Today is President Russell M. Nelson’s birthday. He is 96 years old now. I love these videos about him. He is truly the man that God has chosen to lead The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for today as the president of the Church. He prepared the Church for the pandemic. I blogged about that last May. Here are the changes he has made since becoming president of the Church. Over here, he shares his birthday message. I haven’t had the joy of meeting him in person, but I testify that he is a prophet of God. When he came to Arizona, with his wife, to speak, I felt so blessed. It was an amazing experience to watch and hear the livestream. Happy birthday President Nelson!
This BYU Speech by Sister Bonnie H. Cordon has a fun story about the power of prayer involving her daughter-in-law.
This is my first blog post in our new home, back in Utah. Nearly five years ago we moved to AZ. Oh how I love where we lived! Long story short…my husband and I decided God wanted us to move back, after he lost his job last Thanksgiving. So we are here!
The longer story involves many prayers, tears, the roller coaster ride of expecting a job to come through, then having hopes dashed, and months of waiting. Our prayers and fasting have been answered in the way we hoped. What seemed impossible has now happened and I am thrilled! I had to make some trade-offs: lots of acreage for little, a bigger home for a smaller home (which equals less storage), and living in a pretty much silent neighborhood (aside from birdsong and the sound of the UPS truck crunching on my gravel driveway to deliver Amazon boxes) to living in a bustling neighborhood. I can actually see cars driving outside my front window and people outside.
The upside is I traded living in pretty much a cultural wasteland to living close to a smorgasbord of educational, recreational, and cultural opportunities. I traded neighbors who aren’t very neighborly for neighbors who are, and I got a prettier home with the white cabinet kitchen I have always wanted! Yay! Plus I got a new flat-top stove and shiny new fridge in the deal. Double yay!
The cream and cherry on top are that I also get to live much closer to half of my adult children, both in college, as well as lots of relatives, and long-time homeschool friends. Instead of driving my kiddos 90 minutes one way to a homeschool group that I love I only have to drive 10 minutes max. Triple yay!
I know that prayer to our Heavenly Father in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ is the answer to ALL our problems. Prayer and scripture study got me through this long journey of my husband’s unemployment, waiting for a new job and a move to Utah. Our prayers won’t always be answered the way we hoped, but they will be answered in the way that is best. It is is so comforting to know that God is at the helm.
The above talk by Sister Bonnie H. Cordon includes an ah-MAZ-ing talk about the power of prayer. She tells of a miracle that happened for 7 days in a row of her daughter-in-law receiving exactly what she wanted through prayer, regarding something inconsequential, in the case, what she had for dinner.
You can read the talk here, or watch it above. I quote Sis. Cordon, below, quoting her daughter-in-law, because this is exactly how I feel right now.
“After that prayer my heart felt light and unburdened, and I was grateful for such a mindful and loving Father in Heaven.”
In my case I can say, “After this experience of months of prayer my heart feels light and unburdened…” Actually I can say that I felt “unburdened and light” during the experience, whenever I would pray. During those long uncertain months, exacerbated by the pandemic, the anxiety of the unknown left, everytime I knelt in prayer and poured out my soul to God. I knew God was watching over us and preparing the perfect job and place for us to live. I testify that God lives. I promise you that as you pray to Him in the sacred name of Jesus Christ you too can feel a light and unburdened heart. You too can have prayers answered.
I loved last week’s episode of Don’t Miss This by David Butler and Emily Belle Freeman, above.
David points out, around the 33 minute mark. that moms tend to have a “covenant” relationship instead of a “consumer” relationship. Yes! That is because mothers give their lives up for their children, just as Christ gives up His life for us. Fathers do too, but in different ways.
I listened to an interview today, with the guy above, in the podcast below. He’s Congressman Thomas Massie, from Kentucky. With both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from MIT, living off the grid on a cattle ranch, he sounds amazing, as an engineer, entrepreneur, and a statesman. I loved hearing his refreshing voice of reason regarding the pandemic. Thank you Tom Woods for interviewing him.
What to do? Well here’s what one woman is doing!
