Tree of Life Mothering

Countdown to Easter Day #3: Lost in the Canyon and Rescued!

Posted on March 28, 2021 by treeoflifemama

Today’s Countdown to Easter story is about being rescued. This picture comes from a day when my kids and I ventured up the canyon just 10 minutes from my former home on a rare snowy day in southern AZ. (We used to live three hours southeast of Phoenix, and it did snow there once or twice a winter every year.) We went to see the snow in the mountains close to our home, hoping to go sledding, like we used to in Utah. We couldn’t find any good spots because of all the trees. Our minivan got stuck in the snow but some kind souls stopped to help pull us out so we could go home. How grateful we were! Each of us at some time in our life, no matter how smart, famous, beautiful, rich, fashionable or cute we are, will get stuck and depend on someone else to rescue us. Ultimately, each of us are stuck in death and sin and depend on our Savior Jesus Christ, who is sinless, to rescue us. At Easter time we celebrate our Savior’s rescuing grace. Oh how I rejoice in this grace!

I love this story from the New Era, the former youth magazine for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, about some youth who got stuck in a snowy canyon and then were rescued. Rescue situations are very real and scary. I rejoice whenever I hear of someone being rescued. It just serves to remind me of how precarious our mortal situation is and that we are dependent on Jesus Christ for everything we have and can be. This is great news because Jesus wants us to have everything He and the Father have, and we can, if we follow Jesus and do what He asks us to do. See Romans 8:16-17.

I am so grateful! This song below captures my feelings perfectly about how Jesus’ love is “the miracle that rescues you and me.” It’s a miracle we can all bask in!

Want more Easter stories, songs, and poetry? I have compiled a list here. Happy Easter!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged easter, Jesus Christ, the atonement of Jesus Christ = rescue, The Miracle by Shawna Edwards | Leave a comment

An Easter 2021 Message from God’s Prophet

Posted on March 28, 2021 by treeoflifemama

I love President Nelson’s teaching in the video above that Palm Sunday can remind us of the Savior’s palms which were wounded for us. I hope you will watch this video above and accept his invitation to do something special in this Holy Week, beginning today, to follow the Savior as we approach Easter.

I also love this video below by John L. Hilton III, Hank Smith, and John Bytheway, about the Savior’s atonement. Brother Hilton also wrote an article for the April 2021 Liahona with some of the same truths that appears here.

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Countdown to Easter Day #2: Washed Clean Story and Poem from Pres. Boyd K. Packer

Posted on March 27, 2021 by treeoflifemama

Happy Eastertime everyone! Today’s Tree of Life Mama’s Countdown to Easter feature is in honor of the General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is happening next weekend. You can go here to watch, at 10 AM and 2 PM Utah time on Saturday April 3 and Sunday April 4. This is an exciting time when we get to listen to prophets who live on the earth today, who are just as connected to God as the prophets in the Bible. I promise that if you listen to this conference, having prayed before you watch, and listen thoughtfully, taking notes (as much as you can with children–I know it’s hard if you have super little ones) you will get some ideas about what to do next in your life.

The above video depicts a poem that Elder Boyd K. Packer wrote. He included it at the end of a true story he told in General Conference. This story is from his life when he served in WWII. It illustrates our need for Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Here’s the poem again in song form below.

He told this story in the April 1997 General Conference. A simplified version of the story for children appears in the April 1999 Friend here. You can watch the whole talk below. The text of the poem is here at the end of the talk.

(This story and the stories from previous days of my Countdown to Easter are all compiled in my ebook, The Celestial Guide to Family Devotionals. Watch for it to be released for free here on my website soon!)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged atonement of Jesus Christ, Boyd K. Packer, Jesus Christ, Washed Clean poem | Leave a comment

3/26/21 Fun Friday Tree of Life Mama’s Game of the Week: Outfoxed!

Posted on March 26, 2021 by treeoflifemama

We played this game this past week in our gameschooling to count for some math, since it’s about logic.

It isn’t a fast moving game like some of the other Gamewright games, like Slamwich. My two youngest absolutely love that game! This game is slower. Since it’s cooperative and not competitive, some kids might not like it. Basically you are all a team, competing against the fox, as represented by a plastic fox figurine. Every bad move gets the fox closer to its foxhole to escape capture. If the fox gets to the foxhole, you all lose! If you figure out which fox is the thief before he gets there, you all win!

I love it because it teaches deductive reasoning. Kids take turns deciding if they want to have a shot at seeing new clues, or revealing a possible suspect. So you have elements of luck, with the roll of the dice, and skill in using logic. The special decoder will especially appeal to kids who like gadgets that reveal secrets. You put the little clue card in the center of the decoder, then pull the tab on the side to see if a green dot appears or not. Then you use that information to narrow down who the suspect is as the foxy pot pie thief.

