Liber, or Tree of Life Mothering

What We Did In Our School Today 12/5/11

2011-12-05T14:21:00.001-08:00

I decided to use my blog site here, instead of my big web site, treeoflifemothering.com to keep a log of what we do in our homeschool. Since I love to blog, maybe I will keep a better journal here than on paper of what we do.

Virtue attended her government class online at wacademy.org. She learned about Cato and how he pertains to American government. Then she prepared for her speech and debate class that is after Honor's class.

Honor went to his homeschool speech and debate class at my friend Veann's home with Mr. Martineau. They are preparing for a big debate tournament this Sat.

Before Virtue and Honor did those two things above they attended a homeschool seminary class that is early morning at Woods Cross LDS Seminary. This is a seminary class just for homeschoolers. Cool! They talked about Moses and fake sacrifices the children of Israel gave to the golden calf. They said it was one of the best classes ever.

Venture and Cowboy and Princessa cleaned up the kitchen after breakfast. They are finally to the point where they can do it without much supervision from me. I had to take their big brother to his debate class, but I unlocked the homeschool closet before I left. When I got back they were engaged in some activities from the closet. I know one of the rules of the closet is to be present. So I am present 99% of the time. I would rather reward them for cleaning up the kitchen with use of the closet than TV or computer time. They were actually excited to use the closet today. They usually are. It's when I start slacking and don't plan, follow their interests and put things in the closet that I know will interest them, that they start to not want to get in there. If you go home-school-coach.com you can learn all about using a closet in your homeschool and how to get your kids to beg to do school.

I played chess with first Cowboy and then Princessa. Cowboy captured my queen but I still won!

Venture made an airplane with our new kit, Milestones in Science. He also did a page of math today and helped me fix lunch and clean up after lunch.

Princessa made her first sentence today with printed cards that have one word on each card from Diane Hopkins' "Happy Phonics" set. She actually read three or four sentences too! We are seeing progress! She also painted a watercolor picture and helped with kitchen cleanup after lunch.

Cowboy practiced cutting and gluing after he made a copy of a solider from his new Usborne Dressing Soldiers stickers. I have finally found something that will interest this child in practicing cutting and gluing. Last week while he dressed the soldiers with stickers I read out loud to him about the Prussians. We learned that King Frederick had a passion for collecting giants, and that he attacked Austria because he wanted more land. The Seven Years war in Europe erupted from that. The war spilled over in America and became the French and Indian War. I read the story from this cool book called A Child's History of the World by V.M. Hillyer that is full of interesting stories from world history.

Catch Me on My Other Two Blogs

2010-08-04T11:01:00.001-07:00

I've decided it's time to stop posting blogs here. The weaning process of transitioning to blogging at my other two sites is over. It's too complicated for me to do duplicate and triplicate posts. If you want to see what I'm doing and thinking, please catch me on my other two sites, which each have a blog.

The first is treeoflifemothering.com. This is for moms who are into Christ-centered natural family living. Those LDS moms like me who like to breastfeed, attachment parent, homeschool, use herbs, garden, practice NFP, and eat whole foods, among other things that are not mainstream in our conveyor belt culture, but used to be mainstream. These are things that give women and society sustainable liberation.

The other site is tjedlibrary.com. This is is for moms and dads who are into A Thomas Jefferson Education, aka Leadership Education. You can have discussions and get third party reviews of TJED-based schools, books, ebooks like Headgates, events, and services. It's also a place to share your notes from TJED classes and events. Since I have no financial or familial connections to TJED or GWC, feel free to be candid with both positive and negative remarks.

After over ten years of following the DeMilles and TJED, I've decided that TJED is whole, organic education and bears delicious fruit. So if you' re into whole foods and whole herbs and whole everything, you owe it to yourself to taste whole education for yourself and kids. I resisted TJED for five years or more because I thought it wouldn't work. But after learning more about it, I realized it was the best way to set up my home and life to maximize my kids' learning and promote agency. So far my children's education is turning out great! I have kids ages 14 and 16 who want to study and read all day. (In the name of avoiding "misleadership education," I still think you should require kids over age 8 or so to do math everyday, just like you make your toddler take a nap. You just have to figure out how to make math palatable just like you make taking a nap very appealing to your busy toddler. Leadership Education works for all the other subjects. You TJED purists can now throw rotten tomatoes at me. :-) Just kidding! But I am up to a friendly discussion of what "inspire, not require" means when it comes to math. So let's discuss it on tjedlibrary.com. )

What do you Spend on Food?

2010-07-27T16:38:00.000-07:00

OK, so it is time to revamp my food budget now that my baby is walking, (YES, walking...he's so big now and it's gone so fast) and eating more solids. We are a family of nine and I'd like to know what other frugal families spend per month per person. Please scroll down to the very bottom of the gadgets (all the stuff on the right) and answer the question. Don't worry, your answers are anonymous.

Day Two of My Journey is Delayed...Please Help

2010-07-27T16:25:00.000-07:00

My post about day two is delayed...I have more pressing matters.

My friend Rachael and I had a great time this afternoon discussing Democracy In America, the first 8 chapters of Volume I. Every third Tuesday I am hosting a free online discussion of this fascinating work at dimdim.com. If you want to join us in a discussion of the next 8 chapters (Part 2 of Volume 1) on Tuesday August 17 at 2 PM MDT I would love to "see" you there. Let me know and I will send you the invitation with the URL. I am learning so many things I didn't learn in my high school U.S. history class from this book. One of the juicy tidbits that I didn't hear in high school...de Tocqueville says that the reason that democracy and self-government thrived in America, (as compared to France, where it led to tyranny) is that it found fertile soil in New England. This fertile soil came from the righteous Puritans who were dedicated to God and family. DeTocqueville contrasts this to the scalawags who founded Jamestown. These were men of low moral character, single men who were speculators looking for gold and treasure. Because of their low moral character slavery took hold when the first slave ship came to Virginia back in the 1600s. Now that's something you won't learn in today's media or public schools. I love learning about real American history! I've been learning a lot lately. My husband got to give a talk on patriotism and the gospel of Jesus Christ in sacrament meeting. I begged him to let me write the talk so I did research for that. Email me if you want a copy of the talk.

I hope you all had a great Pioneer Day. I did. Two weeks ago, the same time my hubby gave a talk, I got to give a talk in sacrament meeting about "My Pioneer Heritage." This was a fabulous opportunity. I did not grow up knowing that I had a pioneer heritage because my parents are not natural storytellers, like my mother-in-law. Consequently the stories I've been hearing for the past 19 years have been all about my husband's pioneer heritage. This was a great time to do some research and I found out about my valiant pioneer ancestors. One of them, Luman Shurtliff, my 4th great-grandfather, got to have dinner with David Whitmer in Kirtland and hear him bear testimony that he saw the plates of the Book of Mormon and the angel. He was even confirmed a member of the church by Brother Whitmer. He got to hear Joseph Smith speak in person and shake hands with Joseph. He even got to see the Egyptian papyri and the mummies that the Pearl of Great Price came from.

Another one of my 4thgreats, Zerah Pulsipher, read the Book of Mormon in the fall of 1831 in New York. He prayed to know if it was true while threshing grain in his barn. He had a vision of an angel coming to him bearing witness that it was true. He got baptized and then was ordained to the priesthood and called on a mission. He taught the gospel to Wilford Woodruff and baptized him. Zerah and Luman both came across the plains to Utah and settled in Dixie and Ogden respectively. As I did this research I felt the spirit of God bear witness to me that this work of the gospel of Jesus Christ as restored by Joseph Smith is true. Despite all of my trials in life, I find so much comfort in this truth. Jesus is the Ultimate Tree of Life and the One Sure Guide to us mothers.

Some of you may have noticed that the groups (dedicated to different womanly arts) that used to be up on the Tree of Life Mothering site are no longer there. My web site host, Ning, changed its pricing plans and I had to go with the cheapest plan which doesn't allow groups. All of the pages I had on the site under the tab "library" which were helpful handouts about homemaking systems and how to teach your kids to work are gone as well. Boo-hoo!

So here's where you can help...for every donation of $10 that you give to the Tree of Life Mothering Network (which will go towards upgrading the site so we can have the groups back) you will receive three mp3 downloads of talks given by natural LDS moms at the conference I sponsored last year. These talks are all about 45 minutes of inspiration. Listen to them while you do your exercise, housework or yardwork. They have been selling for $4 each on the site, so this is a special savings. By upgrading this site, I can also integrate it with Facebook, which will make it easier for all of you Facebook fans.

Will you please donate $10 or $20? If you do so, go to paypal and send the money to "treeoflifemothering." In the notes area let me know which talks you want sent to you. You can choose from the following talks given by well-known LDS moms who are all out in the trenches doing the hard work of mothering:

Leslie Householder on "How a Stay at Home Can attract Prosperity"
Vernie DeMille on "How to Enjoy Gardening with Little Children"
Jonell Francis on "How to Claim Your Life Back by Improving Your Diet"
Donna Goff on "How to Self Nurture a Mother Culture"
Diann Jeppson and Jodie Palmer "Mealtime Magic: Teaching and Bonding with Children over Food"
Joyce Kinmont on "Treasuring Children"
Aneladee Milne on "Getting off the Entertainment Conveyor Belt"

If you buy six, you can get the last one listed, please another one about eco-friendly funerals by my friend Joyce Mitchell, as two bonus gifts!

If you don't want to use paypal and want to arrange another payment, email me at treeoflifemothering@yahoo.com to let me know.

Enjoy the talks!

Treasures from Day One..the Journey to TJED Land

2010-07-22T15:32:00.000-07:00

So much has happened since our trip to St. George. Family reunions...scout camp for my son this week...Young Women camp for my daughter last week...visits with other cousins...Independence Day...lots of reading on my part of Democracy in America and other books about U.S. history and running through our lovely wooded park. We also had a fun picnic yesterday at the park with Grandma, an aunt,and cousins and got caught in a freak hailstorm. That's July weather in Utah for you! What a full and lovely summer! I was also violently ill last week and had my share of messes of other violently ill family members to clean up, plus I've had some disappointments, but I won't dwell on those.

But the best news of all...my scholar phase son is now an Eagle Scout! The Eagle Court of Honor is coming soon. I am so pleased that he is done! The best part of it is that I haven't had to lift a finger doing all of this, well, besides have mentor meetings to encourage him. You know how some 12 year old boys get their Eagle rank? Well, I am willing to bet my house that there is someone named mother behind the scenes doing a lot of the phone calling and planning for the Eagle project. You can also bet the mother doesn't have a ton of little children younger than the Eagle boy. My son has really earned this rank, not me, so we are all dancing a jig.

I am really excited to read my new Leslie Householder book and apply the teachings of the laws of thought on a more consistent basis. We planted a garden this year and it is fun to see the plants getting taller and taller. When I read Leslie's writings, I feel this peace come over me. I think it's because these teachings remind me that success is like planting a garden. The success of my garden growing is up to me (and God). It's up to me putting the seeds in the ground, and giving the seeds water and sunlight. The success is up to no one else. If I pick things that will grow, like seeds, they will grow, if I follow the laws that cause growth. Success is not impossible, like changing a rhinoceros into a pile of diamonds.

Sure, there can be things out of my control to defeat my garden, like bugs and storms. But if I am in touch with my garden often, I can see the signs of bugs and do something to fight them off. I can see the signs of a storm approaching and do what I can to protect it. There might be times when I can't save the whole garden from a storm that ruins it all, but that's pretty rare. I remember hearing Vernie DeMille say that one year she and her husband lost their whole huge garden to a hailstorm in Missouri. They cried and then they got to work and planted a new one. So in the end if my success is defeated by something out of my control, I would cry, then get to work and start over, trusting that God, for whatever reason, wants me to receive some blessing from starting over.

So back to blogging about my trip. We left for St. George on a Sunday morning bright and early at 8 AM. Dad stayed home (he had to go something as frivolous as work the next day) and the rest of us waved good bye. It's important for me that we go to church every Sunday, even when we are traveling. But I didn't want to wait until after our meetings at 1. I felt adventurous so we wore our Sunday clothes and I planned on just finding some chapel off of I-15 and going to church in Fillmore or Cedar City. Wouldn't it be cool if we ran into the DeMilles or some other TJEDers? I thought. Maybe the Grofts, or the Simmermans. Well, since they are all in the same ward then that would be super fun.

By the time we got to Fillmore it was 10:20. I didn't want to wait until 11 for church (Latter-day Saints usually have church at 9 or 11 AM or 1 PM, yes we have figured out how to maximize meeting time and space, the only ones who do it better are the subset of Latter-day Saints who go to church at BYU in school buildings and classrooms). So we kept on driving. We got to Cove Fort at 11. I was excited to stop there and learn more about the LDS Church history there. We've been there before but haven't been able to take it all in.

TIP: If you are on I-15 in Utah driving south and have a nursing baby, a great place to stop and nurse is Cove Fort. You can always nurse your baby in the car, I do this all the time with the baby still buckled in his car seat. But if you want to nurse with the baby out (not while you are driving, of course, but after you park) it is so much nicer to pull over and get out and let the older kids stretch their legs and get a change of scenery. At Cove Fort you can all watch a movie and nurse in air-conditioned splendor. The tour guides were very friendly and I could tell the woman was a grandma. She seemed to have a "grandma heart."

We ended up going to church in Enoch at 1 PM. And we did see some TJEDers! We weren't lucky enough to hit the jackpot with the DeMilles, the Grofts, and the Simmermans all at once but we saw the Pattersons: Symbria Patterson and her family. Symbria used to work for GWC. I wanted to go talk to her but she doesn't know me from Eve. I let my shyness take over. Now I wish I had just gone over and talked to her. I found this great blog post about her on Teri Helms' tommymom blog. See

Then we drove around Enoch with me fantasizing about what it would be like to live in TJED land. I have been wanting to move for a long time and I can't decide between TJED Land (Enoch/Cedar City) or the Aneladee half of LEMI Land (Bountiful). I decided that Enoch is too windy and doesn't have enough trees. My husband sent me a text message. I was slightly disturbed that he was texting during church. At least it wasn't sacrament meeting, thank goodness. No we hadn't arrived yet. Since I was driving I could control the schedule and I wanted to linger a bit. We checked out New Harmony. I absolutely love New Harmony! It seems like the perfect little town to raise a "georgic" family. One church and one library and one gas station, what more could you need? If we moved there we would be only 20 minutes from GWC and shopping and 40 minutes the other way from our cousins in St. George. I found my dream house right next to the chapel in New Harmony. See photo above. Isn't it darling?

We finally arrived at 4:30. i was thrilled to see my sister-in-law Sally and her family. They had moved and their new place is so cool! So huge and totally family-friendly. Sally has these great plate glass windows in her kitchen with tons of greenery growing right there outside. I feel like I'm in a greenhouse. She even has a chinaberry tree right out that window. (This picture is not a chinaberry tree, it's something else growing in her yard.) I didn't know a chinaberry tree existed, I just thought it was the name of one of my favorite businesses (chinaberry.com). I had even brought along a book to read that I found at the library thanks to the recommendation I got from the Chinaberry catalog.

Next blog post, Day Two.

Feeling the Magic Again.., these Laws Work!

2010-07-22T15:03:00.001-07:00

One of these days, I will start writing about the treasures from my trip. The trip I took to TJED Land back in June. But first I have to share my story from last week. I went to my friend Emily Clawson's class "Proclaiming Your Personal Liberty" last Thursday. I figured it would be a great, cheap date night for me and my husband. The topic, about how to free yourself from debt or addiction, interested me.

Well, when I got there, I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was a review of the teachings I have learned from my friend Leslie Householder. As I reviewed these ideas, I felt the magic coming back to me. I've gone for months forgetting these teachings. I started to feel the possibility again that my dreams CAN come true. It was so great to feel this power!

At the end, Emily did a drawing for Leslie's new book, Portal to Genius. As soon as she announced that she was drawing a name, I consciously applied the "laws of thought" taught by Leslie in her book, The Jackrabbit Factor. I thought, "I feel so happy that Emily is announcing my name as the winner of the book." I imagined her saying my name and felt gratitude.

The first name was one of the followers of this blog, and then...lo and behold...the second winner, was ME! YIPPEEE! I have been wanting this book! So now I am a proud owner of Leslie's new book and am eagerly reading it whenever I sit in a certain spot in this house. (I always have two or three books I am reading, besides, the scriptures, and I read them whenever I sit down at that spot either to eat or nurse my baby.)

Today's the Day!

2010-07-20T08:18:00.000-07:00

Today's the day for my online colloquium of Democracy in America by Alexis De Tocqueville. What does a French guy who lived over a 100 years ago know about America? Anybody who hasn't studied this work is an intellectual wimp, according to Kurt Vonnegut. Even if you haven't read any of this, come join us for a fascinating discussion.

It's today at 2 PM. Go to http://zorap.com/wrmdlpi and log in. Please do so about a half hour before the class starts so you can work out any technical troubles. This is new to me too so if it doesn't work we may do this next Tuesday.

If you don't have a headset/microphone or webcam, don't worry. I don't either. I am planning to do this all by typing into the chatbox.

Families are a Type of Christ

2010-07-09T06:33:00.001-07:00

I haven't been online much because this week in sacrament meeting my husband and I are giving talks, plus three of my children and I will be singing. (Our first time. I love to sing but my voice is very untrained and nobody beyond the ward choir director has ever begged me to come sing. We volunteered for this.) So I have been busy researching, writing, and singing. The themes are "patriotism and the gospel" and "my pioneer heritage." I beseeched my husband to let me write his talk, the one on patriotism. It didn't take much for him to agree. (To say that he doesn't like writing is an understatement.) This will not be your typical Mormon talk on patriotism, I assure you. None of the typical smug self-congratulations. No-siree. All is not well in Zion.

Last week we went to the beautiful Colorado Rockies for a family reunion. Oh, so many beautiful things happened. After we left Wyoming and entered Colorado my 12-y-o son serenaded us with "Colorado Rocky Mountain High" by John Denver as we drove. It touched my heart deeply. Some say it's a song about doing drugs but I prefer to see a nobler purpose in it.

I took along a copy of the new book Women of the Old Testament by Camille Fronk Olson. It was overdue at the library but I felt like I had not drawn enough from its deep well of living water. This book is so cool! The typical world's way of looking at these women is to marginalize them and overlook them or even say they were not good. But thanks to courageous scholars like Beverly Campbell, who wrote Eve and the Choice Made in Eden, and Camille, we know the truth about Eve. She was the first women's libber.

I love what Camille's book says about Eve and Rebekah, Isaac's wife. I have long wanted to understand better her story with Isaac and switching Esau and Jacob. I had a personal experience to deepen my understanding this past winter. She did something that was needed and righteous, within her bounds. This book confirmed my hunches. I had a great discussion with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law about this.

This book also discusses the same story that James Ferrell's The Peacegiver does, that of Abigail and David from the Bible. As I read the account in Camille's book, I was reminded of how women are types of Christ. Then I thought of how men are as well, when they serve others, especially when they bear the priesthood righteously. As I discussed this with my mil and sil I learned of something vitally important someone in our family did to help someone else. Then it occurred to me that families are types of Christ as well. Each of us are in roles where we can do something for somebody else that no one else can. I thought of one of my other sister-in-laws who has lightened my load and helped me when no one else did. I am thinking of all the possibilities for each of us to do good for someone in our extended family.

Well, I could go on but I need to go shopping and make dinner. And I still want to blog more about my trip to St. George. The trouble with life is it goes faster than I can blog about it. Here's an endearing video our nephew did of the bonding family reunion we had. Everyone had loads of fun and I found out that one of my online TJED friends in Colorado actually knows my sister-in-law. These connections are so much fun.

Help Make Breastfeeding History

2010-06-28T15:29:00.000-07:00

It was 13 years ago this July that I got my sixth edition copy of the Womanly Art of Breastfeeding signed by all seven of the founders of La Leche League International, with my daughter, Virtue in tow (in a sling of course). That was a moment that can't happen again. Not all seven founders are alive today. I got to chat with each one and they each exuded peace and motherliness. Even though the organizers of the autographing event kept telling those of standing in line to be done, these kind old ladies obliged us autograph seekers as if they were queenly rock stars and stayed till the very last groupie was satisfied.

The eighth edition of the Womanly Art is coming out this July! It's been completely rewritten to be more "hip" and "girlfriendy." I am curious to see how this will read. One of the authors is Diane Weissinger. I like everything she's written that I've read so far. You can see her site at normalfed.com. I appreciate that the WAB was written by some of the founders because that gives it a patient, grandmotherly perspective from women who grew up in the prefeminist age. I know I gave the breastfeeding book So That's What They're For! five stars but I've been thinking I should change that to four.

It's because that book is written from the postfeminist age perspective that having a baby and breastfeeding is something that you do alongside a career. It's written from the perspective that mothering, fertility, and breastfeeding are things that you turn on and off, according to the needs of your nonmotherly career. The WAB has more of an old-fashioned perspective of yes, you can breastfeed and mother, it's the natural thing for women to do from time immemorial.

When I asked one of the founders of La Leche League to sign my older edition of the WAB that I had brought to the conference, she politely refused. She said it had some stuff in there on birth control that she didn't agree with. But the newer edition that was just being released that month of July 1997 was kosher to her. So what was the big change that Mary White agreed with? The newer edition mentioned LAM as an effective form of birth control. (Please go to treeoflifemothering.com to read the rest. You will have to sign in if you haven't already.)

My Orphaned Brainchild Got Adopted

2010-06-22T17:06:00.001-07:00

I am excited about the holistic LDS living conference this Saturday. Over a year ago I hosted its predecessor, the Natural Family Living for LDS Moms conference, at the same place, Paradigm High, in South Jordan. I almost called mine a holistic LDS living conference.

I couldn't do the conference again, but my friend Amy Jones, who came to my conference, decided to do this one. She is even using a tree motif which fits in with my Tree of Life Mothering concept. It's like she picked up my vibes and just took over. I knew if I did another one I should get a board together and delegate. But honestly, between having a new baby, mothering seven children (which for me means homeschooling) and returning to the work or getting my book out, I knew that I didn't want to add board meetings and organizing a conference to the mix. So I am thrilled that Amy picked up the ball and ran with it! This one is so much bigger and better than mine, with lots more vendors and more than one speaker during every time slot. Some of the speakers are the same, like Cliff Dunston and Joyce Kinmont. Some are people I have met and have enjoyed visiting with like Lara Gallagher, Michelle Brady Stone, Janeen Brady, and Nicholeen Peck. Some are people I wanted to come last year, like David Christopher and Steven Horne. Some are people I have never heard of.

Go to holisticldsliving.blogspot.com to learn more.
I would love to see you all there, hope you can come!

"Just Starting to Be..." and Treasures from Cousins

2010-06-21T05:40:00.000-07:00

I am still basking in the afterglow of our trip to St. George where we played with cousins while Valor went to Youth for Freedom. It was the perfect way to kick off our summer. When I was young my parents drove us through southern Utah about twice a year to go see cousins who lived in southern Nevada in this little town of Overton, halfway between St. George and Vegas. It occurred to me how fitting it is now that we drive south to take my kids to see their cousins.My mom grew up in Overton surrounded by cousins. One of her cousins was more like a sister and a best friend. I grew up loving to hear about the adventures my mom had with Verla and their horses and kittens. They grew up playing on their farm, in nature and living in the safest town on the globe, where kids could wander freely. It sounds kind of like Mayberry. Here is a picture of my mom and her cousins and sisters that I snapped at our family reunion last fall. Aren't they beautiful?
Here is a pic of my kids with their cousins. We love all of our cousins and feel blessed to see a lot of them regularly. My brothers and sisters have kids that fit my kids' ages like hands with fingers intertwining. These cousins in St. George, however, are extra-special because they share our family culture of Leadership Education. So our lifestyles are more similar. When Valor started his Commonwealth school six years ago this fall I shared my excitement about it with my sister-in-law Sally. She shared the concept with her homeschooling friends down there so they up and started one for them. So now when we visit it is so fun to hear about what LEMI scholar projects her kids are doing and what dances and activities and even problems her Commonwealth is having.
I've been reading a charming book about cousins to my kids. So far it has two lines that capture my feelings to a T. The first is "cousins...if they are the right kind, can be kinder than siblings and closer than friends." Yes, yes! The cousin bond is one-of-a-kind. The second line is how during the first part of June you just want to bottle those days up. The whole summer is ahead or "just starting to be," as Portia says in Gone Away Lake at the beginning of the story. I feel so full of promise at the beginning of June. (I also feel bittersweet as I reflect back on D-day which happened in early June but that's a post for another time.)These lines come from the book Gone Away Lakeby Elizabeth Enright. A few years ago we enjoyed one of her other books, The Saturdays. for our family read-aloud. I can already tell that this one will be even more darling. Elizabeth Enright was a very talented children's book author who wrote pure, captivating fiction of children's lives in simpler, more innocent times of pre1960. She was also the niece of Frank Lloyd Wright. Good taste runs in the family. She could illustrate but gave that up to focus on writing. I read about Gone Away Lake in my latest catalog from Chinaberry and just knew it would be the perfect read-aloud for summer. (Have I mentioned Chinaberry before? I get the catalog--see chinaberry.com-- and then mark what books I want and get them from the library. Every time it hits my mailbox it's like a breath of fresh air and an invitation to soak in the tub while I peruse the offerings.)

This book and our visit to our cousins makes me also think of an article I read in Mothering magazine ( mothering.com, although they don't have the exact article digitized), which for the life of me, I can't resurrect after looking through my Mothering stash. It was this delightful recounting by a mother of the summer she had spent with her four children. They had lazy days drinking in the magic of the season. They went on nature walks. They picked blueberries. They house-sat for their relatives for a weekend and enjoyed the treasures there. They did some arts and crafts and read classics and played musical instruments. That is how I want my summers to be, full of sensual delights and free from conveyor-belt entertainment, forced learning, deadlines and pressure. Heck, that's how I want my life to be. That's why I homeschool, using the TJED philosophy, and I can honestly say that many times I feel that feeling I got when I read that article, that feeling of freedom and playfulness and love for what we are learning.
Sally told me she feels that the most important key of the Eight Keys of Teaching and Learning is the phases. I actually just looked it up and the phases aren't a key, but they help you understand the keys. See tjedonline.com/free-article.php?id=16. I decided I agree. I have been calling them the "natural seasons of learning" to fit in with the Tree of Life Mothering theme. My upcoming book, Volume III, will have a chapter on these. (Since Volume I will come out this year, who knows when Volume III will be ready.) Anyway, if anyone is struggling with education, whether at home or in public school, or life in general, an understanding of the phases or seasons of learning will help solve a lot of the problem.

I will be blogging a lot about our trip in the coming month. I've got a lot on my plate right now with a family reunion to Colorado next week, a yard sale for LLL this weekend, plus the Holistic LDS Living Conf. But I've got to get these memories about our trip down! The trip was so impactful and full of memories and great epiphanies I had while reading (A Sacred Duty) and great conversations with Sally and others that I don't want to stop thinking about it!

Is Breastfeeding Really the Norm Now?

2010-06-19T08:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I read an article in Redbook magazine in the reception room of an oral surgeon while my son got his wisdom teeth pulled. You can find the article here http://redbookmag.com/kids-family/advice/stop-breastfeeding"

The author claims that breastfeeding is the norm now, unlike 50 years ago when LLL started, and that the pendulum has swung too far in the direction of breastfeeding, so that moms who don't breastfeed are made to feel that they are bad mothers.

This is so sad. Moms who don't breastfeed should feel regretful, not guilty. This whole debate is just evidence of a larger problem...(Please sign in to http://treeoflifemothering.com
and go to the Ecological Breastfeeding group to read the rest of my post and add your comments.)

News From TJED Land

2010-06-16T06:34:00.000-07:00

Dan Ralphs, the guy who came to speak at my virtue fireside last Sunday, is moving to Mesa this week to start a TJED-based high school in the fall. He's been doing one in St. George called Williamsburg Academy with James Ure. When I heard about this over a year ago I was so wanting to just pack up and move down there. I envied my sister-in-law, Sally, who is living in St. George and doing TJED with her six kids. Dan and James bought this high school from Troy Henke. But Dan and his wife feel it's time to settle down and they want to do that in Arizona where his wife has deep roots. So Mesa is the lucky home to Dan's new school, Lexington Academy. This will be a brick and mortar school. See

It sounds so wonderful to have a place for homeschooled kids in the late teens who are truly ready to do a scholar phase to be mentored in Oxford-style education, like the kind of education C.S. Lewis was into. But don't despair if you can't ship your scholar off to Mesa...

If you want to read the rest of this please go to my new web site, a gathering place for TJED junkies, at tjedlibrary.com and go to the blog. You will have to sign in first. This is a place for people to review and share all things TJED.

Real Education Makes You Virtuous

2010-06-15T05:57:00.001-07:00

The fireside with Dan Ralphs was spectacular! I feel so inspired to read classic literature and do hard things and get a great education. Dan basically said that if you get a great education you will become Christlike. Therefore you will have virtue in education, because Christ is virtuous. The best education leads one not to just know stuff, and not to just understand, but to actually become Christlike. The best education changes or transforms you. You "become," instead of just knowing and understanding. That makes sense because Christ is the only source of power that changes us, or helps us become, for the better. He gives us a new life through a new birth.

Dan quoted from Les Mis and said that someone said it was the best work about the atonement outside of the standard works. I read it for my Face to Face with Greatness class (see but that was just a skim, rushed, conveyor-belt reading. Maybe I will actually go back and read it and allow it to help me "become." Dan also quoted Elder Neal Maxwell about what real education is, and then he had to translate the Maxwellian talk for us. I am hoping that one of my friends who was at the fireside will type up her notes and then I can share them on my treeoflifemothering.com site. It was at Michele Smith's home. She is so on the ball and organized and her youngest is 4 (meaning she actually has free time not dictated by naps) so I think she will do this for me.

Living Water and the Holy Grail

2010-06-10T13:18:00.001-07:00

So last week we drove down to southern Utah to take my son, Valor, to the Youth for Freedom summer camp. He really wanted to go, but we didn't have the money. With two weeks left for it to start, he asked if he could use his short-term savings to pay for it. It just hadn't occurred to any of us to use that money before. Thanks to hearing Janine Bolon speak, he has been "60/40ing" his money that he earns mowing lawns and umpiring. That's where you take 40 percent to spend and use the remaining 60 percent for tithing, charity, and savings. You teach your kids to live on 40 percent of what they make and then later when they are adults and paying rent/mortgage they switch and live on 60 percent. Yes, I am would like to learn that lesson myself. (Thank you Janine, the money muse for this teaching! Janine's site is ) We agreed, with the stipulation that he not buy anything until he pays back his savings.

