Why Am I AWAKE at Midnight?

I need my sleep. I am not one of those people who functions well without enough of it! So why am I writing on my blog at midnight?

Well, it’s been quite a week. Full of lots of comings and goings, lots of eBaying, lots of birthday partying (Greyden turned 5), and lots of vomiting. Yep, we had a virus strike. Fortunately, thus far only Emery has succumbed to the vomiting part and he is old enough to make it to the bucket.

Today I was hit with a horrid (that’s Brett‘s favorite word ) headache. I tried to battle it all morning and into the afternoon. But I finally gave up at 3:00 and took 1 excedrin. Just 1. That’s it. But I guess I am not used to caffeine, because here I am, wide awake.

So I decided to describe the awesome evening we had. Jim came home from work today pretty early. But he was not in a good mood, because he had forgotten to stop by a customer’s house and pick up a truckload of stuff the customer had for us. Since it was Greyden’s birthday, Jim decided to make a special trip back to town with Greyden. When he returned, in his pickup truck were:

a dozen bags of tortilla chips
half a dozen bags of potato chips
two bags of good chocolate and almond candies
65 pounds of potatoes
35 pounds of apples
20 pounds of shredded cabbage
2 large packs of diapers
22 cases of frozen whole chickens (each case averaged 35 pounds of chicken)

Oh my! Now, all of this was not garbage – it was all good food. I turned on our two outdoor upright freezers, and we fit 15 cases of the chicken in them. But that still left 7 cases that had to go tonight (it’s a warm night here).

So, I started calling people to see if they could use some chicken. I have lots of friends who would have taken the chicken. But we called people who really needed some food. With the rising costs of gas and food, there are a lot of people who are really struggling, and we wanted to bless them. And bless them we did!

It was SO much fun! We gave away 11 cases of chicken tonight. Some of the recipients were an older retired couple, a family of 9, a newly married family, 2 families that just had babies, and 5 other families as well.

We also gave away some potatoes, apples, diapers, all the cabbage (remember the 100 pounds of cabbage I already got?), and chips. I admit, we did keep the chocolate for ourselves. They were a gift to Greyden for his birthday from Jim’s customer, so how could I give them away, right? 😉

So I still have 11 cases of chicken in the freezer, but that’s just 385 pounds of chicken instead of 770 pounds. I have two other families that will be getting a case each tomorrow, and some other phone calls to make as well. I’ll probably keep 2 for us, and find homes for the rest.

Everyone really enjoyed giving the food away and hearing how thankful everyone was. Brett in particular was really moved by it. She’s thinking about ways she can start a food ministry. Who knows what will happen, but every time we eat chicken, I’m sure we’ll be reminded of this night.