Friday, September 05, 2008

September's List

It is 9:25 pm. My children and husband are asleep. My world is INCREDIBLY peaceful. Noone needs my immediate love or attention. I can just sit, reflect and learn. I was reading the blogs of two friends, Jessica and Alissa. Two of their entries put me in a very reflective mode. We all have things we love right? Things that make our souls sing, that fill our hearts with humble pride as we develop skills and focus our energy on the right things. Having a daughter in Kindergarten has made me feel an urgency of how quickly days slip thru our fingers and how important it is to do the very best things that I can--things of both a recreative, leisure nature and things in a productive, wise realm as well.

Alissa's posted about the things she wants to remember about her children and recounted some of her tender experiences with them. It made me tear up because I can hardly stand to think what I might have forgotten about the yummy moments of life with children--the moments when it was just Olivia and I, the moments a year ago when Maia was our baby and the moments last month when Michaela had less hair. Just yesterday I was sitting on the floor by a bookshelf and found a calendar from Maia's first year of life. You see, she doesn't have a baby book. I just wrote down the random funny moments and tiny milestones of her life--not everything by any means, but it is a darling glimpse at the moments of the past. It's time for me to pick up a cute composition notebook at Walmart and more regularly keep record of those funny sayings and misty watercolor memories.

Jessica posted about food storage. Oh my love--do I love food storage. It is a passion passed down to me from my mother, one that was key in her interest in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, when the missionaries knocked on her door. Jessica has a to die for lovely heaven haven of food storage in her basement. I am wishing for a place to store my food storage like unto hers when we buy a home. My almost year's supply is stored under beds, in closets, and in kitchen cabinets. This next week, I am going to organize more prettily my main food storage closet.

Also, I am going to go at the holes in my food storage and emergency preparedness items more fully. The areas I need to complete are water and toiletries. The main area I need to seriously begin is alternative heat and cooking sources in case we have no electricty. This month is also the month of caselot sales here in Utah. The two stores where I do my caselot are having their sales 2 weeks long back to back. I have already been to this week's caselot sale. I can't wait for next week and the week after that and the week after that--that is where most of this month's grocery money is going.

This year, I plan/desire to expand my canning abilities. I know how to can peaches, but this year I want to can pears and homemade applesauce. I can't wait to see how this fall ends up.

So that is September's list.
1)Get a composition book and write down the cute kid comments (or what will be considered cute in the future) and the fun memories/experiences we make. Nothing fancy--just take a minute each day or so and jot favorites.

2a)Organize the food/water storage--fill in holes. Have fun shopping!
2b) Begin research/saving so we can get our alternative heat and cooking sources in order.
2c) Can/Dehydrate Peaches

September's Project Wish List
--Read the manual to my digital SLR.
--Sew a skirt
--Brutally get rid of clothes (again) that don't love, fit, are no longer in style or that I haven't worn in forever.
--Cull children's books--this could be painful but I don't need a thousand books right? We only read about 20 regulars anyway. If I wimp out, I will just get rid of old toys when my girls are at school, preschool and napping. With 3 fall birthdays and Christmas all in a row, I am sure DI (a local Goodwill like store) would like my donations.

I'll stop there. There is always October :) Thank you for the inspiration, Jessica and Alissa!

7 comments:

Alissa said...

Hey! I didn't know you read my blog! Did you see the amazing food storage shelves on Les & Char's blogs? It's the serious kick in the pants I need to get rockin' on some food storage for us. Especially with Hurricane Ike beating down our door, eh?

Misty said...

You inspire me! I need to start my food storage. For some reason the organization aspect of it freaks me out.

Ambrosia said...

Don't be freaked out, Misty. Just buy several of the things you normally buy at a time, stock up when they are sale and throw them in your cabinets/pantry moving the old cans to the front and the new cans to the back. This is one reason why I LOVE caselot sales. I stock up on the things we use alot and just add to them as the year goes by.

As far as grains go, we use alot of wheat, beans/legumes, rice (brown and my new favorite, forbidden rice), oats (steel cut and rolled), canned tomatoes, canned fruit--namely pineapple and pears. So I buy them in bulk and throw them in buckets or I buy them in cases.

Buying your food storage is nothing more than knowing what your family eats and stocking up (alot of it) of those foods, spices, condiments. etc.

Go to simplylivingsmart.com --they tell you step by step how to do things. Go Misty, Go!

Misty said...

You're such a good cheerleader! :)

Thanks for the link! I'll check it out.

Char @ Crap I've Made said...

I love your list! I need to fill some of our 55 gallon drums and organize our stuff as well. I also think our 72 hour kits are probably due for a rotation...and I'm not sure we even have one for Campbell. Oops.

The Mathews Family said...

Wow you are so nice! And for the record... you continually inspire me in every aspect of your life.

There's a man in our ward that teaches EP to different people and groups and boy howdy does he live it. He has some wonderful tips and got us thinking about the alternate fuel and heating question and how we could address it in our situation. He teaches 'triple redundancy', which basically means we should all have three ways to do the same thing in the case of an emergency. Once we started thinking in that frame of mind it was pretty easy to come up with some solutions. If you want to talk more about it I'd be happy to share with you what we've done.

I know we definitely have missed the Ambrosia girls around our house. We need to get together again soon.
-Jessica

g said...

Hey there! It's been too long. I love your list! I need to remember those little moments and sayings, too. I can't believe how quickly these years are passing! It makes me sad.

How did you learn to can? Any books or links to recommend? We just finished our year supply, but I'd love to add our own canned fruits.