Desert Beauty

A perfect picture for the title I think. He does look good and seems to just stay healthy and can work rings around a lot of people who are younger. But since we are retired, why must we prove that? When people ask what he is doing now days, he says, "Am I suppose to be doing something?" Such is the life of senior citizens.

Just to give validity to the view that senior citizens always seem to be looking for a good deal at anything but especially cheap or free food I thought I would validate that view. The Village Inn has free pie on Wednesday evening if you buy an item - a cup of coffee fills that requirement. They have delicious pie. Then at the same restaurant between 4-6 any day you also get free pie. We have eaten quite a few pieces of pie this winter. When Baskin Robbins has a dip of ice cream for 31 cents we felt we should honor that great event. But did you ever stand in line for a couple scoops of ice cream? But it was delicious. IHOP has fantastic deals. And if you fill out the internet questionnaire you get a coupon for a stack of pancakes free. Plus if you register, etc. you get a free fruity tooty breakfast. And on and on I could go but you get the message. We are typical and well fed. The one place that really stands out as far as eating is Eggingtons. Yes, eggs are their main feature and they use 8000 a week. No, I didn't add too many 0's in that. We went there one Sunday and it was special. Will try to make it once before we go home. Enough already about food but I can't forget to tell you about the garden market. We have better and more varied fruits and vegetables than we ever had before. And $10.00 buys a lot of produce.

We still work on Monday and Wednesdays from 8-3 and are feeling that is a good schedule because it is worthwhile and we still can do many other things. One tour was to the Arboretum in Superior. We timed our day fairly well because many of the cactus were blooming. We have seldom seen cactus in bloom but that day we saw all kinds of them. It is really an experience in viewing how the whole creation works and how each part of this creation has its own unique characteristics. How flowers can bloom when rainfall so far this year is hardly an inch boggles my mind but they do. They don't spend a lot of days in their glorious colors because we were told that each blossom only lasts one day but new ones open up each day over a span of a week more or less. That blows my mind.

We also toured the Olive Gardens. We had been there before but we hadn't had the time to sample their unusual food. Of course, they use all olive oil in a way I could learn from. I now have it on hand and used it today to fix sauteed onions. We had them by Kim once and absolutely loved them. I did make clear that this was a dish we probably would have to limit to twice a year. So good they had to be bad for heath.

The Mesa swap meet was another experience we liked. It is not an antique or flea market because everything is new. We will go back there again on Saturday but we will go early in the morning before the heat gets too bad. They do mist and have open sides so if there is a breeze it is good. The building itself is all under roof, all 1 1/2 miles of it.

The highlight of the past weeks was Easter Sunday. We went to our usual New Life Community (Reformed) Church. They had such an inspiring and meaningful service. We had been to the Seder Supper on Thursday night and the Good Friday service on Friday evening so Sunday was the culmination of all those services and it was a fantastic experience. They have two terrific pastors. A few weeks ago we were riding around after church and came across a place that had so many cars we wondered what it was. We stopped and found it was a Mission church. It definitely was a Mega-Church seating 2700, we walked around it and found it to be an alive church but we didn't attend a service. This week we deliberately got there when a service was about to start. The service we attended was at 10:30 and the next one was at 11:59. They had had an earlier one as well. We attended the contemporary service which is okay with us and then the pastor had a most challenging sermon. At the beginning he said if any one was there for fluff they could as well leave because it wasn't that kind of church or service. No, there was no fluff. We were so glad we had decided to go to that church as well and receive a special Easter blessing.

We still plan to leave here May 16 and go to California but for now we are enjoying TowerPoint Resort. It is so quiet here because so many people have left for the summer. It surely would look different in the winter months. Our Reformed Church has lost almost half of its attendees when the winter residents went back home.

Hope all are well. Remember we do have a different phone number, don't be afraid to use it. Love and best wishes as you all work through the various challenges and opportunities which are times to grow and be stretched. I recently was reading a devotional by Elisabeth Elliot which began this way, "Easter, the most joyful of all Christian feast days, follows that most sorrowful of days we remember. The joy of Easter proceeds from the Cross. Without Christ's pouring out His soul to death there would have been no resurrection. We cannot know Christ and the power of His resurrection without also entering into the fellowship of His suffering." I must try to understand that a little better and have a better way to utilize that truth in the context of helping others.

Until later, Mom and Dad Wilmer and Marilyn

Change AGAIN

Yes, life is interesting and changing. Tuesday we finished our March RVICS project at Sunshine Acres Children's Home. We had worked there for 3 months and totally enjoyed the work and the group. The six couples worked together there for the whole 3 months. Seldom do the groups stay the same for that length of time but Arizona in the winter is very easy to get use to and has many things to do, the probably the best perk is the weather. It has been good!

As much as we like RVICS we were beginning to feel that the rigid schedule was more than we wanted to commit to at this stage of our lives. The work was good and enjoyable and Dad really thinks the work makes him healthier than not doing the work and I think that is true. So as an alternatie we have chosen to leave RCICS now and volunteer 2 days a week, Monday and Wednesday, from 8-3 with a morning break and lunch provided at Sunshine Acres. The heat may influence if we can stick with that but we will adjust as we go. The Acres are very flexible with volunteers. I plan on working in the Boutique and Dad will work in maintenance, probably not on big projects as he worked on with RVICS but very similar work. The picture of the Boutique isn't impressive but the items for sale are. They have been slightly used and are rather pricey. The boutique and Warehouse are not open Sunday thru Tuesday but huge amounts of donations are dropped off. The regulars come as soon as the places opens on Wednesday to see what has come in over the past 3 days. The place is a zoo. For now I, and several other volunteers, do not work with customers but we work in the back room which is stuffed with inventory. We sort, wash, organize, remove spots, (something familiar about that) and such things needed to move the inventory up to the front. Can you imagine working to organize lamp shades for hours? Not hard to do here. My supervisor knows her "elite" customer base and knows how to make "used stuff" look beautiful. And it works. Now just so I can restrain myself. All I have to do is think about all the stuff we have stored in Sioux Center and that makes the desire to buy less attractive.

Since we are a different category and one of several hundreds who volunteer we moved off the Acres and into Towerpoint Resort, quite a change. This picture shows what we have looked at from our RV the last months. The Acres started in the desert which you can see with the landscape and cactus but we also could see the highway lights which show in the picture. We were never farther than a very few miles from major roads and shopping area. Now we are only 4 miles from the Acres so we still have easy access to things we like. The cactus pictures two plants with an incredibly long life. They do not send out those arms until they are 100 years old. Does something about that make you think about Abraham? The holes in the plants make ideal cover for birds. Our RVICS couples were bird lovers and they had all kinds of feeders out and drew dozens off birds. Quite interesting.

Now we have an an entirely different view and we like this as well. Friends of ours have stayed here and highly recommended it. Of course, when the winter residents go back home every resort, church or business has a different atmosphere than the months past. The whole city makes the experience of Mesa living enjoyable. We plan to stay here and work for 6-7 weeks and then go to California. Today is 20 degrees above average so it is over 90 and, yes, that is hot even though it is so dry here that skin and hair needs to be treated differently than in Iowa. Air conditioner will get a work-out.

We are doing well. Enjoy hearing from each of you. Hope you are doing well. So many things happening in each of your lives and families, love hearing about it. Love to all, Mom and Dad. In case you can't find our new tel. # 480-703-0423. The Sioux Falls address is still our main address but it would be faster if you send mail to Towerpoint Resort, 4860 E. Main Street, Mesa, AZ 85205 for the next month.