Purify Your Heart - February RS Activity

Flower Arranging with Libbie Archibald

“The Earth Laughs in Flowers” Ralph Waldo Emmerson

Flowers bring about positive emotional feelings and health & brighten people’s day. So, in the spirit of this month’s theme, to purify our hearts by sharing love through flowers, Libbie taught us the art of flower arranging.

The Art of Clumping

1. Select your container. Anything will do from a terra cotta pot to a short vase.
2. Line the container with cellophane or even a large Ziploc bag. Just cut off the zipper.
3. Get some pre-soaked oasis. Cut it with a knife to fit your container. (It is ok to use 2 or 3 pieces if needed.) Be sure you have soaked the oasis for several hours in water. Let it stick out of the top of the container a little bit.
4. Select your flowers: take off some of the outside petals (roses) so the flowers don’t have dark spots and are uniformly sized. Cut the flowers on the bottom with a slanted cut. Libbie prefers a knife, some people use clippers. Cut the flowers with 4-6” long stems (but this depends on the size of your arrangement).
5. Poke each flower into the oasis and arrange.
6. Trim the cellophane so it is within ¼ of the top of the container with scissors after all of your flowers have been pressed into the oasis in the container.
7. Use decorative moss to cover the cellophane. This moss may be purchased at craft stores. Press the moss into the space between the edge of the container and the cellophane covering the oasis (to hide the oasis).
8. Nice flowers to use: roses, sunflowers wrapped with twine with apples at the bottom

Flowers to clump in a clear vase:

- ranunculus, carnations, roses
- Hold the flowers in your hand and add another flower one at a time until you have a lovely mound of flowers.
- Cut off all of the stems at one time at just the height so the blossoms sit right on top of the container.

- Trick: to hold all of the stems together, use a clear plastic hair elastic
If you don’t like the look of stems in a vase when you are not using oasis (or if you are) and you would like to hide them, use big leaves on either the inside or outside of the vase wrapped horizontally around the oasis. Or, you can take moss and wrap it around the outside of the vase. Or you can take a really wide ribbon and wrap it around the outside of the vase.

Taking Care of our Hearts and Bodies with Sarah Ingebretsen

Sarah gave us some tips on how to stay healthy with some simple exercises. She recommended mixing strengthening exercises into a training program that works for you.

Examples of Strengthening Exercises:

Lunges – alternate forward and backward
Push ups – normal and staggered
Squats
Arm curls
Hamstring curls
Tricep extensions
Calf raises / jump rope
Up downs
Stabilization – front, sides and back

When creating YOUR training program, she explained that you should plan your exercise days of the week and stagger how hard you intend to train. It is important to always give yourself time to recover from hard workout days. For example, if on Monday you walk for 15 min (a light day), Tuesday you walk for 45 minutes (a medium day), Wednesday you walk 60 minutes (a heavy day), Thursday you should either take off to rest or walk only 15 minutes (a rest day or light day), Friday walk 30 minutes (medium day), Saturday walk 15 minutes (light day), Sunday (rest day). By so doing, you are able to give your body time to recover from a harder work out. This same type of pattern applies to running longer distances.
You should always remember to stretch out before and after each workout. And remember to allow time after your workout to bring your heart rate back to a normal level.

From our Hearts to Yours Service Project

We had the most wonderful outpouring of love from the Relief Society, Primary and Young Men/Young Women of this ward! We were able to put together 3 dozen care packages to be delivered to the Gundry’s inner-city mission ward. Each care package contained fresh fruit, jello, canned protein, canned fruit, canned veggies, and a treat. What a wonderful little treat to be able to send.

** By this Sunday, we had received a wonderful hand-signed card (many of the notes were in Spanish) from the Gundry’s ward thanking us for the sweet little treats. We were told that each little care package was received into homes where the impact was greatly needed. Thank you to each of you who contributed to this effort!

Quilt for Nick Massey

A beautiful quilt has been pieced in honor of Nick Massey, injured in Afghanistan, recovering at Walter Reed Hospital. Inspirational quotes are being collected and written on the quilt. We will be donating it in his name to the V.A. Hospital.