Thursday, August 5, 2010

Potato Salad with Chunks of Ham, Creamy Cucumber Salad

This has been another most exciting week, so where do I begin to share it with you ?? :)

Many of the following happenings are the results of the heartfelt story Mari Herreras wrote for the Tucson Weekly.

Thank you so much Steve for sending the donation check you promised in your email & the same to Blanche, the dear lady who found me in the park serving food while she walked her cute lil' puppie !! Thank you dear Blanche !! It is always incredible when people keep their word & really come through !! :) Both of you are very, very appreciated & together you are providing the meals for two weekends. :)

I received many emails from kind people offering their helping hands, wanting to help cook & serve & it looks like I am making some new friends through this. :)

Debby, the massage therapist, & I finally connected, she left a most touching message on my machine. She will start massaging my wrists & arms for free next week to help them heal & get stronger, so I can chop & stir & blog easier again. :) I can't wait to meet you in person Debby. :)

Buck is another incredible human being I connected with through Mari's story. He has his own blog called "Sugar Pies" & shares a wonderful recipe each week. Please look up Buck's blog on Google, his skills are amazing. :) Buck has heard my prayer about wanting to take sweet treats along with the meals to the homeless. He is going to donate the first goodies for this weekend & these are all treats that he made himself for the homeless. Buck had been helping the homeless before, while nursing & living in South Carolina. His Heart is wide open & beautiful. :)

Thank you Buck also for adding my story to your blog & for adding your own kind comments to it !! :)

Buck, the homeless loved the cucumbers you gave me the recipe for & so did I. The juice from the ingredients & the cucumbers mixed so well with the potato salad & made everything much juicier & a little bit sweet. It was great even without the onion. ;) Although I added onion powder. :)

Of course there were people that saw the story in the Tucson Weekly & had their own agendas of trying to exploit the situation. Oh well !! Life happens in all sorts of different ways & I had lots of experiences like that throughout my years of having my own business. I see them coming now from miles away.

Thank you dearest Vicky & my dear Mary Helen for your donations once more !! :) My gratitude is big & I am sending many good thoughts your way. May all that you share so freely always return to you in many, many wonderful ways !! :)

A big thank you also goes to Carlos for helping me by chopping a seemingly unending amount of 36 eggs, many pickles, cutting up a 10 lb. ham, & for stirring it all up so well, so well so that a very strong plastic stirring spoon broke. :) I love watching you stir things, you do it so eloquently with one spoon. :) I can only do it with two.

Thank you Merri for chopping a jar of pickles for the potato salad.

Katie, the cooler you donated is coming in very handy to be able to take more water to the parks. Thank you for your continued thoughtfulness & your caring !! :)

Maureen, thanks to you & all the cookies you donated I was able to take treats on Monday & Tuesday along with the food to the homeless. :) And I still have some cookies left for whenever I need some treats next.

Yes, I went three times this week to the parks. I had food left over from Saturday & Monday, so I went back on Tuesday & fed some more people. :)
We are inching towards having fed 1,200 people in 6 1/2 months. :o
That number amazes me. :)

Right now there are less people in the parks than previously & I think it is because it so hot in Tucson these days. We have been & still are in the triple digits. Some of the homeless might be staying in areas of Arizona where it is cooler during these summer months. Since it is my first year of doing this, I am still learning the trends & the ropes.

Emily Guggenmos from Ch4 NBC News called & she will come to the park at the end of this month to do a story on my feeding the homeless for their news series called "Making A Difference". All the exposure hopefully will help me to continue to get the donations necessary to keep feeding everyone in the parks. I don't want fame from this, I just need the exposure to get the support of everyone who is inclined to help out to keep this going as long as I physically can do it. I will be 67 at the end of next month & at times my body lets me know my age. :) But my Spirit is young & I soooo enjoy doing this !! :)  

Aging has its own set of lessons, but to me the gifts of earned wisdom totally outweigh the hurdles of the aging body.  :)   As I get older I get happier & more contend & things that used to be so important aren't important anymore.  It's like a trade-off, although a really good trade-off !!  I wouldn't want to be a single day younger.  Yes I would like to have a body that is much is more agile, but I love my life the way it is & all the wisdom that comes with it.  :)

My next prayer is to be able to take fresh fruit & fresh vegetables along with the meals each time I go. It was great to be able to take the cucumbers last weekend & the homeless all were really excited about the new addition to the meals. :)

This brings another very exciting weekly report to an end. Life is wonderful & filled with so many magical moments each day. :)
Again thank you each & everyone of you who is helping to make this possible !! :)

It is an incredible experience when people pull together to make a difference in other people's lives & with an open & loving Heart !! :)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My Beautiful Spirit Mom and a Mother to sooo many!!! Your heart is pure and full of love! I pray that your passion gifts YOU in return to help keep your HOME and food in YOUR life! God is watching and will always take care of those who takes care of others! I love you so! Vicky :)