Fire Boxes for Emergency Preparedness

Posted on May 14, 2013 by jana

Welcome to the May 2013 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Emergency Preparedness

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have shared their plans to keep their families safe. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.

***

I wrote earlier about how and why we wrote our wills. Having a will is awesome, but what happens if there’s a fire or a flood or something else happens to our house? It made sense that the other half of being prepared is to make sure that our important documents are better able to survive, which is exactly why we bought a fire box to help us be prepared for emergencies and worst case scenarios.

I did a little bit of online research. Most of the fire safes aren’t very big and can handle some documents. And by some I mean your passports and maybe your will. That seemed strange to me – why go to all the effort of a fire proof safe and the not put all of your important documents in it for safe keeping?

For me the important thing was the fire proof portion of the equation and not the safe (aka can I lock it up) portion. I figure that it’ll take me more time and effort to replace all the papers that would get destroyed, versus the few that might be stolen. We also don’t own things that need to get locked away (like giant diamond rings). Also, the likelihood that someone would steal my dog’s vet records is small…

We ended up purchasing a Sentry Guardian Storage Box. It’s basically a fire proof letter sized file folder box. I was totally stoked because I could organize and label and put things away in their proper place, and then… the only bad thing about this box is that file folders can’t hang in it. A little frustrating, but still better than the alternatives.

I went through the exercise of sorting through our giant filing cabinet. Lots of things in it could be recycled or shredded (as necessary), as they were old or no longer pertinent. I was actually able to reduce everything info my new fire proof box!

Here’s what is in our fire proof box, which each bullet point as it’s own separate file:

My ID & personal documents (birth certificate, SIN card, etc.)
My son’s ID & personal documents (birth certificates, SIN card, medical records, etc.)
My husband’s ID & personal documents
My husband’s immigration paperwork
Information about both mine and my husband’s work (contracts, options, etc.)
Our marriage license
Our insurance records (home and auto)
Information about our house (title, title insurance, architextural records, etc.)
Our animal’s vet records
Tax documents
Financial documents (records of opening accounts, investment statements, etc.)
Wills – our will, my parent’s will, Jason’s mom’s will

I also added both of our baby book’s as these are irreplaceable and I’d be gutted if anything happened to them.

I still need to add the following:

Details about all of our bank and credit card accounts (Provider, Account #, Contact Information, etc.)
Details about all of our investments (Provider, Account #, Contact Information, etc.)
Details about life insurance (Employer, etc.)
Write down all of our internet passwords and seal them in an envelope, again so that in a worst case scenario things can still be accessed and communicated

I have to admit, having done this makes me feel super dorky.

What have you done to help your family prepare for emergencies?

***

Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

(This list will be updated by afternoon May 14 with all the carnival links.)

Be Prepared for Emergencies — Becky at Crafty Garden Mama is reviewing Angela England’s new ebook, The Untrained Housewife’s Guide to Getting Prepared. See what measures she is learning to adopt in her family.
Prepare to Expect a Safe and Beautiful Natural Birth — What do you need to have prepared so that you can have a nice and relaxing birth at home? Lisa at The Squishable Baby shares her list in a guest post at Natural Parents Network.
Fire Boxes for Emergency Preparedness — Jana of Jananas tells why she bought a fire box to store important documents and what is stored in the box.
Firefighter Training Homeschool Curriculum — Kellie at Our Mindful Life helped her homeschooled kids prepare for emergencies through a Firefighter Training unit.
3 Secrets to a Royal Emergency — Jaye Anne at Wide Awake, Half Asleep tells the secret to living like kings during a storm-induced power outage.
Is Your Family Prepared for an Emergency? — Chrystal at Happy Mothering shares an overview of what her family has done to become more prepared for emergencies.
What to Do in an Earthquake — Julia at A Little Bit of All of It gives instructions for staying safe in the event of an earthquake as well as tips for teaching your children to keep safe and where to find information online after an earthquake.
Spring Cleaning & Preparing, Part 2 — Justine at The Lone Home Ranger organizes and replenishes her emergency supply every spring and is learning to add to the food stockpile by preserving year-round.
15 Must-Haves For The Natural Minded Family When Disaster or Emergency Strikes — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama shares how she prepares for disaster or an emergency as a natural minded mama. Learn what 15 natural items you should consider having on hand!

