Tree of Life Mothering

This is one of the sweetest movies ever! I love that it involves culture, the Jewish religion, extended family, and romance! It’s clean and wholesome. For being a Hallmark Channel movie, it’s not cheesy at all. Here’s the official summary from the Hallmark Channel:

When Leah’s husband Benjamin dies suddenly, Benjamin’s brother Jake is stunned to learn he is expected to marry the childless Leah to carry on his brother’s name. Jake suggests to Leah that they get married and maintain a secretly platonic relationship. The harder they try to disguise their “pretend” marriage, the more their appreciation for each other’s worlds grows, and out of understanding, a real love develops.

Here’s the full movie…Enjoy!

Roses from my wonderful husband for Valentine’s!

Sorry for the lull in blogging about gameschooling, and tracking my book and game a day for the #aboookandagameaday challenge at thewaldockway.com. My trip to Utah interrupted my streak.

During my Veggie Gal lunch on Friday in Utah, we saw deer in the backyard!

Above picture: Utah the morning I left to go back to AZ.

Below picture: Arizona, after I got back, the same day as above. What a difference lines of latitude make!

We’ve had lots of fun gameschooling, I just haven’t had as much to blog about it what with getting ready for the trip and then getting back into the swing of things afterwards.

We celebrated Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s birthday on Feb. 6 in my Hero class, right before I left to go to Utah, with the chocolate cake above. It’s so providential that my Thursday class was on his very birthday, right after we read and discussed the book in my class! If you don’t know who he is, you are in for a treat. Read the graphic novel based on his life below. It’s so cool! He was an amazing, unselfish man.

I’ve had fun prepping and giving lectures and activities for my Hero class, mentoring my own children, celebrating Valentine’s with two parties, fulfilling my church job, and the normal mothering and housewife stuff.

Here are the games and books we’ve enjoyed the past three weeks. If you have any questions about the games or books, put them in the comments and I will answer.

This Book of Mine is so perfect for February! It showcases one of my first loves: books! Oh book of mine, be my Valentine!

I found this geography game, Where in the World?, for $3 at a thrift store (haha, where else?). It has six different levels of play. We played the first level, Crazy 8s, just to get the kids more familiar with country names and regions they are in.

The above book has to be the perfect book for winter! So delightful!

We played Cadoo for Family Home Evening. It’s a delightful version of Cranium for kids, basically, Cranium Jr. I love that Cranium games combine trivia, word, Pictionary, and sculpting with clay charades all into one game, combined with the Connect 4 idea of getting four in a row.

The above picture’s laughs and smiles came from the game below. It’s Cranium WOW. We played kids vs. grownups.

I won the game with my two wonderful sketches that I drew, below, with my eyes closed, to get my hubby to guess the words, “skate park” and “Spongebob Squarepants.” I love that my husband gets what I am communicating! These sketches should definitely be framed!

Pretty good for me being blindfolded, if I do say so!

For an adult gameschooling night for my homeschooling group, we played a love letter game with conversation hearts. So fun!

The above and below pics show the Liebrary board game that I adapted to use with picture books and children’s chapter books for my kids’ gameschooling group. I call it Liebrary Jr. You can get the directions for making a DIY version here in my PDF about “How to Build a Gameschool Collection on a Budget.”

The Cookies game is explained here. We played it for Christmas and again for Valentine’s Day, this time using Sugar Cookies by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, instead of Christmas Cookies. We also played it at my adult gameschooling night. Very fun! My husband won among the group of 8 of us!

The above is the Worst Case Scenario Jr. game. I picked it up for $2.40 while thrifting. It’s fun for learning about survival skills and involves logic, reasoning, and science.

Jane Addams was amazing! I learned more about her from reading this book than from my high school history class. A great book on friendship for Valentine’s month.

Speaking of great books on friendship for Valentine’s month, I love the books above and below. Both are illustrated by my sister Emily’s BYU roommate, Fumi, who hails from Japan. They were also roommates in New York City post-college, breaking into the professional art world.  You can read an interview that Emily did with Fumi over on Emily’s blog here. We love Fumi’s cheery style!

I finally gave in to the overabundance of Scene It? DVD-based board games “scene” while I’m thrifting, and bought the Sports version above, to bond over with my boys. It was still in the shrink wrap, for $4. I think I enjoyed it more than they did! I won, because of my random store of knowledge about pop culture while being a teen in the 80s. I answered correctly the final question: What team did Ted Turner used to own, based in Atlanta? Score! I did not know, however, the answers to most of the questions, that’s for sure. We’ll be playing it again.

Rory’s Story Cubes are so great for playing during lunchtime!

The Contender is such a fabulous game to learn about political issues and to spark conversation about voting Constitutionally. I plan on adapting this game for my Hero Class!

