Great advice from a Great site...

After my long and rambling post last night, I didn't want to leave you with the impression that there is nothing you can do to prepare so not to do it. Quite the contrary! This morning I came across a post on a favorite site of mine that summarized a perfect list of things you can do to prepare for an earthquake. Enjoy!

http://everydayfoodstorage.net/2011/03/12/lessons-to-learn-from-japans-earthquake/food-storage-recipes

Reflections on Japan - Thoughts about Preparedness

So I'm sure that many of you, like me, have been glued to the news stations and internet updates about Japan today. So many thoughts swirl around in my head as I watch the videos and hear the news reports. There are family members locally that don't know the status of their loved ones in Japan, there are images of homes and cars being tossed around like a child's discarded toys, and there are the "other" disasters that just keep piling on top of one that should have been a stand alone tragedy. With my passion of helping others help themselves become more prepared - I'm at a loss here. I know that we are due for a BIG earthquake soon and have made sure that I am aware of the risks that I need to prepare for - make sure things are bolted to the wall, know where to go in our home that is a structurally sound place, know how to shut off the gas, have food and water on hand as well as ways to stay warm in the event of this type of disaster. From what I've heard, Japan, unlike many countries that have recently experienced earthquakes, was structurally prepared for an earthquake. Their buildings were somewhat still in tact and we probably wouldn't have seen the desolation that we've seen in other countries following earthquakes of lesser magnitude. What was far more devastating was the tsunami that hit as well as the nuclear power plants that pose a very serious risk to the survivors in the area. The question that comes to mind is how could these people have possibly been better prepared for this 1-2-3 punch? How can we be physically prepared for what we know will come in addition to the unknown?

I think the answer is that we can't. There is absolutely no way to physically be prepared for every unknown detail that can be thrown at us. I'm sure it is possible for those people in Japan to have lived on top of the mountains in the most structurally sound buildings and just not have power and then this disaster would not have been quite so devastating, but at some point you have to live your life and not be controlled by fear of the what ifs. So, what do we do? We prepare for life. We make good choices with the time we've been blessed with. We love and cherish our families. We develop talents and educate our minds. We develop a strong relationship with our Savior and share His love with all those we meet. Beyond that, we do what we can to meet our physical needs.

Here is what I've learned in the last few months. The concepts of preparedness actually help me live a simpler life where I can focus on the BIG things such as my kids and husband, developing the talents of the members of our family, being able to serve others as Jesus Christ would have me do, etc. Because I have a grocery store in my basement, I can whip up a dinner in 10 minutes after dance lessons. I can bring a treat to a friend having a hard day. I can nourish my family with very little effort. We are healthier and happier and are actually saving money. Learning how to communicate with alternate ways will allow me to comfort family members from all over the country regardless of what is going on. 72 hour kits, alternative cooking, etc, etc - this all allows me the ability to focus on the important things and not the menial needs. I have felt that being prepared is all about being prepared to live - now - not just in the event of an emergency. If we aren't applying and using these skills, we are really missing out on the blessings of this program.

When we are faced with our BIG one, whether it be an earthquake, loss of a spouse or family member, loss of a job, fire, flood, etc. - if we have been able to focus on family and our spiritual preparedness, we'll be more prepared than any amount of food or clothing could prepare us. So, I'm just throwing this thought out there: Maybe all of the physical preparedness is actually a means for us to be able to be spiritually and mentally prepared. It has become a lifestyle for me and it has brought a peace into my life. I have time and resources to focus on my family and service that I didn't have before. Maybe that is what it is actually all about.

As a side note, I opened a couple of cans of Freeze dried meat this week that I had stored for only 5 of the 25 years it is good for. Unfortunately - it was not edible. To purchase food just to store it does you NO good. Use it. Rotate it. Enjoy the blessings now!

March Newsletter

Food Storage

The Goal this month:

From the list you determined, package and store the grains, pasts, beans and other dry goods you need for your 90 day food storage.

Our Focus is Grains, Pasta, Beans, Dry Goods.