Emergency Preparedness: Cosleeping, Cheezits, Chocolate — Kristine at All the Things in the World was happy to have cosleeping in her emergency tool kit during Hurricane Sandy.
Being Prepared For Personal Disasters — Luschka at Diary of a First Child draws on her own recent experiences and considers five things every parent should have in place to ease the burden when sudden disaster strikes.
The Natural Emergency Kit That I Always Carry in My Diaper Bag — Charise at I Thought I Knew Mama shares the four green and natural items in her emergency kit that she can’t do without when she’s out and about with her little ones.
Prepared… or not? — Is it dangerous to not prepare? Jorje of Momma Jorje shares whether her family prepares…or not.
Pack a car safety kit: 25 must-have items for emergencies — Whether you’re out for a leisurely drive or fleeing a disaster, Lauren at Hobo Mama offers tips on stocking your car with emergency supplies that will tide you over if you’re stranded.
Teaching My Children About Tornados — Destany at They Are All of Me writes about preparing her children for tornado season.
Preparing our children for emergencies — Preparing for emergencies means preparing your children, and Robbie at Going Green Mama shares ways on how to empower kids when it comes to emergencies.
Emergency Preparedness in Sub-Saharan Africa — After living in Sub-Saharan Africa for 7 years, emergency preparedness is not just a concept any more to Laura from Authentic Parenting.
Five Ideas to Keep Babies and Toddlers Safe from Choking — Do you have a baby or toddler who likes to put everything (and I mean *everything*) in her mouth? Dionna at Code Name: Mama does, and today she’s sharing a story and some tips on how to keep your little ones safe from choking.

***

Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

(This list will be updated by afternoon May 14 with all the carnival links.)

Be Prepared for Emergencies — Becky at Crafty Garden Mama is reviewing Angela England’s new ebook, The Untrained Housewife’s Guide to Getting Prepared. See what measures she is learning to adopt in her family.
Prepare to Expect a Safe and Beautiful Natural Birth — What do you need to have prepared so that you can have a nice and relaxing birth at home? Lisa at The Squishable Baby shares her list in a guest post at Natural Parents Network.
Fire Boxes for Emergency Preparedness — Jana of Jananas tells why she bought a fire box to store important documents and what is stored in the box.
Firefighter Training Homeschool Curriculum — Kellie at Our Mindful Life helped her homeschooled kids prepare for emergencies through a Firefighter Training unit.
3 Secrets to a Royal Emergency — Jaye Anne at Wide Awake, Half Asleep tells the secret to living like kings during a storm-induced power outage.
Is Your Family Prepared for an Emergency? — Chrystal at Happy Mothering shares an overview of what her family has done to become more prepared for emergencies.
What to Do in an Earthquake — Julia at A Little Bit of All of It gives instructions for staying safe in the event of an earthquake as well as tips for teaching your children to keep safe and where to find information online after an earthquake.
Spring Cleaning & Preparing, Part 2 — Justine at The Lone Home Ranger organizes and replenishes her emergency supply every spring and is learning to add to the food stockpile by preserving year-round.
15 Must-Haves For The Natural Minded Family When Disaster or Emergency Strikes — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama shares how she prepares for disaster or an emergency as a natural minded mama. Learn what 15 natural items you should consider having on hand!
Emergency Preparedness: Cosleeping, Cheezits, Chocolate — Kristine at All the Things in the World was happy to have cosleeping in her emergency tool kit during Hurricane Sandy.
Being Prepared For Personal Disasters — Luschka at Diary of a First Child draws on her own recent experiences and considers five things every parent should have in place to ease the burden when sudden disaster strikes.
The Natural Emergency Kit That I Always Carry in My Diaper Bag — Charise at I Thought I Knew Mama shares the four green and natural items in her emergency kit that she can’t do without when she’s out and about with her little ones.
Prepared… or not? — Is it dangerous to not prepare? Jorje of Momma Jorje shares whether her family prepares…or not.
Pack a car safety kit — Whether you’re out for a leisurely drive or fleeing a disaster, Lauren at Hobo Mama offers tips on stocking your car with emergency supplies that will tide you over if you’re stranded.
Teaching My Children About Tornados — Destany at They Are All of Me writes about preparing her children for tornado season.
Preparing our children for emergencies — Preparing for emergencies means preparing your children, and Robbie at Going Green Mama shares ways on how to empower kids when it comes to emergencies.
Emergency Preparedness in Sub-Saharan Africa — After living in Sub-Saharan Africa for 7 years, emergency preparedness is not just a concept any more to Laura from Authentic Parenting.
Five Ideas to Keep Babies and Toddlers Safe from Choking — Do you have a baby or toddler who likes to put everything (and I mean *everything*) in her mouth? Dionna at Code Name: Mama does, and today she’s sharing a story and some tips on how to keep your little ones safe from choking.