I picked up Art Shark yesterday while thrifting. Using my educator’s discount I got it for $2.40! It’s great for learning art history. And it looked never used! The cards were still in the wrappers! I think God knew I was disappointed with another art game I bought recently on amazon and is making it up to me.

I love the painting on the left by Rossetti! So beautiful!

Are you bored of winter? Get into more board and card games! I do believe God inspired people to make them to beat the winter blahs! Game playing and gameschooling help you get your kids off screens, so you can create community in your home. Yay! Here’s a great book about that:

You can buy it on amazon or read it for free by signing up for a free two month trial of scribd.com over here, using my affiliate link.

What is scribd.com? scribd.com is a collection of books, audiobooks, magazines, newspapers, and sheet music that you can access using an app on your mobile device. Much better than Audible, because you have unlimited access to all those resources for a low flat monthly fee. I have Audible too and love them both!

Enjoy reading and playing!

I finally beat the little guy in Chickapig!

Last November, my Relief Society (the women’s organization at my church) had a game night. It was a nice change of pace from the traditional “Christmas Dinner in November” night where we have mashed potatoes, ham, green jello, somewhat awkward small talk, and too many sugary tempting desserts where I have to reign it in and remind myself that I have sugar-free keto treats waiting for me at home. The new Relief Society president who had been installed last spring when our ward (congregation) got divided had been serving in the Primary for so long she had forgotten that the Relief Society usually has a Christmas thing in November.  I, as her counselor, wasn’t about to suggest that we have one because I wanted a break from the formal R.S. Christmas parties I’ve attended for 25+ years. Instead, we got to play games!!!! Yes!!! Which fits right in with my gameschooling kick that I’ve been on this homeschool year.

I had a blast because I got to play three of my favorite games: Bananagrams, Qwirkle, and one another one I can’t remember now but whatever it was, I loved it, because I won, LOL. I had a great time with all those games and the sisters at my table, but… I couldn’t help having game envy. I was jealous of all the laughter going on over at the other table. The ladies over there were having a hilarious time playing the board game “Therapy,” as seen above in the very top photo.  All of a sudden I had a nostalgic blast from my past. I had played that game a few times and loved it! As a teen, I had seen it while gift shopping with my mom when I was in high school and convinced her to buy it at Christmas for a family gift to play together. (It ended up being a little risque, as it does have about a dozen question cards that I went through and threw away.)

OK, so now, I had the burning, sudden, driving desire to play this game again and have the same laughs (without the risque cards)! So I invited my R.S. president friend (Catherine) who had brought it to the game night to bring it over for an adult game night last month, in January. That way I could play it after 30 years, and have a game night with adults. (I get to play games every day, as part of my gameschooling, with my own tween and teen children and some homeschooling kiddo friends but, as I’ve learned, it’s important for my soul to get with adults and play all the games I have that are too hard for kids. Like Perspective. And Take 10. Original Trivial Pursuit. Games for people older than Millennials. Therapy is one of those, at least for the under 14s.) We did have a great time with it! I was so jealous of said friend finding it at a thrift store for $1.49 years ago! I was determined to get my own copy. Not only did I have game envy, but I also had thrifting envy!

I knew I would be going to Utah soon, so I planned on asking my mom if she would give me the game when I got there. I purposely didn’t pack as much as I normally would so I would have space in my suitcase to bring it home. I was absolutely positive it was there, lonely,  in her home in Utah. I could picture it my mind’s eye, languishing on a dusty shelf in her basement, untouched for over 30 years, never played all that time, a cousin to all the forgotten toys in Toy Story. I fantasized about finding it on the shelf, bringing it home, and playing it with my gal pals. My mom’s closet would be blessed by me dejunking it and the game would be happy to be played again. 🙂 So, when I stayed with my parents as part of my trip recently to speak on gameschooling at the Winter Homeschool Conference, imagine my complete shock and horror when I couldn’t find it after searching mom’s game closet and two other closets, after I had dinner with my parents and son. (I did find Wits and Wagers in the process, which we all played for the first time.)

My mom never throws anything out, she is such a packrat. I couldn’t believe it! I had forgotten that about six years ago she let my daughter, a teen at the time, help her purge her game closet and downsize. Sadly, Therapy must have been let go, not to the same fate as the forgotten toys in Toy Story 2, but to a thrift store.

But…thank goodness for seeds planted in the form of prayers! I had also prayed on and off for a few weeks before the trip, that I would be able to find the game while thrifting OR at my parents’ home. (I’ve also been praying for Liebrary, another fun game that Catherine found while thrifting. I came close to finding it a few weeks ago when I found the geography counterpart to it, called Locale, at my local Goodwill. Both are made by Discovery Bay Games, and both are out of print. They are both bluffing games similar to Balderdash so can easily be played with homemade, DIY versions.)

