Women Loving Life Worldwide

Joyce Pierce April 24th, 2009

I’ve been thinking a lot about family preparedness lately.   It’s really a category that encompasses everything.  You wouldn’t expect to enjoy a delicious dinner if you just stood in your kitchen and threw random ingredients into a pan, would you?  Although I’ve been known to substitute ingredients, it rarely tastes the same when I take shortcuts or leave anything out.  It’s the same way with life.  You just have to plan, or prepare, for anything that’s worth having.

Joyce Moseley Pierce is a contributing author to the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.  She’s the creator of All They’ll Need to Know and owner of Emerson Publications.  She’s the Family Preparedness Expert for Ideamarketers.com as well as Women Loving Life Worldwide.  Visit www.emersonpublications.com or www.preparedineveryway.com to learn more.  Follow Joyce on Twitter @piercejam.

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Joyce Pierce April 23rd, 2009

First of all, you’ve got to ask how this man could knock on the door if his hands were bound. This homeowner was smart to not answer the door because the man on the porch was a decoy. There was another man there with him to knocked on the door. They were hopeful that this homeowner would open the door so they could barge in and either take what they wanted, or do physical harm to the couple. Thank goodness, all of that was avoided.

Don’t flash large sums of money in public. Don’t give those looking for a score to think you’re it. Be careful walking out of the bank with a money bag, too. Someone could be watching and follow you home.

Keep doors locked. Even when you’re home, keep your doors secure. Many home invasions require little more on the part of the thief or assailant than just walking through the door.

During the day, acknowledge the knock. If a stranger knocks during the day, talk to him through the door. If you don’t answer, the person on the outside may think you’re not there and think it’s safe to go on in. Also, especially when you’re there alone, once you realize you don’t know who’s at your door, holler to an imaginary person so they won’t think you’re alone. Overhearing, “It’s okay, honey. I’ve got it,” leads them to think you’re not alone.

Late at night, don’t acknowledge the knock. Pretend you’re not home. Call 911 if you’re afraid. Late at night, burglars assume you are at home, and they expect someone to let them in so they can do them harm.

Don’t open your door to strangers. If someone appears at your door for any reason wanting to use your phone, offer through the closed door to make the call for him. If he says someone in his car is sick and they need a glass of water, again, through the closed door, offer to call 911 for him. If someone appears in work clothes saying they’ve been sent by their company to do work for you, leave him standing outside until you’ve called that entity and they say they’ve sent this person. Be wary of people you don’t know, whether door-to-door magazine sellers, a young woman holding a baby, or an older woman wanting to borrow a cup of sugar.

Demand identification from anyone saying they’re there on official business – police, firefighters, and utility workers have identification badges and don’t mind showing them to you. Call the police. If the stranger is insistent, refuses to leave, or behaves in a suspicious manner, call the police, explain the situation, and ask them to come sort it out.

It’s a good idea to have a cordless phone or cell phone handy at all times. It would be a good idea to have one on the nightstand when you may be caught totally off guard. Whether you’ve responded through the door or not, call 911 and get to a safe place inside your home. At my recent gun class, they suggested getting behind the headboard of your bed or going into a closet. Go to a room that has a lock on the door. It may not keep them out, but it will buy you some time. Wait for the police. Maybe the crooks will be dumb enough to still be there when they arrive.

This is a busy time for holiday shoppers, but whether you’re out in the crowds or in the comfort of your own home, it is so important to pay attention to what’s going on around you. Your life literally depends on it.

Joyce Moseley Pierce is a contributing author to the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.  She’s the creator of All They’ll Need to Know and owner of Emerson Publications.  She’s the Family Preparedness Expert for Ideamarketers.com as well as Women Loving Life Worldwide.  Visit www.emersonpublications.com or www.preparedineveryway.com to learn more.  Follow Joyce on Twitter @piercejam.

Tags: family, home, invasion, prepare

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Joyce Pierce April 23rd, 2009

In 2000, we had flooding in Houston. I ventured across town to attend a friend’s wedding, confident that if I got into trouble I could use my cell phone. What I didn’t realize, until much later, was that the storm had knocked out all of the cell phone towers and there was no service.

