Gazpacho Soup & French Bread

It has been a very emotional week so far & I haven't felt much like blogging. Much happened though & I need to catch up before I fall too far behind.

On Monday, while feeding the Homeless, I found out that Mike, who was in his late 50ies & one of my homeless people, had died last Saturday. Mike wasn't really homeless, but then again he was, temporarily anyway. I told him that I would feed him anyway. :) He lived in Las Cruces, New Mexico, he told me, but being a Veteran & having heart problems, the V.A. there had sent him to Tucson's V.A. Hospital for treatment. Mike liked it in Tucson & told me that he needed to make a decision about moving here or about going back to Las Cruces. So in the meantime he was homeless here. I don't know the details yet about what caused his death, I just know that it had to do with his heart. Christopher was crying so hard when he told me that I couldn't ask him about what had happened. Hopefully I will find out more this Saturday. Mike was always kind & respectful with me. He was all the way around a nice man & always smiling or ready with a joke. I have been grieving his crossing over, along with Mike's homeless friends that always "hung out" with him.

Mike, have fun on the "Other Side" & please watch over Christopher & "Big Mouth" :) too. We miss you !!

The cold Gazpacho Soup was a success & some people would have liked some shrimp in it, but that is too much of a luxury on this small budget. Deanna, who is temporarily homeless, came home with me on Friday afternoon & together we chopped & diced at least 60 lbs. of vegetables on Friday & Saturday. I was very grateful for Deanna being here overnight to help me with the prep-work !! I had enough soup for both Saturday & again Monday. And Deanna donated five loaves of very, very fresh French bread to go with the soup, which made it more filling. :) Thank you, Deanna, for helping out much. :)

James, the very kind prisoner from Indiana I blogged about before, sent another $5.00 donation check for the Homeless Food Fund for June & he decided to send $5.00 every month hereafter. He wrote to me that the men there only make 12 cents an hour working. James is going to college in prison & he gets paid only $10.00 per month, but he wants to send $5.00 to help out. That made me cry once more. And James is trying to get his Buddy there to help out too. The Kindness of people all around is so incredible & my Gratitude is more than mere words can ever express.

Denise from Florida sent a second huge box of children's books for me to give away. Thank you Denise, you are a big Blessing !! :)

Yesterday I connected with Irina from Ohio through my business, Native Rainbows. She was placing an order for some CDs & we ended up talking on the phone for over two hours. :) Irina is from Europe too & it felt to both of us like we were old friends. :) Irina donated to the Homeless Food Fund too & I was able to buy 13 lbs. of zucchini today for this weekends meals of Chicken-Zucchini Pasta Alfredo, plus a stack of foam plates to serve the food on. They were on sale at 50 plates for $1.00, that's a great deal. :) Thank you soooo much Irina, you are very, very Special !! :)

Irina is thinking of doing a Fundraiser in Ohio with a friend of hers for my "Feeding the Homeless" fund. How wonderful & special would that be ??!! :) It would make things much easier & I could focus more on the cooking.

God is busy working through all of you in different ways to help with this cause. :) Thank you each & every one of you & know that the Blessings will all come back to you manyfold !! :)