Since blogging the words that have the strikethrough below, the owners of the video I originally referred to took it down from YouTube. It was Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar being interviewed by Jessa Duggar Seewald, one of their daughters. Darn, I hadn’t even finished watching it. The bullet list I posted below was what I had noticed in it after watching just half of it.
But great news, guys! I found some videos from the YouTube channel of Jessa. These videos share a lot of what was in the original video
Video #1, above is Jessa’s video she just made to share memories of her mother. So you can learn some mother mentoring tips of Michelle, via Jessa. In this video, Jessa talks about how as a kid she didn’t like going grocery shopping with her mom because it would take three hours, as her mom stopped to chat with people. So, true story: I have a friend here at church whose parents live in Arkansas. She says one time she was visiting her parents a few years ago and went to a Wal-Mart in northwest Arkansas. As she was using the restroom she heard a familiar voice outside the stall, in the restroom. It turned out to be none other than Michelle. Evidence of what Jessa mentions in the video, LOL!
Video #2, below is Jessa’s video of memories of her father. Both those videos contain tips on how to mentor and connect with children as parents. I’m hoping/thinking/wishing that everything I put in the bullet list is in these two videos. I haven’t watched them both completely yet.
Then next in this post I have a cute video, Video #3, about how Jessa’s father and the older boys remodeled the home he and Michelle gave? or lent? or rented? to Jessa after she got married to Ben Seewald. This is a home that Jim Bob’s mother, Mary bought. I believe the Duggars lived in it for a time, before they built the big house, and then Josh and Anna lived in it after they were first married. After Josh and Anna moved out, to go to D.C., Jim Bob remodeled it for newlyweds Jessa and Ben. I just think it’s so fun that the family was there to greet Jessa and Ben when they arrived home from their honeymoon and the family got to see them see the renovations. I guess some people would be mad about that to come home and have the house full of family but I think it’s sweet.
Video #4 is of the newlyweds after they get all their stuff in and decorate it, before the babies come.
Video #5 is of the home today, very well lived in by Jessa, Ben, and their three darling kiddos. Jessa and her son Spurgeon give a tour of the home, first when it’s messy, and then again after it’s cleaned up. Spurgeon is so adorable with his descriptions of the honey and the bathtub. He reminds me of my five boys when they were little, so full of explanations. So cute!
Here’s a brand-new video from the Duggars, some of the most experienced Christian parents on the planet. They gave this question and answer session with daughter Jessa Duggar Seewald last Monday, 4/27/20, as part of the annual homeschool conference they attend in Big Sandy TX. Because of the pandemic the conference didn’t happen person-to-person, but was livestreamed and then recorded. So watch above to see the one from the Duggars. They have suggestions on the following:
how to do family devotionals
how to memorize scriptures with children
praying with children
helping children deal with electronic devices
how to mentor children by talking heart-to-heart
how to practice hospitality with a family
I don’t agree with all of the Duggars’ beliefs but I do believe we can all learn a lot from Jessa telling about these experienced parents of 20 children (19 biological plus one foster son/grandnephew).
Finally, here’s Jessa on how to have hospitality, which reflects what she learned from her parents. Her little baby girl sitting by her, oh my, she’s melt-your-heart adorbs!
Then here’s how to DIY the canvas prints of her kids that you see in the background above the couch she’s sitting on. So beautiful!
This darling book above is so fascinating! A great tour of the many inventions and roles of Founding Father Ben Franklin. Wow America really got blessed by his brains and energy. We are enjoying his inventions over 200 years later. I got it through my Scribd app as we still can’t get books from the public library. So we read it on my iPad.
We also finished the Mayo Brothers book below. Boy those men were amazing. They donated $2 million to build the Mayo Clincic. So wonderful and inspiring!
We had a family game night with all the kiddos and my husband, playing Payday, a classic from my teenhood. The artwork and deals have changed a bit but the basic mechanics are the same. I’m sad that they did away the “Sweet Sunday” spaces on the 1975 game board that reflected honoring the Sabbath Day.
image credit: amazon
I picked it up for less than 3 bucks from Goodwill a few months ago after a fruitless search to find it, Therapy, and Mousetrap, at my parents’ home back in February. Apparently my mom is not as much of a packrat as I thought. The metagame turned out really well. I think we all had fun and learned. The video below explains the metagame.
