72 Hour Emergency Kit

As the LDS conference came and then went, the thought kept coming that I needed to write about a tradition our family started several years back that has changed the way my children view conference and the way we prepare for it. I got this idea from a dear neighbor/friend/visiting teacher/adopted grandmother to my children who has since passed on but who we still hold very dear in our hearts. It has worked so well for our family and has helped my children be excited for conference. And it brings peace of mind.

We had a 72-hour kit, but it was very outdated. My friend suggested that every conference we pull the emergency kits out, replace any clothing that is too small and all food and snacks that will go outdated before the next conference. Then during conference, the kids could snack on the treats as they watch. I loved this suggestion and decided to implement it one family home evening. The next time conference drew near, my kids kept asking me when it was going to finally come. I had forgotten about the emergency kits, but they had not. They were so excited to open up their kits and pull out the treats that I had put in there. I was quite surprised at how much they looked forward to this. I thought that maybe this was a one-time excitement but they continue to look forward to conference every time!!! Plus, it keeps them pretty entertained through the hours. I have improved things over the years to make it a little easier. I started small and each year try to add something to make it a little better.

We have a backpack for each family member and a family kit. 

Individual backpacks: At first, I just used old school backpacks that we “retired” for some reason. (This year, I bought all new backpacks because we had a store go out of business and I got them for a great price.) These backpacks contain a few of the essentials in case they get separated from us. It doesn’t contain all the essential though.

Each backpack contains . . .

A thin blanket (I got these from family dollar for $3.)

A roll of toilet paper in a bag (I just use a grocery bag and it doubles for a garbage bag.)

A flashlight

4 bottles of water (about 2 cups each)

Utensils (Plate, Bowl, Fork, Spoon, Knife and cup)

A change of clothes (Updating this every conference works perfect because in April, you put in summer clothes and in October, you put winter clothes in.)

Individually needed medicine

*Treats (This is the part my kids LOVE and totally look forward to conference for.)

A toy or some kind of small entertainment (like cards, stuffed animal, magnetic drawing board, something to help ease the anxiety of an emergency situation.)

Lifestraw water filter (because 4 water bottles just isn't enough. I actually don't have these yet but hope that next year, this will be the thing I focus on. These have been on my want list. Again, I started small and did what I could and each year have added something to make it what it is.)

Treats that I include in each individual pack are . . .

A box of crackers (my kids LOVE Cheezits and they don’t usually get them so it makes it extra special and extra excited for conference.)

A box of cold cereal (Again we usually don’t get this, especially the kind I buy for the emergency kits because they usually have more sugar than I like, but I figure every six months is ok. I choose cereal that can be eaten by hand, without milk.

Peanuts (These are a really good filler treats and provides protein that sticks with them longer.)

Fruit snacks or dried fruit

Granola Bars

Beef Jerky 

Tip: When picking out different boxed items, CHECK THE DATE on EVERYTHING!!! Sometimes I forget and then as I am putting them in the kits, I find out they expire in one or two months. That has been a little frustrating, so definitely check the dates.

Our family kit is one my parents made for us one Christmas (except for the food). They decided to get each one of their children a backpack full of emergency items for a 72 hour kit. I have been incredibly grateful for it. This is our main family emergency kit. What I love too is that they included a list on the backpack of everything they put in it. If you don’t know what’s in it, you won’t be able to use it. I suggest making a list so that in an emergency, you can glance and know exactly what you have.

Family backpack contains,

Head lamps and flash lights

Batteries

Garbage bags that double as rain protectors

Note pad and Pen

Multi-tool w/ knife

1 Large plastic stake

1 Aluminum stake

Glow sticks

Canteen

Hot Pocket hand warmer

Tarp for tent or ground and a light blanket rolled in the tarp.

