Tree of Life Mothering

Today was my parents’ wedding anniversary. So we played a game with them through zoom to honor them. They are celebrating 57 years! So I came up with two anniversary games for the occasion.

First we did Wedding Anniversary Wits and Wagers. My parents live hundreds of miles away, and my brother thousands, but we all connected through Zoom to play this game. One of my sons, who lives hundreds of miles away as well, joined us. You can play it even if you don’t have the official board game. Rules are here. Use small pieces of scratch paper or white boards to write answers. When we played, people submitted their answers via the chat box in Zoom. Then I wrote up the answers on the little white boards from the game. But you could just put them on the whiteboard in the zoom room. Then have everybody vote and then reveal the correct answer, as submitted by Grandma and Grandpa (your mom and dad). Then award points if you want to be competitive (which I do!) Here are some of the questions I came up:

1. How many months did Grandma and Grandpa date before they got engaged?
2. How many homes have Grandma and Grandpa lived in?
3. How many years did Grandpa work at (certain job)?
4. How many years did Grandma work at (certain job)?
5. How many years has Grandma been attending Daughters of Utah Pioneers meetings (or whatever group your mom enjoys attending)?
6. How many years has Grandpa been at his current job?
7. How many states have Grandma and Grandpa lived in together?
8. How many dogs have they owned together?
9. How many years has Grandma been going to her arts group meetings?
10. How many cars have they owned together?
11. How many foreign countries have they visited?
12. How many temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have they visited together?
13. How many amusement parks have they visited together?
14. How many national parks have they visited?
15. How many neckties does Grandpa own?
16. How many pairs of shoes does Grandma own?

The mechanics of having to write down each person’s answer and then ask them to vote and count up the votes and then award points slowed us down. I got though about half the questions and then I felt bogged down in the mechanics and wanted to move on to the next game. We had nine people playing the game. So if you have a big crowd meeting online this might not be the best game. It would be faster and funner to play all together in person. Or just ask the questions, have people toss out answers, and see who comes closest or hits the answer, without voting.

Then we played Anniversary Quiplash. You can buy Quiplash here. It’s a fast game where you race to think up the funniest answers to questions, because the players vote on the first two answers given. My son told me you can apply filters to make it family-friendly.

We did my DIY version I explain here (under the section titled Quiplash), with the anniversary-based questions below.

I discovered from the online board game guide here that there’s a free version, called QwiqWit. It’s so fun!

Wedding Anniversary Quiplash

Do each question for Mom/Grandma and then again for Dad/Grandpa. Encourage the use of Internet searches to answer these so people can brainstorm with help. Not all of us are up on TV shows from the past or pop music titles, I realize.

1. If Grandpa/ Grandma could meet any famous person, living or dead, who would he or she pick?

(Funny aside: my mom said “Helen Keller.” My husband remarked, “That would be a short conversation!”)

My dad said, “Eleanor Roosevelt, because I just read a book about FDR.” My husband thought that was funny too, as he joked to me later, “I read a book about FDR. He was so awful, I don’t want to meet him, but I want to meet his wife!” Yeah, FDR was so awful as a politician, he needed a woman to reign him in.)

2. If Grandma/Grandpa could buy any car in the world, what would he/she buy?

3. The TV show that Grandma/Grandpa watched the most as a teenager was?

4. The first thing that Grandma/Grandpa would buy if he/she got a million dollars is…

5. The song that best describes Grandma/Grandpa is…

6. The song that best describes Grandma and Grandpa as a couple is…

7. The service project that Grandma/Grandpa would most like to do is…

8. The title of a book that Grandma/Grandpa is most likely to have just read is…

9. The next new hobby that Grandma/Grandpa is most likely to pick up is..

10. The most romantic place they would like to visit is…

It was a fun night!

Then here was the featured book of the day.

I’m catching up on the Easter picture books that I just got from the public library after it started its curbside pickup. The illustrator of this book was my sister’s roommate at BYU. Her style is so cheery! I love it! You can read an interview with Fumi that my sister did here.

Here we are almost done with May and I have just shared our books and games for four days this month. So here’s a massive post, where I blog fast and furiously with few comments, starting today and working backwards, to the last post of May that had a #abookandagame a day, Monday May 4.

Friday May 22, 2020

I picked up this book at the library, before the shutdown, and love it. We’re reading a bit each day while the kiddos do dishes. It’s not due until June so we can do that. It tells the story of scientist Shadia Habbal and her fascination with solar eclipses, including the recent August 2017. I was out of the path of totality so it’s nice to see some amazing photos of totality that her crew captured. 

