The Not so "Great and Terrible" series

(This is off the subject, but I watched the season premiere of Project Runway on Thursday night and I COMPLETELY disagreed with the judges. I cannot believe they kicked off McKell from Utah, her little dress was cute though immodest. I cannot believe they kept the idiot in the derby hat who just turned a kimono around backwards and stapled it. And I can't believe they kept the hispanic guy who dressed his model as a Dubai pole dancer. And the winner's dress--UGH! It looked like a shirtwaist dress I had in the 1980's, with metallic fabric added as shoulder pads. What were they thinking?)



I was all excited to read the "Great and Terrible" series by Chris Stewart (no relation), and I read Volumes 2-6 in only a couple of weeks.

Yes, they were exciting, and they were about the end of the world and nuclear war, and an ElectroMagnetic Pulse (EMP) attack, but they were not what I wanted.

I still think "One Second After", which was written by non-LDS writer William R. Forstchen, described the end of the world better than the LDS author Stewart did in the "Great and Terrible" series.

Forstchen included all the suffering from not having food, and the ways people tried to provide food and shelter and protection for themselves and their families. Stewart gave the main characters backpacks full of food and then they got food from the army, so the scarcity of food played little role in the plot.

Forstchen and Stewart both included the people breaking up into tribes because the government was destroyed, but Forstchen described it in more detail. And I was fascinated by Forstchen's description of the jury-rigged solutions the people came up with to communicate, fight a war, kill game, purify water, cook food, build latrines, and transport goods. Stewart's people basically travelled on foot carrying their supply of food until they got transported by government helicopter. The main characters did not have to find ways to communicate with one another, because they had miraculous spiritual promptings to guide them to each other. (Thats good, but I want to know what to do should the miraculous promptings fail to arrive.) He never described how to obtain food, water, and sanitation while they were under attack.

And it really annoyed me that Stewart left a lot of plotlines just hanging there. What happened to the money and the gold that they buried near their car? Whatever happened to the man who was trying to find Azadeh to give her the $12 million? What happened to the blonde rich girl? I have no idea why he went into such detail to put those people into the story if he totally forgot to ever mention them again.

Ten Reasons for Not Starting Food Storage

There is a great website put together by the Daniels Park Ward in Colorado, which contains nine great videos about food storage given by Wendy Dewitt. I will try to link to them every few days so you will remember to watch them all.

In Video #1, Sister Dewitt talks about the ten main reasons people give for why they don't have food storage. She gives the arguments FOR having food storage.

http://www.danielsparkward.com/fsv1.aspx

Chicken Toy

Sometimes after I see a cute thing, I can't rest until I have made one. I saw a MUCH cuter chicken while I was in Texas (that one was a pincushion, mine is just stuffed with polyfil), and learned how to sew it, so the next time the kiddles were over here, I took Elizabeth up in my sewing room and let her pick out the fabric and trims, and whipped one up for her in about 10 minutes. Mine is no masterpiece, but it was fun making it with her help.

It is very fun hanging out with the grandkids every week.
(P.S. I see a weird problem with these pictures. I've never had dates on my photos before, what happened? And these dates are WRONG, they say 18-6-2008, and these pictures were taken in 2010. HELP! Tell me how to get this off my camera!)

Got Matches?

Hurricane season is here. There is always a possibility that we will be out of electricity, so it is a good idea to have plenty of sources of light. I try to collect candles and have them in various rooms in my house.

I had a decorative box with candles inside.




One day it occurred to me, that it was silly to have the candles scattered around my house, if I didn't put matches with them. So now I have tried to hide matches with every candle.

Kellene Bishop's Ten Things about Food Storage

People are sharing lots of great Preparedness blogs and websites with me. Here is an article from Preparedness Pro, which the author gave permission to share. I think all ten things are things I still need to learn. I have a lot of book-learning, but not any practical experience with any of these.





