Learn to give in order to receive

This morning's service was interestingly enough about spiritual gifts. One point of that was that you must learn to give in order to receive. I got a chuckle too when 29gifts.org was mentioned. I knew this topic was coming, our weekly newsletter always gives a blurb about what's coming up. When I read it, I really didn't realize how the message was going to hit me.

See, just prior to the lesson we welcomed new members. Or more correctly, the congregation welcomed myself, my hubby and about ten other people as new members. It was great. I can only speak for myself but I can't remember the last time I felt that much love and kindness thrown my way.

I don't think I really thought about giving and receiving being a yin/yang sort of thing. I think if I had to rewrite what has been written on the subject, I would say that it is better to give BECAUSE you recieve. This giving though has to be genuine, it has to come from your own spiritual gifts. It's really more complicated than I have time or intent to do devote to it.

I am posting a video of the song"I Give Myself Permission". This was the offertory today, and this version doesn't do it justice. Then, I may just be slightly spoiled because God has always surrounded me with great musicians and singers. Between this song and the spiritual gifts lesson, I feel more focused about a few things. Mostly little things but hey, ya gotta start somewhere right!!

Food, Glorious Food!

Getting back on track with my original intentions, I want to talk about Angel Food Ministries today.

I have known about Angel Food for quite a number of years now. I don't remember where I heard about it but it is a pretty cool thing. Really, it's one of those win-win sort of options but I am getting ahead of myself.

Angel Food provides a bit of grocery relief in the form of inexpensive food packs that you can order from any participating host (usually a church). The October Menu offers several different packages starting at $21. In addition, there are specials that you can add on to your order. The packages have something for everyone, except vegetarians (which is my only disappointment since I have a veggie in the house.) The specials seem to usually be steak, seafood, fresh fruit and veggie boxes and seasonal items. By way of example, in this house we average about $150/week at grocery. The $150 doesn't include the couple of times we had been eating out or those little trips to the store. From the Angel Food selections, I would order a $41 "Bountiful Blessings" Box and a $23 Fruit and Veggie Box for a grand total of $64.

That $64 would buy this family:
That is easily a weeks worth of meals at less than half of what I would be spending at Kroger. As I mentioned, I have a vegetarian daughter, so I would still have to do some additional buying to round her out. Also, I have a husband who is on a fairly strict regimen, so would have to purchase a few things for him. Those extra purchases would still save us a buttload of money if we did this just once a month.

You can order online at Angel Food Ministries or by contacting the host site directly.  Orders can be made by anyone, there's no special guidelines or restrictions. Payment can be made by cash, check, credit card and food stamps, you just have to check with the host site to follow the proper procedure.

The win-win side of this is that the host location receives $1.00 for every box distributed.

Angel Food also has a referral rewards program.It is only good through the online ordering system, and requires that you send an email to friends. If ten friends order then you get a free box. I suppose if you wanted to use me as a referral you could send me a message and I'll share my super secret email address with you LOL.

A gal I used to work with tried Angel Food a few times. She really liked it, but her old man was one of those really weird picky people so I was the lucky recipient of some free food. I thought it was good, and R&J certainly didn't turn their nose up at it when I fixed it.

Until we meet again...

4 lb. IQF Chicken Drums & Thighs Combo

2 lb. Chicken Stir Fry Skillet Meal

1.5 lb. Hamburger Patties (4 x 6 oz.)

1.75 lb.Fully-Cooked Breaded Party Wings

1 lb. NY Beef Wieners

20 oz.Steak Fajitas

1 lb. Battered Fish Bites

1 lb. Lean Ground Beef

2 lb. Fully Cooked Lasagna Dinner Entrée

7 oz. Beef Link Sausage

1 lb. Fajita Blend Veggies

1 lb. Green Beans

1 lb. Peas & Carrots

1 lb. Corn

20 oz.Shoe String Fries

1 lb. 16 Bean Soup Mix

1 lb. Rice

7.25 oz. Mac & Cheese

7.5 oz.Corn Muffin Mix

2 lb. Fresh Apples

8 oz. Breakfast Cereal

32 oz.2% Shelf-Stable Milk

Dozen Eggs

Dessert

3 lb. Red Potatoes

3 lb. Sweet Potatoes

2 lb. Yellow Onions

3 lb. Tangerines

1 lb. Cello Carrots

1 Head Green Cabbage

1 Head Cello Lettuce

1 Golden Ripe Pineapple

1 6-Pack Apple Sauce Cups

2 Green Peppers

4 Navel Oranges

4 Pears

1 AFM Fruit and Veggie Recipe Sheet

What's on my mind...



My first Birthday Gift from Ryab 2006

 Sigh...

Double sigh...

Profound, isn't it?