Code Names! One of my faves. The back story of this game and me is here. We played girls against boys and my daughter and I won!

Thursday May 21, 2020

I love picture book biographies! I love, love, love them! I love learning about real people and their hero journeys. Here’s my list of other picture book bios I’ve enjoyed. This one is about Fannie Farmer, who wrote what is commonly known as the Fannie Farmer Cookbook.

My kids humored me by playing this game. I like it a lot more than they do. I’m keeping the deck of cards handy by the dining room table to quiz them. It’s the questions I love more than the other parts of the game. The mechanics are just a way to do the questions. Often I dispense with the game and just put decks of question cards in places I frequent in my home, like the dining room and my bed. I just love trivia quiz games! It’s only $7.95 on ebay right now!

Wednesday May 20, 2020

I love reading a page of this a day to Bugsy. It gives him a peek inside beautiful architecture, like the Egyptian Pyramids, the Taj Mahal, and the glass pyramid at  the entrance to the Louvre. You can buy it through my Usborne Bookstore here.

I really abhor the cartoon “art” of this game but I like the idea of answering questions based on being a parent or a kid. That means we get to learn about things that are popular or expected for us to know in our generation. The kiddos won! The game needs more spaces for the tug-of-war to last longer.

Tuesday 5/19/20

I put this book on hold at the public library back pre-pandemic, pre-Easter, pre-library shutdown. It felt like Christmas last week when I got the email saying I could pick up holds from the library, with its new curbside pickup service, which started yesterday. Ten new picture books! To get through the library famine we’ve been reading ValueTales,  a set that my mom gave me years ago, Usborne books, (see why I love Usborne here) and books from these two sources here.

Then here’s the game for the day

I just got Wits and Wagers, which I first played at my parents’ home back in February. (I wrote about that here.) I bought it last Friday on my first thrifting trip out when Goodwill opened up last week. Score! Practically new for less than 3 bucks with my educator’s discount! I love this game!

It’s trivia with a twist. The answer always involves a number. I love it that it involves everyone playing every turn. You read the question (we take turns picking the question). Then you each guess the answer. Then you line up the answers. If you are really sure of one answer you can put both your votes (as represented by meeples) on that one answer, or you can split your vote and put your two meeples on two answers. The winner is the closest to the answer without going over. So you can either know the answer or think about who would be the best at knowing the answer and get points that way if you figure correctly. I just love, love that! You can easily DIY this game by researching the rules and questions. See here. Or you can use the game Say Anything, made by the same company, which uses similar mechanics and pieces, but the answers are words. You can find questions with numbers at the link I just provided, or just come up with your own, like “How many windows are in the White House?” and just Google it.

Goodwill also had the party edition of Wits and Wagers the same time I got this family version. I may go back and get that one too. I’m wondering how different they are. I chose this one, the family edition, to make sure I got a G-rated version. I guess I could just get the cards alone from the website here but at $10 they cost more than the used game at Goodwill. 

Monday 5/18/20

Harriet was so amazing!

Instead of taking 6 1/2 hours, like last time we played Cashflow, this time it was 2 hours flat. Whew! Bugsy, age 10, won! He’s got the strategy down and got the right cards to win. This time we picked whatever occupation card we wanted. He learned from last time to pick a low salary card because that corresponds with low monthly expenses. You get out of the rat race by getting passive income that is greater than your income. As is typical of roll the dice/draw the card games, there’s a lot of luck involved, so it’s not completely representative of real life, which I believe involves more determination, knowledge and skill, and less luck, for earning money.

Sunday 5/17/20

Saturday 5/16/20

I read to Bugsy some of Davy Crockett. I’ve been doing a chapter a night just for him.

No games on this day. )-: I don’t usually play games on Saturday unless it’s a planned family game night or game date night.

Friday 5/15/20

This is a nostalgic story book collection from which I’ve been reading a story every day to Bugsy. I’m glad he still enjoys these cute books even though he’s 10! You can read it on Scribd. (Sign up for a free trial at that link to test it out. If you end up signing up, I’ll get a free month. It’s win-win for both of us!)

This was a historic day. I was able to go thrifting for the first time in two months because Goodwill opened up after the lockdown! Here’s the haul: three games, including the award-winning Wits and Wagers, Family Edition, which I referred to already in this post. Six games for $6.38! We had a big Family Game Night this night. We started at 6 and then played 30 minutes a game, with each person picking one game to play for 30 minutes.

