For some reason, I've been slow about getting into the holiday spirit this year. I think a lot of people have likewise been less than festive.

Maybe it's the nagging sense of doom - it really does feel like things are about to go even more horribly wrong in the world, doesn't it? This hinky feeling can really get in the way of a good time.

Or maybe it's money. It's tight for just about everyone I know. It's hard to think about going out and spending hundreds of dollars on gifts and decor, springing for a big feast, and sending out 80 Christmas cards when you're simultaneously thinking about how much groceries have gone up and wondering how to stretch your money til your next paycheck.

But yesterday, I sat down, got my items ordered, and stayed well within the budget I had laid out for myself. While I was shopping online (the ankle makes it tricky to shop in person this year), I found a bunch of cool prepper-oriented gifts I'm going to share with y'all later this week.

I also got a really fun thing published on Amazon. It's another coloring book for folks like us: independent thinkers, liberty lovers, and folks who are done with commies and wokery. It's called The Freedom Isn't Free Coloring Book. I think it will make a great stocking stuffer or small gift for the real red-blooded Americans on your shopping list. Here are some images from it.

You can order the coloring book here:
https://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Isnt-Free-Coloring-Book/dp/B0CNXPBWZQ/

I honestly had such a blast making that! I think it's really a great gift idea and I hope you guys love it. (If you do, of course, please leave me a five-star review!)

Another idea we had as a family is that this year, we are exchanging some things we already have.

For example, we have this T-shirt that I swear I bought for myself. I even remember the store I got it from. Well, it has been swiped by both of my girls for a year at a time, with both of them vowing I got the shirt for them. Now, we just jokingly pass it around between the three of us. Every time we see the shirt - which, let me be clear, is just a black t-shirt with a forest on it - at one of the other person's homes, we swipe it and pretend we have no idea how it got in our closets.

We decided to take it a step further, though, and do it for real. We're wrapping some things we already own but don't use much, like books, kitchen items, clothing, and gifting it to a family member who will actually use it and enjoy it.

I don't currently have custody of the T-shirt mentioned above. But I have high hopes it'll be under the tree! 😂

I think this may just be a fun new tradition that gets us festive without spending money folks don't have. I'm all about keeping it easy this year and dialing down the stress.

Be creative this year! I bet your family will be relieved too!

Having something to eat isn't guaranteed.

We're facing threats to our food supply from many different angles: supply chain breakdowns, drought, food facilities being ravaged by fires, skyrocketing inflation, and outright shortages. No longer can we live in the comfort of unthreatened abundance. We're learning exactly how delicate the system really is.

Prepping and putting back supplies is incredibly important but what we're seeing now goes beyond that. You have to be able to produce and acquire more food. You have to be able to put back your harvests to eat during the winter. You have to be able to prepare items that once were as convenient as popping open a can or little plastic container.

You need a paperback copy of How to Feed Your Family No Matter What, our Organic Prepper anthology with ALL of our content about food. You'll get more than 500 pages of content that are all about food when you can't just go to the store and buy whatever you want.