People that are being evacuated, 900,000 by some reports, from the wildfires in California are being told to do so immediately. They are told to leave their homes, and everything in them. They aren’t given time to think about what to bring with them. It’s gotten me thinking, what are the things I would bring if I had to pack up and only had 5 minutes to do so. Here’s my list:

1. People
2. Pets
3. Personal objects

• Wallet/Purse
• Documents — we keep important papers like insurance information, a video DVD of our possessions, and other key papers in one place
• Journals - these aren’t replaceable. Simply not replaceable. They chronicle my life and are a really important part of my life as a writer. These are very high on my list.
• Jewelry — hopefully, I’m already wearing my wedding rings. But I’d also like to take a few other sentimental and/or valuable pieces of jewelry. Pieces that came from my mother, grandmother and one from my great grandmother.
• Favorite toy — my son doesn’t really have a favorite toy, not yet, but I’m sure he will one day. One that will be worn and loved.
• Computer hard drive — we backup our computer onto a small, external hard drive that includes all of our work and photos.
• Wedding album

I think I could grab all of the above in 5 minutes, at least I hope I could. Melody Hobson, “Good Morning America’s” Financial Contributor was on this morning taking about what you should take. Her suggestion for what to take in a disaster can be summarized like this:

1. Photo ID
2. Copy of recent utility bill. Hobson says it is the universal proof of residence. Unlike a driver’s license, which doesn’t require updated addresses.
3. Cash.
4. One credit card.
5. Take photos or record a video diary before you leave your home.
6. Important documents — “birth certificate, wedding certificate, stock certificate or mortgage papers, should all be stored in a safety deposit box at a bank.”

The unfortunate fires in California are giving residents a huge challenge as they not only try to survive the current situation, but as they eventually will try to rebuild their homes and their lives. Let it be a motivator to the rest of us to get our homes in order and prepare for the worst. Ask yourself this question: What’s on my 5-minute list?

It’s cold and flu season. Time for those annual flu shots. Consider this your inner-self reminding you to get the shot. Make your appointment now. My husband and I are getting ours next week. My son already got his.

Aside from flu shots, we can all do a little something to help prevent colds this season — wash our hands. It’s one of the most consistent pieces of advice I hear from the “experts” on how to keep your family from getting sick. That nasty MRSA virus is floating around, threatening to open the door to your home. The best defense, the “experts” say, is to wash your hands. But it’s not enough to just wash your hands. You need to really wash them. That means, using soap and washing for 20 seconds. There’s a new hand soap dispenser for kids that flashes a red light for 20 seconds so you know when you’re done. Twenty seconds is longer than you think. (Read about it on my other blog.)

I Googled the words: how to wash hands to prevent illness and came up with a wealth of information. There’s even a Clean Hands Coalition!

Here’s what the Center for Disease Control and Prevention says about hand washing:

• Wet your hands with clean running water and apply soap. Use warm water if it is available.
• Rub hands together to make a lather and scrub all surfaces.
• Continue rubbing hands for 20 seconds. Need a timer? Imagine singing “Happy Birthday” twice through to a friend!
• Rinse hands well under running water
• Dry your hands using a paper towel or air dryer. If possible, use your paper towel to turn off the faucet

Join me in starting this trend in your house — everyone wash his hands for 20 seconds, several times a day.

Saturday was “Family Yard Day” at my house. Everyone (me, my husband and our nearly 2-year-old) is to work in the backyard for a few hours. Raking, spreading mulch, pulling weeds, cutting down overgrown bushes. You know what it’s like — not necessarily fun, but necessary. We decided to put it on the calendar and make an official “day” out of it.

Saturday morning arrives, Family Yard Day is to begin — after breakfast and coffee, of course. We look outside; it’s raining. Pouring, actually. HMM. I let my husband sleep in, thinking that we can’t possibly work in the yard when it’s raining.

He eventually gets up, eats an English muffin and drinks his cup of coffee, but it’s still raining outside. After awhile, however, it finally stops. Decision time. Do we still go out there? We’re laying on the sofas, covered with afghans, reading books and magazines, listening to music. We’ve moved on to our second (maybe third) cup of Joe. Toddler Boy is quietly playing with his cars in the living room while we relax. We can’t possibly go outside to work now!

