Monday Message

Keep Christmas this year in your budget by making homemade presents click HERE.

 LDS Church Handbook 2, Section 6.1.1)
“Church members are responsible for their own spiritual and temporal well-being.....To help care for themselves and their families, members should build a three-month supply of food that is part of their normal diet. Where local laws and circumstances permit, they should gradually build a longer-term supply of basic foods that will sustain life. They should also store drinking water in case the water supply becomes polluted or disrupted."

(J. Reuben Clark, Jr., Conference Report, April 1937, p. 26)
“Let every head of every household see to it that he has on hand enough food and clothing, and, where possible, fuel also, for at least a year ahead. You of small means put your money in foodstuffs and wearing apparel, not in stocks and bonds.”

(Ezra Taft Benson, October 1973)
“The revelation to store food may be as essential to our temporal salvation today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah.”  

http://www.simplyprepared.com/consideringwhatif.htm - What if??

http://www.simplyprepared.com/freezing.htm - Yes, you will want to turn off outdoor water and those spray attachments that you put on end of hoses, take them off too. Water sits in those and freezes and breaks the seals inside, hmmmmm how do I know this??

http://www.simplyprepared.com/the_elements_of_self-reliance.htm - good info

http://www.simplyprepared.com/if_your_freezer_stops.htm - have you ever given this thought? I like to have meat in jars as well as in the freezer. Also, I keep canning supplies always on hand and I have a gas stove as well as a wood burning stove so I could can my meat. Check your freezer often to make sure there is not a problem. You would catch it but if next week your freezer goes out and you are not catching it, you would have loss but if your electricity is out you don’t want to open it often, but helpful ideas there in the link.

http://www.randomlyhappyblog.com/2013/10/diy-pattern-how-to-make-your-own-leggings-part-i.html/ - brrrr better get started.

http://www.cottonandcurls.com/2013/10/diy-full-circle-skirt/ - this would be a good starting spot so dust off your machine.

I hope you are working on Christmas. Please do not go into debt for Christmas gifts. The people you give to would feel very sad if they knew you were struggling to pay for it.

Have a homemade Christmas. I  have wisely been using the free ten dollar coupon from Khols and making the rest.

http://thehappyhousewife.com/home-management/homemade-christmas-gifts/ some ideas here.

http://familycrafts.about.com/od/giftstomake/tp/HomeMadeGiftIdeas.htm - ideas

http://www.iheartnaptime.net/handmade-christmas-gifts/ - ideas

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2008/11/13/a-do-it-yourself-christmas-34-great-gifts-you-can-make-yourself/ - great ideas

http://www.hgtv.com/design/make-and-celebrate/handmade/40-homemade-holiday-food-gift-recipes-pictures

http://dodoburd.com/Diy-Christmas-gifts - ideas

http://www.momswhothink.com/christmas/homemade-christmas-gifts.html - great ideas

Now if you are tight, let the kids know it will be homemade gifts this season. Or you can do an old-fashioned Christmas.

http://www.oldfashionedfamilies.com/50-ways-to-have-a-more-old-fashioned-family-christmas/ - good things here.

These things can be just as fun as things that are expensive. You could do old-fashioned candy or cookies, have your own fun. If traditions of the past were to costly for this time, make new ones to fit in your budget.

Are your kids beginning to act greedy? They can deliver goodie plates to those with less. We witnessed a family who had their children find someone in goodwill Christmas eve who looked like they were in need and present them with a twenty.                                                                                                  
Or if they could put boxes of food items together and deliver them to someone who could use it, if you need a name to do this you could go to any Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and ask a Bishop if you could bring a box for someone in the ward who might need it, they would be all to happy to deliver it for you.

It never hurts to tell your kids you are having a hard time and we all need to pitch in to make a special Christmas.

One important last comment - don’t be judgmental of others unless you are willing to walk in their shoes because if you knew what the hardship was you truly would have felt bad for judging. Bumps in the road come to us all. We must feel bad of ourselves either, unforeseen things happen. Health issues grab many of us, so we square up our shoulders, roll up our sleeves and push on a little harder.

Keep doing the best you can.