100’ Rescue rope with carabiner

Twine

Candles/fire starters/Matches

Vinyl coated gloves

Flagging tape

24” machete

Utensils

Dish soap

Aluminum water bottle

Salt and pepper

First aid kit including pain medications

Radio

Emergency blankets

Water filter

Small one burner stove with propane bottle

3 Buckets of food

When I first started this, I had a duffle bag that I had our meals in. I would plan out meals for three days and then every conference, go through it and pull out anything that was going outdated and replace it. After several conferences of this, and having our emergency kits strewn all over our living room for sometimes several weeks at a time to go through them, I realized I needed to simplify this process so that the task didn’t seem so daunting to me. When our family went on a hike with my dad, he gave each of us some Mountain House backpack meals. Normally I don’t like those pre-made meals like that but these weren’t bad at all. And the big seller to me was that they could last up to 25 years!!! I wouldn’t have to go through that part of the emergency kit for a long time and that would alleviate a lot of the difficulty of keeping these kits updated. So, I looked up the product and found that you can buy a bucket full, ready to go. It cost me a pretty penny to get a three-day supply (for a family of 7), but for me, it was well worth it as now it doesn’t take so much prep time before conference and so much repacking time as we organize it all. I bought three buckets, one for breakfast, one for lunch, and one for dinner. In all, it cost me a little under 300 dollars. (I know, ouch!! But it has been well worth it.) They are super light and ready to grab and go. I LOVE them now. Plus, they cook right in the package they come in and all you need is boiling water. Super easy!

5 Gallon water container with water

Life Straw hanging water filter

Start with what you can do. Decide today what you can afford and what you may already have, you just have to gather it together and start adding each year until you have everything you may need. My hope for next year is the individual lifestraw's for each backpack. We do have the family lifestraw filter but the individual ones are on my list for next year.

The Rose

Picture painted by my daughter.

Last night RJ was not doing so well.  He was upset and didn’t even know why.  He just has nights like that.  (Actually it is happening a lot lately.)  It’s just part of autism. (I probably need to look at what he is eating too.) I was trying to get him ready for bed and he didn’t want me near him.  He was upset and wanted to be left alone.  I told him that was fine, that I would just tuck him in bed.  He didn’t want to say his prayers, so I told him I would say one for him.  I knelt down by his bed and began to pray for him.  I was impressed to ask that RJ would know and feel how much we love him and the joy he brings into our lives. 

Afterwards, he turned to me and in a frustrated voice said, “Mom, I don’t bring joy to your life.”  I tried to reassure him that he did, but he was not convinced.  Then a thought popped into my head.

I asked him, “Do you think a rose is beautiful?”

He answered, “Yes”

“Do they bring a lot of joy and beauty to people?”

“Yes.”

“Do a lot of people like them?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know what a rose has?  A rose has thorns.  Those thorns can sometimes hurt.  But that doesn’t make the rose any less beautiful.  I love the rose and it’s beauty.  It brings me joy.  You are like that rose.  You may have a few thorns, but your rose is absolutely beautiful and brings me much joy.  I would not want to get rid of your beautiful rose just because of a few thorns.  I would be lost without the joy you bring into my life.  Everyone has a few thorns on them.  That’s ok.  We are all learning.  Your rose is beautiful.  I want you to know that deep in your heart.”

For once that night, he relaxed and even smiled.  I think he understood it too, . . . and so did I.  Again, I am so grateful for the spirit that can teach in ways beyond my own.  I am grateful for the lesson taught last night to both him and to me.

I think I am going to go and buy a rose plant for both of us as a visual reminder of the beautiful lesson the spirit taught us.

Valentine Book Marks

I just finished up my kids Valentine book marks for this year.  I thought I would share them with anyone who might like to use them.  Just print and laminate and walla, you have Valentine cards worth keeping.  I hope you and your children enjoy them.

Christmas Letter 2013

It’s Christmas Eve, that means it is time to sit down and write the Christmas letter.  This year has added new twists and turns in our life’s; some new things, some fun things, some nerve-racking things, some sad, ect . . .
    This year I finally figured out how to set up a website to post my music to.  It’s fun to be able to share my music.  I also have a facebook page.  I am definitely still learning the ropes of things, and trying to find time to spend on it is sometimes nearly impossible, but I am grateful that at least I have something now.  I am staying incredibly busy now with home-schooling one of my children, (you can read about that later), playing the piano for the intermediate school choir every day, teaching two music classes at the elementary school, teaching 6 piano lessons (not including my own children), help Blaine in cub scouts, lead the church choir, over 2 hours of homework with the other kids every night, and still have to keep up with all the regular duties.  At first I was going a little crazy, (well actually a lot) but I am starting to get the hang of things now. . . I think . . . knock on wood.
    Big Blaine has had a pretty crazy year with sequestrations for several months and then the shut down.  He is grateful to have a job, but he is still looking elsewhere just in case something better out there opens up.  Things are getting pretty stressful.  Who knows what will happen next.  He still dreams of his farm in Idaho.

