This clip is from the conference last fall, featuring the founder of the conference, Rod Meldrum. I’ve heard Rod speak in person. He’s so engaging!
I’m taking part in this Book of Mormon Evidences/FIRM Foundation Expo conference as a presenter this weekend. I hope you will join us! In the past it has been in person, but it’s all online this weekend! It starts tomorrow, Thursday April 9, 2020! Three days, through April 11, 2020! You can still register. Just click on this link.
FIRST Virtual FIRM Foundation EXPO featuring 25th International Book of Mormon Evidence Streaming
We have now finalized our plan to bring the FIRM Foundation Expo speakers to the entire WORLD by internet as we will hold our Virtual Expo with over 60 New Presentations. We also have 200 additional presentations that you can see anywhere in the world on your computer or smart phone for the next 3 months beginning April 9, 2020! click here to register.
Here is an excerpt from my Celestial Family Devotionals ebook. This is the list for April with links to scriptures, songs, stories and poetry to celebrate Easter. I share a story or two each day with my family during our devotional and plan on sharing more this Sunday with my older children via zoom.
If you would like your own copy of my ebook please go over here to get it.
Themes: Easter, the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Restoration of the gospel, organization of the latter-day Church of Jesus Christ, General Conference, first principles and ordinances of the gospel, conversion, being born again, the sacrament, forgiveness, healing, miracles, rescue stories, testimony
Just click on the links to open the resource. Please let me know if any are broken.
Paul Revere’s Ride by Longfellow (I included this here because it happened April 18-19, 1775, but you might prefer to study this poem with other patriotic poetry in June or July.)
This video and message copied and pasted from Joette Calabrese, a homeopathic practitioner, give me additional hope and comfort at this time. I encourage you to visit her website, linked above, to learn from her vast resources, including her blog and podcast and YouTube channel.
Home with Homeopathy Tip #19 from Joette Calabrese:
Coronavirus is uppermost on everyone’s mind at the moment, but remember, it is a day-to-day evolving target. No one has a handle on the emerging data.
We don’t; they don’t!
The best I can do is share pertinent information with you as I learn it.
You see, epidemics and pandemics have a process that needs to be gone through. Enough cases need to be studied to show which medicines are most useful. It’s an evolutionary process.
To help flesh out your understanding as to how this works, check out my colleague, Dr. André Seine’s discussion on epidemics and COVID-19 at the National Center for Homeopathy. (See video above.)
Just as Jesus Christ spoke to his disciples in ancient times, He speaks to us today. This Easter, listen to His words and teachings, and #HearHim. https://www.comeuntochrist.org/
Subscribe to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the latest videos: http://bit.ly/1M0iPwY
A high school classmate of mine has instructions for making an Easter creche here out of cardboard. So creative!
Here’s a great YouTube playlist from the YouTube channel, “Messages of Christ,” to use each day this week as you read about the events that happened in the last week of Christ’s life.
Here are descriptions of the events of each of the days. Read them during family scripture study or at dinnertime during this Holy Week.
This Friday, Good Friday, we are going to fast in response to our prophet’s invitation to fast to end the pandemic and after we break our fast with dinner we will listen to this Messiah concert.
I’m also showing these videos below from Emily Belle Freeman and David Butler, one each day (or two if I have catching up to do) over dinner. I love that they have a simple Easter activity/tradition to do with each one. You don’t have to go out and buy stuff to do these, you probably already have the materials.
Day #1:
Materials needed: a tree branch and vase
Day #2:
Materials needed: yarn, jute, or string to make bracelets.
Day #3:
Materials needed: plastic Easter eggs, paper, and something to hang the eggs on the tree branch mentioned earlier.
Day #4:
Material needed: eggs and yellow onion skins to dye the eggs red, dinner, and invite a grandmother-type woman to dinner. The yellow onion skins really work! See my picture below from last year.
Day #5:
Materials needed: paper and writing utensil
Day #6:
Materials needed: anything that reminds you of the hope of Jesus, such as pictures of the Savior. If you can, buy some fresh Easter lilies
Day #7:
Materials needed: Writing utensil and paper to write an Easter testimony letter to your children or other loved ones.
Here’s an additional activity I might try with my family this year: get up and watch the sunrise on Easter morning and then have a testimony meeting with family and/or friends, sharing your letters and testimonies and stories of the resurrection and miracles. Maybe even share the ways you are hearing Jesus in your life lately as you follow President Nelson’s invitation to #Hearhim.
