I enjoyed watching the above webinar from Ramona Zabriskie and the WifeSavers team. It’s a fun interview that Ramona did with a husband and wife screenwriting team, Todd and Lisa. They teamed up to screenwrite the Hallmark Christmas romance, Holiday for Heroes. This interview is a fun peek into what it’s like to create romance for the screen vs. romance for real life. Both involve overlooking the boring parts and focusing on sacrificing “me” for “we.”
Then here are some more great videos by Ramona below.
I love these videos above and below. You can get the annotated Book of Mormon mentioned in the video above over here. Yes, it’s true that Joseph Smith communicated with prophets from the Bible, like Moses and Elijah, and prophets from the Book of Mormon, not to mention Jesus Christ, our Savior of the world, and Heavenly Father. It’s all truly amazing to think about!
If you haven’t been watching the TV series, The Chosen, you are missing out. I love The Chosen because it helps me know Jesus in a way I never have before. This series portrays Jesus in such a relatable way. I also love the little things I learn about how to be a wife and mom by watching the moms and wives in this series. Watching this show on the Sabbath Day adds to our family’s making the Sabbath a delight.
You can watch all the episodes of The Chosen here, on byutv.org, as well from The Chosen app (find it in your favorite app store). My favorite episode so far is the Wedding at Cana. (Fun side note: one of my homeschooling mama friends and her family appear as extras in the actual wedding scene.)
One of my favorite homeschooling mama authors, Sally Clarkson, just released a new podcast interview with the director of The Chosen, Dallas Jenkins.
I blogged about mothers in picture books last month here in honor of Mother’s Day, so here is my list to honor my favorite picture books featuring fathers. Not all of these books are about fathers and their biological children. Some are about fathers of great causes. Where would we be without courageous men who stood for service, truth, peace, justice, or art and beauty? We owe a debt of gratitude to them. Some of these books are biographical, and some are just fun, simply to celebrate the father-child bond.
This top one is about Charles Mulli. He’s the father to the biggest family in the world, besides God of course. You can go here to read more about him and see how to watch a documentary about him. He’s amazing!
I got to meet the man, Gail Halvorsen, the Candy Bomber, featured in the above book. (I blogged about his 100th birthday party here.) He’s a real life father to five, and a father figure to hundreds, if not thousands, including the little girl, Mercedes, mentioned in the title of this book.This story is all about how a man, the Candy Bomber, gave a little joy to some German children after WW2 by dropping candy parachutes from a plane. My parents are friends with his daughter and her husband, so I found out from the daughter that the Candy Bomber still corresponds with Mercedes.
While we’re talking about WW2 I’ll mention another book relating to it. Thirty Minutes Over Oregon portrays the fascinating story of a Japanese man and father, Nobuo Fujita. He flew a plane over the coast of Oregon, dropping bombs over the Oregon woods. He came back 20 years to apologize, as a father of peace. This story is just such a wonderful, moving story of sorrow, regret, peace-seeking and reconciliation.
I just love how this simple picture book shows the father bird going around town looking for a better nest to please mama bird before she has her babies. It’s a sweet story of traditional male and female roles.
Emmanuel’s Dream tells of a young man who raised awareness of people with disabilities by biking 400 miles across Africa with only one leg.
Booker T. Washington’s story of building a school from the ground up, as told in the picture book above, is so inspiring!
The special bond that can be created between father and child out in nature shines through in Owl Moon.
Here’s to Mr. Rogers, the father of all Gen. Xers. He helped us feel safe being with and expressing our feelings.
I just love this story told from a child’s perspective about her father, who happens to be the father of American poetry, Robert Frost. Delightful!
The Crayon Man tells about the father of Crayola Crayons, Edwin Binney. Some of you are too young to have the phrase “Binney and Smith” mean anything to you, but if that phrase rings a bell, you will learn the history behind it by reading this adorable picture book.
Did you know that John Newbery, who the Newbery Medal is named after, fought to establish the niche of children’s books? Before him, children’s books weren’t really a thing.
I can’t have a list about fathers without the Founding Fathers of the United States. The one above is the true story of how two of the most famous ones, John and Tom, had a long-standing feud.