Everyone should have an emergency kit. If there are five of you in the house, then you need five kits. Each kit should have the basics. Don’t rely on dad to carry the bulk of the load. You never know when you might be separated from one another. Here are a few things to think about:

1. Have a plan. If you were to have to evacuate, where would you go? You may not all be at home when you get word. Spend some time with your family discussing where you would meet.

2. You may not have to actually leave your home. Maybe you just have loss of power. It’s still important to have enough to survive. What will you eat? If you don’t have power, how will you prepare it? Good idea to have food you can eat right out of the bag or can.

3. Remember that if you have lost power, it’s likely that your entire area is out. Don’t depend on the grocery stores to have enough to supply all of you. Be sure to always have water, food, first aid supplies, clothing and bedding, tools and emergency supplies in your home. Make sure you have the medication you need. Get in the habit of refilling things before you’re completely out.

3. Anticipate having to leave your home. Prepare an emergency kit. Place the items you need in something that’s easy to carry. You might use a backpack or duffle bag. You might use a rolling carry-on suitcase for little children, but remember that you may not even have the option of rolling it. Better to have something you can carry.

4. Keep some cash at home. I save my change, and when I turn it in for dollars, I put that money in my emergency kit. This week, during the aftermath of Katrina, Wal-Mart is allowing those who have cash to buy off the shelf. With no electricity or phone lines, they can’t process credit cards.

5. Store your kit in a convenient place that is known by all family members so you can grab it and run. Keep a smaller version of supplies in your car.

6. Remember to review your kit once a year. Update water, food, and batteries.

7. Keep your cars full of gas for emergency evacuations.

8. Consider scanning old photos to your computer and putting them on a disk. If you’re faced with flooding, the original may be destroyed, but you’ve got a better chance of the disk surviving, and it will also take up less space. Better yet, use a program that allows you to upload your photos to the internet. That way you can access them from any computer.

9. Have a change of clothes and put the items in Ziploc bags or seal them with a Food Saver. I have a pair of knit workout pants, a clean shirt, socks, and a change of underwear in my kit.

10. Include scriptures, paper and pen. Put them in bags to keep them dry (Ziploc or Food Saver)

11. Be sure to have a first aid kit with the basics.

12. Carry three bottles of water. One for each day.

13. Include MREs (meal replacement bars) or packable food. Think about what you’d take if you were going hiking. Include foods for energy. You’re going to need it.

14. Include toiletries. Tooth brush, tooth paste,soap, toilet paper.

15. Small radio with batteries. Check often to make sure batteries are still good. It will be important to know what’s going on if you have no way of communicating with others.

16. Flashlight. There are some available that you can wind up and use. No batteries needed.

If you’ve got a lot of money you can buy a pre-packaged emergency kit, but I prefer to pack my own and put those things that I know I will use. This kit works on the same principle as insurance. You hope you never need it, but just in case you do, you have it.

Make it a fun family night project. Talk to the family about the importance of putting the kits together, and set a budget, if necessary, for purchasing the things you need. Add a few things each time you go to the grocery store, and in no time you’ll have your kit ready to go!

Joyce Moseley Pierce is a contributing author to the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.  She’s the creator of All They’ll Need to Know and owner of Emerson Publications.  She’s the Family Preparedness Expert for Ideamarketers.com as well as Women Loving Life Worldwide.  Visit www.emersonpublications.com or www.preparedineveryway.com to learn more.  Follow Joyce on Twitter @piercejam.

Tags: disaster, family, prepare, women

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Joyce Pierce April 23rd, 2009

In my front hall closet I have a backpack that I bought on sale for $5 a few years ago. In it, I have a few essentials like a change of clothes, a small first aid kit, a bottle of water, a snack, a waterproof bag (Ziplocs work fine) with paper and pen, my name and address list, some cash – both bills and change, and a workbook that has all of my important personal and financial information recorded in it.

That workbook contains the following:

1. Personal information that would be helpful to someone else if I couldn’t communicate for myself. Vital statistics, professional and military records, a copy of my will and location of the original, a list of people to notify and last, but not least, any funeral instructions. I even have a copy of my marriage license and social security card so I can prove I’m who I say I am! When a disaster strikes and an entire area is in chaos, this information will be important.

