The Passion of the Day

I have so many interests that my husband can never keep up with me. He asks me every other day "So honey, where are your creative winds blowing you lately?", and usually it's something different than the last time he asked. Except the last two times I actually said the same thing. And what was that? Food storage!

I got a book from the library called "The Survivor's Club". It's about what separates people who survive a crisis situation from people who don't, and why. In the beginning of the book, he adds the disclaimer "I'm not a survivalist... I don't stockpile canned goods." I found humor in this statement, because it indicates that I am apparently a survivalist. And I would hope that there are more out there besides me! I may not have an underground bomb shelter, but I have some food saved. I'm not saying that the end of the world is nigh or anything, but just as you would have wished you saved money if your income stopped, wouldn't you wish you had saved some food if you ability to get food stopped? It's kind of a no-brainer. Why would a guy who writes a whole book on Survival ...not store some canned goods?

Then I found this blog by Kellene Bishop, and BOY has it ramped up my survivalist mentality. I like the button on her site - a big, round red button that says "DON'T PANIC!" because after you read her article, you'll need that button. She talks about some of the conditions in the world right now that would cause some trouble acquiring food in the future. It's very interesting.

Is it so weird to want to be ready if something happens? A man named Gerald Celente, founder of the Trends Research Institute, talks about what he calls "Neo-Survivalism", or instead of "the caricature, the guy with the AK-47 heading to the hills with enough ammunition and pork and beans to ride out the storm. This is a very different one from that : you're seeing average people taking smart moves and moving in intelligent directions to prepare for the worst. (...) Growing it your own, self-sustaining, doing as much as you can to make it as best as you can on your own and it can happen in urban area, sub-urban area or the ex-urbans."

Anybody ever heard of the recent trend "urban homesteading"? You surely know of that neighbor who is keeping some chickens in their backyard, or the family who has turned a third of their yard into a sustaining vegetable garden. Perhaps their reason is to grow organic foods without hormones, antibiotics, or pesticides, or to save money, but I think it is connected to survivalism. Basically it's about SELF-SUFFICIENCY! Doing things to help you survive on your own and not depend on someone else. Is this so weird? I think it's more dangerous for people to expect that there will always be whatever they need at the local grocery store, or if it IS there, that you will have enough money to buy it.

So call me a crazy survivalist and pass the cold pork and beans.

The past two years...

It's been almost exactly 2 years since I started this blog. A lot of things have happened in those two years! Allow me to bring you up to speed:

My husband and moved to the basement of a 50 acre farm. It was a good and bad experience. We learned a lot, grew a HUGE garden, dealt with mice and raccoons and ants, missed having a view from our windows, fought a wildfire that a neighbor started that moved with frightening speed toward the house. We ended up moving when our renters kept upping the price of utilities until we were paying the equivalent of double rent, just in utilities alone, so we got out of there as fast as we could. My husband, 2 kids, and I were homeless and bouncing around between family for 3 months. This was very hard on our marriage. It was one of those dark times that "makes you or breaks you". We pulled together to get through the storm, and are stronger for it. We feel blessed to have family who allowed us to stay with them.

During this time, I found out I was expecting. We finally found the house we knew we were supposed to buy, but it was a fixer-upper! The family who lost the house had many children and pets, and the doors and walls were all colored with marker, the carpets were all stained and smelled. We tore all the carpet out and repainted everything.

I have to add a thought, since it relates to the name of this blog. We decided to strip, sand, and repaint the cupboards in the kitchen and it ended up taking a LOT of time for this pregnant mom to get to it. For months my cupboards had no doors on them, exposing all the chaotic contents. I have to admit that completely taking off the doors of the cupboards gave me motivation to organize and create a better "flow" in my kitchen . Maybe this blog will likewise help me to see my own cluttered contents, and give me direction to improve the "flow" in my life.

Anyway, the house is almost completely finished. We had our 3rd child here in this house, and my husband graduated from college. Yess! These, of course, are just the larger milestones. Add in about 3 small rollercoaster events per week, and you might get an accurate picture of where I've been the past 2 years.

Let's see where these next few years take us!

Alright. Due to popular demand, I am going to write more on this little blog of mine. What is your blog going to be about? my husband asked. I don't have an answer. Stumped, I stopped writing. Do I need a specific subject? I guess so, if I want to make big bucks off of it and generate a following. Maybe I don't want to do it for money or popularity. Once I thought this, for some reason the writer's block melted. So here it is, the cupboards are open and who cares what it looks like inside or if it's organized. As I look across the table and into the kitchen, I notice that they aren't. Organized I mean. And so goes the blog.

Testing, testing. Is this thing on?

Well, this is the first post on my "All Cupboards Open" blog. The title came to me as I was sitting here staring off into space, trying to think of what to call my new blog. I realized I was staring at my kitchen cupboards, all of which were open. All of them. This is a habit of mine that my husband finds humorous and slightly annoying. He likes to keep cupboards closed. I, on the other hand, don't usually even notice when I leave them open. This struck me as significant, and so births this blog. Feel free to open your cupboards and comment.