Then this one is about another famous Founding Father, Ben Franklin, and his friend Noah Webster, the father of American English. They attempted to start a new alphabet.
Louis Braille, the father of the Braille Alphabet, persisted to his task, because he wanted blind people to be able to read. I just love his story found in the book below.
This one is about a grandfather, called Pop Pop, and grandson enjoying cooking together.
George Washington Carver is one of the fathers of American agriculture, and peanut promotion. He thought the peanut was the best food ever and found over 100 ways to use it. This picture book tells his soul-stirring journey of rising from slave life to being an esteemed scientist.
Peter Roget is the father of the thesaurus. I love the team of Jen Bryant and Melissa Sweet. Melissa’s collage illustrations are just so fun!
We can’t forget George Washington, the father of the USA! This is my favorite picture book on George because of Cheryl Harness’ gorgeous watercolor illustrations, outlined in ink. I also love all the classic, great stories of George that go with the pictures, showing his noble character. But if you are reading this to kids under 12, don’t bother to read every single word. It’s too much for them. All the words and all the details on the maps are for adults. Check out Cheryl’s other picture book biographies, of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. They are all fabulous!
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I just found a Little Free Library in my neighborhood! This picture book tells the story of the guy who started them.
A simple story about the simple delights of motorcycling with dad.
This one’s about the fathers of day glo colors! Haven’t you always wondered where neon paint came from? OK probably not, LOL, but go ahead and learn anyway. These two brothers invented them. It’s fun that the publisher used three Day-Glo colors: Saturn Yellow, Fire Orange, and Signal Green to create the book.
Who’s the father of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade puppets? Read this book to find out! So fun!
Here’s the story of Ezra Jack Keats, the father of the picture book, A Snowy Day. He was the first man to feature a black boy as the protagonist in a picture book.
How about learning of the life of the father of the Lord of the Rings?
Ernest Everett Just was a cell biologist. I’d never heard of him until I heard of this book. He overcame systemic racism to discover and share the wonders of the tiny world of the cell.
If you’ve ever enjoyed playing with a super soaker water gun, you were enjoying the brain child of Lonnie Johnson. This book tells the whole story of that invention.
A Day’s Work is a grandfather story. I love stories of common life.
As a monk, Gregor Mendel never fathered any children but he fathered the modern study of genetics. Because of him, high school students everywhere get to do Punnett squares to predict the traits of fruit flies.
Manjhi was a real person who showed such amazing devotion to his deceased wife and his neighbors. If you read only one book on this list, please read this one. Manjhi wanted to improve life for his fellowmen by making a shortcut to the city so they could all have quick access to easier shopping and proper medical care. His story of diligence to one cause, carving a tunnel through a mountain, for two decades, gives us all no excuses.
Happy reading about fatherhood, both literal and spiritual! May we celebrate the goodness of fathering children and causes with these books.
I just love the Book of Mormon scripture that says that Lehi and his wife Sariah enjoyed reading the history of their forefathers as found in the plates of Laban that Nephi and his brothers brought back from Laban. Because of these writings/scriptures, they were able to learn about the Fall. They were able to teach their children to rejoice regarding Adam and Eve and the Fall.
Jacob 4:3 says:
“Now in this thing we do rejoice; and we labor diligently to engraven these words upon plates, hoping that our beloved brethren and our children will receive them with thankful hearts, and look upon them that they may learn with joy and not with sorrow, neither with contempt, concerning their first parents.” Jacob 4:3
The Book of Mormon has such precious truths regarding the Fall. Here are some of them. I encourage you to read them and watch the video above.
Here are the words from Father Lehi to his children, from 2 Nephi 2:17-30, in The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ:
“17 And I, Lehi, according to the things which I have read, must needs suppose that an aangel of God, according to that which is written, had bfallen from heaven; wherefore, he became a cdevil, having sought that which was evil before God.
18 And because he had fallen from heaven, and had become miserable forever, he asought also the misery of all mankind. Wherefore, he said unto Eve, yea, even that old serpent, who is the devil, who is the father of all blies, wherefore he said: Partake of the forbidden fruit, and ye shall not die, but ye shall be as God, cknowing good and evil.