All I keep thinking is that I want to do nothing. I want to do nothing. Together. As a family. Does that even make sense? I want a day where we can just be. No work, no school, no errands, no commitments, no obligations. Just be.

We decide that it is just too muddy outside to effectively commit to Family Yard Day, so we spend a few quality hours together cleaning out a room in the house. Purging possessions is good. Makes you feel good, which is all I was looking for in the day anyway.

I’m sure we’ll recommit to Family Yard Day, probably this Saturday — hey, I think the weather report calls for rain.

I’ve got a stack of articles on my desk that I want to blog about when I get the time, so today I’ll choose one that sticks out from the pack. It’s from “Real Simple” magazine’s “The Motivator” column.

Life Coach Gail Blanke writes that life can pass you by while you wait for just the right time. So true. Especially for women. I don’t know why, but I think that women tend to wait for things to happen. Wait for the right moment, the perfect situation, while men just jump in — not afraid to fail. I’m sure this applies to me at times, but I’m trying to change that.

When I started this blog I wanted it to be perfect so that I could generate huge amounts of traffic from the start. I don’t like to do things half-way. Then I got stuck on what to name it. Every URL I choose was already taken. I waited, and waited. Kept trying names, focusing just on the name. Then, I decided that I have to move forward. Have to take action even if I can’t come up with an appropriate name.

I started by writing down my goals for the blog. Almost immediately, a name emerged. From that moment, I purchased the URL and began blogging. It’s still a work in progress, but my traffic is increasing and I’m getting there. Had I waited for the perfect moment, I probably still wouldn’t be blogging.

Blanke gives great advice in her “What are you waiting for?” column (September issue, “Real Simple”) and summarizes it into these four easy steps:

4 Steps To Embracing Your Power

1. Don’t disqualify yourself from the race before it even begins. Doubting yourself is no way to get things done.
2. Make a list of your “wins”" the times you made the catch, made the call, or made the day. Revel in your wins every time you face a new challenge.
3. Abandon the list of your “losses.” No great trapeze artist ever walks into the big top thinking about the time she fell. Don’t you do it, either.
4. When the opportunity presents itself, take it. When the opening occurs, step forward. When the envelope arrives, open it.

I’m going to take Blanke’s advice today and try to move my blog to a new server — something I’ve wanted to do for about a month now, but am nervous about doing it because I’m afraid something will go wrong. Although I understand “tech-speak,” I’m not a techie and don’t do code anymore (it’s too advanced for me now). But this shouldn’t be that hard so I’ll give it a try. If you find something broken, give me a shout.

While on vacation, I read the newspaper every day. After hitting the front page and getting the news I flipped to the softer stories on the inside. I seemed to always find Dear Abby. One of the days I read a question that still irks me. I just can’t believe a woman in today’s world could be fooled by a man so easily. Here’s how the letter reads (in part):

Dear Abby:
…

Last week after I picked up our clothes at the dry cleaner and checked them as I loaded them into the car, I came across an expensive black lace bra, size 36DD. (I am a small B.) I became very upset — I tend to be the jealous type — and threw it out the sunroof of my car onto the freeway on my way home.

When my boyfriend got home from his medical meeting that night, I confronted him. He told me it had to have been mistakenly added to our order, and asked me what I had done with it. When I said I had thrown it out, he became irate and ordered me to look for it.

The next day, his friend (a lawyer) called me and told me the bra was evidence in a sexual assault case. He said it had DNA on it and he needed it for court. He said I should go back to the freeway and look for it. I did, but could not locate it.

…

It’s signed — “Trusting in L.A.”

(Read the full letter here.)

The woman ends the letter by asking how she can right this with her boyfriend because she feels guilty. I just can’t believe that this wouldn’t cause flags to go up in this woman’s head. That the boyfriend could so EASILY twist the truth around so that she feels guilty. She should be leaving this looser, not feeling guilty.

I know, I know, there are some of you out there with hearts. Some of you who may have fallen for something similar. I know it’s hard, to use a popular phrase, to see the forest for the trees, but this seems to be an extreme example of naivate. I wish that women would be more skeptical. Some might say I’m too skeptical, but I’d rather be skeptical than naive.

I was justified in my thoughts when I read Abby’s response. In short, she tells “Trusting” that her boyfriend is a cheater and that she needs to leave this looser (my words).