BONUS VIDEO BELOW: How to Make Easter Tomb/Resurrection Rolls
Here is the link to the printed recipe from ohsweetbasil.com. Not exactly whole foods-y. I’m thinking I’ll try my sourdough breadmachine bread recipe for the dough part and let rise for the dough cycle in my breadmachine. Then just roll out and smother with cinnamon, honey or sugar and marshmallows.
The book below, on page 108, has a recipe for natural yeast cinnamon rolls, which I’ve tried but, with a baked potato and buttermilk, it’s too complicated for me. So I’m going for what I just mentioned above.
Also on Sunday we will have our traditional Easter egg hunt and watch our Easter videos on this list.
Wow, General Conference sessions of Saturday and yesterday were amazing! I feel so blessed to have taken part in it. The photos in this post are from our General Conference weekend, this past Saturday and Sunday, April 4-5, 2020. for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It involved a Bicentennial Celebration of the First Vision of Joseph Smith. The vision happened in the spring of 1820, when God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith in New York. We got to watch Conference from home, as we usually do, but this time it was extra unusual knowing that only ten or fewer people were in a small auditorium to take turns presenting instead of tens of thousands in the Conference Center, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
My kiddos don’t get into conference packets any more (sob!) so I got out a world puzzle to keep hands busy while listening. Also to help my husband stay awake. 🙂 Dear hubby did most of it Saturday and the boys worked on it on Sunday. I’m going to get it out every Conference from now on, to emphasize the worldwide spread of the Kingdom of God.
Conference was definitely a bright shining ray of hope that I was looking forward to, in order to get me through this time of pandemic and social distancing, which makes this new season of spring feel like it’s still winter.
The boys had fun playing roller hockey between sessions on Saturday. It does my heart good to see them dig out old hand-me-down rollerblades and other equipment we’ve had for years and fashion goals out of cardboard boxes.
I deliberately took photos of new life during our celebration to remind me that winter doesn’t last forever. Lots of trees on our property are budding green leaves or new pinecones but sadly we don’t have any flowers. Bugsy took photos of his carrots sprouting up. He’s keeping the location a secret from me. Every day he’s very diligent about watering them.
It’s hard to tell those are carrots, but he assures me they are!
I love that President Russell M. Nelson called on us to fast and pray this Good Friday in a worldwide fast for relief from the pandemic. I also felt blessed by his assurance that the temples of the church will open again sometime. He encouraged us to continue with family history research work at home while we await the opening of the temples again. That is just what I needed to hear.
The whole weekend felt like a glorious holiday because my husband was home both days from his temporary job. That, combined with the food, relaxation, and new “gifts” (announcements) from President Nelson made the days feel like Christmas. Eight new temples, including one in Shanghai China! and one in Dubai! Wow! (See video below.) Also Brad Wilcox being called to be a General Authority! Not to mention the stories shared by the leaders that invited more revelation into my life. My two favorite stories were the ones by Sister Cordon about feeding chickens with Elder Perry and the one by Elder Christofferson about the young man who was told by the Spirit not to burn the Book of Mormon but to read it. He obeyed and witnessed that he felt the most joyous feeling he ever had, when he was done reading it. He then got baptized and served a mission.
I kicked off the event the night before with an online game night with some of my Relief Society sisters. That was fun! I had two General Conference themed games: a General Conference trivia quiz and then I had Gen. Conf. categories for my Double Ditto game. In my Conf. Double Ditto game, we guessed locations for new temples. I actually guessed Africa so I got that much right, because Pres. Nelson announced a new one in Nigeria two days later in Conference.
I sure enjoyed our food! I continued my vision of having special food over Conference weekend that I started a few years ago, when I wrote this. We had ground beef nachos, which is something we only have on Gen. Conf., on Saturday, and beef teriyaki and roasted broccoli on Sunday afternoon. This tasted soooo good!
I mixed my roasted broccoli with the teriyaki chicken and cabbage. Yum!
I think I finally figured out the Conference food thing. For now, maybe I’ll just focus on having one unique exciting meal/tradition a day instead of three fancy meals to plan, shop, and cook for. Then have my regular standby meals for the other meals. (I’ve done cinnamon rolls in the past for breakfast but just didn’t want to this time.) Anyway, Sunday night the rest of the family enjoyed a store-bought cake hubby had bought while I had my new keto yellow cake with chocolate frosting and crushed up keto chocolate.
