Funky

So I guess I've been in a funk lately and haven't really been feeling like doing anything.  I'm trying to get out of that funk, but some days are harder than others.

One of the things that has been on my mind lately is having our emergency preparedness things in order.  It seems like General Conference in April was chock full of admonitions and warnings to be prepared.  Nothing new there.  We have been hearing that forever, right?  But it has been weighing on my mind heavily lately.  The fact that Jed lost his job recently, does not make me feel any more comfortable with our circumstances either.  One thing we do have going for us is that our pantry is stocked and we do have a pretty good start on bulk food storage items like wheat, flour, rice etc.  Yet I still feel so unorganized when it comes to knowing what we have and how much. 

We went to see the movie Contagion last weekend and my mind just kept going back to emergency preparedness.  What would we do if we were faced with a real live event like in that movie?  We would do OK.  But, there is so much more we could do to prepare.  Also, as I was watching the news the other night, a rare occurrence for me.  They had a news story on about a fire that broke out in the foothills of northern Utah and that there were several homes in danger.  People living closest to the mountainside where the fire was were being asked to evacuate voluntarily and others who lived in the area but not in immediate danger were getting reverse 911 calls to notify them of the possibility of evacuation if the fire did not get contained.  It got me thinking...if we had to evacuate immediately, would we be prepared to do so, with anything other than the clothes on our backs.  The answer is NO.  We have food storage, but we do not have any emergency backpacks ready to go in case we had to evacuate. No 72 hour kits we can grab on the go.  If it happened to us it could be disastrous! 

So yes, this is something I've been thinking about and really trying to figure out how to at least put some things together on the limited budget we have right now. So with some "shopping" around the house to see what we do have and then some shopping at the dollar store to fill in the holes and we should be able to put together a few 72 hr. kits for a pretty reasonable price.

Our ward has put together an emergency preparedness binder for every family. It holds all kinds of information pages that you fill out.  Things like doctors information, prescription information, financial information etc.  This is to take with you in an emergency so you have what you need on hand.  I am in the process of getting these pages filled out for our family and our needs.  But I also have other things I want to add to the binder.  While I was surfing on pinterest today I came across this website called life...your way.   They have hundreds of free pdf printables for just about anything you can imagine.  Mostly things related to home management.  Click on over and check it out.  I love that they have so many things already created and all I need to do is fill them out and print them for my binder.   That is going to be my focus in the next few days.  Get more prepared for potential emergencies so that when something does happen I will be better able to handle whatever is thrown our way.

I just found this article which explains what I am aiming for in a emergency preparedness/family life binder.  Some great information and ideas...