Nobody got mad, bored to the point of asking to quit, or sad or on the verge of tears. Cowboy won, which I was pleased since he came in last playing Cashflow last week. We played a three month game which took about three hours for five people. We had to use the money from Cashflow after running out of $1000 bills. We played with five players; the game is designed for four so that’s probably why we ran out of the 1000s. We debriefed a bit after playing this game. Cowboy likes Payday better than Cashflow because he said it went faster. We are going to play Cashflow next week and I’m going to let everyone choose their own job cards, allowing for duplicates. It’s hard to win Cashflow if you start out with a high salary because you also have high expenses, which is what Cowboy had last week. We’ll see who wins when we all pick the card with the lowest expenses, LOL.
So we are still on a Tuttle Twins streak to learn principles of freedom based on freedom classics written for adults by great thinkers. The one we finished above is based on the book below. Another one to put on my “to-read” list.
The day before, I had dug out the game below from my stash of never-played games that I picked up while thrifting years ago. We went through a few cards over dinner. The kids weren’t that interested as they aren’t thinking about college right now (ages 15, 14, and 10). I cheerfully announced to the older two it’s time to start practicing for college entrance exams, and this was a gentle first step. We didn’t actually play the game using the official scoresheet, I just quizzed them on a few cards. Then I quizzed my husband, and when he lost interest, I quizzed myself. I played until I could ten right. I didn’t have time to finish as I came up into Family Night time so I continued the next day, Tuesday. So that counts as my game for the day. I just did the verbal reasoning cards and had loads of fun! Yeah, this was one of the few days when I just played a game solo. Sometimes I do that. I am the biggest fan of games here because the child who inherited my game-loving gene grew up and lives a few states away.
I’m realizing now it was a great game to play that day, as my fourth child started college, at BYU (online) on that day, Monday! Hooray for Mr. L! I’m super excited for him. Those tours of BYU that I took him on in the past few years to inspire him have paid off.
I found the above picture book on Libby. If you are running out of books to read to your children, check out Libby. Here’s a great post I wish I had written about it. How we miss the public library!
My two older kids here at home and I played an online game with their homeschool science/math class here. You can play it too! It was an escape room game for the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. We used Zoom so we could speak to each other and see the mentor of the class’s screen, but then we could see our own screen of the game when we wanted to. We watched the video above to get started. Each of us had our own device to use so that made it better. No arguing over control over the mouse, LOL, and we could each go at our own pace and solve the puzzles on our own. The three of also used earbuds we wouldn’t have an echo. It’s pretty cool that we can play a game with people miles away and be looking at the same rooms of a museum thousands of miles away. What an age we live in! I don’t agree with all the “facts” presented by the museum but had fun anyway.
I got to play Jeopardy with some of my sibs and my parents, remotely, using Zoom. That’s the silver lining of this whole pandemic. My parents have been forced to use Zoom for my dad’s work. So now they feel comfortable using it for other things and have reached out to their children, inviting us to play games using Zoom. Yay! Now I don’t feel quite so lonely on weekends, which I used to feel, when I knew they were getting together for Sunday dinners without us. We played a General Authorities Jeopardy! game that one of my adult sons wrote, which you can find here.
That night I started reading aloud the book below to Bugsy. I love reading these ValueTales stories, they just are so fun to transport us to a different place and time about interesting people who pursued mission-based lives.
I read this book aloud to the kiddos while they did dishes, both the lunch and then supper dishes. It’s a great introduction to the non-aggression principle taught by the great Ron Paul. You can get the Tuttle Twins series here. (That’s an affiliate link so if you buy from it I get a small commission which helps pay for the cost of this blog.)
Then we played Cashflow, the money board game invented by Rich Dad Robert Kiyosaki, the third night in a row. This time we started at 6 PM instead of after 7. We finally finished it and I won! It “only” took us 6 1/2 hours, over a stretch of three nights, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights. We took a picture every night of where the pawns were and stashed the game in a corner of the living room every night as a bookmark, so the table would be clear for schoolwork and meals. We can stash games in corners on the floor now that we don’t have toddlers around. My new goal is to play it as a family once a month to help solidify the wealth lessons.
