Satisfying Saturday

Saturday, my men spent a day together working on a house then planting the beginnings of our garden at home. Haley and I ran all over and had an amazing day together….and it didn't involve any musical performing!

Our first stop for the day was at a food packing event for Feed My Starving Children. Haley has been making decorated violin mutes (check out her webpage here if you'd like to help her with next year's contribution) and donating the majority of her earnings (all except what she needs to pay for more materials) to Feed My Starving Children. In five weeks, she earned $150 for the program!

Haley's violin teacher organizes this event in our area and Haley's heart was moved to help out in her own way. Feed My Starving Children is a program that sends food to starving children in almost 70 different countries and work with partner organizations who set up schools and programs to teach the people living in these poverty stricken areas how to use their natural resources to become self-sufficient. Feed My Starving Children does not advertise nationally and 92% of donations go directly to the food program. Volunteers pack the food to be sent out and 99% of the food is delivered securely.

Once we registered at the event, we were sent to a room to watch a short film on how to pack the meals. A couple of Haley's friends from the violin studio were there so when we walked over to the school to pack, we teamed up with them and their parents to work one side of a table together. Kassie's mom and I added the food to the bags, Anna and Kassie held the bags and checked them for weight, and Haley and Anna's dad sealed the bags and handed them over to be packed in boxes.

The work went quickly and what might have been seen as repetitive and boring was not. Everyone was so excited to be helping people directly and happy to be spending this time in fellowship with one another. In a little under two hours, our table packed 23 boxes containing 36 bags each. Here are the girls afterward….

Showing our number of boxes packed!

Our total volunteer group of 171 people packed over 200 boxes containing enough meals to feed 121 children for a year! After the packing a large group of volunteers prayed over the boxes and got a taste of the food as we left. (It tasted like Rice-a-Roni.)

From the packing event, we drove back to our area to a local Amish farmer's market because Haley's writing tutor has a shop there and she had a friend giving a mini workshop on Lithuanian egg decorating. Haley loves artsy stuff and was excited to participate.

Decorating her egg.

Finished product.

At the farmer's market, we purchased some items for supper then headed home where Haley practiced for a couple hours while I straightened up and cooked. After supper, we went to see some of our homeschool friends perform in a homeschool stage production of Les Miserables.  It was an amazing show. We were expecting something similar to high school plays we've attended but thought this show rivaled shows we've seen on Broadway! The actors and singers were wonderful, there was a pit orchestra performing the music, and the props and costumes were great. Haley said she liked it better than the movie!