Monday Message

Put your skills to work and do homemade presents this Christmas like the knitted rib warmer I made my granddaughter.

“We all need to build a personal ark . . . And we shouldn’t wait until it starts raining, but prepare in advance. This has been the message of all the prophets in this dispensation . . . as well as the prophets of old.

“Unfortunately we don’t always heed the clear warnings of our prophets. We coast complacently along until calamity strikes, and then we panic.

“When it starts raining, it is too late to begin building the ark. However, we do need to listen to the Lord’s spokesmen. We need to calmly continue to move ahead and prepare for what will surely come. We need not panic or fear, for if we are prepared, spiritually and temporally, we and our families will survive any flood. Our arks will float on a sea of faith if our works have been steadily and surely preparing for the future.” (W. Don Ladd, October 1994 General Conference)

Being grateful is huge. We are being blessed every day. Are we grateful when times are great? Are we also grateful when life is hard?

We can choose to be happy or not.

If all you have is four potatoes for Christmas, make those four potatoes an event!!!

Things won’t always be good and this is the time of year that unmet expectations can seem larger than life. Having hard times seem much harder, I am not sure exactly why that is. But try to be aware of those around you, help lift their spirits.

Back to the four potatoes… If this is what you have been dealt, you can make it worse or better. It is up to you. Don’t pout and think you are owed or deserve more, it is just life’s up and downs. Now I just pulled the four potatoes out of the air to use as an example. I think there are wonderful ways to make those potatoes an event to make something special.

When times are going along pretty well you just do what you do... you pay your bills, go to the grocery store, just normal everyday things. And when you are there it is hard to think - what if we lost income or were dealt a reversal??

I can think plenty of times I thought how would I ever do without ____ you can put anything in the blank. But then it would be a hard time and I found I could actually manage okay.

Life can be very stressful. I think having storage on hand helps me not be as stressed. It helps smooth out the rough times.

I think building skills is just like that or has been for me.

Not everyone will have the same struggles, so the skills we have talked about may not be for everyone and those who have steady jobs may opt for other skills, but knowing how to use those skills to make up the difference in loss of income is a wonderful thing and even if you have steady work that can change in a second…

So preparing for unseen things is huge.

If you are used to eating out a lot then suddenly you have no money for that, then what? Will you have wished that you had learned to cook more from scratch and had built up a book with the recipes to do that? Also wishing you had built your storage so that you could fix the recipes? I know that this sounds pretty elementary but there are some who just eat out and don’t even own pans. Yep, then it would really be hard with nothing to cook on or in, let alone food to put in said pans.

Knowing how to manage on less is really huge.

Sometimes we can be lured into a sense of security - don’t be! Have yourself ready to help by knowing how to…

Make your own bread
Cut up chicken
Make your own noodles
Spend your budgeted amount for groceries wisely - this is huge too.
Make your own pizza
Make pancakes or waffles…from scratch
Have a date in because funds are tight and make it an event
Not waste anything
Mend anything
Make laundry soap if needed
Have a garden
Can or dry your garden
Make hot cocoa mix
Darn socks to get them to last longer
Make blankets or quilts
Make mittens
Make socks
Make slippers
Make scarves
Beef stroganoff from scratch
Make rolls from scratch
Make cookies from scratch
Bake anything from scratch
Make your own syrup
Make it do, use it up, wear it out
Sew anything
Fix as much as you can
Learn as much as you can

I don’t think learning these and other things would put someone out too much but to be able to use your skills could be so helpful.

It seems the bread winners have to work much harder and more hours for less money so lets do our part to live as frugally as you can.

Better to learn when you are not under pressure - you will thank me later for this statement.

Life is learning and we must never stop.

Joseph Smith’s mother stepped in to paint oil cloths to help supplement their families income during a set back.

www.greatist.com/health/45-healthy-foods-make-and-never-buy-again

http://bakingbites.com/2009/11/how-to-make-your-own-frozen-waffles/

http://www.browneyedbaker.com/top-10-list-favorite-muffin-recipes/

http://allrecipes.com/recipes/355/bread/pastries/doughnuts/

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/french_toast/

http://www.beckysbacktobasics.com/get_full_recipe.php?File=1270333649&search.x=23&search.y=34

http://www.beckysbacktobasics.com/get_full_recipe.php?File=1292621149&search.x=54&search.y=55

http://www.beckysbacktobasics.com/get_full_recipe.php?File=1291834437&search.x=52&search.y=68

http://www.beckysbacktobasics.com/aboutthehouse.php?File=1288793562&search.x=72&search.y=146 this is just to show you that even when you are a grammy it is good to know skills

The new year will soon be here, let me know of what skills you plan to work on.