So two Sundays ago we drove down to sunny St. George and played with cousins while he went to Youth for Freedom at a camp in Orderville. (see ) He had a life-transforming event and the visit was so heavenly for us as well. Our dad stayed home and enjoyed the batchelor life. After the camp, I actually saw Valor writing down his goals and "saygobedos" (see ) that were inspired by this camp. But the best part of it all was after I went with my friend Amanda through Zion's National Park (the only way to get to Orderville) to pick up my son and her daughter on Thursday night. We came back to the cousins' home and the first thing my son asked was, "OK, where's the stuff to change the baby's diaper?"

Can you believe a 16-year-old asking to change a baby's diaper?! I was so impressed! You know how sometimes when kids spend a long time away from home and responsibilities, especially if they are with their friends, they get selfish? Not this kid. Especially not with the education he's getting. It's partly because he's great and I am hoping it's because he spent so much time at this camp learning about being virtuous, unselfish, service-oriented, and fulfilling a great mission in life.

Four years ago I started integrating the Leadership Education philosophy in my home. So far I am very pleased with the results. It is stimulating and humbling to learn about this education and the call it issues to every student to follow the path of virtue.

Sister Elaine Dalton has issued a call to return to virtue. (See )As far as I can tell,her past four talks to the youth of the LDS church have been about virtue. Hence, I have felt inspired to create a community of youth that heeds this call. Montesquieu says that the goal of education in a republic is to create virtue. Article IV section 4 of the U.S. Constitution says that our government is a republic. So I have asked Dan Ralphs to come speak to youth this Sunday, June 13, in Highland about virtue in education. If you want to know more about Dan, go to this blog by TJED mom Teri Helms, here

Dan says that virtue is a source of living water, a holy grail that has been sought for by sages of the past and must be cultivated by anyone today who wants to be great. I can't wait to hear more!

If you want to come, again, as I said in my last post, sign in to and read the latest blog post to get the details. See you there!

Catching My Breath and Please Come to my Fireside

2010-06-08T07:40:00.000-07:00

Last week we had a totally fun time down in TJED land (southern Utah) with cousins. My son decided to go to Youth for Freedom at the last minute and pay for it with his own hard-earned cash. That's a TJED-based youth camp. We played with cousins while he got out of his comfort zone. Now he and my daughter are at AYLI's Simulation Week because they won the Freedom Bowl last January. I have so many fun things to tell you all about our trip. But first I want to get the word out about the Virtue Fireside I organized coming this Sunday with Dan Ralphs, head mentor at Lexington Academy, a sister school to Williamsburg Academy. (See wacademy.org.) These two schools are TJED-based high schools, specifically designed for homeschoolers.

Dan is coming up to Utah County to speak this Sunday! I am so excited! My friend is hosting it. It's not that far of a drive, even people from Logan are coming. Then on July 11 I have my husband's cousin, John Hilton III speaking (see johnhiltoniii.com and ldswhy.com). If you want to come and bring your youth, at least age12 (if they can behave themselves) then sign in at treeoflifemothering.com and go to "blog" to read the details. Be sure to RSVP to my friend so she can have enough chairs.

Let's make virtue hip, fun, and fashionable! It is the only way to freedom, true power, and happiness, and those commodities are always in style. I have even more news about virtue and youth from my friend Aneladee Milne but I will wait a few months to share that secret.

See you there!

Learning to Listen to the Holy Ghost

2010-06-06T06:09:00.000-07:00

It was one of those nights, a "crunch" night, where you have two different places to be because your scholar phase kids are involved in one thing and you want to be somewhere else.
Thank goodness I have another child old enough to babysit so I didn't have to drag everyone else along, that definitely would have slowed us down. We had planned a departure time, 5 PM, so we could drop the scholar phasers off at their Shakespeare play performance in Clearfield and then get to our meeting in Bountiful for the original commonwealth school that we got involved when we first moved to Davis County six years ago. Crazy, I know, but Davis County, Utah is the only place in the world blessed with two Commonwealth Schools and we happen to be greedy enough to be involved with both of them. We just don't want to miss out on any of the classes and mentors offered by either. (If you don't know what a commonwealth school is, it is a terrific jr. high homeschool alternative that is based on TJED. My children absolutely love it. It provides for the social outlet children crave as they become adolescents. The idea was founded by my friends Tiffany Earl and Aneladee Milne See thelemi.com.)

I was so excited for this night. I had been anticipating it for days. At 5:30 we would hold an orientation meeting for parents who were interested in learning about Williamsburg Academy with a web chat visit from the headmaster, James Ure. James is this amazing young man who has a leadership education and is changing the world by changing youths' lives. Oliver DeMille says he is "real deal." I got to take a class from him about the Constitution. I am so blown away by his knowledge, his scholarship, and his ability to relate with students.

Then at 6:30 we would have a potluck dinner, and then at 7 PM we would have the parents' meeting. I wasn't so interested in the last part, the business meeting, as I was for hearing James talk about Williamsburg (see wacademy.org) and socializing with my TJED mom friends during the potluck. I always glean such little nuggets of truth when I rub shoulders with these fabulous women.

The only hitch was that a book at the library just two blocks from my home was calling my name, loud and clear. I had put it on hold months ago. I had been about 60th in line and it was finally available! I really, really, really wanted to go pick it up and start devouring it. I had been waiting since Monday to go pick it up and it was now Thursday. I had been good for the past four days, doing my motherly and homemaking duties and I felt it was time for my "reward" of picking up the book finally. The only problem was that it was 4:30, dinner still wasn't quite ready, and we were supposed to leave at 5. The only other little problem was that three of my children wanted to go with me and that would for sure slow down the errand.

I kept feeling this nagging thought of, no, you shouldn't go. It doesn't matter that you really want to get that book, you shouldn't go tonight. But I kept pushing it out of my mind. We were backing out of the driveway at 4:45 and I finally decided to heed the thought. "You know what?" I said to my library-going children, "this is crazy. I feel that the Holy Ghost is telling me not to go and I need to obey." I knew they would be disappointed and I was too, but we went back into the house. I was able to finish seasoning the black beans (my potluck contribution), my husband came home right after that, and we left shortly after 5 with our food and scholar actors in tow to drop off.

We ended up being fifteen minutes late to the meeting, but the good news was that they hadn't started. I know it's just coincidence, but it almost seems like at so many of these homeschooling meetings people are just waiting for the Shumways to arrive before they start. We didn't miss out on any of the meeting with James. I am so excited to share with you what I learned about Williamsburg Academy in a future post. Youth living in TJED land (southern Utah) are no longer the only youth who can benefit from it. Through the wonders of technology, any youth with an Internet connection can get this leadership education from these astounding mentors at WA.

A scripture in the D&C says that if you don't follow the will of the Lord, you will fall. That usually does not mean physically falling. It usually means you will fall short of your goal. You will fall short of what you could have been blessed with. I know this night I was blessed with success of being at all of the meetings we had planned on because I listened to the Holy Ghost and stopped going to the candy store, I mean library. I know the Lord knows what is best for each of us and if we submit to His will, which He reveals to us, through the Holy Ghost (which for me manifests in the form of persistent thoughts and little feelings) then we will be blessed with more success and happiness than we originally planned for ourselves.

So what was this book I was so hot for? See below. I am reading it and loving it and it. It is so true that we learn best from answering questions, especially questions that we come up with ourselves, not questions someone else cooks up for us. That's as true in our education as it is in our relationships. That's why I love TJED, because it encourages our children and ourselves to ask and answer questions that nobody else can for us.

I've also noticed that asking questions can help us listen to the Holy Ghost better. Asking and answering questions is how Joseph Smith was tutored and blessed. It's how we can be blessed as well.

Change Your Questions Change Your Life by Wendy Watson Nelson

Is Fascinating Womanhood a Bent Book?

2010-05-28T17:27:00.000-07:00

Recently, the book Fascinating Womanhood has come to my attention. I read the companion book, Fascinating Girl, over 20 years ago, before I went to BYU, got my degree, got married, or had children. I have read parts of Fascinating Womanhood. Keri Tibbetts, the author of an ebook about how to give your child a classical education, "Headgates" (see headgates.org) lists this book in her appendix.

One of my homeschooling/georgic friends read Headgates and said she doesn't agree with all of it. She also says that Fascinating Womanhood is a bent book. Wow. I don't know if I would go so far as to say that it is bent. Another homeschooling friend of mine who is well-known in the TJED world says that is one of the "stupidest books" ever. Double wow. If you go to goodreads.com and read the reviews you will find a fun mix of strong feelings about this book, including a review by a granddaughter of Helen Andelin, the author.

What are your opinions, dear sisters? Anybody itching to say something about this book that was written in the 60s or so to swing back the pendulum of the sexual revolution?
Please go to treeoflifemothering.com, sign up, and then go to the discussion group on wifing. I would like to hear what you all think!

Face to Face With My Self-Deception

2010-05-28T06:56:00.000-07:00

You know how sometimes you have this big event planned and you look forward to it for a very long time, and then it comes and disaster happens? You have this grand picture in your mind of how it will be and you just figure that everyone in your household has the same picture. You just think that all elements will swimmingly move into place with simply a nod of the head from you, even rascally little boys who only want to play in dirt all day.

Last week was my oldest son's big deal graduation from TJYC. That stands for Thomas Jefferson Youth Certification. He was been taking classes from the LEMI Commonwealth Schools here in Davis County for five years, and the TJYC is the last class. (see http://thelemi.com/apprentice-scholar) I have been looking forward to this time for years. Every graduating class has a night with speeches from each of the TJYC students about what they learned over the previous semesters. TJYC is usually three semesters but his mentors love the work so much they made it into four. The course is so grueling that half of the students usually quit. The students who finish can receive one credit of work at George Wythe College. They study literature, history, leadership, worldviews, and Supreme Court cases. It is a huge accomplishment to finish. So we have been looking forward to this celebration for years. After the speeches, the families go out to a dinner to celebrate and visit. We have been to previous years' speeches to inspire him and now it was his turn to be inspiring.

I thought we would be to this event on time, and walk in with each of my children looking perfect. It didn't quite happen that way, but the night still turned out. You can read more at my other blog at treeoflifemothering.com under "blogs." I've started this site as a social network for LDS, AP, homeschooling, crunchy granola moms. Please join and spread the word.

Liberating Ourselves from Those Conspiring Men

2010-05-16T06:47:00.000-07:00

My last post was so long and doesn't have any personal pictures. I am sorry about that. I know how hard it is to read lots of plain type with no pictures. I have some really great ones of my baby, our trip to the Homestead crater, the walk we took of downtown SLC to see Brigham Young's grave, and of my younger children on Mother's Day. I kept meaning to add some but my camera and computer were making it hard because their dates weren't in sync. Let's just say that when my scholar phase children have lots of Shakespeare play practices during an infamous "heck week" (the week before the performance) my tech help is gone. When they are home and I can ask them questions I feel guilty for pulling them away from studying.

So I put some fun photos of me and my children that I can actually access in this post even though they don't have any thing to do with the topic, other than they are of me and my kids and I am writing this.

From the title of this post you might think I am going to spout traditional feminism. I'm not. I am going to talk about liberating ourselves from the people in the food industry who want to make money off of us when the food they are selling actually causes us to become sick, namely processed food, including pasteurized food. Even if we think we are OK by eating raw or whole food, we might need some added knowledge to get the most nutrition out of that food.

I am so excited to go this Saturday to my girlfriend Shauna's house to watch Caralee Ayre teach her Nourishing Traditions secrets from her own kitchen. She is giving a cooking class. I kept meaning to advertise it here but then Shauna sent an email saying that 40 women are already coming. Guess it doesn't need any more advertising! But Tara's class is coming up in the summer and she is mentored by Caralee so if you are on the Wasatch Front and miss Caralee's you can come to Tara's. (see happyinthekitchen-withtara.blogspot.com)

Caralee sent us some email links so we could do some homework to prepare. Here is what she sent:

http://www.westonaprice.org/Plants-Bite-Back.html

http://www.westonaprice.org/Living-With-Phytic-Acid.html

http://www.westonaprice.org/The-Role-of-Oxalates-in-Autism-and-Chronic-Disorders.html

http://www.westonaprice.org/The-Ploy-of-Soy.html

http://www.westonaprice.org/Broth-is-Beautiful.html

I have been reading the one about phytic acid. As my girlfriend Shauna says, "These are written by PhD's and therefore lengthy. Caralee will condense all the blah-blah-blah into the most salient points." Thank goodness! This info is so overwhelming but so incredible and critical to understanding for your health and your family's health. Especially if you are into whole foods like I am. It basically says that plant food (whole grains, nuts, and seeds) has this thing called phytic acid which is made up of phosphorus. The phosphorus binds to minerals and makes it so we can't absorb the minerals we are eating. It also inhibits the production of enzymes in our stomachs and intestines which helps digest food so we can get stomachaches from eating improperly prepared whole grains.

If we don't properly prepare the whole grains, nuts, and seeds then even if we are eating them and being smug about being on a whole foods diet, we can become sick with digestive problems and mineral deficiencies, like osteoporosis and tooth decay. The article says that your neighbors next door could be eating Wonder bread and white rice and feel healthier than you. It's because they are eating food that has zero phytic acid, while your whole food does. Wow, finally an excuse to eat some white bread and white flour besides the fact that they taste better!

This info on phytic acid is overhwhelming to digest and even think about putting into practice. I have been soaking my grains for a while but not my flour. And I haven't been soaking my grains in yogurt or whey, which is what NT recommends, just water. I have not been soaking my nuts and seeds and now I am wondering how I am going to deal with peanut butter since that's a staple and it's made from unsoaked nuts. I guess this means granola bars are bad and fresh nuts and seeds and...oh, boy, is there anything fresh that's safe to eat besides rabbit food? I am eager to learn the "how-to's" of all of this with a big family to care for...so enter Caralee, mother of six, going on seven, who also homeschools and knows my time demands.

Every woman, especially a mother, needs this information! When you are armed with correct information, you can make the best food choices for your family. You can be independent of the "conspiring men" that God mentions in Doctrine and Covenants 89. You can have the fullest health possible. I used to think that these conspiring men were those of the tobacco industry, but now I think it includes anyone who is willing to put profit before people's health, including those behind lots of food at the grocery store and even so-called "health food" at the health food store. Let's not get sucked into buying food that is actually bad for us.

Also, let's not get sucked into the lines of the "diet dictocrats" as Sally Fallon calls them. These are the people who say that animal fats, the good fats from from raw milk of pasture-fed cows and eggs from pasture-fed chickens, are bad for you. Cholesterol has a purpose! Veganism and vegetarianism have a place, for those who want to cleanse for a time. But they are not diets that can be sustained for a long, healthy, fertile, growing time. A mother, especially one who is in for the long haul of bearing and nursing many babies, and growing children can't thrive long-term on those diets. When I was still vegetarian with my fifth baby, I remember my midwife practically ordering me to eat some meat. She said that she had studied the issue and was aware of women who had problems with their births and their babies because they were long-term vegetarians. If you want some great recipes that involve animal fats and whole foods (although I don't know if it's totally NT correct) check out the Diet Rebel's Cookbook at gettingrealwithfood.blogspot.com.

Every mother, from the time her baby is in the womb, is the link between food and her family. Since food is the biggest determining factor in health, you are the link between your children and good health. The diet of a pregnant woman can lower the chances of the baby having low birth weight and premature birth and the mom having toxemia. See blueribbonbaby.org. The Weston Price people have even more specifics for a pregnant and nursing mom's diet and say this diet can prevent birth defects. See westonaprice.org/Diet-for-Pregnant-and-Nursing-Mothers.html (I am not thrilled about the liver recommendation but next time I'm pregnant I want to do their diet. Hey, maybe I should start now since I am nursing.) Then when the baby comes, mom gets to choose between her milk or artificial milk. Artificial baby milk increases the risk of your baby getting sick and you getting ovarian and uterine cancer. Your milk makes your baby smart and healthy.

I know this position of responsibility and attachment to your children through food can be overwhelming to think about, but it's also a great, God-given honor and one that, with God's help, we can embrace and fully live up to. It does say in the LDS Church's Proclamation to the World on the Family that a mother is primarily responsible for the nurture of her children. That's true women's liberation, to live up to the role God gives, and be liberated from conspiring men who don't care about your or your babies' health.

A Quick Getaway With Baby and He Left Her Speechless

2010-05-12T05:29:00.000-07:00

I hope you all had a Happy Mother's Day. I did, complete with s surprise breakfast in bed served by my sweet husband. He even scooped my eight month old baby out of our family bed at 7:30 AM when baby woke up. Then he went to fix the breakfast, and I was left to joyfully sleep in with no baby noises, the only day so far of this baby's life when I have been able to sleep in past my baby's wake time. That was the most luscious Mother's Day gift of all.

So much happened in my life last week that I am still processing it all. We had a marriage retreat, our first night of leaving our oldest in charge overnight, then we we went on a walking tour of SLC with some friends, and then my firstborn went on his first date to go ballroom dancing. Wow! Then it was Mother's Day, with all of the emotion that accompanies that day.

It occurred to me that I haven't said much about AP (Attachment Parenting) since I started this blog, even though I mention it in the banner. I guess that's because after having seven babies, it comes very naturally to me and it just seems like the default, de facto way of life. Some would say it ties a mother down even more than normal mothering does. I say it liberates a mom because it gives her peace of mind in her parenting, knowing she is giving her baby the best start possible. It also liberates a baby to rise up to her full potential because it meets all of the baby's needs in the most physically and emotionally intimate way possible.

I first heard about AP when I was pregnant with number one and was working at the U of U med school. I stumbled across the book that first laid out AP, The Baby Book, by Dr. and Mrs. Bill Sears, at the U of U bookstore. I consider it providential that it was first published the year I had my first baby in 1993. I bought the book and brought it home and announced to my husband that I really liked this philosophy of parenting and wanted to do it. He read about it and liked it and we have been baby bedding together, babywearing, and baby bonding ever since. He even bought our first baby sling. If you don't know about AP, click here http://askdrsears.com/html/10/t130300.asp

Since then I have been able to hear Dr. Bill and Martha speak a few times in person at LLLI conferences (see llli.org) and have become enamored with them even more. Martha is even an LLL Leader, like I am, so that just makes her feel like family to me. I even got so close to Dr. Bill that I could have gone up to him and spoken to him like a fawning groupie but suddenly my shyness took over and I just didn't want to. My shyness didn't overtake me with Martha however on a separate occasion and I asked her a question. She was so friendly, she even gave me her phone number so I could call her and ask more questions!

AP just seems so natural to me. It's a no-brainer, the way babies and parents are supposed to live harmoniously together, with the least amount of tears, fear, and anxiety. My LDS faith (lds.org) with its belief in eternal families gives me the "why" for attachment. We can't have a fulfillment of happiness, heaven, or even love, unless we are eternally sealed to our husband and our children, as well as to the Eternal Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. AP gives me the nuts-and-bolts, "how-to" of family attachment in the real, everyday world. Physical attachment with my babies facilitates and precedes emotional and eternal attachment as they mature. At one of these LLL conferences I heard someone quote an old Jewish proverb, "If you get up with your children when they are young, they won't be getting you up when they are old," meaning, respond to your babies' cries when they are little, and chances are that they won't be causing you to get out of bed when they are teenagers. Of course, free agency is always at work and I do know some families who practice AP who still have wayward children but the risk of that happening goes down. At least these parents have peace of mind knowing they did what they could for their children when they were young by practicing AP.

Some people say that AP takes too much time and makes the baby spoiled and manipulative. I disagree. It is an investment in happy, mature, peaceful children. I don't have time to go into all the tangents that AP can get me off on, like gentle discipline and no circumcision. But I found a great blog, drmomma.org, that pretty much sums up my views. Yes, you can still have obedient children, a life outside of children, a passionate marriage, and not go crazy if you practice AP.

Whenever I read about suggestions to leave your baby for a marriage-building retreat, I cringe. You can just take your baby with you! Last Thursday I got to have a quick overnight getaway with my husband. We left everyone home but the baby. I don't even like reading that you have to leave your baby to go on evening dates with your husband. I do remember a line from Sheila Kippley in her eco bfg book that suggests you take the baby with you and that's what I do. At one of the first LLL meetings I went to I heard from a veteran mom (this was when I only had two kids) that as long as you leave the big kids home, it feels like a date, even if you bring the baby. I totally agree. Ever since then I have been bringing the baby with me on dates and overnighters. Once they start walking then I leave them home.

We used to leave our oldest home all the time when he was a baby to do dates and business meetings and I regret that. It would have saved a lot of stress on me to just stay home with him or bring him with us. Despite all the separation I did maintain my breastfeeding relationship with him until he was a year old, by pumping and leaving him a bottle. When I see moms leaving their babies for overnighters or days at a time, I feel sad. Forget about saving the earth, save the breastfeeding you have going with your baby. I've since repented and now take my baby with me or stay home.

Every year my husband gets two free nights of a hotel stay to go participate in a conference for his work as a parental public defender attorney. Out of something like seven years since he's been doing this, this was only my second time to go with him. It's a great free marriage-building retreat so I would love to do it every year. Last time it was at the Homestead when I went (fiver years ago) and this year it was at the Zermatt. Usually I am too busy with carpooling duty or momschool teaching to go. But this year we figured out how to sandwich my escape between chauffeuring my oldest child to his leadership education econ class and his speech and debate class the next day.

We had such a delightful time away! We had some great conversation and watched the movie Fireproof. Lately my baby has been crying a lot in his car seat on car trips, which is so nervewracking for an AP mom. I got the brilliant idea to stop and buy a teething biscuit after I dropped my scholar son off in Bountiful and that was just the ticket to a blissful baby car ride. (Blissful baby = sleeping baby = happy mommy who can listen to de Tocqueville wax philosophical about liberty of the press in Democracy in America as I drive through Parley's Canyon). So I got to Midway with no screaming. We took a walk in this freezing cold Utah sprinter (spring + winter) to the Homestead across the street. We went through the tunnel to this hollow crater on the Homestead property that has a hot spring where people can scuba dive. Then we went shopping to buy our dinner. On the way back to the hotel I nursed baby with him still buckled in his car seat.

He fell asleep on this ride home. Hooray! It was 8 PM. Now we could have some time alone without tending to any children at all. He stayed asleep the rest of the night. (He did wake up to nurse a few times in the hotel bed but then went back to sleep so I still count that as "sleeping through the night." Yes, you can cosleep or bedshare and still have a baby who sleeps for decent chunks of time and doesn't "nurse all night long." More on that another time.) We had a lovely visit talking about almost nothing that relates to our shared household, our children, or homeschooling, as we dined. I didn't even feel guilty that I was missing the end of year meeting for the north Davis county commonwealth school that my two scholar phasers attend. We did talk about who we thought would be elected to next year's board for the school. Then we watched Fireproof, a movie on DVD starring Kirk Cameron, which we hadn't seen yet even though it's ages old.

Yes, I pretty much live in a cave when it comes to movies. I just shun most of what the Hollywood conveyor belt churns out, because it's mostly garbage. But Fireproof doesn't come from the typical Hollywood studio. It's made by the people who did Facing the Giants. See fireproofthemovie.com. If you haven't ever watched Fireproof, do it for your next date night. It is a fabulous movie and totally clean! Not only that, it's based on faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthens marriage by encouraging people to turn their marriages over to Christ. Every married couple should watch it and discuss. (I thought the acting was great but missed reliving the glory days of late 1980s primetime TV with Kirk Cameron since my husband is a baby boomer and barely remembers Happy Days. )

My husband told me a story that put a smile on my face. He left a lady speechless with something he said. At the same his conference was going, so was another. It was for some association of perinatal social workers. So in the vendor display area there were booths and tables for vendors selling things for babies and those who are social workers for babies. One of the booths was for Abbott Labs, one of the main ABM makers. (ABM = artificial baby milk, or SIN, synthetic infant nutrition). My husband said, "You know, my wife is a La Leche League Leader, so babies and nursing and breastmilk are very prominent in my home."

One of the vendors for Abbott Labs smiled and said, "Oh yes. We here at Abbott Labs are very much in favor of breastmilk. We promote it all the time." (Yeah, right....as long as they have their foot in the door, or their pricey can of ABM in your "free" hospital diaper bag, offering it "just in case breastfeeding doesn't work," and then they get you dependent on it. See banthebags.org) To which my husband deftly replied, "Oh, well, my wife would slash your adversting in a heartbeat because it violates the WHO Code of Marketing Breastmilk Substitutes." The vendor opened her mouth but nothing would come out, and her sales partner next to her patted her arm and said, "He's got you there. Don't even bother going down that path. " My husband told me the story and it got me thinking about the WHO Code. I have become less in favor of the UN and government regulation in general lately since reading Richard Maybury. I am going to have to ask my LLL Leader friend who is also a John Bircher how she reconciles the two.

I could just picture myself angrily tearing down their posters and throwing their cans in the garbage. Not my style! My dear husband sometimes translates my zealous opinions into militant action. I'm generally not that assertive. Just for the record, you can be an AP mom and use ABM, even Dr. Sears says so, although it does take conscientiousness to be an AP bottlefeeder. ABM does have its place, especially for babies who simply have no access to a mom or a milk bank, like these poor babies helped by perinatal social workers probably. But I agree with Dr. Jack Newman, a medical doctor who specializes in breastfeeding (drjacknewman.com), that ABM should be treated like a drug that requires a prescription. It has risks to both baby's and mother's health and side-effects. Breastmilk from the mother while nursing, then pumped milk from the mom, then pumped milk from other moms, then ABM is the hierarchy I follow. Wouldn't it have been cool if there had been a booth at this perinatal conference for a mothers' milk bank, LLL, or the people at asklenore.com who help adoptive moms with breastfeeding?

The next morning I got to go to breakfast with my husband as part of his conference. Lo and behold, who should we end up sitting with but Joyce Kinmont, one of the speakers from my conference last year, homeschooling mom guru and founder of ldshea.org. She volunteers her time helping parents who are fighting DCFS and likes to go to conferences like this. One of the guys who shares office space with my husband, Don Redd, was also there. Don's wife Karen was there at the breakfast table as well, and she is one of my heroines. Here is a woman who has borne 15 children, yes 15!, and looks not only perfectly normal to be a mother to so many and a grandma too, but still beautiful as well. She just retired from singing in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I look at her and what she is doing in her phase of mothering now that her youngest is 12 or so and it reminds me that there is a season for moms to develop their talents with more focus than in interrupted blocks of time.

The breakfast table discussion fascinated me. It was attorneys mostly talking, along with Joyce and two of the wives. They were basically saying that the state system that professes to protect families actually breaks them up. So then the talk went to, well, it's not just that the system is messed up, it's the culture of today with the broken families. One attorney there said that families are going down the tubes, especially since moms are no longer home all day. He said that moms don't even have to eat breakfast with their children, they can just send them to school for free breakfast. Then they have free lunch, and then at night (I thought to myself), a lot of kids don't eat dinner with their family either. The forage for their own dinner of cold cereal or microwave food and eat in front of the TV. It's sad when women outsource the feeding of their children, starting with ABM and then as they grow older turning it over to others constantly. If you want some inspiration, go to thefoodnanny.net.

We Can Build Zion From Our Kitchen Counters!

2010-05-06T09:49:00.000-07:00

At our stake conference last Sunday, we got to hear Sister Julie Beck of the General Relief Society Presidency of the LDS Church speak. She said that a righteous woman is like a "lioness at the gate." She is fierce about what she doesn't and does let into her home. She categorizes her desires into "essential," "necessary," and "nice to do." Sister Beck stated that a righteous woman will see mealtimes as an opportunity to gather her family around and share the gospel and bond. She didn't come right out and say it, but she was basically saying that mealtimes together are essential to a loving, eternal family, not just nice to do.

I feel so happy that she brought that up. I have seen the power of mealtime in my own family. We used to live in a very small apartment with five children and my husband commuted an hour and a half each way to work. Having a tasty homemade dinner when he came home really helped ease his stress and mine too during this hard time. My mother used to always have a hot homemade dinner for us every night, even when she started working full-time as a kindergarten teacher. Perhaps this is part of the reason why we all turned out so well. All five of us went to BYU, graduated, got married, and have happy families of our own. Mealtime is part of a mother's secret weapon to teach and train her children. It is a time to please your family with great-tasting food and delicious, nourishing mind food as well. I have done a lot of stealthy gospel teaching and homeschooling at dinnertime, it's just a natural time to teach.

I read this terrific book recently that I saw in the Chinaberry catalog, The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner. In this book, an LDS mother of seven shares her great secrets on how to overcome obstacles to having family dinner. Her name is Liz Edmunds and she is now a grandma. She says anyone can learn to be a great cook. Her book is sprinkled with references to Mormon culture, such as the pictures of her wall with plaques of LDS sayings and a Family Home Evening chart. She has even hit it big with a show on BYUTV, which you can watch on Thursday nights. See byutv.org. This book is a great inspiration! She has yummy recipes that must be the best, coming from a woman who has the great heritage of Utah/Relief Society cooking (think, dinner rolls with roast beef, comfort food with lots of fat!). With her years of cooking pleasing food for a large family she is now an author, Internet celebrity, and consultant for the restaurant Sur La Table. After reading her book I felt so inspired I whipped up some pizza for my family dinner, a first for me. I usually avoid homemade pizza dough and just use pita bread. But I am wanting to avoid commercial bread as it is so full of preservatives, probably petroleum-based.

If you go to my website treeoflifemothering.com and click under "The Library" and "Home Cooking" or "Home Dining" you can get a free pdf file I wrote with more ideas from her book, including the list of the "theme nights" she uses to plan her menus and some of her questions that spark conversations at dinner for family bonding. I also share some ideas for gospel teaching at dinnertime, with quotes from Elder Bednar, Truman Madsen and Elder Holland.

