Merry Christmas to all! May we each take time from our busy schedules of Christmas shopping, Christmas parties and all the noises of the season to take some time to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. May we take time to reflect on His life, His teachings, His example, His love and service towards others and make His life a part of ours all year long. May we each become true disciples of Jesus Christ. May each of you find peace, love, comfort, harmony, guidance in your lives each day. May each of us celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and remember Him.
First Presidency Christmas Devotional
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Sunday, December 4, 2016, 5 PM PST
You can watch it at a local LDS Chapel, on lds.org
or your local BYU cable/satellite TV channel
Do not miss out on this uplifting and inspiring Christmas devotional!
Our Journey in Life
As we start to contemplate our New Year's Goals/Resolutions, may we each think about our journey in life, where have we been, where are we now and where do we want to be. May we make our New Year's Goals/Resolutions more meaningful this coming year. I love this video of President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's, Second Councilor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, thoughts on our journey in life. So touching and such good advice to us all. We all make the normal goals/resolutions, loose weight, get a better job, make more money, buy a new car, a bigger house. These are temporal goals, may be it is time to make more spiritual goals/resolutions too. Here are some 2017 New Years Goals/Resolutions you might want to add to your list . . .
Daily individual and family scripture reading
Daily individual and family prayer
Attend church each week
Attend the temple as much as possible
Do family genealogy
Service others more
Have more kindness and respect for all of God's children
Strive to keep and live the commandments and our covenants the best we can
Follow the prophet
Share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others
Help the needy and poor
Follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost
Spend quality time with the family and extended family
Others could be . . .
Work better on our food/water storage and emergency supplies
Have evacuation plans in effect and practice them often
Be ready ahead of time for the natural disasters in our area
Have all vital records, photos and family heirlooms in a safe place, easy to access immediately
Know first-aid/CPR skills and have an emergency medical kit
Each family member have a 72 Hour Individual Emergency Preparedness Backpack
Practice good health (eating, exercise, etc.)
Get out of debt
Stop using credit cards to pay for things you cannot afford
Be wise, be smart
December Monthly Assignments
Food Storage . . . Baking Staples and Dairy
With all the Christmas, New Year's and holiday baking this is the perfect time of year to stock up on your baking staples and dairy products. You can find great sales at this time of year. Baking staples: flour (stores one year), sugar (stores indefinitely) , brown sugar (stores in definitely), shortening (stores 3 years), baking powder (stores one year), baking soda (stores 6 months), vanilla extract (stores one year), other extracts (stores one year), spices, (ground stores one year, whole stores several years) etc. Dairy: Eggs (you can remove them from their shells and freeze them for up to one year), butter/margarine (you can freeze for one year), milk, sour cream, cream cheese, etc.
You can also purchase dehydrated/freeze dried milk, butter, shortening, eggs, sour cream, cream cheese, baking soda, baking powder and spices for up to 25 years depending on how you store it (below 70 degrees in a cool, dry, dark place). I would only store the baking powder, baking soda and spices in the 2.5 cans emeregencyessentials.com offers. You can also store flour in the #10 cans but it is to expensive and not necessary. As long as you rotate the flour you can store it in is original packaging inside a large plastic zip lock bag. Best is stored it in the freezer, will store up to one year. Wheat flour does not store well in the freezer, to much oil content. emergencyessentials.com has a lot of their baking and dairy products on sale. If you sign up for their emails you will get even better discounted offers.
How much to store? Figure out much of each baking product and dairy your family uses in a week or month and multiply it by the number of weeks, months you have set your food storage goal.
Emergency Preparedness . . .
Setting our New Year's Goals
and Resolutions
I am not a fan of setting New Year's Resolutions but more of setting New Year's Goals!
Most of us break our New Year's Resolutions with a few weeks or months. Goals seem more realistic, easier to accomplish and permanent to me. Goals are easier to obtain because they usually involve smaller ones to accomplish the ultimate goal. For you 2017 New Year's Goals why not include working on your food/water storage, emergency supplies, evacuation plans and other being better prepared goals? This blog can help you set and reach your goals. I have listed a few above you might want to consider. On the side under "Posting" will give you more ideas to work in the coming year.
2017 The Ark Goals
This next year we are going to be working on putting together up a 72 Hour Individual Emergency Preparedness Backpack (food kit, hygiene kit and stressor kit) for each house hold member, a 72 Hour Family Emergency Preparedness Bag and adding emergency supplies. I encourage you to continue adding to your Food Storage until you reach the goal your family has set. Food Storage in an on going process, you are continually rotating the food you store and adding to it. Lets decide this year we are going to become better prepared next year than this year. You can do it! I try to make it workable and as easy as possible with this blogs postings.
Comments and Questions: We enjoy your comments and questions. Please share them below or email them to me at "theark.carsonward@gmail.com". We all learn from each others experiences and knowledge.
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