I used to buy planner refills every January to use in the fancy schmancy Franklin Covey planner. which I bought while in college. Sometimes the January budget was too pinched and I couldn’t afford to pay out the $$ for that. Then I found out from my friend Becky that I could make my own planner pages like she did, by printing her templates that she shared with me, then gluing the month pages on cardstock.
Then I started journaling every day when I came into the Eternal Warriors program. I discovered that I liked using notebooks from Ross Dress for Less that had stiff covers and coil binding. The covers were always pretty and the price was less than $4 a book. I would go through about 1 a month. I used these journals as planners as well. I love the coil binding because 1) that allows me to turn a cover over and have the notebook life flat, and 2) I can clip my pen onto the coil, and it stays put, because otherwise I lose my pen. I still use this method. Every week I make “week at a glance” pages by drawing six columns, for the days of Monday to Saturday, with the dates at the top, to make this notebook a combination planner and journal. I use this notebook to take notes at any meetings or conferences I attend as well.
Then Ross stopped stocking those pretty notebooks, I suppose because of the current supply-chain issues. After three months of having to settle for blank sketchbooks I realized these generic books were actually better for me. I realized it was OK to write on blank pages without lines. I like customizing the covers with beautiful images and text that I cut out from Deseret Book catalogs, and magazines published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I make some pages into scheduling pages, some pages where I write down inspiration as I pray, and some pages where I write my journal pages and my letters to God.
If you want to do the same, here’s how to do it:
Buy a black-covered sketchbook from Walmart or Ross, with blank pages.
Gather some old magazines and catalogs.
Cut out images and text.
Play around with the images by arranging them on the covers, both front and back, till you get what you really love.
Use packing tape to seal the images to the covers, with enough length to wrap over to the other side of the cover. I even cut out poems too and tape those to the inside of the covers. Do it however you want!
Every week (for me it’s on Sunday) use a two-page-spread to make six columns, three on each side, with the following headings: Mon, Tues, and Wed on the left-hand page, and Thur, Fri, and Sat on the right hand page. Put the date next to the day of the week. I make a different page for Sunday, with all its own stuff planned out. Draw a horizontal line under each date. Then draw a horizontal line that goes across the page and meets up with the fourth or fifth coil from the bottom. Then write headings of things you do every week. For me it’s: Computer/Email, Things to Blog About, People to Call/Text, Things to Buy, Errands/Projects, and then People to Pray for and Things to Talk About with DH. See image below.
Then fill all the columns in with your to-do list, with times written on the left-hand side of each column. I always add the dinner menu for each night, plus a Sunday dinner plan, squeezed in the bottom of Saturday’s column. Keep your planner handy and refer to it often! I use mine as my compass. It’s amazing what you do when it’s written down and looked at often!
If you’ve ever longed to see the balance of power of the sexes in life, watch this video. If you’ve ever felt like there’s more to the story of the Creation, because it seemingly lacks a womanly touch, please watch this video. If you’ve ever felt an inkling that the union of male and female is divine, watch this video. It’s fascinating! I’ve included the presenter’s other videos below.
We got some snow before and after Christmas, but so far January has been rather without it. We can always enjoy the snow in picture books though, right? So here are a bunch of books to help you celebrate snow, even if you lack the real stuff. Plus I’ve got books here about community in winter, finding light in dark nights, MLK Jr. Day, and Resolutions/Goals/Dreams for the New Year.
This one follows a family through the whole year as they walk through a park. It sounds like a great book to inspire walking with Christ the whole year through.
This one is from my childhood! I have such fond memories of my mom reading it to us.
Did you know even dogs can accomplish goals? Balto is a real dog who raced through the snow to deliver medicine to a sick child.
This last one shown below is actually a chapter book, but it does have a few pictures interspersed within. It’s a delightful story of a family that has an annual tradition of making their own ice skating pond. What a beautiful story of family and friends gathering in the winter to enjoy skating. This is one of my favorite books I remember reading aloud years ago to my older kiddos during dark wintry nights while they cleaned up the kitchen after dinner. It’s time to read this aloud to the younger ones!
Having four kiddos out of the nest often makes me melancholy, wishing I could go back in time. If I could do it all over again I would play more games, sing more songs, and tell more stories for my homeschooling, with those older ones. Alas, I can’t bring time back. So I’m gameschooling every day to make up for those regrets.
