You're Invited:

Enrichment Counselors:

Please invite your Enrichment Leaders - and also your committee members - to view this blog and contribute! It's a win-win situation to share ideas with one another...

I have added each of the Enrichment Counselors as "authors" on this blog. That means that (once you accept the invitation to join this blog) you are allowed to use the "New Post" feature at the top right to add your own ideas in a post.

If you have an Enrichment Leader and/or committee members who you would like to be able to contribute as well - please send me their name and email and I will add them. This will enable them to participate as you can.

A Great Way to Involve Mothers, their Young Women daughters, and Women of ALL Ages...

Dear River Stake Enrichment Committees;

Here is another idea for a possible "Focus" in your upcoming enrichment planning... When I read this in the Church News a month back, it really stood out to me as a way to involve more sisters in your Enrichment activities in a meaningful way...

This could be a great way to link together those sisters who are working in the Young Women in your ward, help mothers and daughters work together on a common goal, and help those young sisters who are transitioning into the Relief Society feel a part of this unusual Enrichment activity. Everyone wins! It would be appropriate for sisters of any age or circumstance...

On April 18th (in the Church News) there was an article entitled "A Return to Virtue" - where it describes a new pamphlet detailing the new Virtue value experiences. Sister Elaine S. Dalton (YW General President) said this:

"As we call for a return to virtue, we would like to ask all young women, their mothers, and their leaders to complete this additional value experience."

"We promise each young woman, their mothers, and each leader who goes the extra mile and completes this new value experience will receive additional blessings of strength, confidence, and peace."

In fact, Sister Dalton and her counselors feel so strongly that each young woman complete the experience that they are completing it themselves. For example, Sister Mary N. Cook, first counselor in the Young Women general presidency, is working on it with her mother.

The value project for the new virtue experience is to read the entire Book of Mormon.

"What can help strengthen any young woman's virtue?" said Sister Cook. "It would be a greater understanding of the Book of Mormon."

The value experiences require young women to define virtue and analyze the promised blessings of being virtuous, to understand the importance of having the companionship of the Holy Ghost, to study the questions from Alma in the Book of Mormon (Alma 5) and to repent and remain pure and worthy. "It is a personal evaluation of your standing before the Lord," said Sister Dibb.

If you have any ideas on how to implement this in your ward enrichment planning - please leave a comment or question...

Good luck with your planning!

Love, Anne

Spiritual Development Ideas...

I found these ideas on a website called LDSSplash.com... Although we are discouraged from getting our "inspiration" from only the the internet - these had some merit.

Spiritual Development

Hero's Night - We held a hero's night where we had some speakers come and talk to us about their service with the military. One speaker had served in Vietnam and another was a current servicemen who had been in Iraq. They focused on how the gospel had helped them through their service. We also honored any current servicemen that we had serving in our ward. We honored them and their mothers. Then we had refreshments afterward and put together packages to send to the troops. It was a great night with lots of tears!

Scripture Study - Have a class on how to study the scriptures, using cross references etc. Use a dynamic teacher in your own ward or stake, or an exceptional return missionary who is still "on fire" from preaching the Gospel. If promoted correctly, this could be a great continuing enrichment activity.

Homemade Yogurt in a Crockpot?

I found this on one of the links to the right... This has potential to be a fun enrichment activity for a group - or even for an evening... The actual link is at the bottom:

"I have a yogurt maker but it has always been so complicated, I have to feel really motivated to do it. I tried this recipe and it is great! I just blended my home canned peaches from last fall with a cup of it and it is like eating Ice Cream YUMMM!

