Why Prepare??

"If a whole generation has been raised on convenient fast food, and doesn't have an idea how to cook from scratch, who will teach the children? What kind of family bonding have we lost? Isn't it a little disconcerting to hear family therapists urging families to have at least one meal a week all together? I understand the many directions a family can be pulled. Certainly there are innumerable worthwhile activities that children can be involved. At one point I was driving between activities church, swimming lessons, Judo, etc.. I had 17 "stop and go's" in 1 1/2 hours. It was our busy night of the week. Even then I wouldn't forgo the home cooked meal. I pulled out the one man burner, took the sauce pan and heated tuna noodle casserole and we had a picnic in the 20 minutes between activities. I am not a great cook but with every meal I offer a little of a mother's nurturing, "this is something from me to you with love." I hope my grandchildren will get a home cooked meal"- Crystal Young 3monthspreparation.blogspot.com

Eating dinner while driving the "Mom Taxi".

This quote really hit home for me.  I have 5 children and it is my job as their mother to teach them.  My mom taught me the useful skill of sewing and every time I sew something I think of her.  She also signed me up for 4-H and Girl Scouts, where I learned how to cook, sew, and be a well rounded girl.  I take family dinner quite seriously and we sit down as a family 6 nights a week (my husband and I go out to eat every Friday night).  My personality is to control a situation and when it comes to my kitchen I am very slow to let other cooks in.  I might have a little issue with patience as well :) and it is really hard for me to give over the kitchen to my kids.  I have to bite my tongue when they are learning to measure flour or sugar but I have to let them get comfortable cooking without me butting in.  So....the quote above really got me thinking...have I taught my children how to continue what I have started?  Yes, we have food storage, but what if something happened to me?  Would they know what to do with the buckets downstairs?

My children need to learn along side of me so that they can grow up knowing how to proof yeast, or make yogurt, or fruit leather.  They also need to learn how to garden and how to dehydrate.  My 12 year old was bored last Saturday and so I told her she had to make the weekly bread.  I sat in the other room and gave her the instructions and she did it all by herself.  She was so proud of the fact that it worked, but it was like a light bulb went off in my head,  she needs to know how to use our food storage.  I went through a phase of making all of our food from scratch and I had to laugh at myself when I started learning how to make most of our packaged foods from scratch.  I thought I was learning all these new ways to make food.  Guess what?  The things I was learning have been done for hundreds of years.  I had to retrain the way I thought of food and realize that most meals don't need to come from a box or can.  I grew up in the packaged food era and my mom didn't really cook from scratch.  I am one of six children and it was cooking for the masses and the convenience food was just easier for her. So when I learned how to make yogurt and wheat bread I thought I was discovering such a healthy new way to make our food, but it is how food should be made, not from a package at the store. (if it was the 70's I would probably be a hippie for all the granola and yogurt I make)

  I have been introducing my children to cooking and letting them help more in the kitchen.  I came home tonight from dinner and my girls had made chocolate chip cookies.  (now I need to have them work on the dinner menu)  We need to pass on the knowledge and skills that we are learning so that our future generations can have the same preparedness skill to build upon.  I had to start from scratch when learning about preparedness.  If I can give my children a heads start I will be giving them an amazing gift.  I also feel that if I make preparedness a way of life, it won't seem foreign to them later on.  When they are older they will say "that is just how we did things".   My oldest will tell me that at lunch her friends always want to see what she has because they can't believe that her mom makes bread, fruit leather, crackers, and other snacks.  It makes me smile knowing that my kids don't think of sandwich bread as white, squishy stuff.  They even think it is different that store bread comes sliced.  They are so used to slicing their own piece of bread now.

Bread is a start and I am slowly adding more and more skills to my resume.  One example that helped me to keep going with preparedness was my youngest didn't even know what a McDonald's was.  She saw the play land from the car window and asked me what that place was.  It hadn't donned on me that she wouldn't know what a fast food restaurant was, and it made me happy that she didn't know. (I don't judge where anyone eats, this was my own little happy mom moment)  My family is the reason I prepare, and as a mom it is my job to guide and teach them all the food storage lessons that I have learned, so they can carry it on with their families.