I am a week into this new project and I have to tell you, the hardest part is figuring out where to begin.

I have read article upon article and watched video upon video, showing all of the neat tricks people use to find space to store all of their food and ways to package it so it won’t spoil. But very few answer a very simple question…

Where do I begin?

The best suggestion I’ve found so far is to start where you family eats. Begin with meals you already eat…and store up a months worth of food…just to get you started.

For us, that would mean a lot of pasta - which I guess would store just fine…and some prepackaged foods like Hamburger Helper, soups, vegetables and macaroni and cheese. Not exactly a healthy selection…and we have even begun to look at breakfast and lunch…cereal, lunch meat, cheese, chips, oatmeal… What am I supposed to do about that?!

With four kids, its pretty hard to find stuff that is quick, easy and that the kids will like…and that is also storageable. So that is my goal for this next week. To try to start finding things I can store…and that the kid will like.

I’m going to take some of the recipes of our favorite foods, see if I can modify them to use products with a longer shelf life and give them a try. If any of you have any suggestions, please let me know. I’m desperate here. Otherwise, I have a feeling it will be a long week.

I wonder how much takeout we’ll have to get. ;>) 

I think my dad must have been a boy-scout. I’ve often wondered, because his motto seems to be ‘always be prepared.’

Every winter he took our 1976 Town and Country station wagon in to the shop to get it winterized. He’d have the snow tires installed, the oil changed, the radiator flushed and new antifreeze put in. Then he’d pack the back end with survival gear - blankets, kitty litter and a shovel. Just in case.

I guess its rubbed off, because I’ve decided to its time for me to learn something new.

I want to know how to put up a year’s worth supply of food into long-term storage.

Its not because I’m Morman with an impending sense of doom…And I’m not a big survivalist or homesteader - for heaven sakes, I don’t know how I’d live without satellite TV and a flush toilet.   

Its just that after all that has happened to our family in the past year, I think its a good idea to be prepared.

A little over six months ago, my husband and I gave up good jobs, packed our stuff into a U-Haul and moved our family out of a beautiful home, across three states and into the middle of nowhere, so we could be closer to our family. Our parents are getting older…and we felt like they needed our help.

Unfortunately, the move hasn’t done our immediate family any good. I gave up a job as a journalist and figured I would find someting new, rather quickly in our new diggs.

I was wrong.

The economy tanked, our old home isn’t selling and six months later, I have had all of one interview…and no job offers. We’re living off my husband’s salary alone…and we’re barely making it.

Now that the government is printing new money like a daily circular, I know its only a matter of time before super-inflation takes over. And with super-inflation comes higher food prices. The thought of taking a wheel-barrel full of money to the bakery to buy a loaf of bread makes me ill. And I can’t imagine anything more painful than watching my kids worry about where our next meal will come from.

So before things get much worse, I’ve decided to take things into my own hands and to start preparing for the worst case scenario.

I’m going to start a food pantry. At first it will just be a three month supply of food and water. But later on I hope to make it to six months and then a year.

I pray that I will never need to use it.

But I want to be prepared…just in case.