This week I’m excited to share the game Snake Oil with you, after playing it with my youngest two. It’s a super fun game that flexes your language arts and acting muscles.
The goal is to be the best salesman. Each salesman win cards by persuading the person who plays the customer that he or she needs your item you are selling. The customer draws a card from the customer deck. These cards say things like “rock star,” “cowboy,” “Santa,” “prison guard,” or “pro wrestler.” Then the salesman uses two of the cards in his or her or hand, combining the two nouns to create an item you think the customer, with that specific character type, needs. The customer hears every salesman’s sales pitch and then decides who gets his or her vote.
It’s such a simple idea that opens up your time and space for lots of laughter. It’s interesting to hear what the different personalities come up with. I ended up winning with my “banana horn” that I sold to Santa, and my “closet alligator” for the prison guard, plus more that I don’t remember. I love this game because it’s so easy to learn, it moves quickly, and helps you get to know people. So I give it 5 out of 5 stars!
I used some conversation starters from Jennifer Flanders of flandersfamily.info for our Christmas Eve Bethlehem Supper. We ate at my mom’s, with her beautiful place settings and tablecloth. When she wasn’t looking, I slipped one of these starters under each of the plates. Imagine her surprise when I announced there was a question under each plate. “There is?” she asked. Yeah, when you’re a mom, few if any around the dinner table surprises exist, LOL! We had a lot of enjoyment with our ensuing conversation as we went around the table, each of us answering a question. I allowed people to trade the one in if they didn’t like it and pick one they wanted. I learned new things about my son-in-law, future daughter-in-law and all the others there.
I shared the idea of these starters with some friends and one of them told me how much she enjoyed them. She said having discussion questions helps her family of 3 teen/20ish boys avoid potty humor at the table. She then downloaded more from the site and cut them up and put them in a box by her dining room table.
I’ve decided to do the same and then slip one under our plates for everyday dinners, not just on Christmas Eve. I’m going to do the same with all the others on Jennifer’s site. Do you want to do the same? Here’s the link to all of them.
Here are some homeopathy/holistic health based questions from Paola Brown over here. They’re so beautiful and thought provoking!
Sarah Mackenzie has some book-based discussion questions over here. Just scroll down under the heading, “My 2021 Year in Reading.”
Then if you use the book below, there’s one question on each page you can use for conversation prompts. I’m using them for our Sunday journal writing prompts when we we do our homechurching for the third hour, after sacrament meeting and the second hour meeting. But you could totally do them for dinner, if you have people who like to share personal, spiritual things with each other. Mine don’t so that’s why I’m using them as journal-writing prompts.
So for 2022 my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is studying the Old Testament. So we just studied the Creation and the Fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis, as well as in the Pearl of Great Price.
The Fall used to be one of those things that totally confused me as a teen. Why did God give Adam and Eve two different competing commandments? That didn’t seem fair, according to my pubescent brain that still only thought in black and white. Why did Adam and Eve have to disobey a commandment in order for the plan of salvation to move forward? Isn’t that saying it’s OK to disobey as long as you get the end result you want?
The answers have slowly come as I’ve grown up. Some of the parts of the answer comes from the Book of Mormon, for 2 Nephi 2:22-26 says:
22 And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end.
23 And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin.
24 But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.
25 Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.
26 And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given.
Part of the answer came from this talk given by Beverly Campbell, linked over here. She later developed this talk into a whole book. If you haven’t read it, please go read the talk as a Cliffs Notes summary of the book.
I love that she points out that Eve’s choice to eat of the fruit was a courageous choice. Eve gave up her comfort of living in a paradise, in order to ultimately be more free, to be liberated of her static, perfect, yet boring state, so that she, and all of us, could receive all that Heavenly Father has in store for us, to become like Him. We have to have a body, knowledge of good and evil, and family, to become like God. We couldn’t have all of that unless they partook of the fruit.
I wrote the following in my book, Tree of Life Mothering Vol. 1:
“…much of the domination of women and the resulting need for the feminist movement came from the historical misunderstanding of Eve’s choice to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Many, many people have ‘blamed’ her for the condition of the world, the perceived mess involved in this imperfect mortal world, and transferred this blame to all women. On the contrary, she is not to be blamed, for without her, we would not even be born. She is to be praised. She was the first stateswoman, and, remarkably, a tree is involved in her dramatic act.”
