Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Homemaking in Difficult Times...an introduction

I was reading the title of a TV movie recently to my son, asking him if we had seen it before. I called out the title and he wasn't certain. I told him it was about a huge storm that could wipe out all humanity on earth. He said he didn't think we'd seen it but it "sounded like something we would watch". Sigh... Yes, the same person who absolutely adores "British flicks" also loves disaster movies of all kinds. I love to see how humanity gets itself out of this predicament or another.

I cannot remember when I wasn't interested in emergency preparedness. It could be because I was born to older parents who had gone through the Great Depression. Both my mother and father were really into stocking up when it was possible. My father also worked a seasonal job so they prepared for Winter...literally.

It could be because I grew up in the time students were taught to expect a nuclear attack at anytime. I can still remember the dreams I had during the Cuban Missile Crisis, dreams of an army marching into my small town. I can't remember the name of a road near my house but I can remember that dream and I was a very young child at the time.

I dipped my toes in the vast ocean of the Internet because of my interest in emergency preparedness. I was an administrator of a preparedness forum, administering the book forum (of course!) and the equipment forum. I eat up preparedness books and magazines like some people read Agatha Christie. (I'm convinced it is a God given interest, either that or I'm on the edge...)

After thirty years of reading and research, I believe it is far better to call it Homemaking In Difficult Times. Emergency preparedness brings back memories of hiding under school desks in case Russia attacks (did you ever think of how silly that was?) and Y2K preps in the garage. In reality, we live in a troubled world my friends. True preparedness starts with His peace in our hearts and continues with thinking through what we can do to make any emergency easier to live through. In our home, we have used our preparedness in bad storms, after ice storms, and extended unemployment.

I'm looking forward to sharing information in the next few days. I'm prayerfully thinking of what to write. I don't want to be an alarmist and, at the same time, I want to face reality. When I first started researching, the only information available for emergency preparedness was from Mormon books or from Survivalists. I could handle the Mormon books, even if I did not agree with the theology. The Survivalists books scared the bajeebies out of me. I don't want to do THAT. :)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This will be interesting to read - to see what you recommend to do. I get nervous and overwhelmed when thinking about preparing for a disaster. I have looked at a few sites myself and printed out a list of some basic necessities. One site said to have at least a gallon of water per person for at least 3 days. Where do you store all of this water? And doesn't it go bad after a while? Speaking of going bad, what about food and first aid supplies - don't they have expiration dates? Do you just buy the stuff, store it and then toss it all when it expires and start over? We can't afford to buy extra at this time so I don't know how we will stock up for an emergency. We don't have tons of extra space either to store it all. These are my questions/fears/frustrations.

Melissa

Brenda@CoffeeTeaBooks said...

Yes...I know exactly what you mean. When I first started researching preparedness and they said to have a year's worth of food put back...aack!

I could hardly afford one week's worth of groceries. I will be giving some suggestions.

:)

Laura Talbert said...

I'm excited, Brenda. I love this sort of stuff and always have. (You would not believe the preps I made for y2k, which everyone thought was very funny. But I don't regret any of it as I learned so much!) I have sorta backslidden lately, but am ready to get back to business. These winter storms have proved that:)