Pumpkin

Last Sunday Jeremy helped me pull these handouts together.

We made 2 batches of pumpkin cookies with mini-chocolate chips and packaged them up. The header says "have your pumpkin and eat it too" to encourage everyone to cook/bake for the holidays using items they would have regularly stocked in their food storage. On the back I included two websites for them to refer to to help save money and stock up as well. The idea is to build your supply as you use it in a frugal way.

     As you can see on the packaging, I actually made a mistake and noticed too late into the process. So when I made my announcement, I apologized and joked that it was a reminder that we all make mistakes an I, for one, am far from perfect! They were a big hit.

   This is also my last Provident living post as my position in our ward has changed. I'm looking forward to serving now as second counselor in the YoungWomen's organization. As my post will evolve and change in content, please refer to all my ideas as often as you wish. I know they were all inspired for our ward and situation and encourage you, as you seek to fulfill your callings, to pray for guidance. I know He will direct you as he did me. I'm grateful for my experience in this calling because it has just increased my testimony that Heavenly Father will bless and inspire us as we seek his guidance in all positions we serve in. He wants us to be successful as we are diligent in his service. This was a calling I could do nothing or little with (as I did for 1 1/2 years) or take to the highest capacity possible (which I did for the last year and a half). It has been a great blessing in my life to see His hand in all things.

I want to leave you with my pinterest account information and refer you to my Provident Living Folder. This is in hopes that you will find even more inpiration for your calling and individual situation.

We are blessed when we are prayerful!

An Increase

September was the my month to encourage increasing food supply. There were only two opportunities for me to promote this, so the first Sunday I had the chance, I sent arount the quote found on the church website by the first presidency regarding family home storage and included 3 websites where information for saving money in this endeavor could be found:

"Our Heavenly Father created this beautiful earth, with all its abundance, for our benefit and use. His purpose is to provide for our needs as we walk in faith and obedience. He has lovingly commanded us to “prepare every needful thing” (see D&C 109:8) so that, should adversity come, we can care for ourselves and our neighbors and support bishops as they care for others.

"We encourage members world-wide to prepare for adversity in life by having a basic supply of food and water and some money in savings.

"We ask that you be wise as you store food and water and build your savings. Do not go to extremes; it is not prudent, for example, to go into debt to establish your food storage all at once. With careful planning, you can, over time, establish a home storage supply and a financial reserve."

—The First Presidency, All Is Safely Gathered In: Family Home Storage, Feb. 2007, 1

http://www.thekrazycouponlady.com/

http://www.extremecouponing.com/     and

http://www.smartfoodservice.com/special.aspx

The following week my children helped me make these fun handouts:

Hope this inspires and helps you to encourage that food supply in your ward's happy homes!

Education

This month is the "Continue Learning" theme in our ward, whether it be taking a class, memorizing a scripture {or two, or three, or more}, teaching someone else a skill or learning a new one of your own...the possibilities are endless. So This week I handed these out:

                                             In this pencil box:

With this quote: 

 and this scripture:

 I used sticker paper from Staples and made them on my Hallmark create a card as a word strip with the apple and worm clipart I found on the internet to separate the messages. This was super easy and took no time, even though it looks like it would. Happy Provident Week!

p.s.

What's up your sleeve? 

Fire Drills

When I was seeking inspiration for the topic of fire drills, I kept thinking of whistles. I was envisioning silver referee whistles. But of course those would be too expensive, so I racked my brain and priced them out until I found 8/$1 at the Dollar Tree.

                                                I love the Dollar Tree!

 Then I found this catchy little saying on one site and this image on another using google search image:

So I  lamenated it, punched a hole and strung them on a string of yarn for a fire drill patrol necklace. (Just a little thing I learned reading an Arthur book my children have)

Hope this gives you some inspiration. Maybe you'll come up with something better!

Have a Provident week!

Fire!

This month is all about fire safety. To encourage preparation in the tragic case of this kind of emergency,  I printed out a piece of Graph Paper like this:

and handed them out. I asked them to go home and draw up a fire escape plan for their home with their families. The following week I asked them to designate a meeting place near their home to keep conection with family members. This week they are to start having fire drills. That simple. That vital.

