I’m thankful for the reminder of a friend that it’s not too late to pack a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child!
Dropoff times are next week!
Here are 100 Shoebox ideas for a boy
If you’re interested in packing a box for a child in need, you can find the information about packing one here.
The ages most needed are boys 2-4 and boys 10-14.
I am grateful to have flowers in the garden with which I can make my own flower arrangements. What are you thankful for today?
Today, I am so thankful that, completely unexpectedly, I found a place to perform a service I need for $45, instead of the $250 I thought I was going to have to pay at another place. I didn’t know how I was going to come up with the $250, and I am so delighted to have…
I am thankful to be able to share the abundance of basil from my garden with three people today. I had planned to cut it and pull it all out today and tomorrow, and I really didn’t want to waste any of it, but it is getting too cold for it to keep growing. …
Today I am thankful for the Swiss chard (silverbeet) that reseeded itself in my garden earlier this year. The plants were big enough to cut for dinner tonight, and there is plenty more to eat several more nights soon (plus, of course, it will keep growing). What are you grateful for today?
When I was a teenager, my parents used to watch the televsion show, “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”. I remember being so impressed by Wayne Brady, one of the actors on the show, and his ability to make up funny lyrics to songs on the spot. At one point I learned that he was married,…
I am thankful for Thanksgiving leftovers. They made my day so much easier and left me with more time to work on other projects.
I am thankful that we are able to fund a Thanksgiving dinner for a family that needs ‘help’ again this year. Every year our church gives what they call ‘bags of Celebration’ for Thanksgiving and Christmas. You are asked to pick up a bag, fill it with items from the list and return it to the church. The youth of the church puts the bag contents together with a turkey donated by our church and then delivers it to a family in need before Thanksgiving. We do the same thing at Christmas with a new toy.
New this year to us is being asked to sponsor a child in our Africa orphan center. Our church built a church orphan home in Africa a few years ago. Now there are almost 400 children there who lost their parents to AIDS. Some of our members have gone to Africa several times on mission trips to build a school separate from the living quarters. Now for $35.00 a month we can sponsor a child. I have been praying on this. I love children. I think we are going to do it. We are so blessed, I love that I can share it.
I am thankful for the ripening bowls that extend my tomato harvest, & keep me from wasting all those green tomatoes at the end of the season. I am also thankful for the enchilada sauce recipe that I found on the One Hundred Dollars A Month site, to use with the tomato sauce I put up.
I am thankful for my two cats, who entertained us last night as they tried desperately to cuddle up together in front of the fire on a very small cat bed. They have been a wonderful, fun-loving addition to our family. I am thankful to our big cuddly 13 year old cat, Elias (aka Bubba) who brings me is catnip heart every night to tell me he loves me. I am also thankful for our youngest cat, Albert, who’s odd little quirks and sense of adventure has entertained us to no end since he joined the family a few years ago. I’m so very grateful for their unconditional love they bestow upon us and the love we reciprocate in return!
I’m thankful for having the ability to stay at home with my children and homeschooling one and in a few years the other. 🙂 even though I can feel lost at times as I work through what works for our family style in schooling.
I am thankful for all of the tips that this blog and its readers provide that help us have “life beautiful for less”. I was reading in my local newspaper that the average Thanksgiving meal for 10 people is $49.00. Mine will not be even close to that and I am feeding 14 people for Thanksgiving this year. That would not be possible if I had not found this blog several years ago and became a faithful follower in implementing the many ideas that I have gained.
Southern Ladye
Our church sponsored 25 joy bags for a missionary organization that sends them to needy children. My family filled 2 bags. It was a joy to give and warmed my heart. I would encourage others to fill a shoebox!!!!
On a personal note we have our first grandbaby due in April. It has been a long road for my daughter-in-law with several dissappointing miscarriages. She’s is at the end of her fourth month and all looks good. My husband and I got to see the sonagram, still early, our little one is very tiny but we are grandparents. We are blessed and excited beyond words. I would ask prays for all to contintue to good well!
Being a grandparent is wonderful. It is a beautiful feeling to watch YOUR child parent. Congratulations and best wishes to you and your husband. Saying prayers for all for a safe delivery.
I am Thankful for having a fertile mind that always wants to learn. I was able to use some of the skills I’ve gained (in this case crochet) to swap with a woman today who had a pair of boots in really good shape in a size 3, which I desperately needed for my son and have been unable to find. I have repaired (read: rebuilt) one pair of boots that we were given that we were going to try to make work, but the lady was sitting next to me at therapy talking on her phone about how disappointed she was that a woman had stood her up on buying some old clothes and things (she’d had them listed on Craigslist or like site).