Storing Dry goods is more economical and space saving than storing their hydrated counter parts. We will have a Tour and Workshop at the Dry Pack Cannery in Sandy on March 9 from 1-5pm (you don’t have to stay that long.) Contact bradleighann@gmail.com if you are interested in coming and/or if you need child care to participate.

Thanks to our wonderful teachers of our Bread Making Classes. If you did not get to attend one, please let me know and I will come to you with my recipe and teach you how. We would like to offer a bean workshop as well as a Vacuum sealing workshop this month. Watch for times and places.

Lastly, visit our new recipe blog that hosts our food storage recipes being submitted: www.southmountain2recipes.blogspot.com

Feel free to contribute recipes by emailing me at the above e-mail address.

EFFAK

Now that you have your Binder and sheet protectors you are ready to start gathering your information.

The Goal this month: Create your Family Contact Information sheet. Include land lines and cell numbers (and HAM call signs if they have them) of all extended family members you would want to contact in an emergency.

Gardening

I have been approached by some of the men in our area who are willing to help build raised garden boxes. More details to come, but e-mail me at bradleighann@gmail.com

if you are interested in this project.

The Goals for this month:

If you plan to start plants from seed, begin planting those now. Toward the end of the month, as it gets warmer, you can clean out your garden and prepare for the early season planting.

72 Hour Kits

Goal for this month: Find or purchase your containers for your 72 hour kits. Ideas are bins, back packs, or buckets. If you choose to use hiking backpacks, plan on putting your items in garbage bags inside the backpacks so that you can easily remove and replace the items when you occasionally use the backpack for other purposes.

Communications

Goal for this month:

1. Look at https://safeandwell.communityos.org/cms/index.php

This is a service of the American Red Cross. During an emergency, the Red Cross will take portable computers into the area and help people register if they are safe and well. Family members from around the world can then log in and check the status of their family members. Check this out to see if it would be of value to your family and pass along the link.

2. Take the HAM license test on March 22 7pm at Salt Lake County Emergency Operations Center (EOC)
3380 S. 900 West (west side of the street). (Contact me if you need study materials)

First Aid Kit

Goal for this month: Find or purchase a container for your First Aid Kit that will help keep your items organized and accessible.

I will be posting information and links on our preparedness website: www.preparetoprevent.blogspot.com

Please check this site often for updates and information. Also – please share this information with your friends and neighbors!

Announcing a Recipe BLOG

I am all about not having more paper in my house and always being able to find that favorite recipe that I'm looking for - SOOOO, I have launched a blog that has all of our recipes that we've had compiled so far for food storage and I'll add recipes as we have more workshops. I hope you will feel free to submit recipes for me to add so that this can become a favorite one stop shop for all of us!!!

Eat What You Store, Store What You Eat is the name of the blog. I hope you enjoy it and will add to it!

Bread making classes!!!!

Don't miss out on this AWESOME opportunity! Choose the class that works best for you or go to all of them!!!

Wednesday, Feb 23 1pm - Cassie Jacobson (855 Rocky Mouth Ln - basement apartment - go around back and knock on door on the ground level) 801-376-0656

Thursday, Feb 24 1 pm - Aimee Christy (655 Rocky Mouth Ln) 801-553-1200

Thursday, Feb 24 7pm - Barbara Pahl (14290 Elsbrook Circle) 801-619-6468

Saturday, Feb 26 9am - Fancher Murray (791 Molasses Mill - He is the one who made the DELICIOUS bread at the preparedness fair - this class is for everyone but is especially for you men who want to become more self reliant!) 801-545-0333

Wheat..

Each month we will have a spotlight of sorts - this spotlight can be found on the Food Storage spotlight tab so just in case the blog post gets buried, you know how to find the spotlight of the month quickly.

February Spotlight: Wheat!!!

When considering Food storage, perhaps the first thing that comes to mind is Wheat. There is good reason for this because it is a versatile food and because it stores for so long. The downside to this is that many people store wheat and then do nothing with it - thinking that in the event of an emergency, they will be just fine. Unfortunately, eating whole grains, like wheat may take some adjustment. Your body may have "issues" with going from a refined, easy to digest diet to a more complex food. That is exactly why we need to store what we eat and eat what we store.

