Angel Tree

My sister is so amazing. I know she has SO. MUCH. going on in her life but she is working hard to help me spread the word about the Angel Tree we are doing at our church (not even her church. She's just that awesome.)

Last year, Fed By Faith (the food ministry I started in 2009) was given the opportunity to sponsor the Candor Head Start. Go here to see how amazing it was. Last year we helped 94 families (to give you an idea of how incredible that is, the Empty Stocking Fund helped 50 families in 2010.) I haven't counted the families for this year yet, but I'm sure it will be at least that many.

Unfortunately, many families in our church are struggling. Some families aren't struggling, and they are able to support one or two (or more) kids from our Angel Tree. Some families are barely making ends meet and just can't afford to support a child.

Trust me when I say I totally understand where those people are coming from. BUT, then I had a thought. What if the people who couldn't afford to sponsor one child could afford to buy a $10 board game? Or an $8 outfit? Or had a toy in their attic that had never been opened? If all those people came together, we could pull enough gifts together to sponsor all these children (and the staff at Head Start - don't get me started about how many hours they work compared to the amount of money they make.)

My sister took the time to write a post about this year's Angel Tree. And then she wrote another one. So I am finally sitting down to write a post to you, as well, in the hopes that you will feel led to help out in some way. If you can't, you can't, and I completely understand, whether it's finances or distance that keeps you from helping. But if you CAN help, you can comment here, or you can email me at "amanda.talbert at gmail.com" for more information.

Jenn has listed several of the available people on her blog, if you click here. But if you can't support a child, maybe you can donate one of these items that has been requested:

(These items can be unwrapped. I can arrange for pickup. Also, don't forget, cash donations are welcome!)

School supplies

Walmart gift card

Bath and Body Works gift card

Books A Million Gift card

anything Tar Heels

soccer ball

football

an iron

board games

Nintendo DSi games (if you have games you would get rid of but you KNOW they still work!)

Wii games (same as above)

Easy Bake oven

Itunes gift card

Old Navy gift card

game of Trouble (board game)

baseball glove (right-handed)

Selena Gomez CDs

Ross gift card

game of Operation

Bop It

Lincoln Logs

Space heater

Scrabble

Pictionary

Toilet paper

Paper towels

Bath towels

Twin bed sheets

Full bed sheets

Pots and pans

Silverware

Jewelry

gas card

lotions

Thank you, thank you, everyone involved in this! Look at the blog post from last year and hopefully it will kindle your Christmas spirit. :)

(P.S. If you want to make a Paypal donation I can work that out too. You can pay it to that email address as a "gift" if I'm remembering correctly.)

Fed By Faith

This was from my Fed By Faith newsletter I just sent out. I just had to share this story on this blog because I know so many people don't receive the newsletter (why don't you???). This is the short version of the story just copied from the newsletter. :)

If you were at church on Sunday you heard my ramblings about a recent delivery. We were fortunate enough to have two deliveries this month. One of them just really was amazing to be involved with. I mean, every delivery is amazing, and every family I see is amazing, but some just make me shake my head. This man that we helped is currently living in a church in our county because he is homeless. Yes, I know, can you believe we have homeless people in our county? (That is sarcasm, people!) His story just really touched me. He is disabled so he cannot work but he cannot apply for disability for several reasons, therefore, what is the solution for him? While many people would turn to robbery, drugs, alcohol, suicide, among many other options, he is relying on churches in our area and his faith to know where his next meal is coming from. He does have a van he can live in but so far churches have taken him in. When he feels as though he is becoming a burden on the church he leaves of his own volition to find a new place. He is more thoughtful than many of us, hah! Because he is Hispanic and converted from Catholicism to Christianity he is an outcast in the Hispanic community, and so many will not give him work or help in an other ways. And yet he stands strong in his faith. When we walked into the church to bring his food I just loved what I saw. During the week the church is basically his, and he had papers, books, and his Bible all spread out on the floor where he was studying. His Bible was full of notes and highlighted verses, and you could tell this is how he spends a lot of his time. I wonder how we would react in this situation...

A few days before I was going to gather up everything for his delivery I was talking to the girl going with me (Andra) and I said, "What in the world do I pack for him?" He had just a small fridge and no real storage space, can openers, etc. All Andra knew of that he needed was a microwave, and she thought she might just give him hers and buy a new one for herself. Well, imagine the smile on my face when I walked into church the next day to pack my car, and lo and behold, a huge microwave had been donated by someone!! One of you?? I have no idea who it was. I was super giddy and I couldn't wait to give this to him! It's amazing how God answers prayers that we don't even know we're supposed to be praying about. Does that make sense? Anyway, my point is it is obvious that God is 100% in this ministry because this like that happen all. the. time.

