Service

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were all spent in service, and it felt wonderful.  After years of being the family that needed the help, it feels amazing to actually be a contributing member of the community again.  "When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God." Mosiah 2:17

Way back in October, on the way home for the Alma Weekend, Rebecca Ritchie ran some inspiration ideas past Maren and I for the upcoming Ward Christmas Party she'd been asked to head up.  As we talked about things to do, I felt so much excitement for her inspirations and volunteered to help if she needed.  Because of a mix up with Shelby's choir stuff, I didn't think we'd actually be able to attend the party, so I "signed up" to help wherever I was needed as a jack of all trades.  As it turns out, the choir stuff changed and we were able to go.

Friday was spent gathering perishable food.  After Thanksgiving, Maren and I went to purchased paper products and food that could last in my garage; Friday was all the rest.  Because Maren had a sinus and ear infection, Rebecca had a meeting, and Randy was home, I volunteered to grab the rest of the food "myself."  It turns out it was a good thing Randy came-- 500 pounds of water bottles from shelf to cart to car might have been a bit much.

I got a new kitchen gadget: a commercial chopper.  It was delivered on Thursday, and both Randy and I couldn't wait to use it.  After grabbing 20 pounds of onions and 140 roma tomatoes, we were giddy to start.  I donned my serious onion gear...

 And got to work.  10 pounds of onions and 65 roma tomatoes perfectly diced in 20 minutes.

I didn't get a picture of the onions, because, hello, they stunk-- we got those babies covered immediately, as you can see in the top right-- but seeing them set out like this, we didn't think we needed to keep going with the dicing, no matter how much fun we were having.  It became apparent pretty quick that we'd over estimated how much we needed to feed 350 people.

I would rather have more than enough than not enough, but we could have done with half of everything purchased, except for the 100 pounds of shredded pork-- we had maybe 3 pounds left over.  Randy and I have some stuff to take back today-- it's a good problem to have.

Saturday, December 15

I wish I would have seen a picture going around Facebook (I am linked to Randy's account, but I never go on anymore, now that I don't have to update people on Caden.  I made a pact with myself about 7-8 years ago not to have Facebook, because it was too addicting and made me realize that I looked at my life through a less-than desirable light as I was looking for other's good times when bothered or bored with my current situations.  My life is happier without Facebook.), because we most definitely looked more "Bethlehem" than "Zarahemla," but it was fun to work together with Randy to make our costumes.  We ended up taking off the head covering and just using the tie for the head, and looked my more "realistic."  The girls took off their headdresses all-together, and I just used it as more of a scarf.  Next time we need to look more like Nephites, I'll try for more of this...

Sunday, December 16

Because of the generosity of our ward, we were able to collect food for a local "charity."  A woman that cuts Mara Kraus's hair talked with her kids' school a few years ago about collecting a few boxes of food for their less fortunate friends that has now turned into a much larger collection.  Various schools have asked her to collect for their students as well, so that they'll have breakfast and lunch at home during the Christmas Break, since they won't get it free at school.

We have always done a Giving Tree in connection with our Ward Party, but this one was a bit different.  We have either done one where we collect food to fill a box for Salvation Army, with specific items purchased for an entire box of food, or one where we purchased "toy/clothing/gift for ____," and other such suggestions for a few families in need.  This one was to help this woman collect specific items, but instead of one family buying all items for one box, we took tags that said, "5 jars of mayo," or "4 boxes ritz," which made it quite easy for people to buy.  It was super easy to look at all of the tags and take more than one tag when you knew you needed to buy multiples of the exact same item, especially knowing that each item was approximately $3.00.  The last Sunday before the party, the kids wanted to each grab a tag of "5 mayo," excited to walk around Walmart with a cart of 20 mayo.

With the food collected and counted from the night before, Mara was supposed to deliver the food at 3:00pm, to be sorted and delivered to the various schools this week.  The Kraus's Yukon XL was filled from front to back, top to bottom.  We unloaded her car quickly (not because of the rain, but because it was infectious, this service) and got to work unpacking boxes to count and organize each item, since we weren't the only organization collecting for this amazing purpose, in preparation to stuff individual boxes.  Cereal, peanut butter, jam/jelly, mayo, tuna, pasta sauce, noodles, granola bars, fruit cups/cans, top ramen, and other similar items were collected to fill a box for more than 150 families.  Seeing all of the food lined up and organized-- the sheer volume of it-- made my heart warm.  So. Much. Generosity.  It was a joy to be able to serve and see.

(Picture send 12/17/18)

I slept deep last night, waking with the heavy sore of one that was beaten by a prize winning boxer.  I'd do it all again in the blink of an eye.  It feels amazing to serve again.