I am copying and pasting the following in italics, from my friend Larayne’s blog. (If you are a Utah resident, I highly recommend you go to that link and read about the upcoming legislative session in Utah. Contact all the legislators and ask them to fight against extension of the State-of-Emergency and Health Department overreach of power.) OK, here are Larayne’s words:
Hey…wait a minute.
Are you questioning the state-of-the-world right now? Do you feel that something is wrong with the way our government is handling COVID? Do you have that nagging feeling that the numbers don’t add up? Do you “know” social distancing and lockdowns and forced masking is wrong but you don’t know what to do about it? Are you troubled knowing your kids will not have social opportunities at school or church because of social distancing measures and 24-7 mask requirements? How are you impacted by social isolation? How long do you think it will take your family to recover? Will they ever gain back the ground taken? What are the spiritual, emotional, and psychological effects of constant mask use? What are we doing to our culture? What will be the long term consequences? What do you think about the explosion of mental health disorders in America since the lockdown, an issue that was already overwhelming our current system? 2-3 years of wearing masks is almost an entire high school experience. The same time period is almost lightyear-leap for the development of small children. How long will it take our children to recover their social skills? Will they be normal functioning adults? Are you uncomfortable mandating the COVID vaccine on the entire population? How many of our elderly have died alone, without family, during the time that we’ve been “protecting” them from coronavirus? Would you want to spend 2-3 years separated from your loved ones over a fear of illness, only to die alone before the threat disappeared? If you’re waiting for masks and social distancing to eventually go away, how long do you think that will take? Why do you think a virus will disappear? Are you uncomfortable with the way government has told you who and what was essential, where you could go and under what conditions? Do you feel liberty is hanging by a thread as government and “experts” dictate how we can live our lives based on fear and unproven data? YOU’RE NOT ALONE. Please contact us at unmaskthedata.com (Coming soon!) to get involved with local efforts to change the course of our state. We need everyone to preserve liberty & our family culture.
Go to Larayne’s blog. If you’re in Utah, support the events, share the flyers, and, contact all the legislators. If you aren’t in Utah, I hope Larayne’s example inspires you to find likeminded people and events in your state to support.
First, a girlfriend mailed me a care package that arrived this past week. Shout out to Michelle W.! She’s amazing! She included books by the Duggars, because she knows how much I love them. The box also had a book about gypsies, because we are both fascinated by them, as well other stuff, including positive affirmation signs, and food, to help with the current transition I’m undergoing (more on that later in this post). Plus some Pioneer Woman shelf liner! She also knows how much I love Pioneer Woman goodies!
Second, some other girlfriends came over yesterday and showed me amazing acts of service. I’ll never forget these gifts of time and love they gave to me.
Third, my wedding anniversary is tomorrow; we are celebrating 29 years!
Fourth, we had a wonderful family time over zoom tonight, with most of my kids, sharing family photos and reminiscing, to celebrate our family’s birthday, aka our anniversary. Four out of my seven kiddos are out of the nest, as well as the state, so this was definitely a treat to be together! Truly this was family joy at its best. Everybody talked, we saw at least one picture of everyone shining with a bright smile, looking his or her best, and nobody left feeling hurt or offended. For an evening, it felt like the old days when all the kids were home and we’d have jovial Sunday nights together.
Fifth, we have been delivered by God from bondage. My new favorite scripture I discovered today reminded me of that.
My current favorite scripture is this, from Alma 58:11:
“Yea, and it came to pass that the Lord our God did visit us with assurances that he would deliver us; yea, insomuch that he did speak peace to our souls, and did grant unto us great faith, and did cause us that we should hope for our adeliverance in him.”
Today as I did my Come, Follow Me study with my children and husband I noticed this scripture, after one of us read it aloud. I’ve read it dozens of times but it has new meaning for me now.
“I just felt that!” I thought. I shared with my family that I remembered that the Lord has visited me just in the past few months “with assurances” that He would “deliver us.” God indeed did “speak peace” to my soul and did grant me “great faith,” and “did cause” that I “should hope for our deliverance in him.”
The day before Thanksgiving, last fall, my husband lost his job. Thus began a quest for him to find new employment. I’m rejoicing that after an 8 month long roller coaster ride of searching, applying, and interviewing, he has a new job! In Utah! So we are moving back, after being in southern AZ for almost 5 years. This is such an amazing blessing for us! Wahooo!!!!