19 And after Adam and Eve had apartaken of the forbidden fruit they were driven out of the garden of bEden, to till the earth.
20 And they have brought forth children; yea, even the afamily of all the earth.
21 And the days of the children of amen were prolonged, according to the bwill of God, that they might crepent while in the flesh; wherefore, their state became a state of dprobation, and their time was lengthened, according to the commandments which the Lord God gave unto the children of men. For he gave commandment that all men must repent; for he showed unto all men that they were elost, because of the transgression of their parents.
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 achildren; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no bjoy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no csin.
24 But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who aknoweth all things.
25 aAdambfell that men might be; and men care, that they might have djoy.
26 And the aMessiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may bredeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are credeemed from the fall they have become dfree forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the elaw at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given.
27 Wherefore, men are afree according to the bflesh; and call things are dgiven them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to echoosefliberty and eternal glife, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be hmiserable like unto himself.
28 And now, my sons, I would that ye should look to the great aMediator, and hearken unto his great commandments; and be faithful unto his words, and choose eternal life, according to the will of his Holy Spirit;
29 And not choose eternal death, according to the will of the flesh and the aevil which is therein, which giveth the spirit of the devil power to bcaptivate, to bring you down to chell, that he may reign over you in his own kingdom.
30 I have spoken these few words unto you all, my sons, in the last days of my probation; and I have chosen the good part, according to the words of the prophet. And I have none other object save it be the everlasting awelfare of your souls. Amen.”
I just listened to this podcast yesterday as I drove home from hearing Robert Scott Bell (more on that later). It is an interview Tom did with the author of the book above. Communism is not about “spreading the wealth.” It is about force, death, and misery. Please listen and read the book and encourage others, especially the under 40 crowd, to do so. We as a society need to learn the lesson that Communism does not work. Not only does it not work, but it is “the killingest idea ever.” It killed more people than Nazism. Don’t get sucked in by its seductive lies.
We played this game for date night recently. I bought it used for $3 last summer while thrifting and have been waiting to play it for months ever since! I recommend doing it for a married date night with other married couples. Here’s how it works:
The game is based on the book Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus by John Gray PhD. You want at least 2 men and 2 women to play, so at least 2 couples. Three or more couples would be even better. The men play on one team, the women on the other. Each team has its pawn starting on the planet Mars (for the men) and the planet Venus (for the women), on opposite sides of the board. A path goes from the planet to earth for each planet, with many spaces. So the goal is to be the first team to get to earth. If you succeed with answering a card correctly you get to move a space, or more, depending on how well the team answers. If you know yourself well and the others well and can predict their thoughts, chances are you will win.
It’s better of course to play this in person but we played it in Zoom with two couples involving my husband’s siblings and sibling in-laws. So six total. I controlled the board and the drawing of the cards. It’s fun if you can rig up your phone or iPad’s camera to show the board but not needed to play online. When we lived in AZ I was able to do that by attaching our iPad to our chandelier that hung over the dining room table with bungee cords but alas no such chandelier exists in our new Utah home. Darn.
The cards involve 6 categories:
Gender Benders (truths and assumptions about the two genders)
Communication: talking and listening
Island Fantasies: fantasies and other earthly desires
Family Affairs: things involving the players’ family details
In the Flesh: physical intimacy
The Dating Circuit: what your life was like when you dated
Scoring Points: the value men and women give to different things
I instigated the house rule that you can skip any card you don’t like and ask for a new card. You can also choose to go silent on a question. That’s called going to the cave for men and the well for women, based on the book. One of the cards made me blush and might make you blush too! Feel free to go through the stack of cards before and toss out any that are inappropriate, or just skip cards as you play and throw out the ones you don’t like. Some of them are just too personal.
It was lots of fun to hear my in-laws’ comments and see how people thought other people would think. I plan on playing this again many times with different couples just to see what they all think, to get to know them all better, and to just have fun! I’ve seen this game at thrift stores a lot so chances are you can find one too!
