Preparedness Challenge

Today I want to talk a little about emergency preparedness and the emotional toll. Death is never a good thing to think about, but it is a very necessary part of life and is inevitable. If we had a terrible emergency that took people’s lives instantly or almost instantly could you handle it? Not everyone will survive and you have to be able to help the people in your life, that are left behind and to somehow move on. Help loved ones through the emotional and real part of death? Are you prepared to do that? Have you thought about it at all? Not everyone will survive but hopefully you will take the steps to help where you can. I am going to continue to read all I can on it and try to get my mind wrapped around it. I have a hard time with death in ‘normal’ times, much less an emergency situation so I am hoping that I can find lots of resources to help me with this.

I also was reading a blog (can’t remember or find it now, sad L) about EP and the first “rule” on their site was ‘tell no one’ about your food storage. It got me thinking about a couple of “what if” scenarios.

They went something like this:

#1 - People know that I have a food stash and therefore will expect me to help them out.

#2 – No one knows I have a stash and I can then pick and choose who to help.

#1 – People will be vicious when there is food involved, or rather lack thereof. I am not telling people anymore about what I am doing, including some of my family members. Most of them laughed at me anyway so it is an easy transition. I just laugh along and don’t say much. I just continue to slowly get my food stores in to place so that it is there when it is needed.

#2 – see #1. I am going to have to work on myself in this situation because I am the type that wants to help everyone! I just have to come to grips that I won’t be able to and still survive & take care of my own family members.  

Don’t get me wrong, I am not going to hoard my food products, but sharing with everyone under the sun isn’t going to help anyone and I would run out very quickly. So I would have to have priorities and rules of my own in place, right? Have you thought about the ‘rules’ you will need to survive? I  admit I am still researching this subject as well, but thought I would bring it to everyone’s attention so it can be prepared for & thought about now.

Preparedness is about a lot of things, not just food and shelter and hopefully, this will get people thinking about how they will handle some of the unusual situations.

The little garden

Good morning!

This week around my little container garden I transplanted some potatoes. I don't know if they will survive, not sure if you should even do that, but we'll see. They were in a little bucket that was way too small for them. :( Anyway, here is hoping they will survive!

I also fertilized and watered my two little tangerine trees that I had received for Christmas a couple of years ago. They seem to be doing ok and even have a couple of little blooms on them. I don't expect fruit for another year or so though. We also had a surprise tangerine tree show up next to or old oak tree in the front of the house. No one even noticed the littel thing until this year. It has the sweetest fruit on it ever! Thank you little birdies for depositing that little seed. ;)

The strawberries are doing well although not producing, lol. They are a pretty plant.

My nephews and niece were on Spring Break last week so we went to the water park. It was fun and I got some good joint therapy in by swimming the lazy river. We packed our lunches and ate by the main pool and people watched. The kids went down most of the slides and had a blast. Back to school for them today though.

I have my grandson during the week now as my daughter had to go back to work. :( It was hard on her but I think she is adjusting and has a goal to work towards now. She wants to be a SAHM and be able to be with him every day. He is a good baby and a joy to be with. We also have a Baptism date coming up in June. It is going to be extra special because we are having a family reunion the same weekend so he will have extra family there that normally would not be able to make it.

I guess that is about it for now. No pictures today as my camera needs a good charging but next time. Click on the button below to join in the Ban Hop or just to check out what everyone is up to. Have a wonderful week!!

A very cool Giveaway!

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Another project completed

Yay, I completed another car seat cover. This was for a little boy also and mommies baby shower was Saturday so I can post it now. I learn something new with each one. I lined this one with a white muslin and I like it. I also made a few button holes in the top so mommy can hang some toys for baby to play with when he gets bigger. :)

What do you think?

My camera isn't that good, sorry. I am still investigating what kind to get and saving my pennies.  :)

Enjoy your week!

Mom-isms and more...

So my mom & I were riding in the car today, out doing some errands, and I was talking about being at the water park in town earlier in the week. I was saying that I like ‘walking’ and swimming the lazy river because it was good exercise and very easy on my knee and joints. This is what the conversation was like:

Me: “I think I will go to AI again very soon and since I have an annual pass, it is free. Free is good”.