I broke this up in three parts to walk it through in baby steps. You can encourage this all at once, it's up to you. I feel that when broken up in pieces it is often more effective since there is emphasis given for each part. As always, I encourage you to do what's best for your ward according to prayer.

Hope your week is full of happiness and safety, till next time...

may you find your life more and more provident!

;)

Back to Basics

Last week was CRAZY busy around here with it being the last week of school, my week to teach relief society and other events I choose to block out of my memory. We started planning our Provident Living R.S. meeting months ago. I was so prepared {so I thought} already lining up somebody to give the "basic budgeting" class. The man teaching the gardening class was lined up way in advance, and the man doing the basic emergency response class lined up last minute (yes, we panicked a little over that one!), and the counselor over R.S. meetings was already giving her minute on being spiritually prepared. She did a wonderful job pointing out various prophets throughout the scriptures who although they were physically prepared, the reasons were because of their preparedness spiritually. It was such a great perspective! The way the night went was another testimony to me how the Lord always works on our behalf. Weeks ago I thought about doing a handout like this one:

I actually started cutting and sewing them on a Sunday mid-morn for a 5th Sunday combined class I was in charge of, only to realize I wasn't going to have time to finish them. So I set them aside for a later time. That opportunity came after weeks passing of not being able to fill the spot for another teacher. Guess who got  the privilege? Good thing it was on basic budgeting, something I have 20 years experience with or I would have been in BIG trouble. These were easy to whip up. I just included a cute saying to bring across the main point of my mini class:

 Just included one gold coin, enough to make everyone feel rich (hahaha!). It was a hit! You should've seen the expressions on these wonderful women's faces upon my handing them out. I was pleased with the way the class turned out.

                                                           *Whew*

The feedback was so positive in regard to all the classes.

I'm always pleasantly amazed that when we put forth the effort, no matter why we think we may be doing something, the Lord will take care of the rest!

May you have a Provident Week!

Fun in the Sun

The topic this month is "Fun in The Sun". I'm hoping to prepare everyone for the fun events of summer. To start off with, I am addressing hiking. This list can also come in handy for outdoor day trips, picnicing and beach bumming. Just having a car kit with these items would be a clever idea. Wouldn't you agree? The fact sheet can be found here.


(here is a picture of the items on the list)
Sorry the photo is blurry. The picture and list were found here.

I showed the sisters the kit I put together. I love how it fits in a gallon size ziploc bag. My kit looks similar to this one found here. This picture is just of the food in someone's kit, but seriously...my 10 essentials fit in this!

I'm looking forward to popping my oh-so-handy kit into my backpack for hiking, beach bag for bumming, or car trunk for a day trip grab bag. I will be adding items along the way, but keeping the basics is the main idea. This week--I'm leaving a challenge for you till next time...


                                                             plan a provident trip!

Personalizing your Kit

This handout is one that I have been planning to do for quite some time. Because Steve travels so much, we have the advantage of a big stock of hotel goods. Shampoos, Lotions, Conditioners, make-up remover wipes, mouthwash, ocassional toothbrushes, & sewing kits. We do have some in our own 72 hour kit, but there's only so many you need, even with a family our size. The stock has grown to 3 full baskets under our bathroom sink. I have been encouraging the ward members to set a date to use their 72 hour kits for a couple of years now by taking it camping, using it on an over-nighter, or a simple set up in their back yard or even their family room. Some way of using it and relying on it completely to ensure that everything they truly would need in a case where it's all they had, would be in it. This would be smart to do for a pretend drill right around the time it needs to be updated.

After the drill you would then update food, clothing, batteries--anything that needed updating and add anything that is lacking (one woman mentioned a can opener in the case you have canned goods). Each handout included a variation of any two of the items mentioned above, a cough drop, breath mint, or stick of gum, and a folded kleenex to trigger the idea of remembering necessary paper goods. My having been terribly sick during the last couple of months helped me to realize that we needed to add cough drops to our kit. As I told the sisters, you never know when that emergency is going to take place and what you will need.

Here's to being prepared!