2. Financial information that includes account numbers, phone numbers, balances and locations of checking and savings accounts and credit cards; investments, employee savings plans, profit sharing plans, retirement programs, trust accounts, loans receivable and payable, automobiles, insurance – life, health, medical, disability, and medical. If you’ve just lost everything you own, or face the chore of sorting through what’s left and tossing it in the dumpster, you are just not mentally capable of recalling all of the information you will need.

3. A CD with pictures of my home as it stands now and the furnishings inside. I used my digital camera to take photos of these things because it’s safer than using film that needs to be developed. The fewer number of people who know the contents of your house, the better. If you have a video camera, go through the house, open cabinets and drawers, and tell about the items as you’re filming them. Talk about how great grandma’s china came over on a ship from France when she came to America. Tell why that cookie jar means so much to you.

4. A CD with copies of documents and receipts that have been scanned. Information that fills an entire 4-drawer filing cabinet can be held on a CD or two.

5. Photos of my family. We invested in the digital camera a couple of years ago, and as I download photos from the camera to my computer, I put a copy on CD. You never know when you might need a picture to identify someone who is missing from your group.

6. A CD containing a backup of my bank accounts that are managed in MS Money and Quicken. If my computer crashes or is destroyed, I can always find the software to open my accounts. Inside this backup is valuable information for insurance. As I record purchases, I do a general itemization of the receipt, and this would be a great way to report the contents of your home if you had to prove it. Especially helpful on large purchase items, but I also use it for clothing.

7. A CD with a backup of My Documents from my computer. Since I run my business from home, I would basically be out of business if I lost all of my correspondence and other documents.

8. A CD with contact information backed up from Microsoft Outlook. This would allow me to continue to not only conduct business from another location, but would give me every phone number and email address of everyone in my database.

When I go on vacation, I “borrow” these CDs and either stuff them in my suitcase, or leave them at my daughter’s house while I’m away. I don’t want the backup copies of my computer stored in the same location as the computer! What if some emergency strikes while I’m thousands of miles away? Call me paranoid, but it makes me feel better knowing there’s another copy somewhere else.

You just never know when you may have to leave your home in a hurry. Emergencies, like accidents, are never scheduled. They just happen. If you don’t have a preparedness pack in your home, then what are you waiting for? Take some advice from Ol’ Blue Eyes himself and be prepared!

Joyce Moseley Pierce is a contributing author to the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.  She’s the creator of All They’ll Need to Know and owner of Emerson Publications.  She’s the Family Preparedness Expert for Ideamarketers.com as well as Women Loving Life Worldwide.  Visit www.emersonpublications.com or www.preparedineveryway.com to learn more.  Follow Joyce on Twitter @piercejam.

Tags: disaster, family, food, prepare, sinatra

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Joyce Pierce April 23rd, 2009

One day last week I logged in and discovered a check pending for $987. It didn’t look familiar to me, and in researching it, I learned that this check had been written to Wal-Mart in Lafayette, Louisiana. I live in Houston, Texas, and hadn’t been to Wal-Mart or Louisiana! I called the bank to report it, thinking that it was probably just a bank error and someone else’s check had been charged to my account.

The next day my banker called and told me I needed to come in and sign a fraud affidavit. Apparently it was not a bank error. Someone had my bank account information and she felt that if they’d written one check, they might have had a whole pad of them printed and would keep going until there was no money available in my account.

I couldn’t close the account because I had a couple of checks outstanding. I transferred most of my balance to another account, and decided to watch my account over the weekend. I then proceeded to switch my electronic payments from one account to the other. It wasn’t as time consuming as I expected it to be.

On Saturday morning, another check came through. A check for $1032 was written to Dillards. I could see the impression of the check, and it looked just like my checks, including my husband’s legal name with mine, and our address. The scary thing was that I could see my personal driver’s license number scrawled across the top of the check!

I remembered an email I had gotten from a friend just recently about what to do when your wallet is stolen. You’re supposed to call the credit bureaus to have a fraud alert added to your account. I called Experian, and was told that they would contact the other two agencies for me.

Equifax: 1-800-525-6285 Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742 Trans Union: 1-800-680 7289

Social Security Administration (fraud line): 1-800-269-0271

Since I’m not on Social Security yet, I didn’t call this number, but it’s here for those of you who might need it.

