In Case of Emergency.....

I know, we don't want to think about Emergencies, but think about it. After some of the flooding throughout the US, then the fires in CA or what if your computer crashes and you are unable to retrieve precious memories. I was watching one of the victims of the fires in CA, and she said, "The insurance company wants to know how many pairs of underwear I have! I barely know what is in my top drawer!" I got to thinking about what is important, here on earth (besides our lives) and it was thought provolking.

Here are some things that are food for thought and things you might want to consider to prepare for those things that you might not have time to prepare for:

1. Have a grab and go box. It might be a flat box or a shoe box, but have in it birth certificates, insurance papers, etc. Ours is on our dresser. When you have to leave etc, grab it and go. There are also free lists and papers that you can list things in your home, how many etc that can be added to this. Check online with www.organizedhome.com for more info.

2. One very valuable thing to me and my family and once it is gone, sometimes you cannot get them back, is pictures. One practical advice is to load all of your pictures to a free service like snapfish, flikr, etc. I have even taken recent pictures of the inside of our home and do it too, "just in case".

3. Also I have heard, do a monthly walk and talk of your home and talk about when you bought things and how much you paid for them. Do this on video camera or DVD.
Make sure you keep this in your grab and go box.

4. As like many of my cyber friends out there, what homeschool mom/family doesn't have TONS of books? I mean tons!!! If you were to ask me what things are most valuable to us, after human life, it would be books and pictures. IF something drastic happened to your home, could you name all of them, and details of them and how much you paid for them or their value? I couldn't! I am not bragging, but we literally have hundreds and hundreds of books. So one recommendation I have is to online catalog, all of your books! You can do it for free through www.librarything.org and after 250 books you can do it for unlimited for $25.

Hope this helped you some. If you would like to add to it, I would be glad to hear from you and your comments.

Love to all!
Southern Belle (Beth)