L is for ...Lists...

    My life is full of lists.  My life would be a mess without lists.  Well, okay, maybe not a mess, but wow!  If I think I forget things now, I can only imagine what would happen without a list or two to keep me on track?

The truth is though, I love making lists.  Anyone else out there love to write lists?  I make the list in my head and then I find my favourite pen and my notebook and I start...Sometimes it is just groceries.  Sometimes it is a menu, or a list of the things I am hoping to make for that week.  I even made (as I am sure some of you did as well) a list of all the things that I wanted to blog about from A to Z.  I found that list today (on the back on an old notebook, underneath a Recreation schedule unde the passenger seat in the van) and realised that except for J and K, I had pretty much kept to the original list.
    Back in December, I made a list.  Not a gift list or a grocery list or a menu (well, I did make those too), but a list for the New Year.  Not resolutions, because I don't really believe in them specifically, it is too easy to waver and fall off and then forget about them.  I prefer to call it a list of promises to myself, that I wanted to keep for the entire year.  And in turn, from that list of promises, I then made a list of commitments for the month of January.  You see, many years ago, I realised something very important about myself.  Throughout my life, whenever I had made up my mind (and I mean really made up my mind, not just thoughts in passing) to do something and commited to it, it worked out eventually.   Not always as quickly as I would have liked, but it did come around to my turn eventually.  The saying "nothing good comes easily" is so true, but hard work and commitment makes it all the more sweet when it finally does work out.
    What does all of this have to do with a list?  Last summer, my husband asked me a question: "So, are you going to keep doing daycare until you retire or are you going to do something else before then?"  (and any of my daycare families who are reading this, need not worry as it won't effect you in the near future!).  I went back to our original plan that I would not be doing home daycare once our children reached high school.  I wanted them to feel comfortable bringing their friends home after school and not having to worry about the house being "full of babies and little kids".  However, I did know that I still wanted to be home when they arrived after school and to be available for driving to soccer games and skating practices and such.  The other thing: I really like being my own boss and working from home.

    So, in December, I made my list.  All the things that I need to do before June 2013 so that I can be working from home, and making enough money that we can stop doing Daycare.
One of those things was start a blog.  I have done a little bit of copy work, and a little bit of English/French translation and a little bit of menu/meal planning, and after doing some research into getting paid to write, I realised that the first thing I could do (that wouldn't cost me any money) was start writing a blog.  This would help to accomplish a number of things: get me back into writing every day (or almost), put my writing out there for folks to see, and help me to organize my writing.
    There are still a whole lot of things on the list but there are still many days left until June 2013.
So here is my chance to say to you, thank you for reading!  Thank you for following!  And thank you for your support!  I had never dreamed when I was making my list, that blogging would bring so much brightness into my already pretty sweet world.  Or that I would find so many warm and talented people out there happy to share some of themselves with me (and so many others!), and to read what I write!

Happy Packing to all of you!  Thanks for stopping by!

Another A to Z blogger to check out: Learning Contentment

G is for...Garden

What starts with G...?  My dear hubby came up with this one.  Although it was with a bit of a snicker.  Not because he thinks I am a hopeless gardner (well, okay, so perhaps I am), but because we really have no garden to speak of!  Not the kind with things planted in it, at least!  We have a huge backyard, and an assortment of wildlife that wander through on a regular basis.  But no garden.  However, there is a beautiful one in my head!  And jotted down on countless scraps of paper, drawn and doodled with notes about "raspberry canes from Jennifer", and rhubarb liking "wet feet".  A couple of blueberry bushes and of course a big ole fence to keep the deer out!  And netting to keep the birds out of the strawberries, copper wire to keep the slugs and snails out.  And a big list of all the flowers the deer "don't eat" (yeah, right, I have found many a daffodil flower head in the grass, and I would put money on it that some little deer took a chomp and then didn't like the taste).
I would love to have a vegetable patch one day and a flower garden too.  There is just one thing that has to happen first...Two HUGE fir trees need to come down.  They sit at the back of our property, along with a third Douglas fir (but that one can stay), and they really need to be taken down.  If we get another heavy wind storm, they will come right through the middle of my kitchen.  One time, my Dad explained to me how to measure with your thumb as to how far the tree might fall, and I ended up laughing, because the top of the tree was WAY past my thumb and Dad just said, "Yeah, it'll hit your house."  But really, who wants to take down a tree?  Especially one that is that big and that old?  "At least a hundred " was what the first tree guy said who came to look at them and give us a quote...That was 11 years ago and the quote was $4000.00 for the three big ones in the backyard.  I don't even want to know what it might cost to do just two of them now.  I will just keep enjoying my "paper" garden and enjoy berries from my friends and veggies from my neighbours, and pray  that the wind blows the other way.