Here’s how Eye Know looks like when you play it. You have to guess what the picture shows and then answer a question about it on the back. Then you get the card. First person to five cards wins.

Then it was this game, which my married daughter gave to us for Christmas a few years ago. It kind of reminds me of Waterworks, a pipe-fitting game by Parker Brothers that I played a lot with my family as a child. In this game you are digging a tunnel to find gold instead of creating a pipeline. You get to choose between three cards as to where the gold is.

Bugsy had a ton of fun with this because he tricked us to as to where the gold is!

Next it was Chickapig. Bugsy’s favorite game that he got for Christmas.

We are all pretty much at the same level of knowledge of strategy now. Because of that, the person who consistently gets the roll of 5 or 6 with the die wins. So I won the game because I did. Yes!!! I really love this game! 

My daughter picked Anomia. This is a super fun game that we haven’t played in a long time. It’s a game of quick thinking! You have to think about symbols and words at the same time and be ready to blurt out words. Our cousins gave it to us for Christmas years ago. I’m so glad my dear daughter dug it out tonight. 

Then it was Wits and Wagers time. Fun! Did I already say how much I love this game? Yes I did!

Thursday May 14, 2020

You can find this book above in Scribd or YouTube.

Then Chameleon, one of Bugsy’s faves. Lately I’ve been blessed to be the Chameleon several times in a row. It’s so fun when I can figure out what the keyword is based on everybody else’s clues. That’s how I can escape even if I’m nailed as the chameleon.

Wednesday 5/13, 2020

Tuesday 5/12/20

I think I missed playing a game this day. Oh well, the later Friday Family Game Night when we played four games makes up for it. 

Monday May 11, 2020

I bought this book below when it was first released. Now it’s out of print, sadly. I’m so glad I got a copy when I did. It was time to revisit the truths in the book because of some comments I’ve heard the kids say. It’s about Weston A. Price, the dentist, who discovered what a healthy diet really is by traveling the world and studying the diets of healthy indigenous cultures who had no cancer, tooth decay, or birth defects. It’s not just about eating vegetables. A great picture book to introduce children (and adults) about Dr. Price.

To enhance our current reading of all the Tuttle Twins books, we played the new card game. One of the kiddos was being a stinker and sabotaged the game by playing “the end is near” card on his first turn, which basically ends the game. So yeah, the metagme was not great here. I’m putting my thinking cap on to figure out how to get him (all of them, really) more excited about this game. It’s a great learning game.

Sunday May 10, 2020

I picked up this family history board game at Goodwill for less than $3. It came in real handy on this day, which was Mother’s Day. We connected with my parents and mother-in-law and almost all of my kiddos, 6 out of the 7 of them, on Zoom to play it. (Later I got to hear from the seventh.) This was a special Mother’s Day treat for the two grandmas, and me. I adapted it to playing it online. We ditched the board and just used the question cards. It was fun to see if we could have a meeting of the minds about “Who in the  family would make the best pilot?” “What was your parents’ favorite leisure activity?” “What is your father’s favorite nickname for your mother?” I hadn’t ever stopped to think what my husband’s fave nickname is for me. I was surprised to find out that two of my older boys knew. I love it when I find unique board games like this at thrift stores.

Saturday May 9, 2020

These ValueTales books bring back a lot of nostalgia for me. I read them as a kid in the library at my elementary school with the accompanying cassette tape tp listen to using the ginormous headphones. So now when I read them aloud to Bugsy, and sometimes the others, I get happy memories. 

Friday May 8, 2020

The above book is hilarious. I love the play on words about the two famous artists, Picasso and Matisse, who actually knew each other. 

I played the two games below with two other couples online for date night over zoom.

We played the online version of the one above, The Game of Things. I test drove it with the kids earlier in the day to see how it works online. You can try it out too, here. Just go there and create a code, and then share the code with your distant friends. Tell them to click on “join game” and enter your virtual game room with the code.Then you can view the same screen, miles apart. Then talk through phone or video chat to play. There’s a bit of downtime while one person makes a choice, when the rest of the players can chit chat. Just remind the chooser to click the arrow when done choosing so you don’t get stuck waiting forever. A great party game! It was great for a date night! This is another game you can easily DIY. Read the rules here and get questions here. 

That game was just the appetizer. Then we played the one below for the  main course.