    Serena has several friends this year which has helped make school a little easier for her.  She seems happier, (as long as I don’t ask her to go anywhere, or do anything out of the ordinary.)  She’s an interesting one I can tell you that.  I don’t think I have this dealing with teenagers thing down yet. All she does when she is home and has completed her daily duties is read, read, and more reading.  I guess normal life is just not interesting enough or something.

    Ralph made an amazing friend this year that has helped make things so much better.  And along with this friend came quite a few other friends.  My heart is full thinking about how things have played out for him. The other day though, Ralph decided to take his math test home because he didn’t finish it in class, and when I pulled it out of his folder, I didn’t take the time to look to see what it was, just saw that it was math and thinking it was homework had his dad sit down with him to finish it.  Oops.  When I found out that night, I felt awful.  Thankfully Ralph told the teacher the truth before I had to go and explain things to her. (She is the same person I work with in the intermediate school choir and I was dreading having to tell her that we helped him finish his TEST.) This summer he has found a love of hiking.  He wants to hike every moment he possibly can.  And because we don’t hike enough for him, he has taken to making “mountains” for his little rolly polly pets.  He spends hours outside building his mountains complete with rock slides and all.  He has also really gotten into pine trees.  He loves them.  Whenever we are driving home from school, he always tells me to slow down (on a 30 mile and hour road) because the trees are passing by too fast for him to be able to really look at them. 

    At the end of last years school, I started getting the feeling like something needed to change for little Blaine.  After getting the reports back from all of the end of the year testing and seeing how little progress he had made all year, I KNEW something really needed to change. After a lot of prayer, we decided to home-school him through an online school called Utah Online.  He has been making leaps and bounds.  He has progressed 1 ½ years already.  It takes a massive amount of time, but it is time well spent.  I do hope to get him back in school as soon as possible though.  We shall see how this year goes and just play it year by year, but more importantly, prayer by prayer.  He has taken to collecting “pets”. (They are not stuffed animals, they are real to him.)  When I told him I wanted to take a picture of all of his pets, it took him a good 15 minutes to get them all together and situated just right.  And he loves each and every one of them, especially his polar bear.  (You will see it in almost every picture he is in.)

    Matthew is going crazy with his engineering desires.  The other day in his classroom, the water faucet got stuck on and his teacher couldn’t figure out how to get it to stop, so she went to get the janitor.  While she was gone, he went over, looked at it for a bit, saw the problem, popped it back in place and fixed it before the teacher ever got back.  He loves to pull broken things apart and make new things.  He is amazing to say the least.  He tries to bring things to me so that I can help him figure things out and I just look at him and tell him its way over me.

    Alysha is just plain fun.  She loves to clog and dance.  She loves just about anything she puts her mind to learning.  She still plays the piano some, just not as much as I want her to.  All of my other children have struggled in school, but she is doing amazing, both socially and academically.  It is so nice to have one child that I don’t have to worry about much.  She can usually do her homework on her own which helps out a TON.  She is just all around fun and I am so incredibly grateful to have her in our family, our little caboose.  She also is incredibly clean and organized.  The last few days, she has helped to clean Serena's room, Matthew and Blaine's room and even tried to help Ralph, but he is pretty hard to work with.  The only room she needs to clean now is her own!!!

    I hope all is going well for all of you.  I am grateful for all the friendship and support we have received.  I am grateful for this time of year that we have to reflect on the years happenings and especially on the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ whom I love dearly..  From our family to yours, we wish you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS.

The Spotten family   

Celebrating the Little Steps

Today I am celebrating a little mile stone.  Little BJ wrote a small paragraph completely on his own and put capital letters at the beginning of his sentences and periods at the end where they are supposed to go.  I was so excited.  When I first started working with him, he could not write a complete sentence on his own correctly.  His writing was not even as good as my then kindergartner AJ.  (He is in 5th grade.)  After looking through his IEP, I realized that they were not even addressing this issue in resource at all. 

    Let me take a step back though and start from the beginning.  At the end of the school year last year, BJ was becoming very agitated and upset a lot.  He was becoming very aware of the fact that he just did not understand the core classes like he was supposed to.  When the core testing came around, he became very stressed and upset.  I told him to just do his best.  When he got home that night, he was in tears.  He told me he didn’t do his best.  When I tried to convince him that I was sure he had done his best he said, “I didn’t do my best because I didn’t know the answers.”  My heart was breaking for him.  He then asked me if he could be home-schooled.

