Wow…I took a stroll down memory lane of the happenings of a year ago.  March 8, 2008.  Bill was in school in San Angelo, training for his new position with the Guard.  I was working both at work and around the house and looking forward to Bill’s visits home.  We were making plans.  It looked like finally we were going to get caught up financially from the military messing up our paycheck…TWICE.  We were going to get to start doing some work on the house.  We had plans for modifying the Mustang and continuing to show it.   Those plans have been filed away for now.  During that year…when things were so bad (according to the message bombarded from every media source)…we had the money to put brand new tires on all four vehicles.  We repaired a vehicle damaged by Ike without even batting an eye.  We had worked hard and we were in a good place.  Now…instead of Bill buying new golf clubs, he told me today that he would rather spend the money on food and other supplies.  (Yeah those cold feet you have would be a sure sign of hell freezing over after that statement.) 

But I should make this clear…I am not unhappy and I am not fearful, just cautious…for several reasons: 

I have a strong faith in my heavenly Father.  He’s seen us through before.  He’ll see us through this time.  I know I’m not a model Christian.  I cuss.  I’m negative.  I can be critical and judgmental.  I have a dark side.  But I am perfectly and wonderfully made.  My Father knows my imperfections, weaknesses, demons and struggles and He loves me anyway…even when others do not.

I have a strong core family unit.  My family and my brother’s family can depend on each other and help each other, whatever may be ahead of us.  We are like-minded.  And we are tough hardcore Texans.

I’m taking the time now to be prepared.  I can’t control the economy.  I can’t control the decisions made in Washington.  I can only control my little corner of the world.  And it makes me and my family feel more secure to prepare.  Emergency preparedness has been shown to alleviate some of the stress involved in the wake of a disaster.  Instead of drinking…I’m storing, and reading and learning. 

I don’t know what tomorrow brings.  But I am doing what I can to be ready for it….whatever it may be.

I had a chance to talk a bit with my grandmother this weekend.  I wish that I had appreciated her wisdom when I was younger.  But I’m trying to take advantage of the fact that I’m blessed to still have her in my life.  We were all talking politics and economy.  She began to talk about the similarities between the current state of the economy and the Great Depression she experienced as a teenager.  The similarities are kind of scary.  She was a senior in high school at the time and she talked about being separated from her family.  Her father couldn’t find work and the only family member that was working was an older brother.  So her Mom went to live with a relative, and the kids all went separate ways to live with relatives and their dad looked for work.  I asked her if they had had time to prepare at all.  Did they have any indication that the depression was going to happen?  She said, no not really.  And we talked a bit about how Keith’s family and my family have all begun to take steps for our families to be self-reliant before we get into the depression.  She looked straight at me and said, “You’re already in one.”  It was one of those moments where time kind of stopped. 

Then today, the headline on MSN reads:

Is it finally time to use the dreaded D-word?

Even as there is talk of a depression, no one can define exactly what that is

The article itself can be found at:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29469826

I’m so thankful that there has been open dialogue within our family about preparedness.  Mostly I’m thankful that they don’t think I’m nuts, because sometimes I think I sound nuts.  I hope we haven’t started too late.

Currently under Construction

Currently Under Construction

I’m still learning this Word Press/Yahoo stuff. Here is some information that I hope will help.
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Please register for the blog. If you register, I will upgrade you so that you can comment without waiting for approval. So far, I haven’t had too many people register.
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With the template I’m currently using, there is an issue with the comment form. I will either figure out how to fix it or I will change templates, but in the meantime we can over come the issue. A form will pop up for your comment, it has a black background and several text boxes that are a light color. But at first you can’t tell what goes in the boxes. If you go out to the right side of the box and hold down your mouse key and “paint” to the right, the words explaining what needs to go in the box will show up. Then just fill it out as normal and submit.
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Right now, these are the most pressing “issues.”

Let’s see if this works…

Testing to see if my post will be posted pre or post approval

Hey there!

I thought I might give this kind of blogging a try. I felt a little creatively limited by the MySpace blog. Bear with me while I learn the software. It took me two days to figure out how to customize the theme. But figure it out I did and we’re ready to roll…I think. Speaking of themes, whaddaya think? I believe it suits me.
As always, any and all comments are welcome. Check back often. You never know what you’ll find here.
‘Til Then….
Tracy