I need to apologize for missing last week. Life got away from me, and I failed to hit publish. It hit me as I laid down on Sunday evening and I felt horrible.
But it’s exactly what happens to many of us when working on being prepared, too. We get overwhelmed, life happens, and we fall off the wagon. The problem is it’s so easy to get lost or feel overwhelmed when it comes to preparedness. You hear someone mention a full year of food storage and your mind goes “I will never get there”.
Let me tell you a little secret: We are not there either!
Instead, we tend to drop off the preparedness wagon because a year of food, or ready 72-hour kits, is overwhelming. It’s a HUGE task. Plus, it’s so much easier to sit by and do nothing, telling yourself you will get there someday.
At a meeting Ashley & I attended last week, the group was discussing our food preparedness. And few in the group had a year of food. And those of us with kids were even farther away. A year of food for a family of 7 is massive compared to a husband and wife with no kids at all.
I would love to stock more food on my shelf right now. But priorities matter. Do you put pants on your kids who are growing out of yet another size, or do you put more canned food on the shelf? Both are important, and only you get to choose what is right for your family.
I have said it before: It’s not a race. And if you start comparing where you should be, or where your neighbor is already, that is a slippery slope to nowhere.
The key here is to start somewhere. Maybe you can only afford $20 this month. Or maybe you only have room in your house for 36 cans of beans instead of 120.
I promise, unless you are volunteering the information, no one is coming in to audit your food storage. And no one is going to sit down and make sure every 72-hour kit is ready to go.
You need to know that where you are today is where you are supposed to be. And having 8 cans on the shelf is just as good as having 50 or 100. A couple loaves of homemade bread each month is that much closer to making everything yourself.
Don’t beat yourself up when you fall short of your own goal and your family is still fed and clothed. Remember, the tortoise beats the hare in the end.