10 Things I Wish I Had Known
About Food Storage 10 Years Ago
http://preparednesspro.wordpress.com/2009/05/28/10-things-i-wish-i-had-known-about-food-storage-10-years-ago/
By Kellene Bishop

I hate having to learn dumb lessons. Don’t you? As I’ve looked back and realized all the simple tricks and strategies I’ve learned over the last 10 years, I cringe at the thought of all of the money, time, anxiety, and energy I’ve wasted. So I decided to share them with you. You’re sure to learn something in this list! I hope you’ll learn from my mistakes NOW!

Yeast will last indefinitely if stored in your freezer! Outside the freezer it only lasts a year, but inside that freezing climate it lasts over 5 years—so far. When I use it in my bread, I just use it directly from the freezer into my bread dough with no problem. I cringe at the though of all of the yeast I’ve wasted over several years.

I can obtain food storage for FREE or better, and certainly inexpensively, if I just use coupons and an organized system! Now that’s really something to cringe about! I acquired a great deal of my food storage over the years from Costco, but now that I can get name brands for free or dirt cheap elsewhere, I figure I can’t afford to shop at Costco, thanks to coupons! It really IS worth using coupons. I can’t believe I was so pious to think that coupons were “beneath me.”

Cooking with a pressure cooker is a sanity saver. They are fast, nutritious, fuel friendly and SO easy to use! I wish I hadn’t been afraid of them way back when. I’m so grateful that a patient teacher showed me their merits!

Yes, you can CAN MEATS! And it’s the easiest thing in the world to can. Simply stuff the RAW meat into a mason jar with a bit of salt, put the clean lids on it, put the jars in your pressure canner for the recommended period of time, and VOILA! You have BETTER THAN CANNED meat. (The canned stuff you buy has been processed twice.) This meat will be SO tender, so juicy, and will save you a BUNDLE over the canned stuff! (Let’s see. Tastes better. 25% cheaper. Easy to do. Dang! I wish I could relive the last 10 years!)

Cheese wax is a God-send! I can have all of the REAL cheese I want if I simply use cheese wax to preserve it! The cheese will keep for 25 years using this method. Now I’ve got Swiss, Monterey Jack, Colby, Mozzarella, Parmesan, Cheddar, Gouda, Blue Cheese, and even a delicious smoked cheese literally sitting pretty in my food storage! If I had known about cheese wax 10 years ago, I would have made much better use of the cheese sales over the years and never tried that nasty processed stuff.

Preserving eggs that I buy from the store is a snap! After I wrote a lengthy article on egg preservation, I discovered that a quarter cup of warmed mineral oil, coated on my eggs that I buy from the grocery store works great. I then can store them pointed side down in a Styrofoam carton, in a cool, dry place. I don’t have to get the eggs FRESH from a farm. And I don’t have to stack them carefully in anything. How’s that for easy?! I have WHOLE, REAL eggs for up to 9 months! Forget the bran flakes, the paraffin wax, the salt storage. Just some mineral oil is PERFECT. WOW!

I never have to live without yummy chocolate again! I can buy all of the candy bars, Hershey kisses, chocolate chips, peanut M&Ms, Dove chocolates, Lindt chocolates, stuff them in a Mason jar, and with my trusty Food Saver jar attachment, seal their goodness for YEARS! (I like getting them on sale after a holiday) This also works for ANYTHING that doesn’t require refrigeration. When I open the jar years later, they still taste as fresh and yummy as they would have on the day I bought it!

ONLY store what you eat. If I don’t eat it, I won’t eat it, and thus it’s a waste of money. If you can’t eat wheat, DON’T store it. If you can’t stand the taste of powdered milk, store canned milk or soy milk instead. Fortunately I’ve learned to prepare all my oddball foods that weren’t previously in my regular diet, but it sure would have saved me some headaches if I had done things differently. If I store what I eat, the rotation is a cinch!

You can have meals already made, cooked, and stored in a Mason jar! You can bake bread, cake, cookies, casseroles, pudding, and more, in a Mason jar, seal it, and they will last for SEVERAL years! That way you don’t have to figure out how to cook up something every day while you’re enduring a crisis. Do it in comfort now, so you can live in comfort even in the worst of disasters!

