Food Storage Analyzer Review

I have been looking for one of these for FOREVER! This is an online inventory of your food  storage, and it goes way beyond what I have been looking for.  And it's FREE!!!

First, you plug in your family's stats and the analyzer calculates everything for you.  Next you plug in what you have on hand (whether it be from the grocery store, MRE's, or in #10 cans).  And they have a way for you can plug in anything that don't already have the stats for .  Once you have all of your food in (this takes a bit of time depending on how much food you have, but once you plug it in you don't have to do it again unless you buy something new) it calculates everything for you.

I can't believe what information this site gives me once I plug in my food.  It calculates the nutrition my family will receive and how long we could survive for.  I can easily see what areas my food storage lacks in.  As for this instance (I'm not done loading in all of my food as I have a TON), I am severely lacking in protein and calcium but I have over 100% in fiber and Vitamin A.  So this tells me so easily that the next thing I need to buy should be good in protein or calcium.

And just underneath that whole calculation box, they have links to foods high in different nutrition.  So I clicked on "protein" and it took me to a list of long self-life foods that are high in protein!  With this system I don't have to worry about the nutritional value of my food storage!  It tells me right away where I lack!  (Which is something that I have been REALLY worried about actually.  I bought a daily vitamin for my whole family for a year, but those vitamins are considered "dead" and we still need nutrition from actual food.  This makes it so easy for me!)

And one more thing that I love:  There is a wish list!  So you can put products here that you want to buy someday, but it doesn't have to specifically be your NEXT order or sitting in a cart (I always get nervous having things sitting in a cart for some reason.  Just so easy to accidentally order...)

And there are many print-friendly buttons.  You can print your current food storage, next order list, detail of the nutrition you have, etc.  So I can keep a hard copy of my food with my food.  I can use this to know what I have on hand for recipes in a power outage.

And as you rotate and use your food storage, you can easily manipulate just how many of each item you have.  It recalculates it as soon as you enter the new number.

The biggest thing I DON'T like about this is the fact that once your food is in, you can't change the name or any of the values.  Just the quantity you have.  So if you mess up, or later want to change a name to be more organized (me!) you have to start all over.  That's annoying.  So I suggest to name your food by the main thing (wheat) followed by what specific kind (hard red) so that all of your like items will be together since it is categorized alphabetically.  I did the same with my fruits and veggies, but by dehydrated or freeze-dried.  Then I know how much I have of both kinds, as each have their pros and cons.  So I want to easily see how much of each I have.

One more thing I don't like is you can't have any punctuation with the names.  So no commas, parentheses, hyphens, etc.  But maybe they will change that?  I hope so.  I think it is a newer program so still getting all of the kinks out that they haven't thought of yet.

Anywho, overall I think it's great and definitely worth your time using.  Especially for the fact it is FREE!  All the ones I have seen have not been in this depth AND cost money.  (Most a monthly amount to use!)

If you are interested in trying it out, here is their link.  And if you blog about your experience, you can get a $10 gift card to the store! (Don't mind if I do!)

Good luck!  And I'd LOVE to hear what you think if you choose to try it out!

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My (random) Soap Box

So this is not a normal blog entry for me.  Usually it's about my family life and pictures of my kiddos, and I don't really know why I feel so empowered to blog about this today, but it's literally making me shake with the feeling that I need to do so.  (So sorry if you read this and think it's dumb!)

I don't really know why having a miscarriage is a more "hushed" topic to talk about.  I guess this all started today when I had an appointment at my bank.  The guy I had an appointment with was running late (like 30 min) and so a loan officer (I am assuming that's his job anyways) came over and chatted with me to keep me company.  Through our 20 minute conversation, I learned that his family is a lot like ours.  He is going to school and work full time, they live with their grandparents, have a very independent two year old, and a new baby on the way.  As he was sharing pictures and we were discussing how close my kids were compared to his, he quietly (almost whispered) that his wife had a miscarriage before this baby or they would have been closer.

I gave my condolences as I definitely know that miscarriages are very hard to cope with.  And I guess with the conversation of discussing that, I realize that MANY people who have this experience don't really talk about it!  And I think that is sad!  Going through something so traumatic, physically AND emotionally, could be so helped if  it was more "okay" to talk to someone about!

