31 Days of Preparing Properly

I have been planning on being a part of 31 Days of Blogging this month, and I've really been excited about it, too.  But then we started a new business.  And we had the business start-up costs, and new bills and other expenses and less and less money available for the every-day things, not to mention less time for me to think about the 31 days of blog posts I would have to come up with.  I thought about throwing in the towel because I never even told anyone I wanted to do this, so who cares if I quit before I started?  But the more I thought about it, the more I knew that this is what I need to help to stabilize all of the craziness that I feel.  This is what I want to focus on in my "free" time, and I'm pretty sure that others might benefit from the things I will post here.  In addition, I really want a place where I can put down all of my thoughts, notes, tips, and everything else I know is important about this topic and have it in one place.  

I also want to take seriously the quote I have at the top of my blog, but have fun while doing it!

So, my blogging topic for the month of October is:

                    

I'm really excited about this!  I am by no means an expert on food storage, emergency preparedness, and anything else that goes along with it, but I am definitely a "learner" and want to my family to improve in being prepared, living a more sustainable lifestyle, and working together as a family at it.

Some of the topics I'll be writing on are:

• Being able to shelter in place for 2 weeks
• Fall and winter garden
• Food Preservation 
• Water Storage
• Cooking from Scratch
• Staples to have on hand
• 3 month food supply
• 72-hour Emergency Kits (Bug-Out-Bags)
• Working together as a family
• Menu planning
• Spiritual Preparedness
• Making room in your home for emergency supplies

And MORE!

If you have questions or something you would really like to know about relating to this, please comment below and I'll try my best!  If you have anything to add I would love to hear it.

I'll use this page as my main topic page and post links here to the daily posts.  I'm so excited!  Now, to get my family just as excited...

Thanks for stopping by!

You can follow the Pinterest Board I created for my 31 Days posts here:  

31 Days of Preparing Properly

Or Subscribe to E-mail Blog Updates on the upper right of the sidebar.

See the other 31 Day participants at Nesting Place

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Find the rest of the story here:

Day 2:  Some more on why I chose this topic and starting our fall/winter garden.

Day 3:  Using What You Have

Day 4:  Water: How and What to Store...

Day 5:  6 Tips on Keeping the Pantry Stocked and Buying in Bulk

Day 6:  My weekend plans and A GIVEAWAY!

Day 7:  Preparing Spiritually

Day 8:  More Buying in Bulk Tips

Day 9:  Nine Time Saving Tips

Day 10: Some Helpful Links and Resources

Day 11: Plan 1 Week at a Time

Day 12: How to Build Your Food Storage 1 Week at a Time

Day 13: Cooking From Scratch

Day 14: Some More Resources to Help Along the Preparedness Journey

Day 15: Some of My Favorite Books About Food Storage and Survival

Day 16: Simple Menu Shopping Trip (See Day 11 Above)

Day 17: When Life Hands You Cucumbers, Make Pickles! And Other Homemade Treats

Day 18: Storing Bulk Foods and Grains

Back to School

Another summer is gone. 

Poof!  

In the blink of an eye.  

This will be the last summer that all of our kids will be going "back to school" to the same school.  It's sad.  Since Brian was in 4th grade the kids have been on the same campus for school.  Even if it doesn't matter to them, I take great relief in knowing that if there was an emergency at home or school that they would be able to find each other.  

Whenever my kids start school I feel relieved and anxious, or as this article at Dave Ramsey says, Hopeful and Scared.  I want my kids to succeed, but I want them to work hard.  I want them to have fun, but I want them to be responsible.  I want them to challenge their teachers, but I want them to be respectful.  

The author of the post, Dr. Meg Meeker, says:  

 We mustn’t be afraid for our kids, that they’ll get the wrong teacher or not make the team. Some of these are important life-defining moments. More importantly, we must teach them that they are tough enough to handle what life gives them.

That's so hard for me to do, to stand back and maybe "let" them fail.  Is it character building?  Most probably.  Is it easy on them?  Nope.  But I'll try not to be a helicopter mom, hovering over and fixing everything.    Then maybe they will be independent, capable, and confident kids.  Don't they look like it?

They totally humored me in taking these pictures.  Aren't they good sports?

And here's last year's picture:

What a difference a year makes!

Edited:  I forgot to mention that the weird yellow lighting in the pictures is because the air was so smokey from the wildfires.  Luckily, the firefighters are getting a handle on them.

I'm sharing here:  The CSI Project

Full Hands, Full Heart

Tidy Mom

Crystal & Co.

Turning my China Hutch into a Scrap Space

We recently moved to a smaller house.  Smaller house = downsizing.  I'm trying to work in my scrapbooking supplies without having them shoved in containers into the back of the closet where the thought of having to get them out deters any scrapbooking whatsoever.  I decided to use my China hutch that came with us from Missouri via my sister's client, to my mom, to my other sister, and then to me.  ( I have the matching table, too.)