At the end of the call, they offered a more secure fraud package for $14.95 a month. Looking back, I don’t think I need it, but I took it. They know that you’re scared of losing your identity and will pay anything to keep your information secure. This package does allow me to look at all of my credit bureau reports online to see if there’s anything suspicious. The agent who helped me told me it would be a good idea to take the service for a month or two, and if there’s no activity, I could always cancel it.

Once the bank was open on Saturday, I went in again to report the second charge. I had to fill out another affidavit. I also stopped overdraft banking on that account and had them make a note on the account stating that it had been compromised. Hopefully that will stop any future unwanted approvals.

When I got home, I called the sheriff’s department. Since it was Saturday, they said they’d have to have someone come to my home to take the report. I hated to take an officer away from something more important, but didn’t want to wait, either. A nice young man came out and took my report and gave me a case number. He told me if I had any more activity on my account to call and they could add it to this report.

The thing that puzzles me is that I rarely write a check. Most of the checks I write are for tithing at my church. The others are usually gifts to friends or family. I do everything else electronically, and the checks I write are written at home.

So how did someone get my information? I have no clue. No one could have photographed my check with a cell phone at the checkout lane because I always use my debit card. I didn’t lose my wallet and no checks are missing from my drawer.

I did lose my wallet in Las Vegas about two years ago, and my driver’s license was inside. It seems crazy to think that license ended up in the hands of someone who knew how to access my checking account, but crazier things have happened. When that license had to be reissued, I wish I would have had them give me a different number. My next call will be to the Department of Transportation to check on doing that.

Now I have to wonder if they also have my social security number! If, by chance, this information was obtained by someone who works in the bank, they probably have it all.

I’ve been surprised at how many people I know have already been through this! I have told quite a few people about it, and most of them have said, “Oh, I had that happen to me one time.” Good grief! The nice officer told me that since the crooks only get a slap on the hand, if they are ever caught, they just go back out and do it again once they’re released.

Here are some ideas:

1. Always be sure that your checks and debit cards are secure. 2. Be careful when writing checks in public places 3. Check your accounts online frequently 4. If you notice unusual activity, report it immediately 5. Talk to others and educate your friends

I think (and hope) that my case is a simple case of someone trying to steal what they can from my checking account. At this point I’ve seen no evidence of identity theft. Hopefully by filing all these reports and freezing my credit bureau information, that’s as far as the crooks can go. However, I am including this link so you can learn more about how to deal with identity theft — and how to prevent it.

Identity Theft Victim Guide http://www.fraudguides.com/consumer-id-theft-guide.asp

The key here is to be aware!

Joyce Moseley Pierce is a contributing author to the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.  She’s the creator of All They’ll Need to Know and owner of Emerson Publications.  She’s the Family Preparedness Expert for Ideamarketers.com as well as Women Loving Life Worldwide.  Visit www.emersonpublications.com or www.preparedineveryway.com to learn more.  Follow Joyce on Twitter @piercejam.

Tags: identification, identity, name, online, property

• Family Preparedness , Organizing Home And Business
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Joyce Pierce April 23rd, 2009

If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s a must see!

I looked at the Internet Movie Database, www.imdb.com and learned that the movie was released in 1993. I remember seeing it as a newly-released movie, and later bought the DVD. Critics might not give the movie a high rating, but I agree with one of the comments made on this site about the movie. “Those of you with fathers, those of you who have lost fathers, and those of you who are fathers should see this movie.” That pretty much includes all of us, doesn’t it?

I lost my father when I was a young mother myself. I was mad at him for 20 years after that because he left me. One of the lines in this movie is, “This whole dying thing wasn’t my idea.” It was a message I needed to hear, and of course, I knew that if my father could have had a say in the matter, he would definitely not have died.

The reason I mention this movie is that I love the way it stresses the importance of keeping records! I’ve been a pretty faithful journal keeper all of my adult life. I encouraged my grandfather to write about his life, and I love reading through it, but I sure wish I would have done a video recording of him TELLING me about his life.

In 1991, which was about five years after my grandfather died, my mother came to visit. At the time, she was 71 years old, and in pretty good health. We had just bought a video recorder because every new grandparent has to have one! I had Mom sit on the couch and I set the recorder up on a tripod. I stood behind it and asked her questions. One of the things I do regret is that I didn’t ever come forward and sit beside her, or even give her a hug. There is no record of ME – I am just the voice behind the video.

Here is how we got started:

Tell me about your grandparents.