I have a friend who recently said, “I used to think the feminists were a bunch of angry women. Then I got married and had children. Now I understand what they were talking about!”
I know, right?!
There’s nothing like being a mom to finally understand the universal plight of women and to see why some women felt a need for “women’s liberation.” I had read in a college textbook B.C. (before children) that women all over the world and throughout time have done most of the world’s menial work, without pay or recognition. This wasn’t even a “Women’s Studies” textbook. I think it was a textbook about the environment. Anyway, it wasn’t until after I had children that I resonated with that statement. Suddenly I was thrust into a world where no adults recognized what I did, at all hours of the day and night, except for once a year in May, which is hardly commensurate for all my work. All of you moms reading this know what I’m talking about.
Anyhoo, here is more from my book (click on the tab “The Book” above, then Chapter 3 if you want the endnotes, i.e., the sources referenced to by the superscript numbers):
The original tree of life is the Tree of Life that grew in the Garden of Eden. We read in Genesis 2:9, “And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”
The Bible also tells us in Genesis 2:17 that God told Adam and Eve, “Of all the trees in the Garden of Eden, thou mayest freely eat, but of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” So they were told they could freely eat of all the trees, except for the Tree of Knowledge. If they ate fruit from that tree, they would surely die.
Adam and Eve had also been commanded to be fruitful and multiply (in Genesis 1:28), in other words, to have children. There was a glitch, though. They could not have children in this paradisiacal state. The Bible does not tell us why. It is not because sex is unclean and therefore could not happen in the Garden of Eden. Sex is part of God’s plan for the purpose of uniting husband and wife and creating offspring, and therefore is clean and wholesome when performed in the bonds of marriage. It is not because Adam and Eve were not married, for Joseph Smith told us that Adam and Eve were married in the Garden of Eden. In 1835 his exact words were “marriage was an institution of heaven, instituted in the Garden of Eden.”9 Joseph Fielding Smith corroborated this statement. He said, “The transgression of Adam did not involve sex sin as some falsely believe and teach. Adam and Eve were married by the Lord while they were yet immortal beings in the Garden of Eden and before death entered the world.”10
So the Bible does not tell us exactly why Adam and Eve could not have children in the Garden of Eden. We know they were married and therefore could have children and be morally clean. The Book of Mormon contains this statement by Father Lehi about Adam and Eve (see the scriptures above, 2 Nephi 2:22-23).
So, for some reason, procreation could not happen in this static, immortal condition of the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve therefore faced two choices:
1. Not eat the fruit, and therefore remain forever in the garden, and not have children, or
2. To eat the fruit, and therefore die (be evicted from the garden/God’s presence, which is spiritual death, and also be subject to physical death). But, there was some good news. The good news was that they could then have children, and ultimately have the opportunity to become as God is because they would have knowledge of good and evil.12
President Joseph Fielding Smith wrote, “The Lord said to Adam that if he wished to remain as he was in the garden, then he was not to eat the fruit, but if he desired to eat it and partake of death he was at liberty to do so.”13 This concept is not widely understood. It adds a key element to the story of the Garden of Eden, to the comprehension of why the Fall was a good thing and actually a necessary thing. Another way of looking at it is to say that God told Adam and Eve that if they wanted to stay in the garden, they were not to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.
The flip side of this statement by President Smith is that if they wanted to leave the garden, then eating of the fruit was necessary. I believe that Eve wanted to further the plan of salvation for Heavenly Father’s children. As Joseph Fielding Smith also explained, “This was a transgression of the law, but not a sin in the strict sense, for it was some thing that Adam and Eve had to do!”14
This understanding is supported by two insights from Beverly Campbell in the book Eve and the Choice Made in Eden. Campbell spoke to a scholar of the Hebrew language, Dr. Nehama Aschkenasy. Her conversations revealed that the full meanings of two words in the Bible, command, and beguile, have been lost in the translation process of the Old Testament from its original Hebrew language. By understanding the full meaning of these two words, we gain enormous light to better understand the partaking of the fruit as a noble step taken by Eve and Adam, not a sin.
Aschkenasy explained to Campbell that the translation of the word command as used in the Creation story was from a “different verb form, whose usage connotes a strong, severe warning, perhaps a statement of law, that was possibly temporary in nature, so that at some future, unspecified time it might not apply.”15 To help us understand this idea, Campbell gives the example of parents telling a child not to touch a hot stove or cross a street alone. When parents tell their children not to do these things, are they telling the child never, ever to do these things for the child’s whole life? No, of course not. The prohibition holds until the child is ready with full understanding and maturity to deal with hot stoves or watching for traffic.
