An "Out of The Box' Canning Activity.....

For many of you, canning is a way of life, and for others, it is a complete unknown......SO, we wanted our canning night to be something that can benefit everyone, come and learn and gain new and fun ideas--vacuum sealing your dried goods, like choco chips and nuts so they last for years and years instead of getting stale and rancid.  What about bottling meat--instead of thawing cooking and then getting it into that casserole, why not just open a bottle and add meat cooked only in a little salt and it's own juices???  Or maybe breads and cakes for some extra treats or sweets when that day comes that you might not be able to get them at the store, or just for a camping trip that you don't want them to go bad before the last day of????  Learn about juicing, pressure canning, and even just quick and easy tips for the  basics!!!  Plus, we are going to have refreshments and sampling of some of them so you can try for yourself!!

WHEN:  TUESDAY, SEPT. 20th

TIME: 6:30 PM

WHERE: THE CULTURAL HALL

WHO: ALL Relief Society Sisters and Friends!!

**If you have a favorite tip or a fun recipe for bottling, feel free to bring it and share with us!!

Relief Society, Stake and General....

Panaca 2nd Sisters, if you missed stake conference on Sunday you may not know that we have a new Stake Relief Society President, Sister VaNae Cumming!  She was sustained, along with counselors, Charlene Lameroux, Pearl Hatch, and Donene Mathews.  We are excited to have them leading us and also appreciate Sister Perkins and her presidency for their service over the past few years.  Sister Cumming let me know that there will be no stake activity before the General Meeting, but she asked that we encourage all sisters to attend at the stake center, or watch from home!! 

Here is the info from church headquarters about when to tune in!

General Relief Society Meeting to Be Held on September 24, 2011

Relief Society sisters worldwide are invited to view the satellite broadcast of the general Relief Society meeting, which will be held on Saturday, September 24, 2011, at 6:00 p.m. (MDT) and will be broadcast to many areas of the world. (Panaca 2nd Sisters, this means the broadcast will be at 5:00 at the stake center or online or on BYU-TV!!)
All sisters 18 years of age and older are encouraged to gather together in meetinghouses to view the broadcast.

Video of the broadcast will also be available live in American Sign Language, English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish at conference.lds.org. Additional languages will be available as a live audio broadcast at the same site. Archives of the broadcast will be available in those same languages at the same site within 24 hours. Live audio will also be available in English at mormonchannel.org.

Those wishing to attend in person can contact the ticket office for more information.

WASHINGTON APPLES.....

Sisters,
If you are interested in ordering apples this year, the link to the web page is below!!

WASHINGTON APPLES ! ! !
Here's their information:

JECS Farm

September 10, 2011
Hello,
We are excited to bring you another season of apples. Our goal is to help as many people as possible benefit from these great apples. So please feel free to foreword this email on to others whom you think would love some great apples! Here are the details:
Note: The apple supply in our area is estimated to be 10% less than last year. As orders will be filled in the order received, this means the sooner you place your order, even for Fuji's and Honeycrisp's, the more assured you are of receiving your apples. Last year we barely had enough apples to meet the orders so order now and don't miss out. Don't wait until the deadline or you will miss out. Order here: http://www.applesinaseed.com/apple_order.html

Deadline to order:
Golden's and Honeycrisp: September 21, 2011. Estimated time of delivery: First week of October.
Fuji's: November 21, 2011. Estimated time of delivery: First two weeks of December.
Price: Golden's & Fuji's-- $26/box (.65 cents/lb), Honeycrisp-- $31/box (.78 cents/lb)

