Starting our Home Storage journey...baby steps.

I am on a food storage kick right now. I have never felt the need to follow this counsel personally until recently. Maybe it's because we live near an active volcano. Maybe it's because I have children. Maybe it's because I finally have space to store 400 pounds of food. Maybe I have finally matured to the point that I stop picking and choosing commandments...no, that can't be it. I still don't do my visiting teaching.

But whatever the reason, I have felt an urgency to get our food storage built up. A couple months ago, I purchased some beans and oats from the cannery. (My awesome RS president canned them for me.) Then, for Christmas, Andrew's parents gave us a generous amount of money intended for that very purpose. It was like they read my mind - I couldn't have asked for a more relevant gift.

Finally, today, we went to Costco. I went expecting to spend all our money and walk out with our year's supply of food. Andrew, apparently, went expecting not to buy a single thing but to "price out things." This led to an extensive argument in the store, which, inevitably, got us nowhere. (He thinks I'm stubborn...isn't that just the pot calling the kettle black.)

We ended up buying a case of refried beans and a jug of canola oil. And a few ShelfReliance Cansolidators, and a massive shelving unit for the garage on which to store our food storage. And that's about it. So really, I am no more prepared than I was this morning in case of a natural disaster. But just in case Mount Rainier blows up tonight, we will certainly have enough canola oil to last until the end of time. Thank heavens for that.

(A great food storage resource is the Thrive Planner - it tells you how much you need per person of everything. It's a little expensive, but it gives you a good idea of what you need.)