Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance

Be Prepared.

Almost every time my family goes on a trip I am the last person out of the house. I stop and look around, just to make sure I am not forgetting anything. I want to be totally prepared for whatever we might encounter. Do I have extra water bottles? It never fails that a mile or two down the road Monkey will be "so thirsty!" Did I remember to pack the toothbrushes, the hairdryer, and extra socks?

Preparation is so important, no matter what we are doing. In order to do something right, we need to have all of the proper tools. One of my Grandmother's sayings was "Prior planning prevents piss-poor performance." If we didn't have something fully planned out and it showed, she would say, "PPP!" And we knew what she meant. And she really had a point!


I recently read an article that recommended starting with an emergency water supply and a 72-hour Emergency Kit.  That really is common sense stuff, so why hadn't I thought of it that way?  The most important thing we will need in an emergency is water, then food and other emergency supplies.

The earthquake in Japan yesterday just drove home that point to me.  If there was an earthquake, fire, or any other kind of disaster (Katrina ring a bell?), are we prepared to evacuate our home on a moment's notice?

We have 72-hour Kits.  They are stashed in the hall closet.  Each of the kids has a backpack with supplies, food, clothes, and water.  We go through them twice a year and rotate the food out, packing new items in their place.  There are ready-made kits available, but ours are morphed together from my original Emergency Kit that my parents had for me and things that we've added along the way.

Some things we have in the kids' packs:

• change of clothes and shoes (shoes can be tied onto the outside of the backpack to save room)
• small first aid kit
• toiletries including:
• small bottle of shampoo
• small bar of soap
• toothbrush and paste
• toilet paper
• whistle
• flashlight with batteries packed separately
• waterproof matches
• emergency blanket
• poncho
• food to last 72 hours*
• a book and a coloring book and pens or crayons
• multi-tool or pocket knife
• some hard candy or fruit snacks (in an emergency you need something feel-good, too!)
• several water bottles, plus two 2 liter bottles of water

*The food we pack is VERY simple.  I buy boxes of Protein bars at Costco and divy them out.  I'll also add things like trail mix, fruit leather,  regular granola bars and jerky.  I even have cans of peanuts, cans of sardines and small tins of beans and franks (they have pop tops to eliminate the need for can openers.)  I try to keep it to food that does not need to be cooked.  We've packed hot cocoa mix and oatmeal packets, but those would require hot water to prepare them properly, even though they could actually be eaten cold or even dry.  I don't think beggars will be choosers. I also like to keep a combination of carbs and protein to keep energy up.  If there is an emergency, chances are calories will be burned with the adrenaline that is pumping!

Some things I want to add:

• a rope
• garbage bag
• plastic spoons
• a paper or tag with contact information and phone numbers for home, cell phones, and family in another area that may not be affected by the emergency.
• travel pack of baby wipes (always handy, especially when you don't have a lot of water available)
• a couple of matchbox cars for the little boys

Other things to pack for young children (of which I have none anymore):

• diapers
• baby food/formula
• medications
• small toys
• extra extra clothes
• receiving blanket 

Can you think of anything else that should be added to a Kids Emergency Kit?

I hope we never have to use these, but I feel better knowing they are ready and available.  And I don't want my grandma shaking her head and saying, "PPP!"

Here are some more links for 72-hour Emergency Kit information:

Ready.gov

72hours.org

The American Red Cross

Article from TheProvince.com

Project: Simplify Master closet cleanup...

I'm on a never-ending quest to simplify and de-clutter.  I have to say that things are less cluttered since getting rid of so much before moving, and I really like it.  Once in a while I'll look for something (or Andy will look for something!) and we'll realize that it didn't make the trip out here.  Which also means that my mom and sister had to deal with it.  Sorry!

I have a tendency to be in a rush all the time.  I'm rushing to get the kids to school, to get breakfast made, to get a project done, you know what I'm getting at.  With all of that rushing around things do not get put back the way they should.  So, now there is a big mess!

The main rooms of the house are usually picked up, even if they need a good dusting (which usually happens on a Saturday morning) or another vacuuming (which happens several times a week).

The bedrooms, on the other hand, are the junk depositories.  The kids haul their stuff to their bedrooms and dump it.  I toss things into my room, or closet, and don't get around to putting them away properly until the stacks are threatening to topple over.

Here's where Project: Simplify comes in.  I'm participating in Simple Mom's 5 weeks program to get 5 hot spots dealt with.  This week was just the master closet, which actually took me very little time, two blocks of about an hour each.  Not bad! 

Here is before...See what I mean about the piles toppling over?  And the shoes.  Yikes!

 

Hangers all willy-nilly, and more of the piles

Now for the after...

Voila!

Spring has sprung...

Branches from a tree in our yard.

Linking here~

Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without...

Curtains:

We've been needing them in our living room, and I wasn't quite sure what to do for them.  Anything that I really wanted would cost way more than I HAD or WANTED to spend, so I dug out these tried and true Waverly Toile (I'll admit that I have a tad bit of toile in almost every room in the downstairs) print valances that I made 6 years ago when we first moved to our little house in Missouri, and this is the third living room they have graced the windows of.


I knew that I wanted that slightly pointed, scalloped shape, so I made a template {maybe with some newspaper?  I can't remember now}.  There was some waste of fabric since this is a one-way print, but I put the scraps to use elsewhere.  I wanted to do this as cheap inexpensively as I could, so I passed on buying new decorative rods and just used regular curtain rods.  The vertical blinds are a bummer, but I've got to leave them for privacy.  Oh, well!  But I like the way the valances give the windows a more finished look.

I'm linking up here:

Parenting...

...just a couple of thoughts that I'm drawing from.




This entire article is great advice!  Here is one quote:

"In our day, many children grow up with distorted values because we as parents overindulge them. Whether you are well-to-do or, like most of us, of more modest means, we as parents often attempt to provide children with almost everything they want thus taking away from them the blessing of anticipating, of longing for something they do not have. One of the most important things we can teach our children is to deny themselves. Instant gratification generally makes for weak people. How many truly great individuals do you know who never had to struggle?"
~Joe J. Christensen, “Greed, Selfishness, and Overindulgence,” Ensign, May 1999