I’m super excited about this upcoming event! The annual BYU Women’s Conference, is all online this year! Parts of it have been online in the past, as shown above, but this year, ALL of it is!
Over 24 years ago, I brought a nursing baby to this conference and discovered the Marriott Center doesn’t have much in the way of comfortable spots for breastfeeding (before bringing babies was banned, back in the day, a tangent I won’t get into). Maybe it does now? Two years later, I attempted to go, in person, but with three little kids at home, I ended up getting called home. Ever since then I’ve wished it were more accessible for moms of young children, as well as moms who live far away and can’t travel to BYU. My wishes have materialized this year, although I don’t like the pandemic reason. Nevertheless, I am rejoicing that we can all join in this year from the comfort of our homes, using the Internet.
Go here to see the schedule and put a reminder on your phone to join us on Friday May 1, 10 AM MDT. “See” you there! Boost your testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ and feel sisterhood at the same time!
I read this to Bugsy for bedtime. A great story about Jackie. I read it years ago to an older child. It was good to revisit and be reminded of Jackie’s courage to stand for himself and his right to play in the major leagues because of his talent. Then we finished the Tuttle Twins book below. I played the audiobook version for part of it, while the kiddos did dishes, and was delighted to discover that a long-time homeschool mom friend of mine is the narrator. You can get the Tuttle Twins books here. (That’s an affiliate link, so if you buy, I do receive a commission, but the cost to you is the same whether you buy through my link or another link.)
Then we played Cashflow, the board game by Robert Kiyosaki. We bought this game over 20 years ago. We stopped playing it during our money problems. Maybe that made the money problems drag out? Maybe if we had kept playing it, the game would have kept our vision up and we would have solved our money problems sooner. It felt good to play it again, this time around, teaching the younger kids who were not even born or babies when we used to play it, so it was new to them. We had to put a bookmark in it to play the next night.
I haven’t blogged in a while about our picture books and games. So I’m just going to do a massive blog post and catch up all at once. I’ll put what we did today and work backwards to the last post. I’ll keep my comments to brief or none at all to get through this quickly. I also can’t remember all the books we read every day.
I got the above picture book through Libby, an app that most public libraries have. It allows you to borrow digital books. Go to this delightful blog post here to learn more about using it. How did that blogger know my feelings? She echoes them exactly. I could have blogged those words. We miss you dear public library! We could all use some fresh library books now right? I am going through the ValueTales series that I’ve had stashed for years but sometimes I want something shorter. The crayon book above isn’t super short but it’s shorter than the ValueTales books.
We also played these games online in zoom with some homeschooling friends. The top two games I just held up the cards to the webcam and we played from there. As far as the game on the bottom of the pile goes, to learn how to play my mashup of Say Anything and Quiplash in zoom, go here. It’s so much fun!
Monday April 20, 2020
A family favorite from my childhood. This version doesn’t come with a bell like the version from my childhood did. Bummer. The bell’s so fun. So get the bell version. i guess they figure we all use our phones to make the noise but I like the real deal better.
Saturday April 18, 2020
Started the above with Bugsy. Will read a bit every night. Davy Crockett, what a man!
I played the above online with my parents and two siblings. First time I’ve had an online game night with them. Yay! Here’s where you can do it too. Click on the arrow button to play. Screenshare it in zoom with your remote players. When the time’s up, share your lists.
Friday April 17, 2020
This was a fun girls’ night online with some of my Veggie Gals. We played two games, Guess Who Wrote the Recipe? and Guess Who Said It? We wrote a cookbook together years ago so it was fun to name the recipe title, and see if anyone could guess who contributed the recipe. I’ve known a lot of these girlfriends for over 20 years so we share a lot of memories.
Thursday April 16, 2020
I played Jeopardy with my Hero Class. Go here to play the game I wrote and then make your own game. I felt it was time for us all to review the Constitution and some Revolutionary Heroes, even though the class is about the World Wars, because of the Crisis we are in.
Wednesday April 15, 2020
Some days I do a quiz game over dinner, like above, and call it good. I probably read aloud from Mathematicians Are People too as well and picture books for Bugsy but don’t remember them..
Tuesday April 14, 2020
Scotland Yard- little by little I’m learning the geography of London with this game! I like to look up YouTube videos of the different places.