I adapted the Liebrary game to a Liebrary Jr. game for my homeschooling group. You can find the instructions in my free PDF guide to building a gameschool collection here. 

Anyway, so on this same trip to Utah, I was able to find Therapy at Deseret Industries, a thrift store, for $1.50! Yes, of course, I went thrifting on my trip, and I found it!  Victory! It was a tender mercy of the Lord, reminding me of the talk of the same name by Elder David A. Bednar that I’ve always loved.

It was just such a sweet little note from heaven, reminding me that God likes to bless me with little delights. He truly does “delight to own and bless me, when (I) strive to do what’s right.” (Hymns, no. 96) He answers my prayers with a “Yes!” when it’s best for me, even in the little things like a hard-to-find, not important in the eternal scheme of things,  psychology trivia-based on get-to-know-you board game that can be bought on ebay for $15! I know God is watching over each of us, and delights to own and bless each of us, as we strive to please Him.

So now I have the Therapy board game and can bring it to my adult gameschooling nights, and also play online with my son who is away from home, studying psychology in college. I look forward to fascinating, scintillating conversations about the mind, sparked by the questions from this game. Last week on the way home from our homeschool group’s Valentine Gameschooling night, my dear hubby drove so I could go through this latest thrifting treasure and vet the cards again. After all, I did wonder if maybe this was the same game that my mom had bought years ago and sent to the thrift store, continuously recycled. Turns out, it wasn’t! Those same cards that I remember tossing out decades ago were intact in this copy so I tossed them out again.

So here’s to some fun game nights about the mind! I’m thinking of pairing playing Therapy the same night with the game I got my teen daughter for her non-edible stocking stuffer last Christmas, pictured below. If you know of any psychology-based games to go with them, please let me know in the comments below. I’d love to hear about them! And, if you want the PDF of the slides about gameschooling, go here.

Welcome to the world of gameschooling! It’s so fun!

Check out this PDF of my slides about the “what, why, when and how” of gameschooling. These are the slides from my presentation that I gave at the Winter Homeschool Conference in Layton UT on Feb. 8, 2020.

Here is a PDF called How to Build a Gameschool Collection on a Budget. It also includes 7 educational games you can play right away with stuff you most likely have in your home already.

Happy gameschooling! I hope it brings as much joy to you as it does to me!

Game playing and gameschooling help you get your kids off screens. Yay! Here’s a great book about that:

You can buy it on amazon or read it for free by signing up for a free two month trial of scribd.com over here, using my affiliate link.

What is scribd.com? scribd.com is a collection of books, audiobooks, magazines, newspapers, and sheet music that you can access using an app on your mobile device. Much better than Audible, because you have unlimited access to all those resources for a low flat monthly fee. I have Audible too and love them both! scribd is more abundant and flexible.

For Friday 1/31/20, I read aloud the above book. It’s a great book to go along with January’s theme of new year, new goals, and vision boards. (As a family we made vision posters a few Sundays ago, after watching these videos. Putting images in front of your brain day after day with positive emotion/thoughts ((cue the Rocky theme music)) really does work to increase your chance of creating that thing in your real life. I already attracted one thing I put in my vision book two weeks ago!)

I love the above book by Valerie Ackley because it points out that so many everyday things in a child’s life first started out as a mere thought. I also love that it shows that we can change our attitude the very first moment when we haven’t even left our bed in the morning. It shows that positive thinking attracts opportunities to create our goals.

After our read-aloud we played flag football, per my 15 year old son’s request. I’m giving a child the pick of games for a day when it’s their birthday. His birthday was before I started the rule, so now I’m making it up to him.  Here in southern AZ we have no snow on the ground in January so I had no excuse not to play. Years ago I bought the following set below which we used.

We played as teams of two moms and two girls against three boys. The boys won, only because they have more experience, not to mention faster legs and no issues with 7 baby post-partum bodies/bladders :-). I actually had a lot of fun, despite biffing it after a mad dash to make a successful first down. After all these years of taking boys to football practice, I am beginning to feel the magic and fun of football! I regret that it took me so long. I hope to convince the remaining boys at home to play only flag football though. After seeing my older son get four football-induced concussions, I am, ouch, not wanting to see any more in our family.

After our rousing game of flag football, we settled inside to rest up a bit and play Spontuneous. This is one of my absolute favorite games! I love that everyone can play every turn, and that many people can play at once. I also love that I can customize it to certain themes or holidays, or the Sabbath, using religious songs. It is the perfect game! I’m so grateful that I found it for 3 bucks while thrifting last November! My angels were definitely guiding me to it, knowing how much I would love it!

Check out my tips for building a gameschool collection on a budget here, and see what else we’ve played for gameschooling here. 

Happy gameschooling!