Who said this would be easy?

The most frustrating thing about trying to get ready, particularly on a large scale and for more than one person, is that it can be so overwhelming.  Like several of my friends, I'm faced with the tug-and-pull of trying to balance tucking away money when we can, squaring up bills, trying work on our preparedness and just trying to enjoy being around in the world at the same time.  It's a lot!

The best thing we can do for ourselves, regardless of what's in front of us, is to not look at it as some monumental task that is bigger than we are.  Break it down into small chunks.  That's what we in our little shack are going to be doing.  And this is the best part, you can do it too and we will do it together.

Start with meals for a week (many of us do this already, but don't think about it in terms of emergency planning).  Make a menu for your week ahead and double check that you have the ingredients to make those meals on hand.  If not, go get them and we'll work on our first dry-run of sorts.  K. and I work rotating shifts with hours that can easily run long, so with our schedules it becomes extra-hard to plan ahead for meals even across a week.  We always eat but if you haven't given it thought until 8pm and you're exhausted from a 12- or 36- hour shift, you won't be much in the mood for dirtying a pan, so plan ahead.  If you need help or think that readied-food must be bland, I refer you to my sister's page -- Dinner Done Yesterday.  She has mastered the art of bringing good food within the grasp of the busy mom, so I guarantee she has some tips that will work for you too.

I've put up a sample list of my week ahead under my pages, "The Week in Preview".  With that, let's begin our first dry-run of sorts:  What are you eating this week?