I have found that my bread fails miserably when I use the hard red wheat so I try to store more hard white wheat. When stocking up on wheat, I find that the Hard wheat is more readily available than the Soft wheat.

To use my wheat I:

• Make my own bread
• Use wheat flour instead of white flour in cookies, waffles, pancakes, crepes, etc.
• Sprout wheat for use in smoothies, salads or just to eat by the handful
• Cook the wheat for a warm breakfast cereal.

Below is some information about wheat from various sources. There is a lot of information available on the web if you would like to search for some more!

Different Types of Wheat:

Wheat comes in a number of different varieties. Each variety is more or less suitable for a given purpose based on its characteristics. The most common classifications for wheat varieties are spring or winter, hard or soft, red or white.

Winter: Planted in fall, over winter in the field and are harvested the next summer.

Spring: Planted in early spring and are harvested in the fall

Hard: Kernels tend to be small, very hard, and have a high gluten content. As a general rule, hard varieties have more protein than soft.

Soft: Tend to be larger kernels, plumper and softer in texture. They have less gluten content and are often used in pasties, quick breads, pastas, and breakfast cereals.

Red: Comprise most of the hard varieties

White: Comprised most of the soft varieties.

Recently, hard white wheats have been developed that are suitable for raised bread making. Some feel the hard white varieties make a better tasting whole wheat bread than the hard red.

The most commonly stored are the hard red varieties, either spring or winter because of their high protein. they should have a protein content of no less than 12% with higher even better. The hard white spring wheats are still relatively new but have the same excellent storage characteristics as the hard red wheats.

Source: South Mountain Emergency Preparedness newsletter September 2008

Whole wheat is one of the most wholesome food items that ensure consumers a diet rich innutrients. The best aspect about whole wheat is that it retains all the parts of the grain kernel (i.e. bran, germ, and endosperm) during the flour making process, in contrast to the white refined grains, which retains only endosperm. Talking about the various health benefits of whole wheat consumption, the grain is extremely beneficial for healthy living. This low-calorie food reduces the risk of heart diseases and also helps in regulating blood glucose in people with diabetes. To get detailed information about the health benefits of eating whole grain, read through the following lines. In addition to this, we have also provided handy cooking tips and some concerns that you need to look out for.

Health Benefits Of Eating Whole Wheat

• Whole wheat reduces the risk of heart disease by decreasing cholesterol level, blood pressure, and blood coagulation.
• A diet that is rich in whole wheat consumption reduces the risk of cancer amongst people. The dietary fiber present in it plays an important role in the prevention of cancer.
• Whole wheat products prove to be an extremely rich source of the mineral, selenium.
• Daily intake of whole wheat products ensures an overall increase in health and decrease in obesity.
• Rich in nutrients, whole wheat provides consumers a feeling of fullness, thereby reducing the risk of overeating.
• For figure-conscious folks, whole wheat comes as a boon. Gaining weight is inversely proportional to consuming whole wheat. As per a study conducted, women who consumed whole wheat products are less likely to gain weight than those who consumed refined grains.
• Consumption of whole wheat reduces the risk of metabolic syndrome, thereby preventing visceral obesity or the "apple shaped" body, low levels of protective HDL cholesterol, high triglycerides and high blood pressure.
• In contrast to the refined grains, whole wheat consumption does not have harmful effects on your body, i.e. no weight gain and no risk of insulin resistance.

Caution

• For those people who are prone to allergic reactions, whole wheat consumption can lead to allergies, such as skin rash, hives, itching, and eczema. Swelling of the lips, tongue, or throat or tingling sensation in the mouth can also be seen.
• Another concern is the presence of oxalate in whole wheat. These are the naturally-occurring substances found in plants, animals and human beings. High concentration of oxalates in body fluids can crystallize, thereby causing health problems.

