Sorry about missing the last week. I’m going to Europe tomorrow and I’ve been planning and packing madly. Yes, I actually started packing several days in advance. This is a first for me. Usually I’m tossing stuff in my suitcase as Mister yells at me to hurry-up-because-we-need-to-be-at-the-airport-right-this-second-I-cant-believe-you-haven’t-done-this-already. But that’s because I’m in charge of packing seven people and he’s in charge of packing one. But he always forgets that teensy detail. So anyway, I love planning trips. And I’ve been planning all the fun things for us to do in London and Paris. (All six kids are not going along, by the way.)

So I won’t be doing a preparedness item next week. Instead we’re going to be working on buying medicine for the next week and a half. Medicine can be kind of spendy so it’s nice to break it up into a couple of smaller chunks.

Here are things to buy that anybody would need:

band-aids, gauze and tape (gauze and tape are pretty cheap)

Neosporin

alcohol

pain relievers (Advil or Tylenol. Pills and/or liquid)

Anti-diarrheal medicine (you can die of the runs if they get bad enough)

Cold or allergy medicine

Now think of specialized medications that your family may need:

Diabetes supplies

Stomach medications (Prilosec, Tums, Gas-X)

Contact lens supplies

Cough drops

Really think about what you would need if you couldn’t get to a pharmacy or doctor for a couple of weeks.  The nice thing about medicine and pharmaceutical supplies is that you will probably use them at some point. This isn’t like cans of dried beans!

Remember that health is your family’s number one priority. This isn’t the time to skimp!