Upcoming Quarterly Relief Society Activity

When Life Hands You Lemons...

Tuesday, May 7

7:00 pm

Dessert will be provided

Dress Comfortably if you'd like 

to participate in the yoga instruction

Hope to see you there!

Mad Skilz - Car Maintenance

June 5, 2012 was our combined RS/YW Mad Skilz class given by Randy LHeureux. He showed us how to check the fluids in our car and how to change a tire.

 Thanks for sharing your expertise, Randy!

Mad Skilz: Making the Most of Your Snapshots

I'm sure many have heard the saying,  “A picture is worth a thousand words”. The question is what do you want you pictures to say? What is the story you want to tell or share. Who is your audience?

Most of the time the audience is two sets of people, you and your subject. You want the pictures to invoke memories and you want your subject to see something of the timeline of their lives.

Michelle Leighton taught our Mad Skilz class on Tuesday night. And we all know what mad skilz she has in photography.

She gave us 12 tips for making the most of our snapshots were about composition, some about us a photographers and some about our cameras. She may have some extra copies of the handout, so ask her.

Here are a few of her tips:

#4 - Know where the good light is in your house and plan your events for that room.

#7 - Fill the frame. Move closer to your subject to focus on the details that you most want to remember and not the distracting surroundings.

#10 - Get down on their level. See the world the way your kids see it.

#12 - Attention-getters: Make obnoxious or animal noises...sneeze, bark, moo, neigh, cluck or other inappropriate noises with your mouth. Basically shed your dignity and get them laughing or rolling their eyes.

Michelle had some great stories to tell us and some good recommendations on upgrading to a better camera.

If you missed it, you missed out! Thanks, Michelle!

e

8 Real-world Skills You Learn From Callings

Our years of church experience are some of the best training in the world.

Dependability, preparation, and how to run a meeting are a just few of the skills we learn through serving in callings.

By attending meetings and doing their callings faithfully, converts to the church who lack education or training, who are rising from the depths of poverty, soon find themselves able to function as leaders and managers, or as team players who can be counted on to fulfill their assignments.

And when you think about it, we’re all converts to the church, because even lifers like me begin as unskilled and uncivilized barbarians (a k a “babies”), who then gradually learn all these skills, along with acquiring gospel knowledge and a testimony. 

See all 8 skills in the article, Callings Help Us Learn Skills, by Orson Scott Card.

What mad skilz has u lurned in your callingz?

e

Enrichment Activities Now Called Relief Society Meetings

The Purpose of Relief Society Meetings

Julie B. Beck on the purpose of Relief Society meetings:

“In counsel with the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, it was determined that rather than give these additional Relief Society meetings a new title, all such meetings and activities will now be referred to simply as Relief Society meetings.

“These meetings are meant to be instrumental in teaching the skills and responsibilities of womanhood and motherhood in the Lord’s plan.”

Hear her clarify our new meetings.

Why do we hold Relief Society meetings on days other than Sunday?

To learn and practice skills that will help us to:

• Increase faith and personal righteousness.
• Strengthen families and homes.
• Provide service to those in need
• Progress toward eternal life.

Hear President Eyring's words

What types of meetings should we have?

We should be planning service, classes, projects, conferences and workshops, that give highest priority to:

Homemaking Marriage and family Provident Living and Self-Reliance

Temples and family history Sharing the gospel Compassionate service

What do you think?
While this gives us in the Valley Forge First Ward a general direction for our meetings, we'd really love to hear from you. What needs do you have? Where do you have gaps in your knowledge or experience? What interests you?

Read more about these important Relief Society meetings.

Ellen

Mad Skilz Haircutting Class

Marin Blandon definitely has Mad Skilz! We want to thank her for teaching our haircutting class this week. We learned a lot and really enjoyed her teaching us some helpful hints for cutting our children's (and husband's!) hair. For anyone who didn't get a chance to make it to the class, Marin typed up a handout to help remind us of some of the things she went over, and there will be extra handouts in the binders on Sunday if you'd like one. Marin also does haircutting out of her home and has very reasonable rates, and that information is also on the haircutting handout for anyone who's interested.