Dinnertime is the time for power nurturing! Sisters, as my girlfriend Jonell Francis says, "We can build Zion from our kitchen counters!" (You can order the talk from my LDS natural moms conference that contains this quote from my web site under "Recordings." She tells her story of healing from fibromyalgia by changing her diet.) As my girlfriend Tara says on her blog, quoting Jacques DeLangre (I have no idea who that is, anybody know?), happyinthekitchen-withtara.blogspot.com, "When a woman stays at home and cooks with good judgment and understanding, peace and happiness result. She thus controls the family's health and destiny, also her husband's mood, disposition and feeling, and assures the futures of her children."

This is one of the great powers we have as women and homemakers! When we assume this honor, we and our families are liberated from illness, overbearing stress, and tension. Our life won't be perfect, but we will have the nourishment, both physical and mental, to cope with our trials. This is part of the true women's liberation. Sisters in Zion, unite, and have homemade family dinners together! (Tara is going to give some classes on how to prepare super-nourishing family meals by soaking grains and using lacto-fermented condiments. I am so thrilled, go to her website to learn more!)

Falling in Love with Those Gorgeous Greens

2010-05-05T05:30:00.000-07:00

Do you avoid eating greens? Especially the sturdy ones like collard and kale? I used to, even when told to eat them when pregnant, because I didn't know how to prepare them. I thought you were supposed to eat them raw. I remember dutifully buying them when I was pregnant because "dark leafy greens" were on this list of what I Was Supposed to Eat. I brought them home and took one bite and, Ugh! It's because I didn't know how to prepare them. Occasionally I will have them raw, torn up into bits and pulverized into a smoothie, but if you are going to serve them by themselves and relatively whole, this method is the way to go.

I remember taking a macrobiotic cooking class from a darling older lady in Salt Lake City. She would often say, "Greens are my friends!" Unfortunately greens were not part of the curriculum, so I never learned how to prepare them. But she had the most beautiful skin, very smooth, and she was over 60.

Maybe her skin was smooth because of all the greens she ate. Greens are one of the most nutrient-dense foods of all. They help your skin be young and smooth and keep your body young with all of their anti-aging antioxidants. I found this great web site from one of my favorite whole foods cookbook authors. She has lots of videos on how to prepare whole foods meals. (And no, it is not Sally Fallon.) Go to my web site treeoflifemothering.com/video/yes-greens-can-taste-great and you can watch it. These cooking videos are so much fun! They have a sense of humor and show real life cooking in a kitchen with kids and people coming to the door interrupting you or fix-it people working in your home. Now I love to eat my greens! I like to go to this web site (found on the video) when I want some inspiration for a dish to take to a potluck gathering or even for dinner. Enjoy!

In Harmonious Vibration With Eggs

2010-05-04T05:22:00.000-07:00

Be careful what you think about, it just might come true.

Two weeks ago I went through my dresser drawers and closet. I got rid of a bunch of clothes I have had for over ten years. I thought, I need more clothes. These clothes are out of date. It's scary to get rid of them though because I don't know where more will come from. Maybe my sister will give me more clothes. Leslie Householder teaches that if you want something, create a vacuum for it and then the new thing will come. She tells the story of how she and her husband wanted a new car, so they got rid of the present car her husband was using to commute in, and within a month they had the car they wanted.

Sure enough, the following Sunday at our family dinner in Highland at my parents' home my sister announced she had some clothes to give to me. Hooray! These clothes included two pairs of denim capris that fit perfectly and three stylish tops for summer. I just won't think about the fact that they are probably her "fat clothes" and she is losing weight much faster than I am. We both have the Sudweeks' genes that holds on to fat instead of the Shurtliff genes like our other sister, our mom, and one of our brothers, which allows one to burn all fat ingested, including however much ice cream and brownies taken in. She said that if I didn't want them she would give them to her friend. I thought, whew, I guess my thinking about wanting clothes sent the vibes to her to prevent her from giving her friend first dibs.

So last week for lunches I was thinking how I like to fix scrambled eggs and wishing we had more eggs. We went to the wedding reception for our nephew James on Saturday night. This complete stranger came up to my husband and asked if he likes brown eggs. She said she had lots of extra eggs from her chickens and would he like some. Then she produced two dozen eggs in cartons and handed them to Dan. (This urban chicken keeping thing is amazing. Everyone is getting in on the act. I went to pick up my son from his friend's house and they had baby chicks in their living room!)I had been on the phone with my girlfriend Tara talking about Leslie Householder's teachings. Tara said that awhile ago she was thinking that they, her family, hadn't been to California in a long time. She wished they could go. A few days later, her mom-in-law called to announce that her brother had died and invited them to go to the funeral in California. Her wish came true, and they went off on their trip to see family and reconnect. Another day she was wishing she had a mixer and a few days later one showed up in the mail, I think from her mother-in-law.

So I am visualizing a bigger home while generating positive, grateful emotions like in the book Jackrabbit Factor by Leslie. I am also dejunking and packing things up, to prepare for this move that I am attracting. Maybe it's time to listen to Leslie's CDs again too. If anyone wants to buy the set of seven CDs where she explains the laws of success, let me know. I have an extra set and would like to sell them for $75. They are sold out of the CDs, but have them as mp3 files for $99 on her site thoughtsalive.com. Contact me at celestia_shumway@yahoo.com if you want to buy my set for $75.

The Blessings are Flowing...Homeschooling is Working

2010-05-01T10:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a GREAT homeschooling day. The DeMilles (see tjedonline.com) say that one out of every ten days is a perfect day according to schedule and that's how yesterday was for us. Ever since my baby was born it's been a struggle for me to get my exercising in before our family scripture study at 6:45 AM but yesterday I did it! I woke up at 4 AM to nurse the baby and after he went back to sleep I stayed awake miraculously. It's because I was in bed by 10 the night before.

I had fun exercising while I listened to my Constitution class with James Ure. I am so impressed with his knowledge. I am learning so much about law and government in my leadership education. I passed the AP Government and Politics test in high school but this time around in my study of government I feel like I am actually learning important facts from a Godly view. Then I blogged about my new recipe for buttermilk ranch dressing (see last post). Then we had family prayer and scripture study. The kids did their morning chores diligently and we had breakfast. My husband drove the two scholar phase children off to their youth conference for NSSA and SDLA, the two commonwealth schools of Davis County that they do scholar projects with.

I played the piano after breakfast and sang songs with my children which is something I used to always put off thinking, "There's so much work to do! I don't have time to play the piano." Then I realized that I was neglecting a great blessing, my ability to play for my children, and the gift of having a piano around. I listened to one homeschool mom in my moms as mentors group talk about how singing increases your vibrational frequency. If there's any time of day when I need an increase in my frequency, it's right after breakfast when the load of the day's work faces me. So now I play the piano and sing with my core phasers while the two love of learners/core phasers do the breakfast dishes. We always sing Dr. Seuss' song, "Let Us All Sing" from the Dr. Seuss songbook, a treasure I found at D.I. That always puts me in a great mood! Then we sing Primary songs and Brite music and I just feel ready to conquer the day.

My baby had a terrifically long morning nap. Yay! I helped my two core phasers do their folding of clean laundry and putting it away. I dug into an organizing project of taking care of two drawers full of learning card games. They were all mixed together. My two sons, the core/LOL (love of learning) helped me with the project. One of them did his math schoolwork and actually did it quickly! My two little core phasers, ages 4 and 5, found a Bible card game featuring Bible characters. They were enamored with it! Their enthusiasm for Bible stories was so endearing. We made up a game of finding the character after telling the clues. They loved it and even my core/LOL age 8 joined in, begging to play with us.

The time for the two Core/LOL to go to their Knights of Freedom love of learning class was fast approaching. I didn't want to bundle everyone into the car to drive them since the baby was still asleep and my scholar phasers weren't home to tend so I called and asked my husband to drive them and he agreed.

It occurred to me that my life was flowing beautifully. The blessings are pouring in. Homeschooling is hard, but it does work and it's working for our family. It was four years ago this weekend that my husband and I journeyed to Cedar City to attend our first TJED convention. We had moved to Davis county the previous fall from Provo. I know that God had a hand in the move, to get me to a place where I would be mentored in the TJED philosophy. He brought my dear friend Kelli Poll back into my life (I had met her five years prior when I lived in Provo. That's a story in itself of how I found her exactly at that time, without phoning or emailing her. )

She had just started a moms as mentors group which I was able to join right as she started it. The timing was just perfect. She had friends in her neighborhood, as well as her sister-in-law, who were just starting their homeschooling journey. I was a veteran homeschooler of six years or so but did not do TJED. I had heard about when I started homeschooling in 1998 but did not embrace it. I heard Oliver DeMille speak in 1998 o1999 and slept through most of it. I bought his book and it sat on my shelf untouched. I needed to move to Davis county to find the mentors I needed to put it into my life.

The past two Saturdays I administered an ACT practice test and boot camp with my friend Ann Meeks, who I met eight years ago at one of my Veggie Gals lunches at my girlfriend Becky Edwards' home. Ann is amazing! My son took the practice test with her and got a high score, even though he is only 16 and has not studied for the test or taken trigonometry or finished geometry. Homeschooling works, at least for him. I have to confess though that he was not raised on TJED homeschooling. We started that when he was 13, although he started his TJED scholar projects at his commonwealth school when he was 12. I did require him to do math every day out of a (shhhh!) math workbook/textbook, much before he was in scholar phase. I will have to write more about this ACT boot camp another time. I learned so many things and am so grateful to Ann for putting all these ACT secrets into one package. Ann and Cyndi, teachers of the ACE the ACT course, both veteran TJED homeschooling moms with children either at college or accepted into college, admit that math is the exception to "inspire not require," unless you count using sugar as inspiring.

It was a year ago that I wanted to get my son to take this ACT class and we couldn't afford it at the time. I started fantasizing about him taking it and contacted Ann and found out that if I organized one and got enough people to take it, he could take it for free. So I put the work in and now I am tasting the success of seeing not only my son, but my daughter, as a bonus, take it and learn about it from a mentor. I am feeling so grateful! My son and daughter, ages 14 and 16, are motivated scholars. They like to study and put the hours in. I can see college scholarships in their future. My other children are growing and happy. I have made peace with my two core/LOL over doing math every day. (They are doing it, with some bribery.) Best of all, a blessing I have waited for a long time has happened and I have much greater hope for the future. Praise the Lord! Tomorrow is stake conference and I get to hear Sister Julie Beck and Elder Hales speak. Hooray!

A Healthy Ranch Dressing

2010-04-30T05:39:00.001-07:00

I just discovered this recipe for Buttermilk Ranch Dressing. You will have to go to my web site treeoflifemothering.com to get it. I actually adapted it, but I am so excited because now I finally have a homemade ranch dressing that doesn't involve tofu. Yes, it involves dairy, but if you are using raw milk, or even better, cultured raw milk in the form of buttermilk then the dairy is good for you, according to Sally Fallon. Cultured raw milk has good bacteria that helps you digest your food. You can find a local purveyor of raw milk at rawmilk.com.

During one of my visits with Caralee, my NT (Nourishing Traditions) mentor, I learned that generally commercially available tofu is bad. (For years I have known that soy food is controversial but I kept thinking that the tofu I was buying was OK. Caralee cited a book that helped me see that it wasn't. The author of this book, Kaayla Daniel, did an article in Mothering that you can read here. I am assuming it is a summary of her book. http://www.mothering.com/food/whole-soy-story)

For over a decade I have avoided commercially made ranch dressing because it is full of rancid, highly processed oils. They all probably have preservatives made from petroleum as well. I will have to check my Feingold guide on that to make sure. Anyway, I use olive oil in this Buttermilk Ranch recipe instead of mayonnaise because Rebecca Wood, author of the Whole Foods Encyclopedia, told me that commercially-available mayonnaise is all full of rancid oils which is toxic. So sorry to you Vegannaise lovers. I never really liked mayonnaise anyway. We use butter as a sandwich spread and whenever a recipe calls for mayonnaise like for potato salad I just use olive oil.

So go to my web site (link above) and click on Yummy Recipes to find it. We have had it the past two nights. It's so delicious!

A Tender Mercy of the Lord- Meeting Caralee, My Nourishing Traditions Mentor

2010-04-23T16:23:00.000-07:00

I know I said I wouldn't be posting much on this blog as I started a new web site for LDS natural family living (www.treeoflifemothering.com) which has a blog, but I can't resist adding more things here. Leaving this blog will be a weaning process, as they say in La Leche League (llli.org), gradually and with love.

Don't you just love this picture? It captures the spirit of community among mothers. Getting together and learning from one another while our little children play. I took this at my girlfriend Caralee's house at one of our new moms as mentors meetings.

I am so thrilled beyond belief to have met my new NT (Nourishing Traditions) mentor, Caralee Ayre. It is the hand of God that brought us together. I know that God recognized I had a desire to learn more about how to implement the NT into my busy mom of seven, homeschooling life, and he has honored that desire by moving Caralee to my area. (She says they moved here for other reasons but I selfishly think it was all for me...just kidding!)

About 10 years ago, I learned from Diane Hopkins, owner of Latter-day Family Resources (see ldfr.com) about NT. This is a cookbook full of recipes based on the "nourishing traditions" of our ancestors. They ate some animal fat, from animals that were treated humanely and allowed to feed on green grass in the sunshine, and they soaked their grains to get rid of the phytic acid. Phytic acid is how God allows beans and grains to stay shelf-stable for so long and not spoil but it also interferes with the ability of the body to absorb minerals. These native peoples also used lacto-fermented vegetables. They were healthier than our current population, which has countless chronic diseases that our ancestors never heard of, like diabetes, heart disease, rampant tooth decay, and cancer. Diane wrote an article in her newsletter about her switch from being vegan to using animal products. She felt she had been duped by the promoters of veganism. This article affected me greatly, and helped me to switch from being vegan as well. Another time I will write about my vegan journey.

So I heard about the dangers of veganism from Diane and around the same time I had a second witness from Rebecca Wood. Her website is rwood.com. She is an author of two books on food, one of which won a Julia Child award, and a consultant about whole foods. She grew up in Ogden, Utah on whole foods: peaches from the orchard, fresh trout from the river, tomatoes from the garden, etc. She was a vegan for 20 years but she still got cancer. That got her wondering and she did some research as part of her healing journey. I got to take a cooking class from her and heard her tell her story. She said that in her research she found that generations of people the world over shared five features of their diets. She uses these five criteria to determine if a diet is a fad or based in historical nutritional traditions. 1. Whole food, including some animal products, 2. Regional, seasonal food, including animals that can be raised locally 3. Easy to digest, 4. Whole grain-based and 5. Fermented food, such as kefir, yogurt, umeboshi, or pickles.

I learned from Rebecca the idea of food that nourishes versus food that feeds. Nourishing food leaves one feeling satisfied and peaceful, with the appetite for sweet and salty, crunchy and soft all sated and balanced. Food that doesn't leaves one feeling full, but not pleasantly satisfied. Well-prepared homemade food can be very nourishing, and commercialized food tends to be more of the feeding but not nourishing type.

After hearing these two witnesses I dutifully bought the Nourishing Traditions cookbook. There it sat on my shelf. It is such a huge tome of a cookbook that it is overwhelming. I wanted to make bread from it but the instructions seemed too hard. I also bought the companion book that inspired Sally Fallon to write the NT cookbook, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, by Dr. Weston Price. It is full of pictures comparing indigenous people the world over who continued with a native, whole foods diet versus the white man's industrialized diet of white bread, white flour, and white sugar. The first group of people enjoyed vibrant health without tooth decay, and they had straight teeth, wide dental arches, and beautiful faces. The latter group had tooth decay, crowded teeth, and less beautiful faces due to smaller dental arches and pinched nostrils.

My girlfriend Shauna once casually mentioned, at one of our Veggie Gals dinners, that she had a soaked grain bread recipe written by a woman named Caralee who was trained by the Weston Price foundation to be a chapter leader.That caught my attention and I got one of the recipes. I tucked it in my cookbook for the day when I figure out how to fit bread making into my life after soaking the flour the night before. I don't have a Bosch bread mixer nor a big counter space to work with dough so making bread seems overwhelming and messy to me when combined with a nursing baby and homeschooling.

Fast forward about seven years. We had a day at Shauna's home, listening to the incomparable Janeen Brady of britemusic.com (see post from December 2009) play piano and sing with her daughter. They sang new songs from Janeen's new CD, Time to Times (timetotimes.com), which teaches the multiplication tables, as well as old Brite music favorites. When it was over, the horde of people left except for a few of us closer friends who Shauna allowed to stay and eat a lunch we had brought. Caralee was one of these friends. At last, I finally got to meet her! She moved up to Davis County from South Jordan, so now she lives about 20 minutes away from me! We had a tender visit full of love along with Shauna and Janeen's daughter, Michelle Stone, author of the Celestial Education DVDs (I will do a post about that soon).

Caralee felt inspired to start her own brand of Veggie Gal type dinners up in our neck of the woods, north Davis County. Some moms meet together once a month and we have a potluck lunch and then have a discussion about an article, usually a talk from an LDS Church leader. Now I can visit Caralee in her own home and see the master at work. She is a beautiful, vibrant mom with happy beautiful tow-headed children. Three boys and three girls who look straight out of Sweden with their gleaming blond hair just like Flicka, Ricka, and Dicka and Snipp, Snapp, and Snurr. I can call Caralee anytime with a question. As my girlfriend Tara from happyinthekitchen-withtara.blogspot.com says, "Here," (putting her hands on Caralee's shoulders) "is a treasure-trove of information." I agree wholeheartedly. Caralee has been studying nutrition since she was fifteen. She is a kindred spirit. I have been studying it since I was sixteen, when I first bought a copy of Harvey and Marilyn Diamond's Fit for Life book. That book inspired me to become vegetarian.

Just by perusing Caralee's bookshelves I came away with a wellspring of knowledge. She has DVDs of Sally Fallon teaching her principles. The URL printed on the DVD packaging was newtrendspublishing.com. I went there and found some free interviews with Sally Fallon on mp3 files that I have loved listening to.

Caralee was vegan for many years. She ended up with really bad health problems, including tooth decay. When she switched to a diet that included high-quality animal products, her health improved dramatically. Using cod liver oil and dairy oil that contains the X factor discovered by Dr. Weston Price, she was able to heal many cavities in her teeth. I can't wait to tell you more of her story in her own words, which I will be doing over the next few months. She says that the cod liver oil even helped her have a pain-free labor! This is what I have been searching for! So stay tuned, either here, or at my other website www.treeoflifemothering.com. I will be posting in both places about her story. I will include her recipes, including the soaked-whole wheat flour bread dough recipe that can be used for flat bread, muffins, cinnamon rolls, rolls, and bagels. Yummy! This bread makes wheat much more digestible and compatible with the Body Ecology Diet since it doesn't use yeast.

Please Come Join My Party!

2010-04-20T14:26:00.000-07:00

It was a year ago this Saturday that I held my natural family living for LDS moms conference. You can go to the website below to buy the recordings of the speakers, which included Leslie Householder, Diann Jeppson, Joyce Kinmont, and Aneladee Milne, among others. This conference was a lot of fun, and a lot of work. My husband said, "never again!" So to honor him, and to make life normal for me ( a new normal now with seven kids, including my nursing baby) I'm not doing one. I am happy to see that Amy Jones is doing one this year. Go to holisticldsliving.blogspot.com/ to see the speakers and to register.

Instead of me doing one, I am having a web site which is like an online conference. You are all invited to join and contribute articles, videos, or links to information that will support an LDS mom in being a healthier woman, wife, mother, and American citizen with a healthier family. My girlfriend Becky Edwards of my Veggie Gals dinner group generously let me upload many of her amazing articles she has written which you can access for free. You can also watch an amazing video that that shows that you can create a garden on your windows using water bottles and $30 worth of supplies. Just think, you can have fresh basil, cherry tomatoes, lettuce, and other food year-round without your toddlers spreading dirt around.

I am inviting each of you to join and contribute your own articles, photos of you breastfeeding, babywearing, or otherwise enjoying your children, or videos that relate to LDS natural family living. Breastfeeding is beautiful and normal! Babywearing is fun! Let's celebrate these natural mothering acts! I would also love to see pictures of dads and siblings with babies.

Let's make this an online TV/radio channel and magazine that caters to our interests. How many times have you read a magazine at a doctor's office or a friend's house and thought..."I don't do that, we don't eat that, that idea won't work for my family." This is an opportunity to create an online place that harmonizes with your LDS natural values.

Come join the party! Just go to treeoflifemothering.com and sign in. It's free! From now on, I will probably do most of my blogging there.

Extreme Homeschool Makeover

2010-04-15T15:05:00.000-07:00

I've always been a homeschooler (not while growing up, just with my children), but I went through a major homeschool makeover four years ago when I changed from the "conveyor belt" education model to "leadership education" or TJED. (See tjedonline.com if you need a primer on that.)

I have read the 30 page ebook offered at headgates.org about giving your children a classical education. This is one mom's interpretation of TJED and it is VERY THOUGHT-PROVOKING. I would appreciate all of you homeschooling moms reading it and giving me feedback. Keri, the author, basically says that if you set up your home in a certain way, you don't need to do any school, your children will just choose to study, and you won't need to buy any curriculum because they will just read classics a lot. This is TJED to the max. Keri compares children's natural progression to water. Just as a farmer can water a whole field with one skinny irrigation ditch by controlling the headgates, so can a child naturally flow to scholar phase if certain headgates (distractions, cheap thrills, and worldly conveyor-belt entertainment) are closed. I/m OK with that. That's how I have pretty much raised my children so far.

But here's the kicker. She says there will be no school materials in your home, the more you make your home like a home and less like a school. I am OK with no spelling textbooks or history textbooks (we haven't used those in a long time), but no math drill books or manipulatives or handwriting books until scholar phase? Even the DeMilles talk about having McGuffey readers and I know it's not their scholars reading those.

I went to a discussion about all of this Headgates stuff on Tuesday led by my friend Lara Gallagher. She has been mentored by Keri. See Lara's explanation of Keri's philosophy in her recent posts at lazyorganizer.com. I came away feeling invited to come out of my comfort zone. If I did everything Lara and Keri are saying to do this would be an extreme homeschool makeover. This is really getting off the conveyor belt ladies! They say to only have 15 toys total in your home, and no toys that have any "script" or pieces to them. So puzzles and "educational toys" are "bad." Keri also says it's OK to have movies (classics I presume) and the Wii, but no educational shows or audiobooks. You will have to read the ebook to understand her reasoning. She has rules for what toys and activities pass the test as to a proper headgate and what ones don't. They also say don't let your kids go play at friends' houses, unless the whole family goes to play and that Dad should be the only one who earns money, not mom or the kids, so as not to infringe on his role as provider. Lara has outlawed Cub Scouts in her home because it doesn't lead to true learning and accomplishing she says. That almost sounds good to me, I have to confess, since I lost my thrill for going to pack meetings after son #1 became a Webelo. With five sons, my Cub Scout days are a long row to hoe. Lara says the goal is to teach your children to find joy in real activities and real play from their imaginations, not pleasure in man-made activities and scripted toys.

This all sounds very lofty, joyful, and noble in theory. Liberating in a way too, to winnow my toys down. But also very painful and unnecessarily spartan. I like our Legos and Lincoln Logs, which Keri and Lara say are not proper toys. It also sounds very isolationist. Practically, homeschoolers are often perceived as weird and I wonder if they went the headgates direction they would be perceived as even more weird, when these little children proclaim at church that they can't play with such-and-such toys or got to a church activity because it is entertainment instead of learning. I don't want these children to "jump ship" when they are grown and leave the headgate philosophy so they won't be perceived as weird anymore. Just like kids who are forbidden sugar go gorge on it at the neighbors'. Already I perceive a little bit of an "us versus them" between some homeschooled children and the nonhomeschooled kids at church. If any of you homeschoolers out there have older children who are grown and borne great fruit raised by this headgate philosophy, please let me know.

So far I am pleased with how my children are turning out, especially my two scholars, ages 14 and 16, but I have to confess they have had lots of scripted toys (puzzles, Lincoln Logs and Legos, among others) and school materials before they became official scholars.

How Does Virtue Apply to Me Personally?

2010-04-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

OK, I know I risk offending some people...but here goes. It all started a few years ago. I read about Stephanie Meyer's book, Twilight, in the BYU Alumni Magazine, which we get since both my husband and I are alums. Read it here: magazine.byu.edu/?act=view&a=1972 Hmmm, sounds interesting, I thought. That's cool that she was "just a housewife" and has written a book and hit it big. I didn't give it much more thought. Then awhile later I noticed girlfriends in my ward talking about her book. Hmmm, do I want to read it now? No, I thought, it seems like brain candy and there are too many classics, aka, nourishing food for the mind, that I want to digest. I will pass the cotton candy in order to have organically grown steak from grass-fed cows.

Then, I visited with my girlfriend who is the editor of my book which I, promise, will come out this year. We had a blessingway for her third baby the night that one of Meyers' new volumes in the Twilight series came out. Despite being 39 weeks pregnant, this friend I will call Sara was off to Barnes and Noble, at midnight, after our bash was over, to get the latest copy. She confessed that the writing isn't that great, but the books are so addictive, she said. (So that is why she took so long to edit my book...I was competing with Twilight, not just her pregnancy. What does that say about my writing? Ouch!) Sara even called it "LDS pornography." Wow, strong words. I think I will stay away. This wasn't just cotton candy, it's being compared to poison. Hmmm.... My husband created quite a stir at a Cub Scout family camp in Idaho a few weeks later when he reported my conversation around the campfire amidst some Twilight fans.

Two months later, at a parents' training meeting for the commonwealth school I belong to, I started talking to Aneladee, the co-founder of the Commonwealth School philosophy. She said she was going to California soon to a TJED youth conference and would speak about "siren vs. beacon, vampire vs. knight." I quickly figured out what that meant. Sirens are females who draw others, especially, males, to evil. Beacons are females who draw others, especially males, to goodness. Vampires suck virtue from females, and knights defend virtue. Wow, what a great concept! I immediately wanted to hear more.

That dream is coming true! I found out however, that Aneladee got the concept from a mutual friend, Stephanie, and Stephanie has been working on a book about it. She has read the whole Twilight series and has studied the proper forms of the family. She feels it is her mission to teach these family roles, which are based on the proper roles of males and females as knights and beacons. She has a friend engrossed with Edward, the vampire in Twilight. She said she went to a birthday party for Edward with her friend and was disturbed to hear these women complaining about why their husbands aren't like Edward. This is so sad! A figment of a young mom's imagiination versus real flesh and blood men who are willing to die for their wives. This disturbs me too! I want to learn more! Stephanie and Aneladee will present this concept this coming Sunday at a special fireside that I have organized for youth ages 12 and up and their parents. it will be 7 PM, April 11, 2010, at the home of our friends, the Fabers, in Bountiful, Utah. Please email me (celestia_shumway@yahoo.com) for the address if you want to come.

This is the first in my series of firesides for parents and youth to focus on virtue. Our LDS Church Leaders are asking us to 1. return to virtue, and 2. learn as parents and children, from each other, in the home. That will happen in my family as we converse about what we learn from these talks from Sister Elaine Dalton about virtue and the recent General Conference and this fireside.

My goal is to get parents and youth to think, "How does virtue apply to me personally? If I am virtuous does that mean I should avoid reading certain books, even though they are tremendously popular? Does being virtuous affect what I wear, what I watch, listen to, and how I spend my time each day, especially with the glut of entertainment choices I have?" Let's get virtue out of the ethereal and get personal about it. This might be painful, I know, but it will be good for us.

A Glorious Easter

2010-04-06T08:59:00.000-07:00

Our Easter turned out to be family bonding and spiritual despite the stress. The stress in planning and the stress I had when I couldn't find the fish I had bought for the Easter dinner! I am the first to admit that I am not a perfect mother, homemaker, and holiday-memory-maker. Any holiday in general causes stress for moms if it involves any planning beyond the ordinary. Then to put General Conference on top of it means more stress, despite the huge blessings of General Conference. I had a wonderful, glorious, spiritual moment during the morning session. We were starting to sing "He is Risen" as a congregation and my eyes looked up from the notes I was taking and rested on a picture of the Savior I have here in my basement family room. I instantly felt the Spirit testify to me that Jesus is a real person, and that He does live again, that He is risen, even after dying to pay for our sins. Not only that but He cares about me and is watching over me.

Every time Conference rolls around I attempt to make Conference packets of puzzles for my under 12 years old children but it just didn't happen this time. So when my husband was scolding them for not being quiet during conference and not listening I scolded myself for not making packets to help keep them quiet. I was busy planning for Easter.

I got this idea from one of the email lists I subscribe to get plastic eggs and put a puzzle piece in each one and have an Easter egg hunt and then have the kids put the puzzle together during conference. So I found two 50 piece puzzles from the dollar store for my younger ones and a 500 piece puzzle for the big kids. No way was I hiding 600 eggs! I combined pieces. This also alleviated my stress of what to put in the eggs. I wanted to get "healthy" candy or make it using Caralee's recipe, but I didn't want to take the time to go to the health food store, because it is a bit of a drive, or take the time to make it. I just got a box of chocolate raisins and then used puzzle pieces and called it good. Maybe next year I will be so ahead of the game that I will get the petroleum-free jelly beans I heard about in the Feingold newsletter or actually make Caralee's healthy chocolate eggs.
I at least planned enough ahead that we dyed Easter eggs on Thursday and did our Saturday cleaning jobs on Friday. At least the kids did theirs, I was so busy driving people to their Friday homeschool activities that I didn't do my Saturday jobs.

So the glorious Easter weekend started with the missionary reunion for my husband Friday night. We go to these because they are a free date for us. Now that we have kids old enough to babysit the younger ones we go out on dates every weekend. My husband went to Finland on his LDS mission. It is always interesting to hear the speakers at the programs for these. I have to admit the whole reunion isn't this huge social hit for me since the only people I know are my husband and his mission president and his wife. Have you ever been to a reunion or a party where you hardly know anybody? OK, so my nursing baby and I had some fun when I went to nurse and I listened to my notes I have recorded on my cell phone from my current study of government and politics. Oops, I am starting to sound like an anti-social nerd here. Sorry. One of these times I am going to post all the fascinating things I am learning.