Nobody in this house has weight-control issues but me, so they don’t need the keto. I was pleasantly surprised though that my bird of a 14-year-old daughter actually ate more of the keto cake during the week than I did, she loved it that much.
This roasted broccoli is so divine! I will get the recipe up soon!
To add to the holiday/holy days excitement, my niece got married, hundreds of miles away from us, on Saturday. A small set of people witnessed it, in order to practice social distancing. She had planned a temple wedding in a few weeks which I would have loved to have attended, but with the temple closures, she chose to get civilly married sooner. I am happy to see her start married life. It was a drive-by wedding reception with guests driving by to wish them well as the newlyweds stood on the front lawn of the groom’s parents’ yard. Not ideal but I admire her for making the most of a difficult situation.
Sunday night after Conference, we played the Restoration timeline card game I blogged about over here. The rest of the family tired of it before I did, because the complete game involves 150 cards!
After my daughter won the game, being first to run out of her 20 cards, they all bowed out and watched a movie. So I finished playing the game myself! Here are all the cards:
I felt the Holy Spirit several times, bearing witness of the truths of which I was hearing, of which I’m so grateful for. My life certainly isn’t perfect right now. I’m experiencing a lot of messy challenges within the messy macrocosm of the pandemic. But Jesus is real. Jesus and His gospel give me hope to carry on. He has paid the price of His redeeming love for all our sins and pains and problems. He has visited the earth, since his resurrection. He spoke to Joseph Smith and chose him to be his prophet to restore His gospel and His church. That church exists today. For that I’m grateful and will forever rejoice! I’m grateful for the prophet of today, President Russell M. Nelson, who invites us all to Hear Jesus through the Holy Spirit to hear answers from God.
I also enjoyed watching most of the world report of the video below, part of which I watched while soaking in a relaxing tub of hot water. Luscious! The kingdom of God rolls forward, and we each get to play a part in it. What a glorious weekend!
My friend Michelle texted me this video last week. It’s Emily Belle Freeman talking about the scriptures that President Nelson asked all the women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to study in last October 2019 General Conference. Thanks Michelle, for reminding me about that! I had forgotten. Just in time to prepare for tomorrow’s General Conference.
Here’s what Emily says about the video:
In response to President Russell M. Nelson’s invitation from the Fall General Conference of 2019 to study D&C 25, D&C 84, D&C 107 and the Joseph Smith History, a group of women began a six month study called Inklings. This live event (video above) is the culmination of that six month study on Women and the Priesthood. There are four sessions in this video:
A corresponding digital workbook for use with this video can be purchased at Etsy.com. Search Inklings Workbook. For continued updates about Inklings follow @emilybellefreeman on Instagram.
I had a big project to work on most of the day, but in the evening I wanted to give some time to my children. So to go with the book below that I had read the day before, we played the game above. I had discovered it online over a month ago, and then found it on sale at Target for only $10, right before the big wave of quarantining. I’m glad I got it! It’s sweet to read all the character names and say, hey, I remember Bob Dog and Chef Brockett (played by the same guy), and Neighbor Aber, and Cornflake X. Especially. Talk about a blast from my past.
Image credits: amazon.com
It’s a super cute game, just the right mix of strategy and friendly competitiveness. A great game for parents to play with kids because it has a good balance of luck and skill. If you draw the Mr. Rogers card you have to give a compliment, kind word or share something else nice with your neighbor. It passed the sunshine test. Everyone showed some ray of sunshine at least once: a smile, laugh, or sparkle in the eye.
then for Bugsy’s bedtime story, I read the book below. He loves it a lot. I like it for discussing the 5 love languages of Dr. Gary Chapman. This is the third or fourth time we’ve read it. I think Mr. Rogers would approve. We’re stuck with all these library books, having to recycle them, until the library opens back up. Everybody who listened to Marie Kondo is hating it now. Fortunately I didn’t, haha. I do have a deep storage of books to unearth when he gets tired of these ones, thank goodness.
Even though it was technically math and science day, we read the book above. Sometimes I am just random like that. It’s such a great book about everyone’s favorite neighbor.
Then we played 24. This is currently my fave math game. I love it so much it has made my Top Ten list of Tabletop Games. I just love that it’s so easy and quick. You just have to figure out how to add, subtract, multiply, or divide with all four numbers on each card to get 24. See if you can do it with the image below. We played the first person to earn ten cards. You earn the card if you get the answer.
