Whew! So thankful!

I spent most of this week working out kinks with Wildtree and Shelf Reliance.  Evidently I don't know what I'm doing and I don't know when to ask for help.

I decided to set up my first parties orders, by myself.  Mistake 1.
And then I decided to close them out, by myself.  Mistake 2.
And I also placed the order for the host reward, by myself.  Mistake 3.

But, thankfully, after several phone calls and online chats, everything got settled. So now my kitchen is fully stocked with organic seasonings, sauces, and mixes.  And my doomsday closet is filled freeze dried veggies, fruit, meat, and baking products.

So, moral of the story, I need to stop assuming I can figure out everything just because it's on the Internet.

Wildtree Kit

Oh my!  I so should have taken a picture but I just didn't think of it.  I got my Wildtree kit in the mail today.  It is amazing!  I'm so excited!!!!

I already have some items set aside to mail to some friends and family so they can see why I love this stuff so much.  Other stuff is going directly into my Doomsday Closet so I can make yummy dishes with all my Thrive food.  I'm so excited to add these preservative free, low sodium, organic seasoning, mixes, and sauces into my family's meals.

On another note, I spent a couple of hours working at the mall today for Avon.  While we didn't sell too much off the cart, I did hand out a lot of books and hopefully got some new leads. 

So I got sidetracked

Well there's one sick kiddo in my house today, the 12 year old has the flu. So since he's confined to his room, the healthy two are next door playing, and my husband is out coaching a basketball game.  Which give me too much free time.  And instead of being productive and getting all my Avon together or cleaning I decided tocreate a Etsy shop. 

But then I got bored and only posted 1 item.  Hopefully later on I'll get some more variets up.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/DoomsdayCloset

Finding a bag

So this weekend I'll be spending most of my time preparing for an upcoming Avon event at the mall, but I do need to make some progress on my Doomsday Closet. Soo...

I will be searching through our bags of bags to find 5 backpacks for my family to make our 72 hour kits.  I think my main issue will be finding something for my youngest (4 and 5) can carry and will hold all their stuff. 

I will also be searching for 3 duffel bags that my husband, step-son, and myself will be able to hold our 5/7 day kits.  I don't have much to fill them up with but I have to start somewhere. 

What did you do?  Do you give your youngest children their own bag or do you just overstock mom and dad's bags to make up for the kids?

Breaking Dawn Part 2

I've been absent, sorry, not that I think the few of you who *might* look at this care. 

I'm using my disaster preparedness training to pack a super bag for the marathon movie day.  Tomorrow I'm meeting a few friends, like usual, and we're going to see the new Twilight movie at midnight.  What's different this time is we're going to watch all 5 in a row...beginning at 11:30am!!!  That's means I'll be at the theatre for about 15 hours tomorrow.  In an effort to not eat 3 meals of popcorn, chocolate, soda, and nachos I'm packing a backpack and taking it in :)

I was hoping to have my new Thrive food shipment in time, but since I won't I made do with substitutes from Wal-Mart.  Sweet potato chips, dried fruit, nuts, and some candy.  Not to mention the other essentials like tissues, chapstick, toothpaste/toothbrush, a few books, and contact solution.

Wish me luck!!!

My 4 year old daughter helped me arrange this picture, she said "It looks beautiful Mama!"

baskets and bows

Hummm...I didn't accomplish as much today as I wanted to. 

After getting home from a school field trip I loaded up my 4 year old for grocery shopping.  This was the payday grocery trip so it involved 4 stores: Price Chopper, Aldis's, Hy-Vee, and Wal-Mart.  This was the first shopping trip in our new van and it was amazing!  Here's a look at what we got:

 

 

21 boxes of cereal!!!  This will last my three kids and husband about 2 months (if I'm lucky!). 

 

 

After my husband went to work tonight, I took my two youngest to get all the items for our craft tonight.  It only took 2 additional trips to Wal-Mart to get the right amount of material to cover 5 baskets.  I opted fora no-sew option using safety pins, which I ran out of after 4 baskets.  More Wal-Mart tomorrow!

 

 

 

So I cut 5 pieces of fabric that allowed for 1 1/2 to 2 inch of overlap inside then i used clothespins to hold the material in place.

 





 

 

I found the first one turned out great, but by the 4th one I needed almost double the safety pins.  I've decided that on a day when I have more time I'm going to go around with buttons and attach the fabric at each opening in the basket weave, but first I want to make sure these will last more than a week.  (My kids are very rough on things)

 

Finished result in my food closet! looks so much better.  One holds all the Halloween candy, another fruit snacks, one canned cat food, and the 4th has those bags/boxes of noodle and rice sides dishes.

 

I did get distracted today with 2 other projects.  One was the field trip and another was for my daughters closet. 

 

 

Where to put the stuff???

Well today I am making a trip to Deals (the closest thing to a Dollar Store on my end of town) to purchase some small plastic baskets.  Then it's off to Wal-Mart and Jo-Ann's to see if they have any clearance fabric.  I'm going to line the baskets with fabric and then attach labels with a safety pin.  So I guess I need to add a fabric marker to my list.  My hope is this will make my husband less annoyed with my food closet.  My food closet is a disaster area.

We moved into our house 7 months ago. 

Our house is amazing and nice and has 4 bedrooms (thank the Lord!), but it is significantly smaller inside. Sure I have  sewing room, each kid has their own bedroom, and there's a large walk-in closet; but those features took away from the rest of the house.  I'm really missing the wonderful walk in pantry and 6 cabinets in my kitchen that our duplex had. 

So immediately I took over our awkward hall closet.  I mean really, who builds a closet with a close rod when you can't hang a hanger up.  Seriously, the closet is so shallow that a hanger won't fit. 

As you can see my makeshift organization is a little frustrating. I can only stack my #10 cans on certain shelves and it's impossible to know how many packages of Mac and Cheese or Mashed Potatoes are there without removing everything from the shelf. 

Not to mention the pool bag, abundance of lunchboxes, and broom.  I try not to think of my broom and dust pan being so close to my family's food. 

Wish me luck!  I'm taking my 5 and 4 year old with me :/