Solar ovens are the bomb–not just in an emergency, but every single day the sun shines! I LOVE cooking in mine. I haven’t found anything that I can’t cook in it that doesn’t turn out wonderful! I’ve essentially tripled the life of the fuel that I have stored, since I won’t need to use any of it on cooking anymore except on cloudy or rainy days! Not having to worry or pay for a years supply of fuels such as propane, kerosene, fire wood or isopropyl alcohol, makes the price I would pay for a solar oven well worthwhile. So… like any woman, I bought two!

I’ll be writing more about each of these items later, if I haven’t done so already. The point is food storage can be GLORIOUSLY DELICIOUS. You don’t have to do without and it doesn’t have to be expensive and boring either. One dollar a day, per person, will provide you with absolutely comforting and delightful meals regardless of your challenging circumstances. Enjoy!

Copyright 2009 Preparedness Pro & Kellene Bishop. All rights reserved. You are welcome to repost this information so long as it is credited to Preparedness Pro & Kellene Bishop.

Got Water?

I'm putting together a powerpoint presentation for my ward, and one of the things I will show them is where you can keep your water storage. (If you are willing for me to take photos of your food storage or water storage, please tell me. I won't give your name during the presentation.)

We have some big barrels of water in our garage, but I also want water in smaller quantities since it is easier to use, or to grab in case we ever have to evacuate.

I wash out every juice bottle and every 2-or-3 liter sodapop bottle we use, and fill them with tap water. (Provident Living says chlorinated water is fine to store without doing anything to it.) (And don't use milk cartons, they develop leaks.) Then I hide them all over the house.






Everyone has a sofa. There is usually a little space behind it, and I can easily fit 17 or 34 bottles behind there, depending on if there is one row or two.





We have an armoire in the living room which holds our TV. Since it is placed diagonally in the corner, I put a bunch of bottles in that little corner behind it.

Once, in the 1990's, our water pipe to our house broke so we had no water for a couple of days. In that amount of time, we used up 60 sodapop bottles full of water, just to flush toilets and wash with.

Please, don't throw away another bottle until you have filled up every little nook, you will be thankful for it someday!

(I actually don't have room for any more, but I am saving some now to give to the missionaries in our ward, so they can fill them up and store them at their apartment. It is hurricane season, you know.)

"Inception", and More Crooked Log Cabins

Yesterday Wayne and I went to see the movie "Inception", starring Leonard DiCaprio. He and his team go into people's dreams to steal things. I HIGHLY recommend it. It was amazing and it really made me think. The ending was stunningly abrupt. When our movie ended, I could actually hear people all over the theater let out big gasps.

And the special effects were great. My son Adam does digital animation, so I really want him to see it.



While I was in Texas, I taught full-day workshops entitled "Crooked Log Cabins for the Precision Impaired" at two guilds. One of the women brought antique embroidered linens which she cut up and used as the centers of her blocks. Another woman used photo transfers of her family. I thought both were great ideas.

Zac's Eagle project- Painting

Zac had his first big workday for his Eagle project on Wednesday. Five of his friends came and they painted primer on both sides of 7 sheets of plywood. I thought they were going to get all 7 sheets primed and painted red, but the red paint will have to be done another day. It was 100 degrees that day, so we had to stop at noon.

In case you are wondering, Zac is building some pretty complicated rolling cubbies for the Bond Park community center, so we thought it would be easier to get everything painted while it was still flat, and do touch up work on all the cut edges later.

Sights in Texas

Newsflash: Adam has received a job offer! It sounds really great, and seems to be just the kind of job he was looking for. You'll have to get the details from him.


Here are some things I saw while I was teaching quilting in Texas:

I always take pictures of interesting houses, like this stone house in Weatherford, TX. I collect odd house photos to show to my students in my "Playtime Neighborhood in Fusible Applique" workshop, so if any of you have some cool architecture around you, please send me a digital photo of it.


I went shopping in four different quilting stores while I was there, I think this display of toy sewing machines was in a store called Magnolia Quilt Works in Arlington. I fell in love with these cute little sewing machines! They are all antique, and the owner said she bought each one at an estate sale or on ebay for $40 or less. I definitely want to collect a couple someday.

Here I am, sitting on a huge branch of a magnolia tree outside of the Lone Star House of Quilts in Arlington, TX. I wish my whole family could have been there, this would have been a great tree to pose on for a family portrait.