Homemade Yogurt in a Crock Pot
--8 cups (half-gallon) of whole milk--pasteurized and homogenized is fine, butdo NOT use ultra-pasteurized. (Debbie recommends starting with whole milk until you get the hang of yogurt-making)
--1/2 cup store-bought natural, live/active culture plain yogurt (you need tohave a starter. Once you have made your own, you can use that as a starter)
--frozen/fresh fruit for flavoring
--thick bath towel
The Directions
This takes a while. Make your yogurt on a weekend day when you are home tomonitor. I used a 4 quart crockpot. This is so exciting. My fingers are shaking!
Plug in your crockpot and turn to low. Add an entire half gallon of milk. Cover and cook on low for 2 1/2 hours. Unplug your crockpot. Leave the cover on, and let it sit for 3 hours.
When 3 hours have passed, scoop out 2 cups of the warmish milk and put it in abowl. Whisk in 1/2 cup of store-bought live/active culture yogurt. Then dump the bowl contents back into the crockpot. Stir to combine.
Put the lid back on your crockpot. Keep it unplugged, and wrap a heavy bath towel all the way around the crock for insulation.
Go to bed, or let it sit for 8 hours.In the morning, the yogurt will have thickened--- it's not as thick as store-bought yogurt, but has the consistency of low-fat plain yogurt.
Blend in batches with your favorite fruit. I did mango, strawberry, and blueberry. When you blend in the fruit, bubbles will form and might bother you. They aren't a big deal, and will settle eventually.
Chill in a plastic container(s) in the refrigerator. Your fresh yogurt will last 7-10 days. Save 1/2 cup as a starter to make a new batch.
The Verdict.
Wowsers! This is awesome! I was completely astonished the next morning that the yogurt thickened. I was so excited to feel the drag on my spoon. You can add honey for sweetening. This is so much more cost-effective than the little things of yo-baby I was buying.
To thicken the best, add one packet of unflavored gelatin to the mix after stirring in the yogurt with active cultures. Some have had good success mixing non-fat milk powder in as well. The way I created fruit-flavored yogurt was by taking a cup or so of the plain and blending it in the stand blender (vitamix) with frozen fruit. Although this tastes great, the yogurt never thickened back up the way the plain did. I think maybe keeping the plain separate and adding fruit daily is your best bet. Or you can try the gelatin trick.
I was able to achieve a Greek-style yogurt this afternoon by lining a colander with a coffee liner and letting the liquid drip out of the leftover plain I made. The remaining yogurt was as thick as sour cream. I do not know how this will work with soy milk and soy yogurt or rice milk and rice yogurt. I'd imagine it would work similarly, but I haven not tested this out."

Article found at this LINK:

This is from Joyce Loftus - 4th Ward Enrichment counselor... She has a valid point - probably something you have all found lacking in your own wards. Please add your comments - and any ideas you have found helpful in your own ward.

"A suggestion, perhaps ... I would like to know what other wards are doing that could bring in the newly married's or younger women of the ward to the Enrichment evenings or activities. I feel that is where I am lacking and I am not sure what to do about it. When I was their age, Relief Society activities were not a priority. I can understand where they are coming from but I would sure like to see them more involved. The younger ones are great to help if asked but I can't keep asking them just to get them to come. Plus, some I have asked and they have agreed - and then not shown up. It is an interesting age group that has so much to offer."

From the 8th Ward - "Grandmother's Apron"

I felt like I literally had "Christmas" today when I found a folder from Myrl Breinholt (8th Ward) on my porch. In it is a CD entitled "Cooking From My Pantry" that has a wealth of information to answer literally any question you may have about living on what we store (or SHOULD be storing!)

There were also two copies of their "Cooking From Your Pantry" newsletter - what great information!

I have seen their fun displays as I've been at my meetings in the red building for the past several months - but now I know what their theme really entails. Here is just a snippet of what they are doing:

Back to Basics is our goal this year using Grandmother's Apron as the vehicle. We will be teaching cooking things from scratch, repairing, and reusing.

Each month we will be having all of our enrichment activities on the same night in the same place - the second Tuesday at the Church. We hope this will give sisters consistency and greater fellowship.

Our kickoff was on Jan 13 with a reader's theater including memories about our grandmothers, poems and a song written by Julie Dibble. Suzanne Roberts demonstrated her delicious dinner rolls.

Each month we will be having a short game of "Are you smarter than your grandmother?" including fun facts from days gone by that introduce our activity for the evening. February will be another cooking class featuring frosting recipes and cookie and cake decorating.

March is our service auction. Each sister has received a list of ways to earn currency for the auction. Some of them include things like arriving at Sacrament Meeting on time and getting Visiting Teaching done by the 15th of the month. Each sister will tally up her score and use the points as currency to "buy" service from another sister.

There is a dress form on the RS table with an apron containing weekly challenges and Grandmother sayings. All of these things are to focus on the wisdom and skills of the past that we need to use to be more self sufficient.

There will continue to be a Cooking From Your Pantry newsletter every month available on the RS table featuring suggestions and information for emergency preparedness.

If you would like a copy of Myrl's CD - I am happy to make one for you. Please email me at appetersen@comcast.net and I'll get that to you.

Coming next from the 8th Ward - their monthly humanitarian project at Enrichment Meeting for the sisters to participate in or to take home. (I'll be contacting her to get information, or she is welcome to post it here also)