Normal People Preparing for TEOTWAWKI – Are TEOTWAWKI and Comfort Incompatible?

Comfort.  Really?

Okay, let me first address what many people are thinking – and I know that you’re thinking it because I thought it too.  Either, it’s TEOTWAWKI – we shouldn’t be comfortable in any way!  Or you’re thinking if it’s TEOTWAWKI we CAN’T have any comfort, so why should we prepare for it?

Ya know, even in the hardest of times, God can bring good into our lives.  I was even copying down a verse from Matthew 5 today that says, “And [God] sends his rain on the just and the unjust.”  Even in TEOTWAWKI there will still be blessings and some enjoyment if we know where to look for it.  And to that end, I want to talk about how to foster comfort and plan for it even during TEOTWAWKI.

Don’t think you need any comfort?

Right now, it might be easy to believe “I could just pull myself up by my bootstraps and grit my teeth all the way through until I find relief from whatever caused my world to collapse.”  Let me tell you that you can’t.  Have you had a chance to read any of Selco’s articles or his book?  He describes in grim detail what it was like to live through the Balkan war.

In my research for this article, I spent some time really going over his article called “Stories from a SHTF Christmas.”  Even in that article, he speaks about Christmas – why and how it was important.  Yes, even during something as horrible as people dying around you almost daily, people held onto Christmas.  Did it look the same?  Nope, but Selco talks about how it was actually more special.   There were even gifts.  Now, they were small, handmade, and practical, but there were gifts nonetheless.  Throughout the entire article, you hear about the grim realities of life, but you can still sense the undercurrent of hope during a seemingly hopeless situation.

Three types of comfort

There are four types of comfort we’re going address.  I’ll be the first to admit that some may sound weird.  We’re going to discuss physical comfort, mental/emotional comfort, sanity savers, and spiritual comfort (no, I’m not going to get super spiritual on you, but I think it’s important to mention).

Emotional Comfort

Why is emotional comfort important?

I have mentioned in other articles that children will feel the stress of the situation very acutely.  I found this out first-hand from when we lived through the Ferguson Riots.  It was my youngest one that had the most noticeable reaction.  It went up from there in age.  The older, the less it changed their behavior, but the younger ones definitely showed the stress through a change in their day to day routine.

My youngest who was 3 at the time and had been sleeping in a normal bed for over a year, refused to sleep in one by himself any more.  The things that he saw scared him greatly.  This happened despite our attempts to shield him – I mean how can you shield a kid from people standing in his front yard  (right outside his bedroom window) chanting, yelling, and screaming profanities, and police helicopters shining lights down onto the people?  You can’t.  He needed the comfort of another person.  He stopped being willing to sleep in a bed by himself.  Either, he needed to sleep with Mom and Dad or his brother next closest to him in age.  We even ended up getting a full/twin bunk bed so the two younger boys could easily share a bed and still both have some room to themselves.

I even think of a scene from Falling Skies (if you’ve never seen it, you’ve really missed out).  In one of the first scenes, they have kids drawing pictures to help them deal with the trauma of what’s just happened in the world.  Of course, in their world, aliens just killed off most of the planet’s inhabitants, and the rest of the people are fending them off.  An obviously traumatic experience.

I’m not saying that you need a therapist in your survival group, but be aware of what’s going on inside their minds and hearts.  Then be willing to honestly engage with your kids about what is going on.

Smells 

According to the Social Issues Research Center, “The perception of smell consists not only of the sensation of the odours [SIC] themselves but of the experiences and emotions associated with these sensations. Smells can evoke strong emotional reactions.”

So what types of smells bring comfort to your family (both child and parent).  I used to sell Home Interiors around 20 years ago.  Most people loved the cinnamon apple candle.  If you asked them why, oftentimes they replied that it smelled like their mom’s apple pie.   Just the smell reminded them of something in their childhood that was special to them, so the scent of the candle brought them comfort.  For our house, the scent of pine or mahogany brings all of us a sense of relaxation.  What about your family?

Special foods

What other items can bring about a sense of emotional comfort to your family.  Ask them.  I betcha some of them are going to surprise you.  Something as simple as hot chocolate can lift the spirits amazingly!  What about a mini chocolate bar?  What types of treats do your kids’ eyes light up at?  Some of those items you might not be able to store.

I have one child whose favorite food in the world is ice cream.  Yea – not going to happen, but the same child also loves chocolate.  That’s much more doable.  Do you have children who love suckers?  This is an easily stored treat.  Yes, if things get really bad, maybe you offer them one sucker a week, but that one could be a huge encouragement to an incredibly upset child.  I’m thinking about stocking up on Halloween candy after the fact and throwing them in the bottom of my freezer.  Shhhhh.  Don’t tell my kids.

Another aspect of emotional comfort 

Especially in children, and sometimes even in adults, we and they can have an item that brings us comfort.  For kids, it is sometimes called a lovie.  Usually, it’s a blanket or a stuffed animal.  During the Ferguson Riots, my youngest had a Winnie the Pooh that he carried with him.  I even bought a second one exactly like the first and put it in his Grab and Go Bag (aka Bug Out Bag).  These can be particularly helpful. If you can duplicate the item once or even twice, do!  You’ll be so glad that you did later.