Rachel's Birthday

I'm so proud of Rachel for persevering and continuing to take college classes. With two little kids it has been a real challenge for her to do this for the past year and a half, but the finish line is in sight! Only another month or two and she will have her bachelor's degree! Hooray for Rachel!

"The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron

I love this book. It has a lot of exercises in creativity, that especially help when you have a mental block. She says funny stuff, too.

"Anything worth doing is worth doing badly. I think of making love and making art as being very parallel. Even the most amateur attempt can be thrilling."

Julia Cameron, "The Artist's Way"

Books: "The Great and Terrible" series

I just read two books which have given me the serious freak out.

The series is called "The Great and Terrible" series, by Chris Stewart. The person I borrowed them from did not own Vol. 1, so I just read Vol. 2 and Vol. 3. Janette's mom recommended them, and told me it was fine not to read Vol. 1. They were written by an LDS author, and I think Vol. 1 sets up the main characters in the pre-existence. I don't think it ruined the story at all to miss that volume.

Wow are they good books! Chris Stewart is a military guy, so he knows all about how the military works, and the plot is absolutely believable, the way the various secret combinations are plotting to destroy America.

Vol. 2 ends with Gaza and Washington D.C. both getting nuked. I am dying to borrow Vol. 3 as soon as I can. I want to see how the main characters survive with no government, no gasoline, while they wander across the nation trying to get to safety.

The titles are: Volume 2: Where Angels Fall and Volume 3: The Second Sun.

One thing I enjoyed about the books is that he flashes back and forth from the real world, and then to the spirit world and shows us what the evil spirits are doing all around the evil people, and then shows us what the angels are doing to try to protect the humans. It is great imagery, just exactly what I can picture in my own imagination.

Best Little Quilting Teacher in Texas

I just got back from teaching quilting at three quilt guilds in Texas: Trinity Valley Quilt Guild in Ft. Worth, Parker County QG in Weatherford, and the Quilting Guild of Arlington. I taught 6 events in 5 days, three 6-hour workshops and three one-hour powerpoint lectures, stayed in nice hotels, and got taken out to dinner at nice restaurants. When I teach at quilt guilds, they treat me like a celebrity, it is wonderful.

As always, lots of my students asked, "Do you have a book I can buy? Do you have any patterns?" etc. Once again, I had to say, "No."

But I will get some booklets, patterns, and phamphlets done soon... I MUST! Now that I have been released from teaching seminary, this is my big goal. I've GOT TO GET some products to sell. So stay tuned for when I get some of these projects accomplished.

Also, I have received my first assignment in my new calling, RS Provident Living specialist. I will be doing a powerpoint presentation during an evening Relief Society meeting on Aug. 5. So I'm going to be taking some photos of various people's food storage and emergency supplies so I can talk about that. I'm looking forward to using my powerpoint projector for my new church calling, its nice to be able to use my new skills and new business investments to also serve in the church.

Stash or Stable?

I wrote about a lady with a whole basement of fabric that I met around 2007 (I posted about it on 1/3/2009). I said that after seeing her over-abundance of fabric I made a vow not to buy any fabric for a year. I wanted to see how many quilts or quilt tops i could make with what I had.

The answer was, I made 18 quilts and quilt tops that year, and still had plenty of fabric left over. I have been pretty frugal in the couple of years since then. But I have to admit, even though I buy very little, the amount of fabric keeps creeping up.

Quilters have some lingo which I will share with you now.

UFO=Unfinished Objects

Stash=a quilters collection of fabric, thread, embellishments, etc.

And I just learned a new one:
STABLE= Stash Accumulated Beyond Life Expectancy.

A stable is what that woman had. And I don't want to be like her.

Prosperity/ Recession

Published in the Feb. 1963 Wall Street Journal:

Prosperity is when people buy things they can't afford.
Recession is when they stop doing it.
-H.E. Martz

Cooking and Eating

I can’t cook. I use a smoke alarm as a timer.
--Carol Siskind

My family said its okay that I never cook--they don't like anything I fix anyway.