Mom: “Yep but if you wanted, you could swim in the lake and wrestle with the alligator. That would be good exercise”.

Me: “Uh, no”.

Mom: “I wouldn’t want to either. Alligators are evil I think. They were born grumpy too”.

Me: “how do you know they’re grumpy mom”?

Mom: “Just look at them, they just look grumpy…and evil”!

LOL, I love my mom and am SO blessed to be able to ‘hang’ with her. Thank you GOD!

Needless to say, (and much to my nieces dismay), we do have an alligator swimming among our lakes. He/she will come and go between them until she breeds or lays her eggs or whatever it is she is here to do.Everyone who lives on the lake has been warned.

We haven’t been swimming in the lake in years anyway, due to pollution and the jet skis mucking up the water. I guess that’s life in the ‘wild’ of our little 8 acres in the suburbs, lol.

In other news our owls had twins! Can you spot them in the tree?

Unfortunately they also killed a couple of Pileated Wood Peckers. (I think that is what they were anyway). Decapitated them, can you believe it? Mean old grouches! I guess they were offended by the color red. I think the woodpeckers had babies too which is unfortunate too. L I don’t know what to do about them. I suppose there is really nothing to be done. It is the circle of life, but they didn’t even eat them, just killed them.

Our Sandhill crane that was injured is gone. But this is good news as our neighbor knew someone who comes out and picks up hurt animals and is nurses them back to health. The mate is gone but I am not sure if she took her with him/her or not, lol. She said if she could, she would bring them back. I keep hoping to see them but haven't so far.

That is about it for now. I am hoping to have a garden update in time for the Barn Hop on Monday. See you there!

Soap Giveaway!!

Artful Homemaking is having an awesome giveaway! go over and check it out. Homemade soaps are so awesome and organic to have, right? I am going to check out the baby soaps for my little Kai! They have so many options and products!

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Here we go again...

Another week has slipped me by, lol. I have been so busy, just being busy! How was your Easter/Passover? Ours was delightful! The whole family came over and we enjoyed time together. The TV was off and it was ever so nice! My niece wanted her hair braided in little braids all over her head so my daughter and sister sat her down and about 4-5 hours later it was done! She has long blonde hair and is a tomboy and (being a pre-teen) would rather not brush it, lol. They did take a break for dinner, feedings and bathrooms though. ;)

We had a yummy spiral ham, scalloped potatoes, artichoke & tomato casserole and angel eggs! My daughter also made a great Easter cake. Everything was very yummy!

Saturday I sewed a lot. I made a nursing cover for my daughter (she left the other at the mall accidentally), 2 car seat covers and 3 table runners for my mom. They were all fairly easy but I had to make a few adjustments yesterday on the nursing cover when my daughter was here. She loves it though and it matches her car seat cover for her car seat. J

The garden is not looking so good. I don't know; I must just be one of those people, lol. You know the ones with a black thumb? I have one tomato plant that gave me five tomatoes and then just died. They were small paste tomatoes and were good though. I did try something though and so far it has worked! I have seen a lot of people restarting celery and green onions so I thought I would give it a try and it worked! I had tried once before but the green onions died, but this go around it looks like they took! Can you see them there in the dirt? There are six of them. One or two are doing a lot better than the others, but hopefully they will continue to grow. We don’t eat them too much around here but it would be nice to have when we wanted them.  

For the last week the weather has been absolutely beautiful! I went out this morning to a wonderful 65 degrees. It will get up to 83 later and hopefully the humidity will stay away. We are having to water though for lack of rain. We have well water so we aren’t as restricted as others but we are careful not to over water.

Potatoes

Tomatoes

The herbs seem to be doing really well. I use the herbs quite regularly in cooking. I made scalloped potatoes for Easter dinner and used the fresh thyme, yummy! I still need to get to the garden center and get some more herb plants though. I do so much better with herbs than vegetables.

The Strawberries are really growing big and looking so pretty. I love a plant that will reproduce from its self, lol.

Click on the button to read or link up to the barn hop!

That is it for around here. I hope everyone was a stupendous week! This post is linked up to the Barn Hop.

Have a great week!

Easter morning...

“He is risen! Hallelujah!”

"He is not here,

for He has risen, just as He said."

~ Matthew 28:6