I got my hair done two Fridays ago (a story in itself for another day, let’s just say, some people’s definition of “blond, halfway between honey blond and platinum blond,” is wildly different from others). How fun it was to come home from my near scathing hair mishap to the gift pictured above. A sugar cookie with the emblem of the Relief Society! How cute is that?! I broke all purist-y diet rules to consume the sugary, white flour-y, blue dye concoction. A talented woman in my neighborhood decorated it! I wondered why I got it and then remembered that March is the birthday month of Relief Society. All the women in my congregation got these amazing cookies to celebrate the women’s organization that Emma started, the Relief Society.
I really loved all the talk last week about Emma Smith in all the gospel videos I watched. The above photo is a screenshot from a YouTube video that my husband’s cousin Lynne Hilton Wilson did. Just go to YouTube and do a search for “lynne hilton wilson” and watch the one for D&C 23-26. That’s the one Lynne did about Emma.
Did you know Emma was into all these things listed above? I sure didn’t! It’s so amazing that Emma was so courageous. I love that when she was forced to leave Missouri, she sacrificed her own comfort to bring the manuscript of Joseph Smith’s translation of the Bible, hidden under her dress. Why did she do it? Because she knew her husband was a true prophet. I also think it’s amazing that she didn’t peek at the golden plates when they lay on the table in her kitchen under a cloth. She says she didn’t have to peek. She knew they were real. What faith!
This song about Emma, sung at the end, in this Don’t Miss This video, is just so sweet! The whole video is great but if you want to just hear the song, sung by a sister missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, go to the 36:23 mark. It echoes my feelings about her exactly. May she rest in peace, for truly as the song asks, “How much can one heart take?” Thank you Emma for your faith, courage and devotion.
What makes great health? We all want it, but how do we keep it, or get it back after we lose it?
Please watch the video below to learn about illness and the role it plays in robust health.
If you agree with the above video, you will want to take this online class! It’s for children and adults! Ages 6-96! Best taken in a family setting!
Would you like you to teach your children about the best medicine, one that is natural and has no side-effects?
Would you like to create a drug-free legacy of robust health that lasts for generations?
Would you like to study a medicine with your children that has been used by famous historical figures like Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Louisa May Alcott, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth, Dizzy Gillespie, and Henry David Thoreau?
Meet the medicine of homeopathy. It’s the medicine we’ve always wanted! It is kind. It is powerful! It can act in minutes for acute conditions. It gets to the root of the problem and eliminates symptoms of both chronic and acute illnesses. It does not leave damage in its wake like antibiotics and vaccines do.
Come learn about this amazing medicine with a fabulous curriculum in the Teach Me Health and Homeopathy Class!
It is a family-based curriculum for kids and adults! Homeopathy is science based. It involves natural laws. Sometimes it seems complicated, I admit. I didn’t understand it when I first used it. Now we have a way to make it easy to super easy to understand for children (and adults)!
This class has two fees. The tuition fee and the curriculum fee.
The $150-$200 tuition family fee is for all members of the same family who live under the same roof. This is for ages 6-96!
An additional cost is the curriculum fee for each family.
The cost of the curriculum bundle without the teachers manual is $170, but depending on our group size, you can get between 7.5-15% off your materials.
We will need a minimum of 15 families to enroll for us to be able to get the full discount.
If we get 5+ families in the class, the discount is 7.5% off, so then the curriculum bundle is $157.25.
If we get 10+ families in the class, the discount is 13.5% off, so then it is $147.05.
If we get 15+ families in the class, the discount is 15% off, so then it is $144.50.
So please encourage your like-minded friends to join!
Tell all your friends!
This curriculum involves:
-nature journaling (each student buys own blank journal, not part of the bundle)
-art activities
-science experiments
-read aloud stories, in print and audiobook format (audiobook format extra cost)
-catchy music (bought separately)
-flash cards
-fun games
-lifetime access to exciting videos
Adults without kids can take it too! If your younger than 12 child participates, parent or grandparent participation is required (no extra cost). Ages 12 and up can take it without a parent, but parent/grandparent participation is strongly encouraged for all children.
What are the logistics?