Christmas Party #1

Last night was our first Christmas party. We've usually had one or two by now but they got lost in the hustle and bustle of the season. We usually do a Christmas Eve party at Stephen's family's house but we changed it this year to the 23rd instead. That means we have tomorrow night off which is good because we have to go to bed early so Santa will come!!! I hope he remembers this year to come because he has forgotten in years past...

This has been such a busy week but it is winding down!! Poor Granny has been in the hospital having all kinds of tests run on her. She will get to come home for Christmas, thank God, but has to go back on Monday for more tests. It's almost like she gets out of jail on good behavior but is expected to turn herself back in after the holidays.

Wednesday we took our December Fed By Faith delivery to the two families. I think it is awesome (God is awesome!) that we were able to sponsor all those families for Christmas with the Angel Tree and still have enough donations of food to sponsor two families with that too.

I took the kids to mom and dad's simply because we hadn't seen them in a while - except long enough for me to drop the kids off and yell, "See ya, suckers!!" We got to hang out for a couple of hours, and even better - Evan, Claire and Jenn were there for a while too! Then we headed over to see all the Talberts. I'll have to take pictures of Brianna and Hunter with their new toys!! We ate some awesome food, had a great round of Chinese Christmas exchange (I came home with electronic Phase 10 and Stephen came home with $10 worth of candy!!), sang lots of carols, and exchanged presents. We had a really great time. Unfortunately, by 9:00 the kids were both worn out and Bri was just randomly saying, "Bye bye! Bye bye!" like "Hint, hint, mom!" So we left a little before I was ready but after we got home I realized I was pretty wiped out too.

I love Christmas!

Angel Tree 2010

I don't have the time right now to write a very lengthy post about our trip today but I wanted to post these pictures at least.

We sponsored 94 families. Some of those families had 3, 5, 8 children. Some of the parents cried. Some asked where to send a thank you note. Some praised God and started dancing! (Those were the ones that really made me know this was a success.)

These pictures do not do justice. Half the time I forgot to take pictures because we were talking, or watching cute kids, or finding presents...

We set up a "dollar toy" bin. As the kids got their presents they could also pick a toy or two to take home with them. We also had a bunch of socks donated and we gave those out at this time too.

In the afternoon it started snowing! We did get to play in it a little bit. :)

The people I have to thank for this are too many. I'm going to forget someone. You know - if you bought a present, helped me wrap, helped me count, helped me deliver, gave me money, showed your support in any way, watched my kids (so I could work!), helped me organize... there are so many things that went into this being a success and I can't thank you all enough for being part of it.

We gave some kids Christmas! As Christians, if you find out that someone needs something, you're not supposed to say, "Well, I'll pray for you." and walk away. You need to say that and then do something if possible. These kids were not going to have Christmas in a lot of cases. Instead of us saying, "Oh, that's awful. I wish there were something we could do.", we came together as a church (literally - our specific church), as a "church" (in general, Christians, because other churches helped out with this project), as a community (those who do not attend our church who supported this) and we did something about it. We had several opportunities to tell people this was all God, that we were only able to do this because He had blessed us. You can't ask for anything else than opportunities to show blessings and be able to plant seeds in someone's life.

So who's up for sponsoring them for Valentine's Day?? :)

Angel Tree

I need to blog.

My entire world the past month has been the Angel Tree at church.

I had this grand idea to sponsor the Candor Head Start for Christmas - not just the children of Head Start, but every child in that child's family, as well as the staff members and their children. It started off with the 60+ kids involved in Head Start, but then how could we give one child in the family Christmas and not the others? And then how could we give the children Christmas but not show the staff our appreciation? It became very grandiose and turned into almost 100 families.

In the beginning (when we were doing 60 kids) I just knew our church could handle it. We have almost 200 members so 60 seemed like such a small amount. But for some reason, as the number of people we were sponsoring grew, so did my doubts.

