Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Emergency [un]Preparedness

~june 2011~



A while back, John and I had this great idea for a Family Home Evening: we would pretend we had to leave our house in an emergency, go to the park, take our 72 hour kits, and see how we would fare eating the food we had packed.

We loved this idea because 1) NO preparation was required. NO preparation was even allowed! 2) We could try out our new tent that John got for Father's day.

We thought it would be GREAT! !! But as you will note in the expressions on our children's faces, they were not too impressed. And it's true. It had been 3+ years since we had rotated the food in our 72 hour kits, and most of it was borderline edible. For "dinner" we took turns choosing something in the pile of food to try to see how it tasted.

Think Fear Factor.

There were tears.

Plus, we forgot water. Fail. We would've died on the trail.



The corned beef was okay. Raisons: nasty. Applesauce: bad aftertaste. Clam chowder: bad. Jerky: hard as a rock. Vienna sausages: gross, but just like they were when they were fresh. Cliff bars: just fine.



This was the crowning moment of the girls' least favorite FHE. Trying on their extra change of clothes. Just a touch small. After the tears (because did I mention there was crying involved) we took an unscheduled visit to Dairy Queen and wrote down what didn't work if that had been an actual emergency. Five pages of notes. So I have some work to do, but am mostly just praying we never ever get out our 72 hour kits again.

4 comments:

Jodee Luke said...

Oh my goodness this is the funniest fhe! We were set when we lived by Tahlia and Isaac but now we're pretty much toast, Grant will only have one diaper too so he better use it wisely!

Unknown said...

I am dying laughing at that picture of Hailey trying on her pants. So funny! I just pulled out our 72 hour kit (also from 3 years ago) and decided we need to put stuff in there we actually like to eat. (vienna sausages went in the trash). Who wants to be in dire circumstances while simultaneously eating fear factor food? Somebody had the idea to eat your 72 hour kit food over conference (or put in a basket to eat over the next week or two) so it stays rotated.

great post.:)

abby o said...

a. I think I need to do this WAY more often with my kids...they are getting entirely too picky and would make horrible pioneers should the need arise to become such.

b. Gah! I can't read your blog on my phone any more! What's with the newfangled format? (Which is awesome on the computer tho...)

Melina said...

Awesome! Elise still has baby clothes and diapers in her kit, so you're still doing better than we are. I'd kill for five pages of notes on what to do better with our 72-hr. kits (#1 - bigger clothes). Maybe we need to do one of these FHE nights ourselves.