Stefanie Ackerson, January, 72-Hour Kits

Hello everyone!  My name is Stefanie Ackerson.  I’m from Logan, Utah, born and raised.  I come from a family of three kids, just me and my two little twin brothers.  I attended Utah State University for both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees and now work as a speech-language pathologist for a couple of elementary schools in Logan.  I met Nora’s baby brother, Paul, while he was finishing up his master’s degree in civil engineering at Utah State, and we were married just this past April in the Logan temple.  Paul and I have made our home, at least for now, in a cute little upstairs apartment just two blocks from my school.  Paul’s on the job hunt, so who knows where we’ll end up!

Rieben Family - Brad (brother), Kurt (dad), Lynnette (mom),
Stefanie, Paul, Kellie (sister-in-law), Bryan (brother)

Ackerson Family

It’s been a bit of an adjustment for me to get used to the enormity of Paul’s family—as the youngest of nine, he already has plenty of nieces and nephews—but they are simply a joy!  There is never a dull moment at Ackerson family get-togethers!  The Ackersons have been so welcoming to me, especially Nora and the other sisters and sisters-in-law, and I’ve loved getting to know them all.  I’m usually not into Facebook and blogs and other social media—I just don’t seem to have the time for them with my crazy work schedule—but I thought this project of Nora’s would be a great way for me to connect more with the Ackersons and be more efficient at accomplishing some of the goals and projects I’ve been wanting to finish.  So here I am!  Oh, and I dragged my best friend/maid of honor, Anne Halpenny, into this with me, too.  She’s the sister I never had and I knew I had to get her along for the ride!

 

Stefanie and Anne

For my January project, I decided to go with something Paul and I had already wanted to do for one of our New Year’s resolutions.  Since Paul and I just got married last year, we don’t have any kind of food storage or emergency kits yet.  So we wanted to start assembling 72-hour kits for each of us.  But it had to be something manageable, something we could build up a little bit at a time and fit into our budget.  I found the solution in the book Six Sisters’ Stuff.  I love this book!  I originally bought it for the recipes and craft ideas, but as I was looking through it I found a great week-by-week plan for slowly building your 72-hour kit over 52 weeks.  So the idea is, each week you add just one item to your grocery/to-do list, and by the end of a year, you have everything you need!  Except it’s so simple, I decided we could lump a few weeks-worth of items together each week to have the kits ready faster.  We’re already on week 13 and feeling very proud of ourselves. 

Each of us has a backpack already filling up with items including water bottles, manual can openers, tuna fish, paper towels, toilet paper, emergency blankets, cash, and soap.  We’ve also thrown in some random emergency supplies we already had from our college days and wedding gifts, including matches, emergency candles, lighters, emergency sleeping bags, flashlights, and food kits.  Some of the items we’ll be adding in upcoming weeks include extra clothes, more food items, disinfectants, personal documents and medical information, tools, hygiene products, and even stress-relief factors (books, magazines, playing cards, games, etc.)—I never would have thought of some of these things!  I’ve never come across a more comprehensive list and I’m so excited to add more!  But even on top of all that, the plan also includes other emergency-related assignments aside from items for a 72-hour kit, including creating an emergency escape route, checking smoke detectors, and updating immunizations.

The beginnings of our 72-hour kits

As the leaders of the church, the Boy Scouts motto, and Scar from the Lion King are always telling us, we must BE PREPARED.  And now Paul and I feel like we are finally on our way!