What were their names?

What do you remember about each one of them?

What about your parents?

What were there names?

What do you remember about them?

Tell me about your siblings. Start with the oldest.

Tell me his name, birth date, what was he like as a child?

What about your oldest sister?

You get the idea. I don’t remember having a script, and watching and listening to it today, you can tell it’s done by an amateur, but the thing that impresses me the most is that I was actually listening to what she had to say, and trying to get her to expand on the topic.

For instance, when she told me she went to Hornbeak High School, I asked her what she remembered about the school. How many were in your graduating class? Who was your best friend?

You can’t script something when you’re really wanting to find out who they are! You just have to listen.

As incredible as it seems to me now, we kept the camera rolling for almost two full hours! I couldn’t get my mother to write one word about her life, but she loved talking about it.

When we finally stopped, I put the tape away and told Mom I wouldn’t show it to anyone until after she passed away. She talked about some sensitive issues that I wasn’t sure she wanted shared with everyone at that point. It was nothing as sensational as the discovery the kids made in “The Bridges of Madison County,” but just some details that I wanted to make sure were recorded correctly.

Seventeen years later, we can now watch my mother’s life story, just the way she wanted to tell it.

When we were told that Mom didn’t have long to live, I took the tape to the video copy store and had three DVDs made. One for me, and one for my sister. The third one was for my aunt. I brought it home and cried as I watched the mother who was animated and very much alive in 1991. There she was on my television screen: talking, making familiar hand gestures, throwing her head back to laugh, with twinkling eyes that were full of life. This was not the mother I had known in recent years; the mother who had merely existed in a worn out body. The mother who was often confused as a result of prescribed medications.

The day Mom passed away, I showed the video to my sister. She couldn’t watch more than about five minutes of it because the emotion of losing our mother was just too much. But she did say something that will forever live in my memory. “Joyce, I don’t know what inspired you to do this, but if I had nothing else of Mom’s, this would be enough. This is priceless.”

Priceless. It truly is priceless.

The wonderful thing about capturing someone on film is that in some ways, they live on forever.

Grandchildren who only knew their great-grandmother as someone who was dependent on us for her care, can learn to know her as was one of the most INdependent people who ever lived. They can come to know her as we all did, when she was the traveling grandma who came to visit quite often. The grandma who took us out for pizza on Saturdays. The grandma who was plump and very snuggable. The grandma my children loved and enjoyed. The grandma who tried to recapture so much of her youth through her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

If you’ve got a video camera on the shelf, get it out! Don’t wait for the next family reunion to record those stories. You may not get Uncle Dave to sit still for two hours, but fifteen minutes is better than nothing.

You don’t need to feel like you’re imposing by asking someone to let you tape their story. Wouldn’t you love to think that someone finds you interesting enough to want to capture your life on camera?

Make every moment count!

Joyce Moseley Pierce is a contributing author to the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.  She’s the creator of All They’ll Need to Know and owner of Emerson Publications.  She’s the Family Preparedness Expert for Ideamarketers.com as well as Women Loving Life Worldwide.  Visit www.emersonpublications.com or www.preparedineveryway.com to learn more.  Follow Joyce on Twitter @piercejam.

Tags: album, dad, death, history, journal, life, mom, photo

• Family Preparedness , For Women Loving Life , Life Purpose , Marriage , Parenting , Relationships
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Joyce Pierce April 23rd, 2009

A good friend of mine, Ed, recently lost his father. When he found out my mother was dying, he told me to start gathering pictures so I could put a slide show together. That was the best piece of advice anyone gave me! He told me I could download the program for f*ree here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx

I got to work immediately because I didn’t know how much time I had. Fortunately, I ended up with about four weeks to accomplish the task. Here’s what I did:

*Downloaded the software. I found it very simple to use. Of course, I’m one of those people who only reads directions if I can’t figure it out on my own. This was my kind of software!

* Started looking through my own digital files for pictures I had taken over the past 4-5 years. This was pretty simple. It was just a matter of importing the pictures into the program.

* Asked other family members to email me with any photos they had. My cousin and a niece were very helpful in coming up with pictures I had never seen before.

* Went through photo albums and scanned photos. This was the part that took the most time because once the photo was scanned, I had to crop. I was sure glad I got started early on this part!

