Weekly Wisdom #10

Weekly Wisdom #10

Motivational Monday - Practice drills for your family are a good way to remind your family what to do in case of emergencies. Today for your family time, take a bit of time to review what your family would do if there were a fire in the house. Go through each room in the house and point our two exits for each room. Then have the kids go and act as if they are doing something they would do each day, when all of a sudden someone yells fire! Have them go through the mock emergency, and their escape routes. You might also want to pair up your kids so that they have a buddy system to ensure that the younger ones have an older one responsible to help them. Or one adult to one or two children as a buddy system. This way you know who you are each responsible for and then the parent is responsible to check in with each of the older ones. Practicing for emergencies will help us to keep calmer in emergencies. It is a well known fact that when in emergencies we all tend to not think clearly, so if we have practiced, then we won't have to think too hard, it will be a natural reaction of what we should do. Preparedness is not living in fear. Preparedness is being aware of things that could happen, so we know how to act responsibly, and confidently, with clear minds. Preparedness is peace of mind!

Timely Tuesday – Ever thought of how much toilet paper your family would go through in one year? Here are a couple of ways you can figure it out. Start today, and either have a small paper and pen beside your toilet, checking off a mark every time you change the roll, or have a bag somewhere in your bathroom where you can place all of the empty rolls for one month. Count them up and multiply by 12, then you will know how many rolls your family will need for one year. I personally would rather use toilet paper, than newsprint, or old magazines. Start storing your toilet paper, every time you buy one package for your house, buy one to tuck away for storage purposes, and don't touch it. Soon you will have a nice little stash! Your family will thank you.

Workin' Wednesday – In an emergency, there are three things vital to your survival. Water, Food, and Shelter. If you have these three things, you can deal with most other problems. In your 72 hour kits, you have your food for a minimum of 3 days, your water and water purification options, and now you should make sure today that you have some sort of shelter ready for your family. The types of shelter you will want for your family will depend on the size of your family and any special needs they may have. If you are on your own and love being in the outdoors, you may get away with a tarp, ropes, and a few stakes as your shelter. However if you have to evacuate and you have a spouse and a few children of various ages, you should think a bit differently. Do you have a comfortable tent that would be easy to grab and go? Do you have enough tarps in case of severe weather, so you can shelter your tent? Think of this third most important survival need and prepare for it today. If you need to purchase some things you don't have, then at least make a list of what you need so you can start working on it. Water, Food and Shelter will keep us alive! Take away any one of these and ..... well you get the picture!

Thrifty Thursday – Today think about saving money by using your clothesline. Don't have one? You can pick up all of the basic supplies to build a clothesline from your local hardware store for fairly inexpensive, compared to even one month worth of using your clothes dryer. I have heard many people complain about the high prices of utilities, but don't think of simple ways like this to decrease their expenses. Plus using a clothesline gives your clothes a great fresh smell that they can only get by being dried outdoors. Even in the winter you can dry your clothes outside. They may be a little stiff, but if you pop them into the dryer for 10 minutes they will fluff up nicely. 10 minutes.....compared to one hour to dry a load. Significant savings, and another important way of being prepared.

Food Storage Friday - I read this quote the other day, "Food in the basement is better than money in the bank." Not sure where it came from, but I my thoughts are, "Ya think!" Take a good long look at the news today, most of us would agree that food in our basement / our own "grocery store", will be to us, as Noah's Ark was to those that boarded it. In fact President Ezra Taft Benson said "The Revelation to produce and store food may be as essential to our temporal welfare today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah." I suggest we do it NOW! Start investing in what is important! I am not saying that you shouldn't invest in other things too, but we have been counseled for many years to do this, as was Noah counseled to build the ark, and the time to disregard this counsel, is past. "FOOD IN THE BASEMENT IS BETTER THAN MONEY IN THE BANK!" Think about it!

Honey Carrot Cake

2 eggs (can use substitute)

½ cup oil

¼ tsp salt

1 cup honey

½ cup butter milk (use powdered)

1 cup shredded carrots (could use dried ones and reconstitute)

1 tsp baking soda

1 ½ tsp cinnamon

2 cups flour

Beat eggs. Add all other liquid ingredients and mix well. Add dry ingredients. Beat until smooth. Add carrots and mix well. Pour into greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.