To our regret, you may notice the small price increase from last year. This has been unavoidable as many costs have increased for us (and the rest of the economy) this year. The cost of the apples themselves has gone up 15%, shipping is up 20%, cardboard boxes are up 8%, labor is up 5% and so on. We have tried to absorb as much of the increase as possible without passing it on but can only do so much. Thank you for your understanding. Our prices for this farm fresh fruit are still 50% to 75% less than the local grocery store with superior quality.
As in the past, each box will weigh approximately 40 lbs. and are 'field run' apples. This means you will have a variety of sizes, shapes, color and small defects as you would when picking directly from the tree. They are washed and cleaned and we sort through them to get the best apples possible. They are the same apples as you have received from us in the past. Washington State has long been known as one of the best areas to grow apples but these apples are grown on the banks of Lake Chelan, Washington and are the very best; crisp, juicy and great flavor.
Remember that it is very important to watch your email for the delivery information. We will notify you by email of the delivery date and specific location. You must come and pick up your order at the specified time. In many locations we can't store your apples and have someone waiting around to get them to you at a later time. Any leftover boxes will be given to a local charity.
Suggestion: Because of gas prices, the economy and possible time constraints, we encourage people to consolidate your trips to pick up apples. Work with a friend in your area, donate to them a dollar or two for gas and time, and consolidate trips. This should help many of our customers who may have difficulty for one reason or another getting to the apple pick up locations. Because the apples are also prepaid, this will simplify things. This will also help keep the cost down on your apples.
Please order now:
There are two methods of payment: Credit/Debit Card or Check
Just click on the link below:
http://www.applesinaseed.com/apple_order.html
Thank you very much
Ken and Shauna

Aug 2011 PRESIDENCY MESSAGE

(August's Theme from the Releif Society Declaration is: Love Life and Learning)
Dear Sisters:

It seems that sometimes as wives and mothers we are often so buys that our learning opportunities are limited. Maybe schooling is put on hold, or put off completely, or the thought of going back to it seems so far away. But, it is our responsibility to never give up on learning, and to seek chances for it, though they may come in small and sporadic times. Elder Bednar teaches: “You and I are here on the earth to prepare for eternity, to learn how to learn, to learn things that are temporally important and eternally essential, and to assist others in learning wisdom and truth (see D&C 97:1). Understanding who we are, where we came from, and why we are on the earth places upon each of us a great responsibility both to learn how to learn and to learn to love learning.”

Our theme for August, from the Relief Society Declaration is: Love life and learning. They seem to go hand-in-hand. I truly believe that the more we learn, the more we see and understand our Father’s plan, and with this learning comes the desire to know more, and as great wisdom and knowledge open before us, we will have greater love for life and living.

As always, we must remember there is a balance. The things that are ESSENTIAL to our eternal salvation come first, the things NECESSARY to daily survival and responsibilities come next, and then the NICE things we fit in as time allows. And if we follow this order, we will find time, happiness, and love of life and learning.
Love,
Jamie, Cindy, Loree, and Kathy

The Results of our Sewing Service.......

A Day of Service, With Great Results!

I just wanted to share with all of our Sisters the results of our day of sewing service.  For all those who attended in person, and in spirit, for those who pinned and cut and ironed, and those who sewed, those who stayed for the day, for an hour, and those who took projects home to finish--THANK YOU!!  And to Sister Maughan who found this project for us, spearheaded it all, and put in so many hours of preparation--THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!  What wonderful results came. 

This service project came in response to President Eyring's April Conference message, "To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Church welfare program, members worldwide will be invited to participate in a day of service. Leaders and members will seek revelation as they design whatever the projects will be.

I will make three suggestions as you plan your service project.

First, prepare yourself and those you lead spiritually. Only if hearts are softened by the Savior’s Atonement can you see clearly the goal of the project as blessing both spiritually and temporally the lives of the children of Heavenly Father.

My second suggestion is to choose as recipients of your service people within the kingdom or in the community whose needs will touch the hearts of those who will give the service. The people they serve will feel their love. That may do more to make them feel glad, as the song promised, than will meeting only their temporal needs.

My last suggestion is to plan to draw on the power of the bonds of families, of quorums, of auxiliary organizations, and of people you know in your communities. The feelings of unity will multiply the good effects of the service you give. And those feelings of unity in families, in the Church, and in communities will grow and become a lasting legacy long after the project ends."

