How Prepared Are You?

Let's talk about Preparedness. For those of you who don't know me, I am a food storage junkie, but only for about the last 1 and 1/2 years. I've been fortunate to acquire quite a bit of food storage in that time, but nowhere close to what I need.

My sister recently shared an experience with me that she said I could share on this blog. I was laughing so hard I almost peed my pants when she was telling it to me. Hysterical!! I love my sweet brother-in-law, and here in a moment, you'll understand why!

For family home evening they decided to do an emergency drill. My sister told them that they had just found out they had 3 minutes to grab everything they could and get out of the house. My sister has her 72-hour kits ready to go. She's also a preparedness junkie. So she's thinking this will be easy.

So she grabs her stopwatch and yells go. She takes off running for the 72-hour kits, but only after a moments hesitation. She said she wasn't sure if she should grab the scrapbooks first or come back for them is she had time. So she's getting the 72-hour kits and she comes flying back into the living room where my brother-in-law is still sitting on the couch. "That means you to," she yells. So he jumps up and runs for his GUNS. Just like a man, but my nephew is in his room shoving toys in his backpack and my 4-year-old niece is crying hysterically clutching at my sisters leg. And the baby is just sitting in the middle of the floor wondering, "What the heck is going on?"

So 3 minutes go by and they stop to see what they have managed to get out of the house. My sister grabbed the most. She had to have been flying all over the place. She had the 72-hour kits, 2 of the 4 sleeping bags, the kids blessing outfits, their temple bags, their small fireproof box, and the diaper bag. The diaper bag had no formula and no diapers. My brother-in-law who is in his pajama pants, grabbed all his guns and ammunition, his coveralls and two left boots. My nephew has his toys and a sweatshirt. He also grabbed his mom's scripture case, which was empty because they were on the table. They also discovered that they had no car seats in the car. No one had grabbed coats or shoes, and it turned out that the car battery was dead. What a night to do a preparedness drill!! My sister said it was really a bit unfair, because she had planned the activity and had had a chance to really think about it or they might not of even had what they did.

So the moral of this post is BE PREPARED!

And it leaves me asking you, my friends, how interested would you be in emergency preparedness and food storage posts? Is that something that you would like to see us do here on the blog, amidst all the other things we post about?

Kindness

The world could use a little more kindness and a little more joy. It doesn't take much more than a smile to brighten someone's day. This great article over at Real Simple, 48 Ways to

be Nice and Improve the Wolrd Around You, shares some really fun ways to brightne someone's day. Sometimes it's as simple as smiling at someone.

Mandee and I were just talking the other day about how, when your having a no good, bad day, (anyone else love that book) that the thing to do is give service to someone else. It might be a simple phone call, a plate of cookies, or a simple smile.

My challenge to you today is to be a little bit nicer to those around you and watch how the chain of kindness extends!

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Time Out For Women

Okay, so I'm leaving it up to ManDee to post some of our fun pictures. But I want to give you a rundown of our weekend. At least from my point of view. Note to ManDee (Fill in the blanks for me, would ya please?)

The theme was Joyful Life. They wanted to show us different ways to find joy in the lives that we have. To find the joy in our relationships, to find joy in our children, to find joy in our relationship with our Savior, to find joy in being a woman. It was chalk full of things that I needed to hear and I left feeling exceptionally well fed, spiritually anyway.

The amazing Hillary Weeks was the musical part of the program. She was also the commentator and we heard a lot from her. What a funny girl. She has such a great sense of humor and a charm about her. Loved to listen to her stories and her music. Amazing!! There are no words for her voice or her songs.

Friday night we had the opportunity to watch the The Nashville Tribute Band preform. AMAZING!!! ManDee could not believe that I had never heard them preform, because I am kind of a church history junkie. I knew a lot of the stories that were shared and it was a lot of fun. Jason Deere is amazing and this was his little pet project. I also found out today that he was in the same mission as my bishop. He left shortly after my bishop came in. Cool little tidbit. Anyway, I thought it was amazing that he could still get so emotional as he told the stories, that I am sure he has told hundreds of times. The spirit was so strong!!! We also had the chance to see Tim Gates. LOVE HIM! He had on his remember rock from girls camp. So cool. Mandee and I went and talked to him, but apparently the pictures didn't turn out.

All of the speakers were amazing. I don't think I could pick a favorite. Amanda Dickson had me laughing so hard. She said a lot of fun and insightful things. We also had the chance to listen to Virginia Hinckley Pearce, which was a great opportunity.

There was so much that I learned and I wish I could share it all here in this blog. I have pages of notes and right now I am on a spiritual high. If you ever get an opportunity to attend one of these conferences, I highly recommend it. Go to this link for more information.