Cooking Tips

• The simplest yet tasteful whole wheat preparation comprises of sandwiches of the whole wheat bread. They are good for health and also taste delicious.
• Another delicious and appetizing breakfast choice is to have wheat flakes. They are similar to rolled oats and can be prepared as hot breakfast cereal.
• You can opt for sprouted wheat berries in vegetable and grain salads. This would make way for yummy eating option.
• Instead of using refined grain, you can opt for whole wheat pita breads as the crust for making pizzas.
• For those who are in love with pasta, try the whole wheat pasta treat. They are available in different types, such as spaghetti, spirals and penne and would suit your recipe needs perfectly.

Source: Lifestyle website

The latest research is clearly supporting this vital distinction. Refined grains and the foods made from them (e.g., white breads, cookies, pastries, pasta and rice) are now being linked not only to weight gain but to increased risk of insulin resistance (the precursor of type 2 diabetes) and the metabolic syndrome (a strong predictor of both type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease), while eating more wholegrain foods is being shown to protect against all these ills. Common features of the metabolic syndrome include visceral obesity (the "apple shaped" body), low levels of protective HDL cholesterol, high triglycerides, and high blood pressure. (Source Whole foods website)

February Newsletter

Prepare to Prevent

www.preparetoprevent.blogspot.com

February 2011

Food Storage

Each month we will have a goal and a focus for food storage. The goal will be an action item for you to do and the focus will be what we will hold workshops on and distribute information about. The Goal this month:

Determine a list of recipes for a 3 month food supply and determine your shopping list. We will be sending out a list of recipes that are tried and true as well as a template to create your shopping list – watch for that in the coming days.

Our Focus is Wheat. We will be holding block workshops towards the end of February that will focus on bread making, sprouting, and “puffing” wheat. – watch the e-mails for the places, dates, and times!

EFFAK

This acronym stands for Emergency Financial First Aid Kit – a compilation of your important papers to have when evacuating. The template I used to assemble mine is found here:

http://www.operationhope.org/effak/effak_english.pdf

Each month we will set a goal and by the end of the year, your EFFAK should be complete.

This Month’s goal is : Gather 1 large 3 ring binder and 50 8.5X11in Sheet protectors.

72 Hour Kit

Hopefully you have your recent inventory of your 72 Hour kit fresh in your mind.

The Goal this month: If you haven’t already, inventory your 72 hour kit and create a shopping (or gathering) list. Make sure clothing fits, food is current, and at the very least you have a list in a prominent place of the last minute items you need to grab and their locations.

Gardening

Gardening seems like a lost art these days. It is definitely something I have struggled with being successful at. I am still learning and hope that all of you will learn with me. I have benefited from the “fruits” of other people’s gardens and I know that much of my family’s needs could be taken care of if I could be successful at gardening and then be prompt at preserving the harvest. Gardening is actually a year round activity. Remember I’m new at this and would appreciate guidance from those who actually have successful gardens.

The Goals for this month:

Make a list of the items you would like to grow in your garden and if you plan to order seeds – make those orders now. Make a garden design – where will you plant items, how will you stagger early crops and late crops to utilize your space?

First Aid Kit

Goal for this month: Make a shopping list of the items you were missing based on the First Aid check list.

Communications

Goal for this month:

1. Create your family communication plan and give a copy to each family member. A good template to use can be found here: http://www.ready.gov/america/_downloads/family_communications_plan.pdf

2. Register your cell phones and VOIP phone lines with Salt Lake County’s Reverse 911 system – you will receive a call if there is an evacuation for our area. You can do this here: http://166.70.83.157:8080/voip/login.php

3. Take the HAM license test on February 22 7pm at Salt Lake County Emergency Operations Center (EOC)
3380 S. 900 West (west side of the street). (Contact me if you need study materials)

I will be posting information and links on our preparedness website: www.preparetoprevent.blogspot.com

Please check this site often for updates and information. Also – please share this information with your friends and neighbors!

What we learned...