Monday April 13, 2020
Sunday April 12, 2020
Does an Easter Egg hunt count for a game? We did that. This was a funny day that didn’t go perfectly. let’s just say I chose a long nap over other stuff so not all of my traditional Easter stuff happened. We got the egg hunt in. I’m counting on telling the Easter story the next day with these Resurrection Eggs as our “book” for Sunday. That counts, since I read more stories on that next day, Monday. You can get the article with the scriptures and object suggestions here.
It’s all a blur. It was Good Friday and we fasted to follow the prophet President’s Nelson’s plea to fast to end the pandemic. I do remember we watched some of the Messiah Concert by the Tabernacle Choir.
Thursday April 9, 2020
I can’t remember the game for this day. More blur.
Wednesday April 8, 2020
We played Chameleon.
Tuesday April 7, 2020
Sorry I’m not remembering the books for these last days. I probably read some of the Mr. Rogers picture book to go with the Mr. Rogers game below. My review is here.
Monday April 6, 2020
I really love Whoonu because you don’t have to think hard but it’s still meaningful and fun. Perfect for playing after a long day’s work. Too bad it’s out of print. Look for used ones online.
I am sharing the video above of a speech (transcript here) given by the late great Dr. Stephen R, Covey at my alma mater, BYU. He was the best-selling author of the book TheSeven Habits of Highly Effective People. More importantly, he was a disciple of Jesus Christ, and a great husband and father.
I have enjoyed learning from his different books through the years. (The one I just mentioned, plus TheSeven Habits of Highly Effective Families, First Things First, The Divine Center, and The 8th Habit. He has more, but those are the ones I have read from.) The video above is a beautiful accompaniment to the article I quote from below.
I found this highly beneficially instructive article by him and his wife, Sandra Covey, published in the January 1976 Ensign, about teaching your children how to communicate with God.
I love, love, love what they say at the very beginning of the article, especially what I put in bold:
As parents we are convinced that no other single activity has such a determining influence on the whole of life as does effective prayer. It can and should determine everything else, including our actions and our attitudes or responses to all that happens to us.
If neglected, everything else in life is negatively affected. If honored, everything else in life is graced. It is no wonder God commands parents to teach their children “to pray, and to walk uprightly before the Lord.” (D&C 68:28.)
We believe many of us in the Church are having problems and unhappiness because we are not properly teaching our children, and before we will be released from these plaguing problems, we will need to “set in order” our own homes.
We can apply all these teachings to our ourselves, as grown-up children of God. Brother and Sister Covey explain that we can’t really teach our children to pray unless we are modeling two-way communication ourselves. So let’s learn the following steps as adults, if we haven’t already, and teach them to our children.
The three ways we communicate with God:
1. Mechanical, one way prayers, also known as “saying our prayers.” This is where we begin. We say prayers out loud and in our heart too, but usually only when asked to by a parent or friend. It’s a natural fundamental first step. We talk to God by saying things, but we don’t necessarily feel any communication back from God. We follow these steps:
a. We address God: “Our Father in heaven …”
b. We give thanks for our blessings (and trials, as in “all things”): “We thank thee ”
c. We ask for help: “We ask thee …”
d. We close: “In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.”
2. Meaningful, one-way prayers.
This is where prayer becomes meaningful instead a rote, habitual thing that often feels like we are praying just to do it but that our prayer is bouncing off the ceiling. I really love the suggestions, examples, and stories the Coveys give to help us learn to pray this way. Here are their suggestions in a nutshell:
a. When you call the family for family prayer, pause and say something like, “Let’s take a few moments to think about who we are praying to and why. Let’s quietly think about what we are doing—about the things we are grateful for.”
b. If you have time, sing a hymn about prayer to invite the Spirit into your hearts and the room.
c. Go around the family circle and ask each family member what special blessings or help they need in their life right now.
d. When you ask a child to pray, remind them to remember who the child is praying to and to speak from the heart. I can just hear Brother Covey say in his gentle voice this quote from the article, “Think about what is in your heart and say it to your Heavenly Father. David, what are you really grateful for? How has the Lord blessed our family and answered our prayers? Let’s think about it and then just talk to your Heavenly Father as you talk to me. Don’t worry if you don’t say everything everyone else says. Say what you really feel in your heart. Heavenly Father loves and cares for you just as I do, even more so.”