I will write a long blog about this and a whole Fed By Faith update at some point... it will include the kind of blessings you just have to shake your head about when you think of them:

• people from another church donating so many toys it overflowed in my car (a church that doesn't even know us!)
• same said church donating cash
• people donating money specifically for winter coats for the children
• people sending socks specifically for the children
• people in my family (who don't go to our church) sponsoring children
• all the church members who took 1 name, 2 names, 4 names...
• church members who consistently shock me by slipping me a check, or all the money from their wallet, or $100 bills
• the church giving me free reign over this project
• people babysitting the kids so I can go on shopping sprees
• people who stay out at the church late at night with me going through presents, unwrapped toys, sorting and figuring out all the chaos!
• people who take the time to say they appreciate what I am doing
• people who bring in a staggering amount of gifts for children who may not receive anything else for Christmas...

If it were up to me I would sponsor every child in this county. Oh sure, I know they don't all need it, but I want to make sure not one child goes without a gift. Fortunately most places like Head Starts are sponsored by organizations or churches. We were fortunate to hook up with one that did not have a sponsor. I hope we can do more for them in the future.

I know I am forgetting lots of things, it is midnight and I am buzzing around like a bee to get things done while my beautiful family sleeps. :) So hopefully I will remember when I write the long blog about this.

It's Friday!

Still trying to get stuff accomplished around here! (And yet, I am taking a break to blog. Go figure.)

I had to get up at the unearthly time of 7:15 this morning. Oh wait, that's what time I was supposed to get up. I set my alarm wrong and didn't get up until closer to 7:30. So I was late, as usual. Back up....

There is a lady that has been coming to our church for the last nine months. She came up from her home in FL to visit her brother here in Seven Lakes for two weeks. While she was here his health took a turn for the worse and he ended up passing away. She has been in limbo here for nine months trying to settle his estate and move all of his belongings. Needless to say she has given so many items to FBF, so for that I am grateful! When I heard her plight I volunteered the youth group for moving services. After all, they can take the time to go to Carowinds as a group during the summer, so they should learn to do some Christian service during the summer as well!! We finally settled on today at 8:30am as Moving Day. Unfortunately after setting that time I realized how early I was going to have to get up to get this party started! I was going to have to wake up Bri and take her to mom and dad's by 8:00 so I could get to Brenda's by 8:30. (Thanks mom and dad - the perpetual babysitters this crazy week!!) So any youth members that were groaning about having to wake up early... I feel you! My child doesn't normally wake up until 9:00 or 9:30 so I am so used to sleeping in! But it was for a good cause. We had several youth members show up and within two hours we had cleared the house of all the boxes and furniture that would be making its way to Florida! It was really a lot of fun and I know Brenda truly appreciated the help. I know she is ready to get home!

I knew poor Bri would nap soundly when we got home since I had to wake her up so early. I absolutely hate doing that, but I knew she would survive. Especially staying with her Grandpa and Grandma. :) So when I got home, as much as I wanted to take a nap, I chugged two glasses of caffeine-filled Wild Cherry Pepsi and got to work... after I gobbled down lunch of course!

I was able to complete my every day chores and other things that needed to be done today:

• made the beds
• checked to make sure certain areas are still clutter-free (papasan chair, nightstand, corner next to dresser in bedroom)
• cleared off the staircase
• clipped and put away 75 coupons
• put away five items in my car
• made a run to Rite Aid and blogged about it
  
• cleaned off the dresser in our bedroom
• read a magazine to relax
• wrote a letter to a very good friend I haven't talked to in months (like, she doesn't even know I am pregnant...)
• dusted our dresser
• took two Bookmooch packages and two eBay packages to the Post Office
• washed, dried and folded one load of towels
• counted up the amount we are donating to our FBF family this month
• vacuumed the living room
• swept
• washed the dishes

Stephen, Best Husband Ever, was such a huge help tonight. After working all day and then doing a long workout session he still went to church with me to help with the Fed By Faith room. It had gotten out of control and was taking too long to organize in the couple of hours on Wednesday nights I have in there. We were really needing things put away NOW because the whole building has to be inspected before August 30 when school starts. We had major fire hazards in there and were blocking the only window exit. We stayed at church 2 1/2 hours. He loaded the entire truck for the delivery I'm making tomorrow as well as some things that were trash and need to be thrown out. He also watched Bri whenever she would get to a point where she was tired of entertaining herself. He lifted heavy boxes that I'm not permitted to lift (actually I'm not sure I could ever lift some of those boxes!!) and he helped me find the best places to put everything we're storing in the room. I wish I had before and after pictures because it is a totally different room now. It's so nice to just be able to go and DO IT. Just to have the time to set aside to get it organized and done and now it's such a relief!