Anyway, I really enjoyed hearing from the Luthys, the couple who have been serving as temple president and matron of the Helsinki temple. Brother Luthy is married to Sister Luthy, who is a native of Finland. He compared her to Esther of the Bible, who was "raised for such a time as this," as she could direct the temple patrons to every place they needed to go, even the hospital if they were sick, since she is a native. She was a beacon to the Russian patrons, who asked her if she was a Russian. She inwardly cringed because she grew up not liking the Russians, but then she realized they meant it as a compliment and she would smile.
So this story got me thinking about the power of women and how we are often called to be bridges or interveners in the lives of our children, our husbands,or people in the sphere of our calling, like Esther or Sister Luthy was as a temple matron. Lots of food for thought there. We are often more immersed in the culture of our home and our neighborhoods than the men so we can do this. I have been learning in my constitution class about how the government's role is to protect the culture of the family. So here's another blog topic for another time...``

We felt nourished by Conference and my husband three of the older kids got to go in person to the Sunday PM session. I stayed home with my nursing baby and three others. (I loved hearing all the messages of the importance of teaching children in the home. You just know Joyce Kinmont of ldshea.org is going to have a heyday with this one!) I fixed a nice Jerusalem Easter dinner of lentils. It wasn't a perfect dinner by any means, we used tortillas for flat bread as I had used all my flat bread dough for cinnamon rolls that morning. I was going to serve fish as well but I couldn't find the fish that I had bought on Friday amidst all of my chauffeuring. Sometimes I feel like life homeschooling and homemaking with seven kids is so stressful that it will be a wonder if I make it through to my empty nester days with my brain intact. Must be time to increase my intake of omega-3s.

I listened to Truman Madsen on tape talk about the Savior's last week as I prepared the Easter dinner. I enjoyed hearing him tell the story of Neil Armstrong. He said that Neil became a Christian after he went to the moon. He went to the Holy Land afterwards. Truman was speaking about the place where they think the Upper Room was, where Jesus held the Last Supper. He said that Neil asked if those steps were where Jesus actually walked and he was told everyone believes they are as far as they can tell. Neil went over to the steps and reverently walked there and said he had more emotion about walking over those steps than he did about walking on the moon. Wow!

I shared that story over our Easter dinner and we also talked about Passover and unleavened bread. We read from Cousin Janet's book A Christ-centered Easter (see the post two times ago). Then my husband and I did our Family Executive Council and the kids cleaned up and went to bed (after a few not so subtle reminders from me to clean up and go to bed). It was a very meaningful Easter and Conference weekend. And I am so glad we got a break from the snow and hail! It hailed on April 1 as a nice Mother Nature April's Fool gift and this morning we woke up to a winter wonderland of snow six inches deep. That's spring in Utah for 'ya. I had a grand time creating my own little spring/renewal/Easter/spiritual feast of General Conference culture in my home here.

Homemade Easter Chocolates

2010-04-01T12:41:00.000-07:00

I haven't tried this recipe yet but these treats sound SOOO yummy. I got the recipe from my new girlfriend Caralee. I feel the Lord has blessed my hugely for bringing her into my life recently. Yes, I got to meet her in person after hearing about her from our mutual friend Shauna. Another dream come true! I am so blessed! I have been wanting to meet her for three or more years as she is even more into nutrition than I am...yes, this is a blog post for next week maybe.

Anyway, here is her recipe for homemade Easter chocolates in her words. If I make these I will definitely do the cocoa, not carob. I have had a hard time really getting into carob even though I grew up on the stuff. If I am going to make "chocolate" I want the real thing!

"One thing that we really enjoy doing is making our own homemade chocolate
(or carob) candies. We've picked up fun Easter chocolate molds (they're
really inexpensive) and make our own chocolate with individual mix-ins and
let them chill in the freezer for a little while, then pop them out and wrap
them in foil- and they really look authentic! You can make them as
sugar-free as you want, but our basic recipe is this:

*Basic Chocolate Recipe*

1 cup coconut oil
1 cup raw honey or ground sucanat in a mini coffee grinder (honey is
chewier, sucanat is more crunchy)
1 cup cocoa or carob powder (or a combo of the two)
1 teaspoon little vanilla (optional)

Melt on low heat, stirring constantly until well mixed. We divide our
chocolate at this time into smaller bowls and mix in whatever suits your
fancy or leave them plain- peanut butter, shredded coconut, coconut milk
powder, raisins, crispy nuts* (chopped or whole), a drop of peppermint or
orange oil, chopped dried fruit, homemade granola, etc. Pour into molds**
and set in freezer. Wrap in foil when set, if desired. Enjoy!

*Crispy nuts are nuts that have been soaked in purified water and Real Salt
overnight, then dehydrated until crisp. This recipe is found in Nourishing
Traditions and Eat Fat, Lose Weight for exact instructions, or I can email them
if you wish.
*If you don't have molds and do not want to purchase any, you can pour the
chocolate into a pyrex pie or casserole dish cut into squares when chocolate
is set, approximately 15 minutes.

Another really yummy treat that we reserve for very special occasions is my
homemade version of Almond Roca:

*Almond Roca*
*
*
1/3 cup chopped crispy almonds (or pecans)
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 stick butter
3/4 cup sucanat
*
*
1. 1/3 cup chopped almonds, put in an 8x8 baking dish and set aside.

2. Chop 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (from Good Earth or Whole Foods)
and set aside.

3. Melt 1 cup butter on low on stovetop. Add 3/4 cup sucanat and bring
temp up to medium and cook, stirring constantly until bubbly and mixed well
(a candy thermometer should show that the temperature has reached soft ball
stage, 240ºF). Pour hot toffee mixture over nuts and spread smoothly to
edges with a spatula. Sprinkle the chopped chocolate on top while the
toffee/nut mixture is still hot. Let the chocolate soften and melt, and
smooth it evenly with a spatula or knife. Sprinkle the top with a little
extra chopped almonds while the chocolate is still wet.

4. Place the pan in the freezer for 20 minutes to set the candy.

5. Remove from freezer and break apart, or cut into small squares with a
large sharp knife. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a
week.

Of course, this can be adjusted to be less sweet- and the chocolate can be
homemade, just break off chunks from the basic recipe above and use in place
of the chocolate chips."

I Finally Remembered and Prepared for Easter

2010-03-30T10:35:00.000-07:00

A Christ-Centered Easter: Day-By-Day Activities to Celebrate Easter Week by Janet Hales

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I finally remembered a few weeks ago and dug this book out. Every year in the past we dig it out on the Monday or Tuesday before Easter and then I remember, oh yeah, I was going to start this on Palm Sunday. Not only that but I was also going to start my spring cleaning weeks ago to get my home clean to harmonize with Christ's act of cleansing the temple before his atoning sacrifice and resurrection. So I have been dejunking somewhat and it feels good to get my home clean for Easter.

This is written by my husband's cousin, Janet Hilton Hales, and her husband. It has great ideas for what scriptures to read, and activities to do every day for the week before Easter with your family. I love the stories. At last, an LDS perspective on how to make Easter the highlight of your year!

Here are some of the other activities suggested:

-Learn an atonement hymn and resurrection hymn as a family
-Have a Jerusalem dinner on Easter Sunday with the foods eaten in Jesus' time
-Make oil lamps like those mentioned in the parable of the Ten Virgins
-Make Easter cookies which you place overnight in the oven (i.e. tomb) and then discover the next morning that they are empty or hollow
-Do a family service project
-Teach your children the doctrine of baptism for the dead by having a family treasure hunt with clues that teach about this doctrine (you get the clues from the book). The treasure, eternal life, is something sweet like ice cream.
-Tell the Easter story with small tokens like a rock, white cloth, thorn, nail
-Read Easter stories from this book. One is a personal story from Cousin Janet's sister, Cousin Lynne, about her son healing from a debilitating disease. You can find Easter stories in LDS Church magazines. Go through your old stash if you are a packrat like me or search online.
-Have an family testimony meeting on Easter Sunday when you share your testimonies of the risen Lord.

Cousin Janet recommends getting out the Easter baskets and candy on the first day of spring, which this year was two weeks ago. It gets tricky when the first day of spring and Easter coincide to the same weekend like they did two years ago. I prefer to have an Easter egg hunt and baskets on the Saturday before Easter. We get natural candy from the health food store and use those to fill plastic eggs. I emphasize to my children that the egg symbolizes new life and Jesus is the source of new life. After the hunt we watch LDS Church movies about Easter while we eat our candy, namely, The Lamb of God, and Finding Faith in Christ. Thursday I will post some healthy chocolate Easter candy recipes I got from my girlfriend Caralee!

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A Night Out With the Girls and a Renaissance of Virtue

2010-03-28T17:33:00.000-07:00

I took my baby son and oldest daughter to a church meeting last night that was for young women and their mothers. So baby son had a night out with the girls. Wanting to have a fun, social, and inspirational night with my daughter and some kindred spirits (a friend of my daughter's and her mother), I arranged to meet them at their chapel and then go to their place after the meeting for ice cream, which I offered to bring. (Haagen Dazs- yummy! All of my listening to Sally Fallon interviews on the Internet has turned me on to real cream. "Eat Fat, Lose Weight" is one of the titles of her book. Sounds heavenly to me! As a nursing mother I feel like I am always hungry but the hunger is less constant now that I am eating more animal fat. My next step is to move on up to homemade ice cream made of raw cream, not pasteurized.)

That's one thing all this Leadership Education has taught me, that if I want something, I get to create it. And why not? Why sit and wait for others, like my daughter's YW presidency, to organize a social after the broadcast? Last year we got to go to the Conference Center and hear President Monson in person speak to the young women. Wow! I felt a witness from the Holy Ghost that he is God's prophet and mouthpiece. Last year I was pregnant and knew that this year I would not be able to go to the Conference Center to see the meeting in person, as I don't like to leave my nursing babies for very long and they don't allow babies.

The speakers inspired me. More on that later. This morning I marveled that I only had to take my baby out once during the whole meeting, not because he was fussy, but to change his diaper. I was wondering about why that happened and that it occurred to me as to why. It's because I felt free to nurse him right there in the chapel, since all the lights were off so the satellite broadcast of the meeting could be seen on the screen. (It was the Young Women's General Broadcast for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. See lds.org) I used to nurse occasionally in church meetings just to make a point that I felt that a woman should be able to nurse wherever she has a right to be (I still feel that way). But sometimes it is just easier to nurse in the nursing mother's room where I can kick back and relax and not worry about the baby popping off, exposing me. I also don't have to worry about my baby's noisy slurping bothering people. (My nurslings tend to sound like little piglets.) I don't do the blanket thing as the baby pulls it off after he's about three months old. So it was nice to sit in the meeting and nurse and not have to walk out and find the nursing mother's room in a strange building.

Anyway, it was fun to be at a chapel in a more rural setting where I could see a tractor across the street when I looked out the glass door of the building. Sister Elaine Dalton was on fire! She continued her theme of "Return to Virtue." This talk last night must be Part III. Part I was a year ago, and Part II was last fall at a CES fireside. She made comments that I wish had been made by Church leaders when I was a girl, about how virtue is the best beauty secret, and that virtue is the only source of eternal beauty. She told the story of getting to meet the prophet David O. McKay's wife in Huntsville, Utah. (I love Huntsville-- that's where we go ice skating and go to visit my friend KeeNan. We also got to meet Senator Bennett at the McKay home in Huntsville two years ago. I won't say any more about Bennett in this time of political volatility.) President McKay called his wife "my queen." Sister Dalton said she was a queen because she had lived years of virtue. Her hair was gleaming white and her eyes sparkled like jewels, all because of her inner virtue.

I love this Renaissance of Virtue! It just wasn't emphasized when I was young. My son has a T-shirt he bought from our Commonwealth School that says on the front "Want freedom?" When I first saw the shirt I thought, "Yeah, I want freedom. Of course, who doesnt'?" On the back of the shirt, it says, "Get virtue." That's not the popular answer as to how to get freedom but it's true. You can see and buy the shirt at getvirtue.com. Why is virtue so important? Because, as Sister Dalton has pointed out, virtue actually means "strength," as the Latin root word is virtus which means strength. We can only be strong from protection from the Lord and that protection comes from being good. I have felt motivated to organize some firesides for my youth and their peers that focus on virtue. When we are good, or virtuous, more freedom comes to us, and when we are bad, our choices become limited and we have less freedom.

I have learned that Montesquieu taught hundreds of years ago that the best form of government is a republic. In a republic, the goal of education is to instill virtue. So it's no coincidence that in this time of political and economic trouble, Sister Dalton feels inspired to urge a return to virtue. In her talk last fall she stated that our economic and the physical upheavals in our world come from a lack of virtue. Our government is supposed to be a republic, according to the Constitution. Our Constitution is ordained by God for the protection of all flesh, according to the Doctrine and Covenants. Only as we are virtuous will we save the republic. People are mad enough at the government, as evidenced by the huge turnout at the caucus meetings, that hopefully we will start being good and turn this country around!

A Revolutionary Children's Book on the Revolution

2010-03-24T09:01:00.000-07:00

Pirates...a petticoat loaned to a boyfriend so he can complete a dangerous mission...a young man who gets caught up in a spy ring and then helps two lovers betray their country...a sneaky guy who pretends to be a peddler so he can case the joint...doing acts in the name of Jehovah...a general who is more loyal to his country than to his own plantation. Sound like intriguing historical fiction for adults right? Well, it's not fiction, it's all true, and it's for children. It's all part of the history of our own country in the Revolutionary War. Best of all, it's all told in a history book written for children.

This is the coolest book about the Revolutionary War ever! It's called King George, What Was His Problem? and I give it five stars. (I read about it in the Chinaberry catalog. Go to chinaberry.com and request one. I have been getting that catalog for over ten years now. I read the book reviews in it and then get the books from the library, both for me and for my children. I have read so many great books suggested to me from Chinaberry. If your library doesn't have the book, you can request it through interlibrary loan. This is one book that after reading, I want to buy and have in my permanent collection.)

This is a masterpiece you probably won't find used in a public school classroom. It is just plain too revolutionary and politically incorrect. It was written by Steven Sheinkin. Steve is a reformed textbook writer who now writes books that kids actually can't wait to read. One of the first stories in this book is an example. It's a story that appeals to little boys but would horrify sedate citizens. The story goes something like this (I read it last month and my memory might be a little fuzzy): the Sons of Liberty made an effigy of a tax collector for Britain who lived in New England. After the Stamp Act, these patriots cut off the effigy's head and sent it to the tax collector at his office, while they were having a bonfire outside burning the effigy.

My husband has an uncle who fascinates me. He once made the remark that the Sons of Liberty were terrorists. When I first heard this I thought, "So they threw in a bunch of tea into the Boston Harbor. Big deal." But after reading this book I totally believe the terrorist part. They committed violent acts, more than just the dumping of the tea.

Anyway, I loved this book! I read McCullough's 1776 book a few summers ago. That was hard reading. If I had read this book first my mind would have been in a much better place to understand 1776. I passed the AP American history test in high school, but I was taught history mostly the conveyor belt way, of learning dates and names, regurgitating on a test for credit, then forgetting most of it. Credit, then forget it. From this book, I finally understand the whole "one if land, two if by sea" thing, the geography of Boston and the Boston Harbor, and why the Battles at Trenton and Yorktown were so important. I love the maps included in this book!

This is the way to learn history, by learning the stories of the humans involved. That way we involve emotion, and it's the emotion that cements the dates and events into our brains and hearts. These humans were usually religious, they weren't perfect, and they were liberty loving and clever and petty and heroic. Thanks to Sheinkin, we can hear these stories. He has written a book about the War Between the States (as a Georgian told my mother-in-law who went on an LDS mission there, in her southern drawl, "There was nothing civil about it!") that I can't wait to read, and also one on the wild west. See stevesheinkin.com. He "tells you everything your schoolbooks didn't!"

Passionate Teaching

2010-03-22T22:33:00.000-07:00

Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56 by Rafe Esquith

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
this book is so inspiring! Esquith is one dedicated teacher. I wish every kid had someone like him for a teacher. I thought it was interesting that Esquith uses some of the great keys of teaching that Oliver DeMille teaches, namely, use classics, not textbooks, and inspire, not require. He also uses more than just the standard lecture environment that most people are so familiar with in school. He uses simulations by having his classroom be an economic society with each desk as a property for the students to buy or rent. These kids are all poor and come from minority families in downtown L.A. Yet with his economic simulation and creative teaching methods they learn how to manage money and excel academically. Many of his students have gone on to Ivy League schools.

He has figured out so many fun ways of teaching math (marcycookmath.com), Shakespeare (they put on a play every year), writing, science, economy, geography and history (they go on a trip to Washington D.C. every sumemr) and music (each student gets a guitar and they play rock music). I read this over a family vacation in Palm Springs and couldn't wait to read it every day. This book will leave you feeling good! see rafeesquith.com for more info.

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It Was a Blast

2010-03-21T18:49:00.000-07:00

You know how sometimes you read mommy blogs and you think, wow, your life seems to be the parental nirvana suburban life with perfect children. The picture some moms paint seems blissfully materialistic. I feel tempted after reading them to think that being a mom is all about coming up with entertainment and novelties for children such as great clothes, parties, movies, trips and toys.

Well, you won't find that here. I love fashionable clothes, parties, trips and toys as much as the next gal but I want to talk about more than that. Here I like to write about the great books that I am reading as well as with the family, the great people we get to meet and know in our neighborhood, church, and community, the great dinnertime conversations we have, the great discussions we have in my Sunday School and Relief Society meetings, and the great times we have at homeschooling conferences. I also throw in a little about about the problems we encounter just to show the human, messy side of my life.

We went to the Thomas Jefferson Education Forum yesterday in Salt Lake. I can't wait to write a blog post about each amazing speaker I heard. This is the first time we took our new 12 year-old to a TJED conference. It was my husband, my three oldest children, my baby and I. Grandma generously babysat the other three kids. At the last minute, the night before, I was asked to fill in for a volunteer at the registration desk who had to back out at the last minute to help care for his goat's brand new kids. (I'll refrain from making jokes about homeschoolers and goats and how they seem to go together.) I already had a ticket to the forum in exchange for volunteering for the Family Ball in the evening. But with this extra volunteering I was able to get a HUGE discount off all of the recordings of the talks. I can't wait to get them all as downloads for my iPod. Can you see more blog posts about all these talks coming? Stay tuned...

I went to bed at 1 AM the night before after convincing my daughter that we should give up fixing her dress for the ball that we had miscommunicated about. (lesson for next year- if she says "Yes, I could wear that," when I suggest a dress she already has to wear, but hasn't worn in a long time and seems new to me, she really means, "Um, no I am planning on getting a dress a few days before the ball and changing the sleeves, which will involve lots of hand sewing and tears since the sewing machine is broken." So much for my previous blog post about how much fun and what a great boding time it is for mothers and daughters to prepare for the ball together.)

We got up at 4 AM to get to the Forum by 6 AM, dressed in Sunday best and ready to volunteer (4 of us) and fill our minds with nuggets of truth. It was so fun to help at the registration desk like I did last year and visit with my friends Emily Clawson, Brandi Palmer, Michele Smith, Emily Satterthwaite, and Jeniece Sloan. I got to go to a few classes and say hi to so many of my friends. I had a chance to talk with Stephen Palmer, of the Center for Social Leadership. ( I got to meet and chat with James Ure in person, who is the headmaster of Williamsburg Academy , which is where I want my scholars to attend in the fall. It's a cool school that uses the Internet for scholars to attain a leadership education. I got to eat lunch with Diann Jeppson, Kelli Poll, Rachel DeMille, Michele Smith, Heather Burton, Leslie Householder and her husband Trevan, and Rachel Keppner and her husband, by sitting at two different tables for two different plates of food. That was fascinating conversation!

I felt inspired to revamp my closet of learning games and manipulatives so that it has more of a Mary Poppins magic feeling. Thanks to Mary Ann Johnson, the closet mentor for that. See majcoach.blogspot.com. I also felt a call from Rachel Keppner (to spend more time with my children, doing things that only a mother can do for them.

Then I got to help with the ball registration. Actually my son and husband filled in for me most of the time because my four-year-old daughter threw a fit in the car on the way to the ball from Grandma's house and refused to get into her pretty dress. I descended into the dungeon of the parking garage under the SLC Hilton Hotel to coax her to eat her dinner (a banana- she refused to eat at Grandma's house) and get her dressed in the car. I never did changed into my own ball clothes after the escapade with my daughter or do my hair up like I had planned. I was too tired to dance since my baby had hardly napped all day and we stayed too late. We finally came home, after waiting eternally in the dungeon for my 14 year-old daughter to appear after supposedly being summoned by her brother.

After we got home, my son threw up on his brother's futon mattress. It was past midnight. My husband and I felt like zombies as we stripped the heavy mattress of the sheets (he) and cleaned the floor (I) and then collapsed into bed at 1 AM. (Keep in mind I had had three hours of sleep the night before and had been schlepping my darling, large infant boy around all day. In the sling, but still, he gets heavy.) It was just a reminder that even on the best, most exciting, inspiring and elegant of days, you deal with problems and do work. That's life!

2010-03-17T14:37:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day! We celebrated by reading about St. Patrick in our ancient encyclopedia, which hails from the 1960s. This reading brought up the topics of the Catholic church, the Reformation, the shamrock and the trinity, and missionary work.

A fun picture book with an Irish theme is Fiona's Luck, by LDS author Teresa Bateman. It is a darling story about a girl who outwits a king who is trying to horde the leprechauns' luck. Teresa is a children's librarian turned author. She grew up in a big family and loved to read and tell stories. She went to Ricks College and BYU. She has some other picture books with Irish themes, like The Ring of Truth and Harp of Gold. I can't wait to read them all to my children.

Put on Your Dancing Shoes

2010-03-16T05:42:00.000-07:00

I once got to hear Oliver and Rachel DeMille speak about the remnancy of today's culture. This is the feeling we sometimes get that we are the only ones seeking for what is good and wholesome. Oliver explained that we overcome this by reaching out and creating a tribe and community. He then said that the best way to bind a community is to go dancing, just like the dancing traditions in ancient tribes. It's amazing what happens to people as the night goes on and the music keeps up with a dancing beat. People get relaxed and start showing a side of themselves they don't show every day. Differences of opinion, petty grievances and unfounded prejudices melt away when we get all glamourous and have fun with our neighbors. (Can you hear the title track from Footloose coming on?)

I have been so thrilled that in the past five years that I've been involved in the homeschooling community since moving here, we've been to several formal balls. My son and daughter's ballroom dance teacher puts on a holiday ball every year between Christmas and New Year's. Last year one of my homeschooling girlfriends commented the next day at a homeschooling moms' luncheon "Wow, I've never seen Johnny do that, that was amazing," to Johnny's mom.

It's a lot of fun for moms and daughters to plan together what they are going to wear and how they are going to style their hair. Every year in the past I have felt bad that I haven't taken much thought or time to plan with my daughter and left her to her own devices and the results are not as elegant as I end up wanting. After last year's Family Ball at the TJED forum I thought, "Next year will be different, I will take some time to learn to do something new with her hair." So this year I remembered and had the mom of one of her commonwealth school classmates come over to teach us how to do updos. Maybe I will post the pictures of our beautiful hair that Amy styled up soon.

Going to a ball reminds me of something out of Pride and Prejudice, Little Women, and Cinderella. When I was young, dances at church and school were very disappointing. They were more like "stands" with most kids standing around talking. I always had this fantasy that I would walk into the ball like Cinderella or Drew Barrymore in "Ever After," dazzle everybody, and get swept off my feet by a dashing Prince Charming at the ball. Well, that never happened. When I saw the dance scene in Pride and Prejudice with Kiera Knightley I thought, "Now that looks fun! That's something I wish I had been able to attend as a young woman!" Lots of elegance and lots of heart-pumping fun all mixed together.

I am so happy that people like Diann Jeppson, Diane Hopkins of Latter-day Family Resouces (ldfr.com) and Tricia Leslie organize formal balls to provide an alternative to "stands." They ask instructors to come and teach the youth how to actually do something besides the dreaded moving from one foot to the other side to side. These kids actually learn how to waltz and fox trot. At the Family Ball coming up at the TJED Forum, there is a live band. The big ballroom is where most people congregate, and then a smaller room offers instruction throughout the night. IT's a TON of fun! Even my rowdy little boys love it. I hope to see some of you there. Come even if you don't homeschool. Come even if you don't like to dance just so you can visit with me. It's this Saturday, March 20, from 6:30 to 11:30 PM at the SLC Hilton downtown. Go to tjedmarketplace.com to register. See you there!

Another Dream Come True

2010-03-12T05:17:00.000-08:00

A lot of people, when asked to write something substantial, meaning something more than a Facebook status update or a shopping list, think, ugh, no thanks. That sounds as much fun as hitting my head against a filing cabinet. Then if they are asked to teach kids how to write they would rather take a ride inside a cement mixer. That's how popular writing and teaching writing are for most of us. I have met someone who not only enjoys writing, he loves teaching kids how to write. He loves teaching kids to write so much that he would rather go around doing that and speaking about it than actually writing.

I met Andrew Pudewa four years ago through my girlfriend Becky. Andrew owns his own publishing company called Institute for Excellence in Writing. See excellenceinwriting.com. It sells resources, many created by Andrew, on how to teach kids to write. My two oldest children took his High School Intensive Essay Workshop last spring and enjoyed it. I thought it was superb and wished I had been able to take such a class when I was their age to prepare for the ACT.

I have oodles of female kindred spirits. Andrew is one of the few male kindred spirits I have. I got to sell his books at a booth for the UTCH Convention four years ago. (UTCH stands for Utah Christian Homeschoolers.) That's because Becky, the Utah distributor of his materials, wanted to go to the TJED Forum, which was the same day. This is before I really converted to the TJED philosophy of education. Normally she would have been the one to be at his booth. (The whole story of my experience at the UTCH convention could be another post. I felt like a spy among all these evangelical Christians. They were all friendly and it was a great experience for a Utah Molly Mormon like me. My only previous experience of being among so many non-Mormons was when I went to second and third grades in upstate New York.)

Anyway, I immediately liked Andrew. We have many common interests. He has studied and taught the Suzuki method. That's something I've always wanted to do. He has also been a teacher at the Institute for the Achievement of Human Potential. (See glenndoman.com or iahp.org) That means he has studied how the brain works and how to make your babies and kids smarter. More than once, LDS Church President Monson has, in General Conference, referred to Glenn Doman's studies about how much little children are capable of learning. I've read Glenn Doman's books and have some of his recommended Bits of Intelligence on CD to flash in front of my budding proteges.

I've always wanted to take Doman's courses at the IAHP that Andrew has taken. But that would involve leaving a nursing baby for a week which would damage the baby's brain more than I would be helping. Andrew also owned and ran a preschool. That's something I've fantasized about too. We are both into Leadership Education. We both homeschool and have large families. We are both Christians, but of different denominations, and so we've had some interesting conversations about that.

I have several of his talks on CD. Whenever I would listen to these, I would think, "let's get him to come speak at the TJED Forum." I suggested that to him and to Diann Jeppson, founder of the Forum. Every year was the same, "no he can't come, he's already booked." But this year, he is coming! I am so excited! He is teaching kids how to write essays for the ACT and SAT exams on Friday March 19. Then on Saturday March 20, he's teaching parents how to teach kids to write, especially boys who just want to build forts all day. (I have three of those, what a fun challenge.) You can to tjedmarketplace.com (click on "events" to find out more and register.

So one of my dreams is coming true. Leslie Householder teaches that when pursuing success, you can attract more success, even if it seems like you are failing, by framing your present negative experiences in relative terms. In other words, take a step back and look at the big picture. The little bumps in the road don't look so bad. They especially don't look so bad when you compare them to experiences like say the handcart pioneers or Holocaust prisoners. That's the Law of Relativity.

So I'm thinking, OK, the dog got hit by a car last year. The surgery to fix her set us back financially. All around finances have been bad for us. I still have the same 30 pounds to lose and a car that doesn't have enough seatbelts for all of us, or a kitchen like I want or a big home. My book, Tree of Life Mothering, still isn't done and I still have the same obstacles to getting it out. But those are just minor bumps. I have soooo many things to be grateful about. I am grateful that the dog got better, extended family helped pay for the surgery (thanks Mary), my house hasn't flooded or burned down, my baby is here, cute, fat and happy, and all my children are healthy and happy, and that Andrew is coming to speak. Leslie is speaking too, and that was another dream/suggestion that I gave to Diann, two years ago. My life is great and it's getting GREATER so hooray!

Parents' Choice in Education

2010-03-10T05:30:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago after having some prayer and mentor sessions with my daughter, we decided that it was time to drop some of her classes in her homeschooling. We had decided last spring for my son to take Open High School. Two of the big draws were that he could do BYU independent study through it and that he would get his own laptop for the school year. Open High is the first Internet-based charter high school in Utah. See openhighschool.org. After we heard that one of my daughter's friends would be doing it, we decided to let her try it too. After all, when you are off the conveyor-belt, it doesn't matter if she really isn't high school age, being only 13 at the time. I have to admit, getting her own laptop was probably the real reason she wanted to do it so much.

She did well, and got A's, but then after Christmas she added some more classes to her homeschooling bag, like Pyramid Project (see thelemi.com), classical acting, ballroom dance, and mock trial. This is all in addition to her regular math course, LDS seminary, and her Leadership Education-based girls scholar academy. I was reading in the TJED for Teens (tjedforteens.com) book about how a parent-mentor is supposed to help the mentee be real about time requirements for projects they commit to. I immediately knew I had been lacking in this area for my daughter and needed to gently remind her that she was taking on too much.

The upshot of this is that she finally decided to quit Open High School, at least for this year. The biggest reason was that they didn't follow the "dual enrollment" policy of regular public schools. She couldn't take one or two classes, which we thought she could handle, Open High said she had to take four. (This whole story is worthy of another post.) So I had to return the laptop. That meant a trip to downtown SLC. It was eye-opening to find out that Open High shares office space with an organization called "Parents Choice in Education." At first I thought, how great that there's a place you can go to learn more about your educational choices for your children, to learn about an alternative to public schools.

But then after more reflection, i realized this is a sad commentary on our society. We are so disconnected as a community at the grassroots level that we need an office to tell us about our choices for educating our children. Yes, public schools are a choice, or resource, but they are not the only choice. Why don't more parents know this?

The word is starting to get out, especially thanks to the TJED movement. Yes, your children are yours to educate, they are not the state's. All parents should know that when it comes to education, you have lots of options. No, you don't have to homeschool, you shouldn't feel forced to homeschool, and there are options besides the neighborhood public school. It's important to ponder the idea about how much government should be involved in education. Glen Beck has a whole chapter about education in his book Arguing With Idiots that I recommend to every parent. He points out that the federal government has no authority given in the Constitution to be over education of children. So can we just nix No Child Left Behind? After all, whose plan does that sound like?

