FORWARD THINKING

I can't sleep. So I plug in my headphones. I happened to catch an episode called Provident Living about food storage.

(I borrowed this button from a Relief Society Blog. Cute, isn't it?)

 

 It lasted maybe 15 minutes, but it was packed with information; some I had not thought about. I didn't catch the person's name who was sharing information, or I would give him credit. (he has worked extensively with people in disaster areas)

 

 

His advice:

 

Do something each week to become better prepared: add information, equipment, or food to your storage.

 

"It's no excuse to do nothing because you can't do everything!"

 

Be forward thinking. Think about and plan for the future. Try to imagine "what would I do if.....?"

 

 

i.e.: What would I do if the power went out?

 

He suggested having water bottles in the fridge to keep the food cold longer. I am going to put some 2-3 liter bottles in the freezer to have in case I need to use them in the fridge or freezer to keep food cold.  frozen water bottles

 

 

He also suggested having supplies on hand to cure meat by salt brining it. I have no idea how to do that, so I would need to find out that information and have supplies on hand.

 

(I have already a good supply of salt. I have been buying salt each time I go to Walmart because I do not want to be eating my beans without salt.) I know you can buy salt in bigger quantities cheaper, but it is just convienent for me to pick up a package of salt every time I shop. Salt is good for so many things. I don't think you can have too much of it.

 

vacuum packing extends the shelf life. a smart thing to do if you don't want to have to rotate your food as often. (or you are like me, and you forget to grab the oldest first)

 

 

have menu based food storage. Have recipes that you have tried that use your food storage. Plan meals for 3 weeks, then 3 months. 

He has recipes to make pasta out of flour and water, and can create sourdough breads, and soups.

It's one thing to have the food storage, it's another to know what to do with it!

 

Right now in my life I have limited time to work on food storage. I really thought I would be able to have free time now that school has started, but I was offered a job yesterday and I took it. I am forward thinking that one of the things that will be in limited supply is money.

Jobs are already scarce and they are going to become more scarce. (my 2 older teen-age boys have not been able to find work) 

 Even though things are not as tight financially for us as they were in the past (because I worked a temporary job in May and June),  I don't know what they will be like in the future.

I love being a stay-at-home mom, but I have to take the opportunities that come my way to keep us as self-reliant as possible. If that means working outside the home, that is what I will do (my youngest is almost 16)

I want to turn the money I earn into food storage (and equipment such as a solar oven, etc.)

The radio program I heard got me thinking about self reliance again.  It's good to be reminded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I CAN VS I CAN'T

here's a first: 2 blog postings in 1 day!

after posting my blog on the power of positive thinking, I put in a movie - I felt like some fun before I started work for the day.

"Enchanted."

 

out of all the things I got out of this movie (besides the Happily Ever After feelings - ahhhhh - sigh) was my admiration of Pip.

Pip was the little chipmonk that kept running around thru the whole movie, trying to save Giselle.

At one point Nathaniel (the wicked queen's henchman) hung Pip up in a closet by his arms - he was clipped to a hanger like a rat in a trap. He could have given up and said "What can I do? I'm trapped in a closet 5 ft off the ground hanging by my thumbs!"

He never said I "can't". He just did what he could. He swung the hanger around until it flipped off the rod. Once on the ground (still attached to the hanger with his arms above his head) he escaped by climbing out the window and using his torture device as a get- away tool, slid down a wire to the ground. On the way the hanger flipped off him, and he was free.

All because he said "I can." And he did.

 

How many of us are still in the closet hanging by whatever is holding us back, saying "What can I do?  I'm stuck like a rat in a trap!"

 

What does this have to do with emergency preparedness?

You know.

 



The Power of I can!

THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING!

Positive thinking has positive power. 

 

The opposite is also true; negative thinking has negative power.

Positive thinkers attract other positive people. No one likes to be around a negative person.

 

Positive thinkers are happier (duh!)

 

 

Positive thinkers have the power to handle difficult situations, to solve problems, and to work thru things without giving up.

Those are all traits we need to have if the DHTF*.

*dirt hits the fan

 

The time to be a positive thinker is before the DHTF.

If it is normal and natural to think positive when life is good, it will be easier to think positive when life gets not so good.

 

I used to be a negative thinker. Then I got smart and changed my negative ways. It wasn't easy - especially when I thought my life was crud. It took lots of mental hard work on my part ,but my life is so much happier now. (and nothing changed in my life but me)

 

Every morning before I get out of bed I set the tone for the day. "LG. Life is good." is my motto. And I give thanks for as many things as I can think of. Just to be alive is a blessing!

