Bloom Where You're Planted

I love the saying, "Bloom Where You're Planted".  This was the theme that my LDS ward had for our Relief Society Birthday Party this year.  At the party two women spoke to my YSA ward about how they had Bloomed Where They'd Planted.  One sister, who was in her early 60's spoke to us about the life that she had lived.  She spoke of her son becoming sick and dying at the age of 7, her husband becoming ill after a surgery and passing away, her parents getting in a car accident and passing away, and her daughter's fatal disease.  This women was a women who had chosen to take each trial and use it as a learning experience.  She is one of the most positive women that I know and is a perfect example of a women who has Bloomed Where She Was Planted.  She spoke about how we do not choose the trials that we face, we can only choose how we react to those trials.  She showed us a great example of what to do and how to act when trials come our way.

The other sister that spoke was my sister-in-law Becca Dettinger.  She is in her 20's and has just begun her life with her 3 boys and husband.  She spoke about our other sister-in-law who had spent 1 1/2 years living in the Dominicana while her husband went to Medical School.  Kelly is an excellent blogger and so we were able to keep up with them through their blog.  She wrote about how they do laundry down their, the bugs, the food, their home, the people, and about raising her little boy in a different country.  She had such a positive attitude about the situation that she was placed in.  She could have written about how dirty, humid, and different it was there, but instead she chose to Bloom Where She Was Planted.  She was a great example of that to all of the people around her and still is today.  

Bloom Where You're Planted!  Whatever life might bring your way, the trials, the temptations, the frustrations; choose to make the most of the situation.  Choose to stand up for what you believe in with a smile!  Heavenly Father loves each one of us so much and has given us this opportunity to come down to earth, gain a body, and make the choices that will bring us back to Him in the Celestial Kingdom.  We can not do that if we are dwelling on the hard times in our life or finding any reason to complain.  We are so blessed to be on this earth, to have the families that we have, to have The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on this earth.  Be grateful for what you have, look for what you can learn through each trial, and live every day knowing that you have Bloomed Where You're Planted!  

Relief Society Birthday Party!

To celebrate the Relief Society Birthday in March, my presidency and I decided to create an elegant evening for the girls in our YSA ward.  Every person in this world is going through hard times, whether it is family problems, health struggles, self-esteem issues, loneliness, depression, or many other struggles.  We decided that we can no longer wait for the storm to pass but need to learn how to enjoy the rain!  The theme "BLOOM WHERE YOU'RE PLANTED" is the reminder that each of us need to remember as we go through-out each day!

We used vinyl lettering to make the theme and also used vinyl lettering to decorate around the theme with flowers.  This was placed right above our serving table.

We were so blessed to have a Stake Relief Society President who truly has anything that you might possibly need for a fancy dinner.  We used periwinkle blue table cloths, gold flatware, goblets, and cloth napkins at each table.  When setting up for 80 people or for an event this big, I suggest putting everything that you will need for each table in a box, so if you have 10 tables you will have 10 boxes.  The Stake Relief Society President did this for us and it made it so much easier to set up the day of the activity.

One of my counselors made crate paper flowers to hang from the ceiling.  She used one bag of crate paper per 2 flowers.  She took 1/2 of the bag of crate paper and lined the sheets up.  She then folded in about 1" and then continued to fold in the same way 1" at a time.  When done with this part it should almost look like a fan when it is folded up.  She then tied thread around the center of the crate paper and tied it TIGHT.  She then pulled out each piece of crate paper individually and after doing this on both sides it created a flower!  We hung these from the ceiling using wire and tape.

My favorite part was making the OREO POPS!  I found this idea online, but I was not able to make them the way that it said to because it was too difficult.  My creative roommate came up with a new idea for making the Oreo Pops and they turned out great!

I used 2 bags of DOUBLE STUFFED Oreos, a container of kabob sticks (long), 2 containers of vanilla almond bark (found by the chocolate chips), red/green/blue frosting squeezer.

First I took a small pot and filled it 1/2 way with water.  I put it on the stove and brought it to a boil.  While the water is heating up I took parchment paper and covered 3-4 cookie sheet pans.  I also melted the vanilla almond bark in a bowl in the microwave.

This next part takes a little bit of time to get the system down, but once you do it works out great!  The water is now boiling and so you turn the stove down to medium-low and then put a glass plate on top of the pot.  Cover the glass plate with Oreos (about 10 at a time).  Let the Oreos sit on the plate for about 10-15 seconds.  Do not let the cream begin to melt, if it does it means that they have been on their for too long.  