Today was certainly a busy day right from the beginning, but I definitely love getting so much accomplished! Now I'm going to try to get some work done so I can catch up a little bit!!

Saturday, Part 1

If you are on the Fed By Faith email list, you already know that the delivery on Saturday was amazing. If you're not on the list and you want to be, you can leave your email address in a comment on here or you can email me at amanda.talbert@gmail.com. I still want to blog about it even though I have now spoken about it at church and sent out the newsletter, because this delivery was something special!!

FBF was started in November. Within a couple of months, Cindy (who comes up with most of our families) had found a family she wanted us to "adopt" with one small problem - the man of the household did not want to ask for or accept any help. We were thrilled this month when he finally did agree to receiving a donation from us.

The household consists of a grandfather and his wife who have taken in eleven of their grandchildren to care for them. I'm not sure when it happened but the wife had a stroke some years ago and is dependent on a wheelchair, walker, and others to help her with her walking.

I told Cindy from day one that I wanted to empty out our FBF donation room at church as much as possible for this family. I wanted to pack up all of our "items" (household supplies) along with the usual food and toiletries we give. We wanted to make sure this family was taken care of for many months, and then could still use most of the stuff we were giving them. We were making the delivery on Saturday, so on Friday Cindy and I met up at the church to load our two trucks:




The picture of my truck (the second one) doesn't do it justice. I should have lifted up the top so you could see how much was really in there. But that's okay.

The average donation we give per month is around $300, sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less depending on the size of the family and how much we have in storage at the time. I am so thrilled to say that we were able to donated over eight hundred dollars worth of food and toiletries to this family!! I also tried to keep up with the other items we gave them that I could not price out:

• VCR
• "Jesus" video on VHS
• 5-lb bag of potatoes
• 3 dozen eggs (from a family at church with chickens!)
• A toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss per person in the household
• car cleaning supplies
• tupperware
• several skillets
• three plastic tubs of kitchen supplies (pots, pans, glasses, and other necessities)
• two sets of dishes for the kitchen
• two crockpots
• a candy bar per person as a special treat
• kitchen appliances such as mixers, waffle makers, iced tea makers, etc.
• a new Bible

We walked in to meet the grandmother before unloading everything and she insisted everyone call her "Big Momma". I said, "You're not big enough to be a Big Momma!" She said, "Oh, they don't call me that for my size!" You could tell even though she has mobility issues from the stroke she would still whup anyone in the family that stepped out of line! We talked to her for a good 20-25 minutes before we ever unloaded a single box. I could have sat there with her all day. I hadn't laughed so hard in weeks! I would love to adopt her as another grandmother. I wish everyone could have met this woman. She was just so amazing and I can't describe her in words - especially words that are typed out!

I know people at church were excited when I made this announcement on Sunday - about the amount we were able to give to this family. But our preacher really "got" what I really was hoping people would see from this entire ministry. He said he couldn't believe we had to give a family a toothbrush, toothpaste and floss per person. That he couldn't believe there are still people right now that don't have the basic necessities and we walk around with so much. When he brought up the fact that someone had donated a candy bar for each person in the house, he just stopped. Shook his head. And looked up and said, "A candy bar? My kids will throw away half a candy bar." We're so wasteful. In some ways we're so selfish. Not even thinking about it. I'm guilty of it as much as anyone. For pete's sake, I still have ten bottles of Worcestershire sauce in the pantry from when it was free several months back. Now, sure, I donated about six bottles to FBF, but what am I gonna do with ten bottles between the two of us?

Doing this ministry has made me keep check on myself more at least. I don't need twelve sticks of deodorant. I should keep a few on hand so we don't run out, sure, but I promise you before we run out again I'll be able to get ten more sticks on sale and I'll feel silly for keeping a dozen deodorants in our bathroom.

I wish everyone could go on the deliveries. They're willing, but they can't usually because of confidentiality issues. I don't think people can even fathom the living situation of some people. This family lives three or four miles from Cindy. The change that can take place in less than 5 minutes is astounding and frustrating to me.

On the other hand, doing this ministry has shown me that - guess what? One person can make a difference. Every donation is made by one person. But when you put each donation together it is huge! I just feel so blessed to be a part of this whole thing. I hope that it continues for a long, long time. Helping one family at a time is better than not doing anything at all.

