December / January FCS Newsletter 2015 - 2016 Cooperative

Extension Service

Caldwell County

1025 U.S.. Hwy

Princeton, KY 42445

(270)365-2787

Fax: (270)365-2085

www.ca.uky.edu/ces

Upcoming Events: January 7: Homemaker Council, 10:00 am

Clubs presidents and county chairmen are encouraged to attend.

If you are unable to attend, please send a representative from your club.

January 14: Weight Loss Wars Orientation, 6:00 pm

This six-week program promotes behaviors that support a healthy lifestyle. Door prizes will be given each

week and a grand prize will be awarded to the individual who loses the largest percentage of their body

weight. Participants must be over the age of 18, have a body mass index over 20, and should be in good

health before completing the program. See the article for more information. Register by January 13.

January 19—February 2: Souper Bowl of Caring

The Caldwell County Homemakers will be collecting non-perishable items during this time to be donated to

the Christ Tabernacle Food Pantry.

January 21: Weight Loss Wars, 6:00 pm

January 25: Homemaker Leader Lesson, 10:00 am

Ashley White will present “Household Repairs: Do It Yourself or Hire it Done?” If you are not a

homemaker lesson leader and would like to attend, register by calling the Extension Office.

January 28: Weight Loss Wars, 6:00 pm

Ashley White

County Extension Agent for

Family and Consumer Sciences

Winter Weather Policy:

If school is cancelled due to

the weather, FCS/Homemaker

Events will also be cancelled.

The Caldwell County Extension Office will be

closed December 25, 2015—January 1, 2016

for the holidays. We will reopen January 4,

2016 at 8:00 am.

Membership Report: It’s time to turn in our membership repor t to the state office. If you have reached

the 50, 60, 65, 70, or 75 years of membership milestone, let me know by January 22.

Homemaker Book List: The Cultural Ar ts committee is asking for help to compile the 2016-2017 KEHA

book list. Category topics include: Arts, Biography, Family & Consumer Sciences, Fiction, History, Kentucky,

Religion, Travel, Classics, Native Americans. If you have suggestions for good, well written books that have

been published in the past 3 years, complete the attached Cultural Arts Reading list form and submit to Julia

Lainhart at the address provided by January 15.

Cultural Arts: What do you plan to enter in the annual Cultural Ar ts contest? Cultural Ar ts will be held

February 19, 2016 at the University of Kentucky Research and Education Center. A list of categories has been

included in this newsletter and will be available at the Extension Office. Items entered must be the work of the

homemaker member and must have been completed during the last two years.

Homemaker Scholarship: The scholarship committee would like to remind you of the Anna Miller

Memorial Homemaker Scholarship. To be eligible for this scholarship, student must be a graduating senior who

is the son, daughter, or grandchild of a Caldwell County Homemaker who has been an active member for the

past two years. An active member is one that attends eight meetings a year and presents at least one lesson

during the year. Scholarship applications are available at the high school, on the Extension Office website, and

at the Extension Office. The committee would like to remind students completing the application to fill the

form out in its entirety, print or type legibly, and turn in by the due date.

Awards and Contests: Consider enter ing contests and applying for awards. Most have an entry deadline

of March 1. Contest rules and deadlines can be found in the KEHA manual at http://www.keha.org. A contest

booklet is also available at the Extension Office.

Souper Bowl of Caring: Last year we collected over 300 items as par t of the Souper Bowl of Car ing

project. This year, let’s aim for 500 items. The homemakers will host a Souper Bowl of Caring January 19 -

February 2. Non-perishable food items may be brought to the Extension Office during this time. Please

encourage people in the community to donate.

Spring Seminar: Warming Up for the Long Run: Mark your calendars for March 24, 2016. Amy

Hosier and Nicole Peritore from the University of Kentucky will be the guest speakers for the day. More details

to come.

Annual Banquet: The annual banquet will be held August 9, 2016 at the University of Kentucky

Research and Education Center.

KEHA State Meeting: The KEHA State Meeting will be held April 18-21, 2016 at the Northern Kentucky

Convention Center in Covington, KY.

Weight Loss Wars: Caldwell vs Lyon

Thursdays

January 14—February 18

6:00 –7:30 pm Weight Loss Wars is a 6 week program designed to promote behaviors that support a healthy lifestyle

The focus will be on weight management through healthy eating and physical activity. It’s not easy to

manage body weight. Based on the latest research, this program gives you options to create a plan that

will work for you. Whether you’re interested in learning new ways to eat or ways to be more active,

Weight Loss Wars offers many choices. There is bound to be something that appeals to anyone with a

genuine interest in achieving a healthy weight. You’ll learn to make your plan flexible and to keep it

working over time. Each session includes a recipe, activity, and program topic. Topics include: portion

distortion, feeling good about food, nutrition basics, moving for health, meal planning, and weight loss

that lasts.

Door prizes will be given each week and a Grand Prize will be awarded to the individual who loses the

largest percentage of their body weight.

Note: Participants must be over the age of 18, have a body mass index of at least 20, and should be in

good health before completing the program.

Souper Bowl of Caring According to the most recent American Community Survey in Caldwell county… *37.2% (+/-5.5) of families with children were below poverty. *14.7% (+/-5.2) of those ages 65 and older were below poverty. In 1990, a youth group in South Carolina collected donations to help members of their community. Since that time, the Souper Bowl of Caring has raised more than $100 million for charities in communities all over the country and created a powerful movement transforming the time around Super Bowl weekend into a celebration of giving and serving. The Caldwell County Homemakers will join this movement and host a Souper Bowl of Caring January 19—February 2. The Homemakers will be collecting non-perishable food items during this time. Items will be donated to the Christ Tabernacle Food Pantry. If you would like to participate, drop items off at the Caldwell County Extension Office between January 19 and February 2.