72 Hr. kit update

I'm sorry I didn't post this idea in time for Easter. I literally recieved the inspiration around 9 or 10:00 Easter Eve. I was stuffing eggs the next morning. For the list I simply took a 72 hr. kit list I found on the internet and modified it into a checklist for updating:
72 HOUR UPDATE CHECK LIST

o WATER
o FOOD
o RADIO FUNCTIONING
o BEDDING ACCESSIBLE
o WORKING FLASHLIGHT
o BATTERIES
o MOIST TOWELETTES
o MEDICATIONS
o FIRST AID SUPPLIES
o PERSONAL HYGIENE ITEMS
o PAPER SUPPLIES Replenished
o CAMERA. Disposable camera
to record damage.
o CASH IN SMALL CHANGE
o UPDATED EMERGENCY CONTACT LIST
o UPDATED MAPS
o UPDATED MEDICAL HISTORY LISTS

Notice that the only things on the list are things that need updating or replacing, not all the things they need in their kits:

The message I shared was that, updating our 72 hour kits semi-annually (during General Conference month) is important. General Conference month is a good time mark for this since it happens every six months. I then encouraged them, as I always do, to plan a family camping trip or outing where they put their kits to use to ensure they have everything they need in them. Then to add anything they find lacking. I then offered them the opportunity that if need be, they could ask me for a 72 hour kit list if they don't already have one put together. I did an Enrichment night on 72 kits where the initial list was passed out and explained. These reminders are just follow ups to that Enrichment night. Since there is always change going on in wards, we need to be mindful of those that may not have recieved the origional information. Our ward, for instance, has just recently had a boundary change where we recieved several new families and we have had many new convert baptisms. I look at it as an opportunity to educate them as well. Let me know if you have any further insight. I will be sharing this upcoming handout shortly...till then, continue to be thinking--                          Providently! :)  

Learning a Life Saver Skill

The month of March, in all it's green glory, slipped right by me! I'm sorry I didn't share my handouts till now. Part of the reason for the delay was the first week being Stake Conference, having a teaching week, a combined Priesthood/ R.S. week and then having fast Sunday the last week of the month. I didn't want to discourage fasting by handing out my latest motivator since it had candy attached, so I will be stringing it into the month of April.

First I staryted off with 52 weeks to Family Preparedness. I will be handing these out each week until we have them all caught up. I'm already getting great feedback on this! You can find out more about that here.

March's theme was focusing on life saving skills. This was the first handout:

I was inspired by the discounted gold coins at our local JoAnne's. The circles were easily punched by a Stampin' up! circle punch and the print was done on textured cardstock using my Hallmark create a card program. {Love this program! Couldn't do half of what I do without it.} The cardstock was then attached using a large sticky dot. (Another essential item in my craft stash.)

This coming week I will be handing out this fun handout:

I actually came up with this idea shortly after creating my schedule for the upcoming year and was excited to finally put it in the creation process.

Hope these ideas are helpful to you in getting people excited about what they can be doing to Prepare themselves and their families. Have a happy preparedness week!!

Welfare

Two weeks ago was my teaching week so I asked the 2nd counselor in the R.S. to bare her testimony on spiritual welfare. So effective! Last week I gave out these refrigerator magnets with the message of taking care of the physical welfare of others and ourselves through fast offerings.

Then I bore my testimony about the blessings of paying fast offerings and how our needs are met as we are generous whenever we can be. The story of Elijah and the widow that gave she and her son's last meal to the prophet and how because of her faith and generosity, she and her son never went without and always had enough to eat. What a blessing it is to be a part of this gospel!

I'm taking a break this week. I know. Shocker. Don't want to burn out completely!

Starting fresh!

This week for the welfare theme of January, I talked about building your food supply to encourage providing for the welfare of self, family and others. I handed out these samples to provoke ordering things that people hadn't tried before and...

*containers are small plastic bags typically found in cake decorating area of craft store and Gerber baby food containers. Labels were made from clear style address labels printed on the computer

 passed around the cannery sign up for the scheduled date of Thursday January 20th. As always, after everyone had gotten their sample, I took them to the nursery and then to the Primary. I have more sign ups this month then ever and a lot of enthusiasm. It's WORKING!

*I learned on Sunday that due to ocea standards, we will no longer be able to go to the cannery for dry pack canning. In our area, this will be enforced at the end of the month. We will be finding out more information in the coming weeks.