Take the Oreos off the plate and then stick a kabob stick through the stuffing of each Oreo.  Let them sit for a minute to harden before dipping them in the vanilla almond bark.  After each Oreo is completely covered, lay it on the parchment paper.  Fill a pan of the Oreos and then put them in the freezer for 5 minutes.  

Take them out of the freezer and now you can decorate.  We decorated our Oreo Pops with flowers because of our theme, but you can decorate them with sprinkles as well.  I let them sit over night and then they were ready to go.

At each table I placed 8 Oreo Pops in a vase to represent the bouquet of flowers.  The Stake Relief Society President made bows for each of the vases to put it all together!

I also decorated each table with little flower cut-outs. (yellow and white)

The problem about being in a ward where almost everyone has roommates is that they tend to always sit with their roommates and aren't introduced to other women in the ward.  As a presidency we made the decision to have each table represent a month and for everyone to then sit at the table with the month of their birthday on it.  

I would not recommend this for every YSA ward because not all women would be thrilled about doing this.  However, it worked great for our activity.  

I had one of the women on the committee make cute signs for each table using different colors of card stock.  We then leaned them up against the vases and the women came in and gladly went to their assigned table.  Everyone had a great chance to make new friends and so it was a really fun night!

DINNER & DESSERT

For dinner we had a restaurant cater Chicken Alfredo with breadsticks and salad.  We made Raspberry Lemonade for the drink.

For dessert we had Betty Crocker's Vanilla Cake, baked on the long cookie sheet pans.  For 80 people we made 6 cakes.  We then bought the frozen strawberry preserves (3 containers) and mixed them with fresh strawberries to create a topping for the cake.  Each piece of cake had a scoop full of strawberry preserves and then a spoon of Cool Whip on top to make Angel Food Cake.

**SUGGESTION: Before doing an activity like this, I would go around and ask the women in the ward if any of them had food allergies.  I did not do this and their ended up being a women who has Celiac Spru and so she was not able to eat anything besides the salad, and a bowl of strawberries.  It is not difficult to compensate for people's allergies so if you have the time I would ask the women if they have any food allergies.**

Relief SOLE-ciety Visiting Teaching Activity!

 I was the Relief Society President over a YSA ward last year.  At the beginning of the semester after setting up Visiting teaching, my presidency and I planned a Visiting Teaching Activity to get the women in our ward excited about doing their visiting teaching.  I found this skit online at many different sites, but this is the site that I copied it from. 

http://theideadoor.com/index.php?option+com_content&view=article&id=953:the-relief-qsoleq-ciety&catid=128:programs-and-skits&itemid=1555

DECORATIONS

I printed off a couple of different shapes of high-heeled shoes and then copied them onto cardboard.  I cut out one pair of high-heeled shoes for each table and so this came to 20 shoes.  I then painted all of the shoes black and set them aside.

I asked around for shoe boxes.  I needed at least 12 shoe boxes and was able to find this many easily.  I used my sister's Criket to cut out different girl shoes as well as flowers and glued these onto the sides of some of the shoe boxes.  Other shoe boxes looked cute without adding any decorations.  I then took each of the lids and cut out a hole for the heel and ball of each heel in random places on the shoe box lid.

When setting up the centerpieces on each table I put the shoe box in the cent of the table upside down with the lid diagonally on top.  I place one pair of high heels on each shoe box and then laid out starbursts for a fun treat to have during the skit.

One of my counselor made 8 cards per table with one question on each card.  This was a fun way for the girl's to get to know each other as they came in at the beginning of the evening.  

Some of the questions were:

What is your favorite color?

Who is your favorite General Conference speaker and why?

What is your most embarrassing moment?

Who is your role model and why?

What attributes do you love most about your mom and why?

What would be your perfect date?

What is your favorite physical characteristic of men?

This was fun and got everybody laughing as they learned about their roommates, friends, bishopric, and other women in the ward.

We used "Food for the SOLE" as our centerpiece for the dessert table.  The dessert that we served was PUMP-kin cookies with vanilla frosting on top.  It is fun to word play!  Even though it might sound corny, most often it ends up being really cute once everything is put together.

Each women was given a reminder slip for doing their visiting teaching each month.  This is really simple to make.  All you need is paper, thread of some sort, and a hole puncher.  I made 2 columns on a word document and wrote out "Have you done your Visiting Teaching?  NO" in one column and "Have you done your Visiting Teaching? YES" in the other column.  I added a little border to each column and then printed enough out for every women in the ward.

I then used a cutting board and cut each one apart.  I folded the 2 columns together and put a hole punch in each end.  I then tied the thread in a bow on one side and a knot on the other.  You can do a bow on both sides if you would like to.  They then could hang them on their refrigerator to remind them about doing their visiting teaching each month.