If you've got melted chocolate all over your hands, you're eating it too slowly.

A nice box of chocolates can provide your total daily intake of calories in one place. Isn't that handy?

The last time I cooked this, hardly anyone got sick.

I may not be the world's greatest cook, but I think you'll enjoy my cornflakes.

Nothing spoils a meal like having to make it yourself.

Organizing for After We're Gone

Flylady posted this on 6-08-2010. I hope its okay that I post this on my blog too, I thought it was amazing.

Dear FlyLady,

My friend was murdered back in October leaving behind 5 children and a husband. She and I had both created our household notebooks using your Control Journal as a guideline. We often brought our notebooks out reviewed them together, going over meal plans, finances and other things from time to time.

After she died, her husband called me and asked if I knew which bills she had paid before she died. I told him about the notebook and that if he looked under "bills" he would find a list. On the list every bill that was due for 3 months would be on there. If it was paid, it would be crossed out and the amount paid would be written next to it in the space she labels "paid" and then crossed out once it was mailed/ paid. Also, she had a section for accounts and contact numbers for each account, when it was due and how much she owed each month and the total amount due (revised every 3 months). Along with notes about who she talked to and when, what was said and the results of the call.

She also had her menu plan for each month with each recipe and what was needed for it for every meal and for snacks. She had a monthly grocery list for that month and the next all ready to go.

She had a section for everyone's birthdays, including the kids, with sizes, favorite books, favorite toys, and hobbies. What she bought the year before and how old they would be this year.

She had a section for just about everything and kept up with it very well. She even had a list of where she kept her last will and testament and any legal documents like Social security cards, etc.

That notebook became so vital in helping him become independent and learning to live without her, since she was his everything. She even started a section a section for where to find letters. She wrote a letter to people, starting with her children and him, labeled "If you get this, I am gone." and telling them what they meant to her. I didn't know about that section. I was next on the list so I never got a letter, but we talked daily and sometimes it turned to how we had changed each others lives and what we meant to each other. So I already know. But I loved the idea anyway and am starting my own section.

If this email helps with anything, I hope it will stress the importance of a control journal and how it will help our loved ones after we are gone. I learned from this situation how vital this one little notebook can become... and here I thought I was just getting organized.

Since her death, I have renewed my vow to myself to update my Control Journal starting now and to spend a day or three every 3 months updating it so when it is my time to go, I will not leave behind a path of confusion. She was so young when she left us and no one ever thought that she would be gone so soon, but luckily for her family, she thought WAY ahead and made the process somewhat smoother for everyone involved. For the longest time we thought it was silly and made jokes about it, but I joke no more. If anyone asks why I have the notebook, it not JUST for organization, it is because I want my family to know what is going on when I die.

Missing her in TN
Proud of my notebook now and not afraid to say it either!

I don't have a Control Journal like Flylady recommends. But I do think it is important to have things set up so that the surviving spouse knows what is going on in case of death. Wayne and I need to share some passwords!

Life around here

We spent July 4 at Isaac and Rachel's house. The little kids went to bed at 8 pm, so we watched a Roman candle burn when it wasn't even dusk yet. But they still enjoyed it.

I am happy that Janette, Seth, and Wayne, and Patti's bookclub, have all read or are currently reading "One Second After" by William R. Forstchen (about a fictional ElectroMagnetic Pulse attack on the U.S.A). I guess its my role in life to recommend books which scare people with "what if?" scenarios.

I keep making Tara clean up more stuff out of her bedroom and store boxes in the attic. All the boxes Seth took out of the attic when he and Janette moved back to North Carolina have now been replaced, plus some.

She signed up for her classes at BYU on Monday night at midnight.

As soon as she leaves, I am planning to make her bedroom into a guestroom/grandkids' toy room/food storage room. This will be the first time that a kid has left a room vacant when he/she moved out to college. Always before, the kid was sharing a room with someone.

In case you haven't seen him lately, Zac has grown a beard. He is not making the progress I would like on his Eagle project, but I am trying to stop pushing him. HE is the one who is supposed to be learning leadership, not me.

Wayne asked "What do you call the end of a shoelace?". I didn't know, so he looked it up on the internet.

