Tree of Life Mothering

Do you want to teach your children about what real independence is? Do you want them to value independence and liberty over peer pressure and government intervention? Do you want to help them to think critically for themselves? Then get them these books! You get all the Tuttle Twins books, with their companion audiobooks and PDF workbooks, plus a new ebook about 10 facts of the Declaration of Independence, all for only $58.88, 75% off! Go here to get the deal!

Happy upcoming Independence Day! This year the holiday is more important than ever, for us to think about how our independence is being threatened and what we can do about. Here are some great videos to help us do that.

The Tuttle Twins books are on sale for Independence Day. You can get the whole set that has been available before during the Lockdown Sale, plus a new ebook written by Connor Boyack about 10 facts of the Declaration of Independence. Click here to get the sale.

Happy Independence Day everyone! Speak up and speak out for your liberty!

I love this talk published in the July 2020 Ensign about the pioneers, by Elder Lawrence Corbridge. He gave it pre-pandemic to celebrate Pioneer Day (July 24) last year in Utah. It is, however, very timely for us to read now. This is especially true in the wake of having our religious freedom of assembly curtailed in the name of safety. The video above shows a recent digital conference originating from the BYU Law School exploring the topic of religious freedom.

The pioneers got through a major crisis involving religious freedom, and we can too. In the article I just referenced, Elder Corbridge speaks about how in times of crisis, the 10-80-10 principle applies. This involves the following, to quote him (I added the bold emphases and separated the concepts for easier understanding):

“10 percent of people will handle crisis and trauma with a relatively calm and rational state of mind. They pull themselves together quickly. They accept the situation, make decisions to improve it, and take action.

However, the vast majority of us, 80 percent, are immobilized, stunned, and bewildered and wait for help to come or someone to tell us what to do.

The group we try not to be in, however, is the last 10 percent. They freak out and make the situation worse.”

Wow! This is so interesting!

So which group do you want to be a part of as we handle this pandemic crisis?

I invite you to be part of the first 10 percent, the leaders.

How do we do that? As the scripture says, “If you are prepared you shall not fear.” (D&C 38:30) This pandemic has been a great practice drill wake-up call to help us see where our preparation gaps are. Now we can better prepare with vision, knowledge, and skills for future crises. We must take action! That involves knowledge.

It’s so important to have a knowledge of history and civics so we can know how people before us dealt with crises. Like what happened in the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic. Watch the video below to learn.

I’m hosting a Constitution Alive Class over Zoom Starting Thursday June 25, 6 to 8 PM MDT. It will go for 6 weeks. This class features prerecorded videos by Rick Green (the guy in the video above) and David Barton of the Wallbuilders podcast. Only if we know our rights protected by the Constitution, can we stand up for and defend them. If you want to take part, please send an email to info (at) treeoflifemothering (dot) com so I can sign you up.

Elder David A. Bednar, apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, recently spoke about the importance of religious rights as part of the video conference I posted at the top of this post. His remarks start at the 32:25 minute mark.

I’m pleased to see him take this stance. Does this mean that in the future, Church leaders will fight back government orders to stop assembling for Church meetings by proposing to comply with some kind of compromise so that we can meet and slow the spread of germs if there’s a pandemic ? I hope so. I suppose that is already happening right now as some congregations are starting to meet, with social distancing guidelines in place. I also hope that some non-compliance will happen, a little Church-led civil disobedience. Is this too much to hope for?

We do believe in “obeying and sustaining the law” (Article of Faith 8) but sometimes the law is not right.

Right? Examples of bad laws: laws that allow slavery, the Fugitive Slave Act, the Supreme Court decisions of Scott v. Sanford, Plessy v. Ferguson, and Roe v. Wade, among numerous others. These laws are not based on natural law. Such laws are examples of ones that needed or need to be change. So let’s learn our Constitution, hold our leaders accountable and ask for change when they aren’t following laws or the law isn’t right. Also let’s show outrage and some civil disobedience, like good old Gandhi did.

This video below shows an Illinois state legislator, Darren Bailey, who took the time to look up the Illinois law to see how it jived with the Illinois state governor giving an executive emergency proclamation. Watch below to see what he did.

Further reading on the role that Latter-day Saints can and must play in fighting for liberty and its twin, responsibility, can be found in these books: Latter-day Liberty and Latter-day Responsibility, both by Connor Boyack. The first is also in Audible format, and both have Kindle formats.

Wow, this is an amazing fireside. It’s a timely message for what’s going on now as we all find sense and healing in the midst of tragedy. Alex Boye shares a personal story of racial prejudice that is so powerful! This is not to be missed! He shows that the God he worships is a God of love who gives us all the grace we need to heal from hurt. I admires him so much. I love that he talks about having a “Jesus playlist” for these troubled times. I will do it Alex!

For our pure enjoyment I’ve posted a favorite Alex video of mine. As he sings, “You can be bitter, or you can be better!”

I absolutely loved, loved, loved this week’s Don’t Miss This video for Alma 8-12 of the Book of Mormon. Trust me, you’ve got to watch this! I love the story David tells of a friend who had a rough life. She left the covenant path as a youth and then came back as an adult. When David told the story of what happened when the woman had her patriarchal blessing after coming back to the path, I teared up a bit. It was so sweet!

Then Emily talked about how we can all be God’s favorite. Each one of us can be “highly favored of the Lord.” God’s love is that big, she says. I love it!

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.

.

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.