This past week for the Come, Follow Me Study we read the scriptures in Doctrine and Covenants 59:9-19 about keeping the Sabbath Day holy. I love that in this section we are given a great promise. God tells us that if we keep the Sabbath Day holy by attending our church meetings, remembering our covenants, and keeping ourselves separate and unspotted from the world, we are promised a HUGE promise.
What is this huge promise? It is that the fulness of the earth will be ours. What does this mean? It means we will have everything we need. We will have things we need and things that please us. I just love this! I remember one of my BYU religion professors rejoicing in this scripture, saying that it includes chocolate cake, for what else pleases the eye, gladdens the heart, for taste and smell, more than chocolate cake? Nothing, in his book!
God describes the promise much better than I can so I will quote his promise here, from Doctrine and Covenants 59:16-19:
“Verily I say, that inasmuch as ye do this, the fulness of the earth is yours, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and that which climbeth upon the trees and walketh upon the earth; Yea, and the herb, and the good things which come of the earth, whether for food or for raiment, or for houses, or for barns, or for orchards, or for gardens, or for vineyards; Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart; Yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul.”
I just love that! What an amazing promise!
I know sometimes it is tempting to work 7 days a week so you can make more money than you would if you worked fewer than 7 days a week. Here’s a story, “Not Open on Sunday!” about a married couple who found out that they could make more joy if they had their drive-in restaurant open 6 days a week instead of 7. They had much fewer sales ($17K) but only $10 less profit when they closed on the Sabbath. By contrast, they had a whole bunch of headaches, stress, and health problems being open 7 days a week. That’s God’s math for you! I love the conclusion of the story:
“When I think of the poor effect on my health and all the work I did for nothing on those Sundays, I am surprised it took me as long to learn the lesson that obedience to the law of the Sabbath carries its own reward. The Sabbath is the Lord’s day. We will all be blessed for honoring it.”
Forget Christmas as the most magical time… this my friends, this month of May is the most wonderful time of the year! Yes, May or “Maycember” can be sooo hectic with the cramming in of every recital, play, graduation, party and capstone event for the school year. But with that, you have classes and obligations ending, which hopefully creates a vacuum for more flexible summer family activities.
Some people might fill that vacuum up with lots of outdoor activities. I’m all for that! Go enjoy the great outdoors while the weather is so pleasant. Don’t forget to add reading to the list of summer activities too! It might seem more conducive to indoors, but reading adds a layer of depth to all summer fun.
Some people don’t need any direction as to what to read for leisure time. They are gleeful at a summer full of no required reading/reading for school. For those who do need a little guidance or inspiration as to what to read, and enticement away from the siren song of the screen, blogger Jennifer Flanders has a great summer reading guide/challenge as a printable over here. She goes through the ABCs and offers a suggested book idea for each letter. I’m printing one off for each of my kiddos and one for me too! I’m figuring out what reward to give when they finish.
Be sure to read her suggestions below the printable for each letter. I’m going to have lots of fun going through her lists to find books to put on hold on our public library’s online catalog.
Go here to get the printable from Jennifer Flanders.
Want some more resources from Jennifer for encouraging reading in your family? Check these out:
a list of reading rewards here from various organizations or businesses
Here are some of my suggestions for encouraging reading:
have a special place to read, like a fort made out of blankets, a shady place outside, or a comfy spot on the couch
have some special snacks or drinks that are easy to keep around, not too expensive, like popcorn or lemonade
have a reading buddy, a small stuffed animal, for small children, that only gets to come out when it’s reading time
play a game related to the book
have busywork activities that only come out during the playing of audiobooks or reading aloud, things like puzzles, Usborne sticker and activity books, coloring, finger knitting, construction set building, and crafts
have nightlights to encourage reading in bed before nodding off to sleep
give books for birthday gifts to your children to encourage them to start building their own library of books they will take with them when grown
take them to used book sales and thrift stores to buy their own books
encourage siblings to read to each other, a few minutes each day, as part of their “Daily Dozen” jobs before free time
I heard about this book from Paola Brown. It’s amazing!
The author’s main point of the book is to ask yourself why your doctor is your doctor. Is your doctor your doctor simply because of his or her title of “Dr.”? Or is your doctor your doctor because he or she actually cures disease by using laws of nature? He says if your doctor is a homeopath, you are fortunate. If not, ask him to read his book to learn the laws of nature for curing, primarily, like cures like.
