Being Prepared not Fearful

My finished and updated 72 hour kits!

Picture taken from Draper, Utah.

This is a close view of the fire from my home. A little too close for comfort!

Last Sunday was an eye opener for me. Around 3 in the afternoon I started smelling smoke coming into our home from outdoors. It smelled like a camp fire and I brushed the smell off because many of our neighbors have fire pits and they frequently use them to BBQ. Around 5 my parents showed up because they were in town visiting for the weekend and we had invited them over for dinner. As soon as they came in our home, my dad asked if I had noticed the fire that was burning just south of our home. When I went to the window I saw the huge plums of smoke rising from the distance. I told my parents, who are from southern Utah, that I thought it was probably just coming from the Camp Williams army base just south east of our home. The base is frequently doing artillery practice and the Apache helicopters fly daily over our home. I was right about my suspicions and that evening we found out more- the base was doing machine gun practice and started a neighboring field on fire which burned out of control and up and over the ridge to the neighboring town of Herriman. We live just north-east of Herriman. The fire and smoke started getting worse and the smell of smoke in our home grew worse. Thankfully we didn't have to be evacuated like most of the residents in the Rose Crest area. After my parents left after their visit/dinner with us, Mark and I watched the news and kept an eye on outside. Even though we live far enough away(only 6-8 miles away), the chaos and fire were still visible from our home. Around midnight, I wanted to get a better look and called a close friend to walk with me to our neighborhood park. We have a huge hill that the neighborhood families use to sled down during the winter and we walked up it to get a better view. It was devastating to watch the fire burn out of control. The fire was in full blaze and you could see several homes burning down from where we stood. Watching this fire struck fear into me. The families that lived in this area were evacuated and some were only given moments to grab personal belongings. I started to ask myself some questions. "What would I retrieve from my home if I had only seconds?" Of course I would grab my kids but I started thinking of other things like pictures and important documents. What a wake up call it was for me. I have made 72 hour kits for my family but mine were not updated and our important documents and pictures are all over our home. This got me thinking that I am NOT PREPARED. I feel somewhat prepared with the little food storage that we have if we were home bound for several days but if we had to leave our home, we would be out of luck. Just days after the fire in Herriman, I went and pulled out my 72 hour kits and took out any old food and then went shopping and updated the food in our kits. Two years ago, we put together 72 hour kits and were given a simple meal plan for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I wanted to share it with you all.

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Snacks are included in the daily meal plan.

Day One:

(B): Granola Bar & Oatmeal (L): Crackers, Canned Fruit (D): Campbells Chicken Soup/Cup of noodles, or mac n' cheese (S) Juice (capri sun), corn nuts

Day Two:

(B): Package of Pop tarts (L):Cookies, Apple Sauce (D): Tuna Medley (crackers and tuna salad) (S): Hot Chocolate, Trail Mix

Day Three:

(B): Granola Bar, Oatmeal (L): Crackers, Pudding (D): Beef stew or Package of Mashed Potatoes, (S): Juice box, Fruit Snacks, Beef Jerky

*Note that any of these meals can be interchangeable. You don't even have to use what I listed. You can pick out things that your kids or you and your spouse will eat. With this simple meal plan, I spent around $70 dollars at Wal-mart by buying things to feed my little family of four. Of course there are other things you would probably want to add to this little meal plan but this is a start. You also need water for each person and to cook and clean up with!
I hope that I can keep this up to date for I surely want to be prepared if a natural disaster or fire were to hit. I love this picture and I think it speaks volumes about being prepared. I have asked myself where Am I in relation to this picture... Heaven or Hell?