Before it was over, I had about 15 minutes of video which included about 200 photographs. Photos included individual pictures of Mom, along with pictures of her with her children, grandchildren, and siblings.

As I worked on this project, I can’t tell you how many times I thought about how my mother would have LOVED looking at a slide show like this of her life! Why in the world hadn’t I prepared something like this BEFORE the end of her life?

Now, here I was, seeing pictures of my mother that were new to me. I wanted answers about some of them. Where was it taken? What do you remember about that day? How old were you?

As I imported the pictures, I included whatever information I could come up with on my own. Names of people in the photo, approximate year, clever comments about various poses. She was a real beauty of movie star quality!

Since my mother was a free spirit from Tennessee, I wanted to use Elvis’s rendition of “I Did It My Way,” to go along with the 200 pictures I had gathered. For a fee of $19.95, I was able to do that, but by the time I figured all that out, it was too late. Paying this extra money also gave me the ability to burn a copy of the slideshow as a DVD, but once I got back home from the funeral, it didn’t seem to matter.

I’ll have to say that the slideshow was one of the “hits” for the folks back home in Tennessee. We all enjoyed watching my mother’s life flash before us because it brought back memories of much happier times in our lives.

I know there are many different programs out there to help you tell the story of your family. It doesn’t matter which program you use, or how much money you want to spend.

After we got home, I discovered another way of presenting these photos that would allow me to include the music I wanted at no extra cost. www.onetruemedia.com is a very simple program to use, and since it’s online, you don’t have to download anything. As long as you have internet access to show it, it’s great! One of the great features to this one is that you can send a link to family and friends and they can watch it anytime they want.

I should put a warning label on this project idea, though! Once you get started, it’s addictive. Realize that you’re probably not going to gather every picture ever taken of that person, and you don’t need five different poses of the same thing (unless they’re all just adorable in their own way!). Just start with what you’ve got, and go from there. You can always add or delete photos whenever you want.

Just imagine the possibilities.

*What a great way to review and share your vacation photos!

*What a great gift for someone! Start now and give them the DVD for birthdays and Christmas.

* What a great way to share with family that’s not close by.

I’m thinking about making individual slide shows for everyone in my family!

Wouldn’t the kids or grandkids love watching a video of themselves?

Gosh, who wouldn’t love looking at pictures of themselves and their loved ones!

Share the memories.

Joyce Moseley Pierce is a contributing author to the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.  She’s the creator of All They’ll Need to Know and owner of Emerson Publications.  She’s the Family Preparedness Expert for Ideamarketers.com as well as Women Loving Life Worldwide.  Visit www.emersonpublications.com or www.preparedineveryway.com to learn more.  Follow Joyce on Twitter @piercejam.

Tags: album, child, dad, death, family, life, mom, photo, record

• Family Preparedness , Life Purpose , Relationships
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Joyce Pierce April 23rd, 2009

1. I tell my daughter that I need it. She’s a wonder shopper and should actually charge for her services as a personal assistant. All I have to do is tell her I’m looking for something and she’ll find it. Not only will she find it, but she’ll find it on clearance.

2. I order it online. I figure that even if I have to pay full retail price for it, I am saving money by not leaving the house to buy it. By ordering from the comfort of home, I can

a. Order 24/7.

b. Avoid getting dressed to face the public. I can order in my pjs if I’m still awake at 2 am.

c. Save money on gas by not driving my gas hog to the mall

d. Save my frustration level by looking through racks or piles of things to find what I want.

e. Save even more of my sanity by not having to stand in line

f. Save money because I’m not doing any impulse shopping.

3. My third option is to stock up when I am shopping, whether it’s out in person, or online.

It seems like I’ve been hit hard this year with baby showers, bridal showers, and even wedding receptions. With each one, you get a little card that tells you where the expectant mother or bride has registered. At least by registering, they tell you exactly what you want and you can’t really make a wrong decision. In my case, though, that still means I will probably have to actually drive to the store. If I received the invitation a little earlier, I might be able to order the item online, but then I wouldn’t be able to walk through the door with a gift in my hands. I shudder to think about how humiliated I might feel if people thoughtI came to their party without a gift!

So here’s what I do. I have a standard gift for every occasion.