    For a good month or so before that, I had been pushing aside the feeling that something needed to change for BJ.  I felt that I needed to home-schooled him; but I didn’t want to pay much attention to that thought because it would be my first year that all my children would be in school and I could think of all these things I could do with that “free time.”  But when he came home that day, I knew something needed to change.  I tried to convince his teachers and the principle that BJ would do better if he were held back for at least a year.  They explained that their hands were tied on this and because of the “no child left behind act” they no longer could hold students back a grade.  Also they were losing their “Title One” status which meant that the little help he was getting was going to be cut back even further because of funding issues.  Then I got the test scores back and I checked into all his progress papers.  For the first time ever, he had made little to no progress that whole school year.  I finally realized if I wanted my son to progress, I needed to do it myself.  I had a great friend who told me about a school online.  After looking into it, and especially praying about it, I knew this was where he needed to be.  (Every other time I have prayed about home-schooling, it has been a no answer, so this was a bit of a surprise.)  There were insurmountable obstacles that stood in the way though and I didn’t know how to take care of them.  But after more prayer, they went away and I knew that the Lord’s hand was in this.

    I started his “home-schooling” right as the school year ended.  As I started working with him, I realized just how far behind he was.  His reading level was at about the end of 1st grade.  His math was somewhere between second and third grade.  His writing . . . well like I said, my then kindergartner could write more correctly than he could.  When I look at where he “should” be and where he is right now, it is so completely overwhelming.  But then, when small miracles take place, and I see progress like I saw today, it is so worth it.
     In this online school, he has resource teachers and a regular teacher and it is done online.  He is making leaps and bounds right now and I am very excited about his progress.  It is amazing how fast he can learn when he is working one on one and on a level he can actually understand.  He is now reading at a 3rd grade level, he is 3/4's the way through the 3rd grade math, and his writing . . . well today was a milestone.  The only thing is, it takes a massive amount of time.  Along with his schooling which I spend about 5 hours a day on, I still play the piano for the intermediate school choir every day, teach two music classes at the elementary school, teach 5 piano lessons (not including my own children), help my husband in cub scouts, spend over 2 hours on homework with the other kids every night, visiting teaching and all those other church callings, and still have to keep up with all the regular duties. 
    I have had little to no time to spend on my website or on writing new music.  Two weeks ago I was pretty stressed out with everything and trying to get all that I had scheduled done.  I had another music competition coming up but I just did not have time to spend perfecting my music before I had to submit it.  I was almost at meltdown point . . . well actually I pretty much was there. When I got up the next day, I felt I could not face another day.  There was a whole slue of things going "wrong" that I had to somehow "fix".  (Including the fact that my son decided to take his math test home because he didn’t finish it in class.  I thought it was homework so I had Dad sit down with him to finish it, oops.) That's when I saw God's hand.  Somehow, when I went to solve the problems, they were already solved.  I went through the day in awe as each problem that arose that day was quickly solved through no doing of my own.  I knew God was watching over me.  Then the next day, the deadline day for the music competition, I got up early and found out one of my songs I wanted to submit was further done than I thought.  An hour and a half later, I had it submitted.  That left me enough time to see if I could finish the other one that I thought could never get done before that deadline.  Can I just say, miracles still happen.  I played it, recorded it, sang to it, and edited it all in several hours.  I still don't know how.  But I stand back in awe and can see and feel God's hand guiding me, protecting me, and helping me every step of the way.  That brings me peace, amazing peace, and I am endlessly grateful to know that He is by my side taking care of things when I just can't go on any more. It also reaffirms that I can do hard things as long as He is by my side.

A Budding Engineer

My sons MJ and RD decided to go and build themselves a ladder so they could climb trees where the branches were too high to reach.  The park across the street from us has a lot of trees to climb and has become there favorite spot as of lately.  It also includes a “junk” wood pile.  They found some 2 by 4's of different sizes, got some screws from MJ’s tool collection, and pieced everything together, completely on their own, to form an amazing ladder.  (Dad was gone and I was busy canning my largest amount of fruit I have ever done in one day . . . 48 bottles, whew.)  They spent most of the day over there working, and when they came back to show me what they had made, I was astounded.  They love it so much.  They do not leave it at the park in fear someone will take it or break it.  Instead, they carry it to and from the park whenever they go.  MJ HAND screwed it all together.  Wow.  And because they didn’t have long enough 2 by 4's, they had to piece the sides together as you can see in these pictures.  I am still amazed at their work.  Their dad was so impressed when he got home, that he decided to make a ladder with all the cub scouts a few days later.  (Except he wasn’t about to hand screw everything.)  What fun!!!

