More Food Storage Stuff...

Here is a VERY cool website for tracking your food storage. You input your inventory and then can print out three forms: A goal sheet, an inventory sheet and a needs list. The needs list is cool. After you've input all your inventory it calculates your target percentage. So for instance I need 3,023# of grains. I have 1,048# I am at 34.67% of what I need. Sobering number, but motivating to see. The grains are broken up into various items. For wheat I need 1,358#. I have 748#, which puts me at 55.10% of my target. Hopefully after I have gone to the cannery several times next week I will be at 100% of my wheat!

I've only input what I have for long term storage. I plan on going through my pantry and inputting items like pasta, canned fruits and vegetables, spaghetti sauce, dried potatoes, etc. After it is all input I will get a real clear picture and might be surprised at how much I really have.

Go get your wheat!!!!

*Update. My husband was able to get 30 bags of wheat from the cannery today...Whoohoo! I have all my wheat now!

All is safely gathered in...or is it?

“And, behold, there came up out of the river seven kine, fatfleshed and well favoured; and they fed in a meadow:..And, behold, seven other kine came up after them, poor and very ill favoured and leanfleshed. … And the lean and the ill favoured kine did eat up the first seven fat kine: … And I saw in my dream … seven ears came up in one stalk, full and good: And, behold, seven ears, withered, thin, and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them: And the thin ears devoured the seven good ears: … And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, … God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one. … What God is about to do he sheweth unto Pharaoh. Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt: And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; … And God will shortly bring it to pass” (Gen 41:17-20, 22-26, 28-30, 32).

A friend of mine called around a couple of days ago to some places where she has ordered wheat from in the past. They told her they didn’t have any and furthermore they said if she knew of a place to get it then she had better get all she can from there. So yesterday we went to the LDS Cannery to buy some wheat. She wanted 36 bags and I wanted 24. They would only sell us 15 bags each. Other people were there buying wheat as well. They had only one full pallet when we got there and by the time we left it was nearly gone. They didn’t know when they would be getting more in. The cannery, so long as I have known, has never run out of wheat. They run out of it now on a regular basis. They have also not raised their prices in years. A couple of months ago they did.

There is a food crisis in the world. I have been ignorant of the immensity of it until just recently. Watch this interesting video:



Then read this, this, this, & this

In October of 1998 President Hinckley gave this talk in the Priesthood session of General Conference. It was the one where he said there was a portent of stormy weather ahead. He recounts the Pharos dream which Joseph of Egypt interpreted to mean there would be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. He essentially tells the men that the time has come to get their houses in order.

In October of 2005 President Hinckley gave this talk. He talks of the calamities that were happening around the world. Then he says this:

“Now, I do not say, and I repeat emphatically that I do not say or infer, that what has happened is the punishment of the Lord. Many good people, including some of our faithful Latter-day Saints, are among those who have suffered. Having said this, I do not hesitate to say that this old world is no stranger to calamities and catastrophes. Those of us who read and believe the scriptures are aware of the warnings of prophets concerning catastrophes that have come to pass and are yet to come to pass.”

At the end of the talk he again refers to the dream which Joseph interpreted.

It’s interesting to note that these talks are seven years apart.

I don’t wish to be an alarmist (I know, it's too late for that!), but I’m more than a bit worried. President Hinckley ends his 2005 talk thusly:

“May the Lord bless you, my beloved brethren, to set your houses in order. If you have paid your debts, if you have a reserve, even though it be small, then should storms howl about your head, you will have shelter for your wives and children and peace in your hearts. That’s all I have to say about it, but I wish to say it with all the emphasis of which I am capable" (emphasis added).

The emphasis of a prophet of God is about as strong an emphasis as I wish to hear. I can't quite feel the peace in my heart yet. I've still got a bit to gather in. With my last batch of wheat I have only about two-thirds the amount of wheat I need for my one year supply. I’m calling the cannery every day next week to find out when they have wheat. My husband works near there and if they have it he’s on the alert to rush down there and get whatever they will give him.

Wish I had listened a few years ago, I would have paid much less for my food storage than I am going to now.

Bloggy Maintenance

I added a couple of items to my sidebar. "Great Are The Words of Isaiah" is a compilation of the posts I've done on Isaiah. I listed them by chapter to make it easier to find in the event anyone decides to dig into Isaiah (come on, I know you are dying to). "My Favorite Places" is just what it says, a listing of my favorite blogs that I visit.

Renaissance Maiden

Here's the hot little Renaissance Babe you've been waiting to see!

She's my eldest, alias: Curly Sue. Not exactly a Renaissance name, but it's her nickname. Not that she has curly hair or anything now, but when she was a baby she had some cute little curls and so we started to call her that and even after her hair straightened out, the name stuck.

This is the "Demure Maiden" pose...

The "Elegant Duchess" pose...

Are we done yet Mom?

Yo, Shakespeare!

The Beginning of the End...

The play was last night. And while I thoroughly enjoyed it, I'm very glad it's over. In fact it's the beginning of the end for me. Three more weeks of driving my kids to the college. Five more weeks of driving to co-op classes and dance classes. Freedom to live a less hectic life is in the near future!

