Now. Begins. The. Season. Of. Giving.

It's been a while since I've posted. I've even been writing posts and saving them, but not publishing them! I have no reason for this other than I've been in a very pensive mode lately. I've been spending the last couple of weeks being very inward and just analyzing some life events and thoughts on forward progress. I'm still going to continue to take some time for this kind of thing, but I will try and make a conscious effort to post more. Sometimes I simply go through phases...just like everyone else! :)

I wanted to talk a little today about GIVING! I have been thinking about adding some volunteer work onto my plate for the winter season as I will not be so busy with my business. However, I'm contemplating what type of time commitment and activity I would like to pursue. The thought of giving also came to a head tonight because at my work, Neighbors, Inc., I have been made a co-coordinator of our Christmas programs. We had a Christmas meeting tonight for all of the church representatives in our community to ask them to help us spread the word. See? I even made Christmas goodies for them! 

It feels so wrong to make Christmas goodies in October!!! But they were still delicious! :)

Our Christmas programs include Adopt-A-Family, Adopt-A-Senior and Love Your Neighbor. Businesses, church groups, organizations, families and individuals call Neighbors to adopt a family or senior to purchase Christmas gifts for the needy families and seniors. At Neighbors we see all sorts of families come through the door who are down and out and simply struggling to make ends meet. Our programs focus on purchasing presents for the children only (and if adopters would like to give presents to the adults as well, they may). Lately we have seen such an increase in need due to people being laid off, hours cut, people being out of work so long they are losing their unemployment benefits and illnesses. It can be overwhelming to be faced with this every day. For many families and individuals, Neighbors is the one place that they can depend on in their time of need. Our Adopt-A-Senior program is especially wonderful because many seniors do not have a family or anyone to purchase them a gift during the holiday season and it's great to know that because of Neighbors, they will not be forgotten. All the leftover families who are not adopted are put into the Love Your Neighbor program where they receive clothing, food vouchers for a holiday meal and gifts for their children from the other individual donations we receive at Neighbors. We try our best to match the wishes of the children in Love Your Neighbor. It's unfortunate, but our number of adoptees far outweighs our number of adopters, so we still make sure that no family leaves empty handed. Our volunteers spend hundreds, if not thousands of hours helping with these programs. We are so grateful to them for their help and I know the families are too!

The meeting tonight really got me thinking ahead to how I can help a family in need. I know that I cannot adopt a family myself but I am going to contact my family to see if rather than purchasing gifts for one another, we adopt a family! It's such a GREAT way to celebrate Christmas! After all, I don't need any more STUFF! :)

We were also blessed at our meeting with the generous and wonderful talent from the South Metro Chorale! They had amazing voices and I would love to go and see one of their concerts! I have attached a video of four of the members from the Chorale (there are about 40 members in total) who volunteered their time tonight to get us in the Christmas spirit at our meeting! After all, it's not even Halloween! It's hard to starting thinking of Christmas when snow hasn't even fallen yet! Regardless, they did a wonderful job and definitely got me in the Christmas spirit of giving! If you want to know more about this group and their concerts that they put on throughout the South Metro in Minnesota, check them out HERE or like them on Facebook HERE. They have upcoming Christmas concerts! Here is a small taste of what great quality of singing you will hear! These are just four of the members!

(From left to right: Jenny, Amy, Ryan and Dave)

How are you going to GIVE this Christmas season?

If you haven't already made plans for your Christmas giving and would like to adopt a family or senior at Neighbors, Inc., we would love to have more adopters to help us meet our demand. We have seen such a huge increase in demand for our food shelf alone, that one can only expect the demand for Christmas help will also increase! If you live in the Twin Cities area and would like to contact us about our Adopt-A-Family and Adopt-A-Senior programs, feel free to contact us at (651) 306-2152. Or you can email ME at alyssa@neighborsmn.org for any more questions! 

We would love to have more adopters! 

Karaoke for Hunger Review!

Saturday night I got together with some friends asking them to make a contribution to the food shelf, Neighbors, Inc., that I work at for Minnesota Food Share Month. We went to the VFW for karaoke night in Uptown and it was a great time! I did say I was going to get pictures, but hmmm...yeah. I really need to get better at taking pictures. Also, I realized that in a bar I need a camera phone with a flash...which I don't have. A recap of the night: my girlfriends and I got up and sang "Cecilia" by Simon and Garfunkel while our friend James cheered us on. Then James and I were going to do our rendition of "Mustang Sally." James was going to be the lead and I was super pumped because I was going to be the backup singer. However, it was an epic fail as I think the old dude controlling the tickets lost our ticket! Booo! I told James that we would rain check Mustang Sally for another time. I really wish I had gotten a video now! I vow to get better at pictures! However, I did get this one blurry shot of the VFW as my friend Kenna was driving away. She didn't have time to wait for my slow camera on my phone.  ENJOY! ;)

And there it is! VFW entrance as Kenna flew away! ;)'

While at the VFW, I used the last of my $25 budget, purchasing a $3.75 Vodka Collins. James later took pity on me treating me to a Crispin Cider! Thanks JAMES! I owe him one!! PS. If you are into art, check out my friend James' blog here.