 

Immunizations Dilemma

My brother, Jacob Nickle is coming home from his mission in Africa TODAY!!!  Wish I could be there when he gets off the plane.  I can't wait to start heading down there as soon as possible.  We plan on leaving tomorrow morning and getting there Saturday, that is, if I can just get my son better from his immunizations. 

I know he reacts to immunizations EVERY TIME.  His 7th grade DTAP shot needed done, and this summer we have been pretty sick, so I waited to give it to him until everyone seemed healthy.  I did all I could to boost his immune system for several weeks before the shot.  I even planned to make sure he had a week to recover.  And I was hoping that because it had been many years since he's had any shots, and this was only ONE shot, just maybe he wouldn't get too sick.  The doctor said he might get a slight fever for a day or two.  Is 103 and above a slight fever?  This is day 7 now and he is still holding on to a fever.  Yesterday he seemed to be pulling out of it, but that was only a teaser.  Last night his fever shot back up again.  He has been up half the night.  I am frustrated, beyond frustrated.  My son is mad at the doctors, mad at the school for requiring it, mad at those “stupid” people who made the shot, and mad at anyone who has even the slightest connection to this shot whatsoever. 

The other night though, I knelt down with him to say his nightly prayer.   He was so weak that he couldn't get up to kneel himself, so he asked me to say a prayer for him.  I proceeded to do so.  Right at the beginning, I felt that I was supposed to thank Heavenly Father for these shots that help to protect us from much worse things.  I didn’t want to.  I don’t like immunizations.  I have experienced so many adverse reactions either through me or my children, I can’t hardly stand the thought of them.  When my son was only 18 months old, he had an extremely sever reaction to his shots.  After a week of high fevers, he got a bloody nose.  I did all I could to get it to stop.  After an hour, I got really worried.  After and hour and a half, I was freaking out.  After two hours, I was packing him up to take him to the emergency room that I knew we would not be able to afford.  Then my husband unexpectedly came home, took him inside, gave him a priesthood blessing, put him in the bath, and finally got his nose to stop bleeding.  It took several months for him to return to “normal”. 

I have read all the articles about how bad these shots are for you.  I have also read all the articles saying how good and “safe” they are for you.  There are shots I will not give my children because of very personal experienced known reactions to not just one child, but three, or the very thing that they don’t need that shot.  That sickness is not that bad.  I do my homework.  I study it out.  There are shots I will (reluctantly) give my kids.  Especially the sicknesses that are deadly.  (But I still cringe every time they get the shots.)  I weigh out the pro’s and the con’s to each shot.  I still can’t help though to feel I am poisoning my children.  So no, there was not much gratitude in my heart for this shot or any other at the time of this prompting.  So I continued on with my prayer.  Again, I felt the prompting to thank Heavenly Father for the shots that protect us from much worse illnesses.  I thought, maybe my son needed to hear this so that he could be comforted in this time and feel a little better about things.  I finally followed the prompting.  But the outcome was different than I had expected.  It didn’t comfort my son, at least not to my knowledge.  He hasn’t gotten better any faster.  His feelings towards immunizations have not changed.  The change happened in me.  I suddenly felt an inkling, just an inkling, of gratitude start to grow in my heart.  I don’t understand it.  And in many ways it has made me more confused then ever.  But maybe, just maybe, they are doing good for my children.  I still firmly believe in becoming educated, and do what is best for you and your children, not for the doctor, and I do not believe they should make an immunization for every sickness they can under the sun.  Ok, so I am still trying to sort out this feeling inside of me, trying to find my ground to stand on in this.  But I cannot deny the feeling I felt, nor the change of heart that is taking place in me.  I do hope that I can go to see my family.  I do hope with ALL MY HEART, that my son will make a full recovery and not have any lasting effects from this, (and I know that can happen through a much higher power.)  And in a very unexpected way, I am so grateful for that prompting that is changing me.  In many ways it has comforted my heart.  There have been many instances where I have felt that I have given my children these shots, trusting the doctors, and have only damaged my children.  But not any more.  I do not understand yet, nor do I pretend to even know what is going on, but again, I cannot deny what I felt that night, kneeling by my sons bed, and thanking my Heavenly Father for this protection.