For the last few weeks in preparation for my goals this year, I have been on Pinterest and researching on the internet different ideas for helping make emergency preparedness and food storage easy and affordable. There is so much information out there that it can get a little overwhelming to say the least! Most people will give up a month or so into it because it seems like too much to take on. I have definitely felt that way before myself, so I understand.

With all the information I have gathered and read, I decided the best place to start would be with our 72 hour kits. I have been meaning to, for the last 5 years or so, to rotate our 72 hour kits every six months, around conference time, but my thoughts and good intentions didn't quite make it to actually pulling them out and rotating them. So being so excited to start this yesterday, I began pulling down our backpacks to go through them.

I opened the first one and started pulling things out, only to find that we had maggots all through the backpack. I was disgusted, appalled and very upset, with myself and the stupid little nasty bugs infesting my things! I talked to my husband and my sister and with their  council decided to just throw away the backpacks and anything else that had the little critters in it and start fresh!

I did have flashlights and zip locks of first aid kits that could be salvaged, so I will Clorox the flashlights and assemble brand new kits, with the intent and follow through of rotating and checking them every six months. I will even put reminders on my calendar and make sure it gets done. I will not let this happen again!

With that in mind, here are a few of the items I will be putting in my 72 hour kits:

First aid kit
Toilet paper
Sanitary supplies
Extra pair of glasses
Duct tape
Head lamps
Work gloves
Written copy of addresses and phone numbers
Sewing kit
Candles (tea lights)
Wet wipes
Extra batteries
Zip lock baggies
Important information and documents
Mess kit or foldable bowl and utensils
Food for nine meals and snacks
Clothing: sweat pants and shirt, t-shirt, underwear, socks, hat sunglasses
Scissors
Personal hygiene items
Whistle
Light sticks
Mylar blanket
Poncho
Hand warmers
Emergency cook stove
Folding shovel
Knife
Portable radio
Medicines

This is just a list of what things I have thought of so far. As I think of more and decide how to put them together, I will continue to post. If you have any extra ideas, please leave comments so we can all become prepared together!

"If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear!"

Happy New Year!

A very happy New year to everyone! It has been over a year since I last posted! So much has happened since then! In November 2013 I went back to work after 9 years off being a stay at home mom. It was a big step and sacrifice for our family, but I have loved every minute of it! I have worked with with some really great people and had some really great clients!

I have still been able to spend time with my wonderful family as well. We started out 2014 with a funeral for a dear family friend. It was sad, but we are so thankful for the plan of salvation and the knowledge that we will see our family and friends again after this life.

I have been on the stake young women camp committee now for two years. I love working with the young women in the stake and being able to work with such great committee members to plan our young women camps the last two summers. We have been truely blessed and guided through each camp and each planning for camp. The Lord loves each of us and especially our youth! They need His guidance in their lives and young women's camp helps them recognize the spirit and what it feels like.

I have made some really great friends over the last year and did some fun things. I have ran a few 5ks in the last year or so and have loved them. I don't know if I could do much more than that though. The 3.1 miles at one time is pretty far me.

I broke my ankle half way through the year and was in a cast and on crutches for about 6+ weeks. Not a fun thing to go through in the summer. My garden got neglected and everything turned out awful! I didn't have anything to can in the fall except the wonderful peaches that came from our tree. I had to find tomatoes to can. Thanks to family I was able to put a little away this year.

I also decided that I wanted to have a job a little closer to home. I have been working in Roy about a 20 minute drive from here which I have loved, but I have gotten so sick of the drive. In July I decided I was also tired of cutting hair in my little kitchen, so I decided to venture out on my own and rent a booth not far from home where I can pay as I go and have a chair and sink for the growing clientele I have. I have loved being on my own and just weeks ago decided that we don't really need my income too much right now, so I have gone to working in Roy one night a week to still have my clients there, but then spend a little more time here building a good clientele so that when my daughter is in school more, I can go to work and be busy there.It will be some long days and quite slow until I have a good clientele, but it will be worth it!

Well that is my year very condensed! I hope you all had a great year as well! I am excited for a new year with new adventures. My goals this year are going to help my family. I am so excited to begin sharing that journey with everyone as well. I am going to take this year and build my food storage and emergency preparedness  supplies to get our family prepared how we need to for any situation and I plan to take you with me on that journey. This should be everyone's goals every year, but I know it's hard to find the money and the time.

This blog may end up a food storage and emergency blog with all I'm going to fill it with, but I also want to talk finances and other practical things like that, so please come back often and see what I am doing and get suggestions of things to help your family as well. Happy New Year!

Chicken Enchilada Soup

It is one of my favorite times of the year! I love fall for all of the fresh fruits and veggies. Harvest is one of my favorites. It allows me to reap the benefits of my hard work in gardening all summer. (Or this year, the lack of hard work). We did get quite a few tomatoes, beans, peaches, peppers, apples and squash from our own garden, so I guess it wasn't that bad, just very over grown with weeds this years.