With unemployment on top of the pandemic, this past year has been interesting, to say the least. It’s been hard. What kept me going was my absolute faith in God and His Son Jesus Christ. I showed this faith with daily habits of personal scripture study and prayers and our family scripture study and prayers.
Many a night I would kneel in prayer, after everyone else was asleep. I poured out my stress, frustration and disappointment, after hearing my husband tell me he got another “no.” I was so tired of getting my hopes up for a job, and then plummeting down because of the “no.”
Around May or June, I experienced a sweet assurance after one of my many tearful prayers. I felt the Holy Spirit come to me and assure me that by Sept. 1, my husband would have a job. I felt peace. I felt hope. I knew I could go on. Things would change.
And yes. It finally happened! My husband got a job and we have been delivered from his underemployment. We’ve been delivered from that limbo state of not knowing where he’d be working, where we would be living, or how we were ever going to have more income than what was coming from his temporary job at Walmart, so that we can keep doing the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps. I’m so grateful!
So…if you feel yourself stuck, if you feel lost in a state of limbo, even if you feel you are in bondage, I testify that God can deliver you. Not only that, but however far away that deliverance is, in the meantime you can rest in the assurance that it IS coming.
Dh brought these home on his last day at his temp job at the grocery store to celebrate that we had finally ended our quest for a new job. I forgot to get a photo when they were fresh, so this is the next best thing, where you can’t see the roses drooping. I feel like we’ve conquered Mt. Everest!
Wow! This past week, I listened to this inspiring video below done by my delightful, smart curly girl friend Audrey Rindlisbacher. Audrey is the wonderful woman behind the Mission Driven Mom website and podcast. Thank you Audrey for creating this interview! It was so powerful!
Audrey recently interviewed Anne Schlafly Cori, a daughter of Phyllis Schlafly. If you don’t know who Phyllis is, let me introduce you. She was a wife, mother of 6, and a stateswoman who showed how to create a grass-roots movement to defeat bad (bad because it was anti-family and anti-liberty) legislation that was sweeping the USA in the 70s.
Phyllis never held political office, yet she wielded tremendous power. These videos show some of her many public appearances, demonstrating that she was an intellectual force to be reckoned with. I firmly believe God raised her up to be like Esther of old, in the Bible, for “such a time as this” to save her people.
I actually had the pleasure of hearing Phyllis speak in person. It was January 2010. She came to Salt Lake City and spoke at the annual Utah Eagle Forum Convention. This was a highlight conference that I looked forward to attending every year when I lived in Utah. I still remember her outfit. It was this snazzy plaid burgundy and pink jacket and matching skirt. It definitely popped! I took a picture of her speaking using my hot pink Motorola Razr cell phone. Alas, the photo has disappeared down a black hole amidst cell phone upgrades, moves, my tech-illiteracy, and distraction from mothering/homeschooling 7 children.
So back to Phyllis…I was impressed with how charming and articulate she was at her age when I heard her speak live. I’ll never forget the moment I walked past her in the restroom during this event, after the speech. It was held at the Larry H. Miller Conference Center of SLCC. As she approached close enough for me to touch her, I thought, “Wow, there’s Phyllis! Say something….ask for her autograph…smile…say hello! She’s famous! Do something!” Uhh, unfortunately, all I could do was awkwardly smile at her. To which she broadly beamed a most magnanimous smile back, just for me.
Then the moment was gone. I left the restroom and she continued in the other direction to be about her business. The only other somewhat celebrity encounter I’ve ever had in a restroom was with Peggy O’Mara, former editor of Mothering Magazine, at a La Leche League Conference in Chicago in 2008. I wish I had been prepared for that fleeting chance moment with Phyllis. I could have thanked her and asked her questions.
At the time, I really didn’t know how amazing she was. I hadn’t studied her devotion to motherhood and homemaking, her determination, her scholastic record, her leadership, or the fruits of her life. If I had, I would have overcome my shyness and spoken to her. Just watch the video above with Audrey or listen to it in podcast form here and you will learn how amazing she was.