The answer: It is called an aglet. Just in case you were wondering.

Rabbit Pie

I am very frustrated, I finally found my sprouter, located the can of alfalfa seeds from my food storage, and attempted to grow alfalfa sprouts for my first time. But I soaked them on Thursday, poured water on them and drained them 4 times a day, and by today they still hadn't sprouted at all. I guess my whole can of alfalfa seeds is dead. Surely they were supposed to sprout by now. So I just emptied the unsprouted sprouts into the trash. I guess I'll try one more time and then throw away the whole can.




Elder LeGrand Richards used to tell the story of a man who sold rabbit pies. He had a significant business and produced a large number of pies.

At some point people became suspicious that the pies included horse meat. A false advertising charge was made.

He initially denied that the pies contained horse meat, but upon questioning admitted that "yes, there was a little horse meat."

Upon further interrogation he finally asknowledged that the pies were half horse and half rabbit. When asked what he meant by half horse and half rabbit, he said one horse and one rabbit.

Some of us want faith to be at the center of our lives, but it does not get our full attention. It is the rabbit portion of the pie.


(I cut this out of a BYU Alumni magazine, but don't know the publication date.)

Pay the Price

This is one of the best quotes I ever heard, I had it hanging on my wall for many years:

"For everything there is a price. Your sanity and inner peace come from recognizing, accepting, and paying that price."

Dr. Laura Schlessinger, "Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives", p. 200.

It is stupid if you keep doing things for which you don't want to pay the price. Either do the thing and willingly pay the price (in time, energy, suffering, etc.) or else make a smarter decision and don't do the thing so you don't have to pay the price.

You can't have it both ways.

Fused Strips on a Purse

I met a woman the other day who had made this purse. She gave me permission to put the picture and her name on my blog.

To make it, she had laid strips of torn fabric on top of some fusible web (overlapped on one edge sort of like putting siding on a house), and then ironed and fused them down. Then she made the purse out of that. The purse had some nice texture because of the ravelldy edges sticking down.

Her name is Sofia Lung, of Gutsy Designs. She said she has some other stuff she has made on her blog peterandsofialung.blogspot.com

My Certificate of Achievement

Adam presented this to me many years ago. I've had it hanging in my house ever since. It keeps me humble.

Grapes, Rocking Chair

When Wayne and I went on a day trip for our 30th anniversary, we shopped at antique stores, and I was so happy to find some Mormon Grapes. They are quite similar to the ones my mom made in Relief Society when I was about 4. My mom's were purple and blue, mine are blue, but they still give me happy memories of my childhood.

We also found another child's rocking chair, very similar to the one Wayne bought for Tara when she was a little girl. Now Elizabeth and Thomas don't have to fight over the one.

Last week we cleaned out our garage in preparation for Zac's Eagle project. I finally persuaded everyone in my family that I could get rid of this metal cabinet, that has been in our garage forever. Wayne's cousin Amy had given it to us when we were first married. So I sold it to Ben's Bargain Barn for $5. (I took the picture in front of Ben's Bargain Barn.)

Bartered some Alterations and Painting

I really really hate painting. I painted some bathrooms in March, but I didn't get 2 of them done. In the powder room, I couldn't reach the very top of the wall, so the top 4 inches has been unpainted for 3 months. Very stupid looking.

This week Michael called and asked if I could alter two pair of pants for him. I said, Sure, if you will paint my bathroom while I do it.

I am so happy I thought of it, it was so worth it for me, we each worked 45 minutes and everything was done. Sewing is a pretty good skill, a lot of my friends and acquaintances don't know how to sew. But some of the ladies tell me how much they love to paint. I am thinking of writing on my ward's Relief Society google group: I will do sewing for you if you will paint my living room. Maybe that way it will finally get painted.

Non-Perfectionism in Quilting

I just loved that post from FlyLady that I posted yesterday.

One of my favorite quotes for a few years now has been "Perfectionists are mislabeled. They should really be called Imperfectionists because they only see the imperfections."

I have made it a point to be against perfectionism in most of what I do.

My house doesn't have to be perfect, but I do have to feel comfortable in it.