I am sure that over the past couple of days there are people who have deemed my husband and I completely crazy. He lost his job on Friday. It seems that no reaction since then has been quite what people would expect. I know that my reaction wasn't what he expected. I am pretty sure that it is with God that all things are possible, so why should we even care about the ex-employer, because despite their delusions of grandeur, they ain't God. (Sorry, girl coming out of Germantown there.)

I am not worried or concerned or the slightest bit inclined to panic. Like I said the other day, it's a huge testament to all of the spiritual finetuning I have been up to lately. You know what is getting me? Despite all of this centering or whatever, I am alone. Always alone. I don't want sympathy, it would just be nice to have someone other than my husband to communicate with.

It has been a long time since I have had the kind of friends that you can call at three in the morning. I am some what envious that my husband has had other people to talk to over the past couple of days. I don't seems like everyone has always looked at me as strong. Yeah, heh, I feel a song coming on...

What does this have to do with kindness?

Maybe that I just need a little and it makes me feel really horrible that I have to ask for it.

Until we meet again...

This is dedicated to the one I love

Kindness. It is what I try to focus on in this blog. To be honest, while I was at the park with my son this afternoon I had a whole blog skeleton in my head. Then God, being God, had different ideas.

So, apparently come Monday morning my hubby isn't going to have to go to a job that he didn't really care all that much. In a huge shout out to all the work I have been doing on myself, I did not and have no intention of flipping out.

All I can really say was already said...


I love you babe!

Until we meet again...

...Do Math:Count Blessings...

I saw that earlier today, and it makes a nice title so there it is.

I saw those words after I had been to Dollar Tree to pick up a few things for the house. Since I was on my way to church to be an office angel, I decided to stop by the DT near there. What a blessing that turned out to be! Not because everything is a dollar, but because it turned out to be a less exciting DT than my normal one and so I walked out of there having spent less than $10. Bonus: A coupon for later for 10%.

I never really in all my life thought about coupons as blessings until I had read this article over the summer in a booklet about abundance. I apologize I can't think of the author, article title or booklet title at the moment, but she wrote that when she started to look at things differently she was able to see her blessings more clearly. What she meant by differently was basically instead of expecting that blessings had to be these great miracles with fireworks and ticker tape that small things like a coupon for what you need when you need it are also blessings to be counted. If I remember correctly, she started a gratitude journal where she kept track of blessings that she normally would have overlooked or not really have thought of as being divine gifts.

Our human selves are pretty jacked up and jaded by my observation and experience. We have been culled into this mind-set where it has to be instant and mega and if it is good it was all our doing and if it was bad then it was all God. It is pretty easy to see where people might have lost the ability to see good, to see blessings, to see truth.

Since I read that article and have been more conscious and actually gracious of these seemingly small things. I don't ever remember a random stranger handing me 20% off coupons prior to my awareness, nor did BW3 ever just "take care" of things because they thought they were too slow. We aren't lucky, we are blessed. There is a huge, HUGE difference in those things and I would have like to have had that knowledge sooner.

Until we meet again, keep on the sunny side :)

...Free Association...

...it's a sort of odd thing about me. Some days, most days who am I kidding, my mind works on this whole rapid-fire brainstorm mode. I can't help it. It's pretty much how I was brought up in school...to think to damn much about everything. Maybe one day I'll start an organization of recovering "gifted" children but until then enjoy my madness.

The other day, my husband and I were at a particular health food store we like. There was some drink called something essence. I laughed that essence always makes me think of Dr. Strangelove. This morning because I am lacking any real topic, I looked up the definition of kind on Merriam-Webster. Lo and behold, third definition..."fundamental nature or quality:essence", so yeah my head shot over to this scene.



An underlying theme of books I have picked up over the past year is the idea that we all have a true nature...an essence...and that happiness comes when the essence and the physical self are in alignment so to speak.  Denying your true self to yourself or others only serves to separate you from yourself and the joy of living. The separation is what causes us all to act less than kind, to suffer through all sorts of physical discomfort because we let external circumstances keep us from ourselves.

"Heart of hearts" is what my husband called it last night. I am envious of people who know what is in their heart of hearts, for I don't. There are plenty of things that people think I am good at or destined to do, but I most of those things are not me. They are not the core of me. Not knowing makes it hard for me to read one of my books, because the whole book is about consciously creating your joy. Luckily, the book suggest that if I concentrate on wanting to know what I want in the same manner I might concentrate of some other want that the answer will come to me.

I will have to let y'all know how that works for me. I suppose if you find me going on some jag about Vitamin Water being an extension of "foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual" then you'll know that I still don't know.

Until We Meet Again...

Shoes 4 the Shoeless

A friend sent this to me in email.

At first, I thought it was some sort of joke or something along that line. It is not. It is just a group of people trying to help out kids by getting them a pair of properly fitting shoes.

Check 'em out: Shoes 4 the Shoeless