Fed By Faith Super Doubles Trip

I was so fortunate to receive a monetary donation for Fed By Faith a few months ago. I told the person that I was going to wait and use the money at a Super Doubles or Triples event so I could get much more stuff for that amount of money! So today, I went shopping for Fed By Faith. It was so much fun!! I hope you realize just how much stuff this really is, and how easy it is to buy cheap items that are great for donating. It also proves how much coupon donations are needed, so I can do this. And it proves that if all you can do is donate money, it will be put to GOOD USE!! Remember, all these coupons will double up to $1.98.



Rice-A-Roni (x3)
On sale for $1.00 each. Purchased 3 and used a $1.00/3 coupon which doubled. Final price - $0.33 each.

Bounty paper towels (2-pack)
$3.99. Used a $1.00 coupon. Final price - $1.99

Blue Diamond almonds
On sale for $3.99. Used a $1.00 coupon. Final price - $1.99

Vanity Fair plates
$3.19. Used a $1.00 coupon. Final price - $1.19

Beech-Nut baby food (x10)
On sale for $0.44 each. Used a $1.00/10 coupon. Final price - $0.24 each

Seventh Generation household cleaner
$3.49. Used a $1.00 coupon. Final price -$1.49

Listerine (x2)
Usually $6.59, on sale for $3.99. Used a $1.00 coupon. Final price - $1.99

Arm and Hammer toothpaste
$3.69. Used a $1.00 coupon. Final price - $1.69

Crest toothpaste (x3)
On sale for $2.50. Minus $1.00 coupon. Final price - $0.50 each

Gillette shaving cream
On sale for $2.49. Minus $1.00 coupon. Final price - $0.49

Vaseline lotion
$3.89. Minus $1.00 coupon. Final price - $1.89

Johnson and Johnson baby shampoo
On sale for $3.00. Minus $1.00 coupon. Final price - $1.00

Herbal Essence shampoo (x2)
On sale for $2.49. Minus $1.00 coupon. Final price -$0.49

Playtex cleansing wipes
On sale for $3.14. Minus $1.00 coupon. Final price - $1.14

A&D Diaper Rash Cream
$2.99. Minus $1.00 coupon. Final price - $0.99

Band-Aid
On sale for $2.50. Minus $1.00 coupon. Final price -$0.50

Final shopping total - This is $90 worth of groceries. I paid just under $30 for all of this. That means each item was less than $1. And every item will go to Fed By Faith (along with a bunch of other items from other shopping trips I and other people have made this week!!) Thank you so much for all those who donate, no matter how it is that you give.

Fed By Faith Newsletter

For everyone who isn't on the email list. Want to be? Email me at amanda.talbert@gmail.com or leave a comment.

Hey everyone,

I wanted to give you all kind of a final update on our family for the month of December. I was so fortunate to be able to meet one of the girls and three kids from this family. Meeting them made it more exciting to be giving them all this stuff, I think.

People from both our church and the community wanted to give Christmas to this family. People donated a Christmas tree, tree skirt, lights, and decorations. With a monetary donation we bought stockings for the children and tree ornaments. People donated stocking stuffers, books and toys for the children as well. I know some people donated from their children's toy chests, but some went out and spent their own Christmas money on toys for these children. Either way, I am so grateful for those of you who donated!

We had several blankets donated. With another monetary donation we were able to buy a blender and toaster for the family, which they had asked for at the last minute. Someone also donated a mixer to them. With yet another monetary donation we were able to buy diapers and baby wipes for the children. We also had several bags of clothes donated that fit members of this family, so thank you to all these people as well who donated items or money!

I wanted to try to give you a figure so that you know how much good is being done with the items you have donated. As I put things in boxes to give to the family, I inventoried everything we were giving them, and then I priced out every item possible. That means items such as clothes or blankets were not priced, but items such as rice or toothpaste were. Please note this figure also does not include the blender, toaster, mixer, diapers or baby wipes, or any of the Christmas items. The amount came to approximately $293.00 worth of necessities we gave to this family. To be honest, I didn't even want to stop boxing items up, but we were going to move these people out of their house if we kept taking things to them!! It's been estimated that this family will eat off this food for months, which is so amazing to me.

The 22-year old confessed to Cindy the other day that she had taken some of the canned meat to a neighbor because he lives alone and "has nothing." How rich this family must feel now, when only weeks ago they probably felt like they had nothing! To me, that is proof that this ministry can reach further than any of us will ever know. What might that man do now that someone has reached out to him? And the person he reaches out to, what might they do for someone else? It's going to be a chain reaction.

We've donated a Bible to this family and I so hope that they read it. I want them to really understand why we're spending time writing emails, purchasing items, clipping coupons, rummaging through our attics, and praying for them. If one person gets saved from this ministry, all that time will be totally worth it.