Each of my seminary lessons didn't have to be perfect, but I had to know that I prepared to the best of my ability, and let the Holy Ghost help me from there.

My quilts don't have to be perfect, when I get to a step where I have to make a decision ("what should I put for a border?") I just mess around until I find a good solution and then I do it. I don't ponder for years or strive to get the "Perfect" border, I just find a good one and put it on. Same with quilting designs all over the finished quilt. They don't have to be perfect, they just need to be suitable and nice and then the quilt is finished.

If I waited to find the Perfect solution for every single decision that quilt would never get finished.

So I believe Finished is Better than Perfect. And a lot of people like my quilts, so I guess that strategy is working.

Great Description of Perfectionism

I have been UNobsessed with being perfect for years. (In other words, I am NOT a perfectionist.) I always figure if I can do a little bit, it is better than nothing. So wanting to do things "perfectly" has never stopped me from doing things. However, I see people who are perfectionists all around me. (Not in my immediate family, thank goodness!) And those people that ARE obsessed with doing things perfectly, quite frankly, are pains in the neck to be around.


Once again, I don't know if this is wrong to post something from FlyLady, but this post was so good I had to copy it here.

Declutter Your Perfectionism
flyladykelly, 6/10/2010 7:30 am

Dear Friends:

You have heard FlyLady and myself talk about our perfectionism and how it really keeps us from getting things done. As we continue to take BabySteps and declutter our homes we need to take a moment and look at perfectionism.

According to Merriam - Webster the definition of perfectionism is: a disposition to regard anything short of perfection as unacceptable

When our new members read about perfectionism they can't believe that we are telling them perfectionism is what truly will keep you in clutter and CHAOS. They think that because their homes and lives are so out of control that there is no way that they can be a perfectionist. They think that if they were a perfectionist they would be living in a perfect house with a perfect life.

Perfectionism is when we decide that we can't do something because we won't have the time to do it "perfectly". This is why FlyLady tells you that "you are never behind - jump in where you are" and that
"housework done incorrectly still blesses your family".

We can't allow ourselves to get caught up in the thinking that we just don't have time therefore we will do nothing. In all actuality if we spent the amount of time we do worrying and complaining about what we need to do, doing something we would not feel as overwhelmed and behind that we do. The stinking thinking that we just can't do something because we don't have time to do it the "right" way keeps our homes and lives in clutter and CHAOS.

Perfectionism is what keeps us from allowing others to help us when we really could use it. I had a friend that was complaining about her husband not helping around the house. She was telling me that she would give him a list and he was willing to do anything for her but he just couldn't do anything right. She asked him to vacuum and he did.

She was really upset that the way he vacuumed was not the way she would have done it - therefore HE was WRONG. This is being a perfectionist. He was never going to vacuum the way she would because he is not her!

The kicker is that she was unable to see how fortunate she was because of her perfectionism. She was not able to appreciate
that she did have help and he was willing to do anything to help participate in caring for THEIR home, not HER home but theirs. She went on and on about how she HAD to do everything and that she got no help from him and blah blah blah. I finally stopped her and said you can either accept his help and appreciate it or you can do everything yourself. If you choose to do everything yourself you have lost the right to complain about it because you have chosen to do it all.

By the way, if you are curious to how someone can vacuum wrong - it was because he vacuumed from east to west instead of north to south where the nap of the carpet would all be going one way instead of another!!! My friend is still living in an unhappy relationship that quite honestly is really of her own making. Her perfectionism is the death of many of her personal relationships.

Perfectionism is the thinking that other people are incompetent compared to what you can do and how you can do it. ..... If you are continually going behind others and telling them that what they did was wrong and fuss at them for not doing it right, you are allowing your perfectionism to hurt your loved ones and yourself.

Some people are very concerned about how the dishwasher is loaded, me personally I couldn't care less! I am happy if someone else loads it! ..... The few things that I am still a perfectionist about - I do myself and don't complain! Why? Because I am the one that has chosen to be picky about something, that is no one else's responsibility but mine.


Kelly

(I get the daily emails from FlyLady, and this one was sent 6-10-2010.)