What went well:

• my fireplace in the basement has a battery pack so I could start that for warmth
• I could start my gas cooktop using my lighter
• I do know how to open my garage door without electricity.
• I have plenty of 100 hour candles that I could light, but I also own 3 hand crank flashlights that require no batteries and can also charge a cell phone. One even has a radio
• Our flashlights were all new so that was good.
• We cooked steak on the charcoal grill and mashed potatoes and asparagus using our camp stove and pans
• A neighbor shared their extra milk with a family
• Our gas fireplaces will also work (I made my husband turn off the fuse to it first) as long as our pilot light is on
• One benefit having no power is we played hide-n-seek and just talked (cool).
• We are pretty good on blankets
• We did use our gas fireplace to keep our home pretty comfortable temperature wise
• It was not bad to turn the heat down to 55 because we turn the heat off every night anyway.
• We found it was great to have family games and cards on hand.
• We have over 3 months of regular food and supplies, over a month of water, plus 1 to 2 years of long-term food storage
• I carry a very small high powered LED light in my pocket
• We have many battery powered candles with 500 hour life each. We have large packs of spare batteries. We have a 12 gallon crate of regular candles and another 12 gallon crate filled with assorted flashlights. We have kerosene lamps mounted on many of our walls and have a gallon of paraffin kerosene
• We have a gasoline fueled electric generator that can connect from outside our house to one of our circuit boxes
• Our house is doubly insulated in the attic
• We have a storm door on our front door and an insulated garage door. We have a heavy curtain on our sliding glass door in back
• We have six propane tanks for our grill. We have 5x5gallon pails of charcoal for our seven Dutch ovens.
• I have email access by cell phone and lap top
• My son in West Jordan and I have ham radios. We have two FRS radios and a GMRS radio
• For emergency contacts, we have my son in West Jordan, my son in Provo and my daughter in Denver depending on the level of disaster
• We are registered with the county for reverse 911 and with the city of Draper on Facebook and Twitter
• We have complete sets of first aid supplies in our home and cars
• We are using handheld marine radios to communicate with my family We all live close to each other and will get each others kids and go to one location (whoever has heat)
• we have a 4 wheeler to be able and pick each other up
• My dad has a ham radio to communicate
• I keep a jar of peanut butter, a jar of honey, bread and crackers at my office for whenever I need an “emergency” lunch
• I also have an emergency 72-hour shortbread ration in my car because it can withstand high and low temperatures and last for five years
• We had the means to either cook food on the grill or use our camp stove (both run with propane)
• we have both battery and propane lanterns as well as many candles
• important numbers and addresses are in the 72 hour packs, and we have a designated calling and meeting place, not only for our family, but for extended also
• Our kids know that if they can't call mom or dad then they will call Grandma and Grandpa first then go down the line. As far as a meeting point if we can't meet at home, we go to the neighbors, if we can't go there, the school, if that doesn't work then the church. I found this hard to set because it really depends on what the emergency is.
• we have a large, foldable dog crate, that can be easily folded down flat (you can also get cloth ones that roll up) and loaded in the back of our SUV, so that we would have a place for the dogs to be crated if we needed to be evacuated and relocated somewhere else. (Our largest dog uses this crate to sleep in at night). I have actually tested it to see if all three of our dogs will fit in it at the same time (they do, although they don't love it)
• You know what actually saved me? My 72 hour kit. That's where I have sooo much stuff. What a relief to only have to grab two boxes and know that I have everything I need!!
• I gave each kid a kitchen trash bag to fill with their 'treasures'. It was hilarious to hear about what they grabbed!

What we need to have:

• I would want a propane tank to cook outside
• As far as heat, I wish I had a wood burning fireplace.
• I recently got 2 oil lanterns from my husband’s dad and luckily had the fuel and wicks so I put them together to use. They put off a lot of light but they smell pretty bad. I need to look for odorless fuel
• more camping lanterns, space heaters, great sleeping bags if it is during the winter and a long power outage and things to occupy our time with.
• need to get a few more little cans of propane as well as filling up our big bbq propane tank
• We need better lighting because, flashlights and perfumed candles are not good for leadership meetings
• I need to have a hard copy list of the phone numbers stored in my cell phone
• We learned that we need more lights. Our gas lantern smelled terrible inside the house so we turned it off
• Diapers and Hair mousse
• The only thing we are low on is gasoline for my truck, but I have extra gasoline in a 5 gallon container that I can put in the truck and keep going until the weekend.
• QR (Quick Relief) Powder which is excellent for stopping heavy bleeding. See the attachment. We have used it at our house in emergencies. You can purchase it in town at U of U pharmacies or order it from www.biolife.com or www.amazon.com
• Water-Jel burn treatment which is a little different than the typical burn ointment. See attachment. We have used this at our house in emergencies. Their website iswww.waterjel.com.
• A good place to get professional first aid supplies and kits is Stat Medical Supply Company, 4894 S 300 W #B, Murray, UT, 801-261-4363, www.statmedical.com
• Get a solar oven
• Chips to go with the salsa

What we need to do:

• We need to figure out how to light our gas fireplace with out the switch
• We need to put a hid-a-key outside somewhere if we can’t get into our garage
• We need to have flashlights stored throughout the house in case the lights really do go out. Having them in our garage will probably not be helpful
• I need to make a list of incidentals to always have on hand
• I need to arm myself with knowledge or any disaster we face will be more challenging, would I know how to turn off the gas meter, find the tools we need, or take care of the car?
• I do need to change our water barrel
• emergency phone card plan
• Get HAM Certified
• Rotate Water!!!
• Rotate batteries in the flashlights
• Put an evacuation Checklist by the door
• Restock first aid kits
• we have 5 empty bins or boxes somewhere accessible that each person could grab to put their things in, and that would fit in our car(s)
• make sure the gas tank in both of our cars is always at least halfway full.
• I didn't realize we needed 200 gallons of water. That's a ton more than I had thought!!
• since we have our blue drum on the cement should we replace the drum?

Thoughts we had/lessons we learned:

• I thought about how if the power was out over large parts of the city, the gas stations might be shut down, and there would be no way to get gas. I was glad I had a full tank today!
• Our stovetop will work, but not our oven because even though the heat source is gas, the controls are electric.
• You should always have your children walk down the stairs holding some sort of light source! :)
• I learned that I rely too much on my husband's knowledge and him being home during a disaster
• I have wondered if we should have more stuff stored upstairs in case of an earthquake and the house crumbles....scary to think about!
• 6 year old velveta cheese isn't good anymore (it turns brown, smells alright, but went into the trash
• I learned it takes a long time to wet a new wick, so there's another reason to keep oil in your lamps
• I also wasn't able to use our camping stove that has always been my back-up cooking plan. I just couldn't force myself to BBQ in the snow.
• I noticed I wanted to use my washing machine, but couldn't right then. If we had a longer outage, I could wash by hand, and hang onto the line in our basement to dry. But, I'd have to plan a good day ahead in order to have something washed and air-dried
• There must be a software package somewhere that would allow you to sinc your phone contacts to your google contacts.
• We now know how many watts back-up power we would need to power our furnace and blower. It turns out to be (very rough estimate) about what would be provided by covering our south facing roof-side with solar panels - - that is if we had a south facing roof panel
• do an insurance inventory and make sure you have insurance that would cover all the things that would be destroyed and that you have inventoried your home for insurance purposes.
• make sure that the kids know the password to our home phone/land line voicemail system and know how to navigate through it, so that we could leave and check messages for each other that way if we needed to.
• I have lots of storage, just not the desire to make things
• I guess we must be prepared because I don’t notice a difference – 12 year old
• Milk will be our biggest challenge
• Some items that we grabbed that weren't on the list:

scrapbooks/home movies

charging cords for cell phones, computers, etc.

I was proud of my kids for bringing their scriptures!

Special keepsakes- (I have all that stuff organized in plastic tubs so it took no time to pack it)

A tent (I made my husband go get it just in case it was on the list!)

Blankets & Pillows

Computers

Prepare to Prevent - Preparedness challenge #2

Now that it is over, I can post the rest of the challenges...

#4 was to inventory your First aid kit. The scenario was actually a list of possible injuries your family could get while suffering from cabin fever while being quarantined - kids tend to get restless. I just compiled a list based off of a few lists such as this one and they were given points for the items they had.

