We had a great, although imperfect Easter weekend. I definitely caught up on my sleep! Post coming soon! I love this video above for this week’s Come, Follow Me reading of Mosiah 1-3 because of the way the presenters, David and Emily, draw parallels between King Benjamin’s time and General Conference of today. I also love that they filmed it before General Conference April 2020, and talked about how King Benjamin basically issued a proclamation, and then we had President Nelson issue a proclamation during Conference.
I also love the mention of Mother Teresa, with her statement that we are to look for the sad and the lonely, even in our own homes, instead of searching for some grand and great thing to do afar.
If any of you missed General Conference, please partake! It is delicious! Sessions are below.
I read from this book as I always do everyday on Sunday April 5, 2020. Since it was Sunday, Palm Sunday, at that, I’m putting it front and center for that day. We are using the Come, Follow Me Study Guide to study it this year as a family.
Usually we don’t gameschool on Sunday, unless it’s “Sunday School” games (“Sunday gameschooling”) like Seek, or the Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites Board Game. (Sometimes the boys will play the Game of Life while I take a nap or do family history research and their sister reads or draws. I’d like to get them doing family history games on familysearch.org.) We did work on this puzzle during General Conference. (You can see more about our General Conference Weekend here.)
I had bought a copy of the Global Puzzle years ago brand new. After we moved out of state, I discovered a few pieces missing. Imagine my delight when I found the same puzzle while thrifting for only 75 cents! With all the pieces! Balance restored!
Then that night after General Conference, we played my Gospel Restoration Timeline Game. You can get instructions for assembling it here.
Here are some pictures of the cards I made for the game.
I thought it was cool that one of the cards featured a story in the March 2020 Friend, about an African man in the 1960s who had a dream about the Salt Lake Temple. That led him to find the Church and get baptized.
We will be playing this game more on Sundays! I love that it has church history dates plus non-church stuff, like the invention of the computer and the cell phone. These technological advances are all part of the Restoration.
Every day I play a chapter of this book on audio using my Scribd app for the kiddos to listen to while doing dishes. The kids always balk at first but I think they eventually get into the satisfying tales of homesteading, gardening, farming and cooking. I think they secretly like it. There’s just something about hearing of a self-reliant life that makes us feel peace and joy.
That night I played games with some girlfriends, online with video conferencing. Here’s what we played, with me showing some of the cards with the webcam and texting some of the cards. I thoroughly enjoyed myself! We did General Conference Trivia and General Conference Double Ditto as well. Great fun!
Disclosure: the link to Scribd is my affiliate link. If you sign up for Scribd, you can get two free months. The cost is the same for you and I get another free month. If you are a bibliophile like I am, you will love it! It gives you unlimited access to thousands of audiobooks and books in text format, more so than Audible. I have Audible too and love both platforms. Often I can find a lot more of what my children are reading for their homeschool subjects/classes in scribd than in Audible. I can also get sheet music, documents, magazines, newspapers, and picture books in Scribd. I can also get all the Little House books in audio and text, and many other read aloud chapter books for the kiddos, that I see recommended on readaloudrevival.com, on Scribd. I hope you sign up and enjoy it!
Bugsy asked me to read this one again. A cute story about a real person, Amelia Simmons, who made the first American cookbook, calling for local ingredients like squash and cornmeal. She made a “birthday cake” for each of the 13 colonies/states for George Washington’s inauguration.
I also played Stratego and learned some new strategies for next time!
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.
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Tree of Life Mothering 
