I hope everyone is safe

We've had a very crazy and scary last few weeks around here with weather. About 3 weeks ago we had a tornado that literally just missed our home. We have neighbors less than 1/2 mile away whose homes were completly destroyed. We were safe and sound in our storm cellar, and heard it come through. The girls ( and myself!!) were all very scared. We had several large trees blown over and had some property damage, but thank goodness our home is livable and we were all safe. One of my dearest friends, who has children the same age as mine had their home completly destroyed. Thankfully they are all safe too.

Then started the rain.....

I felt like Noah for a while there. We couldn't get out of our house for several days due to flooding of large creeks and streams around our place. Times like that makes it so nice to have menus planned, stockpiles of necessities etc on hand.

Since then we have had several more instances of heavy rain and in the last week there have been several more tornado threats around our area.

I think this was really a great eye opener and made me really realize what is important and gave me some ideas for ways to be more self reliant and also more prepared for a disaster. For one thing the girls each have a backpack now to grab and take to the cellar. It has a few small toys, a few books, crayons and such but also has things like an ID of " who I belong to, with contact name and numbers" in case something terrible happened and they were seperated from us in a disaster. Also they each have flashlights, batteries, bottled water, blankets, extra socks and a small first aid kit. My husband and I have a larger version of that also, with a few additional items in it such as cash...., copies of important documents, snacks etc.

I hope all of you think of ways that would be helpful to ensure that everyone is kept safe and sound. Of course there are so many other things you would probably need, but you have to start somewhere.

If you have infants you would probably need some disposable diapers, formula ( if you use it) bottled water , blankets, etc.Also always include any medications, contacts, eye glasses etc.

I hope the storms wane for a while and I hope that you all out there are still safe and sound with your families!