So I'll tell you what I told our congregation at church yesterday - continue praying, giving, and praising God for all His blessings. I believe these are the key ingredients to being able to feed people by faith.

God bless and Merry CHRISTmas everyone! I will be in touch again in January about a new family.

Amanda

Fabulous Life Of....

Is that a TV show or something? That phrase sounds familiar. Anyway... the Fabulous Life Of... ME! Praise God, I do have an awesome life. Even when it seems busy and hectic, I try to take a step back and de-stress and prioritize.

Stephen and I just had a funny conversation. I was wearing some new shoes:

Me: Do you like my new shoes?
ST: Yeah, I was gonna ask you about those. Where did you get them from? Tracey? Jenn?
Me: Yeah, Jenn.
ST: Cool, I like them.
Me: Did you not even consider that I might have bought them?
ST: Hah! No, 'cause it's you. You don't get new shoes and if you did you wouldn't pay for them.

Hehe, he makes me giggle.

I did get to take the Christmas tree and one load of items to our Fed By Faith family. I'm planning on writing about it in the newsletter so I won't write too much here. Needless to say the family is really grateful and the members I met today are super sweet. As we left Cindy asked me if I was disappointed in the family and I said, No Way!! I love them! They are a great family for FBF to help. They had one tiny corner in their house for the Christmas tree. They had smooshed together all their furniture and stuff to make room for this 6-foot Christmas tree that members of our church were kind enough to donate. Add the tree skirt, lights and decorations that several people donated and it was Christmastime in that household!

Mom and dad graciously kept Brianna while I went to this house (not a place for kids... well, my kid, Cindy said) and then Bri and I went to Jenn's house to visit her and Claire. It was a nice, no-rush visit which we don't have enough of.

I spent the whole morning shopping for our FBF family at several different stores with a $100 donation that was received (I didn't spend it all yet!) and took the opportunity to clean house while Bri took a great nap mid-afternoon. I got so much accomplished today!

After Jenn's we went to Lowe's. I got some great stuff!

Tony's pizza x3
RP $1.50. SP $1.17. Minus $0.50 coupon doubled. FP - $0.17

Bird's Eye Steamfresh vegetables x3
RP $2.00. SP $1.00. Minus $0.35 coupon doubled. FP - $0.30

Sister Schubert's yeast rolls
RP $3.44. SP $2.50. Minus $0.50 coupon doubled. FP - $1.50

Betty Crocker box potatoes x4
RP $1.59. SP $1.00. Minus $0.40 coupon doubled. FP - $0.20

Baker's Joy spray x4
RP $2.75. SP $1.99. Minus $0.75 coupon doubled. FP - $0.49

Progresso chicken broth
RP $2.63. SP $1.50. Minus $0.50 coupon doubled. FP - $0.50

Heluva chunk cheese
RP $2.58. SP $1.79. Minus $0.50 coupon doubled. FP - $0.79

Final shopping total - Paid $7.47. Saved $29.35. Essentially I paid $0.41 per item. Haha. The cashier said, "Wow, that's the best I've ever seen!" I thought, "Honey, if y'all would ever triple coupons you'd see a lot better than that."

I think Brianna was in the best mood of her entire life two times today: once was this morning after she was full and not quite tired enough for a nap. We play for about 45 minutes just bouncing around on the bed and stuff. It exhausted me and she took a nap shortly after we were done playing. The second time was tonight after her and I got home from going to Lowe's. She played with Stephen for probably 30-45 minutes while I got dinner ready and stuff. She was SO funny. She took a bath with Stephen tonight (they both love that) and after she got out she was just talking so much. She's gotten to where she squeals accidentally and then she tries to mimic it. It can be REALLY loud sometimes - particularly in church. But who cares!? As long as she's happy. Of course every time we try to videotape her the camera distracts her and she stops whatever she was doing.

Anyway, that's all for tonight!! Stephen had to go do a bail and Bri is passed out so I can actually get some stuff done around here!

Giving Groceries

I have actually had a handful of people in the past few months tell me they would love to pay me to do their grocery shopping for them. I normally just laugh it off - that is a huge undertaking, a lot of responsibility, and plus most people are way too picky about brands for it to really work. I mean, if you refuse to use anything but Windex glass cleaner, and Windex doesn't ever have coupons and never goes on sale, I can't help you out. It doesn't work that way.

