In the 2006/2007 Ice Storm

by: Shanon Matson

(2nd place in our HFPE Give-away)

Some Things the Kearney Ward Sisters Learned

1) Water is your biggest issue.

a. Store it in 2 liter bottles.
b. Store it in Laundry detergent bottles so you can use them to wash your hands. (best if they are the big ones with the push spouts.)
c. If you can, fill your bathtub up with water/snow so you can use it to flush your toilets. (you may have to melt the snow)
d. Place your water bottles in the freezer so you can use them to keep some items cold if it is necessary.
e. Store distilled water is it purer.
f. If you have canning jars that are not used, fill them with “canned” water to keep the water and them in use.
g. Have some canteens on hand. If you do have to leave, they will be easier to carry.
h. 2 liter bottles with a rope attached can be used in case of emergency

2) 72 hour kits

a. Have a list of items that you have in your kit so you know when you need to replace food/water/clothing, activities, etc.
b. Use 5 gallon buckets
c. Use back packs for smaller children so they can “help”
d. Use sports duffle bags
e. Rotate your contents at General conference time (twice a year)

3) Food

a. Store foods that everyone will eat.
b. Gradually bring whole wheat into your diet (otherwise if you are forced to use the whole wheat it will upset your digestive system
c. Find a friend to go in on an order for bulk at Cash-Wa or Sam’s club
d. Go through your refrigerator and make 1 pot meals with things that will go together before they spoil, for example, meat, veggies, pasta for a quick stew or pot casserole, top with cheese.
e. You may need to keep an updated list of foods in your freezer so if it goes bad you will have the contents for your insurance company.

4) Misc. Items of business.

a. Store your batteries in your flashlights, radio’s, lanterns, upside down
b. Put all of your flashlights, emergency lights and radios in a Rubbermaid container keep all together-sizes of batteries you need.
c. See if you can find a wind up radio/flashlight/charger
d. Put up a tent to keep the heat in one area.
e. Have a portable D.V.D. player. Get a power booster that can be used in a vehicle. (plug in lighter outlet, on the other end has reg. Plug)
f. Have games, card games, board games that your family loves to play, ENJOY EACH OTHER.
g. Store you FUEL in 5 gallon containers, not all cars can be siphoned.
h. Your Camping equipment should be used in Open Air (stoves, etc)

by: Cathy Summersell
Grimsby 2nd Ward, North East Lincolnshire, England

Winner of our 2007 Handouts Contest!

Handout

Poster

By: Shiloah Baker

One thing I’ve noticed throughout the years is that handouts in Home, Family and Personal Enrichment meetings are becoming less common. It is a very sad trend as I love getting handouts. I love saving my handouts, sometimes scanning them to lessen the paperwork, to go back and refer to whenever needed throughout the years. The handouts bring back memories of the class and the things that I learned.

In a poll I did on the HFPE Group, of the 88 respondents, many of them agreed that handouts are becoming less common and 80% of those who agreed really love handouts.

Why Handouts?

-Handouts help teach the lesson and can help provide: illustrations, recipes, craft instructions, visual and textile impact of the message.
-Handouts can include additional information that you may not be able to include due to time constraints.
-Handouts can include complimentary information or stats based on your class/lesson.
-Handouts provide a place to add additional notes from the class.

Handout suggestions for mini-class attendants

Take notes on your handouts. Most handouts don’t include everything that is taught in class, so take notes of things that are important to you. I loved going through my step mom’s old relief society handouts with all of her additional notes. Since I didn’t attend these classes myself, I learned some extra things from the class that I would have never known.

Handouts can also be used in other ways:

-Handouts can be stored in the sister’s files and later used in their FHE’s.
-Handouts can be handed down from a mom to daughter as she teaches her new things or as she starts a new home.
-Handouts can be typed up and sent electronically to sisters or compiled on a CD at the end of the year and given as gifts.
-Handouts can be given to the sisters on your VT route, especially those who are inactive.

Handout Suggestions

Handouts can vary so much and each one can be valuable in its own way.

Handouts can be:

-Decorative such as magnets, mini décor items, bookmarks, etc.
-Mini-books- cookbooks, books of a compilation of instructions or articles.
-Page of information or notes.
-Articles
-Numbered steps
-Instructions
-anything your imagination comes up with as long as it includes information!

