Beads For Needs

Mandy and her Beads for Needs!

Our necklace and the Children's Hunger Fund Food Pak--The Perfect Gift!

My neice Mandy was inspired by the story of a Chris Carter who took a Pulitzer Prize winning photo of a starving child with wheat growing behind her and a vulture sitting nearby waiting for her imminent death. When asked what happened to the child, Chris, overcome by guilt when he realized he didn't know the answer, ended his life because of the shame. Inspired by this story and having many opportunities to share what gifts she has with children in our world who are disadvantaged and hungry, Mandy decided to begin a journey called "Beads for Needs." Today 11 women gathered in my home to make beautiful beaded jewelry with Mandy, and for each donation, Mandy purchased a box of food put together by Children's Hunger Fund. There were enough boxes of food purchased for the cost of a necklace to feed a family for a year! What a blessed time we had.

"This piece of jewelry was lovingly handcrafted. Not for the love of jewelry, but love for humanity. When you wear this jewlry know that all the proceeds from its sale feed a family for a month. Now that is showing "Compassion with your Fashion!" Love, Mandy

Sunset at Malibu...

Last night we watched the sun go down from Gladstones on the Beach at Malibu. Brother Olen and Marcy invited us to dinner--they drove up from Orange County and had quite the time in traffic, but just the right time for us to watch the Beauty of God's Handiwork unfold before us! Thanks again Olen for such a great treat and BIG outing for Fred, who is looking pretty good I'd say!

It's Persimmon Time!

Every year just before Thanksgiving it's persimmon time at Mom and Dad's. It means climbing up on the tall ladder and picking the lucious fruit before the mockingbirds and blackbirds get to them and before they soften. It means looking forward to Mom's fabulous old persimmon bread recipe, cookies, and candied persimmons.

Yesterday, my niece Corie, home from her Army intelligence school in Arizona, and me, did our best to fill up the red wheelbarrow with perfect persimmons. We got as many as we could reach while mom and dad sat nearby and watched and reminisced about that tree and how scrawny it was when Dad planted it so many years ago, and how many recipes featured its persimmons over the years! Mom remembered the first persimmon tree she had seen back in the 40s on Oso Street when they first moved there in 1948. There's something so predictable about this tree, this property, these people. Simple fruits, simple signs of the turning of the seasons, and love that goes on and on and on.

Dad and the windfall before Corie and I did our pickin'...

"What will your children remember?

There is something in every season,

in every day,

to celebrate with thanksgiving."

(Gloria Gaither)