"I'm SO Overwhelmed!!"

That's the thought of most people when they consider this "prepping" adventure.  They start reading blogs, seeing people's massive pantries, reading about people living off grid, and then simply get bogged down by how far behind they are and how much there is to do!  It seems impossible! Some people give up at that point.  Don't be that person.  

So how can we break this seemingly overwhelming task into steps that are realistic?  Take it easy...breathe...pray.  Remember: We're not going to be so stuck on fearing the future that we forget to enjoy today!

Spiritual preparation is *the* most important.  You will never have real peace until you surrender your life to Jesus Christ (Galatians 2:20-21).  Once He is in His rightful place, everything else falls into place.  The promises of the Bible are then for YOU, not just for others.  

So get right with the Lord. 

Now let's think about physical things that would be important in an emergency:

1. Water
2. Food
3. Shelter
4. Protection
5. First Aid/Medicine
6. Various Unusual Skills

Of course the order of importance depends on the emergency. These are the main topics we will be delving into on this blog.  

Slowly, but steadily. 

We'll talk how to begin water storage soon.  Until then, what topics would you add to my list of six? 

My Preparation Inspiration

People have asked me what began our preparation-mindedness.  Here is the basic story: 

My husband and I became active in Search and Rescue (SAR) while we were in high school. We were so blessed to be able to learn valuable skills early in life, including tracking, map and compass skills, white water rescue, navigation by stars, wilderness survival skills of all kinds, trapping and snaring, field first aid, and more. 

On one of our tracking expeditions, we began at the instructors house.  It was way out, deep in the Oregon woods.  The man who was going to be teaching us was still prepping our outing, so his wife was showing me around her kitchen.  I was the only girl on the team and she thought it was GREAT that I was learning all this!  She brought me into her pantry and I was stunned.  It wasn't fancy at all.  It was rather dark, with only one incandescent bulb lighting the whole thing.  It was HUGE and it was STUFFED. 

Home canned food, purchased food, buckets of dry goods, baskets of potatoes, and on and on and on.  I asked her why in the world would she have so much food when it was just her and her husband.  She laughed and told me that sometimes they would be snowbound for weeks in the winter. She wasn't going to be caught without a meal to serve! 

That introduced me to the idea of "prepping".  It's just old fashioned wisdom, not a new fangled mania.  

The next part was the Y2K panic.  I was a young momma.  I had a 4 year old, a 3 year old, an almost 2 year old and a two teen boys and a teen girl who we were fostering. I was not caught up in the panic.  I didn't think anything would happen that would affect me.  A few days before it was supposed to happen, we got a little cash out of the bank to have at home in case the banks were down for a few days.  But I did have one thought that bothered me all night...

I had a very quick daydream of my oldest two looking at me sadly.  The baby was crying in the background but was out of sight.  I told the girls, "I'm sorry. You'll just have to try to sleep anyway. I haven't any food to give you."

That image turned me into a "prepper".  I began to buy a little extra food, so that if I missed a trip to the store, I would still be able to put together a few meals.  At the time, I shopped often and didn't cook from scratch very much. We had little extra money (and we didn't eat all that healthy at the time), so the food I put up extra was things like noodle and cheesy packets, rice-a-roni, instant oatmeal, crackers, some canned soups, dry milk, a few gallons of drinking water and lots of cereal. It wasn't much, but it was a start.

Y2K came and went without a bang, but I was never the same. I was beginning to learn to be old fashioned. 

Welcome!

I'm glad to see you here. I have so enjoyed sharing our family's adventures, school times, favorite recipes (mega-sized, of course) and other things with you. I thought that it may be time to share a bit about our thoughts on preparing for the future. No one knows what tomorrow will bring.

Proverbs 27:1 "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth."

James 4:13-14 "Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow."

President-elect Trump should be coming into office in January.  Right now, the markets are up, precious metals are down, doom and gloomers on the right are more optimistic, doom and gloomers on the left are riled up, and society is uneasy in general. There are riots and uprisings in some cities, while smaller cities and towns are mostly peaceful.  We haven't had a huge natural disaster in a while. We haven't had a large terrorist attack in a while. 

This is the time to think about what you would do in the case of an emergency.  That emergency could come in one of many faces: economic collapse leading to societal collapse, nuclear attack, terrorist attack, EMP, pandemic....somewhat more likely but still somewhat rare: earthquake, hurricane, forest fire, flood, windstorm, ice storm...or even more likely for the average person: car accident, illness or injury, job change or unemployment, divorce, major home repair. 

Something along one of these lines is guaranteed to affect almost all of us some time in the next year.  

Be honest with me. 
Would you be able to comfortably live in a week-long power outage? 
What if you couldn't get to the store for a week? 
What if your husband lost his job next week? 
Would you have enough food and water for your family to outlast these emergencies? 
What if the emergency lasted a month?  Longer?  
Remember, we're being honest. 

Consider these things and let's meet back here to talk about very basic preparedness.  

Let's face it.  We're not "Doomsday Preppers". We are moms and dads.  We are sisters and brothers. We aren't looking to survive a direct nuclear hit. We just want to be able to weather the storms that come into everyone's life with more comfort than if we hadn't thought ahead.  

We're not going to be so stuck on fearing the future that we forget to enjoy today! 

Phil. 4:6-7  "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."