Writing your Will as Preparation for Baby’s Arrival

Posted on May 7, 2013 by jana

As I became more and more pregnant, I started to worry more and more about worst case scenarios (in general). The best way for me to not feel worried is to be prepared. And so I did research on local lawyers and dragged my husband along to get our wills written as preparation for baby’s arrival.

Up until now, it hadn’t seemed like a big idea because things would go to my husband. Adding a child to the mix makes things more difficult, as custody becomes a big issue. Who do you want looking after your children in the event that you aren’t capable? Do they hold the same parenting values? Education values? Will they financially be able to support your child?

Our will was a little more complicated than most due to cross-border issues and tax issues, leading us to go down the path of the creation of trusts if needed. It also meant that we needed to find a lawyer who was well versed in both. Thankfully we live in a large city, so it was pretty easy to find someone who was able to help. It did mean that we had to throw down a fairly large amount of cash so that everything was done to make closing the estate as easy and painless as possible for any surviving loved ones (a major criteria for me).

Major things that we did in our will:

Specify who we want our child’s guardian to be
Specify setting up trusts, including general principles on spending money to support our child (health, education, living expenses, etc.)
Have our lawyers act as executor’s to spare each other/family from having to deal with it
Have our investment company manage the trusts as needed (as not all people involved have the knowledge to do so and to ask them to would be unfair)
Set up who gets what (disbursements) as an appendix, so that we can change this as needed without having to redo the entire will every time we change our mind about what charities we’re supporting

We also set up powers of attorney for both monetary matters and health. Just to cover our bases and because we were already there. Strangely, I didn’t consider these as ‘important’ as the will, but really could have a much bigger impact on us as they come into play when we are still alive!

We’ve also had conversations about what the other person would want done to their body (cremation vs. burial, where, etc.) so that we’re aware. We both still need to write the actual disbursement sections and we’d add these wishes to this section. But overall, we’re 95% of the way there and for now I’m happy with where we are.

Writing our wills made me feel like an adult. It seemed like a whole different level of responsibility (compared with making sure that bills are paid on time, etc.). And yes, Silas it’s another way of showing that I love and care for you.

Mama Confessions – My Son’s Breath Smells Like Cat Food

Posted on May 4, 2013 by jana

By the time this goes live, our little family will be relaxing at Iceland’s famous Blue Lagoon (hopefully after an easy first flight for Silas!). Normally if I can’t find time for a shower, because little man wants all of the cuddles, it’s not the end of the world. But we’re flying tonight and I don’t want to feel gross or be smelly, so shower time it is.

I put little man down on the bedroom floor with some toys and hopped in the shower. I was almost done when I started hearing banging noises in the bathroom. I was a little confused until I stepped out of the shower and saw this.

