A Little Extra

Well, as my first post I am going to contribute to our own economic stimulus package - nothing fancy but here goes. Have a little extra time? Need a little extra something? A friend of mine suggested joining National Shopping Service. It is a mystery shopping service that you can pick your own 'engagements'. It generally takes 15 to 60 minutes - a pizza takes 20, grocery stores take 60 - and you come away with a pizza that is reimbursed and/or a small paycheck. Nothing so big as to make this full time but I have gotten free parking downtown for an 1 hour and $15 - I walked the 4 blocks to my bank and strolled around the park. I am also scheduled to go to a bakery next month and buy bread and I get the bread and $5. You get to set your mileage limit and what you are interested in. All in all it is a nice way to get out there and do our part! Sign up at: www.nationalshoppingservice.com

Pep Talk

I've been looking at the calendar for the last couple of days feeling like I need to hurry and get things done. February is quickly coming to an end I have have plenty of things to keep me busy. I tend to put a lot of goals in time increments. Some are daily, weekly, and for the bigger projects monthly. With this month wrapping up, I thought it would be a good time to revisit where and how I am doing with the goals that I set at the beginning of the year.

Honestly, I had forgotten a few of them. Not that I wasn't necessarily doing them, I just forgot that I put them on my "to-do" list. Teaching my Sunday class, that was a no brainer. I put it on my list so that I would remind myself that it is something that I do and hopefully will improve throughout the year. Thanks to the family resources (you guys), I have been able to muddle my way though learning how to teach a class. Treats and games are great motivators.

I have revised a few goals. I made a small goal of painting the upstairs, well, I know that isn't going to take all year. I think I should push myself and paint the rest of the house...I need to borrow a really tall ladder again, anyone have one? Better yet, anyone want to help?

So, (while I channel Dad) as this month winds to an end, where are you at on your goals?

Make it do or do without or find a new one at Goodwill

Found a top 10 find at Gdub this morning. I have wanted to find a substantial couch or chair for a while to put in our master but only saw a few couches from the '70s and several from the '80s. So the real selling point on this is the Crate & Barrel tag under the cushion. $15 for this find. All I need now is to find a Bunker Buddy who happens to hae mad sewing skills and a goto attitude and might visit within the next couple of months. Any takers?

TMI?

Too much information. That's how I often feel after going home from an inspirational lesson. I'm all fired up to:

• grow all my own produce


• do my genealogy - back to Adam, of course


• have a two years supply of everything my family will ever need


• have perfect children

You know what I'm talking about. It all sounds so great in theory...and then reality sets in. It's tough to grow all your own produce if you truly despise gardening - and can't afford a gardener. So what do you do?

Compromise.
Work around it.

I personally like to work in the yard two, maybe three times a year. Lucky for me my blueberries thrive on neglect (at least they do here in Washington). I don't have to prune them or water them. In July I just take a bowl and start harvesting. Rinse the little buggers off, pat dry and throw them in a freezer bag. That's manageable for me.

So what's my point? Figure out what you can do...then try and do just a little bit better. Baby steps. Baby steps.

Here's my "baby steps" goal for the week...I am going to try and make up 20 days worth of menus. It should be manageable for me - because I already have a list of about 15 dinner ideas on my fridge right now. I made that list right after I broke my wrist - I had 4 willing "helpers" who couldn't come up with a dinner plan to save themselves. Here's my list (keep in mind I was on painkillers...):

Cornflake chicken/mashed potatoes/gravy/corn
Pot roast/potatoes/gravy
Layered Mexican casserole
tortillas/cornbread
Pork ribs/pasta or rice/salad
Chili/chips/cheese/cornbread
Hamburgers/buns/chips
Calzone/salad or green beans
Spaghetti/breadsticks/salad
Chicken Fajitas
Tacos
Polish sausage/buns/chips
French dip/salad
Soup/rolls
French toast/waffles/German Pancakes
Panini/Grilled cheese/soup
6 can enchilada soup/cornbread

Take-Out
Pizza
Chinese

Breads
cinnamon rolls
coffee cake
garlic herb bread
pumpkin choc. chip bread


Desserts
pumpkin pie dessert
brownies
Guadalupe river dessert
cream puffs
cookies
jam bars
pumpkin pie
cheesecake
lemon bars

This was a list of things that the men/boys in my family are capable of cooking...Now I need to revise this list to include things that I cook.

What's on your menu?

HOARDING LAWS

Do you know why the church has been less vocal about a one-year supply? It's about a little known fact that President Clinton consolidated former presidential executive orders (Pres. Kennedy, Carter, Roosevelt, etc.) to forbid hoarding food. It all started in 1939 with Pres. Roosevelt...fast forward to Kennedy when it looked like we might go nuclear with Russia. So another executive order...no hoarding. Clinton consolidated all the previous exec orders into one anti-hoarding law. Thus the church had to edit the food storage commandment to comply with law. You can read all about it if you google 'Clinton hoarding law, executive order'.

Three months supply fit into the 'emergency preparedness' outlined by Fema (which, btw, was taken from the church's guidelines. The executive order allows any gov't official (usually National Guard, militia, etc) to confiscate your food or any other survival assets to dole out at their pleasure. So now do you understand why I'm buying a 38 caliber pistol & LOTS OF AMMO! ;)(Yes, of course, I'll share with my neighbors!)

Hang 'Em High

Jonah's going through this whole "Self-sufficiency" thing right now and I love that Debbie is giving us a clearinghouse for all kinds of useful information for weathering nuclear fallout, color-coded threat levels and what have you. She balked at writing a mission statement because it seemed too--well, just too-too and I told her that people with bunkers don't write mission statements. People in bunkers write manifestos.

In my effort to surf creatively on the tide of economic peril, I pick up things from Goodwill and simply adore Target clearance. I grabbed these three curtain panels for my "Totally Salvaged Dining Room" (75% off) but as you can see, I'm about a foot short. Adding a fabric panel makes sense but I could use some tech support from the sewers out there. They are lined (if that matters at all).

Tia--you could swing by your Target and see if they have another panel perhaps? And no, I have no idea how I managed to underline everything...

Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel...

Mom posted money-saving ideas...

Suzanne shared pictures of bike hooks that Michael put up...

Sherri told me about her cannery order...

Keira has posted recipes...

My family has been working on organizing our food storage...

I thought it might be a fun to have a place where we could share our ideas on subjects like penny pinching, organizing, cooking/recipes, food storage, gardening, or whatever strikes your fancy.

I plan to add some links to things like the family cookbook.


I've invited several people to be authors on this blog - that means that you can do your own posts - not just comment. We can add more authors if anyone else would like to join in.

What do you think?

I'm open to suggestions for titles/formatting. The title I have now is in response to a comment Keira made on my other blog:

"Can I live in your bunker during the Apocalypse?"