Free Herbal Materia Medica Course For The New Year From Herbal Academy!

On January 2 the Herbal Academy, International School of Herbal Arts and Sciences, is releasing their Free Herbal Materia Medica Course. As a wonderful way to kickoff the New Year, this program will guide students through the process of creating their own personal materia medicas and teach them how to study and observe plants using the “one herb at a time” method. In the course you will learn what a materia medica is (if you don’t already know) and follow along with the Herbal Academy’s step-by-step instructions on how to research a plant. The Academy's hope is to equip students with the tools and resources they need so that they feel more confident about studying herbs on their own!

Included in this course:

1. 6 thoughtful lessons that will walk you through creating your own materia medica
2. Free materia medica journal pages for download and print
3. A handy step-by-step guide to completing plant monographs
4. Helpful study aids, tools, and charts that will enrich your studies on topics such as safety and dosage, researching, plant identification, tea meditation, and more
5. An extensive list of references to support your research
6. Activities and tutorials to encourage hands-on experience
7. 20% off herbs at Bulk Herb Store during the month of January
8. Access to the Herbal Academy’s beautiful Student Platform
9. A badge of completion upon graduation

As a companion offering of the free Herbal Materia Medica Course, you have will have the option to upgrade your registration to include the Herbal Academy’s beautifully illustrated Materia Medica Journal. With the ability to accommodate 50 botanical monographs, this journal also includes many of the useful reference charts from the Herbal Materia Medica Course including those on plant identification, herbal safety, and researching tips and tricks.

Best of all, the Herbal Materia Medica Course is free during the entire month of January! Designed for herbalists and non-herbalists alike, all are welcome to join in this short course for free, which will be offered January 2 through January 31. Register for class here starting January 2nd!

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I wrote this post to let my readers know about this free course. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. Affiliate links may be in this posting. Thanks for supporting my blog.

Bible Origami Review

“Bible Origami” Summary:
Keep your children’s hands busy during church services with Bible Origami. Instead of folding the service programs into paper airplanes, they can fold Noah’s ark, an oil lamp, or Joseph’s coat! As you develop the unique skill of creating these simple-to-intermediate origami designs, you will find opportunities to use them with all ages for lessons, activities, crafting, and everyday fun!

About The Author:
Todd Huisken is a licensed marriage and family therapist and the counseling manager at LDS Family Services in Fountain Valley, California. He attended Brigham Young University and the University of San Diego and has a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy. Todd has served as the assistant director of Disaster Mental Health Services for the Orange County Chapter of the American Red Cross. He has worked with victims from the San Diego fires, Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina, and spent two weeks in Haiti after the devastating earthquake in 2010. He was an early morning seminary teacher for six years. He is the author of The Dating Directory and the founder of Process and Content, a graduate program newsletter at the University of San Diego. Todd has been married to his beautiful wife for twenty-one years and they have three daughters and a son.

Our Thoughts:
We love this paperback book! Origami is such a great hobby and these designs are definitely better than paper airplanes. While some of the projects in this book are simple others are quite involved. Each one has what skill level is required. There are a total of three skill levels. There are a total of 24 designs from the Old and New Testament. These have all the steps from start to finished design. Some designs even have more than one part to follow, while others need scissors to be finished. Each origami design also has "Did You Know?" facts about the item or passage in the Bible. These are really interesting and I learned all sorts of neat things from these. This book would be wonderful to incorporate with bible lessons, activities, crafting, and everyday enjoyment! Also great to keep children's hands busy doing something Biblical during church services for quiet, more reverent children.

I am a little disappointed though that all the pictures inside the book are all in black and white and are just drawings of the step-by-step folds. While this is still very helpful, I am very visual and would also love color representations of each of the finished designs after the instructions end, for each. I love that they do have some of these color pictures on the front and back cover of the book. I know that if done, that this would bring the cost to publish the books up, but I think that it would be eye pleasing and worth it to the author.

The author was so very kind enough to give us an envelope full of origami paper along with the book so that we could try some of the designs out ourselves with the instructions. We made the fox and the dove so far. The instructions were straight forward and easy to follow. It helps though that you get an overview of origami folds in the beginning of the book. You might want to brush up on these before you dive in, especially for the more advanced pieces.


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Besides Bible Origami the author, Todd Huisken, has two other fun origami books: Mormon Origami and More Mormon Origami.






DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I received this product for free to facilitate this review. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review. Affiliate links can be found in this post. Thank you for your support of this blog!

Babushka: A Christmas Tale Book Review

I received this book free to facilitate this review. Affiliate links may be in this posting. Thanks for supporting my blog.

Babushka A Christmas Tale is a dusk-jacketed hardcover children's book written by Dawn Casey and illustrated by Amanda Hall. This classic Russian folk tale is about an old grandmother that loves to have a tidy home. One night while working on her chores she hears a knock on the door and invites three travelers inside to rest and have a bite to eat. She hears their story of where they are headed and is intrigued. After the three travelers are warm and well fed they get up to leave and ask if Babushka would like to travel with them. Politely she declines since after all, she is not done with her chores. The next morning she wakes and decides to find the baby the three spoke of and starts off on her own with handmade gifts in a basket. On her journey she cannot find the tracks of the three men, but finds others that are in need and helps them each with a gift from her basket.

This story is a wonderful tale that will warm your heart during the chilly winter. It reminds you and your family of the true meaning of this joyous holiday season. The lovely illustrations capture Russian folk art and bring this tale to life with patterns and color. I love that this story has a wonderful moral and theme of sharing love with others. The generosity of the old lady should remind us of how Christmas should be, a holiday of giving. I recommend it as the perfect gift for anyone for the Christmas season!

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DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I received this product for free to facilitate this review. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review. Affiliate links can be found in this post. Thank you for your support of this blog!

Leonard's Beard Book Review

I received this book free to facilitate this review. Affiliate links may be in this posting. Thanks for supporting my blog.

“Leonard's Beard” Summary:
Each day Leonard’s beard grows longer and longer, and more wild and untamed, but he doesn’t notice because as a writer, he is so engrossed in writing his stories. After a large storm passes over his house, Leonard discovers just how out of control his beard has gotten. He finds strange things that have gotten stuck in there, including a mouse, a bird, and some apples. As Leonard removes the items from his beard, he comes to realize that being consumed with writing adventures has prevented him from having his own. For ages 3-6.

Our Thoughts:
The book, Leonard's Beard, written and illustrated by Nancy Cote is so adorable! We love the sweet, funny illustrations on each of the 32 pages! This book got giggles from my girls as they read what Leonard had to pull from his beard. Aside from the lyrical words of the story that rhyme and wonderful illustrations, this book has a great message. You've likely heard the age old adage: “Energy flows, where attention goes”. This holds very true in this book. It shows how important it is to give attention to where it needs to go and live your life to the fullest. We should have adventure, play, fun, friendship, family, discovery, passion, inspiration, and also love life, not just write these things in stories or live in our fantasies. Such a great message in a wonderfully written and illustrated book! I recommend Leonard's Beard very highly!

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Website: http://www.nancycote.com/ 
Read about how the author and illustrator got the idea for this story HERE.
Nancy’s Twitter: @nancycote31
Nancy’s Instagram: @nancycote31
Nancy's Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/people/14778565@N02/ 

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DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I received this product for free to facilitate this review. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review. Affiliate links can be found in this post. Thank you for your support of this blog!