He also asks why it is that parents are supposed to enroll their kids in the public school they live the closest to. Why not allow public schools to have to compete for students' public school dollars just like businesses have to compete for customers' dollars? Competition breeds excellence. That's why we have such amazing high-tech gadgets like cell phones, computers, and iPods, and why they keep getting cheaper every year. I love that the charter school movement and homeschooling are giving regular public schools some kind of competition. It's about time.

If you would like to learn more about your educational options then read A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille. We don't need an office for parents' choices in education, we just need to read more as parents and ask questions and create more community.

Homeschooling isn't awful, incredibly hard, and socially backwards as people make it out to be. You can still have a life when you homeschool. In fact, you actually have more of a life! You meet some really fun people and read cool books and go to neat places. You create your own schedule, not the schedule of a school district's. That's what the TJED movement is all about, creating your own schedule based on what you want to learn as a woman, and what you want to help your children to learn. It is hard, but it's worth it, and even fun LOTS of times!

In Relief Society the lesson from Gospel Principles was recently about Freedom to Choose. I had to leave during part of it to take sick kids home, but I was going to mention that freedom to choose applies to all areas of life, including our children's education. Why do we force children to sit at desks when they are five when they should have the freedom to run and play and work along side their parents? LDS educator Neil Flinders wrote a book called Teach the Children, an agency approach to education. DeMille was mentored by Flinders and his book is the non-LDS version for the masses.

Come to the TJED Forum in SLC on March 19-20 at the Hilton Hotel to learn more about choices in education. LDS author Brad Wilcox (bradwilcox.com) is speaking on the 19th, as well as someone from the Arbinger Institute. Some amazing speakers are speaking on the 20th too, like Kelli Poll, my homeschooling mentor, and Lara Gallagher of lazyorganizer.com fame. Come even if you don't homeschool just because it's so much fun to learn. This is for all parents, not just homeschoolers! We won't force you to sign any commitment form to homeschool. See tjedmarketplace.com for more info. If you can't come, you can buy downloads of the talks at the same web site, as well as talks from past years. I hope to see some of you there!

Discovering Christ in All Things

2010-03-05T16:32:00.000-08:00

My rating: five out of five stars
For all of you James Ferrell groupies...a book review of his latest and greatest...
Ferrell amazes me with his scholarly ability to keep track of the details of so many characters in the Old Testament. He has such a great mind for picking up on symbols and linking them to the Savior. In this book he shows how at least 15 or so characters are key similitudes of the Savior Jesus Christ because of their traits that are similar to Christ's. Appendix A sums all that up. He also lists the ancient temple, the House of Israel, and the trait of wisdom as symbolic of Jesus and why. No way could all of this come about by random. The way all of these hidden symbols point to Christ testify of a God designing it this way to testify of His son Jesus Christ. The chapter on the use of chiasm in the Bible and the chiastic history or the earth was cool as well.

His study of Abigail in this book actually led him to write the Peacegiver, a book he is probably the most famous for.

The concluding paragraph was my favorite, "The story of Christ's life and the history of His gospel speak to us from every verse of scripture. This is the hidden testament of Christ, that He lives, and that He has prepared the way that we might live as well. May we like the disciples of old, discover his life and gospel more fully, so that we might come more fully to Him, and be blessed with life and the 'great joy' He promises to those who follow him."

If you've read his other books like the Peacegiver and the books from the Arbinger Institute, youre gonna love this. I found a cool talk by Brother Ferrell that he gave at SVU, the only private LDS liberal arts college. He tells 3 fun stories of his own self-deceptions. One even happened not far from my home along I-15. I love his ability to sympathize with the human condition and explain the stories from the scriptures to point us all to Christ. It's at svu.edu/mp3/2008-06-06-james-ferrell.mp3.

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Happy Birthday America!

2010-03-04T07:14:00.000-08:00

No, it's not the fourth of July, it's March 4. This is actually America's birthday. How many of us know this? I learned this from listening to Stephen Pratt at libertyandlearning.org. I heartily recommend his site and DVDS. I have learned so much about history and government from his site.

According to wikipedia.org:

"On September 17, 1787, the Constitution was completed, followed by a speech given by Benjamin Franklin, who urged unanimity, although the Convention decided that only nine states were needed to ratify. The Convention submitted the Constitution to the Congress of the Confederation, where it received approval according to Article 13 of the Articles of Confederation. Once the Congress of the Confederation received word of New Hampshire's ratification, it set a timetable for the start of operations under the new Constitution, and on March 4, 1789, the government began operations."

This new government was a republic of republics, a confederation of state republics. Despite popular belief, it is not a democracy. That's one thing I learned not from my high school AP government class, but from my own studies as a homeschooling mom in my "you, not them" studies. I recently had a HUGE AHA! moment relating to my study of Montesquieu and republics. I will be writing some time soon about that. Stay tuned!

I Learn So Much From Other Homeschooling Moms

2010-03-02T07:03:00.001-08:00

Gospel Principles by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

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Last weekend, I got to spend some time with a bunch of homeschooling moms at a moms' retreat. It seems that moms' retreats have become all the rage lately. I've been to three in the past six months since my baby was born, and I missed one. But before I blog about that, I have to write about the lunch I had with the moms of the North Star Scholars Commonwealth School a week ago. (If you don't know what a commonwealth School is, go to thelemi.com.) I wasn't going to go because it was my son's birthday and I had SOOOO much to do to get ready, but I reasoned, I have to drive my son over to the house of the lunch anyway, so he can take his speech and debate class, and I have to eat lunch anyway, and I need a spiritual boost. (I'm not going to blog about the birthday party because I basically promised awhile ago that my blog wasn't going to be the typical mommy blog that is a bragfest about what we got for birthdays and Christmas.)

Joyce Kinmont, homeschooling pioneer and founder of the LDS homeschooling group LDSHEA (see credits Oliver DeMille, founder of the Thomas Jefferson Education movement, with getting moms to study the classics. She says it's such a beautiful thing. As moms study the classics, kids can't help but have some of it rub off them right? And the bonus? Some of it rubs off on other homeschooling moms. And I'm the lucky recipient.

Some classics rubbed off on me at this lunch. First, Karianne shared that she had taught the previous Sunday her Relief Society lesson, #3 from the Gospel Principles book, "Jesus Christ Our Chosen Leader." She remarked that the lesson emphasized that we each chose Jesus to be our leader in the premortal world. One other mom, Kathy, said "Oh I know those words for the lessons must be chosen so carefully." Karianne then said, "Yes...it's just like in Montesquieu where he says that there are only two types of government...those that involve force and those that involve choice."

Wait, it says that in Montesquieu? I want to read him now. My AP US History teacher in high school mentioned him, that his book, The Spirit of the Laws was the foundation of the separation of powers in our Constitution but that's all I knew. We used a textbook in that class and not classics so I didn't know that cool exciting tidbit of force vs. choice in government. I came home and found that the Spirit of the Laws is going to be added to Librivox.org's collection so then I will be able to listen to it on my iPod. (Oops, I just checked again and it is in French! Oh well! Guess I will have to read it while I am nursing.) I am taking James Ure's Constitution Made Simple class and he refers to Montesquieu too, and how prescient he was. Oh, I am excited to study his works!

Somehow, we then got on the topic of Booker T. Washington and his book, Up From Slavery. (You know how a group of people talking can easily get off on tangents.) Karianne shared how cool it was that Booker had desperately wanted a hat to wear to school. So his mom sewed him one. All the kids made fun of him in that hat. But Booker had such a high moral character that instead of feeling low he felt cool! He felt it an honor that his mom was not about impressing other kids but about doing what she could to fulfill his desires and at the same time not go into debt to please him. So instead of borrowing money to get him a hat, she made it out of what she had at home.

WOW! That really got me thinking. Am I doing things for my kids or in my life that give my kids or others the wrong impression? What do I need to change to be more virtuous like Booker's mom? Now I want to read that book too. Librivox.org has it too, so I can look forward to listening to that while I do my chores. Kathy said it was such a good book that it is chockfull of gems like that and she read it twice. I love learning from these amazing moms. Thank you Kathy and Karianne.

Ahh, Peace and Quiet.

2010-02-24T01:40:00.000-08:00

A while ago at our adult meeting for stake conference, one of the members of the stake presidency compared himself to Winnie the Pooh and assigned the other members with character roles from the Hundred Acre Wood. I remember hearing a speaker years ago at church use the same characterization of herself and others in a talk she gave.

I have to admit, if I were to pick my character, I would be Rabbit. I tend to get grouchy like Rabbit does. I think this comes from my grandpa, a no-nonsense guy who did not tolerate horseplay. He enjoyed good wholesome fun, after all he and my grandma did square dancing for years and even went to a square dancing convention in Denver, but he was impatient with silliness and wastefulness. I find myself being the same way.

This came clearly to my mind recently when I took my children ice skating. My friend KeeNan lives in Huntsville, Utah, and she had told me about the great ice skating place (it's not really a pond or a rink, more of a "slab") the city has up there. Anyone can go, it's at the city park, and you can rent ice skates from across the street at the little restaurant for only $2.

When we arrived and I gazed upon the serene, quiet, frozen wonderland, devoid of noisy human activity I found myself quoting Rabbit in my head from a Disney Winnie-the-Pooh movie that I've seen 100 times, because we've had it since my oldest was 2. "Ahhh, peace and quiet, and no Tiggers!" Rabbit says this at the beginning of a scene while he (is Rabbit a he?) is blissfully gliding on the ice. Unbeknownst to him, he is about to be pounced by a gleeful Tigger. Tigger simply wants to say hello and have fun, and that's his way of doing it.

I love Tigger's bounciness, but at the same time it annoys me. As I watched my children descend upon the ice and discover the joy of skating, each in his or her own way, I wished we could do this more often. So many simple joys in nature await us, sledding and skating and hiking, if we can create the time, away from the distractions, the Tiggers of our life. These are the electronic forms of entertainment that compete for my children's leisure time. They are fun and exciting like Tigger, but can also get annoying. (Don't worry, this is not a long post on the evils of TV or video games. I'll save that for another time. My point is something else.)

I expressed to KeeNan my joy at being able to bring my children to come ice skate. We had entered something fresh out of Little Women, complete with church bells ringing. It seemed so old-fashioned and charming. (While we were there at the ice the bells on the LDS church across the street rang to mark the hour.) I told her that every city should have a place to ice skate like that and I wondered aloud what it would take. This ice skating place was nothing fancy. It wasn't even an official rink, just a huge place with the snow plowed off to the edges and a slab of ice put down. The walls around the "rink" were walls of snow.

She told me that all it takes is volunteers who are willing to put in the time to create it and maintain it. Someone to plow the snow. Someone to get a fire truck and spray lots of water so it can freeze into a fun place to skate. That got me wondering, what is it in my home, not even in my community, that I could create if I just volunteered? What fun, charming, nonelectronic classic joys of yesteryear and nature can I create for my children and my family if I have the spirit of volunteerism? It's definitely something to think about.

KeeNan is a great example to me of this, both in her family and in reaching out to her community. She could have kept quiet about the ice skating but she sent an email out inviting all her friends to come skate and use her home as a pit stop to get hot cocoa. She also collects ice skates from D.I. (a second-hand store) and loans them out to her friends. She had enough, plus even a hockey stick and puck from D.I. (much to the delight of my eight-year-old) that she outfitted my whole crew. We didn't have to spend a dime to go ice skating and it was soooo much fun. Thank you KeeNan. May the spirit of volunteerism and old-fashioned fun revive in our families and communities. That's all it takes to recapture the pure, old-fashioned classic joys of nature. The peace and quiet afforded when life was simpler and safer.

My Friend Tara's Cooking Blog: a Godsend and a Dream Come True

2010-02-18T21:43:00.000-08:00

Aack, this week involved the baking of two cakes, one for the Blue and Gold Banquet for Cub Scouts and the other for my son's birthday on Friday. For years my family has been afflicted by my desire to bake a healthy birthday cake, one with whole grain flour and whole sweeteners. Sometimes they are passable, other times they taste like cardboard or play-doh. Not that I've ever tasted cardboard or play-doh, I can just imagine what they taste like. My mother and husband are the only ones who really like them, because they don't have a strong sweet tooth. My kids will pass over my passable cakes to eat the cake from a box cakes that their aunts bring to family birthday parties for their cousins.

Well, passable and cardboard cakes are a thing of the past. I discovered that my friend Tara has a cooking blog. This is the answer to my prayers and dreams! That's because this is no ordinary cooking blog (I've been to a lot and they are usually too full of fake food or too raw foody for me.) I've been wanting to find a mentor with recipes that a real family likes to eat based on Nourishing Traditions, the cookbook by Sally Fallon. That cookbook teaches that the most wholesome foods are those that involve whole, real food, including some animal products from animals that were pasture fed or cage free. Fallon teaches that grains should be eaten the way our ancestors ate them, after being soaked and or sprouted, to get maximum nutrition.

The problem with her book is that, with over 200 pages, it is so overwhelming. Enter Tara. See happyinthekitchen-withtara.blogspot.com. She has recipes for busy moms. Tara is a homeschooling mom so you know her time is at a premium! I am so grateful that she has chosen to share her recipes with the rest of us!

Lucky for me, the most recent recipe was a birthday cake. Before I tried it out, I made a cake for my son's Blue and Gold Banquet using a recipe that was not Tara's. I insisted on using whole wheat flour and whole sweeteners, of course. The cake looked horrible. I had to triple the recipe to accommodate what my son wanted, which was to have even cake to make a step pyramid cake since we have been studying ancient Egyptians in our homeschooling. Att he same time I added more butter and honey because in the past it has tasted too dry and not sweet enough. I was feeling rushed an hour before the party and didn't want to take the time to hunt down my recipe for made-from-scratch-wholesome ingredient frosting so I just winged it on the frosting. As a result, the cake was rather homely. My only consolation was that it looked like it was made by an eight-year-old instead of a seasoned homemaker and cook, which I am not apparently. The cake won "Most Mysterious" which is a kind way of saying, "Uhh, gee, we aren't sure if we can eat that thing or not. It looks like a lump of mud covered with semi-gloss paint."

So two days later I made Tara's cake and it turned out fabulous, I am happy to report. May we have many more wholesome birthday cakes to come.

The Best Baby Shower Gift

2010-02-13T22:53:00.000-08:00

So That's What They're For!: The Definitive Breastfeeding Guide 3rd edition by Janet Tamaro

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I had the sweet pleasure of getting a thank you, during the recent Christmastime, for a baby shower gift I gave over a year ago. We were at my mother-in-law's home for a Christmas Eve program. My husband's nephew's wife, Becky, said to me, "I never did tell you what a great gift that was that you gave me at the baby shower I had. Out of all the gifts, that was the best."

That totally made my Christmas! I love giving gifts that people love, especially gifts that encourage and support a woman's God-given ability to nurse her baby. The gift was the book So That's What They're For! by Janet Tamaro. Becky said the book helped her so much. She said she read it before her baby's birth, took it with her to the hospital, and consulted it when she started nursing. She said it helped her overcome some hurdles. She loves the book so much that when her sister was having problems nursing twins, she went and bought the book in Denver and gave it to her.

This is the funniest book on breastfeeding. I love it. I get a kick out of giving it to my pregnant friends at baby showers, especially first-time moms or those who haven't had much success with nursing. I love the author's conversational, girlfriend style. She speaks in the language of Gen X and Y. I appreciate her willingness to tell the truth about artificial baby milk and the ingredients it is made out of, like the cheapest oils available, hydrogenated oils, which are frequently passed over for health reasons, and whey, the waste products of the dairy industry.

So if you want a baby shower gift that stands out from the pile, one that will be remembered and provide lots of laughs as well as information, one that will support a mom to fulfill her God-given gift to nurture her baby, look no further. This is the best baby shower gift.

I love LLL's The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, don't get me wrong. That book is great too and I give it at baby showers as well. It just isn't as fun to read. It is written from a grandmother perspective, rather than a girlfriend's. It is currently being rewritten by Diane Weissinger, LLL Leader and board-certified lactation consultant. I have thoroughly enjoyed her writings about breastfeeding (see normalfed.com and click on "starting," "continuing," and "help"). It was her article "Watch Your Language" that shifted my paradigm about the language I use when comparing breastfeeding and bottlefeeding. She and her coauthors are rewriting the WAB to be more "girlfriendly" for the latest edition that will come out this year. I'm eager to see the changes. I hope they keep the grandmotherly wisdom in the current WAB and add some of the zingy one-liners that Diane has come up with. That would be the best of both worlds.

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A Review of a Book About a Boy Who Knew His Mission

2010-02-10T12:29:00.000-08:00

Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Every winter, when it starts to drag on (feeling like it's "always winter, never Christmas"), I suddenly remember this book and go get it from the library. It makes the season more endurable and opens my mind to the beauty of winter. It's a true story about a boy, Wilson Bentley, who absolutely loved snowflakes. He loved to examine them and not only discover each snowflake's beauty but preserve the beauty. He begged his parents for a fancy machine to take pictures of them, quite a feat for them to do because this was the 1800s and cameras were very expensive for them since they were a simple farming family. They must have been in touch with his unique mission in life to be willing to invest money in their son's hobby.

So you can read into the book the idea of mission/calling and that parents have the opportunity to either cherish their children's interests and further them into a mission or shut the mission down by not helping further it along. Parents can be true mentors or just custodians.

This book always inspires me to make a bunch of snowflakes with my core phase children (do a search on tjedonline.com for more on core phase) to decorate the window. That's definitely a mood-brightener for any dull winter's day. To make a true six-sided snowflake just Google "snowflake." You can also find some patterns by Cindy Higham in the article, “Valentine Snowflakes,” Friend, Feb 1999, p. 31 or her book Snowflakes for all Seasons.

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They Won and Then We had a Night with Knights

2010-02-02T00:18:00.001-08:00

Warning: indulgent bragging mom moment ahead. I get to brag about my brilliant children once in a while. I really do generally avoid it, believe me. Skip if you don't want to hear. I also generally avoid being on the computer this late but I have insomnia. My baby has been asleep since 7:30 P.M. Why is that I fall asleep during Family Home Evening, miss out on treats, and then after everyone is in bed and the baby is still soundly sleeping I am suddenly wide awake? It's because of racing thoughts. One of which is the good news of my two children's recent victory. They are in scholar phase at ages 14 and 16 (see tjedonline.com for more on scholar phase) and loving it. Saturday was pay-off time for them.

"Are you ready to come to my celebration dinner at Spanky's (a restaurant) after the Freedom Bowl?" asked my son's friend Christian after their economics class at their Commonwealth School last Thursday. I happened to be there subbing for my friend Aneladee who had gone to teach a Commonwealth training in Mesa AZ. (see thelemi.com) She and her husband teach the class and the kids are learning principles of macroeconomics according to Thomas Sowell.

"You mean, are you coming to my celebration dinner?!" replied my son playfully. They are on opposing teams. I was pleased to know that another team would be representing Davis County homeschoolers at the Freedom Bowl competition the ensuing Saturday in SLC, UT. The Freedom Bowl was sponsored by American Youth Leadership Institute. (see ayli.org) AYLI uses the study guide about the Revolutionary War and the Constitution produced by rootsoffreedom.org. The cool thing about that is that Roots of Freedom uses a tree motif in its logo, which fits in nicely with Tree of Life Mothering. The motif even shows roots and fruit, which my logo for my upcoming book and website shows as well. But I digress.

The competition was stiff. My son got second place last year, first place the year before. My daughter got fourth place two years ago, and then first last year. This year she moved up to the senior division and could finally be on her brother's team. We had to round up a teammate from Tooele and they were still one person short. Two years ago, we had to find teammates way down yonder in South Jordan for my son. The drive to get him to a practice was a sacrifice but he and his teammates had fantastic synergy and they won first place. This year my kids and Tooele boy practiced through Skype. I love technology that saves me driving an hour with a screaming baby who thinks car seats are torture chairs. My friend Shauna's daughter, Lightning Answer Girl, joined my son's former team last year, displacing my son, and beat him last year. The word on the street was that the two teams to watch for were my kids' team and LAG's team.

I was looking forward to the fierce competition. Last year when they went head to head LAG answered almost all of the fifteen round of questions after two or three words of the question were given by the moderator, quite a bit before anybody else would buzz in. My son was quick but she was even quicker. She had all the questions memorized, and what first three words went with each answer. The girl went through 15 questions and answers in five minutes, which normally takes 20-30 minutes. This year, after prodding from me and other parents, the organizer rephrased the questions so the kids would have to actually think. Amazingly enough, those two teams never competed against each other. There was an odd number and the organizer did not have them play round robin. Each team had a bye.

Anyway, my kids' team won all four matches, whereas LAG got tripped up by the rephrasing and her team lost to Christian's team. Way to go south Davis county! (I really do love LAG, after all, she is my girlfriends' daughter and she gave of her bed so I could have a place to sleep when I stayed at her house the night before my NFL4LDS Moms Conference last spring. I was the one who knew she would be good at this whole thing and told her mom about it.)

My kids looked really sharp in their all black outfits. My daughter, who is into drama and fashion, planned this and even had her brother and the other boy (they were supposed to have four people but could never find a fourth) walk around the room once in formation and sit down all at the same time to intimidate one of the other teams before a match. I say next year they get their two cousins from the commonwealth school in St. George to be their teammates, and all wear black, including dark sunglasses. That would be way cool. My daughter is already coaching her near 12 year-old brother on how to win next year, with LAG's younger brother, Tooele boy's younger brother, and another cousin on his team. Forget a dynasty with Kennedys and Clintons, we are creating one with Shumways/Winters/Kaisermans/and Gierisches.

So my kids each won a scholarship, worth $165, to Simulations Week sponsored by AYLI in June. See http://ayli.org/concon.html It sounds so much fun I almost wish I could be a scholar youth again. Life is so much better for youth who don't want to be teenagers than it was for me, a female nerd who loved to do weird things like sluff high school assemblies, wait until 17 to drive and 18 to date, and study 5-6 hours a day. I was odd for thinking high school was a time to prepare for college, not play.

After that rousing competition, we rushed home. The two big kids and my husband went to a Supreme Court trial simulation for the south Davis county commonwealth school, and I took the middles and littles, all five, to a Knights of Freedom family activity. My 8-year-old was dubbed Knight of Respect. We had a fun night with the Knights, visiting and playing games. I am so grateful to Diann Jeppson for setting up AYLI with its Knights of Freedom chapters, Liberty Girl chapters (which my drama daughter participated in when she was younger) and the Freedom Bowl. She could have just stayed in her own homeschooling world, just doing things with her daughters, but instead she expanded her vision and gave of her gifts to create these organizations and events. Thanks Diann!

The best part of the whole day was seeing my kids win and my other son take a vow to be a knight. That means he promises to obey his parents, serve his family and others, and always tell the truth. The second best part was finally finding out that someone from my hometown who I knew from growing up does TJED. She lives in Morgan now and is between my older brothers in ages. I have seen her face at TJED events for years and always wondered if she was the person I thought she was. I took a risk and asked her and sure enough. We were in the same ward and in Mutual together. She was one of the big Laurels when I was a Beehive. She has a big family too and her husband took the Face to Face with Greatness seminar with me almost four years ago. I love making connections like this.

Start the New Year Out Right

2010-01-28T09:41:00.000-08:00

Did you know that even if you aren't rich or famous, you need a will?

If you own a home or have children, or both, you need a will. Let's face it, you aren't going to live forever, despite what Suzanne Somers says. If you don't put into a legally-binding piece of paper (a will) what you want to happen to your home or your minor children upon your death, the state will decide.

Would you rather decide what happens to your property and your children, or the state? I mean, we are talking the difference between you, the expert on your life and your best interests, and a bloated bureaucracy.

I know you have been putting it off...it's not exactly fun like planning a vacation. Many people put more thought into planning a trip to Disney World than they do their wills. But here's the good news....

Now you can get your will done from the comfort of your own home, even in your pajamas, thanks to the Internet! Start the New Year out right by setting your house in order.

Just email my husband, Dan Shumway, at dan@shumwaylawoffice.com to get started on your will today at a low price ($300 for a simple will) with no hassle. You can email him all the information or speak to him on the phone. You can get a discount of $50 for each friend or family member you refer who get a will done through me. Just think, if you refer six paying friends, you can get your will done for free!

He is an attorney in good standing with the Utah State Bar. He is a lawyer with a heart (yes, it's possible) who will help you preserve the legacy you deserve to leave. Email today!

So How Was Phyllis?

2010-01-23T06:22:00.000-08:00

The Eagle Forum Conference with Phyllis Schlafly was inspiring! I wish I could say that I got to meet her but I missed my chance. She emerged from the restroom and I walked right past her to go in thinking "Is that Phyllis? I don't know and I don't want to gush over her if she's not. Here is a woman dressed nicely and appropriately old. I guess I will find out later when I hear Phyllis speak." It turned out that it was her! That was my chance to be a groupie and exclaim admiration over her. But really, I am not a Phyllis groupie. I have known of her for a while but I just thought of her as that Eagle Forum lady.

It was only until I heard Julie Earley speak about her from a recording at a moms' retreat that I gained a ton of respect for her. Julie spoke about the difference she made in the fight against E.R.A. I learned that Phyllis is a stateswoman. I regret that I wasn't bold enough to take a chance and ask her if she was Phyllis and thank her for her efforts. I find myself suddenly introverted at turns and retreating into my old high school self, wearing the shy mask, not willing to take risks. (I have made great strides though.) I am glad we don't have public unisex bathrooms. I was a little girl when E.R.A. was in the battlefield. I remember my mom telling me why it wasn't good, and the bathroom thing was a reason she gave.

Phyllis' talk at the conference gave everybody hope. She quoted Joe Biden, saying that for once he has said something important. She quoted him as saying that if the Democrats lose control of Congress this fall in the 2010 election that everything he and Obama are fighting for will go down the drain. So for all of you who don't like what Obama is doing, like universal health care and his other socialist policies, it's time to rally your friends and neighbors and take back America by getting Republicans into Congress.

Phyllis said that we need to get Republicans into Congress because third party candidates have never won any major elections. Disgusted with the Republican party, I became a card-carrying member of the Constitution party a while ago. I want people who stand for the Constitution in office. But with Phyllis' urging, I will be voting for a Republican this year for senator. She said that we can get Republicans into office if we start at the grassroots level and work and rally to get good delegates for the caucus meetings, which I think are at the end of March for Utah.

Last fall I read Glenn Beck's book Arguing with Idiots because Julie Earley recommended it (book review here will be posted soon, or you can become my friend on goodreads.com to read my review). I already knew our country was going down the socialist path. It was refreshing to read someone in such a visible position say the same thing and give reasons why, al in a fun and colorful way. If you want an easy to read primer with lots of pop culture references, as to how our country has strayed from its Constitutional roots, this is the book for you. I laughed out loud the most from reading this book than from any book I have read in a LOOOOONG time. I loved his cartoon of the Nancy Pelosi hand gun with its "peace pellets" that send a message of "non-violent defiance." I've been fantasizing about using this book to teach a homeschool class of youth AP Government and Politics. It would certainly ignite a lot more learning than the textbook I used in high school.

After you read that, if you still need convincing that our country is in deep trouble, read Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg. You will learn that despite the do-goodism of the liberals in our current "nanny state" (read Beck's book to learn about the nanny state) it is actually "smiley-faced fascism" at work. What is fascism? It's not necessarily a dictatorship. It's, according to Richard Maybury, doing whatever the person in charge deems is necessary in the moment, without regard to natural law. If you want a sneak peek at Goldberg's book read about it at wikipedia. It is a much harder read than Beck's book and I couldn't finish it in my fragile emotional postpartum state.

My dear girlfriend Joyce was at the conference. She recommended I go to icaucus.org to learn more about politics, so I am going to do that. There is hope! Phyllis said we can get Republicans to win this fall. She said conservatives have a lot going for them. She cited a statistic which claims that 40% of Americans identify themselves as conservatives and only 20% Americans say they are liberals. Now that we have email and the Internet, we can spread information like wildfire and rally like crazy to change the course of our society's future.

She suggested we form study groups in our neighborhoods to study the Constitution to increase public awareness about what is wrong with our elected officials and how they have strayed. She said that in the '60s and '70s. these study groups were spearheaded by Cleon Skousen and Fred Schwartz. What perfect timing! Just the week prior, I had been contemplating joining a study group for the book The 5000 Year Leap, written by Skousen, and the Constitution. The exciting thing is that this study group is digital, so any of you can join too. Go to http://www.thesocialleader.com/seminars-events/individuals-families/constitution-simple/. Don't delay, the class starts the first week of February.

Let's take back the America that our Founding Fathers designed! Let's increase our virtue and ask that our elected officials exercise fiscal responsibility and accountability to the Constitution. We can't know if they are straying unless we know the Constitution ourselves.

What One Woman Can Do

2010-01-13T02:02:00.000-08:00

I know I said once that I wouldn't stay up late to write but my baby just woke me up out of a sound sleep and he won't nurse back to sleep. I really was in bed before midnight, I promise. It was really hard to get out of bed to get up with him so he would stop crying but my mood brightened when I realized I could blog about an upcoming event...

Once upon a time a woman rallied her neighbors and friends to stop something she felt was bad for women and bad for her nation. Because of her grassroots efforts, her telephone tree calling and rallying women to show up at state capitols and pressure state legislators, they stopped proposed legislation, the E.R.A., from becoming law. She argued that the E.R.A. would lead to "women being drafted by the military and public unisex bathrooms."

This woman was attractive, articulate, bright, and educated. She worked as a model when she was young, and went to college and got degrees from Radcliffe and Washington University Law School. She also had a family of six children. She showed what "one woman can do." (I wish I could cue in that song from John Denver right here..."what one (wo)man can do is love...") She knew the importance of being educated on issues and dressing for success, as she taught the women she rallied to know thier stuff and to show up at the capitol dressed sharply, stylishly, and not frumpy. These women had influence and pressured the remaining states to vote down the E.R.A. It needed 38 states to ratify it. When she started her campaign in 1972, 30 states had already done so. Five more states ratified after her campaign started but then five rescinded their ratification.