It’s a great game for kids ages 5-12 to learn logic and deductive reasoning. Older ages might find it too slow. I also love that it teaches teamwork. So if you are in the mood for something cooperative and mysterious, to build reasoning skills, with bright and cheery but not flashy graphics, this game fits the bill. I give it 5 out of 5 stars!

Want to learn more about gameschooling? Check out my page here for:

a PDF of my slides on the how, why, and when of gameschooling, AND my PDF of how to build a gameschooling collection on a budget.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged gameschooling, logic games for kids, logic games for kids 5 and up, Outfoxed! | Leave a comment

Countdown to Easter Day #1: The Cactus and the Cross Story by Elder Holland

Posted on March 26, 2021 by treeoflifemama

Happy spring to you all! It’s time to count down the days until Easter! I will be posting one Easter-related story a day until Easter. These are listed in my Celestial Family Devotionals ebook which I plan on releasing for free soon.

Today’s story is called, “The Cactus, the Cross, and Easter.” It is a story from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland from when he was a young boy. You can find the whole story in the April 1980 Friend magazine. He tells of falling into the clutches of a cactus as a five year old boy when he lived in southern Utah. Oh how painful that must have been! We had some cactus on our property when we lived in AZ and it looked nasty!

I won’t touch it after hearing from people how the cactus practically leaps out at people to poke them! (I actually had an experience when I was looking at a cactus, and it seemed to reach out wirelessly and poke me. It must have been a bug that bit me. You can read the story here.)

Well, back to Elder Holland’s predicament. After much effort, his older brother got him out and heroically pulled him down the mountainside to the help of their mother at home. She pulled out all the barbs that pierced his skin, making him bleed and look like a pincushion. Elder Holland shares that our human situation here on earth is much worse than having fallen into the painful prickly barbs of a cactus plant. We have fallen into the clutches of Satan because of sin.

Photo credit: churchofjesuschrist.org

My favorite quote from the story is this:

But Jesus, our elder Brother, did not allow himself to be captured by Satan. He was still safely outside the prison gates. In a way that we may not fully understand, even when we are very old, Jesus set us free. It was as though He had the only key to the prison door and that only He had the strength to swing it open. In doing so, He saved our lives so our families can be kept together and so we can someday return to our heavenly home. But He paid a terrible price to do this for us, a price for which we must give Him honor and reverence by keeping His commandments. He suffered a horrible death on a cross. In that anguish of physical and spiritual pain Jesus, too, momentarily thought He was all alone and without help, and yet He did not turn away from helping us.

I know this is true! Praise God for giving us the gift of His Son Jesus Christ. I celebrate that gift this Easter season and every day all year!

You can read more Easter stories and get songs and poetry here.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged easter | Leave a comment

Holy Week Daily Traditions from Emily Belle Freeman: Countdown to Easter

Posted on March 25, 2021 by treeoflifemama

I never thought of red as an Easter color until I learned of Serbian Easter eggs dyed red, from Emily Belle Freeman.

I’ve decided to compile the wonderful Christ-centered Easter traditions from Emily Belle Freeman and David Butler all in one post. In years past I’ve blogged about each one separately with the videos. David and Emily have easy, meaningful traditions to do, one each day, leading up to Easter Sunday. Each tradition involves learning and talking about one of the eyewitnesses of the Savior, as well as a simple decoration or activity. These activities don’t involve anything fancy, usually stuff you already have around your home, all except the Easter lily.

Easter is 10 days away! The Easter Bunny (our neighbors’ bunny) has been visiting our yard lately to remind me that spring is here and Easter is coming! Even though the fall leaves are still on the ground (and the trees), it’s spring, according to the calendar!

I’m guessing that these activities are in Emily’s book below but I’m not totally sure, since I haven’t looked at the book. So if anybody knows please confirm or correct in the comments.

Celebrating a Christ-Centered Easter — Image Credit: deseretbook.com

Start these on this coming Sunday, Palm Sunday. If you miss starting on that day, no worries. There’s no Easter police saying you can’t do more than one tradition in a day, 🙂 It’s just easier to do each one if you spread it out and have a certain time to do it every day. For me, that’s at dinner time.

Day #1: Palm Sunday is here, involving a tree branch. It’s about the people of Jerusalem honoring the Savior by waving palm fronds.

Day #2: Monday is over here. It involves Simon.

Day #3: Tuesday can be found here. You will learn about Nicodemus and Joseph and making a testimony tree.