The class involves two 8-week cycles of the class, held over Zoom
These 16 weeks (2 x 8-week cycles = 16 weeks) cost $150-$200 depending on when you register. Early bird price is $150, regular price is $200! Late registration price is $300.
Note: Every student should have their own appropriately leveled student workbook. If you have only one student attending this class, your workbook will be included in the student bundle. If you have more than one child, be sure to get additional workbooks for each of your students.
The curriculum involves a total of 46 lessons, which is covered by the complete 16 weeks. (2 x 8 weeks = 16)
Pick which day you want to attend: Tuesdays or Thursdays, 2 to 4 PM Utah time, held over zoom (online), so geography is not a problem!
Tuesday Class
Cycle 1 (the first 8 weeks) of Tuesday Class Starts Tuesday 4/6 and ends Tuesday 5/25
-then we have have a summer break, and take off June and July
Cycle 2 (the second 8 weeks) of Tuesday Class Starts September 2021 and ends Nov. 2021
Thursday Class
Cycle 1 of Thursday Class Starts Thurs 4/8 and ends Thursday 5/27
-then we have a summer break-
Cycle 2 of Thursday Class Starts September 2021 and ends Nov. 2021.
Here are the Units:
Unit 1: The Terrain is Everything (Louis Pasteur vs. Michel Beauchamp)
This week’s game is Poetry for Neanderthals. As soon as I saw it on amazon, I figured it would be a hit with my 11-year-old, because of the inflatable club. I was right! As soon as we got it he blew it up and started carrying it around. It’s a great language arts game for gameschooling. It gives you the opportunity to teach/remind your children/students what a “syllable” is. It’s basically like Taboo. The clue-giver gets a card with a keyword on it. As the clue-giver you are trying to get the guesser to guess the keyword. You can only use 1 syllable words for clues. If you use polysyllabic clues you get bopped with the club.
Each card has more than one keyword on it. If you get the guesser to guess the first keyword, you can move to the bottom of the card and attempt to get the guesser to guess the phrase. The phrase always involves the top word plus something else. So for example, the card might have “stomach” on the top, and then “stomach ache” on the bottom. Another example is “pool” with “pool noodle.”
I love this game because it’s great for getting people to flex their creative linguistic muscles to think of monosyllabic synonyms. The inflatable club is definitely a way to draw boys in. It does get annoying, however, to be constantly bopped with it, if you keep messing up. You might have to remind your overenthusiastic little people to bop gently.
We played it yesterday for gameschooling. It definitely counts for language arts. My 11-year-old guy had a hard time remembering to only say one syllable clues. He’s actually still grasping the concept of what a syllable even is. I’m sure as we play it more he’ll get used to it. It’s fun to see if you can think of a whole sentence involving monosyllabic words instead of just giving a string of the words unconnected, not in a sentence. Then you really sound like a caveman.
I also like that you can play with just three people. It would definitely be better with a crowd, so that you have more guessers. It’s also nice that if you have three people, everyone has a role on every turn, to be either the poet (the clue-giver), the guesser, or the bopper. It’s recommended for ages 7 and up, 3 or more players. The box says 2+ players. I’m not sure how that would work. There’s another variation to the game so maybe the 2+ players applies to the variation. I would say mature 7-year-olds can handle it. It’s probably better to play with 10-11-year-olds and up.
For more ideas on gameschooling go here. One of the reasons I love homeschooling is because I can play board games and read aloud books in the middle of the day with my kiddos. Happy gameschooling!
Here is the easiest drumstick recipe I’ve ever fixed. It is inspired by the Jolly Jack Chicken recipe on p. 164 in the new Trim Healthy Future book by Rashida Simpson. I highly encourage you get that book! It’s chock full of food inspiration, especially if you eat low carb/keto. I love the Trim Healthy Mama books because the food is so yummy. The recipes are designed for mamas who want to lose and or maintain their weight and also nourish their families with the same food, so you don’t have to fix two dinners.
I think you will agree that this recipe is simple yet yummy! It just takes some planning because the chicken takes over an hour to bake.
The ingredients are simple: chicken drumsticks, salsa, and your favorite cheese, grated.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Pour salsa into a bowl.
