2015 is the year for our family to get more prepared.  When we lived in Pennsylvania we put together our 72 hour kits and I even shared a post about it here.  We made backpacks for everyone in the house with clothes, food enough for 3 days and a hygiene kit.  Before we left Pennsylvania there was a very large forest fire close to our home.  I remember opening my door and seeing all the black ash and smoke everywhere.  They already had evacuated some homes not too far from us.  The fire was not contained yet and I became a little nervous.  I grabbed our 72 hour kits and put them in our car along with some family photo albums, portable external hard-drives with family photos and our scrapbook.  As we loaded everything, in the car in case we had to evacuate, I saw my son with his piggy bank by the door.  I asked him what that was for and he said it was to take with us.  Even he understood a little bit about what we were anticipating.  Once everything was in the car, we were prepared to leave.  In the end, they contained the fire and we were grateful to be okay as we put back our emergency kits into the garage in preparation for any unknown events in the future. 

I learned that day that there is great peace when we are prepared.  I also realized that there are very few things of material value that are important to take with us.  My family and family pictures along with our survival kits were really what mattered most.  

About a year or so later, we were packing up our house to move to Arizone.  We disassembled our kits and we haven't put them back together until this year.  Our family goal is to not only get our kits together like before, but to add things to it so that we are more prepared in case of an emergency.  

There are so many great blogs and websites that have ideas on how to put together a family 72 hour kit and get prepared.  I thought I would blog about what resources we have used and encourage others take to the challenge to get a little more "prepared" this year than you were last year.

My mom said that when she was raising us kids that one of her greatest fears during a crisis was that one of her 6 children would become lost if their was pandemonium in the area.  She made cards for all the kids so if they ever were lost they would have some identification on them.  I remember also as a child wearing those silver bracelets with my name and info on it.  

I thought I'd start this series with a free download for you to use for your children.  Simple attach a recent photo to the front of this card and fill in both the front and backside of the ID card.  The card is about a 5×7 size.  You can print them out on card stock or regular paper and laminate it with the two sides together.  I plan on putting them in or attaching them to the outside of their 72 hour backpacks. 

Start with baby steps and join us on our journey of becoming more prepared this year!