I made my 3rd bath of Greek yogurt this weekend and the 3rd time was the CHARM! I was super excited to end up with some very thick, creamy and non-sour Greek yogurt! I added blueberries and honey to it today and it was DELICIOUS! I think I've determined where my flaw was in my prior batch. I don't think the pilot light in my oven kept it warm enough to incubate. My oven has a setting below the 200 degree mark that says, "Warm." This time I utilized that setting and it turned out perfect! This is the recipe that I utilize.

After draining out whey.

Mixing to make nice and creamy!

Leftover whey.

Contraption I designed in my kitchen to drain whey. I know...but I had to so it would work! :)

After making the Greek yogurt and inspired by my success, I went on to try and make homemade ricotta cheese with the whey. That was NOT so successful. What I ended up with was a teaspoon of curds that I wasn't even sure were ricotta or not! I will try again in my next batch of yogurt. :) I'd love to be able to make something out of that rather than throw it down the drain! I know you can use it for protein in many other things like bread, shakes, etc. but I'd really like to make ricotta. I will continue trying!

Heating whey to 200 degrees.

What was leftover: ricotta or not ricotta? That is the question.

AND FINALLY!!!

Enjoying my hard work!

Singing for Hunger!

As promised, a post about giving back.

If you live in Minnesota, you might know that the month of March is Minnesota Food Share month. If you read my blog often enough, you also might know that I work at a food shelf...and I love it! March is a month when food shelves are notoriously low on their supply of food and funds. Therefore it is focused on as a month to restock the food shelves. For every pound and dollar that each food shelf sees, they will receive funds by outside organizations according to how much they receive. If you want to donate to a food shelf in MN, March is the month to do it!

While I am of minimal financial means right now and can't make as large of a contribution as I would like, I also know that I have fantastic friends who are very generous and compassionate people. I decided I needed to create some type of get together or event with my friends where I can ask for a small contribution for the food shelf, thereby hopefully allowing me to make an even larger contribution to the food shelf!

Thus, I decided: I needed to make an event for friends and friends of friends to get together so that we can collect these contributions! I was trying to brainstorm possible ideas. I mulled over a fun run/walk, a biking event, a potluck or any activity I could think of for people to get together. Problem is not everyone likes to bike, run, walk and I don't have a large enough space for a potluck. I decided to call on the genius of my friends! I spoke with my friend, Kenna, that smart cookie! She keeps me on the straight and narrow when it comes to organization. If I didn't have her, my head might fall off and I wouldn't be able to find it! I told Kenna I needed some motivation and help with brainstorming. She helped me think of the perfect idea! A karaoke singing night with friends! It will be at our local VFW and I just invited heaps of friends in the hopes that they can make it and asked that everyone who come please bring a donation of $5.00.

I have some fear in failure, that the event might not work out as greatly as I planned. I'm realizing I do fear some failure with these things, but I also remind myself that I need to get over that. You cannot achieve anything great without some failure! And when you fail, you need to push on! I reminded myself, that even if only 5 people are able to attend, with 5 donations, that's $25 and that is AWESOME!
I think what IS important is the desire to promote change, and what is MORE important is an action to do so.

(Funny side note: After writing that, I went to Neighbors' Facebook page. This is the quote that was posted recently. Talk about positive reinforcement!)

"One person can make a 


      
             difference, 




and everyone 
            
                      should try."



- John F. Kennedy

In keeping with my giving back theme, I wanted to give you all the opportunity to do the same. The food shelf I work at is called Neighbors, Inc. We do a lot more than just hand out food...there are so many great services provided to our clients. Please do check out Neighbors, Inc. on Facebook. If you are looking for volunteer opportunities, we also are always looking for more volunteers. Our volunteers are so awesome and do so much for us! We could not do it with out them! For anyone with the desire to contribute to Neighbors, Inc. for Minnesota Food Share month, please send donations payable to:

Neighbors, Inc.

You may send donations to:

Neighbors, Inc.
218 13th Ave. S.
South St. Paul, MN 55075

What are the positive contributions that you have made lately? What action/step can YOU take to TRY and make a difference?

Doing good on day off.

Yesterday, there was a major blizzard here pretty much all day. So, I locked myself inside and spent a lot of the day lounging in my bed. Yeah, I know. I was going to take a nap, as all of that being lazy I was doing was making me tired. Then...I decided I would be better off being productive.

I looked around me and realized this: I'm a pig. ;) Yes, overnight my place had turned into a giant disaster. Clothes stacked in piles, papers and boxes all over the floor.

Many people closest to me would realize that this isn't all that abnormal. I have quite a history of stacking clothes in piles and letting my living areas become a disarray. Usually, I clean it and get it all nice and organized and then gradually it becomes a huge mess again until I cannot stand it anymore and I have to clean it up or go insane. I chose cleaning.