Day #4: for Wednesday you will be dyeing Easter eggs red following a Serbian Easter tradition involving matriarchal women, in honor of the first eyewitness of the resurrected Savior, Mary Magdalene. I save these eggs for eating on Sunday for our Easter dinner, to eat with fish. I serve fish because Jesus ate fish and honeycomb after he was resurrected.

Day #5: on Thursday you will focus on the people who walked with the resurrected Savior on the way to Emmaus. You will pick your favorite scriptures and display them.

Day #6: on Friday you will learn about the eyewitness Thomas and his connection to Easter lilies.

Day #7: Do this on Salvation Saturday or on Resurrection Sunday. It is all about seeing how Christ meets you where you are. Check it out here.

Celebrating a Christ-Centered Easter: Children's Edition by Emily Belle Freeman, David Butler, Ryan Jeppesen, Hardcover | Barnes & Noble®

You can find even MORE Christ-centered Easter activities, along with songs, poetry, and stories from my Family Devotionals ebook here.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged david butler, easter, emily belle freeman, Jesus Christ, resurrection of Jesus Christ | Leave a comment

3/23/21 Tuesday’s Tip: Use scribd.com to find books to listen to and read in ebook form

Posted on March 23, 2021 by treeoflifemama

Do you love to read? Do you love audiobooks? Do you find yourself limited by what’s on YouTube and LibriVox, and not liking any of the selections left for you to choose on Audible? I use Audible, but it doesn’t always have everything I want. Same with LibriVox and Libby. My friend Aneladee tipped me off about scribd.com and I’m so glad she did. She told me that whenever she’s bored, she turns to scribd.com and always finds something she can read.

Anne of Green Gables (Collection) — Image credit: scribd.com

Scribd.com is a collection of ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, newspapers, podcasts, documents, and sheet music. It has a TON more resources than Libby, the app that most public libraries use. It’s also much better than Audible, because you have unlimited access to all those resources (not just books) for a low flat monthly fee, around $10, whereas in audible you get 1 book a month plus a few of the original Audible books, and that’s it. I have Audible too and love them both! Some of those Audible originals are amazing!

Brave: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack — Image credit: scribd.com. scribd.com has sheet music for many movies and other shows

Audible sometimes has books scribd doesn’t (like the Audible originals) although it’s rare. I usually find that scribd is more likely to have books that Audible doesn’t. Just like Audible, scribd.com has a website with an accompanying app so you can access the books on the go on your mobile device. You can also access the service using your desktop PC or laptop. In that case you login at the website on your browser to get to the books. I can’t tell you how incredibly fabulous it is to have in audio format all the Little House books (narrated by the same fabulous narrator as in Audible, Cherry Jones), and Anne books, and so many other books all on my phone, in my pocket! I can access them whenever I want, whether in audio or reading format!

If scribd.com doesn’t have the desired book in one format, audio or text, it usually has it in the other. The Little House books are in both! It has many hard to find books, like the Magic of the Minimum Dose, a homeopathy book by Dr. Dorothy Shepherd. That book appears as a PDF of the text form.

Because I am a bibliophile and a homeschooling mom, I devour books. I’ve always loved books and I’m cultivating a love for books in my children. When I’m part of a book club, chances are that the book that is chosen for any month is in either Audible or scribd.com.

The Answer Is . . .: Reflections on My Life

If my children are assigned a book to read for a homeschooling group they are in, chances are I’m more likely to find the book in scribd.com over audible. My husband loves to use the service to find books to read or listen to while he is riding the commuter train. My children love to listen to books on their own in scribd.com too. Over Christmastime, I loved listening to and reading four of Richard Paul Evans’ clean Christmas romance novels. So the whole family uses scribd all the year through, close to a daily basis!

Finding Noel: A Novel — This image credit and Alex Trebek image above: scribd.com

If you click on this link, or any of the links above, you can sign up for your own free 60 day trial. Full disclosure: that is my affiliate link. It costs you nothing to have the free trial, and I will get a free month for you signing up. So it’s win/win for both of us! You get to explore it, reading and/or listening to some books, magazines, PDFs, and sheet music for free, and I get another month free. I think you will love it! When you sign up, make an alarm on your phone to go off in 58 days so you can evaluate your satisfaction of the service. Cancel if you don’t like it. If you do, do nothing, and your credit card will then be charged after the 60th day, and every month thereafter. Happy reading and listening!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged audiobooks, scribd.com | 1 Comment

Putting on the Armor of God

Posted on March 22, 2021 by treeoflifemama

I loved that in last week’s Come, Follow Me scripture reading assignments, we got to read about putting on the armor of God, in Doctrine and Covenants 27:15-18. My friend and I co-mentor a group of boys ages 9-11, using the Mastering Knighthood framework. Every week we recite the scripture from Ephesians 6 that mentions the armor. We also sing a song about putting on the armor of God that Emily Clawson of Heroic Youth wrote. That song keeps running through my head. We sing that song a lot, and then last week, both at home with my kiddos and at our boys’ club we delved deep into the idea about how to “put on the whole armor of God.”