For adults, the item that brings us comfort may be a particular sweater or pair of jeans or a comfy pair of socks.  I’m not saying that you should go out and buy a ton of them.  What I am saying is that if you can figure out what your comfort item is NOW before you really need it, then when you do need it later you don’t have to figure it out on the fly.  Yes, gentlemen and even some of us ladies, y/ours maybe your firearm.  Make sure you think through it though.  Don’t just assume.

Physical Comfort

Don’t underestimate the importance of physical comfort in helping smooth out emotional wrinkles.  Ask yourself when your cold, wet, tired, and hungry; are you really hungry or are you ‘hangry?’  Right, I know!

So make sure that if it is REALLY cold outside that you have items such as heavy blankets, mittens, hats, wool socks, ‘underlayers,’ and ways to heat your home without power.   I have a friend who even buys sheepskin rugs for her children during winter.  Even without heat, it would keep her girls nice and warm!

Make sure that you have a sufficient store of food to eat.  Don’t know how to go about that?  I gotcha covered.  You also need a way to cook that food too.

Make sure that you have ways to light part of your house.

And don’t forget to make sure that you have a way to protect your house.

Sanity Savers

I have already spilled a lot of proverbial ink talking about this when it comes to activities for children.  But I wanted to take some time to talk about downtime activities for adults.  In our electronic age, it’s simple for us, as adults, to only use our cell phones for entertainment, but there are so many other things we can do.

Musical Instruments

One of the things that people rarely stock up on are musical instrument parts.  Do you or does anyone in your family play guitar, violin, viola, cello or another stringed instrument?  Do you store strings?  If you play cello, violin, or viola, do you stock up on rosin?  And of course, do you have music books?

We even found my son’s cello at Goodwill, so don’t think you have to spend an arm and a leg to get a good price on your instrument if there’s one that you want to learn to play, check into it now.

Game/Activity Books

Yep, how many of you play Candy Crush on your phone?  Yep.  I have.  Or maybe you’re more sophisticated and you play Sudoku on your phone?  Uhuh, I’ve got that too.  Or maybe you like Number’s Addict or Bridges or one of the other millions of games that you can get for your phone.  Dollar Tree has so many different activity books including sudoku, word searches, puzzle books, even adult coloring books.  Buy yourself some.

Physical Books

Don’t just keep electronic books on your Kindle or eReader.  Make sure that you have plenty of physical books on hand.  Goodwill and even Amazon has a HUGE selection of used books (I’ve seen them as low as $.01 on Amazon.  Crazy, I know!  But don’t ‘discount’ (Pun so intended – HA!) the fact that they are cheap.  Many of them are awesome!  If you enjoy a book, keep it.  If you don’t, sell it or give it away and buy a new one that you might like.

Activities 

There are so many different things that you can do.  There are tons of fiber arts – knitting, crocheting, spinning, tatting (yes, that is a thing), weaving, and so many more.  Besides, fiber arts allow us to help provide things like mittens, hats, scarves, socks, sweaters, etc.

There are wood crafts like whittling, wood burning, wood carving, woodworking, carpentry and so many more.

Board and Table Games

No, games are NOT just for kids.  A friend of mine and I have been playing Pandemic for a year and a half or so.  We both enjoy really enjoy it!  There are other games that we play as a family such as Medici, Dominoes, Outburst, Taboo (which really is a favorite), Dutch Blitz, and so many others.

Portable DVD Player, battery charger, and DVDs

My kids are way too addicted to TV, and we only watch 3-4 movies (and no standard TV) any given week.  Right now, we’ve been watching through Stargate Atlantis on DVD – yes it’s technically TV, but we don’t watch it on TV format.  I also know my kids well enough to know that if TEOTWAWKI happened and they were stuck inside for any length of time that some sort of video would be necessary.

That is the main reason that one of the things that I regularly buy from Goodwill are DVD’s.  I want to have a bunch of DVD’s on hand if we ever encountered TEOTWAWKI.   I have a solar-powered battery charger and many different sizes of rechargeable batteries, but my biggest problem is that I couldn’t find a DVD player that I could use those rechargeable batteries on.   Every DVD player out there (and I have looked high and low) has an internal battery that you have to charge either using an electrical outlet or a car charger.

But I found a workaround!  So awhile ago, I purchased a portable DVD player and a solar-powered battery bank separately. The two aren’t compatible to charge and I didn’t realize that when I searched for a “battery-powered DVD player” that it was an INTERNAL rechargeable battery, not one that I could put conventional batteries in.  But since then I have found this awesome cable!  It allows my battery bank to charge the DVD player. Problem solved!

Spiritual Comfort

I also wanted to deal with spiritual comfort, but three things are stopping me at the moment.  (1) This article is already getting long.  (2) I want to give it the space that it deserves.  And (3) I also want to create a printable to go along with it.  So my plan is to write it up as an extra article.  I know some people won’t care to read something like that.  That’s okay. It’s important, but I don’t want to dip into our regular blog schedule, so my goal is to have it out on a Friday – either this week or next.

What About You?

What are the ways that you are preparing for comfort for your family?  Are there other comfort items that I should have included that I’ve left out that?  Or are there other ways that we should look at comfort which aren’t included in the article? Don’t hesitate to leave a comment and let us know so that we are all better prepared.

Together let’s Love, Learn, Practice, and Overcome

There are links in this post.  Some of the links may be affiliate links.  Some of the links may not be.  My promise to you is that I will only recommend the most economical version of the best quality of items to serve you. These are the items that I have bought for my own family.  You can feel free to use my affiliate links, of which I will get a small amount in compensation, or you can choose to search out your products on your own.