Showers of Blessings

There are many kinds of showers: the one I took this morning (and almost every morning; just thought I better clear that up!), the rainy kind that they keep predicting in our neck of the woods and is rarely appearing (no complaining here), and then there is the kind that God sends our way: the blessings!

We are part of a gleaners group located in a town about a 30 minutes drive from here (longer in rush-hour traffic). We pick-up once a week, and because of a variety of different reasons, my hubby is doing that after he gets off work on Monday (his only free evening right now). We pay about $11 per week (or $45 monthly) to be part of this group.

We never know what will be in a pick-up; so here is a list of what he brought home today:

1. 62 oz carton of fresh blueberries
2. 2 lbs zucchini
3. 3 lbs orange tomatoes (as in the kind meant to be orange- not unripe ones!)
4. 2 pint grape tomatoes
5. 3 Large Portabella Mushrooms
6. 2 bags Fresh Express Meditteranean express Salad Mixes
7. 2 18oz bags Romaine lettuce
8. 1.5 lbs oranges
9. 1.5 lbs granny smith apples
10. 6 pack of Yoplait raspberry yogurt
11. 2 boxes Yogo fruit snacks
12. 2 loaves organic sourdough sandwich bread
13. 2 Costco roasted garlic loaves
14. 3 lb jar of Walls Berry strawberry jam
15. 16 oz tofu ( I actually like the stuff- stir fried with soy sauce- yum!)
16. 2 boxes of Yoplait fizz go-gurt tubes
17. Box of Hersheys extra dark expresso cacao (I'm glad I don't like coffee; this would be too tempting otherwise)
18. Quaker multi-grain cinnamon rice cakes
19. 2 lb Pumpkin loaf from a real bakery (sticker on this was $11. - can you imagine paying that?- however, this is my temptation in this load)
20. Many bags of a variety of corn chips: corn, black bean, veggie, ect. (sometimes I wonder if they are using us as guinea pigs in this area, LoL)
21. 2 cans of S&W kidney beans
22. Pizza Hut pizza
23. Lg bag of cheese-stuffed pizza sticks
24. 4 capri-sun pouches/2 big snack bag Doritoes
25. glove box emergency medical kit
26. 1 lb hamburger patties (we don't usually get much meat in these pick-ups)

Why I am especially excited about this load is because it was so full of fresh fruits and veggies; these items are pretty expensive in our area stores. I stock-up on meat when it goes on sale,and even have frozen veggies stocked up, but it's not the same as fresh produce.

And I didn't include the yellow peppers, scallions, celery, ect. in the load that are kindof borderline in their use. After all, it is a gleaners program. But the blueberries were in better shape than some of the ones I see in the grocery store!

As I said before, we never know what we will get week-to-week. Sometimes we get very little produce, but loads of toilet paper, napkins, or shampoo. And it is usually items you need to use sooner rather than later (well, the toilet paper has a longer shelf life...).

But we always get the corn chips, Lol.

This program has been an incredible blessing to our family. God is so good!