Let us make an effort to have more handouts in your wards and stakes! What a blessing it is for your sisters and yourselves! Just imagine the information that can be passed down through the generations from the written instructions! Take some time today to include written instructions in your Home, Families and Personal Enrichment Meetings.

Shiloah Baker has taught the art of homemaking for nine years via classes, articles and the websites she runs. The Homemaking Cottage & Co., an online business which sells books, eBooks, ideas, LDS related materials, and a special subscription service, and hundreds of free articles. For more information go to: http://www.homemaking-cottage.com

SCRIPTURE TABOO!

The basic idea is that you have two teams or at least 4 people: one person gives the clues to a person on THEIR OWN team who tries to guess the “taboo word” within a time limit.

The other team is there to make sure that the clue giver doesn’t say either the “taboo word” or any of the supporting words for that clue. If the clue giver does, the other team gets a point. If the person guessing doesn’t guess the word within the time limit, the other team gets the point. SO basically an example would best explain how this is
done:

Team A (John & Mary) takes the stack of cards. Mary will give the clues to John. The timer is set and Mary begins. She looks at her first card, it’s got the “taboo word” written at the top of it in bold letters and underlined?? “GOLIATH”. Below it are the supporting clues that she can’t say like, “David”, “Giant”, “Slingshot”, and “Killed”.

Sue from Team B watches Mary to see that she doesn’t say anything she isn’t allowed. So Mary says, “this is a big guy in the Old Testament who got slammed in the head with a rock from a little guy and died.” John is on the ball and guesses “Goliath” immediately, so Mary goes on to the next card, which has “TITHING” written at the top and under it the words “tenth”, “money”, “Bishop”, and “pay”. She can’t think of a good way to get him to guess “tithing” without saying any of these words, so she passes over it.

Team B gets that point. The timer goes off and it’s Team B’s turn at the cards. So Fred from Team B gives to Sue while John (from Team A) watches over Fred’s shoulder. Timer set. Fred’s first card says, “FLOOD” with “water”, “rain”, “Noah”, and “earth”. He tells Sue that it’s an event in the Old Testament where everything got really really wet and only those on the ark survived. She guesses “the flood”. His next clue is “CONVERT” with “believe”, “gospel”, “baptize”, and “testimony”.
Fred forgets that he can’t use any of these words or any PARTS of these words as clues and says, “the missionaries have baptisms so these people can join the church.” Lame clue, he used “baptisms” so Team A gets the point.

Get it?

We used any word we could think of that had to do with the LDS church or the gospel: people, places (Jerusalem, Zion…), events (first vision, creation…), gospel concepts (repentance, forgiveness, faith…), gospel words (immersion, genealogy, Sabbath, murmur…), things (iron rod, Liahona, arc of the covenant. ..).(Pretty much just run through the Topical Guide.)
You could also do this concentrating on only one aspect such as people in the scriptures or teachings in the scriptures. It was really good practice to see how well we could explain a word. Obviously, the more background in that subject, the easier this is. I think we gave out prizes too: for the winning team a bunch of “Smarties” candies and the losing team “dum dum” lollipops. (That may or may not be appropriate for your group, but we had a funny sense of humor with our group and they all liked the lollipops better, so they wanted to be “dum dums”. We don’t want to hurt any feelings here.)

A cute get-to-know you game:

Everyone sits in a circle. Give each sister a small Dixie cup. Pass around a bag of M&M’s and ask each sister to take some and put them in her cup, but don’t eat them yet.
After everybody had her M&M’s, the fun begins. For each M&M they have in their cup, they have to tell something about themselves. So, if Mary only has 2 M&M’s she only has to tell 2 things about herself, but if Lisa has 20 M&M’s she has to tell 20 things. You could either have them each tell all their things about themselves when it’s their turn or better yet, go around the circle and when it’s their turn they only tell one thing, then you go to the next sister, and so on until it gets back to them and they have to tell another thing about themselves and so on.
This was really fun and a great way to get to know each other better.

-Stacy (taterhopp)

1 - What is your spouse’s favorite scripture story?

2 - Would you describe your spouses family more like the … Cleavers, Simpson’s, Adams Family?

3 - If your spouse could be a superhero, who would it be?

4 - Where did you and your spouse go on your first date?

