"But I want to help MO-OOORE!"

That was the exclamation from a 5 year old boy

with tears welling up in his eyes.

That's because making shoebox gifts

with Samaritan's Purse

was so much fun!

Handed the cam to someone else so I could be documented in the fun.

Yes, Jake is taller than me. And yes, he was having fun trying to sabotage our pic.

I wanted to give you all a recap.

Calli's friend had a goal to make 50 shoeboxes

and we were able to knock out 75!

Here are a few pics of the packing party.

And thanks to all the families that gave up their stormy Friday night to make this happen!

It wouldn't have been nearly as much fun without you!

MyAwesomeServantheartedFaithfulHospitableFriendSarah

The wrapping station

Brother and sister packing together

Our efforts

I posted about this a few weeks ago.

I hope that if you have the opportunity next year that you will participate with 

Samaritan's Purse in whatever capacity you are able.

Some ideas:

You can make a few boxes of your own at home and drop them at a collection center.

You can just donate items, most readily available at the Dollar Store.

You can donate money for shipping costs or miscellaneous expenses.

You could get your church, school, club or neighborhood in on it and organize a larger effort.

All of the information, resources, drop centers and how to's can be found at 

Operation Christmas Child.

Or you could inspire your young person to get involved. 

What an amazing learning opportunity and accomplishment, not to mention the joy of giving to so many beautiful children all over the world. 

You can do what Calli's 13 year old friend did and organize your own effort.

Here is what she did:

1) set an attainable goal and went to a training

2) sent an evite to friends and family with a list of items and quantities she was collecting

3) combined efforts with homeschooling friends (US!)

4) planned a night when we could all put it all together

5) left them at a local collection center to be shipped

I was thrilled to hear that the stories from the people who get the joy of delivering boxes to the recipients are AMAZING! I am much more impressed to make our participation next year bigger. 

I pulled this picture off of their website. AMAZING!

These tiny little boxes not only make a difference, but they actually change lives. Stories of little children getting exactly what they need, a young boy in Mexico receiving carpentry tools so he was able to learn the family trade. Carpentry tools are not common in these boxes and the gifts are randomly packed and chosen. A story of a little girl in Romania who wished and wished for hair clips and received a box full of only hair accessories and realized that she was loved and her life was changed. 

Personally I had always wondered if these boxes were effective or if we were just causing children to desire more and somehow leaking our American culture on them.

It turns out that these gifts are truly inspired and they

undoubtedly change lives.

I'm hooked.

Feel free to comment with your own shoebox stories.

Maybe next year we'll all be packing together!

Spaghetti Squash Trick

I love Spaghetti Squash.

In fact I've been talking about it a lot over the past weekend.

On Friday,

four people told me that they had never tried 

Spaghetti Squash

and it got me thinking that perhaps I needed to share

with my blog friends how fun this squash is.

It is God's magic spaghetti trick.

It's just the neatest thing to see.
It has a very light, slightly subtle taste
and is a wonderful canvas for many different flavors and toppings.

So, my LovelyFriendRuth passed on a trick to me, 

that I tried and am crazy about.

Let's rewind a second.

Before Ruth passed on this trick 
preparing spaghetti squash was a bit laborious 

and took some muscle work

and patience.

I used to struggle through cutting the tough skin, scooping out the slimy seeds,

it required a water bath

and about 45 minutes in the oven (at least that's how I remembered it).

Most of us in our busy lives,

don't like to put that much muscle into something other than the gym.

THOSE DAYS ARE OVER. BLESS YOU RUTH!

Here's what you do:

Stab it a few times.

 (I did it 8 or 9 because it was pretty fun.)

Weigh it.

(I just dropped it onto my bathroom scale, mine was 3.2lb to give you an idea,)

You will stick it in your microwave.

(Sorry my gourmet friends. I never "cook" with the microwave 
 but for this application, it is magic!)

5 minutes per pound.

Mine took 15 minutes.

Then when you take it out with hot pads.

you will cut off the stem, cut it down the center,

easily scoop out the seeds,

and then the fun part.

Run a fork through the fleshy yellow meat and watch

spaghetti appear!

This is good news for TuesdayMorningFriends-0pts,

Gluten Free eaters,

Vegetarians,

Vegans,

and probably a whole lot of other specific diet restricted individuals.

Do whatever you please with the rest.

I usually put a dollop of Coconut Oil on top, Sea Salt, Pepper, Herbs and some Parmesan Cheese.

You could transform it into a super lovely dessert with Ghee and Brown Sugar.

Sometimes I make it just like spaghetti with Marinara Sauce and 
some fresh Mozzarella on top.

Basically you do whatever you like.
Ruth likes hers with black beans and salsa. She says that the flavors really
work for her with spaghetti squash.
Well, we tried it.
Ruth's right!
AMAZING!!!

The dish in the photo is probably 4 pts because of the beans.
Without it-0pts for tons of the squash with salsa.

The light flavor and texture

 lends itself to all sorts of lovely combinations.

It is so much fun!

You could serve it right in the shell if you are just starving,

or I just put it all in a serving bowl and toss the shell.
Or you could do it like Calli did and layer it all up
with taco fixings inside a taco shell,
and just go for it.

Try it

and please let me know how you like to serve 

Spaghetti Squash.

And here's something else we're excited about.

This weekend we'll be joining forces with 
Samaritan's Purse,
Creekside Community Church,
and a bunch of super chic, fun homeschool families
to put together shoe boxes filled with Christmas
treats to children in poverty all over the world.
Operation Christmas Child
is always so much fun
and I can't wait to get packing.

And here's something that just cracked me up.
After seeing the eye doctor yesterday,
I noticed this in our speech classroom today.

It might be hard to read:
"If you can read this you are too close to my coffee.
Are you blind? Back away from my coffee."
I find humor in this because
one of the nicest, sweetest, and decent ladies on earth
was drinking from it.
And I'm not quite sure that's coffee in there.