~ from my home to yours ... ~
I love our little home, it's perfect for us! There's warmth and love within its walls and yes, mason jars, home preserved foods, herbs, books, WIP projects, lots of snuggly quilts, a swing on the front porch and a rocking chair nearby! We call it home and we call ourselves blessed. We give God the glory for He has had and continues to have His hand in it all!

Friday, March 6, 2026

From My Home to Yours: 3/6/26

  From My Home to Yours

3/6/26

~   In the garden and pantry ... ~

It's been a week of temps in the upper 60's and 70's and I've spent quite a bit of time outside doing garden prep and a little planting ...


I worked on cleaning out each raised bed and container ... I didn't get them all done, but I'm over half way finished ...


I made more gardening plans, deciding what I was going to plant where ...


I up-potted the seedlings I started last week ...


In all my pantry reorganizing, inventorying and cleaning, I discovered I that we are almost out of home-canned pinto beans and navy beans.  So, I pulled some of both (they were still in their dried state, of course) from my pantry and canned them up.


Hubby was given a big pan of home-made baklava at work.  He brought it home and I knew I had to do something with it fast because baklava is very tempting to me!  I divided it up into 6 piece serving sizes and immediately froze them.  There was one piece left and I felt good about enjoying it to the last crumb!  Maintaining a big weight loss is just as hard as losing it; I have to always be on guard trying to find the balance between enjoying yummy decadent foods and over indulging in them.


I completed another block in my patriotic quilt, worked on a repurposed item that needed a bit of tweaking and finished another cross-stitch mini pillow that was in my pile of unfinished projects.  You can check out all of these HERE!

I continued reading book 5 in the Bregdan Chronicles, The Last Long Night by Ginny Dye.  

Ladies, the fourth lesson in our Bible study on Naomi has been posted.  You can find it HERE!

And now let's turn to our preparedness case study for last week  ... Preparedness Case Study for week #3 ...

here's the scenario from last week ...

(it's 92 degrees outside and the weather is clear)

This time we have a woman in her mid 50's in relatively good health and shape ...
She spent the morning helping a friend that lives about 20 miles from her home ...
On her way back home, about 10 miles from her house, she hears something hit her vehicle and pulls over to check it out ...
She leaves her vehicle running with the door open and quickly does a once over check of the outside of her vehicle ...
Everything seems to be in order and she goes to get back in her vehicle ...
The door has swung shut and much to her dismay she discovers that the door is locked ...
All the doors are locked ...
Her purse, cell phone and emergency bag are in the vehicle ...
She is on an interstate highway and the nearest exit is 3 miles away ...

What would you advise this woman to do? Keep in mind that she is alone and safety is a factor.  How would you advise her to be better prepared for a similar event in the future?  What can we learn from this scenario to help us be better prepared?

Here's what you advised ...

If it is in a high danger area, break the back door window and open front door. safe option but costs to fix back window.

I would advise the woman to look for a rock, wrap her arm up in whatever she can (take her top off if needed) and give one of the windows a good whack. Hopefully it will shatter into pieces, and she will be able to access the vehicle and drive away. It's not ideal and will result in a cost to replace the window, but I think that any attempt to walk for help would expose her to more danger and leaving the car to do so might result in someone coming along, and stealing her vehicle.

Unless a police officer came by and stopped which they don't always do, she might have to try to get someone to stop and help her or at least use that person's phone to call for help. I would feel very unsafe, but sometimes we need the kindness of strangers.

Go back to main road which is 3 miles and an easy walk, but only you know your area as to if it is safe.

Walk to a neighbor’s house you know.

For future preparedness: Make sure to buy a spare key and attach it to the undercarriage of car for emergencies. Only get the key that opens the door, not the key that is coded to starting the car.

Before ever getting out of the vehicle, ask yourself if the vehicle is steering oddly or making odd sounds before you decide to even pull over. Second, never get out and leave the vehicle running. Next, roll the window down as you get out and take your keys, phone and purse. It doesn’t take long for someone to stop and grab your purse from the front seat. If the vehicle is damaged and can’t go on move away from it, many people have been hit by other distracted drivers while waiting for help in or near their cars and call the police.

What we learn from this is to take your key with you when you get out of the car, but what to do is a big question. It is 92 and 3 miles from the exit so walking would not be an option for me. I hope someone else has a better answer.

I would advise her to look at her vehicle's manual and see if there is a setting she could activate to stop that happening on hers or even talk to whoever she takes her vehicle for servicing to and see if they could advise her. Failing that, I would tell her to make it a routine to remove the keys and hold them in her hand whenever she exits the vehicle, even if she is just getting out to unlock her garage. If it becomes routine she is unlikely to get caught out again.

I hope you've found something in this imaginary scenario that will help you in your real life preparedness preparations, that's the goal of this series.

Here's our Preparedness Case Study for week #4 ...

In this scenario ...
the family consists of a husband and wife in their mid 40's with 2 children, 8 and 10 years old ...
both of the children have ongoing respiratory issues that are affected by their environment ...
the temp outside is fluctuating between 95 - 100 degrees daily ...
the HVAC unit has gone out ...
after calling the repair person, they were told that parts would have to be ordered ...
They were given a time frame of 5 days before parts would arrive and then another 2 days before the repairs could be made ...
With the unexpected HVAC repairs, this family doesn't have the funds to go stay in a hotel ...
In fact, staying with anyone has to be looked at closely due to their children's respiratory issues ...
money is an issue ...

What would you advise this family to do?  How can they make it easier to tolerate the heat, keep their family fed and their children's respiratory issues controlled?  What can we learn from this scenario to help us be better prepared?

That's it for this week, I hope you've found something in my ramblings that will help and or encourage you in the upcoming week.

Until the next time ...  

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry  

~ quietly holding the home front ~

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

Other Places You Can Find Me ...

Grandma's Got a Sewing Machine 

From This Heart of Mine  

Mrs. Patsi on Instagram

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