The hutch is sitting on the only wall-papered wall in the dining area, and I have to say that I love this wallpaper!  I'm pretty certain that it's original to this 1960's house, and it's in perfect shape.  Not a tear or smudge.  When I unpacked I just threw everything onto the shelves, so this was half-empty (or half-full for you optimistic folk).

So this is BEFORE

 The back wall of the hutch was painted a lovely light pink (it was previously a blue and a dark red) and I wanted to brighten it up a bit so  white it is!  Just a couple of quick coats did the trick.

 And here is AFTER:

I already had the canvas totes on top and they're holding larger supplies and alterable wood.  Most of my containers were aqua blue and green, which go just fine with the yellow and greens in the wallpaper and china hutch.

This cute couple holds some paintbrushes, and my art journals are behind just begging to be taken out to be used!  The tins hold tags and some pictures.

The large green buckets are planters I got at an awesome yard sale for a quarter apiece.  The small buckets are from Target's dollar spot. These are holding small embellishments sorted by color.

 Love these cigar boxes, they're the perfect size for metal embellishments like eyelets, grommets and brads.  One of them holds old clothespins, and another has some tape runner refills.

Jars are my other favorite go-to holder; makes everything visible.

Old music books I use in my projects and some paint in an old wooden box that I picked up at a yard sale, too.  It was already painted that awesome blue!

This isn't everything, but I wanted to keep some of my favorite and often used things in the cabinet.  I have ribbons and tools and all kinds of other things in the cupboards and drawers.  And the coat closet in the entry way holds even more supplies.  That post is for another day, so stop back by to see my progress there!

I'm sharing here:

WIP Monday on ScrapScene

The Mommy Club at Crystal & Co.

DIY Accomplished at Homemaker's Challenge

I'm Lovin' It at TidyMom

The Charm of Home

Happy 4th! and a simple paint chip garland tutorial...

I've seen so many paint chip garlands on blogs here and there and pinterest lately that I thought I'd make my own red*white*blue version. This was simple; all it took was:

*some paint chips (Glidden from Wal-mart are a great size)
*small seam binding
*stapler and staples
*chalk

First I set out the number of paint chips out in the color pattern I wanted, then stapled them onto the seam binding, two staples each, about an inch or two apart.   Then I used plain white chalk to write my message and hung it up on the entryway.  That's it!  The color combinations are endless.  I'm thinking about making one for each season since it costs next to nothing.  And I've found some pretty new paint colors, too.

Here is the back.  Personally, I like the look of it!

There is nothing better than having the ability right to do what we want. I know my kids want to be able to do whatever they want, whenever they want. We have rules and guidelines in our home and they test them all they can! You know how it goes, you give them an inch and they take (or want to take) a mile. This morning I was thinking about that God-given right and how so many in this world live in countries and places where there is no freedom or where they have never known any kind of liberty.

We live in the land of the free and the home of the brave. I want it to stay that way!

I'm proud of my family who have served and currently serve our country.  I know it is at a huge sacrifice!

Have a happy Independence Day. May we never take that independence for granted.



I'm linking here: http://www.scrapscene.com/tag/wipmonday.html

http://www.crystalandcomp.com/

TidyMom

Show It Off Monday

Homemakers Challenge

You light up my life...

No, this post isn't about Debby Boone or the '70's.  It is about my never-ending quest to find cheap-to-free lampshades.  We've moved since that last post 2 months ago, hence my absence from my blog because I was trying to find someone's missing ______________. (fill in the blank with: softball pants, paperwork, wallet, or mind.)

I've picked up a couple of these brass-ish lamps along the way for 2 dollars each.  One had a nice shade, the other a pleated mess of a shade. So I ripped the pleated fabric off the shade.

And used the shade how it was.

And it was ugly.

But it wasn't a bare bulb.

Then one day I couldn't handle looking at that ugly shade anymore.

So I pulled out an old songbook.

I think it's a baptist songbook.

Nope, I looked at it and it's "A Community Song Book for schools, homes, clubs and community singing."

Why don't we have these anymore?

On second thought, scratch that.  Who needs Lady Gaga songs in a community songbook.

Don't you just love the yellowed pages?

I tore some of those pages out, whipped out my spray adhesive, and slapped the pages onto my ugly shade.

Five minutes later I had this.

I love the flappy edges but not the terrible photo.  Sorry, the settings must be off.

Just checked and sure enough, my camera's set to manual.

I tore the bottoms of the pages against the shade edge to make it shabby.

My ugly shade is now flappy and shabby, and I love it.

This brings me to my second lamp re-do, shown below.

This little lamp started it's life as a black and brass candlestick style lamp, but it begged for a make-over.

So I whipped out the white spray paint and obliged.

Now she's a sassy little thing, with a clearance-find-of-a-shade and some hot-glued pom-pom trim.

Another five minute lamp re-hab.

I'm linking up here:

http://www.scrapscene.com/tag/wipmonday.html