Did you know that the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ also talks about the armor of God?

I won’t go into the symbolism of all of the armor pieces, I’ll just talk about the helmet. I see putting on the helmet of salvation as reciting scriptural truths to protect my thoughts. Then when I feel specific attacks by the enemy, that means reciting specific truths that counter his lies. I don’t have time to talk about it here, but the best book I know of to help me know how to do this is this book, Becoming Spiritually Centered, by James B. Cox. I’ve blogged about it here.

I also highly recommend the book Putting on the Armor of God by Steven A. Cramer.

Here is a short review of the book I did years ago over here.

Here are some videos I love about putting on the armor of God.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged becoming spiritually centered, book of mormon, come follow me, Ephesians 6, James B. Cox, Jesus Christ, putting on the armor of God, Steven A. Cramer | Leave a comment

My Top Ten Chapter Books for Reading Aloud to Children

Posted on March 19, 2021 by treeoflifemama

179064 — This one is long! If your kids have never had a chapter book read aloud to them, save this one for later. Start out with shorter read-aloud books like Charlotte’s Web.

In no particular order, here are my top favorite chapter books to read aloud to children. If you need any convincing of the reason to read aloud to your children, just go get this book and read it.

If you need a Cliffs Notes version of the book, go listen to this podcast.

Guess what? You don’t have to do all the reading! This is great news for when your voice is hoarse or you know you are going to fall asleep while reading :-). That was a surefire thing when I was pregnant :-). Most of these books you can find as audiobooks at your local public library. (Probably not the graphic novels.)

How do I find time to read aloud to my children?

I read aloud to my kids when they do our dishes. I grab a chair and park it by the kitchen counter and read while they load the dishwasher, scrub counters, put leftovers away, and sweep. Some of these books we have listened to on car rides. We get a ton of books read that way! When all my kids lived at home, I used to sit in the hallway at bedtime in the middle of where the entrances to their bedrooms all intersected. I read aloud as they lay in bed, drifting off to sleep, often nursing a baby at the same time. What wonderful memories!

Besides the public library, another great source for audiobooks is scribd.com. See * at the bottom of this post for more on scribd.

85990 — I still remember where I was sitting when I finished reading this book to myself. It’s not about girly-girly princesses, it’s about being your best self. A book for boys and girls!

542712 — This is the true story behind the movie of the same name.

967511 — This is such a darling story of a boy and his pet.

13591161 — Read this one aloud when you can all be looking at the pictures too. The author, Nathan Hale, has the most amazing talent for combining words and pictures into a fabulous graphic novel.

298869 — The suspense is this book is incredible. An amazing story of what real family love is about.

22334225 — Since this is a graphic novel, this one, as well as One Dead Spy, is best read aloud while looking at the pictures with your child(ren). I love experimenting with different accents for the Europeans!

24178. sy475 — Has anyone not read this book? It’s the quintessential read aloud!

459276 — This book is the least known of my list. It’s by the same author of A Little Princess and The Secret Garden. You probably won’t find the audiobook at the public library, but it’s free on YouTube and here in librivox.org.

Honorable mention: All the Little House books and Anne of Green Gables. I can’t not mention them but I had to leave them off the top ten list to fit in books more oriented to boys.

*Scribd.com is a collection of ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, newspapers, podcasts, documents, and sheet music. It has a TON more than Libby. It’s also much better than Audible, because you have unlimited access to all those resources for a low flat monthly fee, around $10. I have Audible too and love them both! Audible sometimes has books scribd doesn’t, although it’s rare. Just like Audible, it has a website with an accompanying app so you can access the books on the go on your mobile device. I can’t tell you how incredibly fabulous it is to have in audio format all the Little House books, and Anne books, and so many other books, like the many of the ones above, all on my phone to access whenever I want!

You can sign up for 60 free days of scribd.com here. After 60 days you will be charged the monthly fee. It’s totally worth it! (That is an affiliate link.)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged a homescooling mom's top ten chapter books for reading aloud, best read aloud chapter books, chapter books to read aloud, favorite chapter book read alouds, the read aloud handbook | Leave a comment

Homeopathy in Little House Books