 Happy Packing!

Earthquake Emergency Preparedness at Home

 It is a bit of a running joke amongst members of my family when they visit our home..."Nobody gonna go hungry in this house any time soon!"  I don't know how often I have heard my parents mutter this phrase over the years.
Well, in my defense, I do feed upwards of 10-12 people over the course of a given day, and my experience is that those said people like when there is food in the house!  However, it could also be said that I could feed the whole neighbourhood for a week if I had to.
So, when I began to prepare my "Emergency Preparedness Plan" for Daycare (all licensed facilities in BC are required to prepare and maintain both a full emergency kit as outlined by the BC government and a full facilitiy Emergency Plan for a variety of Situations), the food part was easy!  As was much of the "kit", due to the fact that as a family we do our share of camping and therefore have things like a camp stove and fuel, a large selection of flashlights, wind-up radios and flashlights, extra blankets, first aid, water and so on (visit Canada's emergency preparedness website for a full list of items both necessary and suggested, www.getprepared.gc.ca ).
But last Friday, in the wake of the horrific events unfolding in Japan, and then a Tsunami alert announced for much of Vancouver Island, as well as just about all of the Coastal areas of the Pacific Ocean, I spent a good part of the day and into the weekend, thinking about our emergency kit and plans, and went looking for holes.  I discovered that I only knew for certain where one flashlight was (without going into the emergency kit in the Trailer or the shed); that there were no toothbrushes in the "to-go" bags, and that it was time to replace the water (12 litres each for 10 people!).  The next thing I did (which might sound strange to some folks) was start making a list of what we would eat as we worked our way through three days stuck in the house.  I plan to stick a copy of this list into the emergency kit as well as tape one to the shelf in the crawl space where we keep much of our bulk pantry items. 
One of the things to remember, if you are in a situation where you can cook (either on your gas bbq outside or over a camping stove), begin by using the food in your fridge or your freezer.  The first day, the food in your fridge will still be good, but you will need to cook it that day.  The next day, the food in your freezer (as long as you have not been opening the door of the freezer) will still be good, but again, you will have to ensure that you can cook it!  Just remember that any food that would need to be refridgerated after cooking (so those leftovers you would normally use for lunches!) need to be eated up that same day.  By the second morning, you will be ready to move on to your dry goods, as well as any bread or baking that is in your freezer.
Some suggetions for Emergency meals at home that don't require heat (for when you run out of gas for the bbq or the camp stove, or if you don't have access to either of those items): Dry cereal with tetra pak milk or canned milk, or powdered milk if you have that much water.  If it is the first day, you may have some yogurt to use up in your fridge.  Eat the fresh produce you have in the house like bananas or berries, save apples for the end as they have a much longer shelf life.  Use up any lettuces you might have on that first day, and have a salad with canned tuna or sardines, and some cheese.  Canned, ready-to-eat soups can be eaten cold, and if you are feeding more than one person, it is great to lower the sodium of these items by using no-salt-added canned tomatoes, to the soups to stretch them to feed a group of four or six.  Canned fruit is a great way to get vitamin c and fibre into everyone, so keep things like canned pineapple, mandarins, applesauce and fruit cocktail in your emergency food kit.  Dried fruit, like raisins and cranberries or apricots are great sources of fibre.  Canned or bottled 100% juice is good too.  Be sure and add some low or no-salt canned vegetables to your kit.  Things like canned peas, corn and beets are full of nutrition and can be eaten cold as long as you remember to include a manual can opener.  Packaged oatmeal cookies or granola bars are great if you are stuck in the house, but also if you get told you have to leave, these are things that can travel well to your next destination.  Energy bars are good too, but often need to be eaten with water or juice.
Something else to think of when you are preparing your emergency food kit, include some candy or chocolate bars (altho these need to be eaten up about every 3 o 4 months as they don't have a long shelf life).  Fruit gummies are great for the kids, and (as will the colouring books and crayons and story books) will help them feel like things are sort of normal (unless of course, you never give them those!), just like when you tell them to go and brush their teeth after they have eaten them ! (because you remembered to include toothbrushes and toothpaste in your emergency kit!)