She truly was like Esther of the Bible. She felt a call to defeat the ERA (the Equal Rights Amendment). That she did! Relying on her heart, along with facts about the family, marriage, and women, she proclaimed that the ERA was a misleading amendment. Arguing with logic and persuasion, she calmly showed that the ERA would hurt women instead of help them whenever she debated with feminists. She graduated from Harvard Law School after age 50, showing that women can “have it all” if they do it seasonally. She reared her children first, and then when they were no longer needing her in-home, day-to-day influence, she went to graduate school and became a lawyer.
This is called “sequencing”, something I heard back in my La Leche League Leader days when I encountered the book with that concept as the title. Armed with her legal education, Phyllis passionately and logically defeated ERA-proponents in debates. She held her own, always with a cheerful smile, and always elegant. She rallied her followers of homemaker moms and their supporters to vote down the ERA when it was put to the states to vote on after being passed by Congress.
Phyllis gives me hope! During this pandemic crisis, it’s easy to succumb to thinking that we are helpless. Phyllis lived during a different time, but she definitely faced a giant of a crisis that threatened the mental and physical health of the family, of women, men, and children. She stood up to it squarely, rallied supporters, and did not back away.
Hollywood has recently released a mini-series based on the life of Phyllis. It’s full of lies. Please get your facts straight about her. She did not have a contentious marriage. She did not leave little children to go to school or pursue a career. Watch these videos above and below and learn more here, at realmrsamerica.com.
May we each follow her example, following whatever God calls us to do to defend home, marriage, and family or whatever else is sacred to God, especially liberty.
This involves getting the training we need, studying the facts, doing our homework, putting our faith in God, acting diligently on the daily duties we owe to God, and letting the results be up to Him.
Here’s a book Phyllis co-authored, published in 2001. The amazon description gives a great summary of what she stood for. I’ve copied and pasted the description below.
“Forty years have passed since the so-called women’s movement claimed to liberate women from preconceived notions of what it means to be female – and the results are in. The latest statistics show that as women have gained more freedom, more education, and more power, they have become less happy. In The Flipside of Feminism, Suzanne Venker and Phyllis Schlafly provide readers with a new view of women in America – casting off the ideology that preaches faux empowerment and liberation from men and marriage. Their book demonstrates that conservative women are, in fact, the most liberated women in America and the folks to whom young people should be turning for advice. Their confident and rational approach to the battle of the sexes is precisely what America needs.”
Here’s a refreshing summer salad from my dear younger sis, Emily. You can read her blog here. It’s so artsy and heartwarming! She always blogs about picture books on the first Friday of every month. So fun! I think you will love it as well as her salad below! It looks like maybe you could count it as a Trim Healthy Mama FP salad if you go easy on the poppy seed dressing. Or if you want to make it a THM S salad then go easy on the berries and fruit.
Parents, are there days when you feel like you’re just surviving?
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I’m pleased to announce that my longtime fabulous friends, Kent and Amy Bowler, homeschooling parents of 7 and grandparents of 5, are starting tomorrow another 6-week online course. It helps parents deal with stress, anxiety, and burnout. I participated in the one this past spring and found it extremely packed full of valuable parenting principles. It was so delightful to meet with them and other friends online every week to feel an oasis of peace in the storm we are all going through of the current pandemic.
Aren’t they cute? And they can mentor you on peaceful parenting too!
It starts August 6th. They are giving away one registration to the winner of a random drawing. Please comment below in the comments section if you would like to be entered into the random drawing. Winner will be announced 8/6 here on the blog at the end of the comments section at 4 PM Utah time.
Look at all these tools you will learn for dealing with the roller coaster emotions of parenting!
Here is a special message from Amy and Kent:
We all feel it. The weight of the unknown. It is palpable.
However,
“Heroes are made by the times,” such as in Star Wars, The Clone Wars, Season 1
And it’s true.
This is an amazing time for you to stand up as an incredible, heroic Parent, and to help your children to become Heroes as well.
This is an opportunity to break through the constant bombardment and attacks that are working to pull our families apart and to instead make our families stronger than ever.
We want to help.
We’re starting our Revolutionary Parents mastery course this week and we’ve deeply discounted it so that anyone can participate. The course has 6 live classes online, multiple paradigm shifts, and a parenting toolbox with 14 tools you can implement now to completely change the dynamic in your home.
