One of the worst things you can do is panic. One of the best things you can do is to hold onto your faith but stay in a constant state of readiness without letting it take your life over or worry you to death. I've also mentioned on here before that there's so much we can do as homemakers to make this easier for ourselves as well as those around us. The list is lengthy but for this blog I'm focusing on keeping our homes in good shape and arranging things in an order. Basically, keep your home clean and decluttered so you can get to the items you will need. You also need to know where those essential items, that you only need in case of emergency, are hiding out. That's kind of a funny statement but there have been numerous occasions I've put things away and then can't remember where I put them.
Yesterday our basement flooded and I was here by myself. I didn't catch it in time, of course, until there was about 3 inches of water in my basement. Now that, in and of itself, is a major biggie but the pipes were clogged, we think; and on top of that I couldn't locate a person to come and pump the septic tank out. The pipe guy said we might try that first and to call and he'd come back out later. Well, today we finally have someone coming out to pump out the tank - but the reason I'm telling you all this is because while I have water and plenty of it I can't pour it down the drain and while I have commodes to use I can't use them. Since Wednesday was laundry day - no clothes could be washed. On top of all that I've got every towel in the house hanging outside to dry. Mind you, I can't wash them in my washing machine right now either.
Hubby and I took this pretty well. It made us look at what was happening a little differently and we were grateful that this was all that went wrong but . . . it also made us realize that we need to stay on top of things and each of us do our part to keep things chuggin' along.
For the record, we both know how handy buckets are and I'm reminding you that you need to have a few buckets for emergency situations like this. I also could, if I had to, make an old-fashioned washing container out of my buckets too. Luckily I only had a week's worth of laundry to do, I had plenty of towels, buckets, and most of the dishes were washed up already. I also had plenty of trash bags to store the dried, but dirty towels in until I could wash them. But you can kind of see how quickly your life can be turned upside down and people THIS IS NOTHING!!
Having the little things ready will make the big things that happen somewhat easier to handle. Panic is a boon to the adrenal system if you need to run - - - but for now we all need to THINK.