Real Food Storage Resources (not MREs)

The history of the world is the record of man in quest of his daily bread and butter. ~Hendrik Van Loon

Food storage can be a real relief even if it's as simple as a few home-cooked casseroles stocked in the freezer for those "bad days," or a cabinet full of cans of chicken noodle soup when you have a cold.  Becoming prepared can seem like an overwhelming task, but it can be as simple as buying two cans of diced tomatoes and putting one in storage and the other in the kitchen.  Continue this with the rest of the grocery list.

Strive to have 72 hours worth of ready to eat food.  Then make it a week's worth and eventually 4 week's worth.  Next multiply that by 12 and I'll bet you will have a year's supply of food.  Do the same with paper products, hygiene, first aid, etc.

Of course storing a year's supply depends on whether you have the room.  Maybe you only have space for 72 hours or a week--it's okay to do what you can.  There is peace in knowing you can "shop" your pantry and not have to run to the store for every little thing!

Here are some sites I return to again and again for food storage knowledge and inspiration:

The Family Homestead is a site I enjoy exploring for inspiration.

http://thefamilyhomestead.com/
LDS Church Provident Living site runs the whole gammut of preparedness training.  I personally have used this site to buy a year's worth of food storage.

http://www.providentliving.org/

Provident Living is a source for food storage purchases.  They teach about preparedness and gardening and much, much more.

http://providentliving.com/

Food Storage Made Easy is your food storage 101 class for newbies.

http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/

Preparedness Skills

Random Sampler of Great Ideas!  (Ensign, June 1974) Has a ton of useful information beginning with how to dehydrate all kinds of food from the garden and even meat!  It explains how to smoke and can fresh caught fish.  I get a thick sales paper each week in my mailbox that must be put to some use or thrown away.  An idea is given to turn newsprint into bundles that can be stacked and used like wood.  (Or make these cute pioneer haysticks with newspaper that I found at Martha Stewart).  Whether a camping enthusiast or survivalist wannabe, learning how to cook using a tin can is a useful skill.  Instructions are given for recipes, a buddy burner, stove and oven.

Food Storage Rotation

For the real enthusiast, the question is how to keep up with the food storage and rotate it out so that nothing spoils and is wasted.  "Tracking Our Food Storage," by Leslie O. Anderson (Ensign, Feb 1996) uses a system much like the old library cards where each section of food storage has a card or slips of paper that you pull when you take something from that shelf.  Then you put the slips with the grocery list and replace the items.

Family History Albums

Cartoon by Cathy Guisewite

More than ever, we are OBSESSED with getting that "great shot" of ourselves for today's photo albums--Facebook and Selfies! With all these great photos floating around, hopefully we're doing a good job of providing the story behind the photo...the who, what, where, when and how of the person pictured. "Our posterity has a right to know their roots without scrounging for them" (Elaine Cannon)

Providing "the rest of the story" is keeping our genealogy up-to-date!  As Ethel Jackson Price once explained, "Anyone can leave money to their children, grandchildren, etc.  But we are the only ones who can leave them our memories, and they are truly worth more than money."

I have scrapbooked for the last twenty years and the following scrapbook resources have remained on my shelf:

Scrapbooking with Memory Makers
This is literally the best scrapbooking book that I have found and I have looked at a lot of them. I have gotten so many good ideas for pages in my albums, such as creative ideas for all the leftover photos. (ISBN 0883639289) 

Family History Scrapbooking by Becky Higgins

Everything you need to know to get started (and be really organized) with family history scrapping. (ISBN 1933516623)

Timeless Treasures by Emilie Barnes
This is a charming little book that I kept (and I don't keep many) because of all the great family history ideas such as having everyone outline their hands on a sheet used as a Thanksgiving or Christmas Day tablecloth and then later embroidering this or turning it into a one-of-a-kind quilt. (ISBN 1565074289)

I found most of these books at my local used bookstore and I'm sure they can be purchased online for even less!  Remember to take time to do something meaningful with all of those photos, even if it's just a caption to go with each photograph on your phone.  And remember to leave your phone's password with someone you trust so the phone can be opened and pictures retrieved in the event of your passing.

If you are going to write about your days, you had better be doing something to write about. ~Caroline Eyring Miner