It’s Therapy! I was the game master the previous Monday with two of my scholar children and their scholar peers. This time I got to actually play. (The backstory behind me and this game is here.) It’s also a great game for date night. I learned to trust one of my friend’s husband’s opinion’s more about what his wife thinks, which I will do the next time we play this together.

Thursday May 7, 2020

I’m not sure if I like this book. 

This is a game I normally wouldn’t get, because I’m not into werewolves. But my two scholar children got this game as a fun, end of year, last day of class treat for their Pyramid Scholar Project class, since it had to go online and the normal stuff didn’t happen. It was interesting to watch them do it. 

Later we played the game below with all three kiddos at home, the two scholars and my love of learner. Apples to Apples is one of the best games ever. I just love the color red on these cards, it looks so bright and juicy like a shiny apple that I just want to eat them!

Wednesday May 6, 2020

Another day where I don’t remember what game we did. I made up for it the next day with two games!

Tuesday May 5, 2020

At some point along here we played a game with our gameschooling friends, remotely over Zoom. I’ll just say it was this day, and call it good. I read the above book and we played Say Anything in a Quiplash format. That’s where you ask a  good “conversation starter” type question. It’s a race for the first two people to answer, by typing into the chat box in Zoom. I read the answers aloud without the submitter’s name attached. Then everybody votes for the best answer. The winner gets a point. First person to five points wins! Another great DIY game. Find sample questions here from the actual game, 

and here’s a PDF of good conversation starters that would work well for the game.

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So I got to go to the public library today, and test out its curbside service, which launched yesterday. The holds I put on some springtime and Easter books way back in early March finally came through. I got to pick them up all bagged and checked out, waiting for me, outside the library doors. This is the first time I’ve been able to get books from the public library in two months! Yay!  I’m so glad the library leadership figured out how to do curbside service, which some libraries have been doing from the beginning of this crazy time. My sister in Maine said hers in Maine offered this service at the start of the pandemic. Do all great ideas start in the East and move west?

In the meantime, we’ve been reading all the Tuttle Twins books, as well as books I get digitally from these two sources over here.

How’s it going in your neck of the woods with easing up on restrictions due to COVID-19?

Now more than ever it’s important to read about principles of liberty! We need to educate ourselves on what was Constitutional during this time, and what wasn’t, so we can stand up to any future abuses. The Constitution sets forth a government that is based on protecting individual’s liberties. What exactly are principles of liberty? You can start learning about them by getting the Tuttle Twins books by Connor Boyack, president of Libertas of Utah.

Get over 75% off the Tuttle Twins books today!

Several weeks ago Connor launched a “lockdown” sale that took off like wildfire.

And sadly, much of the country remains on lockdown even to this day.

So he’s re-opening the sale for those families looking to get some amazing educational material to keep the kids busy and have some awesome family conversations together.

Here’s what’s in the bundle:

• All 11 Tuttle Twins books ($91.49 value)
• All 11 PDF activity workbooks ($54.89 value)
• All 11 MP3 audiobooks ($84.49 value)
• Three ebooks for families to study together:
  1. 13 Questions to Level-Up Your Family Dinner Conversations
  2. Subtle Ways Your Kids are Taught to Embrace Socialism
  3. 10 Tips for Raising an Entrepreneur
• And a PDF copy of my book for parents, Passion-Driven Education: How to Use Your Child’s Interests to Ignite a Lifelong Love of Learning  ($14.99 value)

That’s over $245 in value for only $60!!!

Go here to order your bundle today! Do it today, because this deal will expire soon!

I highly recommend these books! I read them aloud to the kiddos the past two months and loved them. They make principles of liberty easy to understand and they always refer you to a scholarly book at the end that helps anyone go deeper.

Here’s another online board game playing guide, to follow up with the one I shared a few weeks ago. Go here to get this new one. I love that it’s a one-page at-a-glance PDF.  Thank you Board Game Geek for hosting this! I downloaded it, then promptly texted it to close friends and family. So now I’m currently drooling over this page on my phone in odd moments and fantasizing!

It has all types of games:

• word games
• social deduction games like Mafia
• card games like Uno
• trivia games
• other games

I envision even better game nights, and days, coming up! It mentions a place to play Code Names, where you can’t see the key card. Apparently it’s not finished yet, but you can see what’s happening so far with this version of Code Names online here.  Currently we use horsepaste.com for Code Names online for distance gaming, although it does have a big drawback in that you an easily peek at the key card. So play with people you trust. Anyway, this awesome guide shows you a ton of online game options, like Bananagrams, Scattergories, Just One, Wavelength, and so many, many more, all online that you can share with distant friends and play through video chat. Most are free, a few cost.

