It is amazing that we have already reached the Sunday before the start of Lent! Of course Ash Wednesday is very early this year, with Easter being the last Sunday in March, AGH!! Soon it will be Spring and then SUMMER, which means Day Camps are really getting much closer.
Happily steady progress continues on that front, although I would like to see a few more Team Applications arriving.We have only 1 despite a number of promises! I do know that some of the promises are truly definite, but the others?…..
The Prayer and Share Package is up on the Team pages, Yay!! AND the 2013 Parish Supply List can now be found on the Church/Community Pages (double YAY!!!)
There have also been several more inquiries, including word of a possible third Day Camp in the Toronto region, which would be fabulous. Yesterday also brought news that the church in Prescott Ontario will be re-applying, they had been doubtful earlier on and the people there are really super at organizing a Day Camp so it is great to know we will have the opportunity to work with them again.
Arnee continues to hammer away at the Program Manual; all but one Chapter has been submitted so pretty soon we will be able to see the whole document taking shape, how exciting!!!
There has been the usual amount of “coming and going” activity around here all week. Emily and her little girl, Clara, came for Tea on Wednesday which was quite delightful, although unfortunately, Jill could not join us as one of her children was ill at home. Emily has only been in Montreal about 18 months and is very interested in living a “Green/Locavore” lifestyle, so we had plenty to talk about! I’m hoping they will visit again soon!
My Spring quilt is taking shape and the tying is completed so now the border just has to be applied. The strips I’ve pieces for it are VERY narrow so I sure hope it will work out.
In the knitting world, my natural sheep’s wool shawl is almost done( photo when completed) I have finished a special “tweedy” hat for Jill and I have entered into the wildly complicated task of a large knitted Tigger kit which Sue bought 6 years ago, started, and has now asked me to take over (I can see why, if you can believe it there are 33!!!!!! separate pieces to knit before assembling.) Goodness knows how long this project will take.
And tomorrow is the big day—–Tighe’s Baptism. Pippa phoned this afternoon to see if I was on track for the event. I reported that I had-wrapped my gift(the jacket seen here), ironed my dress, completed the calligraphy on the Baptismal Certificate, made a dip and cut up a bunch of veggies to go with it, She replied that I was farther ahead than she was!!!
As mentioned before, I am also having neighbours in for a Chinese New Year High Tea at 6pm tomorrow so, today, besides the above list of activities and a monumental amount of snow shoveling I have been preparing everything I possibly can in advance so tomorrow will be a joy and not a total mad rush from beginning to end! (Probably wishful thinking)
I’m not quite sure if this post will get up tomorrow afternoon, it may not make it before Monday. However I thought I would include my recipe for Chinese Almond Cookies, they are an awful lot nicer than the pre-packaged kind.
Chinese Almond Cookies
- 1 oz. finely ground almonds
- 1-cup flour
- 1tsp baking powder
- Pinch salt
- 1 egg beaten with 2 Tbsps. water
- Almond extract
- ½ cup butter or margarine
- 4 Tbsp. white sugar
- 2 Tbsps. light brown sugar
- 24 whole almonds
In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. In a medium bowl, stir together the ground almonds, flour, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the half the egg and water and a few drops of almond extract, to form soft dough. Reserve remaining egg and water for an egg wash.
Roll dough into 24 balls and place at least 2” apart on parchment lined baking sheets.
Press a whole almond onto each cookie, flattening it slightly in the process. Brush with egg wash.Bake in a preheated 325F oven for 10-12mins or until golden. Cool on a rack.
These freeze well.
Sunday Reflections…..
The Lord blessed us with another gloriously sunny Sunday! Blair led the opening Worship Songs and we sang “in Christ Alone”, one of my favourites! Tighe’s Baptism was very moving. A large number of family members, including his paternal Great Grandmother turned out to share in this special occasion. Since I avoid standing in front of a crowd whenever possible, especially those with flashing cameras (yes, I am truly camera phobic!) I had been dreading that portion of the Service, however God gave me the inner fortitude necessary to stand with the other God Parents, Tanya and Joan and to boldly answer the 11 questions on Tighe’s behalf. He did not scream when Nick poured the water over him, an added bonus!!
Our guest Preacher, John Milton, gave a short Homily on Psalm 99, which drew on elements of how the passage gives us a firm hope of God’s eternal sovereignty over his people, I felt it made perfect segue into the questions and also into the words of the Apostles’ Creed in which we affirmed our Faith.
Following the Baptism, Paul and Tanya sang this lovely song, I was not familiar with it but Pippa told me that Paul had performed it at each of their other children’s Baptisms. I attended both those events but was not as deeply focused as I was today!
Pippa’s sister Katy had made a special “Tiger” cake with a fondant tiger on top.I hid in the kitchen and ate my organic tuna sandwich, but saw that my platter of lime hummus dip and veggies seemed to be going down well.
After politely hanging around for a while I struck out for home and after a quick coffee took Wil for his walk, dropping off the hat I knitted for Jill in the process. Sadly they were not at home, I sure hope she likes it!
And now I must throw myself into the final High Tea preparations, a special Sabbath filled with good memories!