#5 was a mock evacuation of sorts. I told them to set their timers for 30 minutes and to physically gather the items they would take with them in the event of an evacuation. The scenario was that someone was using illegal fireworks and set the hillside on fire. After they gathered their items, they were told to open an attachment and answer the questions with the items they had gathered.

The bonus challenge was if they had enough water stored for their family (1 gallon/per person/per day for 2 weeks) AND they drank a glass from it (if they weren't willing to drink a glass from it, they didn't get the points.) The scenario was that the water system got contaminated OR the water lines broke in an earth quake (or both).

All in all it was received very well and the people who participated learned first hand what they needed to do to become more prepared for their family. It is better to learn during a game than during a real emergency! We ended the week with a preparedness fair that was very well done. We had the Unified Fire Authority and ARES there with their mobile command units out back. We had all kinds of different radios displayed, alternative cooking displays that were phenomenal, a food storage display with samples of chili and brownies made with food storage ingredients as well as a 90 day template for food storage. We also had 72 hour kid, first aid kit and gardening displays. We were lucky to have our city there with the city Emergency Preparedness plan displayed and explained as well as an interactive HAM computer study guide to entice more people to get their HAM licence (we had 7 families take the CDs!).

I will be posting more in depth information about these topics in the future so keep checking back!

Prepare to Prevent - the Preparedness Challenge

When we think of preparedness - may of our minds immediately rush to hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes - you know the completely devastating lunar like landscape left behind. How many people think of flu, local power outages, accidents in the home, job loss - those everyday emergencies that seem to hit at inopportune times. As I have been thinking about being prepared, I've thought that if we were prepared for all the "little emergencies" if and when a big one hit, it would be bearable because we have prepared and lived through all the components.

Why is this so important? My son hit the nail on the head the other day. As we have been participating in this Preparedness Challenge, he said, "We must be really be prepared because I don't notice a difference." As a parent I can't imagine the stress of losing a job for an extended period of time or having an illness in the family that prevented regular trips to the store - not to mention a massive scale emergency. To couple that stress with children who won't eat unfamiliar food or children that have their lives entirely disruptive and begin to have anxiety about everything because there is no familiarity anymore - that would be one hundredfold times harder to handle than just the "emergency" itself. We all thrive on routines and consistency. To think that those things can exist during an emergency if we are not prepared is ridiculous.

Prepare to Prevent. Prevent stress, prevent hunger, prevent injury, prevent despair, prevent fear, prevent death. This year we will Prepare to Prevent. We are starting out with this Preparedness Challenge. I encourage all to try this! For 1 week we are going through a series of challenges ending with a preparedness fair. This will continue through the entire year with more in depth information and workshops on topics of interest.

Challenge #1 - Go one week with no shopping. The scenario is that there is a pandemic and we have been quarantined or just that your family is all sick and can't leave. There is no outside entertainment, restaurants, or shopping allowed - you have to live with what you currently have in your home.

Challenge #2 - Go one day with out power. No tv, radio, lights, heat. Remember that hot water uses electricity as do garage doors. The scenario is that there was an ice storm that knocked out power. It could also be a construction project cut the line, a car crashed into a power pole, lightning struck a transformer, there was an overload on a power grid - we are always hearing about power outages.

Challenge #3 - Go one day without using cell phones to communicate with your family. The scenario is that the Cell towers or satellites are down. During a regional emergency the cell networks become overloaded and can't be used. Families are encouraged to have an out of state contact person that family members could check in with via other modes of communication. They are also encouraged to develop a family communication plan so that in the event of a catastrophic emergency where family members may be at different locations - there is a plan of how to "check in" with each other to know where to meet and to find out if everyone is ok.

Challenges #4 - #5 (and a bonus challenge) will be posted later because they haven't been revealed yet.

The feedback is inspiring. Lessons learned will be posted. I hope we never have to live through a catastrophic emergency, but I know we all live through "little emergencies" almost daily and when we are prepared - we will ultimately prevent heartache and regret.