So with fall comes all of the yummy soups that I love to make. Soup is one of those comfort foods that just warm you at the end of a cold day. Am I right?!

I asked my hubby the other day for some suggestions of what to make for dinner this week. I said I had some green chili endchilada sauce in the fridge that I really needed to use, but I made chicken enchiladas last week and didn't want to make them yet again, since it is one of my go to meals for something quick and easy that we love. He suggested taco soup with the green enchilada sauce. so then my mind starts working.

I searched on Pinterest for a chicken enchilada soup recipe and found a few that looked really yummy, but they were all crockpot recipes that I didn't have time for. But I was able to make this recipe in about a half hour to 45 minutes and it turned out so yummy.

Let me add though, if you like spice in your chicken enchiladas, I would add a teaspoon or so of cumin and chili powder, I just have a son that is allergic to chili powder currently and can't handle the spice, so I left it out this time and it was still very good, just not spicy. So here it is:

Chicken Enchilada Soup

3 cups chicken, cut in chunks
1 TBS oil
1 cup salsa
1/2 cup green chilis or one small can
1 can corn, drained and rinsed
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
8 cups water with 8 tsp. chicken bouillon or 8 cups chicken stock, reserve 1 cup or more to mix with cornmeal
1 cup green enchilada sauce or 1 small can
1 - 1 1/2 cups cornmeal

Heat oil in large pot. Add chicken, with some salt and pepper and stir fry for a couple minutes. Add salsa and green chilies and cook for a few minutes longer. Add water and chicken boillon or chicken stock, corn, black beans, and enchilada sauce. Bring to a boil and cook until chicken is done, about 15 to 20 minutes. Add cornmeal to 1 cup of water and stir to break up all clumps. Add to soup pot and stir. Cornmeal will gradually thicken the soup some. Let cook until thickened to liking. Serve with grated cheese, sour cream, corn chips, etc. Sour cream gives a little bit of a creamy flavor like chicken enchiladas.

The cornmeal gives a flavor like you have corn tortillas in it. This size recipe serves about 10-12 people. I make big meals for family of 7. My kids even loved this soup, even the picky one that doesn't eat hardly anything I cook. This will definitely go into my regular winter rotation of soups! I hope you enjoy it as much as my family did!

I'm a Triathlete!!

So here it is Wednesday already and I have not yet posted about the triathlon I did on Saturday! So here is the run down:

It was so much fun!! We were there to check in at 7:20 a.m. We started out in the swimming pool at 8. We did shifts in the pool, since there was only 6 lanes that we had to double up on. Since I don't freestyle without swallowing the whole pool, I figured out that a side stoke works really well for me. It still gives me the work out too, especially with my arms. Swimming a side stroke when you are sharing the lanes so closely with many others, doesn't leave you a whole of room to move, so I kicking people, I felt so bad.

After the swimming, we jumped on our bikes, which was my mountain bike, with my hubby's street tires put on for the speed. I thought the bike would go pretty smooth, but little did I know on the other side of the nice cruise down hill was quite the steep incline. I struggled up the hill and many times just wanted to get off and walk, but I pushed through it and was able to stay on my bike, just going a very slow pace.

Then for the final part, running. We ran the same route we biked and about half way up the incline, I did have to walk a little ways, but I made it, and I finished the race. I am very proud of myself and my dear friend!

So I don't know exactly how the scored everything or timed everything, it is quite confusing to me, but I finished the whole race in 87 minutes! Not bad at all for a first timer!! This, we realized later, was not even a half tri. They called it a taste of a tri, which for your first time, I just perfect. I would love to try a full triathlon, just to say I can do it, but that would require me to train a lot more and a lot harder. And definitely to get on a bike more than just at the gym a couple times. But I loved every minute of it and I look forward to another one and to keep training.

Now our next training is for my friend to run the Ogden half marathon in May. I didn't put in for the lottery because I was afraid I would get drawn out, but my friend did and I promised her I would help her train, and I will definitely be there when she runs the whole thing!

Everyone should try something that is out of their comfort zome! I have found that these races are so much fun, and I love being in the pool, even though I don't swim all that well. You always learn things about yourself that you never knew before when you do something that is hard for you to do. Keep training, and loving life!

Clean house!

For once, my house is somewhat clean. My kitchen counter is still covered in canning stuff and some dishes, and seeing as how my expensive vacuum is getting fixed (grr) the floors have not been vacuumed, but at least things have been picked up and the kitchen floor has been mopped! I figured out a great way to get my kids to do their chores. Hopefully each week will be just as good.

So here's what I did:

For a long time now I have had a chore list of the generic chores: kitchen, bathrooms, tv room, front room then we rotate each week so that the kids wouldn't  have the same chore but every four weeks. This just wasn't working out, my kids could care less that their chores needed to be done everyday. So I decided to mix things up and just have then pick chores.

I sat down and wrote out on strips of paper different chores like kitchen floor, kitchen chairs, front room, tv room, upstairs bathroom, downstairs bathroom, closet, walls, Windows etc. I figured this would be easier on them than to try and tackle the whole job at once.

