Oh My, Brandy had babies?

Well, kind of, Brandy has re-potted her Aloe Vera Plant.  As a result her plant has had a few "Babies" and Brandy is wanting to find a new home for thes cute little plants.  If you are interested in obtaining an addition to your home, please contact Brandy at 237-0754 you can text or call.                   

This is what the "Mama" Aloe Vera Plant looks like:

And here are the Adorable little "babies"

Preparedness Week 3

Well, is everyone keeping up?  I think the hardest thing from last week that I tried to do was to not spend my change.  I should really work on this.  We really need change in our 72 hour kits. Sister Grayson has sent me a link to a site called http://www.sevenyearsofplenty.blogspot.com/   (Thanks Denise) This is an excellent site.  I would like to share two ideas from her site to help us with our food storage endeavors.  (I am sure I will find more)

 (keep reading after these two ideas for this week's preparedness assignment)

Freezing Lemons or Limes

Weekend tip - Whole lemons and limes can be frozen. Just place them in a freezer bag and put them in the freezer.

When you need fresh lemon or lime juice, simply defrost the frozen lemons or limes in the microwave for a few seconds, (or submerge in cold water for about 15 minutes).

The texture of the lemon or lime will likely be mushy once thawed, but the juice will still be perfectly fine for use in your favorite recipes {tip brought to you by "Still Tasty.com"}.

Hash Browns

Cooking Potatoes and freezing them is a great way to extend the shelf life. Frozen potatoes can keep from 10-12 months. This is a great, basic recipe. Sometimes I even use hash browns to make a crust. After cooking them, I put them in a pie pan, drizzle with butter, and toss together. Then press into pie pan and cook for 20-25 minutes at 450 degrees. Then reduce temperature to 350 degrees and add an egg mixture consisting of about 3 eggs, diced ham, a little milk, salt and pepper, and cheese. Bake for 30 minutes. Yum! Or use the hash browns in your favorite way. Here is the basic hash brown recipe.

Hash Browns

3 large Potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/4 cup melted butter
Season All, to taste
In a saucepan, place potatoes in salted water. Bring water to a boil and cook for 20 minutes, or until tender. Drain potatoes and spread them out on a buttered baking sheet. Brush tops of potatoes with butter. Sprinkle with season all. Bake 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until

For this week, I would like for everyone to really contemplate a garden for this year.  I am going to try to do a small garden.  I read one article and it said that we should start out small if it is our first garden.  It is kind of like excercise,  if you start out trying to run five miles on your 1st day you will be sore all over and will never want to do that again.  So if you are like me, let's start out small and learn from others and our mistakes or mine anyway. (I always have a few) Then, next year maybe we can go larger.   If you are a seasoned gardner you are welcome to give us some tips of the trade.   The first step will be to find an area in our yard that will get a lot of sun.  We will work on this for the next few weeks so start thinking of where and what you would like to grow.

Called to Serve

Brother and Sister Ross have been called to serve a Mission in Seattle, Washington.  Sister Boyle has asked if she could have an open house to wish Brother and Sister Ross a fair goodby and goodluck on their mission.  The open house will be at the home of Brother and Sister Boyle located at   114 Oak Trail Drive, in the Swartz area.  The open house will be on Saturday, March 10, 2012 from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. 

The Tomato Place

Hello, I just wanted to tell all of you about a cute little (hole in the wall) restaurant called The Tomato Place.  I went there today with my Mom and two of her friends.  This is a very unique place to go.  The food was very good.  When my Mom said we were going to The Tomato Place I had envisioned that this was a chain restaurant.  Boy was I wrong.  My first impression upon pulling up was, "What have I got myself into?"  Well you know I'll do anything once so, I went in to give them a try.  I was pleasantly surprised.  The food is all as natural as you can get.  The food was all delicious.  This is not a place to go if you are in a hurry, as the food is all cooked as it is ordered.  But, if you are ever in Vicksburg, MS you might want to stop in to try them for yourself.  The address is 3229 Highway 61 South.  (601)661-0040.  It is a straight shot off of I-20.  Once you turn onto Highway 61 South, it is only about a mile down on your right. And of course they sell fruit stand items and smoothies as well. 

