Freezer coin trick and me as a convention panelist news!

Mar 06, 2026 10:56 pm

Hi friends,

We had a pretty big moment at our house this week.

My son is finally home from his mission in Finland after two years. We’ve been doing weekly video calls the whole time, so we stayed in touch, but it still felt wonderful to see him walk through the airport doors!

At more than 6 feet tall, he towered over me. But his little 11-year-old sister had grown even more (she's almost as tall as me!), so she got a satisfying shocked face from him.

I still think it's crazy to reach up to hug my kids when I used to hold them in my arms.

I also have some exciting author news!

Besides Book 6 coming out in May, I’ve been invited to be an author panelist at the LitRPG convention happening this July in Denver, Colorado.

I’m really looking forward to it. If any of you happen to live in that area and plan to attend, please come say hi. I’d love to meet readers in person and sign a few books.

And finally, today's preparedness tip involves putting a coin in your freezer.

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Preparedness Tip #32: The Freezer Coin Trick

Power outages happen every winter or bad storm season.

Sometimes they last an hour. Sometimes they last long enough for the food in your freezer to thaw and refreeze without you realizing it.

That can be a problem, because food that thawed completely and then refroze may not be safe to eat.

So, here's a simple trick that can tell you if that happened without you noticing:

Fill a small cup or wide-mouthed water bottle with water and place it in your freezer.
Once the water freezes solid, put a coin on top of the ice.
Leave the cup in your freezer from then on.
If the power goes out long enough for the ice to melt, the coin will sink down into the water. When everything refreezes, the coin will be frozen somewhere lower in the cup/bottle.
So when power is back on, take a quick look.
If the coin is still sitting on top of the ice, your freezer likely stayed frozen.
If the coin is at the bottom or buried in the ice, your freezer probably thawed during the power outage before refreezing when it came back on.

It takes about thirty seconds to set up, but it can save you from guessing whether your food is still safe after a power outage.

Hopefully you’ll set it up and never need it. But it’s a nice little trick to have in your back pocket just in case.