Monday Message

"The best place to have some food set aside is within our homes. . .

"We can begin ever so modestly. We can begin with a one week's food supply and gradually build it to a month, and then to three months. . . . I fear that so many feel that a long-term food supply is so far beyond their reach that they make no effort at all. 

"Begin in a small way, . . . and gradually build toward a reasonable objective." (Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley, Oct 2002 and quoted again in April 2007)

We all can start we just need to make sure to continue keeping it up, and then maintaining it is kind of like your automatic grocery list. If you use ketchup then add it to your list to pick up then put it to the back of your food storage shelf. I took bookkeeping in high school and it is a lot like that, keeping things balanced - use, replace, rotate. It is a lot easier to maintain than to catch up. If you say, oh, I have peanutbutter and you don’t replace it, guess what? You will run out and it is harder to get those back up than it is to use and replace and put in the back.

Well, it took me all week but the basement is done with flood clean-up. It was ground water so not as nasty as the other things but lots of work nevertheless. I did lots of preventative work so next time it won’t be as hard.

We still have lots of water in the fields.

Again, a reminder that things can change in a minute! It is not always the other guy and again, remember, bad things happen to good people too. I know some will say, well, I guess you have something to learn. NO! That is not true. Everyone has problems of one sort or another. I notice some people’s attitude towards the poor but it is easier to be friends, they need a friend. You do not know what they have and are going through. Also, how you judge is how you will be judged...kindness is what is needed all around!

Sharing and caring no matter what. Life is hard, we all must go through it.

I am still working on building sewing skills. I am going to follow another tutorial hoping to learn up or down sizing and making things to fit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk0wMxDkNMw - I like learning and building my skills.

Learn your cooking from scratch skills…

Do you know what to do if you have no eggs and need to substitute something? But if you are keeping up your binder of scratch recipes you could put this in it and it would be easy to find.

If you made breadmaking a skill to learn you will want to make cinnamon rolls and use this scratch recipe as the filling in it is fantastic.

I recently froze buttermilk that was about to expire. I called to know if I could freeze buttermilk, as I knew you could freeze regular milk. If you live in Iowa or Minnesota you can call 1-800-262-3804 it is a homemaking extension, a great service I call every year to get the most current canning times. You can ask any homemaking questions.

After working in the basement, when it was finished I moved up to the sewing room. I was going to reorganize it when the flood came so I did it right after. I shifted a dresser and my desk around to make it a bit more elbow room.

So another big project it was but offsetting my desk and sewing area helps with a better working space.

Keep working on your skills. Keep learning frugal things. This week I vacuum sealed some raisins, they last way longer when you do that.

Keep working on your storage do the best you can.