Motivational Monday

"Each age has deemed the new-born year 

the fittest time for festal cheer."

~ Walter Scott

source

Motivational Monday

"Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind.  

To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, 

is to have the real spirit of Christmas"

~Calvin Coolidge

source

Merry Christmas!

Roundup

Every so often, we like to look around the web and see what other people are saying about food storage and emergency prep.  Here's what we found interesting over the last little while:

30 Links for Winterizing Your Car

How to build a water/food storage shelf for your garage

How to make a thin pull-out shelf for all those extra cans

Here's a cute printable free family emergency planning kit.  Just download, print, and fill out. (Don't  forget to store it somewhere helpful!)

Here's a tutorial on making personal-sized meals in a jar.  These would make cute gifts!

Hopefully you can find some great inspiration in some of these links.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Gift Giving Roundup

Still looking for ideas of gifts to give neighbors and coworkers?  How about something from your food storage?  Here's a roundup of food storage friendly gift ideas from over the past few years.

Wheat and recipe

Peanut Brittle

Wheat Grass

Granola (bottom of page)

Hot Cocoa Mix

Fudge

Chocolate Cereal Mix

Coal aka charcoal briquettes

Also, never underestimate the power of bread as a holiday gift.  A warm loaf of bread paired with some homemade jam that you made in the summer time can make a thoughtful and delicious gift for your neighbors.  Do a quick search for bread on our site and you'll come up with dozens of recipes for bread, in the mixer, by hand, in the bread machine and so on.

Do you have any gifts from food storage that you share with your neighbors and friends during the holidays?

Food Storage Tuesday

Every Tuesday, we post specific items you should gather in order to supplement your emergency car kit, your three-month supply, and your longer term storage.  If you are new to our blog, don't worry!  You won't be left behind.  Just start up where we are and follow along.  You will eventually have everything completed.  Once the car kit is complete, we'll be putting together 72-hour kits again (week by week).  Once those are done, we'll gather the car kits again.  So don't worry, just jump on in and join us where we are today! 

Today for your emergency car kits, add a pack of wet wipes and a roll of toilet paper.  To save on space, take the cardboard insert out of the toilet paper roll so that you can store it flat (and in a ziploc bag to keep it clean).

How's your three-month supply going?  I wish I had a bigger pantry to keep all my food in!  I have learned to maximize any space I can find -- under beds, in closets, even in my little laundry room.

This month for our longer-term storage, we're gathering "other" items... flour, honey, yeast, sugar, etc.

Motivational Monday

"Courage is resistance to fear,

 mastery of fear,

not absence of fear."

~Mark Twain

source

Food Storage Tuesday

Every Tuesday, we post specific items you should gather in order to supplement your emergency car kit, your three-month supply, and your longer term storage.  If you are new to our blog, don't worry!  You won't be left behind.  Just start up where we are and follow along.  You will eventually have everything completed.  Once the car kit is complete, we'll be putting together 72-hour kits again (week by week).  Once those are done, we'll gather the car kits again.  So don't worry, just jump on in and join us where we are today!  

Today for your emergency car kits, add a flashlight and the necessary batteries, if needed.

My three-month supply is still kind of at a standstill... planning to start replenishing it in January.

This month for our longer-term storage, we're gathering "other" items... flour, honey, yeast, sugar, etc.

Motivational Monday

"Decisions determine destiny. 

That is why it is worthwhile to look ahead, 

to set a course, to be at least partly ready 

when the moment of decision comes."

President Thomas S. Monson, 2004

Winterizing the Car Kit

As you know, we are big proponents of having a car kit in your car for little emergencies.  Ideally, you should check your car kit regularly, but the reality is...that just doesn't happen.  But I do try and check my car kit twice a year: once when summer starts and once when winter starts.

So this week, I pulled out the car kit to see what was missing and needed to be replaced or replenished.

First up, I opened the box!  My first car kit I put in an open box and realized quickly that it wasn't going to work. Dirt got everywhere. Now I use a lidded box.

 Three fruit strips were all that was left of the snacks.

 Not quite sure where the jumper cables disappeared to.

Checked the first aid kit to make sure I have everything.

 A few odds and ends in the bottom.

 Used my notebook to write down a few things I needed to find/buy.

 At the store I picked up some snacks (non melty ones, although that doesn't matter as much in the winter), bandaids and water. I love the mini size water bottles, especially with kids.

I also raided my change jar and scrounged up $10 in coins.  Hopefully having the money in change will discourage my husband from using it to buy Burger King, which is what happened to my last emergency stash of money.

All set back up in the car--for just in case.

If you have a car kit, have you checked yours lately?

Food Storage Tuesday

Every Tuesday, we post specific items you should gather in order to supplement your emergency car kit, your three-month supply, and your longer term storage.  If you are new to our blog, don't worry!  You won't be left behind.  Just start up where we are and follow along.  You will eventually have everything completed.  Once the car kit is complete, we'll be putting together 72-hour kits again (week by week).  Once those are done, we'll gather the car kits again.  So don't worry, just jump on in and join us where we are today!  

Today for your emergency car kits, add water and some high-energy snacks like granola bars.  If you've already completed a car kit (maybe last time we did it?), now would be a good time to check on your food and rotate it, especially the water in plastic bottles.

My three-month supply has been dwindling quite a bit lately, and I haven't been good about keeping track of what we have eaten!  One of my goals for the new year will be to re-assess everything we have, look over my meal plan, and write up a new shopping list.  (I know not to take on something this big around the holidays!  I am hoping to stay sane this month!)  We have a lot of really good food storage recipes on our blog that can help you come up with a three-month plan, too!  For example ,we love spaghetti, so I've planned a spaghetti dinner every Monday night if we were to eat from our three-month supply exclusively.  That means I need to store 12 lbs of spaghetti, 12 sauces, etc... (for the 12 weeks).  Once I have all that, then voila! I have Monday nights done for my three-month supply.  When the right sale hits, I can really stock up and hopefully even get it all done in one trip to the grocery store.  For more variety, you could just plan "pasta night" for once a week and have several different sauces to choose from.  Don't have the time/energy/interest to plan 12 weeks of meals?  We've done that for you in our food storage e-book.

This month for our longer-term storage, we're gathering "other" items.  I was able to stock up on honey over the summer (found a great deal on Craigslist from a local beekeeper), so I'm going to focus on something else this month.... maybe after I check out my local grocery store's weekly flyer.

Motivational Monday

"Work is honorable. Developing the capacity to work will help you contribute to the world in which you live. It will bring you an increased sense of self-worth. It will bless you and your family, both now and in the future.

One of the blessings of work is developing self-reliance. When you are self-reliant, you use the blessings and abilities God has given you to care for yourself and your family and to find solutions for your own problems. Self-reliance does not mean that you must be able to do all things on your own. To be truly self-reliant, you must learn how to work with others and turn to the Lord for His help and strength."

For the Strength of Youth, Work and Self-Reliance