Thanks for stopping by!
Happy Packing!










http://www.pep.bc.ca/hazard_preparedness/prepare_now/prepare.html

Under pressure!

Okay, so it is Sunday afternoon, and I am heading home from Victoria after being away since Thursday, and I have no idea what might be in the fridge.  All I know is that I just want to get home and not have to go out again.  Three days of volunteering at Skate Canada Nationals was fantastic!  But I am exhausted, and there is a week of lunches and dinners (and crazy activity schedules!) ahead of us...I can't help wondering if my dear hubby has made a trip to Costco while I was away...
As I said, I have no idea what might be left in the fridge and when I called home, no one picked up, so I am on my own as far as groceries go, and what to buy.  So, I take a chance that there is milk at home and stop in at one of the big farmer's markets just outside of Duncan.  We are very fortunate here on the Island, or certainly the central island, to have such great farmer's markets.  Typically, my husband stops at Russell's, which is on his way home from work.  Today, I choose to stop at the other big one, which is just south of Duncan and called The red rooster (or the Red barn, at this point I cannot remember...if someone can help me with the correct name, please do!).  I head in WITHOUT a list!  Typically, not a good idea, however, today I am in a time crunch too, so I am using a mental list that goes something like: "Bananas, apples, salad, stir fry, and lunches."  I come away with bread, cheese, two heads of lettuce, a bunch of celery (the only surplus purchase, it turns out), two bags of apples (these days, who can resist 0.39c/lb for apples!), bananas, green onion, mushrooms (including portabellos as a treat because they were local), broccoli, a 5 lb bag of onions and a 15 lb bag of potatoes, bacon, two packs of lunch meat and a loaf of garlic bread (to go with dinner tonight, because it will make people more happy to see me!).  The plus to this kind of shopping, is that there are none of those center aisle items (like oreos and pudding cups) and we will just have to make it through the week without them...A tip?  Make a big batch of pudding (either homemade or the package kind) and spoon the fresh pudding into smaller containers with lids and, voila, your own pudding cups!  These also make great homemade frozen treats although they don't go quite so well into the lunchbox!)...a label note: if you make the cooked pudding version of the packaged pudding, you get less saturated fat per serving, and it is almost as convenient.
And, what did I learn after almost a week of mixing with high level athletes?  Bananas!  Wow, there were a lot of those...As a parent, of course I know that bananas are good for you...but how good...
To answer that question, I did a little searching and what I found came from www.health.learninginfo.org (this info also matched what I had in my nutrition chart available from Health Canada).
A banana is a large berry (didn't know that!).
1 medium banana contains 100 calories, a large one, 125.  Bananas are low in calories, fat and sodium and packed full of nutrients... (making them a good choice for athletes)
452 mg of potassium, 33 mg of magnesium and 1/3 RDA of vitamin B6.  They contain 2g of fibre.
And, they taste good!  Another tip, the more ripe the banana, the higher the sugar content.  And there are lots and lots of great baking recipes that use bananas.
Happy Packing!