I love that this guide answers some burning questions I’ve had lately but haven’t had the time to research, like:

-Can Taboo be played online besides sharing cards via text which would be slow and awkward?

-What about Dixit, Love Letter, or Set?

-How do you do drawing games online? I can envision simple ones like Pictionary done through Zoom but what about A Fake Artist Goes to New York?

-Is there such a thing as a Boggle grid generator?

I think you will love, LOVE this guide too! Happy board gaming!

I stumbled across this series of lovely videos this past week. I love it so much that I’m sharing the series with you here. I just love the colorful flowers in each one of them. I just love how flowers immediately cheer us. These videos are all about the power of family history. Just as flowers cheer us, family history research heals us.

During this time of uncertainty about the future, it’s time more than ever to discover the power of family history to help us bring down the powers of heaven.

This series is called “Lightkeepers Online.” It started as a series of classes at the RootsTech family history conference two years ago. This year the RootsTech organizers decided to bring it online. Watch the intro video above and then watch all the videos below, answer questions in the PDF worksheets linked below, and you will find a power from family history research you’ve never known before!

If you’ve been hesitant or wondering how to start doing family history research, this is the perfect place to start. 

President Nelson said,“While temple and family history work has the power to bless those beyond the veil, it has an equal power to bless the living. It has a refining influence on those who are engaged in it. They are literally helping to exalt their families.”

Learning about our family history heals us. Family history research brings more light into our lives. Family history research heals us by doing the following things that each of the videos below shows us:

1. Connect
2. Discover
3. Strengthen
4. Gather

These powers can help all of us, whether we come from “normal” families, dysfunctional, or abusive families. We all are broken in some way, individually, and as families. We all need healing and hearts turned towards each other.

Here’s the video for “Connect” with Rhonna Farrer. The RootsTech site says,

Rhonna Farrer discusses the importance of connecting with your ancestors and will show you how that connection is not as difficult as you may think. She’ll explain why you shouldn’t be afraid to write down the hard parts of your own story and how you can begin doing your family history a little bit every day in the Family Tree app.

Here’s the PDF worksheet to go with “Connect.”

Here’s the video for “Discover” with Kirsten Wright. RootsTech introduces the video with this description:

Kirsten will share how you can discover treasures as you get to know your ancestors, who surround and support you. She’ll teach you how to find and preserve your memories and your ancestors’ memories in the Family Tree app.

Here’s the PDF worksheet for “Connect,”

Kirsten wrote a song about family history called, “All Because of Love.”

The above video is “Strengthen” by Wendy Miles. I love that she shows that “family history research” is not just researching the past, but creating stories of our family right now, to cast a vision for the future. She talks about being ill with cancer and bedridden for the past year. She tells of how talking with her children and making a story of what’s happening has helped bring hope and healing.

Here’s the description from the RootsTech page below of Wendy’s video:

Amy will teach you how to find strength and healing, not just from your ancestors’ stories, but from the telling of your own story. She’ll show you how you can find strength in traits and experiences that you share with your ancestors, and you can learn how to preserve the parts of your story that can be found on social media within the Family Tree app.

Here’s the PDF for “Strengthen.”

Finally, we have the video about “Gather” from Maria Eckersley.

Maria will guide you through the process of gathering your family in both directions—bringing together your ancestors and your posterity to knit hearts across generations. Learn about “Intergenerational Party Planning,” and remember that you’ve got backup—promised blessings will come as you gather your family on both sides of the veil.

If you’ve read my blog for a while, you’ve known I’m into baking with natural yeast. You can read about that here, where I got to see the Bread Geek in action. You can see some of my recipes here as well:

-sourdough breadmachine bread, same link as above, here

–sourdough crusted pizza

–natural yeast chocolate chip cookies

Lately with the shortage of commercial yeast, my friend Olivia has revived the art of baking with natural yeast. She’s gung-ho about spreading the word about how amazing natural yeast is by making videos. You can see her channel here. Some of her videos are below.

I tried her pancake and waffle recipe. It was great, although using the metric units, was oy, hard! I’m not used to that. You’ll have to get a kitchen scale and measure in grams to use her recipe.