We’re also including our Revolutionary Youth self-paced program that includes 5 pre-recorded webinars and an accompanying workbook. Both together are only $97. Get details on our website. So you and your spouse, if you are married, can attend the live online class. Then in your own time, you and your youth can watch the pre-recorded youth classes, called Revolutionary Youth.
Those who have taken the course describe how they were able to break through the walls their kids were hiding behind, connect in truly meaningful ways, and have real impact in their lives.
Revolutionary.
In the meantime, we have lots of helps on our online private FB group: Revolutionary Heroes Forum [click here to request to join].
Remember that you as the parents, are the captain of the ship. ou own and control the atmosphere in your home. Break through the noise, stay focused on your purpose, and help your family fly.
If you want to minimize the following in your home:
If you would like to enter the drawing for a free registration, comment below.
“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.”
If you want to hold off on paying to register, to see if you win the random drawing of the giveaway course, please comment below why you want to take the course. The drawing will be held Thursday August 6 at 4 PM UT time and will announced here at the end of the comments right after the drawing. If you don’t want to wait to see if you win and want to register right now, go here.
For my Come, Follow Me Study of the Book of Mormon last week, I learned more about chiasmus. It is a Hebrew literary structure found in the Book of Mormon. Alma 36 is probably the most beautiful example, because it focuses on Christ’s atonement. Alma 36 is so achingly beautiful about the power of Christ’s redemption. Then to discover that it has a poetic structure from ancient Hebrew makes it even more beautiful!
This Hebrew literary structure in the Book of Mormon helps to show that Joseph Smith did not write the book, but rather was simply the translator. The Book of Mormon was originally written in Reformed Egyptian. The writers of the Book of Mormon also knew Hebrew and altered the Hebrew language. So some of that knowledge of Hebrew probably crept into their writing of the book in reformed Egyptian.
Here is what Moroni, one of the writers and compilers of the book said:
“And now, behold, we have written this record according to our knowledge, in the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech” (Mormon 9:32, emphasis added).
He also said that “if our plates had been sufficiently large we [the Nephite record-keepers] should have written in Hebrew; but the Hebrew hath been altered by us also; and if we could have written in Hebrew, behold, ye would have had no imperfection in our record.” This was punctuated with the comment that “because that none other people knoweth our language, therefore [the Lord] hath prepared means for the interpretation thereof,” meaning the Nephite “interpreters” that Moroni deposited with the plates (Mormon 9:32–34; see also Mosiah 8:13, 19; Alma 37:21; Ether 4:5).
I hope you enjoy these videos about what chiasmus is and Brother John Welch’s Book of Mormon chiasmus discovery. I definitely felt the Spirit when I watched these videos.
The above video is by Greg Welch, son of John Welch.
Here’s a video John Welch made recently for Book of Mormon Central. So cool!
Then here’s a speech by John Welch and others, including John’s wife and Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, at the 50th anniversary of the discovery of chiasmus, at a conference at BYU. Extra cool!
I know the Book of Mormon is true. I first felt a witness of its truthfulness from the Holy Spirit at age 12 when I read it from cover to cover and prayed to know if it is true. The Book of Mormon has given me answers to many problems and peace and comfort in times of trouble. I still carry that witness with me. This book continues to give me light and guidance to this day. I love that God cares enough about us to have inspired this record to be written ages ago, in addition to the Bible, to help us navigate these troubled times today.
Note from the description of the video on YouTube: “During Elder Holland’s address, he referred to the prophet Moroni when he intended to refer to Nephi, the son of Helaman. Elder Holland has corrected the mistake, and updated the transcript at Mormon Newsroom. He has asked up to make note us his update to the presentation.”
Happy late Pioneer Day everybody! It was last Friday, July 24. In Utah, it is a state holiday, set aside to honor the pioneers who entered the Salt Lake Valley on that day in July of 1847. I love this above video reminder about how we are all pioneers. We are each braving new territory, especially psychological, as we navigate this strange pandemic world.
To celebrate, we listened to pioneer stories over zoom from family members from Utah and Maine. I bribed the the kiddos to listen by promising homemade ice cream afterwards. Then the next day we did the same with my husband’s side, hearing stories from his mom.
Tree of Life Mothering 
