Gleanings for the Hungry

"I was hungry and you fed me. 

I was thirsty and you gave me a drink."

Matthew 25:35

Here we are at 

Gleanings for the Hungry

with some of our homeschool friends.

What is Gleanings for the Hungry?

Oooh, it's hard to answer that question in a quick clean way

because they are so much more than just

their mission statement.

Simply answered,

they are a YWAM ministry that takes

food that would normally be thrown out from

the California Central Valley farms

and transforms it into food that will feed the nations.

How?

Watch this 10 minute video.

Here's our experience!

This bag when reconstituted with water will feed

100 people.

Measuring spices.

"No Tom. Don't eat it!"

Working together.

Meet Henrice.

Feeding us amazing food.

Tommy and Haden making repairs with Ash.

Burping bags.

Not as easy as it looks.

This is the process of removing all of the air

to prevent bacteria settling.

Everyone can work. 

Gracie filling bags. This is hard work.

She must carefully measure 1 gallon, then lift it and 

pour carefully into the funnel to fill bags.

This work takes back muscle and

Gracie shows us how it's done.

Of course it's lots of fun too!

Lori and I burping.---the bags.

TrueLove discovering that I had stuffed his pocket

with soup mix. I can't remember what he did to deserve it,

but he did.

The older helping the younger.

Calli working the assembly line.

Tommy suiting up.

Callahan Auto Parts plug.

(Gilly's favorite flick)

I love this picture.

The spirit of giving.

Working together to achieve something great.

Below, I see the joy of giving on my friend's face.

"Mmm. Soup is good food."

sorry, couldn't help it.

"I love you Jake!"

"No! We are not scrapbooking!"

That's what the soup plant looks like.

"Patty-cake, Patty-cake,

Baker's Man"

I said, "NO! We are NOT scrapbooking!"

Spare the "ROD", spoil the child.

"Rod" is our dear friend and if Gleanings is the soup of life,

Rod is the spice. He and Colleen are angels and part of the reason

we love Gleanings so much!

Gracie was our MVP, "most valuable packer."

A quick peak in the sewing room finds women

busy making diapers for an orphanage in Haiti.

Sometimes the younger teach the older.

Awesome job boys!

Oh dear.

The look of concentration.

The boys were put to work assembling wedding decorations

for Elianne & Eric's upcoming reception.

Oh dear.

Again.

Can't you just see the light in his eyes?

There's no job this duo can't do.

Hannah's Laundry Service.

"Seriously?"

"It's worse than it looks."

"I mean- really." 

She can do it folks.

Calli holding the ziplocks.

I love you Calli!

"Hey we're out of our bubble now!"

I just love this picture.

It's just two naturally beautiful women working together.

My new friend Jenny is living my dream.

I can't wait to fill you in on how God is using Jenny

to burst my bubble in the best possible way I can imagine.

One of my favorite Jake faces.

Could they be any cuter?

Tommy test driving the fork lift. 

He always wanted his first car to be a practical one.

I think he's going to put in an offer.

She's thinking, "Doesn't my mom know that I'm trying to get some work done here."

They're all thinking, "Doesn't she know we're trying to get work done here?"

It was a loud day in the plant. Calli needed earplugs.

not sure what caption to put on this one

The men working with Ash and supervising Tommy operating 

heavy machinery.

Calli and Hannah got to help set up tables for the Valentine's

Love Fest in which we got to celebrate with the

African Youth Choir.

How can Valentine's Day get better than that?

Oh yeah, this is what I'm talkin' about.

My favorite picture of Rod and I.

Um. Did I mention African Youth Choir?

Um, yeah. Pretty awesome.

I love this picture of them with the nations in the background.

I saw one of the girls looking at the wall and smiling ear-to-ear to see her home, Uganda, up there.

See the Canvas people?

Betty and Sandy.

This is what Gleaning's is about.

Generations and nations.

Vegetable Broth

It's time to get into a scrap.

Time to scrap the boxed Vegetable Broth.

Really?!

A picture of all your veggie scraps?!

Yup.

They are beautiful now that I know what to do with them.

I save them, throw them in a bag, throw the bag in the freezer,

and they are ready when I want to make 

Vegetable Broth

that tastes WAAAAAAY better than the boxed kind.

I just throw them in the colander and rinse them off.

Then I put them in my big pot.

Cover them with water.

Stick in some 

salt

garlic

pepper corns

and anything that want to flavor the broth with.

Then I bring it all to a boil,

then when it comes to a boil I turn it to a simmer

and

cover it.

Keep that up for 6 to 24 hours.

I like the 6 to 8 range personally.

Then when it's all cool,

stick it in a large mason jar 

and it's ready to go

when you are.

I love it!

