thoughts on being prepared

Why the prepared family? Life happens fast, too fast, so as a family our goal is to always being moving forward in a productive and enjoyable fashion. For us, that means being prepared. Dustin and I have a checklist list that we are slowly working through so that when life throws us a crappy experience (which it will), we have once less thing to stress about. We once attended the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra where the night was devoted to legendary Jazz composers. During the song "wag the dog" by Gershwin, the guest clarinet player took control of the symphony and through a twist of his instrument had the symphony encore this particular part of the music several times. With each twist, the symphony slightly varied their performance. It was amazingly seamless and delightful to watch. This is how I want to my life to play out. With each twist of our lives, the music will continue to play on, seamless and completely enjoyable. Moving from one stage to the next, smoothing the chaos as it goes. Our list of ways to prepare our family is completely personal, however filled with the usual ideas. Our "to-do"s come from various inspirations. Some from the All Safely Gathered In Pamphlet, others blossomed from our many discussions during the time when we took the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace classes, a little from Suze Orman's Book Woman and Money, and rest were derived from our own personal life experiences. Here's some that are still on our to-do list.

Things we are working on:

1. Get better life insurance (Dustin finally went to the doctor for this!)

2. Create a trust

3. Finish building our 3-6 month financial reserve (have little over 1 1/2 months in this)

4. Consistant Date Nights

Things we have accomplished:

1. Three month food supply

2. Emergency fund with all our insurance deductables saved away, half in bank, half in cash

3. Water supply

4. Electronic copy of important documents

5. Kids (who else is going to take me to my doctor appointments when I am senile and mean?)

6. Family Home Evening (raising responsible and kind children is a must)

Recently the sliding door handles on our van broke with in a week of each other... whatever... we have a fund for that...when hurricane Ike blew our shingles to pieces and tore the fascia off our house... so what... we have our deductables saved for that... when the power went off in february and the temperature was dropping... Mr. Buddy Burner was our friend... when Elliott's recovery lasted just short of forever and PPD threatened to break my heart... bring it on... I have a strong marriage bonded by temple covenants for that. Being prepared is my splendid symphony in motion.