The same holds true for the commandment to Adam and Eve about not eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. There would be a time when, with greater light of the consequences of their actions, the choice to partake of the fruit would be a good thing. Not just a casual “good thing,” as Martha Stewart says, but really, the best, most important thing that they could do, for it furthered the plan of salvation for the all of the spirit sons and daughters of our Heavenly Parents by allowing these spirits to gain mortal bodies and be tested. The ramifications were so great, however, that this choice had to be a choice deliberately made by Adam and Eve. This is why in Moses we read that Heavenly Father told Adam and Eve, “nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself.”16
Aschkenasy also examined the original meaning in Hebrew of the word that has been translated to beguile in the English King James Bible. It does not mean “to deceive,” but instead “it indicates an intense multilevel experience which evokes great emotional, psychological and/or spiritual trauma.”17
Satan’s offer to Eve to eat of the fruit did not result in him tricking her, and in him thwarting Heavenly Father’s Plan. Rather, Satan acted as an unwitting catalyst in furthering the Plan. He offered the fruit to her, hoping she would partake because he wanted her to die or be separated from God. Of course, this was not according to the lie he told her. He told her, “Ye shall not die, but shall be as the gods, knowing good from evil.” Here is the half-truth. She could become as the gods, by knowing good from evil, but he did not mention all the pain, suffering, and time it would take, not to mention the fact that she would die and be separated from God for a time. Nevertheless, she knew it was the best choice.
I believe that she partook because she had studied the situation and was fully aware of the consequences. I am guessing that she must have done this by communication with God. Perhaps you can think of some deal offered to you that you accepted, not because of what some other guy was telling you, which might not be true, but because you knew for yourself after much study and prayer what you were going to get out of it. For example, you didn’t buy the used car because of the shifty salesman’s hype, but because you read Consumer Reports and recognized the good deal.
This is akin to Eve’s story. She wanted to courageously further the plan of salvation by ushering in mortality, so that all of God’s spirit children could have joy, so they could be “free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon. . .”18 Most stunningly, Eve was the very first human rights activist and advocate for women’s liberation, as well as men’s! Her name should be praised forever more. She was the first stateswoman, as she took the first step to improve the state or condition of all mankind, with eternal consequences.
As explained earlier, this bringing forth of children could not have happened in the Garden of Eden. President Joseph Fielding Smith said, “He (Adam) partook of that fruit for one good reason, and that was to open the door to bring you and me and everyone else into this world, for Adam and Eve could have remained in the Garden of Eden; they could have been there to this day, if Eve hadn’t done something.”19
Eve demonstrated public virtue, a willingness to do what was best for everyone involved, not just herself, by sacrificing her own personal comfort if she selfishly stayed complacently in paradise. She gave up her own contentment for the joy of all the human race. As Robert L. Millet said, “Because the Fall (like the Creation and the Atonement) is one of the three pillars of eternity, and because mortality, death, human experience, sin, and thus the need for redemption grow out of the Fall, we look upon what Adam and Eve did with great appreciation rather than with disdain.”20
Millet quotes two other authors as saying, “The fall had a twofold direction—downward, yet forward. It brought man into the world and set his feet upon progression’s highway.”21 As Enoch declared, “Because that Adam fell, we are.”22 No wonder Eve is glorious and exalted. She has a rightful place in the Celestial Kingdom. According to Doctrine and Covenants 137:5, Adam has attained the glory of the Celestial Kingdom. Eve would have to be there also, since one can only go there sealed in marriage to a husband or wife.23
After Adam and Eve partook of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, their bodies became mortal, subject to death and sin, and they were separated from God. This is the Fall of Adam. At this point, it would not have been a good thing to follow the invitation to eat of the Tree of Life, because then they would have lived forever in their fallen state, separated from God eternally. Therefore, God placed cherubim and a flaming sword before the Tree of Life to keep them from eating of the fruit.24
Adam and Eve were sent from the garden into a world full of weeds and were told to work for fruit, both the fruit of the earth, and the fruit of the womb. In latter-day scripture we learn that they were taught that a savior would come, Jesus Christ, to redeem them and allow them to return to Heavenly Father’s presence. “And in that day the Holy Ghost fell upon Adam, which beareth record of the Father and the Son, saying: I am the Only Begotten of the Father from the beginning, henceforth and forever, that as thou hast fallen thou mayest be redeemed, and all mankind, even as many as will.”25 Thus Adam and Eve found a new, symbolic Tree of Life from which they could partake. This is the personal, metaphoric Tree of Life which each of us, sometimes unknowingly, is searching for; the only source of eternal life and joy.