Kaysie Li is coming home!

The best selling book of all time and my personal favorite says this about God:

"He puts the lonely in families."

This has been on my mind since my SweetFriendBarbie

is on her way to pick up her new daughter from an orphanage in China.

Her family of 6 is expecting their 4th little girl,

a five year old beauty

waiting for a family.

If she only knew now how much this family loves her already.
She will be joining her big sister (also from China), along with her 2 big brothers.

Would you all just join me in smiling up to Heaven 

and thanking God that he puts the 

lonely in families

and 

another family is expanding it's heart

to be part of this story.

How awesome is that?!
I want everyone to get to read this post so I'm leaving it up for a few days!

We can revel in the excitement of this awesome family and awesome God that loves 

this little girl so much that he bringing Barbie and Drew across the globe to find her. He set this

one in motion long before any of them were aware!

"No, I can't save them all. But I can save one. It won't make a difference to many, but it will make a difference to her. Isn't that worth it? THIS girl is going to have a family, a home, and know about the God who loves her more than anything." Barbie Roth

Strawberry Fields Forever

This was the song going through my head as I lovingly prepared them for their close ups.

Aren't they gorgeous?

Aren't we enjoying this mild winter so far that is still allowing us to enjoy

sweet, juicy, bright strawberries well into February?

I got this tip from my FavoriteIrishFriendClare,

to clean them up and freeze them.

So I cleaned them up.

Sliced off the green tops.

Blotted them dry a bit.

Then put them into small ziplocs by handfuls.

This is so that when I make my Vanilla Protein Shake in the morning

I can grab the perfect portion of frozen

Farmer's Market strawberries.

Saving some money

in the old freezer section of the grocery store,

while having the best fresh tasting smoothy E-VER!!

Easy!

Roasted Garlic

I seem to forget about the ease and delight of

roasting a garlic.

It's the perfect appetizer as well as,

the perfect little of pouch of goodness that could be added to anything.

Everything is elevated by this powerful pocket of flavor.

If you haven't done it before I encourage you that's it's the 

EASIEST thing ever!

Here's the low down.

Garlic.

Cut off the little twisted tail side through some of the garlic.

Set it on some parchment paper. Or aluminum foil. Or in a stone garlic roaster.

Drizzle with Extra Virgin Olive Oil

and dress with Salt & Pepper.

Wrap it all up.

Stick it in the 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Then unwrap a little gift of the gods.

Serve it on a plate with anything that is a vehicle for smearing garlic all over.

When it's roasted, it comes out sweet, carmely, creamy, and fragrant.

In fact, 

don't roast just one at a time.

You'll probably just eat a whole one before the plate makes it to the company.

I love this picture because it captures how

perfectly soft the cloves were.

See that little piece that looks like a little tooth?

Just fell out of the papery shell.

I love it.

Cauliflower

Apple Green, Creamy Mac & Cheese, Grape Juice Purple, and Vanilla! I am describing the colors of Cauliflower. They are beautiful. They are delicious. And they are in season. 

Good thing too! We are eating "Clean, clean like Listerine." Ok. Cheesy quote, but my dad used to say it all the time and given this is the 3rd anniversary of his passing, I use his cliches proudly. I've finished my 30 Days to Feeling Fit and I'm feeling fit! So much so, that I'm going another 30 days! I've lost about 12 pounds, and have only had one stomach ache the whole time. I am not puffy any more and I get a lot of great sleep because when I'm tired, I go to bed instead of munching in front of the t.v. True love is halfway through his cleanse and needing some interesting munchies to share with the guys during the Super Bowl and these brightly colored heads of did the trick. Add, some olive oil, salt and pepper, and the Tomato Spread from Hummus Heaven and everyone's happy!

So happy that I made a platter for the girls too and added some other veggies to round it out!


Turns out I made too much for just us and we ended up saving a lot of time making dinner the next night. All these already chopped veggies ended up in Thai soup one night and a pasta sauce the following. I love eating like this!

Crash!!!

First it was just an inconvenience.

Then it appeared to be a legitimate bang up.

And as our hearts dropped,

our stomaches ached,

our wallet was squeezed dry,

we were then sure

that it was a full blown CRASH.

The emotional roller-coaster ride accompanying

the event has left us with whiplash

and

I am happy to report that we are 

slowly recovering.

Before you start sending us

"Get Well" cards,

I must confess that it's my computer 

that I'm talking about.

It was a huge bummer. 

Irreplaceable photos,

hours of my life invested,

 and a few false hopes of full recovery.

If this post makes it,

cross your fingers, 

it means we're back on our feet.

Forgive me for abandoning my post.

I copped a bit of an attitude and 

refused to blog until my 

computer was 100%.

I've missed you.

I'm back!