What I've been up to

I've been a little busy... but we're still around!

Lately, with all the doom and gloom of the economy, the work force, and higher taxes/bad politics in general, I've decided to get really serious about food storage. Now, I've always thought it was important, and we've always had a mini-food storage pantry thing goin' on(ie, Sarah likes to stock up because going grocery shopping every week just 'aint happening with 2 toddlers), but now I feel the weight of responsibility on my shoulders to take care of my family and perhaps a few others that couldn't get as far as I could with food storage.

A few things I know:

• We have been commanded to have a year supply of food, for any catastrophe.

Okay, maybe commandment is a strong word, but how many latter-day prophets have warned us of future calamity to come, and told us to be prepared? How many? I can count at least, oh, well all of them! Food storage specific, I can count 4

• If we have been commanded to have a year's supply of food storage on hand, the Lord will provide a way

"And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save He shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which He commandeth them." -1st Nephi 3:7, Book of Mormon, emphasis added

I know that this is probably the most used scripture in all of LDS-dom. But... HELLO! Do you realize how powerful this statement is? Not to mention the truth of it all? Basically, we've been commanded to gather our food storage. Simply put, the Lord will provide a way for us to follow Him!

• The Lord will provide a way once we have made some space (physical and spiritual) for it.

This has been the hardest part for me. We don't live in a very big space, there are hardly any places that I haven't used to the gills already, I can't let anything go, there is nowhere else I can store anything, the excuses (albeit how sincere and factual they truly are) can go on and on and on and on. Bottom line, if we have been commanded, and Heavenly Father will provide a way, we need to make room for His miracles.

We can organize better, use all the vertical space we have, go through our stored stuff and give sell/donate/trash things (you know we all need to do this!), get creative with this! I'm getting there, even using food storage bins as tabletops... okay, I'm not getting that crazy, but you get the idea!

• We can no longer afford to be cavalier with this commandment

I think those days are over; when we were able to get away with just doing it half way. I don't want anyone to be scared stiff into doing nothing at all, but I really think this is so paramount! I'm not anyone to spew forth heresay or anything revelatory, but I think it's time to really get our houses in order.

• Even if we don't have a lot of income, we can still do this!

Food storage is a piece-by-piece endeavor, as I have come to realize. And it can be budgeted into your life quite easily!

It doesn't have to be hard or overwhelming. You can take it baby-step by baby-step (with some really funny out-take videos along the way!), then you can go to teenage and adult steps. Just remember that I'm still on the baby-steps stuff too! I'm sure there are some of you out there that are way ahead of me in this department, so I'm not saying anything like I am the one to go to for hard and fast food storage rules... I'm not. But I want to be!

Who's with me? Recently I made a really cool spreadsheet that helps rotate your every day items and to know *for sure* what you need to buy on your next shopping trip. I guess I should post it here. I laminated it, then I mark the boxes (with a dry erase marker) when I come back from a shopping trip. Every time I take an item out of my cupboards, I erase a mark. It's really easy because the list is taped up on the inside cupboard door, so when I open up my pantry, my list is staring me in the face. I know exactly what I have, and I know what I need to buy more of. That's just one idea. I took pictures, but Bryan has the laptop right now so I'll have to add the visuals a bit later.

I suppose I should break this down a bit: Food Storage is do-able. Food Storage is necessary. We all know that the end of the world (or injury, or job loss, or natural disaster, or what-have-you) is on it's way, and if we're prepared for it we have nothing to worry about. So I am re-committing myself to this! Do it with me! I'll keep you posted on my progress and hopefully you can too!