Here’s what you can expect if you know me and plan to get married anytime soon. It’s a first aid kit. This isn’t your everyday Walgreens first aid kit. This is a $75 first aid kit complete with all the antibacterial, pain relieving stuff you’d ever need. It also has all the bandaids, bandages, tweezers, scissors, and even compression items you want. It comes in an adorable Army green bag with a red cross on the outside. Perfect for use at home, or throwing in your car before you head out on your vacation or trip to the beach.

I found this first aid kit through a company where I shop online every month. I ordered one for myself, and liked it so much that I bought a few more. Just for gift giving!

Now, if you graduate from college, or just invite me to your wedding reception, I am going to give you the Dave Ramsey, “Total Money Makeover” book! This hardcopy book sells for $24.95 at your favorite bookstore, but I found a source for the book where I only have to pay $10. I ordered one for me, loved it so much that I went back and ordered three more copies. What young person doesn’t need some guidance on how to avoid going into debt? What old person can’t use advice on how to get out of debt? This is one of my favorite gifts.

What if you’re pregnant or just had a new baby? My standard baby gift is baby products that are safer than what Johnson & Johnson has to offer. If you believe J&J’s Baby Shampoo is the best, then you don’t know that it contains a form of formaldehyde. I’m always on the lookout for closeouts on quilted bags or children’s backpacks. When I find them (or I should admit that when my daughter, the shopper, finds them!) she’ll buy me 2-3 of them. I keep extras of these products on hand, and when it’s time for yet another baby shower, I will wrap each item individually in tissue paper, stuff it in the bag, add extra tissue paper if needed, throw in a few flyers about household chemicals, or saving our children from poisons, and I’m good to go. What mother wouldn’t want the BEST for her child?

As you’re doing your shopping this month, think outside your usual needs. Check your calendar. Any weddings, showers, birthdays, anniversaries in your future?

Most of my female friends and I have agreed not to exchange gifts for birthdays or Christmas, but occasionally I just feel like taking a little gift when we meet. Some of my favorite gifts for my female friends include candles (without lead wicks) or body-friendly body lotions. It makes for such an easy, inexpensive gift when you just tie a ribbon around the neck of the bottle or around the box. They’re pretty enough that you don’t even need a bag.

You can simplify your life if you find those gifts that just scream your name. For someone who counsels people about being prepared, the first aid kit really ties in well. What kind of products do people associate with you, or your personality?

I went to about nine baby showers earlier this year. Thank goodness that epidemic is one that I’m too old to participate in! Most of the people who were at one shower were at all of them. It became a joke when each expectant mother opened the same thing from me at their shower. I like to think that I have a sense of humor, and in fact, I was usually the one saying, “Now I know this isn’t any big surprise to you, but I brought the SAFE baby stuff.”

I had to smile, because the joke was really on them. While they were all out shopping and trying to make decisions about each baby, all I had to do was put my standard gift bag together. At one time I had about five bags all made up and ready to go. Instead of buying baby cards, I bought a huge box of blank note cards. I individualized each one and stuck it in the proper bag. When it was time for the shower, all I had to do was pick up the bag and go – checking, of course, to make sure I had the right bag for the right mother!

So what can you do to be better prepared? Figure out a way to eliminate all the decisions in gift buying. Stay out of the stores. Avoid the heat. You’ll be so much cooler online!

Joyce Moseley Pierce is a contributing author to the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.  She’s the creator of All They’ll Need to Know and owner of Emerson Publications.  She’s the Family Preparedness Expert for Ideamarketers.com as well as Women Loving Life Worldwide.  Visit www.emersonpublications.com or www.preparedineveryway.com to learn more.  Follow Joyce on Twitter @piercejam.

Tags: baby, bank, family, mom, online, plan, prepare, shop

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Joyce Pierce April 23rd, 2009

I’ve only run out of gas one time in my life and it’s because I was driving someone else’s car! It was one of the most frightening days of my life when I accepted a ride to the gas station with my three kids from a total stranger.

My friend, Cindy, told me yesterday about an experience she’d had this week. Listening to her confirmed that we need to have plenty of gas in our tanks at all times.

She took her teenage daughter to the airport to go visit family. When they got there, she realized that she didn’t have the identification her daughter needed. There was only about an hour before departure, and the trip home was twenty minutes, so she rushed out of the airport and headed home. She knew the gas tank was near empty and just prayed all the way home and back that she’d make it.

