Welcome to the new RoL Pinterest Party (formerly Making It Count.) Join me every 2nd and 4th Tuesday as we link up and share how we made, cooked, baked, crafted, did, or created one of the pins on our Pinterest boards.

Not on Pinterest? No problem. Link-up your own creation to inspire us so we can pin in to our own boards. It can be a recipe, sewing project, Catholic craft, homeschool project, organizing/ homemaking tip, themed birthday party, whatever you’d like.

Don’t have a post ready? The link-up will be open for a week so there’s still time. Plus, feel free to link up a new post or an older post that hasn’t had much traffic lately. 🙂

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Welcome to this week’s Pinterest Party! I had some great recipes I was going to try this weekend for today’s post but instead I got one heck of a weekend. Here’s a recap. A water main broke in our neighborhood and we are on day three of no useable water. (First the water was non-existent and then they did get it back on but it is unsafe to use. So we’ve had to boil or use bottled. That wasn’t so bad but Matthew was sick with a flu bug this weekend. As he was throwing up on the sheets all I could think was that I cannot throw these in the washer or even stick him in the tub.

This morning he was much better and he stopped vomiting but (okay, this is even more TMI so be forewarned) he had an explosive diaper and he put his hands in it and got it all over himself. So I was trying not to freak out because I couldn’t turn on the shower and hose him down. I ran to the kitchen and turned on a pot of water to boil for a sponge bath. Then I rushed him to the bathroom, peeled off his clothes and cleaned up what I could with baby wipes.

As I am doing this I hear the fire alarm go off. I leave John-Paul watching Matthew in the bathroom and run to the kitchen to find that  in my haste I accidentally turned on the wrong burner and there was a dish towel a little too close…well, you get the idea. FLAMES! I quickly put out the fire, fanned the alarms to get them to stop screeching, and opened every window and door in the house. Afterwards, I ran back to the bathroom and finish getting the poop cleaned up so I could throw Matthew and John-Paul outside so they could breathe fresh air and not smoke. (Andrew and Bella were in school.) I told Brian at this rate, by the end of the week we’ll either have an earthquake or the zombie apocalypse.

Thankfully when this happened we had plenty of bottles of water in our garage. (The first day our local grocery store ran out of gallon jugs.) However, my other emergency supplies were in a sorry state. So instead of sharing a recipe that will dirty dishes that I’ll need to wash in a waterless sink, I’m highlighting the need to prep for a natural disaster or the zombie apocalypse.

 Source

It’s funny that the CDC actually has a section for zombie related info, reasoning that if you are ready for the zombie apocalypse, then you’ll be ready for pretty much any disaster.

There are a number of websites you can browse to find a list of needed items in an emergency kit. There is this one from the Red Cross, this one from the Salvation Army and the CDC’s zombie comic book has a preparation checklist on the back.

I looked over the lists and had many of the items but they were scattered all over the house and garage.  I found all the medical supplies I had gathered over time – first aid kits, various bandages, alcohol, peroxide, latex gloves, hand sanitizer, ect. I rotated some of the items with expiration dates (like the alcohol and peroxide) with fresh ones.

I also found tucked in a bottom bathroom shelf a bunch of medical supplies that the hospital gave me after the birth of my kids – things like band aids, antiseptic wipes, cold packs, large and small pads, gauze etc.I gathered all the items and put them in the plastic container too. If there was ever an emergency I’m sure many of these things could be put to good use as well.

I added in some extra meds I had on hand but there are a few more items I need to add to the stock.

In another large container I placed all the emergency items such as batteries, flashlights, battery powered radios, utility knife, thermal blankets, work gloves, trash bags, matches, can opener and some other items that were buried in garage cabinets that might be useful in an emergency. (An extra hammer, hatchet, rope, etc) It may be over kill but at least this way everything is in one place and I’m known for my overpacking anyway. 😉

I wasn’t quite sure what to do about food items. We had plenty of canned goods and non-perishables stored on our garage shelves/pantry if we had to wait out the disaster at home but what if we were forced to evacuate our house? Then I remembered a link my sister posted for A Bowl of Lemon’s Emergency Preparedness. I reviewed over that and wow, that is what I called prepared!  I am no where near close to Toni’s set up but I did what I could with the items I had around the house.

Toni recommended that you have a backpack for each member of the family with a change of clothes, toiletry items, a food packet and for the kids a few things to keep them entertained. I am used to making the gallon bags of food since the kids are required to have one at school in case of an earthquake. I placed in it enough food and snacks to last a day or two. It has some protein like tuna and peanut butter and as well as canned fruit, berry sauce, granola bars, trail mix etc. I added in some plasticware we had from the last time we had take out. The only thing I need to do later this week is trade out the cans of tuna for cans of chicken with those pop up lids so it can be opened without a can opener.  

Here are the rest of the items in John-Paul’s backpack.

A change of clothes – pants, long sleeve shirt, short sleeve shirt, sweatshirt and two pairs of socks. For the shoes I added some old beat up ones of Andrew that would fit JP now. They should be okay in a pinch. (Since Andrew doesn’t have an older brother, I’ll have to pick up a cheap pair at Target.)  

A quart size bag of toiletries – toothbrush, toothpaste, dental floss (I saved the sample ones we got from the dentist), body wash, shampoo, lotion, q-tips and tissues. (Also, one of those toothbrush caps that keep the toothbrush from getting dirty.)

For John-Paul’s play items –  I packed an extra Angry Bird plush and some Star Wars bird figures we had, two picture books, a tablet of paper, a box of crayons and a few items from the dollar section at Target – coloring book, card games, color puzzle, art packets etc.

It took some doing but I got everything into his backpack and all I need to do is add a luggage tag and place it on the shelf next to the emergency bins and the jugs and bottles of water. (Enough water for 3 days, calculating one gallon per person each day.) 

A Bowl Full of Lemons also has for sale the ebook Emergency Preparedness. Included in the ebook are worksheets to put together an emergency binder. You know how I love my binders, so I will be ordering one and refining our supplies over the next few weeks.

Lastly, I also added to Brian’s backpack a Catholic pouch. It contains holy water, holy oil, a rosary for each family member, a prayer book, the New Testament, a votive candle and an icon of The Divine Mercy. If we ever need the motto “Jesus, I trust in you” it will be then.

There are still a few more things I need to add and refine and I have to finish the rest of our backpacks (luckily I had extras one in my closet of doom) but I am in much better shape than I was a few days ago. 🙂

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Now it’s your turn.

1. Choose your creation, share about it and snap a photo if you can.

2. In your post, link back the original blogger/idea, rather than your Pinterest pin. That way credit goes to the proper person. 🙂 (But feel free to add your Pinterest profile link so we can follow you!)

3. Add a link back here so others can play along. Here is the html code:

<a href=”http://www.revolutionoflove.com/blog/?p=2157″><img title=”Revolution of Love Blog – Pinterest Party &amp; Link-up” src=”http://www.revolutionoflove.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/pinterest_2_medW32-300×240.jpg” alt=”” width=”300″ height=”240″ /></a>

4. Link up below. Make sure you’re sending us to your actual post, and not to your general blog address.

You have a week to post your link, so if you can’t get things done by Tuesday, no worries, put it up when you can. We’ll be here. Have fun!