Or for those of you who are more “grammarly” minded, “The Things for Which I Am Thankful.” Somehow that just didn’t sound right as a post title despite being correct grammar.
For those of you who read my blog on a regular basis, you may have been expecting to read a blog post on “Gourmet Food Storage” and making something using powdered milk. Boy, that just sounds so exciting, doesn’t it? “Making something using powdered milk?” Well, my title would have been amazing an pulled you right in, but as I sat here a few minutes ago preparing to write, I realized that I just couldn’t post about food storage this morning.
This month has been a very difficult one for our family – not bad at all – just difficult. At the beginning of March, we purchased a house. We’ve spent a lot of time and effort remodeling the basement and adding to the kitchen. The basement will be finished today and the kitchen is close to finished. We’re just missing the kickplates, handles on the new cabinets, and countertops. The countertops arrive next week, so we’re close to being done.
Over the course of the last month, we’ve started moving items over. Today is the final push to get everything but the furniture out of our old house and into our new house. Tomorrow, the furniture will be moved and aside from going back to clean at our old house, we’re done there.
As I sit here in my new home in silence (my husband has the kids at our old house doing some more packing while I came over to write this post and put the final coat of paint on the basement trim), I am bursting with gratefulness. I thought it fitting to share some of the things for which I am thankful.
1.) I am thankful for my desk
I am thankful that my desk at this new house is at a window. It overlooks a hedge and for now, since the hedge hasn’t bloomed, the house just beyond. But I can see the sky, trees, God’s creatures which scurry, scamper, or hop by all from my desk. It brings peace to my soul to be able to look out onto nature.
2.) I am thankful for my storage room
While we had a storage room at our old house, this storage room has, well, more room. We’ve added more shelving units, two Variety Can Systems from Thrive Life. Our ceiling was also high enough that we were able to move two shelving units from our last garage into our current storage room in the basement.
3.) I am thankful for my wood cook stove
We have wanted to have a cook stove for a long time. We finally were able to purchase this one. It’s called the Vermont Bun Baker, and it will give us a way to heat the house, cook, and bake all in one stove. We still have to have it installed in our basement fireplace, but it’s in our house.
4.) I am thankful for an additional fireplace
I love fireplaces, so the thought of having two fireplaces WARMED my heart! (Pun totally intended) Not only do we have two fireplaces, but the one in our great room has a gas ignition to light the wood while it’s still a wood burning fireplace.
5.) I am thankful for the storage space throughout my kitchen
Our kitchen started very small with about five linear feet of counter space split into two section two feet long and one section about one foot. We’ve added an additional seven feet of counter space! We also added a 7-foot tall cabinet. I don’t know about you, but because we use a lot of food storage, we use a lot of #10 size (think coffee can size) cans and bulk items. Having room to store these so we can actually cook with them is HUGE.
6.) I am thankful for yet another gas stove
In my married life, I’ve only had to cook on an electric stove once in my life and let me tell you, it was terrible! It takes so long to heat up. Once it reaches temperature, it takes so long to cool down after you turn it off, and in my opinion, it’s just UGLY. Now, I don’t just like my gas stove because it’s pretty – though it is when I can get kids fingerprints off of it, but also because I know I can cook on it when the electricity goes down.
I know I’ve mentioned before that in preparedness circles there’s a saying, “Three is two. Two is one, and one is none.” The idea is that things are going to break or not work right. If you have redundancies (i.e. three ways to cook during a power outage), even if one of your methods fails, you should still have at least two that will work. If you only have one way to cook during a power outage and it fails, you’re up the Colorado River above the rapids without a paddle.
7.) I am thankful for my backyard
While it’s not huge, there is room for hanging out laundry, having a garden, and letting the kids run. We have plans to start with bushes and maybe a couple of trees this year and getting our garden ready to go next year.
8.) I am thankful for my deep soaker jetted tub
Okay after the other more preparedness minded items, this may seem frivolous – and maybe it is, but it will be wonderful to soothe sore muscles from all the gardening I’m going to do in my backyard. Ha! There, I was able to tie it into my preparedness plans.
So for what things around your house are you thankful? Do any of them relate in any way to preparedness? I’d love to hear some of them in the comments.
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