5 - What flower would your husband say best describes you? Morning Glory, Day Lilly, Evening Primrose

6 - Who is your spouse’s best friend?

7 - Does your spouse most often sleep on his/her … Back, Side, Stomach?

8 - What color is your spouse’s toothbrush?

9 - Which cartoon character best describes your father-in-law? Wile E. Coyote, Yosemite Sam, Fred Flintstone, Homer Simpson

10 - What item could your spouse not pass up if it were on sale?

11 - When faced with a roadblock in life, you … Pass Through It, Go Around It, Go The Other Way?

12 - What is your spouse’s favorite dessert?

13 - Does your spouse snore?

14 - What would your husband say is your favorite kitchen appliance?

15- Of the following, which aggravates your wife the most? Toilet seat being up, Your clothes left all over the floor, Cap left off the toothpaste, Wet towels on the bed or floor

16 - What is your spouse’s favorite sport?

17 - Where is your spouse’s dream vacation spot?

18 - When your wife wakes up in the morning, which bear would describe her best? Grizzly, Polar, Teddy

19 - If you were on the TV show Survivor, what would your one luxury item be?

20 - What was your spouse’s childhood nickname?

21 - If you could make one request of your husband, what would it be? Spend more time with the kids, Spend more time with you, Help do more around the house, Be more romantic.

22 - What best describes your wife’s bedroom closet?

Very Organized, Creative, A Disaster

23 - Who is cleaner, you or your spouse?

24 - What is your wife’s favorite restaurant?

25 - What is your spouse’s dream car?

26 - If a movie were made about your life, which actor/actress would best play you?

27 - If you could describe your husband as a fruit, what fruit would it be?

28 - What is your spouse’s favorite song?

29 - What was the most unusual thing that happened on your honeymoon?

30 - Which spouse is the clumsiest?

31 - What is your spouse’s favorite book?

32 - What is your spouse’s favorite food?

33 - What would be your wife’s ideal vacation? A tropical paradise, A woodland retreat, The Holy Land, A European Vacation

34 - What word best describes your husband’s personality? Spontaneous, Predictable, Decisive

35 - If your spouse won tickets to any concert, whom would he/she go see?

36 - What is your spouse’s favorite band?

37 - What are the ages of your children?

38 - Which spouse is more forgetful?

39 - What is your wife’s favorite flower?

40 - What ethnic food does your spouse like best?

41 - What gift would your wife like to receive the most? Clothing, Something for the house, Something romantic, Jewelry

42 - If you and your husband were among the wandering Israelites in the desert, what would your husband complain about most? The foods, The crowd, The heat.

43 - If your wife could change one thing about you, what would it be? 44 - If you and your wife were on Noah’s Ark, after forty days, what is the main thing your wife would complain about? The smell, The mess, The weather.

45 - What is the name of your spouse’s favorite cologne/perfume?

46 - What is the name of the hotel you stayed in on your honeymoon?

47 - Which one of the Seven Dwarves best describes your wife in the morning?

48 - Who received the last traffic ticket, you or your spouse?

49 - What is your spouse’s favorite movie?

50 - Does your spouse like the toilet paper over or under?

51 - Finish this sentence. If I was Prince Charming and she was Cinderella, I would know exactly what size the glass slipper would be. It would be a size _____.

52 - If your wife had one thing she could change about herself, what would it be?

53 - What is your spouse’s least favorite chore around the house?

54 - What meal would your wife most likely cook for guests?

55 - Would you say your wife is … Always ready on time, Mostly ready on time, Mostly Late, Always Late.

56 - Who washes more dishes? Him, Her, 50/50

57 - What is your wife’s favorite store to shop in?

58 - What is your spouse’s favorite color?

59 - What first attracted you to your spouse?

60 - What is your wife’s favorite hobby?

Family Feud Game Rules

Contestants names are drawn from a jar. Families are made up of any five people drawn.

Names are on labels which will be worn during the game.

Assistants take their places.

Give Families 1 or 2 minutes to come up with a team name.

Greet each family and its members, introducing them to the audience.

Start the feud!

Play 3 rounds. First 2 rounds – score as normal. 3rd round – score doubles.

The first contestant from each side comes to the middle table and stands before a bell.

Read the first survey question. Contestants ring with an answer. Judges determine who rang first and they are allowed to give answer.