For my Relief Society meeting today we discussed these two talks from General Conference:
A House of Sequential Order by Vai Sikahema (you can read it here)
and
One Percent Better by Michael Dunn. You can read it here.
Those are great talks to begin 2022!
The RS teacher mentioned a book I’ve never heard of before, shown above. She says that she’s heard that General Authorities hand it out to everyone they can, like a missionary tract. So I decided to add it to my “to-read” list for the new year and share the whole list here.
Here’s a description of Planted:
“For all its advances, our secular age has also weakened ties to religious belief and affiliation, and Latter-day Saints have not been immune. In recent years, many faithful Church members have encountered challenging aspects of Church history, belief, or practice. Feeling isolated, alienated, or misled, some struggle to stay. Some simply leave. Many search for a reliable and faithful place to work through their questions. The abundance of information online can leave them frustrated. Planted offers those who struggle—and those who love them—practical ways to stay planted in the gospel of Jesus Christ.”- deseretbook.com
“An entirely honest and entirely affirming treatment of the challenges facing LDS believer. Mason brings a historian’s training and sophistication together with a disciple’s compassion and sensitivity to bear on an urgent topic. The result is a provocative and inspiring framework for faith.”—Fiona and Terryl Givens, authors of The Crucible of Doubt: Reflections on the Quest for Faith
“Patrick Mason has carefully listened to the diverse community of Latter-day Saints. He has heard the love and the faith as well as the bewilderment and the pain. This book is his moving response. His deeply intelligent call to mutual understanding and his compelling invitation to faith and fellowship have had a transformative effect on me.”—David Holland, associate professor of North American religious history, Harvard Divinity School
Sounds sooooo good right?! I’m going to read it! Who’s with me?
Then someone in the same class today gave me another suggestion by sharing this title below with the class:
Image Credit: scribd.com
Now for some books I started last year (or, ahem, the year before) and didn’t finish:
Then these I found today look so good as well:
Image Credit of the two above: scribd.com
For my homeopathy studies I want to delve into the three volumes of John Henry Clarke’s Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica. The first volume of the three volumes is shown below:
This is the first book I’ve read of the New Year 2022! If you’ve read my blog a lot, you know I love to read Christmas stories in November, December, and January. This is the third our fourth Richard Paul Evans Christmas novel I’ve read this season. It’s one of the better ones. I just love this book!
This is actually the perfect book to top off the Christmas season and start the New Year. That’s because it made me think about the legacy I’m leaving, and what goals I want to set to create that legacy, year by year, and day by day.
At the beginning of the story, James Kier, the main character, has the main goal of making the most money he possibly can, even if he hurts people in the process. His shrewd business practices and meanness leave him with a lot of money but zero friends, a shallow lover who is using him just for his money, and a wife he’s cheating on. Early on in the book, he has the interesting incident of being mistaken for someone else with the same name who dies, so he gets to read his obituary online, along with the comments people say about his character. All negative. One person says he’s a mix of the Grinch, Scrooge, and the Burgermeister from Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town. Ouch! (Remember that guy? He’s the villain in that claymation Christmas special of the 60s. As the oppressively abusive town mayor, he despises everyone and arrests anyone with a toy.)
All those nasty comments are a wake-up call for Kier to repent. What follows is his Christmas List, a list of people for him to apologize to and ask forgiveness from. We see him go to all these people and make amends. It’s fun to “watch” what unfolds as hearts are healed as much as possible with Kier’s newfound generosity.
This is a perfect loose variation of The Christmas Carol, full of transformation, rebuilding marriage and friendships, and redemption. I laughed out loud several times. I listened to it in scribd. That’s how I get so many books “read.” (You too can read a lot of books in scribd. Go here to learn more and sign up.) The narrator in scribd did a wonderful job of different voices for the characters. If you like stories of married love, restoration and happy endings, I think you will like it! I really love that it was about married love for once. All the other RPE Christmas novels I’ve read/listened to so far have been about singles falling in love. So this was a refreshing change.
