Welcome!

About me...

I'm a happy Mormon mom with a husband and a passel of kids. I graduated from BYU in my first life with a degree in zoology/premed emphasis. I have put that to work in my second life of raising a zooful of children. I love being married, mentoring my children, writing, playing the piano, homeschooling, discovering the treasures in the scriptures, reading books, conversing with friends about the books I am reading, gardening, and breastfeeding babies.

I rejoice in my Savior Jesus Christ and my membership in His church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. See http://lds.org

I'm totally into mothering through breastfeeding and attachment parenting and other natural crunchy mom things. I believe that traditional marriage between one man and one woman, the stay-at-home mom, and the nuclear family with mom and dad and children, all happy at home, are all endangered species that warrant more attention than saving the earth. Relying on the gospel of Jesus Christ, as restored by Joseph Smith, and following God's prophets, are the keys to saving these forms. As we save the traditional family environment, even the extended family through saving ordinances in the temple, the earth will be saved.

I believe that, as Elder James Talmage says in the new book, Daughters In My Kingdom, p. 3,  that Jesus Christ is the greatest champion of women and womanhood. Eternal women's liberation does not come from political means, but through our Savior Jesus Christ's atonement. 

One of the happiest days of my life was when I was two weeks away from delivering my first baby. I left the 9-to-5 work-force world forever. My job was lab technician at a laboratory at a medical school. I came home to be a full-time, stay-at-home mom, much to my supervisor's dismay. He wanted me to have a maternity break and return to full-time work. I knew my full-time work would now be at home. Words can't express the elation I felt when I at last held my baby in my arms after giving birth. I knew I would never go back to the work-force but would devote the rest of my life to the career of motherhood. For one year in my life (before that job) I thought I would pursue a medical degree and applied to medical school. I didn't get accepted to the places I applied, but instead of reapplying to different schools I seriously reflected on my life. I knew I wanted to start having babies and would not want to divide myself between school and babies. Babies won out and I have been having them ever since! 

Recently, that first baby went to college. As I saw him compete and then win a scholarship for college, I knew deep in my heart that this boy would not have been the same boy if I had left him in full-time day care and public school. He is partly who he is because of me! That is something every mom can say, for better or worse. We can rejoice in the good parts and leave the not-so-good parts to the atonement of Jesus Christ.  It's so sweet to see the fruits of your labor as a mom! 

I believe that we women are just barely discovering the power we have in the simple, female activities of bearing children, breastfeeding, nurturing with whole foods, having family dinners, connecting with and teaching children, loving a husband as a wife, and being a good neighbor. That's not to say that's all we do or can do! Being a woman is an honor. We have so much power and so many gifts to bless lives with. We have the power to nurture little people with big gifts who can change the world.

If your favorite magazines are Mothering magazine (mothering.com) and Ensign  (http://ensign.lds.org) you have come to the right place!

I founded Tree of LIfe Mothering as a social network where LDS Christian women could have a place to talk about natural family living with an LDS perspective. As I have been home having babies for the past 18 years, I have enjoyed the freedom and empowerment from natural family planning, natural childbirth, breastfeeding, homeschooling, and other practices of natural family living (not circing, not vaxing, home birthing, herbing, eating real foods, resisting commercialization attempts at children, and more). I have a book, Tree of Life Mothering, that will come out sometimes before I die. It applies the Tree of Life metaphor in the Book of Mormon to many aspects of natural mothering.  With seven kids you just learn not to predict things with exact times.

If you are a female member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and are into natural crunchy mom things, this is the place for you! Come join us! We've got discussion boards, a blog (where I am the chief blogger, but any member can post a blog) and links to lots of cool resources. Enjoy the site and leave comments! Feel free to post links to your blog or site.