 

 

I do wonder how I would do if the DHTF. I get cranky if I am tired or hungry.

 

I am hoping by giving myself positive thoughts every day and being that positive person, that when times get hard (and they will get hard) my positiveness will get me thru anything.

 

 

 

IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS THAT GET YA!

Well, here it is almost September!  I don't know where the time has gone!  I have been very neglectful of my little blog.

Every summer I want to just lay around eating popcycles and reading books.

I don't know why that never happens!

Instead I am so busy!  Too busy to even worry about emergency preparedness?!

It's all the little things in a day that add up to a busy schedule.

First I had some big things.

I went to work (only 1 month, but it was an intense month!)

Then I decided my house needed a good overhaul. That took 2 months.  It felt so good to get my house organized. (for me, an organized home is an organized mind)

I finally got all my emergency preparedness books in one spot (in the front closet right above my 72 hour kits; that seemed like a logical place to store them)

here is a list of my books:  (in random order)

Essentials of Home Production & Storage LDS Church
Passport to Survival by Esther Dickey
Project Readiness by Louise E. Nelson
Citizen's Guide to Terrorism Preparedness by Richard Stilp & Armando Bevelacqua
Prophetic Statements on Food Storage for Latter-Day Saints by Neil H. Leash (this one scared me! Those who are not prepared are going to be in big trouble!)
Harris' Farmers Almanac; everyday emergencies a survival guide
Emergency Essentials by Larry Barkdull
Disaster Survival Handbook by Alton Thygerson
Roughing it Easy by Dian Thomas I've always liked Dian Thomas' ideas
How Do We Eat It? by Deborah Pedersen Vanderniet
Great Myths of the Great Depression by Lawrence W. Reed
Just in Case, How to be Self Sufficient by Kathy Harrison
The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook (this one tells you how to: escape from quicksand, wrestle an alligator, land a plane, and more!)
It wasn't raining when Noah Built the Ark by Tami Girsberger
(which is the also the name of my notebook)
Keeping Your Family Safe During Disaster  Southern Nevada Health District
In Time of Emergency Federal Emergency Management Agency (dated 1983)

WOW! I didn't know I had so many books on emergency preparedness, until I gathered them all up!

(now that I got them out just now to put the titles here in my blog, I am going to read some of them!)  I picked out 2 to start with. This will help me see which ones are to keep, and which really are not helpful.- I was having them in my emergency prepareness library as reference on a need-to-know basis.)

now that that was done, (the organizing) I could do some little things. The summer wasn't over yet.

I wanted to do more research on solar ovens, and alternative cooking, but that got bumped by other projects.

What other projects, and how did I get so busy?

I had been praying for service opportunities.
(last year I was praying for a job, and God blessed me with a great job that required me to work for 1 month intensely (at the power plant during an outage) and then home the rest of the year.)

Since money wasn't such a critical priority, I turned my heart to service. Be careful what you pray for! 

I wondered how I would be able to give service, since I was basically a homebody. (I love being home!) 

Oh, God finds a way!

Before I knew it I was sewing for others, decorating for weddings -I have another wedding this Saturday where my wedding stuff, and my decorating skills are needed. I'm not that great a decorator, but I am manpower.

I still donate a lot of time to scouting - between being a merit badge counselor and advancement chairman on the scout committee.   ( BTW, their motto is Be Prepared!)

I also still teach those adorable 3 year olds on Sunday. 

I still have 3 teen-age boys and a hard working husband at home.

All this adds up to a full day, and a full life.

Which brings me to my point - how to add the essentials of emergency preparedness into an already busy life.

Little things done on emergency prepareness add up to being prepared.  Putting it off until we have more time somehow means we never do it.

Here's an example of putting things off:
At the beginning of the summer I decided I wanted to do an indepth study of the 4 gospels in the Bible. All it would have taken is 1/2 hour of my time a day. I never seemed to find 1/2 hour.

I just found out that my son is going to be studying the New Testament in a church class every day during school.  They move pretty quickly thru the text.

I missed a good opportunity to be prepared to discuss and share with him what he is reading. There is no time now to fill my brain with all the information/insights I would have gotten if I had been studying all along. 

It would have been a little thing (1/2 hour a day)

The point is, I didn't know that would be his point of study, and I missed an opportunity that would have been a blessing.

we don't always know when we will need information/stuff for emergency preparedness.

We always think there will be more time.

I do have a back-to-school-time plan to get myself back on track to researching and planning and preparing for the future. I'm going to add some little things things to my day that I know will add up to being prepared big time!