If answer is correct, scribe writes it on the board. Scorekeeper adds number to the total point value of the round.

If the answer is not the number one answer, the other contestant tries to guess a better answer.

The person with the highest ranking answer chooses to pass or play.

Play continues by asking each member of the family the survey question. If the answer is correct, Scribe adds it to the board and Scorekeeper adds to the point value of the round.

If the answer is incorrect, they get a Strike (strikers hold up one strike).

After 3 strikes, control of the game passes to the other family. They get to confer for 15 seconds and then a spokesperson provides one answer. If correct, the family steals the pot and wins the round.

The family with the most points at the end of the 3 rounds wins the big prize. The other family gets a consolation prize.

Bonus Round: 1st person: 5 questions in 15 seconds 2nd: same in 20 seconds. If they get at least 100, extra prize.

Eternally-Wed Game Rules

Four Contestant couples are drawn from a jar.

They sit in 4 pairs of chairs.

Each couple introduces themselves and tells how long they’ve been married.

Usher takes wives out of the room for the first round of questions.

Ask first question, getting answers from all contestants before moving on to the second question. Ask 3 questions altogether.

Each Scribe writes down the answer in very large letters on a piece of cardstock. One answer per card. Puts cards with answers face down with first answer on TOP.

Usher gets wives and brings them back in.

Ask the same 3 questions of each wife – as answer is given, husband reveals the answer on his card. Scorekeeper adds 5 points to couples score for every matching answer.

Usher takes husbands out of the room for the second round of questions.

Ask the wives 4 questions. The last is the bonus question.

Each Scribe writes down the answer in very large letters on a piece of cardstock. One answer per card. Puts cards with answers face down with first answer on TOP.

Usher gets husbands and brings them back in.

Ask the same 3 questions of each husband – as answer is given, husband reveals the answer on his card. Scorekeeper adds 10 points to couples score for every matching answer.

The bonus question is worth 25 points. Ask the couple with the lowest score first and continue to the one with the most.

The couple with most points gets the big prize. The other 3 couples get the consolation prize.

Let’s Make A Deal Game Rules

We will play this game for about 10 minutes as dinner is winding down.

And also between the two main games as the “stage” is being changed.

Go to a table of people and ask for an object (each object will be on a separate index card).

First person who can show it to you gets the prize (100 grand bar)

Make your way to each table in turn.

-To know her…is to love her-

A survey

©1998 The Homemaking Cottage/ The Enrichment Cottage

Full Name of Sister_________________________________Birthdate__________

Is she married__________Anniversary Date_____________Husband’s name_________

Number of children_________________________________________________

Names and ages of children_________________________________________________

Where does she call “home”________________________________________

Does she work outside of the home?_______Where?_____________________

What church callings has she held?__________________________________

Is she happy right now in her calling?__________Does she attend meetings?___

Is their support from immediate and extended family members?_____________

Date the last time you visited with her personally?_______________________

What are her major concerns in her life at this time?_____________________

List some of her talents and abilities_________________________________

What are some of her greatest goals and desires of her life?________________

Are there any physical or handicap disabilities in the home?______her?_______

Family Member?____________________________________________

Please share any other concerns or notable comments about your sister____________________________________________

Ideas to encourage sisters and gift ideas for sisters in your ward.  Please contribute your ideas! Email us today!

We have one sister who hand makes cards out of 8.5×11 cardstock.  We decide in our planning meeting who needs a card for the month.  We then let the sisters sign the inside for get well, congratulations, babies, sympathy etc.  The sisters who receive them Love these homemade cards with words of encouragement, love, support and celebration especially for them written by the sisters in our ward.

-ZW18J

This is a fun class for a midweek pampering group.

Download today in PDF

by: Brenda Sacher

Another idea I have is a one to show the sisters that RS is an important part of all of our lives. It was called “Angels among us” For advertisements we created candy kiss angels to invite them to attend enrichment.

That night instead of a lesson we asked 7 different sisters of varying ages to take 3-5 minutes and tell about how a sister has touched there lives or has been an angel for them. Than for the activity we had double mats created with 7 holes to insert 7 generations of pictures. Starting with your self and doing only the women go back that far if you can. If not than some inserted scriptures or your favorite saying.

For refreshments Angle food cake or other Heavenly treats. The picture where a hit and gave us a wonderful heirloom to hang on the wall.