So when a guy at church asked me, dead serious, if I would help him out, I really didn't take him seriously at first. But after talking to him, we agreed on a way that won't be too hard on me and will also (hopefully) save him a lot of money.

So today, I gave him his first round of groceries at church. His daughter later came to me and said, "Miss Amanda, I can't believe how many groceries you got for that amount of money!" Of course I love finding good deals and helping people so this is right up my alley. I just hope it continues to work out.

A girl from church whose family sells Christmas trees spoke to me today. She wants to donate a Christmas tree to the family we are adopting this month for Fed By Faith. How cool is that??? I love it.

I also had a guy at church tell me he has a friend whose husband just passed away and she wants to donate his entire wardrobe to Fed By Faith. Bring it on, I said!! We quite possibly have already run out of room for all the donations. The first week I announced this, my preacher jokingly said we might have to build an addition just to store everything. That's definitely not a joke anymore. God is so great - he is really moving throughout the whole community!!

Oh yeah, I also had another guy at church tell me he has a ton of old dishes - sets of 4 - and other kitchen stuff, comforters, and sheet sets that he wants to donate. Oh my goodness! That is AWESOME! I want to see the look on someone's face when they receive a warm comforter. This just thrills me.

Blessings!!

A couple of people were curious as to why I put my status on Facebook today to say, "Just in case you didn't know this, Tracey Garner is an amazing woman." Well, allow me to explain!!

I was at work today when mom called and said, "I know you're working but I just HAD to call and tell you this!" She walked in to her house and look what was sitting in her kitchen:


Bags of items for Fed By Faith! Toys for Brianna! Loads and loads of items and they were all from Tracey. I mean this is just amazing! Mom just couldn't wait for me to hear the kinds of items Tracey was donating to FBF and I immediately said, "Get pictures!!!" Tracey, you are SO kind and generous and I honestly can't thank you enough.

Tracey, I bet you are the type of person that just loves shopping for other people. I know I will buy something for someone else in a heartbeat that I would never pay for myself and you definitely strike me as that type. I don't expect anyone to donate items to FBF unless they feel led to do it, but I am so grateful for people that will donate. I am incredibly touched by this and blessed!!

I'll never be able to do a blog for Thanksgiving for the things I'm thankful for. There are no words created for how I feel every single day.

Organization

Mom and dad graciously watched Brianna today while I went to church and attempted to organize the new storage area for Fed By Faith. This room used to be our Preacher's office - it's the smallest room in the entire building - and now it's really just a catch-all. There are extra chairs, two vacuums, Halloween candy, Christmas play scenery, high chairs, microscopes... pretty much anything you can think of has been stuffed into this room. My job today was to move it OUT!!

What I started with:

What that looked like after about 45 minutes:

And then just a few minutes later:

Everything is just kind of piled and categorized for now. We have shelves to be hung and bookshelves to be put in there but we have to dig them out of our storage shed out back. So after that I will take more pictures! All of the stuff in the room right now is only from mom and myself. I can't wait to put in everyone else's stuff!

2 Bags, 1 Video, and Lots of Savings

Yesterday Brianna and I went to mom's for lunch. Mom sent me home with two full bags of stuff for Fed By Faith! It includes everything from coffee to lotion to yeast to rice to mac and cheese to tea!! Awesome! Can't wait to unload these at church!

Most Wednesdays I make a run to Rite Aid and Lowe's Food because they're less than a mile from mom and dad's house. I got some great stuff from Lowe's! The key is to go to their website and enter your information linking your Fresh Rewards card to the website. That way you will get offers that are much cheaper than regular price, and some sales that aren't advertised in the paper. So through coupons and sales I got the following deals this week:

All laundry detergent (50 oz)
RP $5.99. SP $3.00. Minus $2.00 coupon. Minus $1.00 coupon. FP - Free.

Lowe's Food vegetable or canola oil (48 oz) (2)
RP $3.38. SP/FP - $1.89 each.

Bush beans (15 oz) (3)
RP $0.99. SP/FP (e-offer) - $0.35 each.

Del Monte vegetables (5)
RP $1.28. SP 5 for $3. Minus $1.00/5 coupon. FP - $0.40 each.

Better Valu macaroni and cheese (10)
RP $0.75. SP/FP (e-offer) - $0.10 each.

Lowe's Food shredded cheese (8 oz) (2)
RP - $2.57. SP/FP (e-offer) - $0.97 each.