Reflecting on how it had become this way, I narrowed it down to a few things. New boots arriving, Friday clothing dilemma and Saturday night costume party. Friday and Saturday, while attempting to make outfits, it led me to pull a lot of clothes out of the closet in a hurry and not put them back. My boots arriving contributed to boxes and papers being tossed all over. I also had my coupon collection in a heap next to the filing cabinet.

I got to work starting to put everything away. However, I quickly got sidetracked by another project I had thought of earlier in the week at work. A lovely woman had donated some coupons to the food shelf. Previously, I had mentioned my thoughts of offering budgeting and thrifty living classes to the food shelf. I did discuss this with my bosses, but it seemed there wasn't too much enthusiasm about it. I guess they had tried it in the past and there wasn't much interest. When the woman donated her coupons, it sparked the thought that since I am couponing anyways, why don't I bring in the coupons I am not using so others CAN use them? Perhaps if they are made more readily available to them, they would be more apt to use them. I got to work, cutting out my own coupons and the leftover coupons I wouldn't need. I arranged mine in my new coupon caddy that I had received in the mail during the week. You can find these here.

I had so many coupons for the food shelf, I needed some way to arrange them. I began searching online for other coupon caddies and I discovered a way to make a coupon caddy yourself at home. I wondered if I shouldn't have done this for myself so that I didn't spend $8.00, but I realized that I really needed something that could be kept out of the way and the one that I purchased is perfect as it sticks right on the fridge. I love it! Also, when I was clipping my coupons, guess what I found? A coupon for a FREE coffee, no purchase needed at Butter Bakery Cafe, one of my most favorite places to eat in Minneapolis. Yep, the people there know be my name. (A testament to my previous spending habits.) SCORE! May be using that this week as I need to get some work done where I'm outside of my house and not easily distracted.

For the food shelf however, this would be perfect! Thus, I began my project.

Place envelopes one after the other and glue flap.

Place following envelope on top of glued flap, ensuring it is straight and not impinging the envelopes natural fold.

Place your coupons in the different envelopes.

Label all of the envelopes in different categories

Fold the envelopes like an accordian, one up, one down, etc.

Do not glue the last envelope flap and fold that flap over the rest of the folded envelopes but don't seal. Tie together with ribbon or string. Ta dah!

Oh, and by the way...this is how my place turned out. Not perfect, but a definite improvement!

What is one of your constant organization battles?

 What have YOU done today for someone else lately? What small project could you do to improve the lives of those around you?

Sharing the Love of Coupons

Today I finally got back to doing for others. It felt good since I've spent so much time focusing on myself. I met with the teenage girl, Karla, that I have been mentoring for about 2.5 years now. We spent a lot of time together in the first year and I was committed to meeting with her every week. However, as time wore on and I got busier I wasn't able to meet as frequently. We decided to commit to two times a month but it seems we haven't followed through with that and now that I am back up in Minneapolis close to here, I would like to try and fulfill that commitment.

I picked Karla up after work today and her and I did some grocery shopping together. I suppose this wasn't just a good mentor duty then, however, I did feed her. :D Had she not come with me, there wouldn't have been any food. Also, I thought it would be a good lesson in life for her. To see the cost of food and how quickly money can go.

After coming home and eating, Karla and I did some craft projects. Mine...did not turned out as planned and I took it apart. It's something I'll have to work on again later. Karla worked on those plastic bead projects that you make into a shape on a board and then you iron and melt the beads together. She made some for her friends for Valentine's Day and I helped her to iron them. We had a good time and discussed that we would be trying to meet two times per month now. I've been trying to work on getting her into a job shadowing opportunity one day as part of the program we worked with is to be focused on college and future profession. I will have to organize that for her as I've been trying to “get to it” for months!

Another lesson that I hope Karla took away from today's get together? Couponing. (Okay, maybe she's too young to care.) Yes, folks! I'm committed to couponing now. You were probably wondering why I took Karla with me and why grocery shopping was so urgent...well, it's DOUBLE DAZE at Rainbow Foods! Manufacturer's coupons are doubled! How can you go wrong? I created a list of all the coupon items I wanted to buy and all the other coupons and set out to shop with purpose. Some items that were on sale, such as shredded cheese, I had to buy two of but they were all items I could freeze.

I've also been utilizing a really useful tool called, www.couponmom.com. A woman who is MUCH better at couponing than I, that helps people to use the coupons in their areas, most efficiently. Combining them with other coupons to get the best deal possible. One thing I also love about her site is that it tells you what percent of savings there is on the certain items, so you can make the most of your purchases. Also, my FAVORITE part is that when an item is FREE due to the couponing, she marks them for charity to donate to food shelves! YES! :) I recommend you all check her site out.

Today for food, personal products and household products I purchased an amount worth:

$88.93

How much did I save in coupons today?

$26.38!

For a grand total of: $62.55

That's a savings of nearly 30%!!!

I did see some err in my ways which I will rectify for my next grocery shopping trip.

Double Days only lets you double 5 manufacturer's coupons. The checkout lady doesn't really care which ones she scans first or what their amount is, she just cares that she gets them scanned and does it in order from top to bottom.

Lesson learned? Organize my coupons by the greatest amount saved to the least so that the coupons with the most value are on top and therefore doubled.