You know what they say about hind sight....

Welcome Caldwell 3rd ward-ers! And anyone else who may be visiting.
As you probably know, we are going to work on getting ourselves more prepared by following certain challenges that will be outlined here. It is the hope of the preparation specialists in the ward, that through these challenges, we can learn from each other, and our own experiences, how to prepare for certain contingencies.

Let me tell you a little story that just happened to my family, about how preparation, and knowing how to prepare, is so important.

My husband, David, and our four children, (aged 2-6) and I were driving home from my parent's house. We left their home around 8:45 at night, and started the half hour drive around the South-West side of the lake. 15 minutes into the drive we got a flat tire.
Well, that's inconvenient, but shouldn't be a big deal, right? David is more than capable of changing a tire. That is, if he had the proper tools. As it happened, there were no tools in the car at all. Strike one. So, while David parks the car in a more safe location, I call my dad with my cell phone. He agrees to come to the rescue, bringing tools and a nice car jack. My phone died almost as soon as I hung up with him, and we didn't have the cord to charge it in the car with us. Strike two.
The temperature outside was about 5 degrees. and I was thankful for the heater. But in no time at all the gas light went on. Strike three. Perfect. Now we have the option of keeping the car running and staying warm, but possibly running out of fuel before we could get to a gas station, OR, we could save the gas and freeze. The car went off. Then the cold came in.
After several minutes of waiting, my dad arrived. He and David set to work changing the tire. I made a mental note at about this time that I was happy that I was the woman, and didn't have to go out in the cold, lay in the snow, and touch the cold metal of the car. But while the kids and I were warmer than we'd have been if we had to go outside, the inside of our mini-van was no tropical paradise. The doors and the hatch had to keep being opened as the men did their thing, which pretty quickly depleted any reserved heat.
My kids were great though, considering. There were lots of comments about how "we're going to die!" but they had pretty good attitudes. :) Better than mine, especially when David came back into the car and informed me that my dad didn't have a screwdriver in the tool set he brought, and a screwdriver was necessary for removing the spare tire from the under carriage, so he was going to drive back home for one.
Splendid. We periodically turned the engine on to blast some warm air into the car, but it was never enough. And you know how you always hear about how you should have a nice blanket in your car at all times in the winter, "just in case?" I've heard that a lot. I've thought that was sound advise. But guess what we didn't have in the car? Strike four.
I called my mom from David's phone, and asked her to have some blankets ready to hand off to my dad for his quick return.
When my dad returned with the proper tools, the tire was changed in no time at all, and, now 10:45, we were on our way home. We finally had blankets, the tire was successfully changed, and we made it to a gas station, and then home.

Everything worked out fine, but it could have been a lot worse. It also could have been a lot better, had we been more prepared.

Let's take a look at our mistakes.
Strike one: No tools in the car. - Had we been wise enough to have a tool set stored in the car, none of the other issues would have even mattered, in this case. David could have changed the tire in a few minutes, and we would have been on our way. So guess what is on my shopping list? Time to pick up a cheap tool set. It's not going to be top of the market tools, (much to my husbands chagrin) since they will be in the car at all times.

Strike two: Dead phone with no way to charge it. - This could have been a lot worse. As it happened, my husband has his cell phone also. If he didn't, and if my cell died only 5 minutes sooner, one of us would have had to walk a long time before we even got to a house, and who's to say the occupants would have been willing and able to assist?

Strike three: Low fuel. - I don't know how many times my dad has told me never let my cars have less than half a tank of gas. There have been times in my life where I have faithfully followed his advise. This isn't one of those, but that night, I certainly wished it was.

Strike four: No blankets in the car. - The funny thing is, until about two weeks before this incident, we did have a blanket in the car. I had my boys help clean out the car, and when I noticed that they'd removed the blanket, I didn't take the time to put it back in.

I had all these regrets. All these easily remedied regrets. It isn't hard to keep tools and blankets in the car, it isn't hard to keep a phone charger on hand. And for me, the gas tank was empty only because of inattention, rather than thriftiness. Each of them contributed to the inconvenience and discomfort of the night. And, nearly all of them made it so we had to rely on outside hands for our well being.
I don't know about you, but I don't want my family to have to rely on the preparation or goodness of others; I want to be self-sufficient and prepared. This was kind of a wake up call for me. Hopefully I learned my lesson so that experience doesn't have to be repeated.

That was a long way to illustrate the importance of participating in this 12 month challenge. What better way to learn where you lack in preparation than to be thrown into the thick of a mini-crisis? The challenge isn't to give us bad experiences, but to help us learn how best to make a potentially bad experience comfortable.

All are invited to enthusiastically participate in the challenges, as well as return and report. We'd love to hear how things go with your families.

I look forward to learning with you all!