Friday is early out day from school for them, so Friday is perfect, since our Saturdays are pretty busy. They did very well today, I was impressed. I don't know if they liked the idea of having a random chore or not knowing what they would get or just doing something different, but they liked it.

I had them pick one and complete it and then I checked it and then they drew a second one and completed it and then I checked it. I still felt like I was having to show them each little thing that needed to be done, but that's where my explanations came in handy.

I also sat down with a notebook and wrote out each thing that needed to be done with each chore. That way they know and I don't have to tell them all the time. I am very excited about this new method and think it will work good. I also told them if they come tell me they are bored or don't know what to do, then they can pick a chore from the jar. Maybe they can start entertaining themselves more on their own. We will see. ;)

So much for blogging more often. It has seriously been crazy the last couple months. I have been sewing as much as possible and canning up a storm. I honestly don't know how much I have canned (I need to start keeping track better), but I have done grape juice, peaches, pears, salsa, tomatoes, grape jelly, raspberry jelly, apricot jelly, apple sauce, pickles, pickeled beets, and still have apples and tomatoes left to sauce and salsa. My house is a disaster and I have been overly exhausted. But this is all worth every minute in the end.

Among all of the canning and other things I am doing, I have trained for 5ks and a half triathalon that is this Saturday!  I have one of the best people training with me, that is so patient with me when it comes to not wanting to do anything and complaining about how much I hurt. She is so gung-ho about this whole thing tho. She will go some days to the gym or swimming, twice in the same day! She is a great example to me, and one of the most spiritual people I know. We have had many great gospel discussions, but more than anything we have each other to enjoy some adult time with, without kids or worries of having to be at home cooking and cleaning. We still worry about that stuff, but we can get out of normal routine and enjoy just being.

September 13, she and I participated in a 5k run. This was my first ever 5k. We trained pretty hard for this one and had so much fun. It was a prehistoric theme and we ran at night in and out of the dinosaur park here in Ogden. We did most of our training on the track at the high school, which was nice, but once we decided to start running down on the river parkway, we just fell in love with running there and will probably never go back to the track again!

I finished my first race at about 40. Not bad at all for my very first time!! I loved it, it was so much fun. I did have to walk at one point, going around the D loop on the way back. It was pretty steep and my legs just couldn't take it. It was a great run though and that just ballooned into what we are doing now. I never thought I would love running so much!

 

My dear friend Ashlynn and I after the race.

 

My Famiy.

 

 

My family and especially my husband have been so supportive of me through all of this. Two weeks after this race, we ran again at our Stake 5k. It was fun running just through the neighborhoods where we live. I finished that race in 34:35. Much better than the first one, but I also had some more time to train.

 

Now our new thing is this half tri that we are training for. It is this Saturday at Weber Sate University. It is being hosted and paid for by the North Ogden Council, which takes in 10 Stakes in our area. They are pushing lots of sports in our area in the church, which I think is great. So they are now doing Pickleball, whish is so much fun and a great sport for all ages. It's basically life size table tennis. They are also doing this half tri. We were so excited to try this as a first for both of us. We can take our time and just enjoy the experience. The tri consists of 300 meter swim (6 laps), bike 3 laps around campus (aprox. 5.7 miles), and one lap running (approx. 1.7 miles).

 

I have been in the pool training for a few weeks now and I love swimming. I have a hard time putting my face in the water, but I am good a side stroke. I am almost as fast as Ashlynn who does a freestyle. It is definitely a full body workout! It amazes me every time I go, just how out of breath you get from swimming. I have done the stationery bike at the gym and have done the 6 miles and then went right into running and did 2 miles, but putting all three together back to back will be interesting. I am very excited to say that I have accomplished this though. Can't wait till it's done. I will definitely continue to swim! I love the water and it is a great workout! So until next time...keep on running. 

Ok, I was not intending to let my blog go over the summer, but as it is, it did. We were so busy camping and having fun and just being, so I didn't take the time to blog. So now that school is back in (YAY!) I plan to start doing more blogging. I will start by just giving you one thing that I have done this summer, when I had a little bit extra time. I have become maajorly obsessed with sewing and have SO MUCH fabric that I just want to sew up and sell, so help me out here and help me know what to do.

This is the first project I am doing. It is an artfolio set. It has two pockets on the one side for coloring books or notebooks, etc. On the other side is slots for markers or colored pencils. If I were to sell it, I would include a coloring book and a set of 12 colored pencils. Tell me what you think of this idea. I have so many others, like wallets, skirts, barbie clothes, baby doll quilts, etc, so please help me decide if there is people out there that would even buy handmade items and then how much you might pay for something like this.

Here is the first one, the artfolio. It has batting, so is a little thicker and sturdy than just double fabric.The only thing it is missing is a piece of velcro at the top to keep it closed. Thanks in advance for all your input and help.

*Sorry, my pics are not working currently, but I will update as soon as I can it working. Thanks for your patience.