games for schooling. I use them at home with my own children and at my homeschool co-op, as shown above. In that photo I am using Concept Kids: Animals. That’s one of my favorite games to play with my grandson. You can read my review of it here. Here are some of the games I’ve used for my 6-7-year-olds at my homeschool co-op. Sometimes I use these as gathering activities, and sometimes I use them just for independent play stations. Most of the time that I use board games, I introduce them as a gathering activity so that all the children know how to play them, before unleashing them as a play station. I have found most of these while thrifting.
The video below shows Ben, a homeschooling dad, and founder of theperfectboardgame.com, showing three lessons that board games teach us that schools don’t. Then the video below that shows some of his favorite educational board games.
For Hedbanz, which is just a repacking of “20 Questions,” I like to find customized cards online, always free, of seasonal and/or holiday-themed words, like these ones I found for Valentine’s Day.
Thinkfun is a great resource for educational games. I often see that brand of games at thrift stores and pick them up there, like the game to the right. The 6-7 year olds can do the easier challenges in this game. It has different levels. Even my 5-year-old grandson loves this game! They kiddos also enjoy Gravity Maze by Thinkfun as well.
If you want more info on using games in school, check out my slides here and go here to read more about different games for homeschooling.
Here’s what we are currently doing for our February Morning Basket time. This is a typical homeschool morning for us. If you don’t know what Morning Basket time is, go here. This is our routine for homeschooling after we have done our Morning Devotional and breakfast. Morning Devotional is where we as a family study the scriptures together, our “Come Follow Christ” study time where we do personal scripture reading, journal writing, and then as a family we read together the assigned reading that is in The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. Breakfast is breakfast which needs no further explanation.
At this point, I only have two children who I am homeschooling, ages 18 and 14. The 18-year-old just got accepted to college on scholarship! She hasn’t been part of our Morning Basket for over a year now as she is pursuing her self-directed scholar studies. So, it’s just the 14-year-old that I’m homeschooling. So, keep that in mind as you see what I use below. If I had younger children I would definitely use books that appeal more to younger children.
First we read a picture book. You are never too old for a picture book! We can all learn a lot from reading picture books on a regular basis. I love, love, love picture books because they can pack a lot of information and beautiful pictures in a small little package, leaving me feel so satisfied at the end, if it’s the right kind of picture book. Picture book biographies are my absolute favorite type of picture book. I use the lists I created over here on my other web site, Christian Family Read-alouds and Traditions, to pick books. I like to pick at least one book that goes with the month and/or season. The books below are examples. Then at the end of Morning Basket I like to do one that is a picture book biography that inspires us to heed the call to create or invent something. More on that at the end. The Ballad of Valentine, shown below, is an example of a book I used this month of February. It’s a funny story about just how far someone will go to express love to a valentine. I also love to find humorous books to brighten up the wintry mornings. Sometimes I can even fit it three picture books in a morning. If I can fit in three I will do one seasonal, one seasonal and/or funny, like this one, and one picture book biography.
(Image Credits below are from amazon.com and goodreads.com)
Then we go through the following books pictured below. My 30-year-old son gave the family the book shown below several years ago for Christmas.
It’s so fun! I’ve decided to read a little bit every day for our MB. I can’t even say we do a page a day because sometimes the pages are so detailed it’s overwhelming and we can’t fit a whole page into Morning Basket (in an hour’s time, with the other stuff). I love that the author uses common words like big, small, hole, box, boat, thing, holder, cleaner, etc. to explain science and technology concepts. I love this book! I have a bachelor’s degree in science, so I studied chemistry and physics in college, but I can’t remember what elements are used for what, like sulphur and polonium. This book has a chart for the periodic table that explains each element in very simple terms. I love it!
Below is a list copied and pasted from amazon showing more of what the book explains:
food-heating radio boxes (microwaves)
tall roads (bridges)
computer buildings (datacenters)
the shared space house (the International Space Station)
the other worlds around the sun (the solar system)
the big flat rocks we live on (tectonic plates)
the pieces everything is made of (the periodic table)
planes with turning wings (helicopters)
boxes that make clothes smell better (washers and dryers)
the bags of stuff inside you (cells)
Right now, we are reading about one or two elements a day presented on the periodic table in that book. It doesn’t show the names though, just phrases like “thing that is in a salt shaker” for sodium. So, because I haven’t memorized the periodic table, to find out what that element is, we have to go to the periodic table in the book shown below. Then we read the two-page spread for that element in the book below.
Then we read the shorter description of the element in this cartoon-y book below. For some reason, it skips over krypton. Go figure.
Then we do Action Bible. After doing one story a day for over a year, we are almost done with this book! We listen to the narration using the Audible version. When we finish this we will replace it with some other scripture storybook, I haven’t decided what.
We started the above book before Christmas. It’s very thick and will take us a long time to get through. Maybe we will be done by Easter? It’s the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and her husband Joseph, starting well before the Nativity. I got it at the public library and had to return it last December, when we started it, but I was totally OK with that as God led me to find a copy while I was out thrifting for only $3! So, I snagged it and can keep it forever! Yay! It’s very good! I love how it puts me into Jewish culture before Jesus’ birth, helping to understand the life and times of Mary and Joseph, and the politics of the time.
That covers some science, religion, and literature for the day. Then we get some political history in with a few pages in the book below.
It’s so interesting!!! I knew some about some of the stuff but not all. Fascinating!
Sometimes if we have time, we do a Mad Lib from the book below. My son enjoys these because he is in a Shakespeare class right now at our homeschool co-op. We take turns being the writer and the word-giver. So he is learning parts of speech with this.
Then we wrap up with another picture book, like this one below. I just love reading about real people who overcame obstacles to invent things and/or pursue a passion, like Leo Fender, shown below, who invented the Telecaster and Stratocaster guitars. So, this is also some history for the day. You can see lists of my favorite picture book biographies here, and over here at my other website, under the October heading, over here, in the Fall section. Scroll down to the October heading to see it.
That takes an hour, so that’s it! I’ve committed to my son that I will only take an hour. We then stop looking at the books while being on the soft comfy couches in the living room and move to the dining room table. We then play a board game, for up to 30 minutes, and then he moves on to math and his other studies.
You might ask, does he really just sit or lie on the couch, listening to you read the whole time, being still? Sometimes he does if he was up late the night before, and then went to his morning religion class (seminary) but other times, he has more energy and wants to be doing stuff with his hands. I used to let him play a billiard video game on the iPad but I really prefer him to do non-digital stuff so I’ve been having do any or all of the following.
He can either play with something like these things while he listens:
or/also he can draw using these books, in a dedicated sketchbook that is for homeschooling.
Some of his drawings from these books are below. I feel strongly about teaching my children how to draw. I have done with all of them, some more than others. It exercises the brain and helps them grow in confidence as they learn to produce recognizable sketches. Being able to communicate visually is a valuable skill! Plus, it’s fun! These are simple enough drawings that he can draw them while listening to me.
Sketching and seeing my son sketch just makes me happy! I like the books below even better though because they break the sketching down into steps better, whereas the Draw Cute series don’t always have steps. Public libraries have scads of how-to-draw books you can enjoy! Look for them while thrifting too.
Tree of Life Mothering 