I am starting this blog and will also start a website for myself and for other families who aren't as prepared for a disaster or emergency as we should be. It seems like one natural disaster follows on the heals of the next from hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, forest fires--you name it and these awful events seem to be increasing in number and size.

I live in California where I've been waiting for the Big One all of my life. You know, the earthquake that will cause California to fall off into the sea? I grew up with anxiety about earthquakes and have survived them all so far. But I'm not as prepared as I should be. Few, if any, geographical areas are free of some force of nature--so we really all should have our backpacks ready and our family plan sin place as soon as possible. After doing what we can, we can rest in the knowledge that we've done all we can to prepare.

As a mother, I am especially concerned about my daughter, who is eight as I write this first blog. It's a delicate balance between making sure she is physically, emotionally and spiritually prepared for a disaster, and yet not scare her unnecessarily. She has different needs than I do, so in preparing for her survival after a crisis will require I gather different items for her.

I'm going to focus on earthquake preparedness as my first project and will write an easy-to-read, family-focused handbook for families who live in earthquake prone areas. You might think this is primarily a west coast problem, but there's a huge fault like through the middle of the country. And with the way the world is changing these days, an earthquake can happen anywhere. So my handbook can be helpful to any family no matter where they live.

I hope you gain a lot from my blogs and I'll let you know when the manual is ready for purchase!