Crazy Week

I cannot believe it is Friday already again! This week has been a bit crazy with home and mom duties. I have been gathering stuff for my emergency notebooks and almost have all the originals I need in one place. Had to order my youngest's birth certificate and got that now so I think it's just my husband's stuff we need to add to the pile. Still working on insurance policies--I figured I'd just catch them as they arrived in the mail this month and have the latest copies for my notebook (hopefully won't be needing it in the meantime!).

Did a little "self reliance" sewing yesterday and this morning for my husband. He had a heavy cotton duck (like canvas) vest with fleece lining, and the fleece had relaxed and stretched (like fleece does over time), but of course the outer material hadn't stretched with it so the bottom of the vest was flipping up and bugging him. So I cut the fleece at the bottom and reattached it (of course, like all my honeydo's this took about 3 weeks to get around to doing it and about 10 minutes to get done). Also had to adjust the waistband on all 700 pairs of his thermal bottoms (okay 8 pair) as the rise was too tall on them (think grandpa pants). So I cut the waistband off and reattached it to the thermals with a stretch stitch about 1 1/2 inches lower. This took a bit more time to get done than the vest project. Now if I can just find all those shirts he has that need a button sewn on . . . maybe I'll get around to those in a couple of weeks . . . :)

Update at 5:02 pm Just when I thought I had all the alterations done, I found another pair of his thermals in the laundry! GRRRR. Kind of like finding a dirty plate in the living room when you're finished washing dishes! Oh well. Bustin' out the sewing machine again . . .

72 Hour Emergency Kit Updates

I got together with a couple of friends last week and we hashed over our emergency kits. So now I've added a couple of things: mini scriptures, sunblock, purell (hand sanitizer), and some cash. I put all my liquid/lotions/soaps in snack size baggies to protect against leakage.

I also updated my medications. Before, I had 20 year old meds all thrown together in one little bottle, but realized this is not a good or safe method of keeping medications, so I put new medications each in their own snack size ziplock and wrote what medication it was, the lot number and date of expiration on the bags. I was surprised to find that half the meds in my cupboard are expired! Guess I'll need to be getting some fresh stuff . . . Don't forget your sharpie! :)Another thing I will be adding was mentioned in the comments section of my emergency notebooks post. I picked up a couple of flash drives at WalMart for $5.00 each and am scanning important documents and putting them on the drives, then putting the drives in my kits (see the emergency notebook post for a list of suggested documents).

One of my friends suggested shrinking the house down and getting one of those carpet bags like Mary Poppins has . . . anyone know where we could get a carpet bag like that? Maybe we could get a group deal on them . . . :)

Emergency Notebooks

I'm putting together a couple of notebooks (might turn into more). The first is a Grab and Go Emergency notebook with copies of important documents in it. I'm thinking to make a second copy and leave it at my mom's house or something so if my house burns to the ground while I'm away, I still have access to my information. Here's a long ol' list I got from a preparedness fair of what to put in it (most of these I don't even have, so they aren't going in mine, but I guess as you get older you get more of this stuff):

Proof of Identification
*Driver's License
*Concealed weapons permit/s
*Birth Certificates
*Social Security Cards
*Passports
*Marriage License

Property Records
*Mortgage/Deed
*Rental agreement
*Video, photos, lists of inventory (my insurance guy said to make sure I am in the photos or video--better proof that it was actually my stuff I guess)
*Receipts for major purchases
*Payment record for major repairs
*Appraisals of jewelry, other valuables
*Titles to vehicles
*Cemetery lot information
*Firearm inventory/Serial Numbers

Insurance Policies
*Homeowners
*Health
*Life
*Disability
*Automobile

Medical Information
*Immunizations, other records
*Prescription information (drug, dosage)
*Health Insurance ID Cards
*Physicians names and phone numbers
*Living will
*History of illnesses, accidents, surgeries
*Power of Attorney for health care
*Dental records

Estate Planning
*Wills, trusts
*Power of attorney
*Funeral instructions
*Attorney's name and phone number

Financial Records
*Tax returns (2 years)
*Credit cards front and back
*Stocks, bonds, CD's, money market
*Recent bank statement

Other
*Personal address book
*Backup of important computer files
*Usernames and passwords for online accounts
*Key to safety deposit box
*Recent photograph
*List of where original documents are kept
*Extra set of car and house keys
*Map of area and phone numbers of places you could go in case of evacuation
*Numbers of gas and electric company
*Emergency numbers

Whew. Obviously it will take a while to get all this together and copied and I still have to buy the notebook, but I've started with some of the personal identification documents. You want to get the information for every member of the family, so I'll also have to catch my husband home so I can copy the contents of his wallet. I was thinking if the documents are put in page protectors it would probably be best to keep them whole and so they don't accidentally tear out of the notebook, otherwise, 3 hole punch them.

Then put the notebook somewhere not hidden too deep, but camoflauged enough so you know what it is and can get it quickly if needed, but it doesn't scream to theives to steal it (it has your WHOLE LIFE in it!)

My second (and maybe third) notebook is for any prep information I have that I want to keep. Remember if the power is out you won't be able to look it up on the internet! So print it off and put it in a notebook. Right now I have a file folder packed with stuff that is going to go into this notebook so I can actually use it instead of being stuffed in a file where I'll never look at it if I even remember it's there. Instructions, recipes, information. Anything you think will be useful. Copy, print, write stuff down and put it all in one place.

HEY, don't stop reading! There were some good questions brought up in the comments! Click on comments and read on! :)