When the quarantine starts getting old…

 

Hey my friends! Just poppin’ in to share a little sunshine in all the crazy of the current world situations.

I have very mixed opinions about the whole COVID-19 situation. Real threat? Fake news? Political lies? Social conditioning? I have a very hard time sorting through my thoughts on it all without going into a rather negative place. And that’s just not my personality. I definitely prefer to focus on the positive and embrace things that bring peace into my life.

I know that looks different for each person, but the greatest things that bring me peace and joy are 1) my faith and 2) my family. GRATEFULLY, I am able to have both with me while navigating these unchartered waters.

I love spending time with my family.

Now….. I won’t lie to you and say it’s been all sunshine and rainbows with having everyone home all. of. the. time. And trying to get a handle on the new remote learning school process was definitely a headache of a process (I’ve got three kiddos in school). (PS. A HUGE shoutout of gratitude to all the teachers trying to help us crazy parents! I know this has NOT been easy for y’all!!) But now that we’ve got a few weeks under our belts with staying home and social distancing, we’re getting the hang of the ins and outs of making this work. Buuuuuuut….. we’re also getting a little tired of the same ol’ same ol’.

I have found myself in a rut, and not taking advantage of the gifts I have that bring a spark of fun into my days. So it was time to dust off the creativity cobwebs and find some HAPPY to bring into this whole situation.

My “go to” when I’m stuck wallowing in a little pity party is to find a way to serve someone else. Kinda hard these days since we’re not actually supposed to be around others. But there’s always a way to spread some love. So my family and I came up with “Quarantine Buckets” to drop off to some people we love and miss. We filled them with inexpensive activities (puzzles, bubbles, chalk), plus some funny virus additions (cough drops, tissues, hand soap), and of course some treats and snacks. And what better to put in a quarantine bucket than a Quarantine ‘Bucket List‘ full of ideas for fun activities you can do at home??!

So we scoured the internet to come up with a list of our favorite ideas. And I just loved the sunshine-y feel of this summertime list we came across, so I stole –I mean borrowed– her happy look. 😘 And now we have a whole list of fun ideas we wanted to share with you too! We hope it helps bring a little bit of HAPPY into your days too!

 

Download your FREE copy here!  Happy quarantining, everyone! 😉

The “Mommy… I’m BORED!” Buster Board

Seriously… I’ve already heard it multiple times and school’s only been out for 2 days!! “Mommy… I’m BORED!!!” Oh heavens.

Time to take action!

I’ve got a ton of cute ideas pinned on my Pinterest Summertime board (and the Mommy…I’m Bored board), but my kids don’t know how to access that (thankfully?), so that does little to keep them from coming and tapping me every 10 minutes to complain that they’ve got nothing to do. Oh, what to do, what to do?

{Insert royal trumpets sounding} SOOO… I created this printable for the kiddos to reference on their own whenever they’ve got the “I’m Bored” Blues! The first column is activities they can do by themselves, the second column is things to do with a sibling or friend (although a lot of items on either column could be done alone or with a friend).

Print, laminate (if desired), and post it on the fridge where they can easily see it. Problem solved. (Or so I’m pretending!) 😉

And since I know I’m not the only parent out there with the same problem, I thought it a worthy cause to break my internet silence and share it with y’all. lol. 🙂 So I’m including a free printable for y’all… as always, just cuz I love ya!

Click HERE to DOWNLOAD the I’M BORED file!

{And speaking of breaking internet silence, I’m also hoping to find some time (soon) to start sharing some information with y’all that I’ve recently learned about regarding planning for your financial future! It is SO AWESOME and SO AMAZING! I can’t believe it’s not more known! But now that I know about it I’m definitely going to try and spread the word. So stay tuned for some financial features!!}

But back to the list… I tried to use pretty generic ideas that any kid anywhere could do. But here are some things I’ll clarify and that you may want to have on hand and ready to go as they use the list:

• PERLER BEADS… these are awesome to have on hand. You can find Perler Beads, like THESE on Amazon, or they are also at craft stores.You stick the beads on a plastic pegboard to make a design, and then lightly iron it to melt the beads together.  My girls LOVE doing these and they can occupy HOURS, I tell you. HOURS! 🙂 My girls have THIS PET SET and love it!
• A Money Job is simply a job they can do around the house for some money. We have a list of them printed out for them to see, but you can always just make some up on the fly.
• Print out some “Learn to draw” pages from off the internet (Google search) to have ready for them to grab.
• PONY BEADS are great to have on hand for making necklaces, bracelets, or even decorating crafts.
• Keep PLAY-DOH on hand (homemade or store bought)… and I’ll try and upload my play-dough mats soon, but you can probably Google some too! Just don’t forget to laminate them, or they’ll get all gunked up and need to be tossed. (Speaking of laminating… I totally recommend getting your own laminator! THIS is the kind I have and I love it. Not very expensive and saves TONS on not having to reprint things!)
• Here’s a link to instructions for SALT PAINTING. Super cute and very easy set-up.
• Here’s a link to the MARBLE RACE TRACK (it uses pool noodles… keep those on hand too! There are TONS of things to do with them!!)
• And I can’t find my link for the tin foil river, but basically, you just take a loooonng length of aluminum foil and curve the edges up (lengthwise) into a “U” shape, then fill with water down the length of the foil and have them race things down it… sticks, homemade boats, bottle caps, anything small that floats. 🙂

I think everything else is typical ‘around the house’ stuff. So by just keeping a few things on hand–ready for when it strikes their summertime fancy–you’ll be a happy, sane Mommy. (Living in denial is a wonderful thing.) 🙂  HAPPY SUMMER!!!!

Welcome To The Journey!

Hello Readers! Welcome to Food Storage and Beyond! This site is a journey to total preparedness and self-reliance. We’re not just talking food storage! Okay… it’s mostly food storage, but there are so many aspects beyond that as well!

If you are new to this site CLICK HERE to learn more about what we do and where to start. If you are here again for the second, third, or gazillionth time, welcome back! At this point, I am not actively writing posts (I need to dedicate my time to my family), however this site is FULL of great information regarding all aspects of preparedness… so use the category buttons above to browse around and work on your preparedness efforts at your own pace.

I do occasionally drop back in to add something new that I’ve learned, or a food storage recipe I’d like to share, and those will be posted below as they come (as well as added to appropriate categories above) so feel free to check back regularly for anything new and to keep your preparedness ambitions up and running! 🙂

My best and warmest wishes to you all as you strive to keep your families safe and prepared in these crazy times in which we live! 🙂

Why I’m M.I.A.

Just wanted to introduce y’all to the reason I’ll be Missing In Action for a while…

This handsome little man joined our family about 2 weeks ago and is absolutely the newest love of my life. 😀 He is such a sweetheart.
Hubby can’t wait to teach him all about hunting and fishing. I can’t wait to teach him all about baking and cooking and crafting and sewing. 😀 (Hmm… who do you think he’ll like better?? Daddy of course!) 😀 But regardless, we’re thrilled to have him in our hearts and home.
So please excuse my extended absence, but I’m needed elsewhere for the time being. 🙂
Happy Prepping to you all!

Another New Year, More New Goals

Happy 2012 everybody!! I don’t know about you, but I have thoroughly enjoyed a relaxing Christmas vacation with lots of family and loved ones. And now it’s back to life, back to reality. Bummer. 😀

As always, at the end of every year I find myself looking back to see what kinds of things I was able to accomplish in the past year, and areas in which I might have fallen short as well.  2011 held a lot of good progress for me in the food storage and preparedness arenas. I’m really excited about the progress in gardening that our family made this past year. I feel like we are finally starting to get a feel for what is working and what is not. Granted, we still have LOTS of learning to do, but I’m happy with the efforts we’ve made. I’m also happy with the organizational efforts that have been made in the food storage areas of our home. I’m feeling like we have a pretty good system going right now, and while it’s not perfect, it’s a system that I can manage for the time being. 🙂 I also checked back with the goals I had set at the beginning of this year and am happy to report that I came out pretty well on these. Yea for accomplishing goals! 🙂

An area I know I fell short in was my emergency preparedness… specifically first aid. I had wanted to get certified this past year (although it wasn’t one of my initial goals) and then never got around to it. *Drat.* I have looked up the information for local places that offer certification, so at least I’ve got that I guess. But that will have to stay on my list of things still do.

And now, with the new year, it’s time to look forward to see what good I can accomplish for the upcoming year. 2012 will be a great year, and there are so many things I want to do, but one of the most important aspects of making goals is to keep them realistic. (Remember to make S.M.A.R.T. Goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely.) One of the most exciting parts about my year will come in about three months when we welcome a new baby into our home. However, while that will be an enormous blessing, I also know from past experience that it is going to mean focusing A LOT of my time this year on just being a mom and making it through the initial newborn phase of our baby’s life. 🙂 So my goals this year are going to have to be kept fairly simple and limited in number.