Hunt's diced tomatoes (14.5 oz) (3)
RP $1.43. SP (e-offer) I can't remember the exact price!! Somewhere around $0.49. Minus $0.45/3 coupon doubled. FP - Approximately $0.19 each.

Total spent - $11.40 for groceries which should have cost me $39.38. And so much gets to go to Fed By Faith! All the beans, and some of the mac and cheese and vegetables, and the laundry detergent will definitely go. Awesome!

And for your faithfulness in making it to the end of the blog, I give you Brianna. She just finished her dinner of carrots and green beans when I decided to start videotaping her. I'm so glad I did! I love this video of her!

Community Service

A couple of years ago at a meeting of our ladies at church, our leader for that year asked us to fill out some worksheets. Included in the questions was one that I have thought about since then - "What is a vision you have for our ladies group or church?" My vision was for our church to create a food and clothing ministry. Many, many years ago, the church we went to for mission trips had a food and clothing ministry and on Wednesdays we would help volunteer there. It was amazing! This community is probably one of the poorest areas in West Virginia and yet somehow they always had a ton of food and clothing to donate. I don't think I really understood it then, but now I see that someone(s) made a lot of sacrifices to keep those ministries running as well as always have food and clothing available for people who were really in need.

Fast forward to a couple of months ago. I started really talking to my friend Cindy about some of her clients. She is a speech therapist and many of her clients live in the type of poverty that people seem to believe does not exist in our community. As I came across items that were free or cheap with coupons, or were given to me by others, I began just filling up bags and giving these things to her to give to clients. As I told mom about it, she began filling up bags as well. Tracey began sending me coupons (unknowingly contributing to these donations!). The more Cindy told me about these clients, and that many were crying upon receiving bags of items as "insignificant" as toothpaste, deodorant, pasta, cereal, etc., the more I wanted to do. Then one night I was talking to Stephen about one shampoo I had gotten for free. Pert Plus has a mail-in rebate right now where you will be refunded your entire purchase price when you purchase one bottle of shampoo. I just said to Stephen - imagine if every household in our church purchased one bottle of shampoo and donated it. No one would even have to pay for anything (except the stamp I guess), and we would be donating 80 or 90 bottles of shampoo throughout the community! To me, that is just insane! It's like it's just so simple!!

So I finally decided to do something about it. Last week I told our preacher and his wife that I want to start a ministry at church. The concept is simple. If I find out a way for people to get something free that is non-perishable, I will tell them. I'm thinking if I told our whole church about the Pert Plus deal, maybe 25% would go out and do it? Do you think that's a fair estimate? There's always going to be some elderly that don't even do their own shopping, some who forget to put it on their grocery list, some who don't believe it will actually work, etc. As for myself, I will get as many items as possible at events like triple coupons or other deals I find. For example, a few weeks ago Snuggle had out several $3 off coupons, and in most dollar stores that's exactly how much Snuggle costs! All of those went into donation bags. Other people who don't care to find good deals can buy an extra can of soup when they go to the grocery store and throw that in the donation pile. I figure pretty much everyone can afford to buy a can of soup or vegetables every so often (particularly when those things are almost always on sale for around 50 cents).

Every month we are going to pick a family to "adopt" for the whole month. All donations throughout the entire month will go to the family at the end of the month. I also am planning on adding up the amount of the items we are donating (approximately) so I can report to the church - hopefully so they will see how easy it is to do this and how much of a difference it will make. I have already gotten the okay from the higher-ups but tonight I am presenting it to the Ladies Group, in the hopes that the women who coupon will start to use coupons toward this ministry, and the ones who don't will give me their coupons so I can use them! Haha! Seriously, I am so excited about this and I am praying so hard that it will be HUGE and we can help so many people.

Here is an example. From the past couple of weeks these are just the items I have gotten for free from various stores and with various sales or coupons:


This is a total of items worth $66.97. And I didn't pay for a single one of these! That doesn't include the rest of the bags sitting in my laundry room now, and the most expensive thing in one of those bags was $0.74 I believe.

My theory is - if God is blessing you (and he is certainly blessing me!) then you should pool your resources to try to bless others. We are going to try to get that message across when giving our donations to people. Not just, "Here - we care about you and this is how we're showing it." But we want them to know we are able to do this only because of God and because we really want them to know God's love. These people probably do not feel loved by God. They probably feel that life sucks and is totally unfair. I want this to be the thing that gives them hope, helps them see that God is here and He does care about them, and I want them to feel loved by Him and others in the community.

And that's how Fed By Faith was started.