The play was a rousing success. They did Comedy of Errors. My oldest daughter (I've got to get some aliases for you here soon) played the duke, except they made her a duchess. (Hers was one of the costumes I sewed.) My other daughter played the merchant in the beginning of the play. She was actually supposed to be one of the Dromios, but didn't want such a big part, so they gave her one of the shorter ones instead. Which was fine with her. Comedy of Errors is one of Shakespeare's funniest plays, and the kids did it up just right. It was so good, in fact, that I got so immersed in it that I forgot to take pictures! So last night after we got home, I made my daughter put her dress back on so I could post a picture for you. Here they are:














Well, does anyone know what I am doing wrong? It takes FOREVER to download pictures to Blogger. Am I saving them wrong? I waited for 5 minutes for the pictures to download and they never did. I don't have time to sit around waiting for it to happen. That is why I don't post pictures very often. Am I saving them in the wrong format? Does anyone have any suggestions?

Sorry, you'll just have to wait for another post for the pictures. I've got a life to get back to!

I've been SEW busy...

I'm tired of my best friend. She's been all up in my face lately. Usually we have fun together, but this time I haven't enjoyed her company so much. We're going to have to give each other some space. Next time we get together it will be on my terms.

(My girls are in a Shakespeare play and I am on the costume committee.)

100

Here it is. Number 100. I've tried and tried to think of something to write about. I've written several posts in my mind and even a half a paragraph on paper. Nothing was right. It's kept me from posting, and I think that's silly, not to post just because I think I have to have something witty or profound to say to mark my 100th milestone.

So here you go.

Happy 100!

Nothing witty.

Nothing profound.

Nothing.

Except...

Thank You!

You are why I keep writing.

What did you learn?

As I watched Conference today I missed President Hinckley. I missed his warm humor. It seemed incomplete somehow without him. I loved how he would end the Conference with some of his quirky humor. I wondered how it would be with President Monson. I need not have worried. What a dear man. He had me laughing through half his talk, and crying through the other half! What an awesome responsibility he has. I could see it in his face, he looked tired and older. He asked for my prayers on his behalf. He has them.

I remember growing up in Utah and listening to General Conference on the radio. I didn’t understand what General Conference was. It was a weekend off from going to church and listening to some old men talk on the radio. I didn’t understand what they said, but I felt good when they spoke.

We moved to Oklahoma when I was 12. General Conference was still a weekend off, only we weren’t able to listen to it on the radio so I rarely heard it. When I graduated from High School, I attended Ricks College. General Conference weekend came and I still didn’t attend, but I got to listen to it on the radio again. There was a talk given, I don’t remember by whom, but the understanding it gave to me of a principle is still fresh in my mind. It's the first clear memory I have of actually learning something from Conference.

After I married, the habit of taking the weekend off continued. If we could get Conference on TV then we would watch it…on Sunday, that is. We had children, and the idea of taking them to sit for two hour stretches twice a day for two days in a row…well, anyway, we didn’t. My listening to Conference was sporadic at best. I would wait for the Ensign to come and then I would read the talks, or some of them, but reading isn’t the same as listening. You miss so much.

Over the last few years I have tried to make it a priority for our family to watch General Conference. We always watch on Sunday, and we try for Saturday, but it doesn’t always happen. There always seems to be something come up, like yesterday for example. A Shotgun Shooting Tournament, Baseball Opening Day, and a Karate Tournament…all on the same day…all on General Conference weekend, sheesh….

I’m sad I missed this particular one. I would have liked to have raised my hand to sustain our new prophet when it was really happening. Oh, I’ll still raise my hand when I watch it on the internet, but it won’t be the same.

Some principles I learned today:

• The Faith of our Fathers is the faith given to us by our Father in Heaven.
• Being born again is more of a process than an event. It is a gradual lessening of the disposition to do evil until we joy in doing good continually.
• When we obey God’s law, he is bound to bless us. One of the great blessings is to be worthy to enter the House of the Lord and partake of the covenants there.
• Continuing revelation does not displace previous revelation. The ultimate source of latter-day revelation comes from the Living Christ.
• Joseph’s prayer was not “what I want to know”, but “what I need to do”. It was an action based question. Faith is a principle of action and power. Faith in Christ leads to action and enlarges the power within us. We should pray with the expectation to act.
• Don’t be part of the crowd. The crowd came to see, the woman came to be healed.
• Don’t rush pass the fleeting moments, take time to enjoy them.
• Families need unstructured time to form relationships, don’t overschedule the family.
• Water cannot be drawn from an empty well, find time for myself to cultivate interests.
• Pray, study, and teach the gospel to my children.

I finished my Isaiah study *patting myself on the back*. After reading through all 66 chapters and hearing the same thing over and over again I realized something. Isaiah is just a bunch of Conference talks. He says the same thing over and over again, in myriads of different ways. He was teaching the same principles over and over again, and when I finally understood that, I was able to get past the repetition and uncover the beautiful concepts and principles awaiting me. General Conference is like that. It's nothing new. The Lord has been trying to tell us the same things for thousands of years, over and over and over again. And if we are listening with the right spirit, each variation opens our minds a little more, enlarges our soul, and brings us closer and closer to the principles that will ultimately save us.