Grate a bunch of cheese. More if you have a lot of drumsticks, like 3-4 cups. Less if you have 5-6 drumsticks.
Line a baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper.
Place drumsticks on the paper, lining them up in rows without touching each other.
Spread salsa onto each chicken leg, covering as much as you can, by spooning it on.
Sprinkle cheese on top. Keep as much cheese as you can off the paper.
Bake for 1 hour and 25 minutes.
Serve with a fresh green leaf lettuce and dressing, along with potatoes or rice, for those who aren’t watching weight. If you are watching weight serve with roasted broccoli, green beans or cabbage with plenty of butter and salt. Delicious!
The Tree of Life Mama picture book of the week is the graphic novel above, Defying Hitler: Jesse Owens’ Olympic Triumph by Nel Yomtov. I love this book! I found it at my public library. it’s the amazing story of how Jesse Owens competed to win 4 gold medals in the 1936 Olympic Games held in Berlin, Germany. I was in utter wonderment at how persistent Jesse was. I love how this book has so many pictures, because it is a graphic novel. I read it aloud to my 11-year -old soon over two nights. He loved it so much that when I put a bookmark in it for the first night, he pleaded for more. I think you will love it!
My husband and I went to a meeting with master gardener Caleb Warnock. Perfect date night! Yeah, I’m that nerdy. I love date nights where we can learn together about practical and/or academic stuff from someone who is smart and funny, and simultaneously be with other people I know. We just needed some yummy snacks during the meeting and then it would have been utterly perfect. That’s how it is sometimes with my homeopathy class. My friend Britney brings food. She used to be a caterer. Britney where were you?
If you don’t know who Caleb Warnock is, and even if you do, he’s the still the same person, haha. (I think it’s funny when people say, “For those of you who don’t know me, I’m…” or “For those of you don’t know him…” You or him are the same person, LOL, whether the audience knows the person in question or not.) Caleb Warnock is the author of the following amazing books:
I have this book and it’s wonderful. My breadmachine sourdough recipe, inspired by the breadmachine recipe in this book, is over here.
I could do a whole huge post with all his tips as a recap of the meeting, but I won’t. Just go get his books. They are soooo informative! Also, the video of the meeting is here.
Here is the biggest tip of all from the meeting that you can apply right now, even before spring hits, to get your garden going for this coming summer.
Here it is:
Recycle milk jugs to use as mini-greenhouses to plant your seeds. They will be protected from the wild swings of Utah spring weather until summer is here full-blown. Cut the jug like in the photo above, all the way around, except through the handle. In other words, leave the plastic below the handle intact. It’s like you are cutting a “Muppet mouth” so your milk jug can “talk” with a hinge in the back. See up close below.
Then you fill the bottom with potting soil. He gave a recipe for soil because he says Utah dirt is horrible. He says he hasn’t used native Utah soil in years. This is probably the same for all dirt in the desert west. It is so alkaline! When I lived in AZ the dirt was even worse. One lady at the meeting just moved from AZ and she said that dirt was like talcum powder. She says she loves the dirt here.
Anyway, here is is his recipe for his miracle dirt:
1 part sand (he lets his sit for two years so the salt is washed out)
1 part vermiculite
1 part baked clay, bought from the kitty litter aisle at Walmart
6 parts black peat moss
6 parts compost
If you don’t have access to all that right away, then he says, use potting soil from Dollar Tree. Get his soil mixture for sure when you plant the seedlings outside.
Then plant your seeds, about 15 in the soil. You can get heirloom, non-GMO seeds from Caleb at seedrenaissance.com. Water them. Tape up the slit with duct tape or packing tape. Keep the lid off and place the jug in your backyard. Check every few days to make sure the dirt is wet, and water if needed. He says the seedlings are sensitive to water that is alkaline and will curl up or get crusty. So if you use plain tap water, use 1 c tap water to 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar. Hopefully some rain will come. Caleb made a ton of jokes about how dry Utah is, how it never rains.
Then watch your seeds grow! When they reach the top of the jug, it’s time to plant them in your backyard garden.
