Mom, Prepared

Folks, please forgive me. It has been a mighty long time since I've posted.

Some of you may recall we're expecting our second bundle of joy. We've frantically searched for a larger home (current one is sooo tiny!) - but, alas; people have slap lost their minds in the rental arena in our area. The prices they are asking - the condition of the homes - their locations... it has been one thing, or another. Since time is now of the essence, and we HAVE to start readying for our new little bundle of joy, we have decided to simply buck up, & batten down the hatches here. Yes, our ability to do all we'd like with prepping is limited here. Hopefully, the economic forecast won't take a massive downturn, and all such manner of doom & gloom will be afar off.

This is an unexpected turn of events for us. We really thought we'd have an easier time of finding a place. But we're simply unwilling to burden ourselves with too-high rent, bad location (often for more money, WHAT?) or have to pull a HAZMAT team in to decontaminate a home before we move in.

So, at least for the time being, here we will stay.

And I guess that's what I sort of wanted to write about: Prepping where you are in life.

When we begin prepping, it's often fraught with anxiety: about all we lack, about what we need, about where we live.

Just about 'where we are' at that point in time.

But I feel it's unnecessary stress we place on ourselves. The books & articles about how to be completely protected, provisioned & possessing the ability to be fully self-sustaining are multitudinous. I agree with all of it. What a beautifully prepped world it would be, if only we could all live in the country with a farm, a garden, a well or two, and enough land to sustain us, and our 'plans'. Reality, tho, in modern Americana, is a vast departure from this dream. For most of us, anyway.





On top of that, LIFE EVENTS will, necessarily & rightly, shift our focus from time to time. You'll never catch me saying that prepping shouldn't be one of our highest priorities; and yet, there are simply seasons of life that will require it take a lower position on the priority list. Family, work, illness, finances, even our spirituality, will take place front & center on our radar.

That is certainly the place in which we find ourselves currently. While we are still slowly working on the food storage, our primary goals & objectives of late revolve around preparing this tiny home for a whole new person.. a baby. Our work around this house will be to make accomodations for that. My chickens will have to wait. My garden for the year, which I *had* originally planned on, is put on hold for next year. We'll spend an inordinate amount of time rearranging our tiny space so that we can have a functioning kitchen, functioning space for baby AND food storage.

And frankly, that's ok. Life happens, and just goes right on & on, regardless of our 'readiness' for it. "All we can do," says my wise ol' father, "is the best we can do." I'd only add, "and the best we can do is enough."

Life is to be lived, experienced and enjoyed. So don't be too concerned about prepping where you're at. Do all you can do, and it'll be enough for now. PLEASE don't stress about all the things you 'should' be doing. What we should be doing, at any given moment, is meeting the demands of life.

So it's ok if you're healing, and not training.

It's ok if you're stretching your dollar to feed your family THIS WEEK, and not storing food.

It's ok if you're whole mind is wrapped up in a family reunion. Family is important, and none of us is guaranteed the morrow.

It's ok if you're nesting, and not prepping.