Who is this woman? Phyllis Schlafly. Now she is 85 and, incredibly, is still active as a social leader as the head of Eagle Forum (see eagleforum.org) which she founded. She has written over 20 books. She still writes her monthly newsletter and does weekly radio addresses, commenting on social and political issues. The best news of all is that she's coming to Utah to speak this Saturday night in SLC at the Free Enterprise building of the Larry H. Miller campus of the SLCC. See utaheagleforum.org/convention.php for the schedule and details. I hope to see you there! (I won't be there all day, just in the evening because my family needs me home for part of the day.)

Book Review: TJED for Teens

2010-01-09T22:54:00.000-08:00

Thomas Jefferson Education for Teens by DeMille and Brooks

I am not done with this book, but so far, I really like it. The list of 100 classics to read has some books I really want to read with my teens/youth. I can't wait to discuss these books with them. I really appreciate the simulations at the back and the suggestions of the different roles a parent mentor should take on. TJED has come a long way from the feeling I got from listening to DeMille over ten years ago that was commonly felt among homeschoolers: "Now how do we do this?" This is full of concrete suggestions. I am so grateful that this book has come out noe that my older kids are in the teenage years A much easier read than Leadership Education: the Phases of Learning.

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Don't Miss this Christmas Classic- A Movie Review

2009-12-22T05:49:00.000-08:00

We watched It's a Wonderful Life last night as part of our Christmas traditions. Every time I watch it I pick up something new. I love the idea in that movie that every person has a unique contribution to make; if he or she doesn't live then there is a hole in the universe. You've all heard of that movie, plus A Christmas Carol and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. How many of you have heard of The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey?

This is a picture book that has been made into a movie. I've been reading the picture book to my kids almost every year for years. I was delighted to find out this year that it has been made into a movie. I give it five stars! This is one case where the movie is better than the book. The film's writer did a great job of fleshing out the story to make it into movie-length without compromising consistency. It seems like most Christmas stories are about having a change of heart to become more Christlike, and this one is no exception. Jonathan Toomey is a lonely, bitter man, but by the end of the movie he has been transformed, because of the Christmas spirit of a little boy and the boy's mother.

I love how the story is so simple. The boy and the mother want a nativity set to replace one that they lost so they ask Mr. Toomey, a woodcarver, to carve a new set. As Mr. Toomey carves each figure the boy lets him know how special and expressive each figure should look because they were there when Christ was born. I also liked the theme presented that Mary and Jesus shared a special love for each other. It's that love that reaches into the bitter Mr. Toomey's heart and changes it. At Christmas time, we celebrate the love that God has for all of us, as evidenced by the birth and life of His son, as it says in John 3:16. At the end of the movie, the widow McDowell says, "Christmas is very special." It's not special because of the material goods we get, it's special because we know we have a Savior, Jesuc Christ, to rescue us from pain and death. Not just at the end of our life, but every day. This movie is so lovely. Be sure to watch it this holiday season.

The theme ties into Tree of Life Mothering, the title of my book which will be out soon, but I will have tow write about that another time.

Adult Leadership Education on a Mother's Budget of Time and Money

2009-12-10T19:05:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about this topic (mentioned in the title of this post) a lot lately. Many times when I am thinking about something, somehow the vibes go out to other people and then they start talking about it. So on one of the TJED email lists I am on some moms were talking about how to get a leadership education when you can't afford classes at George Wythe University (GWU).

I would really love to get my master's and PhD from GWU just so I have the knowledge about government and history and economy, based in the classics, guided by a mentor of liberal arts. All of those subjects fascinate me. I want these degrees even though the school is unaccredited. (I already have a bachelor's from an accredited school, BYU, but I have to confess, I picked my major based on how fast I could be done with school and get on to real life, not how much I was really interested in the subject. And no, it's not Family Life or Psychology.) But I don't have the money for the degree program right now. The time is not really right anyway with my new baby. I think one more obligation would make me go crazy. I am still figuring out how to get the six older kids to get the laundry all folded and put away. (I refuse to do it all. My days of folding laundry while nursing with two little kids running around are over.)

I would like to attract this education into my life, and the best way to do that is to organize my life and set up forms and systems that will allow this education to flow easily along with my homemaking, homeschooling, and mothering. So I am practicing studying what I would be studying if I were taking GW classes. The school has started an online program for students anywhere in the world that allows for interactivity in real time. Sounds cool. I can't wait to do it. Are any of you doing it?

Perhaps you want this education too. You, like me perhaps, want an education that will help you redeem this country from socialism and allow you to stand for liberty. small government, and strong families. You want to inspire your children to get a world-class education. Remember, an education is not so much about a degree from a fancy institution as it is studying words, getting great ideas into your head, thinking about them, asking the right questions, then recording your answers. Here's a strategy. Remember this is coming from a real life mom with seven kids who only sits down to eat, nurse, and drive. (I blog standing up...just kidding!) Having time to sit and study for an hour is impossible on a daily basis.

1. Contact the school and ask them to send you the booklet that details the curriculum for the undergraduate, master's and PhD programs. This is the booklet they pass out at their "Statesmanship Retreats" which is a fancy term for a two-day advertisement to sign the dotted line and become a student. I went to one two years ago and enjoyed it, despite the commercial aspect.

2. Pick the degree program you want.

3. Pick a book in the degree program and get it from your public library or bookstore. Put this book in a place where you nurse the baby. That way it's always there.

4. Pick another book to have in the car to read while waiting to pick up kids at classes. Have another book in your diaper bag or purse for pack meeting time.

5. Pick another book to have at any other place you nurse.

6. Find out if any of the books on the list are on CD from your library. Listen while fixing meals. You can also find many things, like Democracy in America, and The Federalist Papers, at librivox.org. I got my tech assistant (16-year-old son) to put these on my iPod and am so grateful for that.

7. Have another CD in the car to listen to while you drive. I have listened to the 5000 Year Leap about three times through now over the past year and a half just from all the driving around I do. It only put me to sleep once while driving. On second thought, listen to the 5000 year leap while in the house.

6. Have something handy to record the epiphanies you get. I just happened to have recently replaced my cell phone since the old one died. The new one has a voice recorder. i keep it in my pocket and record what I am learning. I can even record ideas while I am changing a diaper or nursing.

7. Have one time period a week where you transcribe what you record into a notebook. I am still figuring this one out. This time might be while I am waiting in Bountiful during my son's dance class. Maybe I will have one or two pages in my book devoted to each book I am working on and then eventually I will put them in a three-ring binder.

8. During your mealtimes, tell your children and husband what you are learning. Ask them to ask questions and see if they can stump you. This might be hard since they aren't reading what you are reading and don't know the answers they are examining you for. On page 120 of the book, Leadership Education; The Phases of Learning Rachel DeMille tells the story of realizing that she was spending four hours a day fixing meals. She decided to turn that time into study time. I am not sure what that looked like, I am wondering if that means she started listening to books on CD and then had Oliver quiz her over mealtime. We don't all have Oliver for a husband but I bet our husbands and kids are smart enough to get into the spirit of oral examinations for the benefit of our liberal arts education.

9. Sign up at goodreads.com and find reviews of the books you are reading/listening to. Email those people on goodreads questions about their comments. Check out the favorite quotes from the books as well. You probably know a few GW grads or current students who you can find on goodreads or just plain email and ask them questions. If you don't know any and want some names, let me know.

10. You can maybe find some people at libercommunities.com in your own town to ask questions or join their book discussion groups

11. Rachel DeMille has a ning network for TJEDers. You could start a discussion there. Contact her at to find out how to join the ning.

12. Email me and let me know the exciting things you are learning! celestia_shumway@yahoo.com.

13. If you are having a hard time getting into these books, which admittedly can be as dense as bricks, then take a break and read from a book geared more for love of learning, like all of Glenn Beck's books. They are funny and teach you history, politics, and government at the same time.

I Want to Be Like Her When I Grow Up

2009-12-05T05:54:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago my husband and I took our daughter on a special date to celebrate her birthday. We got to see Janeen Brady, of fame, in concert! My girlfriend Shauna hosted this rare treat. Janeen wrote all the music and lyrics to the Brite Music. She played several songs for us on the piano, all completely from memory. I was so amazed. She said we could ask her to play any of her songs, and she could probably do it from memory. After she did her prepared part, one person asked her to play "It's a Family" and she played it without a hitch. I want to be like her when I grow up!...to be able to play lots of songs on the piano with chords and embellishments, all from memory. Not just any songs, but songs that I wrote! (I have a girlfriend in my ward who writes songs and someday I hope to take some lessons from her. Hi Rachael!)

One of her songs is "When I Grow Up." It's about the dream of having babies and being a mom when you grow up. She asked everybody to sing with her and I couldn't for the lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. My grandma bought the sheet music for that song in a book of songs about being Mormon and gave it our family as a gift in a care package she sent up with our cousin one fall. I remember singing that song while I played it at the piano. (See .)Now that dream has come true! I do have seven babies of my own.

Janeen shared that she didn't start writing music until she was near 40 (sounds like Janice Kapp Perry). Also, that she had a big family of 9 children. I fit both of those, I'm pushing 40 and I have a gaggle of kids too. So there's hope for my creative talents! Janeen also shared that she wrote her songs because she wanted her children to have music that was uplifting for the other six days of the week, besides Sunday. They were starting to sing things like "I Love Trash" from Sesame Street and she wanted an alternative, jazzy, with a beat. All of her music is bouncy and bright. I have loved it for decades (wow, am I really that old?). I even once sold Brite Music, when my two oldest were real little and life was a lot less complicated.

Believe it or not, Janeen is still cranking out songs. Her daughter, a friend of mine, Michelle Brady Stone, is a homeschooling mom like me. Michelle asked her mom to write some songs to teach the multiplication tables for her kids. So Janeen has done it again. Her new CD is "It's Time to Times" and just like all the other Brite songs, it's a delightful hit! The above picture features Janeen and Michelle singing the cute football song that goes to the 8 times table. I don't think this new CD is available on the Web site yet because it's so new but will be soon hopefully. Janeen has got to be nearly 80 yet she looks much younger and has the health to still produce. Yes, I want to be like her when I grow up.

If you want to hear her sing and play, come to my friend Shauna's house on Wednesday December 9th. Bring your little ones and get inspired! You can also order the Time to Times CD there and buy her Christmas CD. Call the number below to let Shauna know you are coming so that she isn't surprised by too many people. The children will be sitting on the floor and adults are to bring their own chairs. She lives just off 106th South. Take that exit and go west, turn south at the bridge by the Maverik gas station and then turn left at Koradine Dr.

11:00 AM to 12 noon
1133 Koradine Drive
South Jordan, UT 84095
801-254-3337

John Locke on Babies

2009-12-02T05:40:00.000-08:00

We live in an exhilarating time. It seems that more and more, our freedoms are expanding with the advance of technology and societal mobility. Every time I pick up my cell phone I marvel at the capability of this teeny box to allow to me to take pictures, listen to mp3 files, and talk to people across distances. On Thanksgiving Day it was so fun to take pictures of my relatives and send them to other family members across the miles. Yet for all our freedom we have because of technology, we still have yet to appreciate the freedom that comes from the basic biology of simple, ancient things like mother's milk.

I was listening to Democracy in America yesterday. Alexis de Tocqueville wrote about how in America, we have thrown off the rule of royalty but people are still figuring out the rule of law. I think that's true even today, over a hundred years later. Even though we have lots of freedom to do amazing things with our technology we are still learning to obey natural law.

John Locke is credited with putting forth the natural law that is involved with good government. The founders studied his writings and developed a government based on natural law in order to preserve freedom for the people.

I've been thinking a lot about the natural laws involved with babies since I recently had a darling baby boy. After having seven babies, I have observed some natural laws involved with babies. Like, babies don't reach their hands to meet at the midline of their bodies until they are about three months old. Babies like to lie with their head to the side and one arm extended and the other arm bent, the classic "fencer pose." Babies also always develop their motor control from first their head and then down to their toes.

I am also a La Leche League Leader so I think about breastfeeding a lot, even when I don't have a new baby around, because people call me with breastfeeding questions every month, and I have monthly meetings for breastfeeding support. Two cool ladies, who happen to be La Leche League Leaders as well as board-certified lactation consultants, already have developed the natural laws involved with breastfeeding. See them here If John Locke were to be around today and wrote what natural laws governed the flow of mother's milk, these laws would be it. It's crucial for society to understand these natural laws related to breastfeeding. The natural laws of breastfeeding relate to women's lib. A woman can't be truly free if she is forced to feed her baby a product, inferior to what her body is capable of making, because of ignorance. If she chooses to do so, fully aware of the consequences, that's fine, but if she is forced to use artificial baby milk because of lack of information that's sad.

As Anna Johnson, writer and fashionista, wrote in her book, The Yummy Mummy Manifesto:

"Nursing at will wherever and wherever she and the baby please is just about the most ancient and the most modern stand a mother can make. And it's important for one reason alone: Mothering is felt by everyone, but it is rarely seen. Society makes very little space for mothers, so we have to claim that space ourselves. What better way than engaging in a little gentle lactivism?. . .It's an amazing freedom that every mother should be able to try, enjoy, and fiercely protect.

Something like 70% of all babies are breastfed at birth but then that number drops considerably as time goes by so that around 10% of American babies are still nursing at a year old. I could google these numbers but I'm feeling a tad lazy and it seems like last time I checked that's what they were. Breastfeeding is incredibly important, but these numbers reflect that moms don't think it's as important as it is.

What would happen if someone on the 6 o'clock news came out and said the following... "This just in--fabulous substance is available to new moms. This neon pink liquid with sparkles kills germs, lowers the risk of baby and mom getting hundreds of diseases, including ear infections and breast cancer, feeds the baby as well, and has no environmental impact. Give it to your baby 8-12 times a day, even in the middle of the night when you would rather be sleeping. You will have much fewer doctor visits if you follow the directions properly. Warning: scientific studies shows that If you don't give it to your baby exclusively for at least six months he may be less intelligent and will be sick more often. Michael Jordan was fed this substance for three years. Michael Jackson wasn't." People would be all over it, asking where to buy it and and outbidding on eBay for it.

Well, here's a news flash: Mother's milk IS that substance, but because it is free, pale white and watery, and comes from our own bodies and not a conveyor belt, people tend to discount its incredible, unbeatable, lifesaving properties. Obstacles also come up. Sometimes there's not enough information and support for a mom to turn to in order to keep this liquid gold flowing and into baby.

I wonder why this is? I guess because society in general doesn't understand the natural laws that govern the making of mother's milk. Remember what de Tocqueville said. We have thrown off the rule of royalty but we still are learning to obey the rule of natural law. One of the laws is that "more milk out means more milk made." Even though this is my seventh baby I still marvel at how often new babies want to nurse. If I weren't an experienced mom and a La Leche League Leader, I can see how easy it would be to pass off the baby and have someone else feed him. But just like you have to go grocery shopping often if you are going to have food in your cupboards on a daily, continual, basis; you have to nurse often if you are going to make enough milk.

With a new baby, it's normal to be nursing whenever the baby is awake, and sometimes when the baby is snoozing too. I have a girlfriend who calls this the "sore buns theory:" You know you are nursing enough when you have sore buns from sitting so long. Why do babies have to nurse so much? Babies have stomachs the size of marbles on day one. They grow to the size of a shooter marble by day three and then a golf ball by day seven. They also need to triple their weight in a year. If you had to triple your weight in a year and had the stomach the size of a golf ball, you would be eating constantly too. I had to continually remind myself of these facts with this current baby.

"What, he wants to nurse again?! Didn't I just nurse him 5 (or 10 or 15) minutes ago? I want to finish cooking or getting dressed! (Forget painting my nails or annotating War and Peace.)" Mother's milk digests quickly. That fact along with the infinitesimal size of the baby's stomach means you have to nurse a LOT, like more than you ever would think is a lot. But the rewards are priceless. For example, with all my seven babies, we have only had one ear infection. I credit that to nursing my babies a lot, exclusively for at least the first six months for each, and limiting dairy in our diets.

So what do to? Embrace the spring season of mothering, that of breastfeeding and mothering a new baby. Settle in with a baby latched on and a "chick lit" book in the other hand. Enjoy the yummy life of a breastfeeding mom. One chick lit book I really love that celebrates the reality of life as a nursing mom is the one I mentioned above, The Yummy Mummy Manifesto by Anna Johnson. See I also like the Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, although it's not quite as fun as Yummy Mummy, and So That's What They're For. If you want a nonbreastfeeding book, try something light like a Jack Weyland Novel. If you want something more meaningful try The Anatomy of Peace.

Seasons and Systems

2009-11-15T06:37:00.000-08:00

I got some great epiphanies while listening to a fascinating mp3 file a while ago while I exercised. Aneladee Milne and Tiffany Earl are two of my homeschooling friends who have formed a company called LEMI which stands for Leadership Mentoring Institute. They train mentors for scholar phase in Leadership Education.

(If you don't know what I'm talking about and want to know more, go to and order the book and read it. Don't worry, it won't make you feel bad for not homeschooling! It will inspire you to get a better education for yourself and your children, which is not so much dependent on geography of the classroom as it is on relationships, passion, and inspiration.)

Anyway, Aneladee and Tiffany do conference calls with the mentors. They have placed this particular call, called "Seasons" on the website . They talk about the frustration they have felt with typical time management seminars. These seminars assume that life is always the same, on a linear path, with the same "get it done" excitement burning in all of us. But that's not how life is, especially if you are a woman. Life is cyclical, with seasons. We have times to be productive in the outer world, and times to be productive in an invisible way by resting.

I've given a LOT of thought to this topic. The topic of seasons involves several chapters in my Tree of Life Mothering book, volume 1Y. I hope to publish it sometime in the next decade, but first I have to get Volume I out. (I am in mommy mode with seven kids including a new baby so hobbies like writing and publishing have to be done in seasons--I am practicing what I preach.)

So Aneladee tells the story of being in a season of "winter." She had some physical and mental issues to deal with, basically what she calls a nervous breakdown. It reminded me of a similar thing I went through last summer but that topic is for another post. The typical time management seminar tells you to set your goals of getting up before the crack of dawn, go jogging, come home and shower and dress, and be out the door and at work by 7:30 to be productive.

Aneladee mentions that that doesn't take into account the winter seasons of your life. During winter, it's best to focus on getting lots of sleep and rest. So she would wake up in the morning, and then many times go back to bed and sleep until she was done sleeping. That is what exactly what I have done in the past three months with my new baby if I had a rough night and I had to sleep with him in my big overstuffed rocker. This is not the best thing to sleep in, but works if you have a fussy baby who won't sleep lying down, not being held, despite all of your Attachment Parenting, co-sleeping, breastfeeding in bed efforts. I have other children and I homeschool so I would assign an older sibling to watch the younger ones and relied on the electronic babysitter as well. It is amazing how life looks so much better when you get more than enough sleep.

I have a planner but it has been somewhat blank in this postpartum time, compared to my previous life. I wonder if Franklin-Covey will ever realize that not everyone who uses their planners are CEOs or even office workers. (When is Stephen Covey's wife going to start doing those seminars? She has a large family. We need to hear from the feminine/real life mothering in the trenches side of time management! I guess she is off being a grandma, enjoying this season of her life.) Sometimes it is SOOOOOO wonderful to have nothing planned but meals and sleep and play and the bare minimum of chores, bothersome things like shopping and cooking and washing dishes, to facilitate the meals.

Tiffany mentions in this talk how important systems are for time management. I totally agree. The problem is, when you are a mom, just when you get your systems down, the seasons change. Now that I am emerging from the unpredictable postpartum time, a winter, to a postpartum time with some semblance of a schedule (the baby has somewhat of a rhythm to his life) I am figuring out some systems for my new life as a mother of seven.

It's only taken me three months to figure this out in a new school year of driving my older kids to different classes, but hey, that's OK. That's what living by the seasons is all about. You go with the flow, observe, and adjust. i would love to be here writing more blogs but I have come to realize I need to spend a lot more time homemaking and mothering in the afternoons, less time on the computer. When you are a stay-at-home homeschooling mom it is so easy to get seduced by the accessibility of the computer to read too many emails. (Oh- you want to know the definition of "grapeshot"? Well, let me just check wikipedia, and then I check my email too of course, and then I get more distracted and start reading someone's blog linked to their signature line..and my time disappears)

OK, I want to write these down so I don't forget:

-mornings are for exercise, scripture reading, chores, and school. No email!

-Spend Monday afternoons thinking about, planning, and getting food for my family for the week and also long-term storage.

-Tuesday afternoons are for clothes. We have clothes coming out of our ears! I could clothe the whole ward's Primary and Mutual combined, what with my storage of boy and girl clothes from 0-16. We don't need all of them, we don't have the space, so it's time to do some serious organizing, paring down, and mending. My little boy just learned how to sew by hand in Knights of Freedom (a boys' club). Imagine that! He is excited to practice so I might be able to milk this by having him do some mending for a few times.

-Wednesday afternoons are for other stuff, like organizing toys, and hall closets and the family room, and all those pesky projects I keep putting off.

-Thursday afternoons I can play and do whatever I want, which for me means computer time (working on my book and this blog) and going to the library. When I pick up my two oldest from their commonwealth classes I drive right past a library in another town. I have always gone to the library two blocks from our home, but since I drive right past this one every Thursday twice, I should start putting the books on hold that I want for developing our family culture on Sunday (thanks to the miracle of digital library catalogs and the Internet. Then I can pick them up Thursday afternoon at this other library branch in a different town after I pick up my two scholars. That way I have two teenage babysitters captive in the car who can watch my baby (after years of taking the baby in with me either in the baby bucket or sling with toddlers following me I just want to zip in and get the books and get out.)

-Fridays are for driving and eating. My kids are so busy on Fridays there is no time for anything else.

-Saurdays are for chores. Sundays are to rest and do planning, with mentor meetings and FEC, putting books on hold, doing family history research, and attending church.

-have book to read on my end table by my nursing chair, a book that stays in my diaper bag, and a book upstairs in my bedroom. So whenever I stop to nurse I have a book handy. I get a TON of reading done when I am a nursing mom.

-have my iPod and my cell phone on my person throughout the day. While I do the kitchen cleanup with my eight-year-old after breakfast and lunch I can listen to Democracy in America on my iPod. As I get epiphanies I record them using the voice recorder on my cell phone. Then when I have a chance to sit down and write, during our school time, I will transcribe these thoughts to my notebook.

With the above systems we can have a somewhat smoothly running household and I can get an education at the same time. My children can have fun, learn how to work, and get an education too.

Red Letter Day

2009-11-10T05:34:00.000-08:00

From fall pics

From Kodak Pictures

"Every member of the church of Christ having children is to bring them unto the elders before the church, who are to lay their hands upon them in the name of Jesus Christ, and bless them in his name."

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter=day Saints, we are blessed to have the direct guidance of the Lord Jesus Christ. The above words came straight from Him, in a revelation given to Joseph Smith in April of 1830. They are now part of our holy scripture, in the Doctrine and Covenants, section 20, verse 70. They are the reason why we give babies a blessing in front of the whole congregation during our sacrament meeting. I remember discovering these verses when I was studying at age 15 in seminary, the youth program of the Church which teaches the scriptures. Up until then I had thought that baby blessings were just some cool thing we did. They are more than that, they are based on revelation from Jesus Christ.

"And again, inasmuch as parents have children in Zion, or in any of her stakes which are organized, that teach them not to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands, when eight years old, the sin be upon the heads of the parents...And their children shall be baptized for the remission of their sins when eight years old, and receive the laying on of the hands." (D&C 68:25-27)

These words also come from Jesus Christ, in a revelation to Joseph Smith. It's why we baptize our children at age eight.

"The priest’s duty is to preach, teach, expound, exhort, and baptize, and administer the sacrament.." These are also words from Jesus Christ, in his revelation on how our church is governed. My firstborn just turned 16 so he had the privilege of baptizing my eight-year old.

What a red-letter day! One son, recently born, received his name and his blessing, and another son received the ordinance to allow him to be born into the kingdom of God. I know that God speaks to us these days through his son Jesus Christ, the head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We have his words in the scriptures, thanks to Joseph Smith, a prophet called by God. It's really amazing when you stop to think about it.

Baptized on halloween?

2009-11-04T16:09:00.000-08:00

Finally I felt ready to have the big event. A baptism and a baby blessing the same day. My son turned eight last July but we felt he wasn't quite ready to get baptized right away. I also had a baby the next month, in August, and that consumed my brain for the month before and after. Finally we felt up to it and asked the bishop. He gave us permission to do both events the same day. I also finally had my camera back from getting fixed so I could take pictures of the family who would come up. The great thing about deciding to have my son baptized on Sunday, the same day his baby brother was blessed, was that he didn't get baptized on Halloween, like the rest of the stake candidates. So two days ago we had the big event for our two sons and it was a glorious day with extended family. The pictures of this red letter day will be up here soon.

I used to love Halloween as a kid but then when I was about 13 I read an article about it in Dear Abby about its negative aspects and that planted a seed to boycott it. Two years of trick or treating with my first two kiddies in the cold was enough to cure me of it. I've haven't been since my oldest daughter was 1. I've always wanted to have a big Harvest Party in its place but when the time comes I hardly feel up to it. I did organize one last year but it was basically a flop. So I am thrilled that Lara Gallagher from lazyorganizer.com is doing a Harvest Carnival next year. Go to her blog to read more about it. If you are in northern Utah, please plan on coming!

A Surprise in the Mail from a Sweet Sister

2009-10-22T22:46:00.000-07:00

OK, as a reward for staying up with an awake baby after everyone else got to go to bed, I get to blog. He was asleep before everyone else and if I had been mean and left everyone else to their own devices, as in no bedtime stories, then I would have been asleep too. But as others got ready for bed they woke him up. Grrr. The result is that I get to write this. I wonder what mothers did to stay sane with babies before the Internet.

A few weeks ago, I got a delightful surprise in the mail. A package addressed to me from an unfamiliar return address in Ohio. What could it be? Money? Jewelry? Tickets to a cruise? It turns out it was something fun and a total surprise, the book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. My sister had mentioned this book to me just a week prior. There was no message or card so I figured she was the sender. A telephone call confirmed my suspicion. It wasn't even my birthday, what a nice treat from her! This is a picture of her and her darling family.

If I hadn't have been so greedy I would have stopped to take the picture of the gorgeous artisan bread she made using one of the recipes. She sent this bread home to me the week before when my husband and kids went to visit her. But no, I saw that bread and had to dive right in and eat some. It looked like something straight out of Martha Stewart's magazine.

So now Emily, my sister, makes all her own bread and it takes only five minutes a day. She is a busy young mom of four little children ages 6 and under, so if she can do this, anyone can. The authors of this book met at their children's Kindermusik class- I love it! They have designed a recipe that teaches you how to mix up bread dough, keep it in the fridge, and then whenever you want fresh bread you cut off a hunk of dough and bake it. Sounds heavenly!

You can check it out at artisanbreadinfive.com. The authors have a new book out called Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. So I guess we can have either artisan or healthy but not both at the same time? Either way I love their concept. Why didn't someone think of this before? Why has homemade bread always been such a chore, unless you used a breadmachine? It's kind of like suitcases on wheels. It's amazing they just came out in the past decade. Our society just keeps getting better and better, it makes me giddy wondering what great advancement will happen next.

The Gift of an Ordinary Day

2009-10-22T04:54:00.000-07:00

I have so much to write about! Last week I finished three books: They Loved to Laugh, Paradise Vue, and Anatomy of Peace. I will give a review of each later. I got my camera back two days ago, all fixed and ready to go so I will be able to put more pictures on this site. It has been hard to be without a camera for over a month! Especially with a brand new baby. Two of my children broke it because I let them use it to take pictures. (Note to self, don't let them touch it, ever.) My son is working on a new web site for me, a sister site to this blog, that I am so thrilled about it. When it's done I will have ebooks for sale about natural mothering as well as the audio and video files for sale from my Christ-centered natural family living conference that I held last spring.

I saw in the Chinaberry catalog a new book called The Gift of An Ordinary Day by Katrina Kenison. I read Katrina's other book, Mitten Strings for God, eight years ago and LOVED it. This book looks like a sequel, with her kids as teens. I can't wait to read it. I have been thinking about the idea from her title. Yesterday was an ordinary day and what a gift it was. The night before that, we took our baby to the hospital to get his blood drawn. He's eight weeks old and had a fever on Monday and Tuesday.

I don't normally rush off to the doctor when my kids have fevers, thanks to what I've read in How to Keep Your Child Healthy In Spite of Your Doctor by
Dr. Robert Mendelsohn. But I've heard that fevers in young babies warrant action. Dr. Sears says that if a baby seven weeks to four months old has a fever over 101 degrees to take him to the doctor. So off we went on Tuesday after a miserable Monday night of my baby sleeping in my arms most of the night. The doctor wanted to test the baby's blood to rule out a bacterial infection such as meningitis.

So Tuesday night after the appointment with the doctor we went to the hospital. It's not so easy to draw an eight-week old baby's blood, we found out. The phlebotomists worked for over an hour with my screaming baby. They poked him three times in his arm but could not get the vein to bleed enough to get blood. It was so heart-wrenching to watch my crying baby. Finally they poked him in the heel and were able to get enough after milking it for over half an hour. I was able to nurse him through the heel poke and that helped. What an ordeal the whole night was..

So yesterday, with the fever gone and the results in from the lab saying that his blood looked normal, I reveled in the ordinariness of the day. No one sick, no appliances were broken, the baby was sleeping with regular naps, the kids didn't fight too much, and I could actually work on processing some apples and fix dinner, instead of going to the doctor and then the hospital. So thank you God, for the gift of an ordinary day.

Done Any Family History Lately? It's Actually Fun!

2009-10-19T04:03:00.000-07:00

So, to follow up on a previous post about family history, I found out that the temple work has been done for my great-grandmother, who was orphaned at age 12. This was a painless procedure. I didn't have to leave my home to go to a family history center or even finish taking the family history course at church or read the accompanying booklet from cover to cover.

I simply went to the new family history website for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is new.familysearch.org. This site is sooooo cool! You can sign in and in a jiffy you can see what ancestors of yours are in the Church's database as well as what temple work needs to be done for your people. From what I can tell, the old family history website doesn't show what temple work needs to be done very clearly. I am a novice to family history and even I could use this site very easily! It is totally user-friendly.

I had to go far back in the generations to find out where some temple work needs to be done. I am descended from the famous reverend John Lathrop like over half of Utah Mormons and I was surprised to see that for some of his family, temple work still needs to be done.