I’m totally doing this! Thank you Caleb. I love that the containers are free and so easy to find. Also that you are recycling something that might get thrown away. If you want more milk jugs than you have or use, ask around. Even if your family doesn’t drink milk, you can probably easily round up some empty jugs from your neighbors. One of my friends at the meeting says she put the word out in her church group that she wants everyone’s milk jugs when they are done, so she’s been getting a bunch. I’m totally doing that too!
Here are some videos of Caleb so you can get a taste of how ingenious, skillful, and funny he is.
My daughter is really into the Montessori philosophy of early childhood education. I thought it would be fun to share something she’s learned about Montessori every Monday. So since it’s Monday, (or even if it’s not when you are reading this) check out her video above on how to create relatively low-cost Montessori-style shelves for your toddler. Yep, that’s my grandbaby! Isn’t he cute?!?! I just want to cuddle with him and read all those books to him and play with him! He’s over a year older now, and talking! He’s now a big brother. My daughter shared the most darling video of him telling her, “Good job feeding Howie, mama!”
I feel like almost everything my dearest daughter does is an improvement on everything I desired and sometimes fell short of. It’s really fulfilling to see her standing on my shoulders so-to-speak and going farther than I ever did in all these wonderful, puristy principles.
Hey, I heard about this new free ebook from some of my favorite authors, Richard and Linda Eyre. They are experienced parents who have a lot to share about how to be joyful parents. Their newest book is called Opening the Door to Family Revelation.
“There has never been a more difficult time to be a parent, and since every family situation is different, many of the old formulas for parenting just don’t work very well anymore. What most parents need is not one-size-fits-all ‘solutions,’ but real and unique ideas and guidance for their own particular children and circumstances. The very best and most unique guidance comes not from human sources but from Divine sources. We have felt for many years that prayers from an earthly parent to a Heavenly Parent can be a wonderfully direct and reliable form of inspiration. But the problem is that many of us are not good enough at asking, and at drawing down the Higher Source guidance that we need in our homes and with our children. We wrote this book to tell the stories of how other parents have successfully accessed the Heavenly Help they need, and how you can do the same, whether you are a parent or a grandparent. This has never been a book we wanted to sell. It is a book we want to give away to any parent anywhere who needs it and who can use it to improve his or her family. Even though our other books were published first with large national or international publishers–with bigness and big sales being the goal–we wanted to publish this one for free online so that parents could get it quickly and easily–with smallness and intimate connections being the goal. Please take a look at this book. You will know, within minutes of beginning to read it, if it is written for you and if you can use it as a guide for drawing down the powers and inspiration of Heaven to help you with the world’s most important and difficult job–raising your children.”
Here’s an episode from their podcast about it. (I love to listen to their podcast on Sunday nights. I feel like I am getting a combination lullaby to cap off the old week plus a pep talk about parenting for the new week from good, good friends or a dear aunt and uncle.)
Go to their web site here to sign up to get the new ebook, as well as many of their other books in ebook format. Scroll to the paragraph that says “How does it work?” and then click on the word “register.”
I’ve been having insomnia for almost four years now. Great news though! A combination of homeopathy, a nutrition supplement, and a different “blanket” are making the difference. So I’m sharing what is working for me in hopes it will help any of you out there.
Because I am a mom who has had seven children, and you moms out there know what I mean, I wake up nightly between 2-5 AM to go visit the bathroom. So many times I have lain awake, after doing my business, not being able to fall back to sleep. Ugh! Then once I would fall asleep, I would sometimes wake up 2-3 more times in the same night. I then would awake around 5-6 AM with my husband’s alarm, to get up with him and pack his breakfast and lunch and send him off to work. Soooo many times I have not felt “done” sleeping when all that happens. Double ugh!
Ever since my car accident in Las Vegas when I totaled a car after surviving a head-on collision, I’ve had these problems (Nobody died or got majorly hurt thank goodness!) That was almost four years ago. That first night after the accident, we had to sleep in a hotel room. We didn’t even get into the room until after midnight. My adrenaline was still on full tilt. I lay there awake with the accident replaying in my head. I finally fell asleep around 5 and woke up at 7 because the kids woke up and I can’t sleep when I hear kids making noise. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep since then.
