Life Is Busy
In a recent blog post, I gave you all a recap of what is going on in my life right now. My husband who was an elder at our church was recently made the pastor of our church. And for me, I’ve been immersed in projects. One of which has been recording an audio version of my book – A Year Without the Grocery Store. But it’s so easy to get busy with life? You know – the really important stuff – like work, family, church. In the midst of everything which REALLY is integral to life, it’s easy to forget that preparedness is also very important to keep our families safe. So to that end, I want to issue a challenge!
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But Preparedness Is Still Important 
Outside of our homes and – for some people – their workplaces, we spend more time in our vehicles than just about any other single place. More than that, our vehicles are almost always outside of our workplaces when we’re there. It’s almost always within reach when we need something.
Because of this one simple fact, preparing our car makes good sense! It can help us deal with potential adversities like a flat tire to a missed meal. Preparing your vehicle can avoid a trip through the drive-through or soothe a scraped knee. If your vehicle is properly stocked even being temporarily stranded can be handled simply! So starting this Saturday, November 14th, before life gets very busy with Thanksgiving, we’re going to run a FREE ONE WEEK Vehicle Preparedness Challenge. It will run through Friday, November 20th. Did I say it was FREE? Yep, spelled F-R-E-E.
It will only take you about fifteen minutes a day to complete, but it will amazingly move you forward in your preparedness!
What to Expect
During this challenge, you’ll get one e-mail per day from me at around 7 am. In this e-mail, you’ll get a short lesson with a short assignment. If you do the assignment and then post (in the private Facebook group) what I’ve asked for before 7 am CST the following morning, your name will be entered into a drawing for an Amazon Gift Card.
If you are amazing – and of course, you are – and you do all seven lessons and submit them each day by the cut-off, you’ll have your name put in a drawing for my favorite portable water filter.
What Will You Learn?
We’re going to focus on a different aspect of vehicle preparedness each day.
Vehicle Preparedness Challenge Day 1
As a group, we’re going to talk about how to prepare our vehicle for the ever-present complaint “Mom, I’m hungry!” Yes, we’ll discuss what types of foods work well being stored in a car, but we’re going to go much further. How can you store food in your car so that it doesn’t get mushed or go bad? How do you store liquids in your vehicle without being concerned about chemicals leaching from water bottles into the water itself? What pieces of equipment do you need to keep in your car in case of an emergency.
Vehicle Preparedness Challenge Day 2 
We’re going to hit on how you take care of sanitation issues that may arise while you’re in your car. Nope, I’m not going to tell you that you have to put a portable toilet (?!?) in your vehicle! We will deal with that type of sanitation; however, there are other aspects. What do you do when you have a child who gives you all of five seconds notice that their stomach is upset and going to empty itself? How do you take care of the aftermath of such an event?
Vehicle Preparedness Challenge Day Three
We’re going to discuss what types of first aid issues you should be able to deal with from your vehicle, and what the best way to deal with them is. What if you’re at a park and your child falls and really scrapes their knee? Bandaids don’t stay on knees well. How are you going to handle it? If your child falls down and gets a carpet burn while you’re at the library. Can you deal with that? What if you’re out and your stomach is starting to feel off, how can you head it off at the pass before you need to refer back to “sanitation issues?”
Vehicle Preparedness Challenge Day Four
We’ll also consider how to comfort plays an issue in your vehicle. I’m not just talking cushy seats or AC, but what is needed in your vehicle to bring comfort to the inhabitants if you get stuck waiting for a train that isn’t moving for 45 minutes or you get caught behind a car accident and Google says that it’s adding an hour to your journey to go the next 3/4 of a mile.
Vehicle Preparedness Challenge Day Five
Together, we’ll take up the topic of shelter and your vehicle. How can you equip your vehicle (using minimal space) to provide shelter for your family if you ever get stuck as the Glanton family did?
Vehicle Preparedness Challenge Day Six
We’ll spend a day discussing car specific items. Some of those items are just common sense, but there are many that are more than just “nice to have,” but can honestly save your life!
Vehicle Preparedness Challenge Day Seven
On the final day, we’ll discuss seasonal items. What do you need for winter – since that’s the season that we’re coming into shortly (UHG!!). How do you store drinks in your vehicle for winter without allowing them to freeze? What simple item can you add to your vehicle to make it easier to stay on the road? What little thing can you keep in your vehicle so that if you get caught in a rut, you can easily get yourself out? We’ll also consider what items you need for summer. What small item can you add to your vehicle to keep you cool (no, it’s not a battery-powered fan!)? Other items are integral to summer outdoor life that need to be added to our vehicles as well. We’ll talk about all of those.
So if you’re already jumping up and down waving your arms at me, ready to “do this thing already!” You can sign up here. I look forward to interacting with each of you here shortly!
What About You?
What areas would you like to see me do a challenge in? Is there a part of your preparedness that would be moved forward leaps and bounds by making several smaller adjustments, but you just haven’t gotten around to doing it? What areas of your preparedness journey do you feel the rustiest in? Share those with us below in the comments so that we can all be better prepared.
Together, let’s love, learn, practice, and overcome!
I would love to do this challenge. Not clear where we’re supposed to sign up though? Is there a button or a link I missed?
Not related to cars….but I”m rustiest on weaponry. Not because I’m afraid of it….but just because you can’t just buy a few knives or some guns and ammo and toss the on a shelf with your canned goods. You need to invest time first in exploring which method is the right one for you, then learning how to do it, how to keep your weapon in good order, proper safety….it’s just brain overload. Hopefully if the zombie apocolypse does come, they’ll be the kind of zombies I can fight off with my sharp wit. Ha ha ha!
I would like to join up too for this challenge, but I am not on Facebook and do not want to be.
I’m in! Is there a specific place to sign up or will we automatically get the daily challenges if we’re already on your email list? 🙂
Bottom line is, if you are going to depend upon a complex item of equipment, it behooves you to know how it works and how best to maintain it! Best thing I did in high school was to sign up for Basic Automotive. It has served me well all my life!
I don’t know if this is a challenge type thing but I would like to hear your thoughts on helping loved ones be a little bit prepared. I’m on social security, in my sixties, so don’t have much spare money but this year I bought two of various items, from headlamps to small cook kits and sterno stoves with instructions on how to use them for wood burning, mini first aid kits etc. I’m giving my sister and my son and dil each a backpack with those supplies to keep in their car. They will appreciate it and it gives me a little peace of mind.