Outside my comfort zone
Being an educated adult who likes to
stay abreast of all the things that are happening in the world today, I have a
very unnerving gut feeling. My parents
believe that all this “stuff” in the news has been going on for decades-
there’s always been protests, outrageous crimes, rumors of war, and economic
distress- and there is no need to be alarmed. However, somewhere deep down, I believe this
time is different. Watching my children
coloring today, I realized that I don’t ever want to have to tell them, “Sorry
Kiddos, but we are all out of food.” At
that moment, I don’t want to reflect and realize that I should have just
trusted my instinct. I can't just be like laundry on the line, fluttering in the wind.
I have always been a planner and just can't get over how many of my friends can tell you what celebrity recently entered rehab or what so-in-so posted on Facebook. But they have absolutely no idea how to change a tire, make bread, cook from scratch or why in the world I would have a clothes line. It just makes me feel different or weird. They think I am crazy and they think I am paranoid, but I
honestly believe that there is something amiss. Some motherly instinct has me
very worried recently and I just can’t seem to shake it. I can’t put my finger
on what I think will happen, but I choose to trust my instincts.
“A prudent person foresees
danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the
consequences.”
Proverbs 22:3 NLT
Just this week, there has been a
number of things around the world that raise concern in my mind- just Google
some of the following topics:
Racial tensions & looting, immigration &
disease, Ebola & Malaria, economic analysts warning of distress, Russia
& Ukraine, Hamas & Israel, drought, and so much more
You can’t control the future
I realize I am not a psychic and
(although I wish I could) I cannot control everything. However, I can take
steps to shelter my family from a list of emergencies. I am by no means
building an underground bunker (we sit too low on the water table anyway). I am
not storing tons of freeze dried foods or MREs. But what I am suggesting is
simply that we live more prudently.
Living nearly two hours from a city and a twenty minute ride from Wally World, I try very hard to never really “run out” of things we eat often. But now I am finding myself trying to stock up on those things. Imagine having only one store nearby, and for whatever reason, you cannot get what you need to feed your family. Do you have enough food on hand to keep feeding your children/family? Do you have enough sanitary items to keep disease away? Do you make the 2 hour trek to the closest city with their situation unknown? Do you choose to put your children in danger?
Not me, I choose to plan now!
Here’s some things I am doing to provide for
my family in an emergency or an unpredictable situation:
- We have a 60 gallon homemade water catchment system to help with watering plants or washing dishes/clothes if need be.
- We have supplies to make lotions, soaps, salves, shampoos and deodorants.
- We *almost always* cook homemade meals from scratch and have the staples to do so.
- We have chicken, cattle, two separate gardens, and fruit trees.
- We have canned veggies and a deep freezer full of venison. (My kids love Mama’s deer meat.)
- We make our own laundry detergent and line dry our clothes.
- We make our own bread.
- We are able to buy in bulk and store our extras.
- We have “hurricane supplies” like batteries, flashlights, water jugs, solar chargers, and candles all boxed up and ready to go.
Most of these things are just a normal part of my homesteading dreams... but do they make me more prudent? Is it that by learning to do all these things, I inevitably see where others who do not put forth the effort, and therefore live a self-sustaining lifestyle?
It is not my goal to be a fear-monger or Doomsday Prepper, but I can no longer sit idly by and just watch as my friends and family turn a blind eye to all the signs in our world today. I've heard so many times that “it’ll be OK, it always is.” And I just don’t believe it. I have someone close to me who recently said that she just “couldn't afford” buying extra groceries or do the things that we do. I was absolutely appalled to learn their family took a long, out-of-state trip “just because.” Well at least if something goes wrong in their city, they'll still have their memories.
It is not my goal to be a fear-monger or Doomsday Prepper, but I can no longer sit idly by and just watch as my friends and family turn a blind eye to all the signs in our world today. I've heard so many times that “it’ll be OK, it always is.” And I just don’t believe it. I have someone close to me who recently said that she just “couldn't afford” buying extra groceries or do the things that we do. I was absolutely appalled to learn their family took a long, out-of-state trip “just because.” Well at least if something goes wrong in their city, they'll still have their memories.
God will help those who help
themselves. It reminds me of the joke:
A man was in a great
flood and against all the warnings, he stayed at home. The water got so high he had to sit on his
roof. A man in a canoe comes by to help
and the man tells him to go on, “God will provide”. As the water gets higher, a crew on a boat comes by to help and the man
tells him to go on, “God will provide”.
Finally a helicopter comes by to help and the man tells him to go on,
“God will provide”. The water rises and
the man drowns. When he gets to Heaven,
he asks God why he let him die. God
simply tells him that He sent a canoe, a boat, and a helicopter, what more did
the man want?
So
what do you think? How are you preparing? Are you heeding the warnings? Or is
all
this just paranoia and I really am crazy? Is there
anything that I’m forgetting or should be doing?
Thanks for stopping by,
I'm right there with you! We have been making our way to being more self reliant. It's hard. We've had a few big hits (unemployment for example) that had us using some of the things we have set aside. So I am in the beginnings of trying to make up a plan of action to restock. We have two milking goats, some chickens, and a very much failed garden (we are still learning).
ReplyDeleteI will say that I believe things are going to get rocky, BUT I also think that we have indeed weathered these types of things in the past, we just happened to be children at that time, and they were of no concern to us. That being said, we do NOT know the future, and should be prudent for what may lie ahead. My dear hubby was blind to all of this, and then swung the other way. He's had to come back to that middle line of living our daily life at the same time of preparing for the future. It is no fun to constantly be thinking that each. and. every. single. little. thing. was. the. end. Yeah, no fun.
I'm with you, I don't want to tell my children we have no food, or other thing, only because I chose to ignore what was going on around me. As a matter of fact, after having a baby this winter, we had gotten a wee bit lazy on the homestead. It has cost us a goat, and a whole lot of eggs. So I sat my kids (the older ones...I have 8 kiddos who are 7 months old to 17 years old) down and explained that THIS is OUR homestead. All 2 and half acres of it (mostly wooded at that). And that WE had to make it work. It is our 'retirement' plan, our money saving plan, our food for the future plan, building a work ethic plan, learning skills plan, etc.
My passion has been renewed to lay our hands to the work before us. God Bless!
Kerri
Oh Kerri, thank you. At times I feel like such an outcast when start a new project or buy extra beans at the grocery. Like your husband, mine too, had become a bit- can I say paranoid- then suddenly realized that there is no time like the present. We, too, have decided that this is our homestead and we will make it work for us come, well you know what or high water. I need to have that talk with my kids, but have not yet.. they are only 4 & 5, but do their daily chores after we get home from school. I'd love nothing more than to be able to homeschool, but for right now, I teach and can hand pick my kids' teachers.
DeleteThank you for stopping by again. I love getting your comments. I feel that you get me. LOL.