So aside from my personal goals here’s what I’ve got planned in the preparedness realm for 2012:

• For food storage, I want to try canning at least one new thing this year… something I’ve never tried canning before; and…
• For gardening, I want to try planting something new for the garden… perhaps planting potatoes; and…
• In emergency preparedness, I want to revise our family’s evacuations plans and get the details on those worked out a little better.

And that will probably do it. 🙂 I’m sure there are probably a lot of new things I’ll try this year and a lot of things I’ll continue to work on, of course, but as far as goals, those are some things I would like to accomplish.

What about you? What preparedness goals do you have lined up for 2012? Be sure to take some time to think of at least one or two and then write them down to help keep you accountable. Oh, and you can also check out THIS POST for a helpful goal tracker as well. 🙂
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

National Preparedness Month

September is National Preparedness Month, and this couldn’t come at a better time than with the US East Coast in disaster mode from Hurricane Irene. If you’re fortunate enough to be spared from the catastrophe there, please take the time this month to get your homes in order so that you are prepared in the event of a disaster in your area!

Here are some ideas of things you can do:

• Review and update your family’s Evacuation Plans (remember there are three different kinds: 5-second, 5-minute, and 5-hour)
• Begin or update your 72-Hour Kits
• Begin or update your First Aid Kits
• Evaluate your food storage plan. If you’ve reached a lull in your momentum, adjust your plan and start again with new enthusiasm 🙂
• Check the status and do an inventory of your food storage. How’s it coming along?
• Plant a late summer/early fall garden

Also, being National Preparedness Month, many preparedness companies are having some great sales on some great items. So check out our sponsors (on the side bar) and shop around for some of your favorite food storage/preparedness items, or take this opportunity to invest in something you’ve been wanting to!

AND, in honor of preparedness month, Food Storage And Beyond is offering an AMAZING deal of our own! You can get the GLOBAL SUN OVEN plus two 3-quart roasting pots, one set of loaf pans (so two pans), one set of cookie/brownie pans (again, two pans), AND a water pasteurizer indicator, PLUS a CD of over 80 SUN OVEN recipes… ALL FOR ONLY $280 (plus FREE SHIPPING!!!) (Click HERE for additional information on these items.) This offer is only good through the month of September, and you must contact me directly (and reference SUN OVEN Bundle in the subject line) to place this order (as opposed to ordering online through this site). Don’t miss out!! This is a phenomenal deal the company is allowing us to extend to you for this month! (Actual retail on this bundle is over $350 (not to mention the free shipping)!) Just think of all the people on the east coast without power who wish they had a way to cook something right now! Don’t be stuck in that situation! Let’s get prepared!

Alright! We’ve got a whole month to do a whole lot of good, so let’s hop to it! 😀
Good Luck in all your preparations, Everyone!

Gardening: It’s Planting Time Again!

Again? Really? Well, maybe not for most of you. But we’re trying to get a late Summer/early Fall batch of crops going. Our Spring/Summer garden did pretty well this year– probably one of the best gardens we’ve had so far in terms of overall production– but this blasted heat and crazy drought we’re experiencing killed most of the plants off before I was done enjoying them. So we’re doing a small Round 2 before it’s time for the Fall/Winter garden. 🙂 We’re planting some more cucumbers, giving a different variety of carrots a try (our first attempt was not very successful at all), and the part I’m most excited about is that we are going to try growing our own Halloween PUMPKIN this year! 😀

The thought had never occurred to me, but Hubby brought up the idea and we are so excited to see if it works! How fun would it be to carve a jack o’ lantern from a pumpkin we grew?!
I ordered some seeds again (non-GMO… in case I take the time  to learn this time how to save the seeds) and last night we went ahead and planted. Woohoo! I’m so excited to see how they do. I’ve been working our garden soil for the past couple of days to get it ready for planting again… just tilling it up, adding some compost and fertilizer, and watering it… so hopefully it will be home to some great crops for our family. I’m also going to try starting tomatoes, bell peppers, and broccoli from seeds to be able to plant as transplants in a few weeks. We’ll see how that goes. I’ve never tried that before. 🙂
How are your gardens doing? If you haven’t planted one yet, it’s not too late! Not sure where to start? Click HERE for all our related posts on gardening for some help on your way. Just be sure to plant something appropriate to the season you’re in and enjoy experimenting!
Good Luck and Best Wishes!