The way I had been dealing with this hard-to-fall asleep and then frequent waking has been to just cuddle under the blankets, keeping the lights off, reading stories on my phone, with a dark background to lessen the light keeping my eyes awake. I do this for anytime from 5 to 30 minutes, until I fell asleep. I only read in the Gospel Library App. That allows me to read peaceful things, things of God that help me feel safe, secure, and loved, because I am feeling the Spirit.
Another way I have dealt with this lack of sleep is going back to bed on mornings, when I can, after sending my husband off. I sometimes get up as early as 5:15 for that. Sometimes I have commitments for my kids’ homeschooling, so I can’t. But two mornings a week I can so I do. I then sleep until I am done. I feel blessed I am in a season of life when I can do that. My youngest is 11, :-). Oh how I remember the days when I yearned to sleep more but couldn’t because the baby was done sleeping and was ready to be up. I always wished babies could be like dolls that I could switch on and off, so that they made noise only when I wanted them to, :-).
Anyway I started taking Joette Calabrese’s Gateway to Homeopathy 1 class. It’s fascinating! I learned from the class that Aconitum napellus is good for shock from accidents. It’s best when taken right away, but I started wondering if it would help me heal from the shock, even though it’s been years later. I did chiropractic treatment for months after the accident. That helped a lot. But when I’m in bed, it’s like I’m back in that hotel room reeking of stale cigarette smoke. I don’t feel completely free from that nightmare event repeating in my mind.
So from the Gateway class, plus a Facebook Live Joette did on insomnia, and one of Joette’s podcast guests talking about insomnia, I have come up with the following treatment plan for myself:
1 pellet of Aconitum napellus 30c before bed.
1 pellet of Nux vomica 30c before bed. In the podcast I referenced above, a woman says that Nux vomica isn’t usually the first choice for insomnia (the usual one is Coffea Cruda) but Nux vomica works for her because it’s good for overdoing, whether it’s overeating, overindulging, overworking, or anything you do too much of. She says that she tends to overdo it so it works for her. When I heard that I thought, “Yeah, I feel like the past 20 years of my life I’ve been overdoing it because of all the stress I’ve had in my life.”
1 tablet of KAL’s 40 Winks blend, including Tryptophan an hour before bed
Put my phone into airplane mode, since my phone is at my nightstand for an alarm
Take off my socks and pajama pants so I don’t get overheated. I’m usually always cold, especially in the winter, so I tend to wear socks, cozy warm polar fleece PJ pants, and a long-sleeve PJ top as I’m lounging in the home before getting into bed. I have finally figured out that if I keep those on in bed, I get too hot. I finally realized the heat was making me wake up, even when I didn’t need to visit the bathroom.
Remove the quilt I used to have on top of my bedspread.
Use a weighted blanket instead of the quilt on top of my bedspread. My bedspread, as much as I love the lemony yellow color, see above, has been too lightweight, once I removed the quilt. I don’t feel settled or contained, when I am lying underneath it. I feel like I’m just going to “levitate” right off the bed. It’s like I can’t feel settled, like I’m just out there and not protected and safe. But the quilt makes me too hot so I finally realized I couldn’t use the quilt. Well, I happened to see a weighted blanket when I was perusing the Internet once. It sounded so dreamy and sleep-inducing. I prayed and asked God to help me to know what I could use instead since I didn’t have the extra bucks to buy one. Within a few days, God came through for me. He inspired me to use my extra-large bath sheet. It’s nothing fancy, like organic bamboo. It’s just an aqua-colored bath sheet (bigger than a “bath towel”) that I bought at Target years ago. So I tried it and it felt perfect. Placed on top of me, it gives me the perfect “weightiness” without the extra heat. I no longer feel like I’m going to “fly” away. It’s super easy for me to snuggle down under the covers and drift off to sleep.
As a result of my new sleep regimen, I am falling asleep within 15 minutes, and when I wake up for potty duty I am falling back to sleep within 15 minutes. Yay! I am finally catching up on my sleep in the night, so that I don’t feel like I have to go back to sleep after my husband leaves for work. Yay!!! There’s nothing like great restorative sleep for feeling well!
Tree of Life Mothering 