Being Prepared

We got a lot of wonderful information from Star Cummings at our RS enrichment meeting. She had some great tips on being prepared.

We learned that there are six basics you should stock in your home:  Water, food, first aid supplies, clothing and bedding, tools and emergency supplies and special items.  Keep the items that you would most likely need during an evacuation in an easy to carry container such as a backpack.  The best way to pack your backpack is to keep it small, necessary and manageable and relevant to what your family needs. 

We were told of a website to go to to help us take small steps to help us toward being prepared in an emergency.  The website is www.do1thing.com

We were also told to check our 72 hour kits every six months and update them.  Star likes to get her 72 hour kit out at the Saturday session of general conference and make sure everything is up to date.  Make sure the food is not expired or is not about to expire.  If it is about to expire then eat it and replace it.  Do not let it go to waste.  If your kid's clothes are not the right sizes then switch them out.  If your batteries need replacing then do so.  (Also a tip was given not to store the batteries in your flashlight but in a ziplock bag). 

She gave us a wonderful tip to make a copy of all your important documents and keep them in a place that you could get to fast in case of an emergency and grab and take with you.

Star gave us a great recipe for Survival Bars that can last wrapped in aluminum foil and in a ziplock bag for a long time.  She likes to keep them in her car in case she would ever to get stranded and she had food to survive on.  Here is the recipe:

Survival Bars
2 cups oats
2 1/2 cups powdered milk
1 cup sugar
3 TB honey
1 3 oz package jello (orange or lemon)
3 TB water

Mix the oats, powdered milk and sugar together in a bowl.  A couple of us used regular oats, a couple used quick oats.  I really don't think it matters which you use--whatever you have on hand is fine. 

In medium pan mix water, jello and honey.  Bring to a boil.  This is just the 3 TB water called for not the cup of water you'd usually use when making jello.  We found that a rolling boil was better than just beginning to boil for the mixing step.  The recipe I had specifically called for lemon or orange but we didn't know why that would be so we made some with raspberry and watermelon jello also.  After we tasted them, we figured the lemon or orange were specified due to the high amount of sugar in this recipe.  The loaves made with sweet jello flavors were REALLY sweet when they were done!

Add jello mixture to dry ingredients.  Mix well.  If the dough is too dry, add a small amount of water a teaspoon at a time.  This is where it got a bit tricky. You want this to be dry, but it has to be moist enough to stick together, and this stuff is stiff.  Spoons only work for about 30 seconds.  You'll end up cleaning your hands and smashing it all together manually. 

Add the water a little at a time---do NOT get impatient and just add a bunch of water.

You can make 3 smaller loaves instead of one big loaf.  Place on cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Cool.  Wrap in aluminum foil to store.

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We learn in D&C 38:30 "If ye are prepared ye shall not fear."  This night really helped us focus on that.  Bishop Nielsen showed up and added that on the top layer of our 72 hour kits we need to have a set of scriptures.

The second part of the night we focused on food storage and knowing when the "Price is Right."  The Relief Society presidency wants us to know that we have been counseled to have a three month supply of food.  They are going to start letting the relief society sisters know when the price is right on certain foods around Fillmore and when is a good time to stock up our food storage on certain items.  Because of this theme we played a few Price is Right games. 

We had our own "Barbara Barker" and of course she had her "Barker's Beauties" to help her along.

The first game we played of course is PLINKO.  Barbara called her guests to come on down and if they guessed the food storage or 72 hour kit question right they got to play Plinko. 

Depending on where their plinko chip landed they won a prize. This was either an item to go in their food storage (such as a can of tuna fish) or an item to go into their 72 hour kit (such as a flashlight). It was a lot of fun. 

The second game we played was to see if we really knew the price of food.  We had 10 or so items that were priced at a local grocery store.  Contestants had to guess what the price of the item was.  The contestant who guessed closest to the cost, won the item.  It was real interesting to see if we knew the cost of the groceries.  Some ladies made out with a lot of groceries that night.

At the end we totaled up all the items and had a showcase winner.....and she won the grand prize....

All the ladies had a wonderful night and we learned a lot.  Hope to see everybody out at the next activity.  Watch for sign ups for Super Saturday!!!