It's a quiet, rainy morning here with on-and-off showers. Mornings like this are so delightfully lazy that I had to force myself away from the window to sit down at the computer and write this note to you. Once I'm done, I'll be burying myself in books because this is perfect reading weather.

The world seems to be in utter chaos these days. It's so incredibly concerning to see the breakdown of civility in England and the complete and utter silencing of the native English people. It's disturbing to hear from Jose the dreadful things happening in his country.

Meanwhile, in our own country, we are so alarmingly close to a communist president that there's a sense of nervousness here. I was horrified to hear some of Kamala Harris's ideas, such as taking over patents, capping the prices at the grocery store, and much more.

I believe in taking care of our own, but our nation is stretched so thin from supporting Israel and Ukraine. Why are we giving more money to these other nations than we are to the people of Maui, who were awarded a mere $700 each after their homes were utterly destroyed?

Sometimes, I take a break on the weekends and don't even look at the news. I believe it's incredibly important to recognize when something is going on that we cannot control. That's when we need to take a step back and focus on our own worlds - our families, our friends, our homes, and our neighborhoods.

When you feel overwhelmed by current events over which you have no control, the best thing, I have found, is to control your own environment. Make and preserve something delicious. Knit or crochet a blanket. Play a game with your children. Read a book for the sheer enjoyment of it. Add some food to your stockpile. Fill some containers with extra water. Clean, organize, or decorate something.

I believe that our hard times are just beginning here. If you use up all your energy now stressing out over the things beyond your ability to control, you won't have much left for when things are really bad. Learn now to relax and escape from the stress by focusing on small, simple actions that are within your power.

I hope you have a wonderful, peaceful day today.

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.