Funeral Arrangements for Sister Belinda Joan Mizell

As I know that all of you are aware, Brother Mizell's wife, Belinda Joan Mizell, passed away unexpectedly yesterday. Brother Mizell is very devistated, as anyone of us would be. The Visitation will be held at Kilpatrick Funeral Home in West Monroe (on North 7th Street) on Friday night from 5:00 - 8:00 p.m. If anyone would like to bring food for Brother Mizell and his family, please bring it to the visitation. The service will be held on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. at Kilpatrick's Funeral Home on North 7th Street in West Monroe. Interment will follow the service at Cheramie Cemetery in Tylertown, MS.

Brother Mizell is a very dedicated member of our Ward. He does so much service and missionary work that many of us are unaware of. Please make every attempt to support Brother Mizell in his time of need. If you can think of anyone who is not receiving this e-mail, please either let me know or call them with this information. I know that Brother Mizell will appreciate your support.

Thank you,

The Stake Presidency,

The Monroe Ward Bishopric, &

The Relief Society Presidency

New Beginnings for Young Women

I just wanted to tell everyone about the New Beginnings Program that the Young Women had for the New Beehives coming into Young Women on Wednesday night.  The Young Women did an excellent job with the decorations, the cake and refreshments, the program and the photo presentation.  Congratualtions to the new Beehives, Meme, Denetra, and Marianne.  Sister Hunsaker, Sister Jenson, and Sister Clawson sure do have a good group of Young Women to work with. 

Preparedness Week 2

Now that we have been going through all of our food storage and writing down the dates of each item, we need to know how long this particular food storage item is good for.  When does it become of no use to us and we need to dispose of it?  I have found a list for shelf life of numerous food storage items on a web site http://www.survivalacres.com/ .  They also sell food storage items on this site.  They have several different packages thay are pre-put together.  I do not know how the prices from this site compare to other sites nor, am I promoting their business, I just wanted to give them the proper credit for posting this list for Food Storage Shelf Life.  The Stake will be hosting a canning activity in August.  This activity will give us an opportunity to get our food storage at cost.  However; I, in no way saying that we should wait until August to start gathering up our food storage.  With that in mind; our project for this week is to check out the Shelf Life table below and weed through your food storage accordingly.   To help build up our food storage when we go to the grocery store we can buy $5-$10 worth of canned gooods to add to our food supply.  Examples could be:  canned fruit, canned vegetables, canned tomatos (soup or tomato sauce), tuna fish, honey, peanut butter, or mccaroni and cheese. Another thing you might want to do is not spend any of your change this week.  Keep all nickels, dimes and quarters to add to your 72 hour kits. 

Average Shelf Life

Below is a chart to help you determine the shelf life of food stored in air tight containers at constant temperature of 70 degrees. ** All of the following products will store proportionally longer at cooler temperatures if kept at lower storage temperatures. Shelf life of 30+ years is perfectly feasible for many products!
	Years		Years		Years
Apples	30
Adzuki Beans	8 - 10	Gluten	5	Powder Eggs	15
Alfalfa Seeds	8	Granola	5	Powder Milk	20
All Purpose Flour	15	Great Northern	15	Quinoa	8
Bakers Flour	15	Groats	8	Refried Beans	5
Barley	10	Hard Red Wheat	25 - 30	Ribbons	8 - 15
Black Turtle Beans	15 - 20	Hard White Wheat	25 - 30	Rolled Oats	30
Blackeye Beans	15 -20	Honey, Salt and Sugar	Indefinitely	Rye	8
Broccoli	8 - 10	Hulled Oats	30	Small Red Beans	8 - 10
Brown Rice	6	Kamut	8 - 12	Soft wheat	25
Buckwheat	15	Kidney Beans	20	Soy Beans	8 - 10
Butter/margarine Powder	15	Lentils	20	Spaghetti	15 -20
Cabbage	8 - 10	Lima Beans	20	Special bakery wheat	25
Carrots	8 - 10	Macaroni	15 - 20	Spelt	12
Celery	8 - 10	Millet	8 - 12	Sprouting Seeds	4-5
Cheese Powder	15	Mixes	3 - 10	Triticale	8 - 12
Cocoa Powder	15	Morning Moo	10	TVP	15 - 20
Corn	8 - 12	Mung Beans	8 - 10	Unbleached Flour	5
Cornmeal	5	Noodles	8 - 10	Wheat flakes	15
Cracked wheat	25	Onions	8 - 12	Whey Powder	15
Durham Wheat	8 - 12	Peanut Butter Powder	4 - 5	White Flour	5
Flax	8 - 12	Pearled Oats	10	White Rice	8 - 10
Fruit	5	Peppers	8 - 12	Whole Wheat Flour	5
Garbanzo Beans	15 - 20	Pink Beans	20 - 30	Yeast	2
Garden Seeds	4	Pinto Beans	20 - 30
Germade	5	Potatoes (flakes, slices, dices)	20 - 30