e. Commend them for heartfelt, spontaneous expressions after you do step d.
f. Model praying for specific things. Be ready to interrupt what you are doing in order to model this. In the article, Sister Covey tells a wonderful story of her four-year-old daughter who asked, as they were riding in the car in a canyon, why they didn’t have a new baby in their family. Sister Covey explained that God was in control of that, so maybe if the daughter prayed and asked for that, God would grant them a baby. They pulled over to the side of the road to stop the car and pray. Then the little girl reminded the family every day to pray for a baby, and they eventually were blessed with a baby. Sister Covey credits the blessing of the baby to her little daughter leading out in prayers of faith.
g. Help them break up any mechanical prayers by reminding them that vocal, kneeling prayers are an accompaniment to a constant attitude of praying always in the heart. They say:
“Pray always” to us means a constant, subconscious commitment to and awareness of the Lord, so that his purposes and principles govern our every action, word, and thought, plus a frequent conscious renewal of that relationship and commitment in prayer.
h. After family prayer, encourage them to remain kneeling for personal prayers, if that seems appropriate, or excuse them to their rooms for more privacy to say personal prayers.
i. Teach your children to pray for what the Lord knows they need, rather than what they think they want. They say the following in the article:
“What is best for my character, my development, my spiritual growth, even if it’s a hard experience for me?” The Lord knows what we need—we know what we want. This is one excellent reason for regular scripture study. The Lord is constantly dealing with his children in terms of their needs, not their wants.
3. Genuine, heartfelt,two-way communication with God.
This is where we genuinely speak from the heart to God, and then we pause after speaking and listen to the Holy Ghost. This level involves asking God questions in prayer, and pausing to listen after the prayer is said. (The Coveys didn’t say this, but I am including it here, it helps to read the Book of Mormon after asking the question in prayer, reading until we feel some glimmer of an answer, and then taking time to write out all the thoughts and feelings that came with that glimmer. Then ask God if those thoughts and feelings are an answer from God, regarding your question. So you do what my friend Becky Edwards calls a “prayer sandwich.” A prayer before and after reading and writing is like the two slices of bread for the sandwich, and the “sandwich filling” is the reading the Book of Mormon and writing. She calls it “Heaven Journaling.”
OK, back to the Covey article. Brother Covey says:
We need to teach our children that the Lord speaks to us in many ways, but more particularly through his servants, the prophets, ancient (scriptures) and modern (conferences, writings), and through his still, small voice. We teach them that their heart is the ear of the spirit and that their conscience is His voice. President David O. McKay taught that for those in the Church in the line of their duty, the Holy Ghost normally speaks through the conscience. To a group of seminary and institute people, Elder Bruce McConkie of the Council of the Twelve once used a radio analogy, suggesting that the transmitter is the Holy Ghost, we are the receivers, and the Spirit of Christ represents the radio waves. Moroni taught that the gifts and powers of the Spirit come by and through the Spirit of Christ. (Moro. 10:7–17.)
Brother Covey tells the story of a college student who heard him speak three times at public events. Through what she heard him say to the general audience, and then in a personal conversation one-on-one, she learned to “educate her conscience.” She learned to listen to God by listening to her conscience after prayer and then acting on it. After her third visit with Dr./Brother Covey after a speech event by him she said that learning to listen and act on her conscience was the greatest practical religious step that had totally changed her life.
Here are the questions Dr./Brother Covey suggests, in the video speech at the top, that we ask ourselves in prayer, then take time to ponder and act on.
What do I need to do to draw closer to the living Christ?
What do I need to do to be a better member of my family, whatever role that may be: father, daughter, mother, son?
What do I need to fully magnify my duty as a student here at BYU, or as a faculty or staff person? (If this doesn’t apply to you, apply it to whatever temporal stewardship assignment you find yourself in, whether it is housewife/mother, househusband/father, breadwinner outside of the home, breadwinner inside the home, etc.)
I will conclude with what they say, the best quote of the whole article, about two-way communication with God, with a hearty amen! Please read the original article here.
Once a person discovers the possibility of a dynamic, living relationship and communication, once he learns the special meaning of mighty prayer, he is never the same again. All things, including relationships, are changed and made infinitely more alive and beautiful.
Tree of Life Mothering 