Here’s another resource, as well for learning about sourdough. My friend Kimberly Simmerman and her sister Charlotte Bjarnson have created a website, blessthisbread.com. They also do free zoom classes on baking with natural yeasted dough every Wednesday. They’ve done sourdough pita bread (see video below), sourdough cornbread, sourdough donuts, and bagels. Join their group, Sour Sisters, on Facebook, to get the recipes, as well as more info on signing up for the classes.

My friend and I at a recent homeschool retreat for moms, in a meme created by another homeschool mom friend.

Note: If you want to see the checklist of how to find your zen as a homeschool mom, during lock down or not, skip to the bottom of this post to the numbered list. If you want to read the backstory of how I came to write the post, read on.

I had to laugh when one of my homeschool mom friends shared a statement via social media that was something like: “When your quarantine life is the same as your normal life.” I laughed a lot at that! I hear people talk about quarantine life, like how they now have to homeschool, they can’t go out to a restaurant for date night, they can’t go to concerts or the theater, they have to cook from scratch, and they have to use Zoom, etc. I thought, umm, wow, that already is my normal life, LOL! Yeah, my regular pre-COVID-19 life was pretty boring to most people. As a budget-conscious, homeschooling, stay-at-home, middle-aged mom, I don’t have anything in my life that most people probably would see as exciting, or even remotely close to their normal, everyday life.

First of all, we’ve been on a pretty tight budget, working the Ramsey Baby Step #3 so eating out, concerts and theater outings are rare events, unless they are free. (We got debt-free/finished Baby Step #2 last summer, so yay!) Second of all, I haven’t had any kind of long-term job outside of the home in over two decades. I homeschool because I got a vision for it at age 14. So ever since I quit my job as a research technician at a med school laboratory in 1993 when I was 38 weeks pregnant with Baby #1, I’ve been home. I’ve had decades of practice at finding discipline, purposeful joy, and meaning from unpaid mundane work at home, surrounded by little people, helping them to do the same thing. Yeah it does sound boring, I admit! Sometimes the biggest highlight of the day is what comes in the mail, LOL.

I do have a rich life, if you look below the surface. It’s full of homemaking, homeschooling. and creating. It involves some cleaning, some cooking and baking, teaching, mentoring, learning from podcasts, books, videos, talking to people, blogging, writing, studying, interacting with my children, and learning about human nature from them and through my homeschool group. I’ve been connecting with people beyond my own church group and neighborhood for years. It has been chiefly through homeschool groups, in person and online. I have also connected using Zoom for years as a mentor or just to reach out to people because I moved far away into the boonies from long-time friends. Not to mention finding joy in marriage.

Dh surprised me with flowers recently, twice in one week!

So yeah, my regular life is a lot like quarantine life. So, despite that funny statement by my friend, I do acknowledge that things have changed a bit since the pandemic erupted. The biggest changes are:

-I save almost two hours a day because I don’t have to drive into town twice a day for seminary class (religious instruction) for my two teens in the AM and track practice in the PM.

-we can’t go to the public library, sob! 😦 I love this post by a fellow homeschool mommy blogger, because it sums up my feelings pretty much 100%! I just blogged about two alternatives to the public library during this lockdown, and beyond, here.)

-we can’t go to our weekly homeschooling co-op 90 minutes away, instead, we’ve been meeting online

-we haven’t been gameschooling with our regular gameschool friends in person, instead we’ve met online but it hasn’t been daily. We have been gameschooling as a family on almost a daily basis to make up for it.

-the flip side of the above is that I have been playing games with our extended family and friends as they have been forced to navigate Zoom and learn how to use it for work. I’m no longer the strange one who is the only one wanting to connect via Zoom.

Not “ecret Hitler” but “Secret Hitler” which we played over zoom, using this site here.

Also, I’ve been able to get more sleep. I do have days where I wake up and it takes a bit of time for me to register what day it is.  I also confess that as I have had to get up early on some days, like 4 AM to pack a lunch for my husband while he showers and gets ready to go off to his job, with an erratic schedule, I then go back to sleep and sometimes sleep until 11 or noon. OK that was only one day I think. Other days I’ve slept until 8 of 9. It is nice not to have to get up at 6 AM every day to get to seminary at 7:30. I’ve definitely been getting more sleep.

Anyway, when the lock down first started, the days had been blurring into each other because the normal landmarks for the days of week of going to church, church youth night, homeschool co-op, book club, and other church meetings all disappeared. I know, It’s so tempting during this time to just stay in PJs all day, not paying attention to hygiene, and binge watch my favorite shows. I hear from other homeschool moms that motivation is really low right now because the end of the year events that are typically looked forward to and worked towards are gone.