I decided to just take the plunge and ask her what she had been trying to sell and she told me. I asked her if she had some size three winter boots and she said yes. When I asked her the price, I kind of flinched as she wanted 30.00 for the boots and that was more than I had, but then she looked down at what I was working on (a potholder) and kept saying how pretty it was. I then reached into my bag and pulled out the four I had done already to use for Christmas gifts for teachers and therapists and asked if she would be willing to trade for the boots. She was thrilled with the idea as she loved the idea of getting hand made Christmas gifts for family members without having to “pay” for them.
And now I have a new to us pair of really good quality boots for my son. I am very, very thankful God put that blessing in my path!
First off, I haven’t written here in two months because I take Aug-Oct off because I take a part time job as a costumer during the fall months. When I came on the other day, I couldn’t believe everything you have been doing with your injury. You see, during my part time job, I fell and broke my knee cap. So, thanks for the encouragement. I am allowed to walk a little so I am going to see what I can do and focus on that. Thank you! For what I am thankful for is the fact that I have the extra money from the job. It’s allowing us to be loser on our food budget even though the pantry is pretty well stocked, it makes it easier on my husband to have a few convenience items. Plus, it’s allowed me to do some online Christmas shopping.
Hi Brandy and all from Australia :D.
Today I am thankful for our small electricity bill, we have been working turning off our television, computer modem and the computer chargers every time we go out to garden and cooking during the day rather than the evening. Our power bill came in $61.89 under our last power bill and we used 3.4kw less power this quarter than the last.
What a wonderful idea shoebox gifts are, our church is currently doing a tin of food collection that will last until Christmas time, where each member donates a tin of food per person per household. The church chooses one worthwhile charity during this time and donates all of the tins of food to that charity to help needy families. Last year it was the salvation army. Towards Christmas time volunteer church members help to box up and sort the food, so that the charities can just pick them up and distribute them.
I remember last year in our old ward, I prepared a small box of pantry staples I had been saving in my food storage and took them to church to donate. A lovely lady sitting beside me that I knew for many years from another ward was visiting, had unbeknown to me recently had their business go broke and had lost their home partly due to the GFC and resulting downturn in sales. When I donate I remember the following words this lady said to me with tears in her eyes as I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and hugged her.
“Is that all from you ?, how lovely. You don’t know just how much that box of food would mean to someone, it could mean the world”.
I had a wonderful lunch today with friends that live in other places, I am grateful for these friendships and the chance to catch up. I am thankful we have all lived long enough to become those people we talked about (the old people who sit around and talk about their health and medical costs).
I am thankful I have accumulated enough sky miles to cover an airline ticket. I’m grateful thanksgiving is just around the corner. My husband smokes a turkey every year and I’m looking forward to it.
Hi Erica & how wonderful the trade that you did. It is extremely nerve wracking when you are a bit shy such as myself to venture into trading and with a stranger that is even braver. It is one of many of the valuable skills of self sufficiency, I shall put this link up for you so you can see the others for useful information for you and others – http://www.backdoorsurvival.com/mapping-the-road-to-self-sufficiency/ . It is a blog I found on a prepping site and the whole site has some valuable information on it.
I have also recently gone into trading for needed items in our home as well as we are on pensions and have a limited income, we are able to earn a small amount on our pensions each fortnight.
We have traded vegetables for – paying part of the cost for bulk honey, for many dozens of eggs, for vegetable seeds for our garden, recently for molasses for our garden and more eggs.
We have traded doing service with the rototiller that we have purchased to dig people’s garden beds that don’t have the equipment for – basil seedlings, horse manure for the garden and eggs.
We have done service by supplying our 7 x 5 box trailer we recently purchased, and picking up larger items for friends who have insisted on filling up our car with fuel.
I also sell my vegetables to friends from church for under farmers market and supermarket costs here to pay for vegetable seeds, fertilizers, manures and groceries, making sure I keep a certain amount aside to pay for seeds etc and garden machinery equipment.
Recently I have started growing & traditionally drying herbs and collecting seeds and selling the seeds and dried herbs on the internet and to friends as well to bring in extra income.
I design and sew home decorator items such as table placemats, runners, curtain tiebacks, wallets and eye masks and sell them on the internet which pays for our mobile phone and internet costs most months as well.
With a little know how, effort, lateral thinking, a touch of braveness and of course god putting the blessings in our path, it is amazing what we can all achieve with a limited income.
That is so wonderful, Erika! I’m sure getting the boots must be a huge relief for you, especially for the price of a few handmade potholders. I hope you have enough supplies to make more for the Christmas gifts.;)