Even though it was published in 1958, it still rings true today. Here are some quotable quotes from the book:
“I know of many families who have not had a doctor for years, because of advice given them that is contained in this book. Before that, their apprehension and fear of sickness cost them hundreds of dollars each year for doctors and drugs.”
“Is it worth living to an old age? ‘Whom the gods love dies young,’ say the Greeks. But Shadman says, ‘You don’t really begin to get a bang out of life’ til you’re eighty.’ I think most people would prefer to live to a ripe old age. There is absolutely no reason why they shouldn’t if they are willing to live right, keep warm, and stay away from drugs. So don’t get sick. This book has told you how to maintain your health.”
“Bad health and its resultant shortening of your life come generally from two directions: from doctors and drugmakers and from another party. This other party is particularly vicious because he has no profit to be gained from murdering you. All he wants is for you to eat wrong, drink wrong,and smoke. Do you recognize him? He’s none other than a part of yourself.”
Wow, did a doctor ever say more cogent words? Way to call it like it is, Dr. Shadman! I also love the idea that “you don’t really get a bang out of life til 80!”
As a surgeon and head of a 150+ bed hospital in Boston, he was a medical prophet. He spoke out against the dangers of x-rays, sulfa drugs, and was proven correct.
He compared the use of allopathic medicine with homeopathic medicine and found the latter to give better results, far and away, hands down.
He also says that he feared germs just as much as anyone when he started medical school. But in his later years as a practicing doctor he began to question germ theory. He saw homeopathy (HP) cure malaria when the regular medical dose of quinine didn’t touch it. He says he even saw a Boston medical doctor grow the plasmodium germ in a quinine solution. He also says he saw typhoid cured by homeopathy in contrast to patients with typhoid dying when treated with the regular medical treatment of the drug salol. He claims that he never lost a patient to pneumonia when treated with HP. By contrast, the mortality rate of pneumonia patients with regular medical treatment was 29%. He saw HP cure cerebral meningitis when allopathic treatment didn’t. He says that he used to scrub his hands with a germicidal solution, which left them raw and chapped. When he switched to plain soap and water and rinsing with alcohol, his skin improved and nobody got sicker. He also stopped cleaning patients’ wounds with germicides and just changed dressings more frequently. All of these observations led him to the following conclusion:
“Germs are not the cause but the result of disease.”
Here is a rundown of what’s in the book:
He starts off with the question that is the book’s title. That launches into a history of medicine and a history of homeopathy. Then he describes the two kinds of doctors, the allopathic doctor and the homeopathic doctor.
With that description of those two kinds of doctors as a framework, he then covers common medical topics, devoting a chapter to each. Things like:
-drugs
-how drugs are sold
-vaccinations
-common cold
-constipation
-injuries and burns
-eczema
-food and drink
-cancer
-smoking
-having a baby (this part ends with an incredible story of how he delivered a baby that grew in his or her mother’s abdominal cavity instead of the uterus!)
The back of the book has a great compilation of homeopathic remedies for the common ailments, 190 pages, for home first aid treatment.
It costs over $800 in amazon to get a new copy, $100 used. But guess what? You can read it free in scribd. com. Sign up here, using my link, and you can have two months for free, to read it along with hundreds of other books. scribd.com is the biggest source of books, magazines, sheet music, audio books, and documents, all in digital format. After your 60 day free trial, you pay $9.99 a month to continue to have unlimited access to all these resources. So sign up, set an alarm on your phone to go off in 57 days, and evaluate if you want to start paying the $9.99 a month. (Full disclosure, that is an affiliate link. If you sign up, I get a free month. It’s win/win for both of us.)
Armed with the knowledge you gain from this book, you will be able to deal with a myriad of acute cases for your family. If you are a Dr. Mom, it belongs on your shelf, even if just digitally, through scribd, as much as Dr. Robert Mendelsohn’s How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor.
![Worst of Friends: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and the True Story of an American Feud by [Jurmain, Suzanne Tripp]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51VYHu0UzOL.jpg)
Tree of Life Mothering 