One of the amazing things about this site is that you can see who else is out there, working on the data and instantly connect with them to send questions if you see discrepancies arise over dates and names. Email and the Internet were just made for family history work, I'm telling you.

I feel more connected to my fourth great grandmother. i have this book about Sudweeks (my maiden name) family history but I never knew exactly how I was connected to the different people in it. It tells the story of Mica Martina Margretta Katrina Pedersen. She joined the LDS Church in Denmark back in the 1850s because she gained a testimony from hearing the missionaries. She was persecuted for this. She would walk down the street and get pelted by eggs and rocks for becoming a Mormon. Still, she persisted in her new faith in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. When she heard the Mormons were moving to Zion, she told her husband she wanted to go to. Her husband didn't want to go. She begged and pleaded. He refused. Finally she insisted that she go and he said he didn't want to be married to her anymore or be part of this new religion. She left, taking their baby. She gave up her homeland and her husband for her newfound faith in Jesus Christ.

By looking at the pedigree charts at new.familysearch.org I was able to quickly figure out that this rock of a woman was my fourth great grandmother. Wow! All these years and I never knew I had such amazing female heritage.

I encourage you to all set aside your excuses and go do some family history work. It's as close as your favorite blog or website. It's a huge blessing that we can do it right in our own homes now from our favorite entertainment device, the Internet. This is a prophecy fulfilled. My sister-in-law, the family history guru extraordinaire, showed me this prophetic quote from Archibald Bennett from decades ago. He remarked that someday there would be a system that we would all use that would connect people from across the globe and generations in order to do family history. That time has come and you can give up some of your blogging and gaming on the Internet to do it!

A great story in the Ensign appeared a few years ago. It told of a busy mom of a large family who took time every day during her youngest child's nap to do family history. She was extremely blessed for this. I'm not ready to give up naptime every day to do family history but I'm going to shoot for once a week and hopefully still get some blessings.

I Feel Humbled

2009-10-19T03:55:00.000-07:00

After that last post I had a revealing thought. I realized that the woman who wrote the sickeningly sweet blog that I was complaining about (the wife of the classmate I had a crush on in sixth grade) was willing to share a problem on her blog that I've had and haven't been willing to publicize to the world, let alone my closest friends. So I feel humbled to know that and I will stop feeling harsh about her.

Somebody Slap Me

2009-10-14T14:47:00.000-07:00

When I have the rare free moment, like in the middle of the night when my newborn won't go back to sleep, I take a peek at a blog written by the wife of the guy I had a crush on in sixth grade. I thought about giving you the link but that just seems so voyeuristic. I don't know about you all, but I don't like the typical mommy blogs, especially the "Molly Mormon Mommy" Blogs. They are disgustingly and annoyingly shallow. Brimming with pictures of perfectly groomed, smiling children at overly-commercialized birthday parties or outings, they present the scenario that life is all about what we look like and what we consume for parties, holidays, and outings.

Just once, I would like to read a blog that presents some problems. "The dishwasher is broken and it will be next month before we have the money to fix it. I couldn't afford a birthday present for Sally so we gave her homemade presents. Our Dad is out of work but we are fasting and praying that he will find something. I took our only queen-sized bedspread to the laundromat to wash since it won't fit into our washer at home and it got stolen. The dog ran away and after months of praying he came home, but was injured. We had to take him to the vet to get checked out and the bill came to be $800. The kids are constantly fighting and I can't get Jr. to stop picking his nose..."

OK, OK, so it's no fun to read a list of complaints. I agree. I guess I don't really want to read negative stuff either, but I would like to read more than just an entry about what people did or ate or got for presents. I would like to read more about what other mommies are thinking, what they are reading, and how they are connecting with their children so they see a sparkle in the child's eyes that doesn't come from something that was bought. If my life ever becomes so shallow that all I write about is my daughters' hairstyles, their clothes, or outings we go on, somebody please slap me.

Become a Dr. Mom

2009-10-03T18:25:00.000-07:00

Want to become a "Dr. Mom" in your own home?

Dr. Steve Doughty, naturopathic doctor from St. George, will be giving a natural healing webinar. Come learn with me!

With current trends of proposed legislation towards controlling healthcare along with growing virus concerns, it is time to become educated & prepared. This class is designed for people just like you and I - individuals who are ready to become self reliant in becoming our own doctors (or at least much more so). Specifically the course will cover:

* 30 herbs every home should have on hand & how to use them
* 6 skills of a natural herbalist (teas, tinctures, capsules, salves, poultice and jellies)
* Healing & Preventing (everything from the common cold to pandemic virusess)
*Crisis Cures bleeding, shock, fevers, blocked airways, etc.

Saturday mornings from 6:00-8:00 a.m. MST
October 10th - November 14th
Cost is $100 for the 12 hour class.

Please email me privately at celestia_shumway@yahoo.com and I will get you signed up.

What Do You Do if Someone Gives You Her Fat Clothes?

2009-09-30T05:13:00.000-07:00

If someone gives you her fat clothes, what do you do? In my case I smiled and said thank you, but I also took it as another hint that I need to lose some weight. I have been exercising some since I had my baby five weeks ago and I am thinking about eating a lot more vegetables and seriously cutting down on my grain consumption.

This picture is of my sister. I think this is the second time in ten years or so that she has given me her fat clothes. She had a baby over three years ago. Before she had the baby she got thin. Then she got pregnant, gained a lot of weight, and now she has slimmed down again. We women sacrifice a lot to have these babies. I gained around sixty pounds when I was pregnant with my last baby. I just get so incredibly hungry when pregnant and eat a LOT.

But I also get incredibly hungry when nursing and eat a lot as well. So since I have been either pregnant or nursing or even both all of the time the past 16 years (except for a brief three month stint) I have been chunky. Except for after I had my first daughter, I got thin. I think it's because I hadn't discovered butter. I have so many clothes for different phases of my life: a little bit pregnant, really pregnant, nursing but fat, nursing and not so fat. I am tired of all these clothes and want a complete wardrobe overhaul. I guess my sister picked up on these vibes and that's why I attracted her clothes. I tried one of the skirts on yesterday, and thankfully, it is actually loose on me. Hooray!

I am looking at two different eating guides. One is The Original Fast Foods book, which Lara Gallagher mentioned at the retreat I was just at last weekend. "I have that book!" I thought. "I should go home and actually use it." It recommends eating a pound of greens a day. That sounds hard but I am sure I would be healthier for it. Another eating guide is The Body Ecology Diet. My friend is into that. It would be really nice to get my body's ecology into balance so that my cravings are down and I lose weight.

A Weekend of Feasts

2009-09-28T13:26:00.001-07:00

Over this last weekend I got to experience three feasts. First I went to a retreat for moms organized by my friend Katie Hansen of Bountiful, Utah. Around forty moms from Utah and Idaho spent the night in cabins up in the mountains close to Ogden Valley. For $30 moms got to have dinner and breakfast served to them, have a sleepover with other moms, and listen to fabulous speakers to nurture their souls. What more could you ask for? I have pictures of some of the speakers here. I took these pictures at my conference that I held last April. My camera is currently broken, thanks to some children of mine who will remain nameless, so I couldn't use my camera at the retreat. But here are some of my archived pictures of Aneladee Milne, Diann Jeppson, and Jodie Palmer, who spoke at the retreat.

Those of us with nursing babies slept (?) in one cabin and those without in another.
You can see pictures of these cabins at my friend Lara Gallagher's website http://www.lazyorganizer.com/blog/ under the heading "I Wouldn't Change a Thing" if you scroll down a bit to get the subheading "The Book."

I wondered if any of us sleeping with the babies would get any sleep. We did. My baby, at five weeks old, was the noisiest. He woke up only once to nurse (after I finally got him to sleep after midnight) and settled back to sleep. The sleepover featured a colloquium (a fancy word for a discussion of a book we all read) and simulation the night before and then three speakers on Saturday morning. What a feast for the mind.

When I got home from that I was suffering from carbohydrate overload (the chocolate chip muffins, poppy seed muffins, and cookies at the retreat were hard to resist). I wanted to crawl into bed but instead I got a foot massage from my husband while I nursed my baby and then I fixed dinner with some food my body was crying out for: greens and protein. We had fish and salad. That was my second feast. I ate the dinner while I watched the Relief Society general broadcast on byutv.org. That was my third feast. If I had gone to the church to watch it I would have slept through it and I wouldn't have been able to eat dinner while watching. The food offered at the "light dinner" at the church beforehand probably would have been jello salad, anemic iceberg lettuce and white rolls which are the last things I needed. So I am glad I stayed home to watch and eat.

Anyway, I learned so much at this retreat. The official name of what it was about is "The Hebrew Way." See http://www.gatheringplaceformoms.com. What is the Hebrew way? This is what I figured out from listening to the speakers. The Hebrew way is the covenant way. This is the way the ancient Hebrews lived. We can still live this way today. One of the speakers, my homeschooling mentor, Kelli Poll, said that if you are a member of the LDS church you are surrounded by the Hebrew way. She also mentioned that simultaneously we are surrounded by the Roman way. I pondered this a lot because Kelli didn't go into details. I think what she meant by the Roman way is the contract way. The covenant way is the way God calls us to live. He invites us to make covenants with Him. The contract way is the man-made way.

It is amazing to think about how we live in this dual world. If we really think about it, the covenant way can apply to everything we do and are. It affects what we do, what we say, where we go, where we marry, whether or not we have children and how many, our educational system, our political system, what we eat, and who we are. If we make covenants with God we acknowledge that we are His, that we are made by Him, and that we want to go back to Him, and that he has provided a Savior to bring us back.

If you really want to understand the contract way of life read the book by Richard Maybury Ancient Rome How it Affects You Today." He points out that the prevailing trend in today's culture is to think that the government can and should take care of everything for us. This results in too many laws that are man-made instead of being based on natural law. Maybury never mentions God, but I believe that natural law is God's law.

So the Hebrew way is the covenant way, or living by God's laws. It is acknowledging that there is a power higher than ourselves, God. God knows the best way for us to live and He reveals that to us. God calls us to live his way. He will strengthen us to do this if we turn to Him. By coincidence I had been reading about the covenant way in Elder Todd Christofferson's talk from last General Conference before I went to this retreat. I love the remark he made, that if we live the covenant way our faith is enlarged, and we feel the Spirit communicate to us God's pleasure in us. This pleasure helps us to want to live the covenant way even more. The contract way often involves only going so far and then giving up. The covenant way involves commitment and asking God for help. It's a choice we are faced with every day.

When I was much younger if you would have mentioned "The Hebrew Way" to me my eyes would have started glazing over. It sounds like living in the desert the way the old guys from the Bible lived. I am so excited to realize it means so much more than that. Latter-day Saints have so many connections to the Hebrews. Joseph Smith received the golden plates at a time of year held hold holy by the Jews. You can read more about in an Ensign article by Lenet Hadley Read entitled "The Golden Plates and the Feast of the Trumpets." Just do a search with her name at lds.org and it will come up.

Product Review: Dunstan Baby Language

2009-09-23T05:43:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be fun to review a product. Since I am in the new baby mode, this product has to do with babies. It's a set of DVDs to teach how to understand crying, the language of babies. "Dunstan Baby Language" comes as a set of DVDs with a pamphlet. The creator, Priscilla Dunstan, claims that babies cry in a universal language. She has boiled all babies' cries into five meanings. I am sure you are dying to know what they are. OK, here you go...

"Neh" means "I'm hungry...feed me!"
"Owh" means "I'm tired...help me go to sleep."
"Eh" means "I have upper wind...help me burp."
"Eairh" means "I have lower wind...help me pass gas."
"Heh" means "I am uncomfortable...help me find a new position, change my diaper, or get me warmer or cooler."

Wow, if only it were that simple. I have been trying this out on my new baby and I can't always hear those distinctive sounds in his cry. The DVDs show babies making these cries and I can hear them there but they don't always match up with my rour week old baby's sounds. Last night I think I figured out that my baby's "eairh" sounds more like "hah."

The creator claims to have a photographic memory for sounds, which she has had since she was a little girl. I guess that makes her an expert on sounds. She became an opera singer and then had a baby. She noticed her baby made these distinct sounds when he cried and thus her baby language system was born.

The DVDs could be consolidated into one. They could be jazzed up a little with a slightly quicker pace and quicker music. Some people might think they are rather boring. My husband and I went on a date over a week ago and the meeting we were goint to for our date got canceled. I suggested we go back home and watch these DVDs for our date. He wasn't too excited about that. He ended up watching the replay of the BYU-Oklahoma game which was much more exciting.

I think the creator should have a little test at the end of the DVD where you are shown the different cries of real babies and you get to guess which sound they are making and then you are told the answer. That would really help those of us nonexperts on sounds.

These DVDs are worth watching and learning about, but I would borrow them, like I did. Fortunately my public library has them. I encourage you to find them there or see if your friends have a copy. Don't shell out $30 for something you are probably only going to watch once or twice. Check out dunstanbaby.com for more info.

The End of an Era

2009-09-20T19:29:00.000-07:00

Today I went to Relief Society. "Oh wow," you are probably saying sarcastically. "What else is new?" I know, you think that R.S. attendance is typical of me, but actually it was maybe only the fourth time in over two years. Right up until my baby was born four weeks ago I had a nursery calling, and I had it for two years, so that's why I haven't been attending R.S. I went once or twice during those two years of nursery because we had an overabundance of nursery workers for a week or two.

So today I actually got to sit still and feel bored, which is rare for a mother. It happened during the break between Gospel Doctrine and Relief Society. My baby was actually asleep in the sling and no one was sitting by me, and I didn't want to get up and move and risk waking the baby up. I wished I had remembered to bring my scriptures or my Joseph Smith manual so I didn't feel like I was wasting my time. Where are those unfinished thank you notes for baby gifts that I have been working on? I actually had some time to work on them. Finally someone came in and sat down by me so I got to have a conversation with someone besides myself in my head.

I saw my former nursery leader who was my "supervisor" in nursery across the room. it occurred to me that we have experienced the end of an era, the era of our nursery service together. This friend of mine, Sara, and another friend, Elissa, were there in nursery with me and we had some great times connecting and doing crafts with the little children. Elissa even brought her fancy tablecloths and cake trays and we had a party for Mother's Day, right in nursery, with all the mothers of the nursery children who played hooky from Relief Society and came and ate sugar in nursery. I have included some photos of this. Nursery can get a little monotonous. I so appreciated Elissa's gift of livening it up with chocolate-covered strawberries and all. No more parties in nursery for us though, we all got released right after my new baby was born. We had each been in for over two years, and it was definitely time to let someone else do the service, if you know what I mean.

The teacher today passed out chocolate. That was fun. Relief Society has improved! The lesson was on baptisms for the dead, using Joseph Smith's words on the topic. I felt inspired to find some of my ancestors who need this important work done. I have always fallen for the myth most multi-generational Mormons do, that the temple work of my ancestors is "all done." But how could that be? I asked my dad about it today and he said that his mother's mother's line needs some work done. He also said my great-grandmother was orphaned at a young age. Wow, I didn't know that.

I was thinking about starting family history research to learn more about this great-grandmother, Etta May Jensen Hansen, and I felt overwhelmed. Then I remembered that a new family history class is starting in our ward next week! Maybe I will start attending. I have learned about family history work before but I have forgotten so much and I have never actually done any research on my own. (shhh, don't tell my brother and sister-in-law who are gurus about family history, they would disown me!) I can pretend that I am learning all of this the first time. Yes, a new era is beginning, an era of time when I am feeling the spirit of Elijah and I might actually have time to do something about it since I don't have a new calling yet, other than the one of being a mom to a new baby. (I have a great story from Stephen Covey about that but I will save it for another time.)

A Shift in Seasons and Happy Birthday

2009-09-16T03:42:00.000-07:00

This week we have had rainstorms. They definitely mark a shift in the seasons for me. I feel a crispness in the air that tells me fall is here. This totally fits my life, as now that I have a new baby (4 weeks old on Sunday) I have had a shift in the personal seasons of my life. I now have a little buddy again who is with me constantly, snuggling with me in bed at night and coming with me in the car as I drive older siblings to their classes and riding in the sling next to me during the day. Before this baby was born, my youngest was 3. I was feeling a lot of freedom! As much freedom as a homeschooling mother of six can feel. Now I'm back to feeling like one hand is tied behind my back as I go through the day, navigating through nursing and burping and changing and getting enough sleep for myself and fixing meals for my family and refereeing sword fights among little boys and encouraging some semblance of learning in our homeschool. It's a good thing though; I love my new little guy and there's nothing else I would rather be doing.

It was sixteen years ago today that I gave birth to my firstborn. I am feeling lots of deja vu feelings. The day my firstborn was born, we had a major storm, the first storm of the fall season, just like the fall storms we had on Monday and Tuesday of this week. My new baby woke me up early this morning. It reminded me of waking up at 1:30 AM on September 16, sixteen years ago, to "birthing time surges" (aka labor pains) with my firstborn. I still have all the baby clothes and blankets from when he was a newborn which I am now using with this newborn baby. Both babies are boys and they look a lot alike. As one of my friends remarked to me after I had my third boy, "You just keep having the same baby." Yes, my boys do look like they came from the same cookie cutter.

I can't believe my oldest is sixteen! He's a great kid and has brought a lot of light into my life. He's been very easy to raise and fun too, what with his active, inquiring mind. He never was a kid who asked, "why?" He was a kid who told us the answers. You know what he wants for his birthday? A facebook account. Talk about easy to give. I am not sure that's what is best for him, his dad and I are still discussing that. My son has been a huge blessing in my life, I'm so glad I get to be his mom. In three short years he will be on his mission. I'm pleased he is doing so well with his education and spiritual preparation. Happy birthday!

Boys, Boys, Boys

2009-09-10T01:08:00.000-07:00

As luck would have it, just the week I wanted to hide, when I was 40 weeks pregnant, we had a Cub Scout pack meeting on Tuesday and a court of honor on Thursday, my actual due date. I would have stayed away but two of my boys were both getting rank advancements and would not have been happy if I said I couldn't come. I didn't plan this very well 8 and 11 years ago when I had these two boys did I? They are 3 years apart and I've got a five year old boy too so I am in for YEARS of scout meetings without a break. I also have a 15 year old so I've already been to years of scout meetings and the novelty has worn off. (I have learned that the secret to enduring pack meetings and court of honors is to have a good book tucked in my purse.)

One of the most uncomfortable things I've done is waddle up in front of the whole stake (for some reason the court of honor for my 11-yr-old Scout involved the scout troops of the whole stake) on my due date to get the rank advancement pin with my son. One of the sisters in my ward came up to me afterward and told me I looked miserable. Well, thanks! Yes, I was miserable. Just three days later I had my newest son and he weighed in at 10 lbs! I've included a picture of me at the pack meeting, very pregnant, getting the pin for my son's Wolf rank.

Now that I am the mother of five, yes, count them, five boys I think I am finally getting the message that it would be a good idea to learn more about how boys think. Decades ago when I was 12 or something I pulled a book off of my parents' bookcase, So you Want to Raise a Boy by Cleon Skousen. I learned some amazing stuff from that book. Maybe it's time to reread it. I am learning that boys like weapons. I am learning that they like to be wild. That is OK. One of the Scout leaders in our ward says that the reason he LOVES Scouting is that he gets to play with fire, climb the face of cliffs, handle knives, and do all the dangerous things his mother told him not to do. I think Scouting is the way for boys to channel their wild energy in a safe way.

I have been reading the book Wild at Heart by John Eldredge. He is Christian, but not LDS. Despite the theology that I disagree with, I agree with a lot of what he says. His main point is that God is wild at heart and He shows that through the wildness of nature. Every male is wild at heart and wants to be part of some adventure. If we accept this wildness and let each boy/man discover that he has what it takes to be a wild man then we will be happy.

So I am letting go of telling my boys to be quiet and I have always let them have their weapons. I give up the idea that my home is a sedate place. Things won't always be in perfect control or order. I have trained my boys in doing dishes and housework and baby tending and I also encourage their Scouting adventures. I hope someday my future daughters-in-law will thank me for raising such wonderful boys who are loving and disciplined, yet in touch with their wild side too when it is needed.

A Fabulous Alternative

2009-09-07T14:22:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago my friends treated me to a blessingway, which happened before my baby was born. Not every pregnant mother needs a baby shower, but every pregnant mom could be blessed by a blessingway. This is where the guests come and instead of bringing material gifts, they bring good wishes, a wish for the mom and a wish for the baby. It sounds rather romantic, doesn't it, like it's straight out of Sleeping Beauty. Instead of playing silly games, like guessing what baby food is in which jar, the guests can engage in meaningful activities. This is something every mom could benefit from, whether it's her first baby or her ninth.

I have been to a few blessingways. I've enjoyed the activity of writing down the wishes and then taking turns sharing the wishes aloud, so that's what I wanted to do at mine. KeeNan, my good friend, brought a little photo album and had the guests write the wishes down on small cards to slip into the album.

We enjoyed a potluck dinner and shared birth stories. (No fair telling horror birth stories to pregnant women. Fortunately, my friends shared happy stories.) My friends who organized the blessingway, Sally and KeeNan, provided a tray of beads. As each guest shared her wish she picked a bead to string on a bracelet for me to wear to remind me of my friends' good wishes. Rebecca, one of the guests, gave me a foot massage with some lotion and scrubs provided by Sally. That is one treat that a pregnant woman with edemic feet can't get enough of! Bless you, Rebecca. If you google "blessingway" you will find some other ideas for activities.

So if you have a friend who is pregnant, consider giving her a blessingway. If she already has children she probably already has plenty of baby clothes and doesn't need a baby shower. A blessingway will bless her in ways that a baby shower doesn't.

It's a . . .

2009-08-30T11:05:00.001-07:00

. . .BOY!

My baby was born last Sunday. He's here! A Boy! He was 10 lbs. and 21 inches long. I am so glad that pregnancy is over! I got to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple dedication the same day too. What a sacred day!

He's Here!

2009-08-29T19:34:00.001-07:00

It was eight weeks ago yesterday that my baby was born. I put this post up earlier and then pulled it off, thinking I needed more time and perspective before I published it. That's why the date says August 29th. I now feel ready to publish it again, but today's date is October 19th.

On a Sunday in August when I woke up, I had the thought, "Maybe today is the day! My last two babies were born on a Sunday. Here it is Sunday again...we'll see."

My due date was Thursday August 20. Here it was three days later. I am not going to go into it all the details now, but I had finally decided just the prior Sunday to have my baby at the hospital, instead of at home. My last four babies have been born at home so this was a major shift for me. So I had spent the week readjusting my mind, grieving the loss of a home birth but feeling somewhat relieved, I admit, that I didn't have to finish organizing my bedroom and ask my husband to finish dejunking his dresser top to provide a pristine condition for the birthplace of our new baby.

I was feeling peaceful about my decision and not having any more bad dreams. I have always felt that a woman should be able to choose where to have her baby and that it should be where she feels the safest. For this baby, I felt safer at the hospital. I never thought I would ever think this way after having had four wonderful home births but you never know how things will change in your life. I only made this decision after a lot of prayer and a confirmation from the Holy Spirit that it was in accordance with God's will. I am learning that some things are absolutely true, like the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and other things, like childbirth and mothering, can have variations.

Anyway, I decided to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple dedication. Nobody else in my family wanted to go to the morning session with me, as they were all wanting to sleep in. So I went alone and enjoyed the Spirit. To think, 13 temples in Utah! What a blessing. I especially enjoyed President Uchtdorf's talk. Yes, God our Father wants to give us all that He hath, and temples are needed for Him to do this.

I came home and took a nap while the rest of the family finished their late breakfast and played. I woke up at 12:10 and was lying there in bed awake when I heard a pop and felt a "stitch" break in my cervix, like a loose basting stitch keeping a bag closed. My bag of waters had broken! The fluid came gushing out.

I called to my husband to get me a chux pad between my legs and waddled to the bathroom. Then I started calling people, my lay midwife, Chris, my doula, my parents. Eventually I got to the hospital around 3:00 PM. I didn't want to leave right away because I wasn't even having contractions when the water broke. After an hour they started coming every 10 minutes. I was at a 4 when I got there. I asked to wear my own clothes to labor in (a maternity top and an imitation Binsi skirt) and we played some lovely Christ-centered music on the CD player to help bring the Spirit into the room. (It was my brother-in-law Michael Dowdle's beloved hymns on guitar, see michaeldowdle.com) I am thankful for my Bradley childbirth class over 10 years ago and all that I have learned from childbirth books and my home births which kept me from having a conveyor-belt based birth. One of the nurses actually was ready to give me Pitocin and I had to adamantly refuse.

The baby was born at 6:53 PM. A boy! He was 10 lbs. That's my biggest baby. He's such a cutie! I hemorrhaged a lot, the nurse estimated it was 2-3 pints of blood. I don't know if I had been at home if we would have been able to control the bleeding. Maybe that's partly why I felt I should be at the hospital.

So now we are nine: my husband and I and our seven children, five boys and two girls. The four little ones spent a whole week at Grandma's following the birth. I had a luscious babymoon taking two or three naps each day with my baby in bed with me to catch up on the sleep I lost the first two nights, at the hospital. I am grateful for hospitals and that they are there for when they are needed. I think this whole experience was to help me be nonjudgmental of women's choices in childbirth. Yes, it is possible to have a Christ-centered birth in the hospital.

The Secret of Organization

2009-08-05T09:44:00.000-07:00

I have found the secret of organization. Here it is in 10 easy steps.

1. Have six kids. (Don't laugh! You'll see my point in a minute.)
2. Get pregnant with #7.
3. Have a mother-in-law who is in tune with the Spirit.
4. Live in an 1800 square foot house with a one car garage. Therefore feel like there aren't enough shelves, closets, or cupboards for storage.
5. Have edemic feet that are so stiff they feel like bricks.
6. Have a mother-in-law who calls you up one day and says she feels prompted that she needs to show her love to you by helping you organize and nest before the baby comes.
7. Let her come up. She helps the kids pick up the apricots from the tree in the backyard. She takes one look at your edemic feet and announces she is coming back for another stay the following week.
8. Tell her thank you and let her come, even though she wants to work the day you have a lunch planned with your girlfriends.
9. Go to your lunch, then your prenatal appointment, then the temple.
10. Come home and find that your garage, pantry, and fridge are cleaned and organized! Bless and pray that she won't get sick from this huge energetic output.

There it is. May you all be blessed with the gem of a mother-in-law that I have.

Looking Backward and Forward

2009-07-26T05:05:00.000-07:00

While lying awake after a disturbing dream at 4:30 this morning, I realized that I was awake for the day. Even though I am eight months pregnant, went to bed after midnight, and I could use the rest, my body just wasn't going back to sleep. Great! I thought. I will go blog about my high school reunion. I have been meaning to do this all week.

If you are planning on going to your high school reunion then you are in for some fun, if it is anything like mine was. A week ago I went to my 20 year reunion for the American Fork High class of 1989. It was in two parts. The first part was an icebreaker family picnic at a park in Alpine, Utah. The second part was a fancy, adults-only dinner at a hotel in SLC. That part I couldn't go to. The icebreaker picnic was fabulous though. My husband, who has been to many high school reunions, since he is ancient (50) thinks this reunion was the best, because there was so much mixing and mingling.

It is so hard to believe that it's been 20 years. I grew up in Highland, Utah, and back then all of American Fork, Alpine, and Highland went to the same junior high and high school. Our class had over 400 people. It was amazing to see so many familiar faces and most of the time, I could even remember the name that goes with the face.

Most of the girls have resorted to hair coloring, I noticed. When you see the pictures on Facebook, it is like a peroxide parade. I don't think any of the guys have. A few guys were bald and some of the guys had gray hair. I have to say that one of the guys with gray hair actually looks better. He has some depth and maturity to his looks that flatter him. In three hours' time I had my picnic dinner with my husband and two youngest children, (we left the four oldest at the family reunion we had been having all week in Park City because I knew they would be bored- I get a little bored at my husband's high school reunions and I'm an adult) and then circulated around to talk with at least a dozen people.

It was so liberating to remind myself, "You are not shy anymore. You can talk to whoever you want." Amazingly, labels don't seem to matter much twenty years later. I could talk to the girl jocks, and the cheerleaders and football players, the in-crowd. I was painfully shy in high school and talked more that night to these dozen people than I did through all three years of high school. I was afraid that I would be the only pregnant one there but one of my classmates is also pregnant with her seventh like I am, another with her eighth, and two of my classmates who got married to each other are expecting number 10! Wow! Ten kids in 20 years is not something I want to attempt in this life.

One of my classmates came all the way from Switzerland to attend. I was saddened to hear that one of them had his temple marriage end in divorce when his wife chose an alternative lifestyle. But hooray for him for making it work as a very committed stay-at-home dad. It turns out that one of my classmates plays guitar occasionally with my brother-in-law, Michael Dowdle. Another classmate is a colleague with my brother at BYU as a professor. I am very good friends with another classmate's cousin. It turns out that a handful of my classmates live in Davis County, Utah, like I do, one is even in the same ward here in Layton as a good homeschooling friend of mine, and knows here well. One of my classmates, a scrawny thing who seemed to look prepubescent all three years, now has the girth of Tim Allen in The Santa Clause movie. It was fun to see which classmates had married each other, that is just something that I can't relate to.

If you go to a high school reunion, it helps to bring along an extroverted, garrulous spouse. My dear husband was constantly urging me to go mix and mingle, assuring me that he was watching our two little kids on the playground. Whenever anybody would walk by us while we were eating he would say, "Who's that?" or "Do you know her?" I excused myself to go the restroom (quite a jaunt) and when I came back he was yakking it up with one of my classmates, a person he has never met before, as if he was the one who went to school with him! It turns out this classmate knows my dad, a BYU professor, through his profession as a textbook salesman. I never said anything to this classmate in all my years of knowing him since fourth grade, but he treated me like an old buddy and we had a good time visiting.

I told this story to my sister and she said, "Well Celestia, it looks like you still don't need to do any talking, just have Dan do it for you!" She was referring to a story from my high school days. One of my classmates thought that I couldn't speak because he had never heard me say anything. He told this to another classmate, who knew I could talk because we was in my ward and went to Sunday School with me. The second classmate set out to prove that I could talk. So, across the room, one day in our honors math class, he asked me how many I got wrong on the recent test. Instead of responding verbally, I answered by holding up two fingers. So to this day that other classmate probably still thinks I am mute.

