Saturday, March 12, 2011

Preparedness?

My heart breaks tonight as I watch the news reports from the earthquake out of Japan and resulting tsunamis, volcanic activity, etc. What a day it has been. If you are a praying woman, I encourage you to join with me in lifting those people up in prayer.

It also has me thinking, some of us are not prepared for any type of emergency--be it a disaster like the ones mentioned above or even just a minor inconvenience.

I'd like to do a series of posts related to being prepared. I know you cannot predict the outcome of anything nor should you live in fear. That is not the intent of these posts. Instead I want to get you thinking about things and your family and doing what you can to prepare for difficult or stressful times that can arise. We know that being organized is half the battle. Some of us are better at it than others and some of us are good in certain areas, weak in others and some of us haven't even considered it at all. That's where our paths converge and we can learn from each other.

Most of us within the continental US live in some type of zone--earthquake, tornado, wildfire, hurricane, etc. We try to plan for those things.

What we don't always plan for are the smaller things like a burst pipe, shorted paycheck, etc.

I hope that through this series of posts that you consider these topics and adapt them to your own lifestyle and family needs. Because that's really what organization and "being prepared" are all about -- lifetstyle! If it's a part of you to plan and prepare, then you won't be caught short when you need an extra dollar in the checkout line, or you won't worry about feeding an extra mouth at the dinner table or even if you have candles should the power go out.

These topics and suggestions are by no means "expert", though this is an area that I have been working on most of the past twenty years. (RAISING HAND) Who doesn't have all the answers? I sure don't. But have acquired a lot of information and practical suggestions from my own experiences.

If you do these things, please comment away if you have extra tips or help! We can always learn something new from each other and look forward to hearing from you.

If you don't practice these things, I just ask that perhaps you consider it and look at it as a way to help you help your family.

I'll be posting as time allows, in between other posts, most likely. And praying for each of you and your precious loved ones. Hold them close tonight and be thankful.

2 comments:

  1. We started getting some type of "preparedness" things together over the last year or so. We have a 72 hour emergency bag in EACH vehicle with water and snacks.

    We try to fill used soda/milk containers with water to use in an emergency situation and have begun to store up some smaller food items.

    I am in NO way prepared to face ANY kind of emergency but these items that we had stored up helped us through the month of December when the paycheck always seems to get snug with my "Christmas" spending.

    One of the Food Storage blogs that I follow has scenerios laid out like pretend this is your 3rd day without water and live the next 3 days without it...how does it work for you, what do you find to be your obstacles, etc. It's pretty interesting some of the things that people have learned doing that...I haven't done it yet...mainly out of fear I guess...water is what we have SUCH need of but are in NO ways prepared enough with it.

    Thanks for blogging about this...I think the recent Japan tragedy is just going to impact the world MORE...Lord be with us ALL!!!

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  2. Kim, we used our "perpetual pantry" to get us through the winter months too. It was such a blessing to have those things, wasn't it?

    I think I know what blog you're talking about. Is it Food Storage Made Easy? That's a good one too!

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