She got home without any problems, grabbed the paperwork – thank goodness she knew exactly where it was! – and then headed back to the airport with about thirty minutes before flight time. She looked at the needle on the gas gauge and faced a dilemma. Did she take the time to stop for gas, or risk running out and not making it back in time for her daughter’s flight?

She decided to risk it. Her urge to pull over at the exit was ignored. She just kept going.

Just as she passed the next exit, the car began to sputter. As people here in Texas are known to do, she made her own exit to get to the feeder road that runs alongside the highway! Fortunately, she was able to coast down the hill and right into a gas station. Even at that, she was just about five feet short of the pump. She found some nice man to help her push the car, and she was set.

Glancing at her watch, and probably looking like a crazy person, she put enough gas in the tank to get her to the airport.

Taking even more time to have to park the car and walk inside, she was able to make it back in time to get her daughter on that plane, but not without being a nervous wreck for the hour before!

What a HUGE amount of stress that could have been avoided if she’d just been prepared. Instead of having to rush and panic, she could have spent a few more minutes of quality time with her daughter.

With the price of gas close to $4.00 a gallon here in Houston, I’m watching my gas gauge very carefully for a few reasons.

1. If I wait until it’s down below a quarter of a tank, it costs me close to $100 to fill up my GMAC Yukon. I’d rather fill it up more often and have to pay less.

2. You just never know when you’re going to have an emergency. A friend of ours who was dealing with cancer would often have to go to the hospital in the middle of the night when his temperature would spike. His wife always kept the tank full for such emergencies.

3. I don’t want to be in the wrong neighborhood at the wrong time when I need to put gas in my tank! While you may not frequent areas that are considered unsafe, you may not have other options if you’re not paying attention to that gas gauge. Avoid taking long walks alone in unsafe areas.

4. Based on the current price of gas, and knowing prices are only going to go up, it just makes sense to buy now. Buy 5 or 10 gallons today at $3.79 instead of having to buy 20 at $4.25.

The price of gas is making most of us watch our driving and spending habits. I know a lot of people put gas on a credit card, but if you have to do that, I hope you’re at least paying that credit card in full every month. Otherwise, that $85 gas bill can end up being much more over time.

Joyce Moseley Pierce is a contributing author to the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.  She’s the creator of All They’ll Need to Know and owner of Emerson Publications.  She’s the Family Preparedness Expert for Ideamarketers.com as well as Women Loving Life Worldwide.  Visit www.emersonpublications.com or www.preparedineveryway.com to learn more.  Follow Joyce on Twitter @piercejam.

Tags: empty, gasoline, plan, prepare, station

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Joyce Pierce April 23rd, 2009

• Advance Directive
• Medical Power of Attorney

 

 

Emerson Publications has a book that is designed to guide you through the process of recording vital information. All They’ll Need to Know is a 32-page booklet filled with forms that simplify the process of writing down not only personal information (funeral instructions, who to contact, distribution of personal effects), but financial information that will help the family when you can no longer act for yourself. It is a resource handbook that, once completed, will enable family members to make confident decisions according to your wishes. It will help relieve some of the stress in making decisions and will help save money because your survivors won’t make irrational decisions at the time of need.

All They’ll Need to Know provides forms for vital statistics, professional and military records, funeral instructions, names of those to notify, as well as financial information regarding checking and savings accounts, location and contents of safe deposit box, certificates of deposit, stocks, bonds and mutual funds, savings plans, retirement programs, trust accounts, real estate, loans payable and receivable, insurance, and even information on your automobiles and credit cards.

At 32 pages, this 8 ½ by 11-inch booklet is filled with forms that will help individuals find the documents they need to fill in the blanks. Interested individuals can view more information on their website at www.emersonpublications.com/atntk.htm. Suitable for couples so you only need one copy per household.

Joyce Moseley Pierce is a contributing author to the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.  She’s the creator of All They’ll Need to Know and owner of Emerson Publications.  She’s the Family Preparedness Expert for Ideamarketers.com as well as WomenLovingLifeWorldwide.com.   Visit www.emersonpublications.com or www.preparedineveryway.com to learn more.  Follow Joyce on Twitter  @piercejam.

Tags: Add new tag, death, family, health, life+support, love, medical, parent, will

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