Predicting actual shelf life of dehydrated foods is not an exact science, however there have been many studies done.  In addition to the above average shelf life of food stored at a constant 70 degrees, you can dramatically increase your life expectancy by lowering the constant temperature.  It is possible to double, triple or even quadriple the shelf life by lowering the temperature proportionally.  Some products, such as seeds, can even be frozen for dramatically increased shelf life.  The basic rule of thumb is to store you food storage in as low of temperature as possible to increase its shelf life and to retain nutritional value. Products that contain yeast (leaven) should be considered as having a shorter shelf life then products that do not contain this ingredient. There are active enzymes in leaven, which create carbon dioxide gas, the same gas used in food storage (dry ice method). The gas is harmless to food. Leaven by itself has a 2 year shelf life (see Yeast above).

Welcome to the Ward!!

Please welcome Sister Dinah Dixon and her Family to the Monroe Ward.  Sister Dixon and 4 of her children, Dentra, Orlandrea, Mykel, and Barron, were baptized on Friday night.  We are so blessed to have them in our Ward! 

Monroe Ward Stake Conference

Just a reminder that Stake Conference will be February 25th and 26th.

On Saturday February 25, 2012

• Priesthood Leadership session from 3:00-5:00 (only Priesthood Leaders)
• Adult only Session from 6:00-8:00p.m.

On Sunday February 26, 2012

• Family Session of Conference will be from 10:00a.m.-12:00noon. 
• Stake Youth Committee Meeting from 12:00-1:00 p.m. (only Stake Youth Committee)

Please make every effort to attend the Stake Conference. 

D&C 1:38 What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.

Girls Night Out - This Tuesday 6:30 - 8:00

Guess What Time it Is?  It's time for Girls Night Out!

The Relief Society Presidency decided that we needed to have a fun night out to get to know everyone just a little bit better. So what better way than to have a "Girls Night Out"?  Of course we need to have some good food, right?  But who wants to cook or clean up the mess?  So, with this in mind we decided to have our "Girls Night Out" at the Johnny's Pizza located at 3501 DeSiard Street (The one by ULM)  We are going to meet here at 6:30p.m. on Tuesday, February 21 (That is this Tuesday) for a little fun way to get to know the Sisters that you set by on Sundays, maybe a cute little game, and as Chuck says a little "P" "I" "Double Z" "A". (I think that it should not cost but about $4 - $5 each, if that) Please come out and support your new Relief Society Presidency.  We are learning so much but, we need the support of our Sisters to complete our tasks.  Please feel free to invite Sisters from your Visiting Teaching List.  If you need any additional information you can contact Sister Brandy Smith at 237-0754 (she loves to text), Sister Monica Mock at 381-4342, or Sister Sena Clark at 282-9399.  You may also respond by e-mail to me at chuckmon@bellsouth.net   We love each one of you and we will see you at

Baptism for Dinah Dixon and Family on Friday

I just wanted to invite everyone to the Baptism of Sister Dinah Dixon.  It will be at the church.  Sister Dixon and 4 of her children will enter into the waters of Baptism on Friday, February 17, 2012 at 6:00 p.m..  Please make every attempt to come out to support Sister Dixon and her Children.   I think great support from the members will reiterate to the family the importance of the covenants that they are taking upon themselves. The Children's names are Denetra, Orlandria, Baron and Mykel.  Thank you so much for your support!