Ready for a new year of new (and old favorite) board games? Here’s my game of the week for the first week of the New Year 2022: Concept.
A simple name for a simple game!
If you like charades and mental processing of words and images, you are going to love this game! It’s basically picture charades. I played it at a game night with some adult friends and loved it so much I came home and ordered it from amazon. We then played it a few times for gameschooling and then again over the holidays when my older son was home. The goal is win points by guessing words or phrases that the another player gives visual clues for. So it’s like Pictionary, but instead of drawing the clues, you use the icon squares on the board.
These visual clues, all laid out on the board, range from concrete things like colors, sizes, and shapes, to abstract things like emotions, titles, occupations, countries, historic events, and more. For example, look at the image below. What pictures would you choose to tell your opponents to guess “Sherlock Holmes”? The green question mark placed by the blue man indicates “male.” Then the green cubes by the next three clues to the right indicate things that describe that topic of man: “character,” “movie, and “title of book.” The next two rows, with yellow and then blue indicators by them, indicate subtopics.
It might take you a few rounds to get the hang of it, but then after that, like I say, if you love charades and processing of pictures and words, you will love it. I love it because everyone can play at once, either as a clue giver or a guesser, and it gives your brain a workout. Each card of suggested words and phrases has three levels of difficulty. I give it 5 out of 5 stars!
It’s definitely a keeper for your library of games. It even comes in a jr. edition, solely focused on animals! The regular game above is for ages 10 and up, the jr. game below is targeted for under 10, especially for kids who can’t read yet, but the whole family can play it together.
It’s that time of year, when, if you are a mom/housewife/homeschooling mom, life can seem pretty glum. The excitement, bounty and colors of fall are over. The sparkle and anticipation of Christmas are past. What can we look forward to besides the Resurrection? With the cold of winter likely to force most of us inside, unless you have all-season ski passes, it’s good to be reminded of the following. We can look forward to strengthening old or building new family traditions out of ordinary days, eating yummy food, serving others, and reading new books, even in the seemingly blah month of January. It’s all about hygge, folks! If you don’t know what hygge is, go over here. Here are five books to help you as you settle into a hygge winter!
First is the book above. I listened to this one last year. I saved it for every Saturday to listen to while I did chores. Ooh, it’s just delightful! Written by the mother and daughter team of Sally and Sarah Clarkson, it just oozes family togetherness. You can read a semi-review of it here. As I wrote about it over there, it’s like a mashup of the Food Nanny/Bobbsey Twins/the Duggars and the Little Women March family of Louisa May Alcott fame. It has monthly suggestions of family traditions, all Christian-based. You can listen to this as an audiobook in scribd. Learn about scribd here.
Then this book below takes the monthly idea of family traditions even further for moms like me who practice the faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It also has ideas for daily routines involving family prayer, family scripture study, and mealtime.
The top two books pair well together, and so do these next two. The Life Giving Table is also by Sally Clarkson. Again, like The Life Giving Home, it follows a monthly theme, with lots of recipes. If you feel bored by the simple routines of fixing meals, this book will help you recapture mealtime magic. Watch Babette’s Feast, (learn about that movie here) read the above book, and then get more recipes in the book below.
I read of some blogger somewhere who has a child whose goal is to fix all the recipes in the Pioneer Woman cookbook above. This is not a whole foods book, but you can easily adapt the recipes by using whole foods/real foods ingredients and soaking your grains. It’s just so fun to drool over these full-color photos and read Ree Drummond’s comments about all her recipes. Fun, fun, fun! The step-by-step photos and directions make it easy for beginning/children/teen cooks to follow. My own children, even my teen boy, love to use recipes from this book.
Then if you want food for thought, and motivation to give your children food for thought, read the classic above by Jim Trelease, about the benefits of reading aloud to your children. Here’s a video presentation by Mr. Trelease.
Happy hygge-ing this winter to all of you! Winter is not just for Christmas!
![The Truth About Contagion: Exploring Theories of How Disease Spreads by [Sally Fallon Morell]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51wRC7B4WjL._SX260_.jpg)
![The Christmas List: A Novel by [Richard Paul Evans]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41uCUCVFbQL.jpg)
Tree of Life Mothering 