And I am the worst at this.  I actually had two miscarriages between Aaron and Trae (And Derrick only counts one, but the second miscarriage I had ALL symptoms of 1st trimester with nausea and severe exhaustion so even though it was only for a month, by goly I count it), and I told NO ONE.  The only people that knew were ones who already knew I was pregnant, so naturally they had to be told. But I could count those people on one hand.  (I did have one friend who had a miscarriage before I did, and I am so grateful that she shared that with me as I was able to talk to her about it.)

Even hardly anyone knows now, and they were almost all told by Derrick when I wasn't even there.  (Not like he didn't have my permission, I just didn't want to talk about it.)

I was devastated.  I was depressed.  I was 12 weeks on Christmas Eve and we had it all planned how we were going to wrap presents and surprise the news to everyone that day.  I had my ultrasound only the Tuesday before Christmas, and we found out there was no heartbeat even though everything was PERFECT at the 8 week ultrasound.  I bawled whenever I could get alone that Christmas.  It was so tough.  I had to take medication to even pass the pregnancy 2 weeks later.  A month after that I was still having physical problems with the pregnancy and ended up leaving student teaching to rush myself to the E.R.  And Derrick was so busy he couldn't even come.  And the emotional tole it had on me was far worse than the physical.

Anyways, this isn't a soap box about me (even though it's kind of turning that way... oops).  I am just saying I wish that I felt like I could talk about it and the fact that someone could understand what I was going through!  (And those of you who are friends and family close to me, don't take this as I didn't trust to talk to you... I just didn't feel like I could share or talk about it.  So it was my fault, not that I didn't have people who would understand.)  And since this experience, I am learning that SO MANY WOMEN go through the same thing and feel the same way... that there is no one to talk to.

So I guess my reason for all of this is if this may be you, and you want to talk to someone, please feel free to talk to me.  I won't tell you how often it occurs (gotta love doctors for that one), try to beat you with a story from my life, or even say I know how you feel.  Because I don't.  I may have gone through something similar, but it definitely does not mean I know how YOU feel.  And I know I didn't want to cry in front of people... but you can cry to me and not feel bad.  I'll probably cry with you.

And please anyone don't take this the wrong way... I don't want anyone offended that I didn't feel like I could talk to them, and I'm not looking for people feeling sorry or any attention as I am perfectly alright now.  (I have a new healthy baby!!!)  I just felt like I needed to share this and let someone out there know that I will listen if they need to talk.

Thanks!

Aaron's 2nd Birthday

I know this is really delayed as it was a month ago, but (AGAIN) I lost my camera with all of the pictures.  But now I have since found it (my parents had it but thought it was my sister's in New York, so they were just waiting until she visited again!) and now can post them!

Aaron LOVES to help me cook, so he helped out with the making of his cupcakes.  He had lots of fun, but was super nervous with the mixer and wouldn't touch it.  We decorated them as soccer balls, basketballs, and baseballs but I forgot to get a picture.

We went to a park in Clinton and invited the immediate family, and I was impressed that everyone came that wasn't on a mission (Aaron has two uncles currently serving)!  Thanks family!  You are all so awesome!  It meant a lot to us and I know Aaron enjoyed seeing everybody.

Aaron and his cousin Ella (whom Aaron ADORES!  He'll look for her at our place sometimes or point to the door and say her name.  And when we do go visit her, he gets so excited when I tell him.  It's so cute!) played pretty much the whole time.  It took some work to pull him away to have cake or open presents.  And when we did get him seated for his cupcake, he BAWLED when we all started singing.  It was sad and funny at the same time.  I guess just all the attention and singing scared him or made him nervous.  Either way, he got happy really fast once he had a bite of cake.  And he LOVED his presents.  He got quite a few balls... everyone definitely knows our boy!  He also got a fire truck/emergency vehicle that has sirens that go off.  He has loved that since we got home, but the sirens would ALWAYS make Trae cry.  It was funny to watch sometimes as Trae would be fine once the sirens stopped, and cry if they went off again.  But that toy has since stayed in Aaron's room as it really was a problem for poor Trae.  But here are the pics.  I have now misplaced my video camera (I know I know, I am absolutely horrible) so I don't have any videos, but figured they don't really work anyways.

Making cupcakes!

My sister Candice was in town from New York!  Yeah!

Aaron bawling after we sang.

But enjoyed the cupcake.

Signing "all done" which surprised me with a cupcake!  I expected him to say "more!"

He got this CUTE monkey chair.  He LOVES it and the fact he can put a drink in it.

Getting so big... can drink from a water bottle all by himself :)

But his birthday was quite a success, super fun with all of the family, and seemed like Aaron had a blast.  Thanks everyone for making it special for him!