A few weeks ago I realized that I didn’t want our family watching a movie every night. This quarantine wasn’t going to turn into a however-weeks-or-months-long-sleepover party. It feels better to get dressed every day as if we were going out in public and do some intentional work that looks towards the future. I am intent on thriving, not just surviving this time. We do still have a future beyond the pandemic. We have been assured by our prophet President Nelson that the temples will open again. To me, that means other things are going to open as well. President Ballard also stated that we will win the war against COVID-19. With those messages of hope I feel encouraged that life in lock down isn’t going to last forever.

So if you are looking for some structure, even zen or joy, as a homeschooling mom during this strange time I offer these suggestions of things to do each day. These will work after the restrictions for the pandemic lift as well. This in no way a “must-do” or “have-to” list. Just take what works for you and leave the rest, as they say in La Leche League. This is what is working for me. I’m ok with some bingeing during this time, of food and movies, but I’m fully treating this crisis mostly as a metamorphic, chrysalis time of domestic work, to emerge transformed for the better, and not letting myself go, with no structure whatsoever.

1. Morning Devotional

You can read about this hereand watch here to get ideas. I do it first thing in the morning, no matter what time I get up, as my “first things first” habit.

2. Schoolwork (the three Rs)

My kids do mathusee for math, Getty-Dubay handwriting for handwriting, and then read from their current assigned books for our co-op school or books they have chosen on their own to read. That’s what we’ve been doing for years, lock down or not. The teens have their scholar project work as well for writing and more reading and creating. This past year these three youngest have had some other online resources to use as well.

3. Chores/Family Work

We believe in kids doing work! They do all the dishes, putting groceries away, laundry, bathroom cleaning, dusting, and vacuuming around here. They also help with most of the meal prep, especially dinner.

4. Read Alouds

I have a set of books I read aloud for certain times of the day. These times are: dishes clean up and bedtime. Right now we are reading The Tuttle Twins, Mathematicians are People Too, a new book to defend creationism, called The Days of Darwin Truthseekers book, the ValueTales series my mom gave me years ago, and picture books I find digitally on Libby and Scribd. Those are my two online substitutes for the public library during lockdown.

I also have audiobooks on Scribd, Audible, and YouTube for when I can’t be reading aloud or want to rest my voice. For those right now we are doing The Van Der Beekers, and Under the Egg. On Sundays I have them listen to gospel-based talks by Hank, John, and Meg at Our Turtle House, during kitchen cleanup.

5. #abookandgameaday

Playing a board/card game a day and reading at least one picture book really turns an ordinary day into an extraordinary day. This is all part of my commitment to reading aloud and gameschooling.

They are such easy, low-investment energy things that bring a lot of joy to me.

We’ve branched out to playing games online with different groups of people beyond the older kiddos who live out of the nest (who we’ve played General Conference Jeopardy! with a few times): homeschool friends, cousins, me with my sibs and parents, some family friends, and my husband and I with other couples for date nights.

If you want to try some online games over video chat, here are some suggestions.

My dad introduced me to Scattergories online. Find it in the link above this photo.

6. Kids Free Time (and Mine too!) to explore their (and my) own interests

7. Get sunshine/nature/grounding (siting or walking outside with your bare feet touching the earth).

8. Exercise

I currently use the Trim Healthy Mama Workins kit.  Twenty minutes a day, four days a week, and boom, that’s a great workout, without leaving the house.

9. Read on your own and encourage “sustained silent reading,” (SSR)/ family chill and read time, away form screens. That means cozying up on the couches with blankets and books, digging into some great reads.

10. Create time to connect with others outside the home using video chat or phone

a. for your kids

b. for yourself as a mom

I get together once a week over zoom or phone to connect with two dear girlfriends I have known for 24+ years, for at least an hour. This connection is so refreshing for me. During regular life it was nice, but now, during the lockdown, it is vital!

From Toy Story 4, which we watched recently after I remembered that two of us hadn’t seen it when the rest of us saw it last summer.

