Monthly Archives: May 2008

Storing water for emergencies

homemaking

In the past months, I’ve done a fair amount of thinking/learning about emergency preparation.  There are a number of things that are important to have available, but what concerned me most (because I felt I was least prepared) was having water available.  You realize very quickly how important water is when you don’t have it – you can go without food for a while, but you can’t go very long without water.  I’ve seen it recommended to store a gallon per day per person, times the amount of days you want to be prepared for.

Well, it’s not practical for me to go out and buy large containers to hold water at this point.  I tried to buy large bottles of water from the store (the kind in the plastic jugs like milk cartons), but they weren’t strong enough to be stacked on top of each other and sprung leaks.  I decided to buy two cases (24 bottles) of large individual bottles when I was shopping for the month, just to have something on hand.  Then I did the following: each week we use one 64 oz bottle of grape juice.  It comes in a pretty strong plastic bottle, so I’ve been rinsing them out, then filling them with water and storing them downstairs.  I plan on doing that indefinitely – it doesn’t take hardly any extra time, and if we ever needed it, we would be grateful for the effort.  It’s worth it to take small amounts of time now to prepare for possibilities (staying reasonable and balanced, of course).  I’m storing them in an area which would otherwise be dead space.  I might have almost twenty by now – not much if there were a large scale emergency, but there’s some comfort in knowing that I have something just in case to keep us going for a couple of days.

Yesterday, I was glad I had put the water, though there was no emergency.  For some reason that we still don’t know, in the later part of the morning, the water all started coming out of the sink with a yellowish tinge.  And that continued the entire day.  (I’m guessing that somewhere they were doing work on the water main.)  In the past, this would have definitely been very problematic since I wouldn’t have been able to cook.  But when my kids saw the water situation, I was able to calmly tell them to bring up some bottles of water from the basement.  I love being prepared – it’s such a good feeling!

I hope to share more thoughts about preparing for eventualities with you, since I think it’s really important.  I’ve debated with myself about it since I don’t want to be a Chicken Little, but feel irresponsible not to encourage prudence, and I have some concerns on several fronts that have been steadily building over time.

Avivah

Making your own baby food

frugal strategies, nutrition, parenting

Several months ago, I was in the infant section of Target with my then 12 year old daughter, when a harried looking young mother stopped me and asked hopefully, “Do you have a baby or know anything about babies?”  I told her that I did have a baby (didn’t mention that I’d had eight, though!). 

She wanted help selecting the right baby food, and I had to regretfully tell her that I wasn’t the right person to do that, as I made baby food for our babies.  And it wasn’t much of a process, since I just mashed up the suitable veggies that we were eating and gave it to the baby. 

She couldn’t believe it – “You mean you can do that?!?  Just mash up some of your own food and give it to him??”  And then she gave me sample foods she made and I told her which would be appropriate to give her baby.  But I think the idea was too novel or too threatening for her, since when I walked by a half hour later on my way to check out, she was still there, looking at the labels on jars of baby food. 

My daughter was surprised and amused that a grown woman would be so astonished by something as simple as giving your baby food that you make.  As obvious at it seems to many of us, for those who believe that the experts know best, it makes sense that a parent would trust the food manufacturer’s ability to make the food that would nurture their baby more than themselves.  Definitely misplaced trust, but still, it’s understandable.

I’m remembering this story today, since this week, we started giving our current baby solids.  Most of my kids started eating when they were about six months old, but this baby hasn’t shown any interest until very recently (he’ll be eight months in a few days). 

I start off with something like baked yams or butternut squash.  That has a soft consistency and pleasant flavor, so it’s always seemed to me to be a natural first food – you don’t have to do anything more but spoon it into their tiny mouths!  As they get older, I introduce more foods, and purposely don’t mash it perfectly – it’s good for them to get used to eating food with texture. Sometimes babies who are used to pureed foods balk when there are little lumps since they aren’t used to anything but a very smooth feeling in their mouths. 

Today I whizzed up some cooked carrots in the blender with a very small amount of cooked brown rice – it’s so quick and simple to do this – (maybe three minutes total?), and it easily made over three cups that I put into the fridge for Donny (that’s the baby).  I usually don’t use a blender; I hardly remember doing it in the past.  But rice is tough to chew when you’re toothless. 🙂  Actually, I reminded myself afterwards that I shouldn’t have used the rice for him yet.  It’s good to limit grains for infants, even of low allergenic/easy to digest grains like rice and millet, until they’re at least a year old.  Babies aren’t able to effectively break down grains. 

You can also add some good quality fat to their veggies, which helps the vitamins be assimilated.  I use coconut oil, butter, or rendered animal fat.  Delish!

Making your own baby food means that you know what goes into the food, where it came from, and how it was prepared.  You don’t add lots of artificial ingredients to make it stable for store shelves, or kill all of the beneficial vitamins in the processing.  It’s quick, it’s easy, and it saves you the time and in driving to and from the store to pick up those ridiculous little jars of baby food.

Avivah