The noises were the container being hit against the cupboard. Since Silas was happily playing and we feed the cats good quality grain free cat food I decided to let him keep playing while I got dressed.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Mama confession – I watched and took photos as little man ate cat food.

p.s. there’s cat food in our bathroom as we recently took a cat in and we’re in the process of slowly integrating her into the household. Our door’s open to the house now but she doesn’t seem ready to leave and we didn’t want to force integration and then leave for two weeks. So we’re letting it go slowly.

p.p.s. we made the temporary switch to disposables for the trip a few days early as all the cloth diaper laundry had to be done before we left. OMG guys, so much laundry. Also, yay for not leaving that stank to stink up the place for two weeks!

p.p.p.s. this post typed entirely with my left hand due to a sleeping nursling.

Steeking Class at the Knit Cafe

Posted on May 3, 2013 by jana

Last night I took a steeking class at the Knit Cafe. Steeking is where you cut your knitting. Let me repeat that, you knit up a beautiful piece of fabric and then CUT IT. For a whole host of good reasons – it can make colour work way easier, you can add a neck or an arm hole, or keep stripey colours cohesive across a v-neck. But still guys – cutting my knitting!!

I totally could have read and watched tutorials online to figure this out, but some things are so seemingly scary that it’s nicer to have someone walk you through it in person. Plus it was the ever lovely Robbie teaching and how could I pass those good times up?

I knit up a giant swatch (seriously, mine was 12″ which was longer than I needed. Better safe than sorry?). I did, however, use up some odds and ends of cascade that were sitting in the stash.

First up we practiced a crochet reinforced steek. I have to say that I loved, loved, loved this steek. It looked so finished and I can see how easy it would be to quickly baste down the steek. Easy AND nice looking finishing is a huge win in my books!!

Those two mustard-y yellow lines are my reinforced steek edges. Then comes the scary part – cutting your knitting apart. Eeep! Tiny, very shap scissors make this part much easier.

All done! I have to admit, once I made that first little cut and realized how easy it is I’m wondering why I waited so long to learn. Oh right, because it’s easier to be afraid and hide then it is to grow and learn. Thank you humble little yarn for teaching this mama.

Next up we practiced a raw steek. No reinforcement, no sewing, no nothing. Just cutting right into the knitting!!! I was expecting mine to unravel a whole lot more, but it still looks quite clean. This was a little harder to do as I didn’t have the easy to see crochet reinforcement to guide my cutting (aka it would have been much easier to accidentally snip a stitch!).

Last part of the class was learning how to pick up stitches between the main piece of the knitting and the steek stitches, so that you could theoretically add a button band, sleeves, facing, etc.

I was being a sillyhead, but Robbie persevered and got me to practice picking up stitches. I totally picked mine up going the wrong way – you can see a hint of the blue yarn running parallel to the live stitches on the needle – yeah, those should be on the other side of the knitting. Whoops!

If this was a final piece, I would have ripped back and done them the right way. But, it’s a swatch and it was getting a little late. I was away from my nursling and my breasts were telling me that it was time to head home to nurse (apologies for running out early!). So I left it, haha.

But guys, I can steek! Now my dreams of a stripe-y raglan v-neck are one step closer to completion.

Free Range Babies

Posted on May 2, 2013 by jana

Yesterday was a rough day. Teething, fussy, randomly screaming babes who are so clingy that they’ll commando crawl after you if you put them down. Oh little man, I love you very much but sometimes momma needs a few minutes to love you in ways other than holding you… like doing your laundry or eating something (so that she can make you milk!).

And then you go and do something ridiculously adorable like eat grass. I guess it’s pretty official that we’re free range kind of parents.

And even on the difficult days (and I am blessed that this really rather mild day is what passes as a difficult day in our house!) there are moments and breaths and oases of cute and calm and cuddles and love.

Because these difficult moments? These too shall pass. And on the first real days of spring, take your little family to the local park and eat a picnic. Let your child eat the grass and explore. Play on the swings. Chase the dog.

And maybe all that difficult day will result in one crashed out little man (with rocket dog jammies!).