Meaningful Holidays for your Children Holidays can bring joy and fun especially to children. Children always look forward to receiving presents, often times costly and unnecessary ones. Sometimes our children are more concerned about the presents they want to get and forget the true meaning of the holidays — shared time and enriching experiences. Here are a few tips for parents to help their children look beyond all of the seasonal product-driven marketing:

Teach Children to Question Marketing Ads − Ask your children what they think about the products they see publicized on TV or in magazines. You can ask for example, “Do you think that product really looks or works the same way it seems to in the advertisement?” Explain to them that product ads are intended to make us want things we don’t certainly need. Move on to a discussion of what they actually need.

Talk about Family Traditions – Talk with your children about family traditions and the importance of observing them. You can have your children ask older relatives about the things they did to celebrate the holidays as children. Perhaps your children may get new ideas about how to spend the holidays with family and friends. If you do not have family traditions, you can ask your children for fun activities they would enjoy doing during holidays.

Encourage Children to Give Time and Experience rather than Material Things – The holidays is a good opportunity to give back to your community. Talk to your children about the importance of volunteer work or community service and help them to get ideas of how to volunteer around the holidays. Kids can give their time and help other family relatives with house chores, housework or care.

Make Home Gifts with Your Children – Involve your children in making home gifts or preparing food for family members. Photo albums, scrap books, paintings, cakes and muffins can be good ideas. Emphasize that what really matters is to express love and gratitude no matter how people do it.

Reference: KidsHealth. Making the Holidays Less Materialistic. http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/talk/holidays_materialistic.html# Source: Angelica S. Reina, Senior Extension Specialist for Child Development and Parenting Education, University of Kentucky; College of Agriculture, Food and Environment

Giving Gifts of Kentucky Food

Whether you buy produce in season to create homemade specialties or shop for them locally, Kentucky

foods are always a welcomed gift. Honey is a favorite for holiday giving and comes in many flavors and

varieties. Look for several different kinds of honey to create a gift basket. Your purchase also helps to

support local beekeepers. Jams, jellies, and butters from locally grown produce come in a wide variety of

flavors and pretty packaging. Dried herbs and mixes are a great gift for busy cooks who need a quick way

to season great tasting dishes. For cooks who will have family home for the holidays, a gift bag of fresh,

local eggnog, sausage, bacon, ham and biscuit mix would come in handy.

By spending some of your food and gift budget on locally produced Kentucky Proud foods, you are

supporting family farms, food entrepreneurs, local retailers, and the businesses that supply them. You

will also be giving a unique gift with fabulous flavor. Gifts of food can be quite personal if you know a few

things about the kinds of flavors and foods the receiver enjoys. The gift of food is also a great way to

be prepared for last minute gifts. Just keep some honey, jam or mixes in the pantry alongside some small

gift bags or baskets. From the flavor, to the family farm support, gifts of Kentucky foods make a great

statement about your belief in supporting your local food system and how much you care about preserving

and promoting Kentucky foods.

Source: Janet Mullins, Extension Specialist for Food and Nutrition, University Of Kentucky; College of Agriculture, Food and Environment

Plan Ahead to Get Organized in the New Year

The beginning of a new year offers the opportunity to refresh and reset ourselves in a variety of different ways. Planning ahead now to get organized in the new year can help you feel more prepared for daily life and unexpected situations which may arise over the next few months.

One of the first steps to getting organized is reducing clutter. After the holidays, our houses tend to have extra “stuff”. As you put away holiday gifts or those items that you purchased at after holiday sales, consider donating older items that you do not use often. A one-to-one exchange helps prevent your home from becoming cluttered. For each new item you bring in, donate an older item. This is a great exercise and a teachable moment for children; toys often create a lot of household clutter. Families in the United States purchase 40 percent of the world’s toys, but only 3.1 percent of the world’s children live in the United States. Consider asking your child for each new toy received, to select an older toy to donate. Not only does this help reduce toy clutter, but it also helps children understand the concept of giving to others.

Organizing your household paperwork can often seem like a daunting task, because you are continually receiving new documents. It can be difficult to determine what to keep and what to shred. To get started, develop a plan for household paperwork. Find a place to store important paperwork. You may have an empty file drawer or may consider purchasing a storage box. Label folders so that you can easily identify where each document should go. Start with today’s paperwork. You may have months or years of old documents to sort through at some point, but get started by moving forward instead of wading through old papers. Establish a system to manage new paperwork as it comes into the household. If it is a bill, establish a specific spot for all unpaid bills. After the bills are paid and properly recorded, file them appropriately.

Reducing junk mail can help you eliminate clutter at your house. Often junk mail will pile up until someone has the time to sort through to make certain it does not include anything important. You can request your name be removed from mailing lists by contacting the Direct Marketing Association, the cost is $1. More information regarding the Direct Marketing Association may be found at www.DMAchoice.org. In addition to direct mailers received from companies, many people often find their mailboxes full of unsolicited credit offers and insurance policy. You may request your name be removed from these lists by visiting the official Consumer Credit Report Industry Website atwww.optoutpresecreen.com. This website allows you to choose to stop receiving prescreened credit offers for a 5 year period.

A recent research study linked over-accumulation of stuff with higher levels of stress. As you prepare for the new year, consider steps you can take to help you feel more organized at home.

References: Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century (2012). UCLA Press. Legally Secure Your Financial Future, www.extension.org. Source: Jennifer L. Hunter, Extension Specialist for Family Financial Management, University of Kentucky; College of Agriculture, Food and Environment