It was soooo fun to visit with all these people. I was not social at all in high school, and I regret that, looking backwards. I think I missed out on what could have been deeper friendships with some quality people. My class had so many good, hard-working, talented kids. Yet I am grateful that I eschewed all the silly social shenanigans kids go through to impress each other and focused on studying hard. I feel I got a great education which opened the door for me to attend and graduate from BYU. I am also grateful that I had nothing to be ashamed of as I faced people at the reunion.

It still seems strange to me that we put over 1200, hormone-raging kids, ages 15-18, in one building, give them textbooks and a lot of distracting extracurricular activities, and expect them to get a high quality, classical education to prepare them for the rest of their lives. Most of them are distracted by their hormones and the social activities. i have never liked the social circus aspect of high school and if I were in charge of secondary education in Utah I would somehow revamp it. Those kids who wanted to play at athletics and social games could have opportunities to play all they wanted, with some service projects involving hard physical work thrown in, and those who wanted to study hard would be in a separate school, which was gender segregated. Looking forward, I am grateful that my kids don't have to endure all the negative aspects of the conveyor belt social circus we call high school.

Almost Heaven, Yet Stressful

2009-07-19T19:38:00.001-07:00

What do the following all have in common?

-living within 100 yards of a swimming pool
-playing Boggle at 9:30 PM
-seeing people I haven't seen in 20 years
-sleeping in every morning
-cutting ten inches off of my daughter's hair
-someone breaking into my house, and then police coming over to check the scene
-packing and then unpacking for a week away from home for our family of 8
-watching BYUTV
-connecting with a brother and his family who have been in China for over two years
-hearing my children complain that they are bored despite being surrounded by siblings and cousins
-sending a son off on Scout camp to go rappelling and hiking for three days
-reading one of Dr. Laura's books
-having a birthday party for my son
-walking in on a room full of teens and tweens at 10:45 PM who have no adult supervision and hear them claim that they can't go to bed yet. This is because they haven't started their "game night" because they have been talking. (This is the night before a 10 AM checkout and nobody has done any packing.)
-feeling deliciously buoyant at 8 months pregnant
-going swimming again after we got home because of one more party
-not having to fix dinner every night
-getting a foot massage from my little sister

All of these things happened in my life this past week. I think I am ready for another vacation! Needless to say I hope I don't see this much excitement all in one week until the birth of my seventh child in a month. Every year my parents invite my four siblings and me and our spouses and children to come vacation at condos in the Marriott timeshare vacation system. It is always a lot of fun to escape the routine of everyday life. Each family gets their own unit and we are usually all on the same floor. It seems almost heaven to be on vacation with my parents, siblings, and the cousins so close.

I have to say this year was the most eventful one yet. We slept in almost every morning, went swimming almost every day, and visited with family. My mom helped the grandkids do beading projects and watercolor paintings. I listened to two of my kids complain about their cousins not wanting to do anything so therefore they were bored.
Halfway during the trip we got word that our house had been broken in to, but it turns out it was just the little neighbor boy coming over to play with my kids. He got too curious and decided to slip in through a back door that was accidentally left unlocked after no response came from knocking. Thankfully, all he took (as far as we can tell) was a Buzz Lightyear toy and a light saber, which he left on our grass. My husband came home during the middle of the week to send my son off on Scout camp to find all this out (and make sure the door was locked when he came back).

My third son turned 8 so we had a big party for him. He got a skateboard and pegs to put on his bike. Now the four-year-old thinks that when he turns five next month we will come back to Park City to celebrate. I got to talk about China with my brother who has lived there for the past 2 1/2 years. I connected with my family but also had some personal and alone downtime. I got to learn about J. Reuben Clark and Henry Eyring by watching BYUTV. I watched a DVD presentation by Leslie Householder. I read a lot of one of Dr. Laura's books. My daughter wanted her hair cut so I cut 10 inches off for locks of love and then my artistic sister evened it up. We each took turns fixing dinner and that was heavenly to have such a long break from thinking about what to have for dinner and preparing it. I enjoyed playing Boggle with my siblings and talking with them about what books they are currently reading. My son left to go hike in the Uintahs. When he got home on Saturday I found out he did a lot more rappelling than hiking and he even did it "Aussie style." (I am glad I was not there to watch that- Google that one if you want to know more.)

To top it off, on Friday night, I left the family enclave and went to my 20-year high school reunion with my husband and two youngest. How strange to see people from my past 20 years ago. I enjoyed mixing and mingling. I probably did more talking with a dozen people from my class than I ever did in high school, as I was extremely shy back then. See my next post for more on that. Then after we got home and unpacked we got ready to go out again and attend a picnic and swimming party for all of my midwife's clients, past and present, at North Ogden's water park. So, I think my pregnant adrenals and edemic feet have had enough fun for a week and it's time to enjoy the routine life.

The Best Independence Day So Far

2009-07-14T15:35:00.000-07:00

Now that I am on vacation and things have settled down a bit in my life (last week was for getting ready for a week in Park City for my family of 8, no easy task to be done in a single day, and attending a homeschooling seminar) I can catch up on my blogging. Thanks to the gift of a used laptop from my brother-in-law who didn't want to pack it up to move, we can now be online while on vacation. Hopefully it will prove to be only a blessing. I don't want to be addicted to our electronic pastimes.

Happily, I report that our Independence Day was the best we've had so far. (In our family, we stress the importance of saying "Independence Day" not "the Fourth of July" because we want to remember that this holiday is about a concept, a very important one, and not just a date. Just like we want to keep calling Christmas, Christmas, not, "the 25th.") The reason it was so great was because it wasn't full of self-congratulatory patriotism, gluttony, and a pacified feeling of "all is well in Zion" but a reminder of what our Founding Fathers truly founded (a republic of republics, not a democracy). We also learned about the serious trouble our country is in. At a "tea party" that our neighbor organized in our hometown of Layton City, Utah, we became aware of resources we can use to learn more and do more. To top it all off and lighten it up, we had some delicious food at two different picnics, one with a lot of our neighbors.

My husband and I attended a presentation the night before Independence Day, by Stephen Pratt, from libertyandlearning.com. I was so excited, I felt I was going to a rock concert. He is a celebrity in my mind. I have listened to and watched all of his videos available on his website, which I just mentioned. He taught us about what sovereignty is. We learned a lot about early American history, about Federalists, anti-Federalists, the Massachusetts school of thought, and the struggle between advocates of states' rights and those who pushed for a centralization of power at the federal level, especially Hamilton, Daniel Webster, and Lincoln.

"What do we celebrate on the Fourth of July?" asked Mr. Pratt. After teaching us a bit, he answered his question. He said that we celebrate the ideals of Jefferson that have been lost in a Hamiltonian world. In other words, we celebrate the idea of independence that we don't truly have in this nation of increasing socialism and restrictions of freedom at the federal level. It was a sobering thought to ponder.

The next day we attended the Tea Party that our civic-minded neighbor sponsored. Please see teapartypatriots.org. I learned that Layton has many people who feel like I do that our federal government is out of control with too much spending, too many regulations, and unwise proposals, like "cap and trade." Here are some resources that were spoken of to learn more:

the912project.com
Google "Obama deception"
Google "Bob Basso" and watch his portrayal of Thomas Paine and his plea for a second American revolution

I haven't researched these so I can't vouch for them completely, but I am thinking there is some truth in them. If the people in Book of Mormon days struggled with men who were seeking for too much power in government (read the book of Ether, it's amazing) and forming secret combinations to threaten liberty of individual, average people, how could we not have that problem today? We are no more righteous than they were.

Doing Hard Things, Like Seeking Forgiveness

2009-06-26T19:55:00.000-07:00

Whew! I feel a lot better. All week I have felt like I should apologize to a close family member about something. I called her Monday and left a message of apology. Mercilessly, my conscience kept needling me, letting me know that I should call back and actually talk to her. I kept having visions of her being surly on the other end and unforgiving.

Well, I finally got her on the phone today after taking a big breath and just going for it before I could talk myself out of it like I did on other days this week. (I called yesterday but she wasn't home again.) She was very merciful and accepted my apology. I should have known. Many times I imagine the worst. It does feel good to do hard things like this! I am so thankful for the example of Jesus Christ in doing hard things. May we all feel his mercy and love and extend this love to others.

Sometimes Little Sisters Are Right

2009-06-17T07:08:00.000-07:00

Ooooh, I just have to tell you about this set of books I recently finished reading. My younger sisters had both recommended this set to me. This set of books is by the author Thyra Ferre Bjorn, who was born in Sweden but came to the United States with her family as young woman. It took me years to read them. I was somewhat skeptical, thinking, "How could my sisters notice a book that I missed?" After all, I had been the one to introduce Anne of Green Gables to them and some other great books.

Finally I swallowed my pride and looked for this book at the public library. I read the first book last summer and the next two this past spring. I have to agree, these are among my favorite books. It's actually a trilogy. My public library has the books as three in one volume: Papa's Wife, Papa's Daughter, and Mama's Way. Out of the three, Papa's Wife is probably my favorite. Sometimes I read so many "heavy" books that I need something light. Especially if I am pregnant, sick, or postpartum. But I don't want brain candy. I still want something meaningful. I am almost seven months pregnant and was recently very sick with hayfever. This trilogy is what got me through without scratching my eyes out.

So This trilogy fits the bill perfectly of wanting something light but meaningful. The first book is about the author's family when she was growing up. She was the daughter of a Baptist preacher in Sweden. The story of how her parents got married shows how clever and determined her mother was. Her father was stern, but loving, and her mother was a generous, loving, hard-working, God-believing woman who shows how to be a great wife and mother. The stories of the family's adventures are cheery and delightful. The whole book feels like a blythe summer day, light and happy. Her mother's pluck will make you laugh.

The second book is not so light. The author, who is the main character (yet she writes in third person) does experience some tragedy in her adulthood. Her faith in God brings her through. Finally, in the third book, she speaks in first person. We hear her tell of her "Mama's Way," which is to have faith in God and pray, knowing that your prayer will be answered. She tells several stories of how her own prayers and those of her friends were answered. I love hearing these stories of miracles! I also enjoyed hearing her tell he mother's version of the story of the prophet Enoch. Latter-day Saint Christians have an extended story of what happened to Enoch. It is fun to hear other Christians' interpretations of Enoch's story. The author also describes how she became an author and a public speaker and the different people she met as she traveled and spoke.

So if you want a yummy summer read, something that is happy and bolstering of your faith in God, grab these books and dig in!

A Visit From an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ

2009-06-14T06:54:00.000-07:00

I love this picture of blossoms on my neighbor's tree. It is a visual treat for me. Unfortunately, it fades after a week or so. I enjoy spiritual treats because they last forever. A week ago the members of the Layton Utah Stake got a spiritual treat: a visit from Elder Robert D. Hales, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, to our stake conference. This was the second time I have heard Elder Hales speak in person. The last time was eight years ago when we vacationed at Palm Desert CA and attended stake conference there, where he spoke. I remember being deeply impressed by the things he said then, and I felt the same way this time.

It was so amazing to hear this man speak. He used no notes, from what I could tell, and just went on and on, speaking forth gems of wisdom, for over half an hour in both sessions. He are some snippets of what he said, both from the adult meeting on Saturday night and the general meeting Sunday morning. I also include a few things his lovely wife Mary said below in the Sunday session.

He said that in the last General Conference he spoke on provident living. Impromptu, he decided to speak on "provident living" for relationships. So most of what this is relates to marriage and family.

-he shared that when he got married (he was coming up on his wedding anniversary, June 10, 1953, that Elder Harold B. Lee was there for the ceremony in the temple. I am assuming that Elder Lee was the sealer perhaps. Elder Lee took him aside after the ceremony and said, "Never raise your voice in anger to your wife or children, because you will be left alone. The Spirit will leave you and you will make wrong choices."

-in your companionships as husbands and wives, ask yourself, "What is it about ourselves we need to do to be stronger?"

-he took out some kind of personal electronic device, like an iPhone, from his pocket, and then declared something like, "it's amazing to have such a device with such capabilities, right here on my hip, but you have everything you need already, you can pray to God, it's better than texting."

-he told the husbands to ask their wives what they can to be better husbands. "Then brace yourself. It's going to be the worst 30 minutes of your life." But then, he said the wives will ask their husbands what they can do to be better wives.

-he asked the wives in the congregation what they want from their husbands and the first person who raised her hand said, "to listen." Elder Hales said that listening means hearkening, and it is a form of revelation. He said that when he was a mission president he felt he really listened to the elders. He told his wife that if he had listened to his sons while they were growing up like he did his elders that he would have served them better.

-he told the husbands that when they come home from work, the first half hour of their time should be spent asking the wife, "How did your day go?" and then really listen.

-he stated that there are three kinds of prayer and three kinds of study 1. individual, 2. companion, and 3. family. They can be overlapped. According to him, most of what he preaches comes from the companionship prayer and study that he has with his wife, Mary. (His wife sounds like quite the woman. He shared "the rest of the story" about his wife and the coat he wanted to buy for her, part of which he shared in the last General Conference. If you want to know the rest of the story you will have to ask me in person and I will tell you. It is hilarious.)

-What is the first thing to put on a blank calendar every month? He said that he asked this question once at a meeting and people said things like FHE, family prayer, temple attendance, church attendance, but no, it is date night with your spouse. He also stated that your children need to know that you value going on a date and that you do it every week. He said it doesn't have to be fancy, like going to the opera or ballet, just a time when you go somewhere alone and can talk. Then he said, as a nod to the men in the room, hey, you can have a ratio of something like, two Jazz games for every ballet, and he laughed.

-He shared that he believed that going to the temple is a great date night. He told the couples to go off in the celestial room together to talk some. He said, "The adversary will never get a temple recommend." I think he was implying that the temple is a superb place to have a talk together because you aren't subject to Satan's temptations there.

-He said that we have the gift of something very precious, that we can tell people what the gate of heaven is, baptism, and how to obtain it. "I want you to know that you are loved," he said. "I was going to talk about the economy, but that would have been very boring, so I changed the topic at the last minute."

From Sister Hales
-we live in a world that has had plain and precious truths taken away from the general knowledge of people. As a result, Satan has great influence.

-the story of Enoch in the Pearl of Great Price, has important information about agency. You can read it in less than an hour.

-a person doesn't mature or grow until he uses his agency.

-this bad economy is not a test or trial of the Lord, it is a result of men choosing to follow Satan, choosing greed and dishonesty.

more from Elder Hales
-Satan's plan involved two things 1. Give all the glory to Satan, and 2. every soul will come back to the Father, no one will fail. This must have been tempting, but the price was too great. The price was that every spirit would come back out of fear and force, instead of obeying out of love. The Savior's plan involved love. The Savior knew what He was getting into. During the worst of it, as He atoned for our sins, an angel was sent to strengthen Him. This shows that God will not tempt us more than we can bear.

-What does it mean to "always remember Him (the Savior)? It means that we get to know Him and remember His role

-the story of the brother of Jared shows that the Lord already knows what we want. The Lord wants to know what we are willing to do about our problems. "Will you go to your Heavenly Father in prayer and ask for what you want? You will be given a feeling."

-he asked us to read John 17 as a family to see that Jesus and God the Father are separate beings, but united in purpose. "I ask the Lord's blessings upon you. May you overcome the fear of man and share the gospel with others."

I feel so blessed to have heard him speak and feel his apostolic blessings. He is truly a special witness of Jesus Christ in these latter-days. i feel that he was inspired by the Holy Ghost to change his message on Saturday night just for me and my husband.

-

She Wore a Skirt and Smiled About It!

2009-06-13T16:19:00.001-07:00

My youngest child, who I call Glory, age 3, has been so unpredictable. I have learned not to count on her wearing anything that I want her to wear, unless I want to put a battle up for it. I do this every Sunday when I put a dress on her for church. I let her wear boys' clothes the other days (she raids her brother's dresser) but I do put my foot down on Sunday. So many people think I have four little boys when I go places with her three big brothers (the oldest brother, age 15 is usually at home) and her in tow, wearing boy clothes. It doesn't help that my genes produce bald babies that don't get much hair until after age 4. My other daughter (age 13) was never like this and loved to dress in pretty clothes, often changing her clothes six times a day. It's hard not to compare the two.

Somewhat sadly, I took the luscious pink velour jacket and matching skirt set that I had been wishing she would wear for over a year now and put it in the D.I. box. Lo and behold, miracles happen! She came to me a half hour later, having donned the pink jacket and wanted me to zip it up. Then later on she came downstairs while I was reading and announced, "I am wearing a skirt!"

I just had to take a picture while she was so enthusiastic, so here it is. Miracles do happen!

The Many Faces of Homeschooling

2009-06-09T12:57:00.000-07:00

Last week was the last week of our official school year. We do homeschool, and have from the beginning (none of my six children have attended public school and the oldest is 15) but since my son took seminary at the local jr. high seminary we followed the school year in that way. We got up with him every morning for family prayer and scripture study at 6:30 to send him off at 7 AM for seminary.

I do like to have my children do schoolwork in the summer (in my pre-TJED days my two oldest did math and handwriting every day year-round), but since I changed to TJED I am still figuring out how to inspire my two middle aged kids to do schoolwork in the regular school year, and now summer is here and I am still figuring it out. So I got a book on math for myself to read (you know, "you, not them"). They are both in core phase still (do a search on tjedonline.com to get a definition of that)so they get to do a lot of work with me, dishes and babysitting and weeding and dejunking. I am hoping that one day they will decide they would rather read and study than do house and yard work.

Anyway, I thought I would put some pictures up of different activities we did for homeschooling. Some people who have never homeschooled might think that homeschooling is a very lonely, isolated activity, but that's not true. We have so many outside activities to pick from that I have to limit them or I would go crazy with so much chauffeuring. Here are pictures of my son's debate and speech class that was held at my friend Patty's home, once a week for the whole school year.

Some people think if you homeschool you have to be your child's teacher for every subject. That's not true either. It just means that you have the freedom to pick and choose from what's available at the public school and from any other private teacher or mentor, which can include neighbors. So many fantastic options are available these days, from online distance learning to DVDs on subjects like math and biology to commonwealth schools and momschools.

My son took a class for Thomas Jefferson Youth Certification from this same friend Patty this past year and we asked our neighbor to be his "writing mentor." This meant that he proofread his papers and gave feedback. That took a load off of me, believe me. So if you are deciding on whether or not to homeschool, know that you don't have to be every teacher for every subject for every child in your family. You are the facilitator, the executive producer so to speak, and you can do some delegating. You can also do a lot of inspiring and take trips to the library so that your children learn a lot on their own from great books.

My son took this great speech and debate class from a young man named Sam Martineau. They even had a homeschoolers' speech and debate tournament this spring for all the classes that Sam taught, along the Wasatch Front here in Utah. I enjoyed watching the students show off their skills on the last day of class. Here are some pictures from that. I always knew speech and debate would be good for me to study in high school but I was so shy I never took the class. I am happy with what my son learned. I know I could not have taught him the same content with such ease that Sam did. and my daughter (13 years old and much more bold than I was, no "Ophelia syndrome" for her) wants to take the class next year too.

The Power of Fasting

2009-06-07T05:26:00.001-07:00

For most Latter-day Saint Christians, today is a day of fasting,prayer, and testimony bearing, known as Fast Sunday. It is not for us because our stake is having stake conference, with Elder Robert D. Hales. My husband and I got to hear him last night at the adult session, and it was such a spiritual treat. (More on that later.) So we had our Fast Sunday last week. We fasted for some much needed blessings.

I know that fasting works. I have several stories of the power of fasting, and I thought I would share one with you every Fast Sunday. Last New Year's Eve, our dog, Roxy, ran away. We had left to spend the night at my mom's to celebrate with my children's cousins. We asked the neighbor girl to come feed Roxy that night and the next morning. Roxy got scared with all of the firecrackers going off for New Year's Eve and ran away. Our neighbors saw her tear down the street, the fastest they had ever seen a dog run.

So when we got home on New Year's Day, she was gone. That was Thursday. On the following Sunday, Fast Sunday, we fasted and prayed that she would come back to us. Well, after church, my son, who is 15, was coming home from collecting the fast offerings and he found her walking up the street back to our home! She had been gone for three days and four nights, who knows where, out in the freezing cold winter, without the protection of her heated dog house. She was limping and her paws were bloody, but she had come home. Our fasting and prayers were answered.

My husband and son took her to the vet and we found out she had broken a leg and needed an operation. The vet estimated from her bloody paws that she must have run for miles away from our home. The operation was successful and she has healed. We are grateful for this miracle. But if there is a next time, we will fast that she comes home healthy!

I think fasting works because it draws upon the power of our thoughts to put laser mind energy on what we want. My friend and best-selling author, Leslie Householder teaches about the power of thoughts in her books, The Jackrabbit Factor, (get a free PDF copy at jackrabbitfactor.com) and in Hidden Treasures (order at thoughtsalive.com). You can watch her present "The Stickman concept" on youtube.com (just type in her name in the search box) for more about the power of thoughts. When we fast every time we feel hunger pangs we can repeat in our mind the prayer or request to God of what we are fasting for. Fasting helps us direct our thoughts towards what we want. God has told us that whatsoever we ask in the name of Christ, believing that we shall receive, we shall receive.

The power of thoughts is real. You can learn more about the power of thoughts by studying the work of a Japanese scientist at hado.net. and his book, The Message of Water. Water that had positive energy sent to it by people's thoughts or just by the label of a beautiful word shows beautiful crystal formations. And what is prayer and fasting but positive mental energy? If you have any stories about the power of fasting, I would love for you to share in the "comments" section.

A Grand Tradition in the Making

2009-06-04T14:23:00.000-07:00

The picture of a bunch of kids in costume is from the Shakespeare play, A Midsummer's Night Dream, that my two oldest children helped perform recently. I was really impressed with the quality of the performance this year. The costumes were so grand and the acting very good for youth ages 12 to 16. It helped to have a synopsis of each scene printed in the program. I wouldn't have understood it otherwise, because my Shakespearese is not good. This play performance was sponsored by the Commonwealth School, organized by homeschooling parents, that my two oldest attend, here in north Davis County, Utah.

The other pictures are from my daughter's "Key of Liberty" class while they had their Constitution Bowl, answering questions about the Constitution, and then from their Awards Night.

This is a school based on principles of the Thomas Jefferson Education philosophy for youth who are in scholar phase. It's kind of like a co-op but better. I've done a few co-ops in my homeschooling days. The commonwealth school is set up to keep running even after the families who start it leave because their kids get too old. It is meant to be governed at the local, small community level, just like the old-fashioned one-room schoolhouses were. It has a board of parents who run it, and then a slate of teachers/mentors who are also parents with children in the school. A constitution outlines the rules for it. The concept was developed by Tiffany Earl, under guidance from Oliver DeMille, author of A Thomas Jefferson Education book. Tiffany asked Aneladee Milne to be her partner and they are constantly refining the idea. They do weekly conference call training to the teachers/mentors, so there's a lot of support. I love the name for it "commonwealth," for that implies that it is for the common good of all involved.

Most Commonwealth schools I know of meet at Baptist or other non-LDS church buildings. They use curriculum prepared by LEMI (see lemiinstitute.com). LEMI was started by Aneladee and Tiffany, two moms who love the TJED philosophy and have created projects for scholar phasers. These are projects to help youth learn about the Constitution, Shakespeare, the War between the States (aka the Civil War) principles of math and science, and
great statesmen in world history.

The youth meet once a week to work on these scholar projects in classes and then do the rest of the work at home. This once a week school has been perfect for my youth to have an opportunity to meet with peers and have a social life with other homeschoolers. If you homeschool and have children 12 and up who are getting bored of homeschooling, this may be just the thing for them. If you have been doing regular "conveyor belt" schooling with your kids and are dissatisfied with that as well as the generally silly and vulgar junior high atmosphere, this may be a much better alternative.

You can learn all about LEMI and commonwealth schools at lemiinstitute.com. You can take the training this summer to start one up for the fall in your community. I think you will love the results. Aneladee and Tiffany are having a webinar on Friday June 12, 2009 to help parents learn more about being a mentor to their children for their children's education. I encourage you to go to lemiinstitute.com to learn more. You can buy the book about Commonwealth Schools to learn about their history at the web site. I think they are a wonderful idea, a grand tradition in the making, and I hope they will spread all over the globe. Right now they are mostly in the western United States but every year more sprout up. Maybe you will start one!

The Secret of Exercise

2009-06-02T14:48:00.000-07:00

I have found the secret to exercising. Just find something really exciting to watch or listen to while you do it. I finally got into the habit of getting up early every morning and exercising before the kids woke up after my last baby was born over three years ago. I am in a very good routine, just in time to get upset. My new baby will born in August and then I get the challenge of starting over, figuring out when to exercise with a nursing baby. Sometimes a baby gets up VERY early and doesn't want to go back to sleep. He/she isn't content to just sit there and watch me exercise either. I am into attachment parenting, but a Velcro baby that I wear even while exercising is beyond my comfort zone, and I don't have a jogger stroller. I love having babies and nursing, but sometimes it gets tricky to always be "on call" to nurse when I am in the middle of something else that can't be done at the same time.

They do eventually fall into a rhythm though, and I have found the secret to making babies sleep longer so I can "get something done" in predictable snatches of time (More on that in another post later.) Anyway, I thought I would share some of my favorite URLs for things to listen to while I exercise. I jog in place on an old couch cushion close to the computer in our family room (I broke our minitramp that I'd been using, thanks to pregnancy weight gain). Maybe if I get really ambitious I will download some of them and go walking outside now that the weather is nice, but don't count on it.

You can download these onto your mp3 players and listen to them during family car trips or just while you are working in the kitchen. Most of what I am listing is for moms and dads, some for the whole family. Best of all, they are all free!

1. lds.org Did you know you can download mp3 files of General Conference, as well as the Teachings of the Presidents of the Church Joseph Smith manual, the church magazines, and the scriptures? Even the study guide for the Sunday School class lessons, with all the corresponding scriptures to read? I teach nursery so I don't get to go to Sunday School or Relief Society anymore. I listen to the lessons on my iPod during the week and that's when I get my spiritual instructions. When we went to Arizona last fall we listened to the Friend magazine on my iPod hooked up to our car stereo speakers. It made the trip much better for the kids.

2. libertyandlearning.com Oooh, this one is so good! Stephen Pratt, who was mentored by Cleon Skousen, presents lessons on American history that are very eye-opening and thought-provoking. These are not your traditional boring high school American history lessons. He teaches things that I never knew before and probably 99% of Americans don't know. Watch the Founding of America, parts one to three. The intro music is a little obnoxious, you can just click on "skip intro" if you don't want to hear it., then click on "videos" on the left.

3. awakeandarise.org This site is set up by LDSaints devoted to principles of liberty. It has some old speeches by Pres. Ezra Taft Benson, Ernest L. Wilkinson, and Cleon Skousen. It also has some more Stephen Pratt lectures, such as this one here awakeandarise.org/article/empire_no_clothes.htm. (Sorry I didn't make that a link, I have tried before and it gets messed up when I publish the post. Just copy and paste please.)

3. monticello.org This is the site for Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home.

4. byub.org You can listen to Education Week speeches, BYU Women's Conference speeches, and my favorite, scripture discussions by BYU professors. I am finally understanding Isaiah after listening to these. I am currently listening to the D&C episodes to correspond with the Sunday School readings and the Isaiah episodes too.

5. librivox.org This site has some classic literature read aloud by volunteers. We have listened to Girl of the Limberlost (one of my favorite books) in the car by downloading it from here. It's free, so don't expect great, dramatic narrators. After all, they are volunteers. You can expose your kids and yourself to a lot of the classics here (not every classic, just those that are in the public domain).

6.speeches.byu.edu This has even more great auricle goodies from zoobie land. You can even find a talk by Gandhi's grandson, full of great stories! A lot of the content is free. This site has most of the talks given in the Marriott Center for devotionals and forums.

7. gw.edu/misc/radio/ From April to December of 2008, a group of everyday people who are studying classics met together once a week to discuss them on a radio show in Monticello, Utah. The discussions were facilitated by Shanon Brooks, one of the honchos from George Wythe College. They picked some fascinating books and articles. You can even print some of the articles as PDFs for free.

7. svu.edu This is Southern Virginia University, a private school for LDS, not owned, however, by the LDS church, like BYU is. I was excited to find that one of my former neighbors from Provo, Glade Hunsaker, former professor of English at BYU, has a speech here. Just click on speeches on the right side of the bar.

8. tjedonline.com This is the personal web site of Oliver and Rachel DeMille, who came up with the Thomas Jefferson Education philosophy/movement. You can get some free audio downloads here as well as some for a fee.

9. azlaf.org/southwest-tjed-forum/2008. These are free mp3 files from the a TJED forum held in Mesa, Arizona. How nice of AZLAF to put them up for free.

10. shelovesgod.com. This is the site of an LDS woman, Marnie Pehrson. She has a lot of free audio files for Christian women by different speakers. They are inspirational and comforting.

11. jeffersonhour.org. This is the site of a TJ impersonator. He does a weekly radio show. It is interesting to hear the thoughts of someone who has studied Jefferson so intently.

12. For fun, think of a topic or person you are interested in and go to youtube.com, and type it into the search box. I have found some fascinating things here on a range of topics such as the stickman concept from Leslie Householder, the beattitudes of Christ by Cleon Skousen, the infinite banking concept, and why the Federal Reserve is a bad thing. Just be careful, YouTube has bad stuff too.

13. cookusinterruptus.com This one will help you fall in love with fixing food for your family again. It's "how to cook fresh organic whole food despite life's interruptions." You click on a recipe and then it shows you how to make it. What a great idea!

14. classical89.org/thinkingaloud/past.asp These are episodes from the "Thinking Aloud" series that airs every weekday morning on BYU's radio station, Classical 89 FM. They cover a huge range of topics, from breastfeeding rates to classical works (the first Monday of every month) to the Golden Section. Fascinating information!

15. For even more great free stuff, go here ldshomeschoolinginca.org/audio.html.

Happy listening as you exercise, purge your house, prepare meals, and take those fun family car trips! Just don't ask me how to download these files onto an mp3 player. I have a resident technological consultant, my 15-year-old son, who does all of mine. Maybe you can borrow a neighbor kid if you need help.