Farmer's Market

How much do you think I paid for all of this produce?Would you believe me if I told you I only paid $20?

Well, I did!
That's it!
That's all!Our homeschool group has a farmer's market co-op. Every month each member pays $20 for a basket of fresh produce from the local state farmer's market. We take turns shopping. This month, I was one of the 3 shoppers. We brought home lots of yummy goodness!

I love having bowls of fresh fruit out in the kitchen. The joys can just grab what they want as they pass thru. The standing snack rule at our house is 'if it's a fruit or veggie- you don't have to ask'. Works for us!

I challenge you to go to the grocery store with $20 and see how far it goes in the produce department!

Are you local? Want to join our co-op? E-mail me! I'll give you all the details!

Now, I'm off to wash, chop, and put up all of these goodies- though the bag of cherries has already been devoured by the littlest joy...

An Idea for You

ROUND TWO: So you've already heard me sing the praises of Troop Care Packages in this post.

But did it inspire you to contact Angel and sponsor a troop?

If so, have you contacted her yet?

I HOPE SO!!!

I know that we've all been busy with Christmas. In fact, I've been so busy that I haven't posted in over three weeks! But now that the holidays are over, please think about sponsoring a soldier this year. What a wonderful New Year's Resolution that would be!

The joys and I have sponsored a new soldier. Our first soldier will be headed home in March, so we can only send packages out to him for another few weeks. We read here of a unit of 84 soldiers that are working such long hours in the field that they often miss their chance to eat. The thought of a hungry soldier makes me sad! As if they aren't under enough pressure, the last thing one of our American soldiers needs is to feel the pang of hunger!

We headed to Sam's and loaded up our buggy with beef jerky, trail mix, fruit cups, peanuts, soup, raisins, crackers, Slim Jims, and gum!

Our local post office was out of the APO Priority shipping boxes (the cheapest way to ship heavy boxes--- and the boxes are provided FREE by the post office) so we had to track down some boxes at a post office in another town. We were told by one of the postal workers to take home more boxes than we needed, so that next time we wouldn't have to wait to mail out our packages. So, if you decide to sponsor a soldier, you may want to pick up extra boxes when you go!

We had enough items to completely fill THREE boxes! Yipee! We also discovered that the small Slim Jims make wonderful packing material ! They can slip into all the little crevices to firm up the package. And what man doesn't eat Slim Jims?

Please consider sponsoring a soldier! In the grand scheme of things, it's such a small sacrifice on our part!

If you'd like to read more from others that have sent packages, go here.

For a list of soldiers and units in need, go here.

To see items you can send, go here.

And last but not least- if you are local, and would like to donate items to go in the packages we are mailing out monthly, then leave me a comment or email me by clicking on the 'contact my web page' link in my profile. We're happy to include your items, letters, and cards!