Food Storage Fridays

Freud thought "The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind." It's super-easy to figure out my number-one fear based on my dreams. Last night it was Ellie's birthday party. I was shopping for seemingly hours—paper plates, piñata, presents—only to somehow end up at home with nothing. Except carloads of little girls waiting for the fun to begin. I had no plan, no cake, no party-favors. The only recurring nightmare I have is the one where I show up for a final in a class I haven't attended or made any attempt at studying. I've also dreamt that I'm on the starting line of a marathon and I haven't run a single training mile. You get the idea.

Clearly my greatest fear is being unprepared. And, let's face it, this is not entirely unfounded. If disaster struck right now, we've probably got enough food, but only because we'd die of thirst before it ran out. My approach to food storage has been sporadic and unorganized, an occasional trip to the cannery (okay, that means twice in 15 years) or putting together emergency backpacks, but then not bothering to rotate them (I'm pretty sure there are still diapers in Ainsley's).

I'm ready to change all that. After seeing how a little progress each week adds up on Scouting Mondays and Scrapbooking Thursdays, I've decided to add Food Storage Fridays. I'm not sure Friday is the best day for this, but I do like the alliteration. So today I did two things. First, I found a website I like: Food Storage Made Easy. I'm going to work on their Baby Steps. Second, I cleaned out the two 50-gallon water containers I just bought. Okay, technically, I'm still working on that. Letting them soak, then I need to get them into the basement, onto some boards (someone told me they should not be stored on cement) and then filled up.


Now, if someone could plan a birthday party for me, I might be able to sleep at night.