Then we played Hidden Panda to practice logical reasoning and deduction. You can get it free here, as a print and play game. It’s kind of like Secret Hitler but a lot more cute.
May I present to you….a classic yellow keto cake that doesn’t use flaxseed meal, oat fiber, or beans, like my other keto yellow cake here.
I’m so excited about this! For years since going low carb, I’ve been using flaxseed meal and oat fiber to make cakes because I have a teenage son allergic to almonds and coconuts. That’s what keto cakes are usually made of. He “graduated” from our homeschool last spring and moved out of the house. I miss him terribly. The only consolation with him being gone is that I can bake with coconut and almond flour to my heart’s content with no risk of him going into anaphylactic shock! Coconut and almond flour definitely have a better mouth feel than flaxseed meal and oat fiber. So yay!
This cake is so rich and dense, you probably will just eat one piece and definitely feel satisfied! See how small my piece is above? That’s all it takes for me as a dessert. If I had it for breakfast, I would eat more. 🙂
OK, ready to bake? Here you go…
Melt three sticks of butter on low heat, that is 1 1/2 cups of butter
While the butter is melting, beat 12 eggs, yes 12 eggs! I guess you could try 6 if you need to skimp on eggs.
1 cup whole Greek yogurt
1 T plus 1 tsp vanilla (alternately, if you want lemon cake, omit vanilla and add 30 drops lemon essential oil)
1 cup water
Combine these wet ingredients listed above together
In another bowl mix these dry ingredients:
1 cup Trim Healthy Mama Gentle Sweet or equivalent substitute (1 c ground erythritol, pulverized to a fine powder in the blender, and mix in 1 tsp stevia thoroughly)
2 tsp baking powder
4 c almond flour
1 c coconut flour
pinch of sea salt
Add dry mixture into wet mixture and mix until blended.
Pour cake batter into a greased 9×13 pan or two greased round cake pans. It will be thick. If you do want two round pans or a thick cake in a rectangle pan then half the recipe. If you want it to be thinner but a lot of cake use the recipe as listed above but use a greased jelly roll pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Let cool then frost.
Easy way: whip up cream with some stevia and vanilla or lemon essential oil to taste
More complicated…
Vanilla Frosting: Take a bunch of whole Greek yogurt, like 1 cup, sweeten with stevia to taste, add vanilla or lemon essential oil to taste, and a teensy pinch of sea salt, and frost cake
Chocolate Frosting: Take the same amount of whole Greek yogurt, add stevia and cocoa, a teensy pinch of sea salt to taste and frost cake
Here is my list of my current Top Ten Favorite Tabletop Games and why. I reserve the right to change this at any time, of course!
Codenames. My all time favorite, because it involves logic, deduction, vocabulary, word association, and teamwork. Also because you can customize it to whatever subject you are studying.
Bananagrams. Sooo much better than Scrabble!
24. A math game that moves fast and encourages people to learn math facts.
Scotland Yard. It also teaches logic and deduction, and gets so exciting!
Spontuneous. It involves singing and/or shouting. You really don’t have to be musical to win, just good at remembering lyrics. Also I love it because all people can play at once.
Say Anything and Wits and Wagers. These are made by the same company and involve the same mechanics. One involves opinion answers, the other involves fact answers, always expressed in numbers. I love that Wits and Wagers involves trivia AND knowing the other players well and reading their body language. So if someone isn’t good at trivia they can still win because they can get good at knowing how the other players would respond. You can totally DIY this game. I will have to blog about that later.
Backseat Drawing. A reverse of Pictionary. I love that it involves more teamwork than Pictionary and everyone can play at once, like Pictionary sometimes allows.
Reverse Charades. I love that this one is fast and involves acting.
Taboo. It’s just so fun. Also involves vocabulary and word association.
Qwirkle. A great math game for increasing pattern recognition and logical thinking.
Runner-ups: Dixit, Therapy, Brain Games, Trivial Pursuit, Word on the Street, Apples to Apples, 789, and Jeopardy!
![The Art of Baking with Natural Yeast: Breads, Pancakes, Waffles, Cinnamon Rolls and Muffins by [Caleb Warnock, Melissa Richardson]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ftAm4V-ML._SX260_.jpg)
Tree of Life Mothering 