11. Night-time themes. This is what I came up with after realizing I didn’t want every night to be movie night. 

1. 1.  Monday: Family Home Evening
   2. Tuesday: watch some online course as a family, like Kent and Amy Bowler’s Revolutionary Youth webinar class or the webinar Constitution Classes at Patriot Academy, from the Rick Green family.
   3. Wednesday: Family Chill-in Reading Night, Family Game Night or Parent Mentor Date Night.
   4. Thursday: Parents’ Webinar Night watching the Bowlers’ Revolutionary Parents’ class, or some other online course, such as: Dave Ramsey’s finance courses.
   5. Friday: Parents’ Date Night (game or movie) or Family Movie Night
   6. Saturday: We do either a parent mentor date afternoon or night, depending on what happened on Wednesday night, or an Extended Family Game Night, a Family Movie Night or Parents’ Date Night depending on what happened on Friday.
   7. Sunday: family phone calls/video chats with extended family, or inspirational, faith in God promoting, family movie night.

We’ve been doing this for over a month now and I love it! It has some anchor points as well as flexibility to move things around as other opportunities come up. One week we played the Cashflow board game three nights in a row. Another week the kids’ youth group from church met online so we didn’t do a Revolutionary Hero class that night.  If the boys get too restless during the webinar nights I have them bake cookies. My daughter is happy to just draw and listen. They aren’t allowed to go do their own screen time during the webinars. I also bribe them to listen to the webinars by saying we will watch some Dry Bar Comedy afterwards if they listen to the webinar while doing crafts, drawing, or baking cookies. They can eat the cookies during Dry Bar and then we have leftover cookies for the next Family Game Night.

OK, so before you turn away from this post because you can see the above photo is obviously kale, and you are disgusted, please hear me out.

Yes, kale eaten raw, or cooked until it is wet and slimy and then eaten cold, yeah, that tastes gross. I agree with Jim Gaffigan, in the video below, that kale can taste like bug spray, IF it’s eaten those ways.

Funny story: one time one of my teen sons was asked to bring a salad to a party. He forgot to tell me about this so I could get some fresh lettuce leaves. When it was time to go, I wasn’t home to give any sort of direction. He raided the fridge for some salad fixings. All he could find that was green and leafy was kale, so he grabbed that and took it. It’s no surprise that it remained untouched the whole night, haha. He finally realized that yeah, raw kale is usually used for decorations on the table or buffet line in restaurants, not for actually eating. It tastes like bug spray when raw because it’s not supposed to be eaten raw.  All kinds of problems come from eating it raw, even if you eat it as a “healthy” kale smoothie.

But…if you eat kale that is butter pan-fried to a crisp, lightly sprinkled with sea salt and nutritional yeast, it is divine! So absolutely deliciously yummy! (I’ve been eating a keto again, after dropping it a few years ago, and this time it is working. I’m not having the problems I had before. A post is coming up about that in the next awhile.)

This is my newest, improved version of my previous crispy kale recipe I used years ago. I like this recipe better because it doesn’t involve getting my fingers covered in butter, or using a ziploc bag for the buttery coating. I also don’t have to heat up my whole oven.

Crispy Kale Chips

1. Put 1 Tbsp of butter in a big frying pan. Let it melt on the lowest heat setting. Be patient and let it melt on low heat. Trust me on this. I’ve burned plenty of butter when I do this on high. 🙂 Do something else in the kitchen while waiting for the butter to melt.
2. After the butter is melted, spread it evenly all over the pan with a pancake turner, what some people call a “spatula.”
3. Put in a big handful of kale leaves, stripped from the stalks, if you bought the kale leaves on the stalks, or grew the kale yourself. If you bought the kale leaves shredded and bagged, just throw it all in, enough to fill the pan.
4. Stir the kale around and/or flip it over with the pancake turner so that the kale gets evenly coated as much as possible. It’s a bit hard to do this if the pan is so full of kale without spilling it over the edge of the pan. Just be careful and slow and don’t get impatient about getting the butter spread over all at once. Keep the heat on low.
5. Sprinkle on sea salt and nutritional yeast to taste.
6. Keep the pan on low, and stir every few minutes, until all the leaves are toasted to a crisp. Turn off the heat.

Put the kale chips in a bowl and gobble them up while the family gorges on popcorn and watches a movie. I love popcorn, but when I eat this, I feel satisfied by the light, buttery crisp goodness of the delicate leaves. I don’t even feel tempted to snitch the popcorn, which is a no-no on the keto diet.

I actually love this so much I eat it every night as part of my dinner, whether the fam is having popcorn or not! I wish I had know about eating kale this way in my childbearing years. It’s such a great way to get leafy greens in! But you do want to be careful about kale if you have any type of thryoid disorder, as the Healthy Home Economist post I linked to suggests.