I Have a New Church Calling

I was called to be the Relief Society Provident Living specialist! I am so excited! I get to teach the sisters about food storage and emergency preparedness! I was hoping for this calling, but second best would have been Primary teacher (since I've done that a lot and know how to do it, and they only have to prepare a lesson once a week).

As with all callings, there are some things I like and some things I'm not so excited about. I love this subject, so I am ready to jump in and research it, prepare lessons about it, and really try to whip up some enthusiasm for it in my ward.

I'm not so excited about learning about the cannery, and doing Walton feed food orders, and using the dry canner machine. But none of those is too painful, so I think I can handle it.

Fourth of July, Progress on My After-Seminary Goals

Today is Independence Day. I am SO THANKFUL for the freedoms we enjoy in this nation and have a knowledge that the Lord prepared the Constitution for us. I love this quote by President Ezra Taft Benson:

"I testify that the God of heaven selected and sent some of his choicest spirits to lay the foundation of this (the American) government a a prologue to the restoration of the gospel and the second coming of our Savior".
(in Conference Report, Apr. 1976, p. 138; or Ensign, May 1976, p. 93)

President Benson also said that there are four things we must do to protect and care for our divine freedoms:

"1- We must be righteous....2-We must learn the principles of the Constitution and then abide by its precepts...3-We must become involved in civic affairs...4-We must make our influence felt..."
(Ezra Taft Benson, The Constitution, A Heavenly Banner [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1986] pp. 28-30).

While I was teaching seminary, I wondered what I would do once I got released. Now I am released and I am trying to fulfill my goals.

One thing I worried about was whether I would slack off in my scripture study. So I decided to read a little in "Preach My Gospel" every day and do all the exercises in that book. It is really slow going, but I am doing it. I am only on page 14.

I haven't learned "New Family Search" yet but I did go to the family history center once and they helped me get signed up. I still need to do more with that.

I am trying to get all my food storage inventoried. And I want to use my food storage better. I cooked some TVP Taco flavored meat, to use in some Mexican food. We'll see how it tastes. I own a can of each of these flavors: Taco, Beef, Chicken, and Sloppy Joe. Some of it is pretty decent, especially if you mix it half and half with real meat. But I really never remember to use it.

Also I am going to make some alfalfa sprouts.

And I have been working for a month on getting my PowerPoint presentations ready for my teaching trip to Texas. And I am happy to say, I am almost ready. I hope those guilds like them.

You could make them or buy them

In yesterday's post, I told you to watch Lana Richardson's video on Emergency Preparedness.

If you did, you saw her demonstrations of :

the manual clothes washer (made of a plunger and bucket with hole in the lid), the metal stove made from a metal bucket,

the rehydration kit,

the Luggable Loo toilet/sanitation kit,

the Wonder Box stove (using BeanBag type styrofoam pellets to keep hot foods hot and continue cooking),

the Can O' Heat (made from a roll of toilet paper w/o the cardboard center plus a bottle of rubbing alcohol poured into it, and lit)

and lots of other great ideas. She sells most of that stuff on her website, but she also gives instructions for making them. So look under products and see the pictures in case you want to make them yourself.

http://www.emergencyhelps.com/Emergency_Helps/Products.html

And, to my own kids, Lets make these and give them to each other for Christmas. I want every one of them.

Great Video of Emergency Prep ideas

Wow, Lana Richardson has some great ideas of stuff to be aware of in a disaster! This is an hour long, so let it play while you are doing dishes or paying bills or something. It is well worth watching. I took 6 pages of notes!

http://www.sugardoodle.net/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6255&Itemid=200049


Kari sent me this link, she had no idea how much I love this subject so I'm really grateful to her.

Seth's Birthday

Congratulations to Seth for reaching the wonderful age of 25, He has had 2 months off since he and Janette both graduated from college, and they have been taking full advantage of their free time (touring America, moving to NC, visiting theme parks, museums, parks, canoeing in rivers, and other leisure time activities). He will be starting his master's degree program at NCSU in the fall.

We especially appreciate him for all the help he has given Zac on planning his Eagle project. (And thanks to Janette, too, for her support in letting Seth spend all that time!)