As our presidency met and discussed what we could do to fill this call to serve, Sister Maughan contacted the hospital to see if there were needs we could meet in our own community.  Jerralyn Smith, the activities director had had in mind the idea of getting clothing protectors for the long-term care patients for three years now, but the cost was too much.  With our volunteer efforts, and the donation of money for materials from the Thrift store, we were able to provide them at half the cost they had found them to be.  With all of your help, we were able to finish 34 clothing protectors and Cindy, Kathy and I were able to take them down one day in time for lunch!

Cindy, explaining how the new clothing protectors/aprons worked.

Sister Cathy Povis from our ward who is an RN at the hospital was excited to see the knew clothing protectors and help the patients all get them on.  Cathy's mom, Sister Barr, was a huge help in sewing!

Jerralyn Smith, helping "Shorty' get ready for his lunch.  A few days ago I ran into Jerralyn and she told me that the patients love them.  She said that they try to keep them clean so that they can wear them all day.  She found one lady carrying all kinds of things in the pocket and using it all day long.  She wanted you all to know how much they truly appreciated your efforts, this had fulfilled her dream of three years.  They felt that the clothing protectors were more like the aprons that most of the women had grown up wearing, and that they gve so much more dignity than a towel or 'bib' wrapped around them.

The bright colors helped cheer up the place.  The service helped cheer up our hearts.  Thank you all for your willingness to serve and to help fulfill such a great need in our little community to many of our dear and sweet little friends like Sister Jones!

All in all, we recorded AT LEAST 90 HOURS of service from all involved! 

In closing, President Eyring's words reflect our appreciation to each of you, "The Lord’s way to help those in temporal need requires people who out of love have consecrated themselves and what they have to God and to His work."  Thank you for your consecration to God and His work.

Welcome August!

Summer is racing by, though not quick enough for some mom's who have fun out of entertainment and patience, and too quickly for those still trying fo figure out where it actually went!!  I hope that you have found moments of fun and joy and peace amidst the rush of summer. 

 We especially want to thank all who helped donate over 90 hours of service for our sewing service project!! It gives me a goosebumps just thinking aobut it--we are so excited to take these clothes protectors to the hospital and give to the patients there and will hopefully get some pictures to share with all of you--we know they are going to love them!!  What an awesome time it was to share our efforts, talents, and time as sisters in the gospel.  This makes me think of the August visiting teaching message : "A Society of Holy Women"  What an honor to be a part of such society.  Thank you again--especially Sister Maughan for her hours of dedicated preparation to this project, we could never have managed it without her!

We do have hopes for a couple of things this month, but do not have them scheduled yet--we are looking a having another SERVICE AUCTION, since our last one was so great and we are hoping to get more people out.  We are also looking to maybe do some canning for provident living this month or next.  We will let you know as they come up!!

Thanks again for all you do!!

July 2011 PRESIDENCY MESSAGE

(July'sTheme from the Releif Society Declaration is: Delight in Service and Good Works)
Dear Sisters:
Our Relief Society theme for July is "delight in service and good works". We have a great example of this principle in our beloved prophet, President Monson. It seems that oftentimes the message of his general conference addresses is service. Many times we've heard from him of the joy he felt when he had the opportunity to bless and serve the many widows of his ward as a young bishop. He also recounts the story of when he was a boy, and his mother provided Sunday dinner to an elderly man in the ward. It was his duty to hand-carry the plate over to this man's house. Although at first he was somewhat dismayed that the family had to wait until he returned from his delivery before they could eat, he has said, "that Sunday dinner seemed to taste a bit better after I had returned from my errand." His mother was a wise women to provide this opportunity to teach her son of the happiness that can be felt from helping others. The Savior was the most perfect example of service. His life was filled with blessing others. He said in Matthew: "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

We hope that we can all seek for the joy that we can get through serving our brothers and sisters. Let's open our eyes and hearts to the many opportunities that come to serve others daily. We love you all.
Love,

Jamie, Cindy, Loree, and Kathy