Here are some pictures of Marin demonstrating the haircutting techniques...thanks Ben and McKinley for being such good models!

Breadmaking

If you missed our first "Mad Skilz" Enrichment class, you'll want to jot down this recipe! Apryl Martin taught us how to make her wonderful homemade braided buttermilk bread, and it was fantastic! She really uplifted us with both her knowledge and her testimony of the Savior as the "Bread of Life." Here is her recipe:

Buttermilk Bread
from Apryl Martin

NOTE: this recipe follows the standard format for recipes, i.e., the directions are found AFTER the list of ingredients. Please read all the way through before you begin.

LIQUIDS
1 and 1/3 cup Buttermilk
(can also do 1 c buttermilk and 1/3 c water, to reduce calories by fat--but note that buttermilk is typically between 1/2% and 1 1/2% milkfat)
4 TBLS canola oil
1 TBLS lemon juice

NON LIQUIDS
1 and 1/2 tsp salt
4 TBLS sugar (white granulated)
1/4 tsp baking soda
about 4 cups white Bread flour* (more info on flour below)
1 and 1/2 tsp instant yeast** (more info on yeast below)

*FLOUR: must be _Bread_ flour, also sometimes called Baker's Flour. It is flour made from hard winter wheat and has a different gluten and fiber ratio than all-purpose flour. All-purpose flour will not function for bread. It does not rise much, just becomes a somewhat larger gooey puddle...). Also, the amount of flour needed is weather specific. In the winter (colder, dryer) you'll tend to use a little less flour. In the summer (hotter, wetter) you'll tend to use a little more flour.

**YEAST: can also use active dry yeast. I think the conversion ratio is to triple the yeast amount if using active dry. In other words, 1 oz active dry equals 1/3 oz instant. I use instant yeast because I prefer the characteristics: lower sugar feeding, lower moisture content so it keeps much longer with less degradation than active dry.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Mix wet ingredients together and leave out at room temperature until the liquid IS room temperature. Sift or blend dry together except for flour. When you are ready to put the wet and dry together (again, except for flour), then dissolve the yeast in your combined liquids and immediately after dissolution combine the yeasted liquids with the drys (again, the drys minus flour). Add flour gradually, mixing in each cup thoroughly, kneading in the final cup or half cup. Add flour until soft and tacky, just past not sticky. It is something you get a feel for over time ;). Allow to rise/double in size (amount of time this takes depends on the time of year and state of weather that day), then punch down and knead. Allow to rise/double in size again, then punch down and knead. Recipes makes two one pound loaves, so separate dough in half, form into two loaves, and place in butter-greased loaf pans or braid (watch video below for demonstration).

Loaf Pan

Braided

One group practicing mixing their dough

BAKING INSTRUCTIONS: Baking bread is quite oven specific.... Note whether your own oven tends to "cook hot" or "cook cold" (i.e., temp seems above or below average), then factor that into baking your bread somewhere in the 375-400 range. You'll have to figure out how long by experimentation as well, somewhere between 15 and 30 minutes. You're looking for a bake that does not leave a doughy center and does not burn the top. In some of my ovens over the years I have had to cover the top of the loaf (loosely) with tinfoil when the bread is half-way through its bake, because the oven was a hot-top-baking type... GLASS LOAF BREAD PANS are a must for yeast bread baking, or the loaf will not brown all the way around before making a very thick top crust. Let dough rise until crown of dough loaf reaches the height of the top of the loap pan before baking.

BREAD MACHINE INSTRUCTIONS:
If using a bread machine, place ingredients in canister as they are listed above, with the wet going in first and the dry on top. Set your machine to its "dough" setting. When the machine signals done, take the dough out and separate it into two equal balls. Shape balls into loaves, place in loaf pans, and let rise until the crown of the dough loaf reaches the height of the top of the loaf pan. Follow baking directions as noted above.

BRAIDING BREAD PHOTOS (then watch video below):


And trust us...this is some YUMMY bread!

Here is the video showing Apryl braid the dough...she braids both halves of the recipe, so watch the entire video for extra explanation on the second braid. You can see how it would make such a beautiful gift!