This past Monday the Day Camp Committee gathered for our April meeting. We had a good turn out with only 2 Members absent. Jessica opened with a great Devotion, which included a quote from 1 Timothy3:1-10 on the Qualities of Leadership.I was able to show the completed Program Manual to everyone, which was most exciting! We talked about the work of preparing Supplies, reviewed the Team Gathering, tackled the “Church Chart” and discussed the urgent need for TEAM LEADERS! It is encouraging that we have a better crop of Team Member applications than we did at this time last year but the need for 4 more Leaders is becoming troubling. We still only have 1 Training Day Camp Leader so we simply MUST find 2 more people to lead the other Training Day Camps. It is always good to be with the whole committee. Frequently one feels as if one is working in a vacuum so it is reassuring to actually discuss these, and other, pressing issues with a group of like-minded individuals!
On Wednesday I posted this month’s “Wednesday Words” (hoping it gets read my many!) and Jessica was back to begin the assembling of the Team Leaders’ “Black Binders”. These are hugely important to the smooth running of Day Camps so we need to ensure that every document is in place, in sufficient quantity for the 4 or 5 Day Camps at which they will be used.
There is now a long list of items needing to be photocopied, I just have to figure out how to make a zip-file in order to send them all safely to Henry!
Wednesday afternoon Emily, Clara, Jill, Emma and Owen (2 adults and 3 “littles”) came for a tea party visit. Owen is almost walking and scoots around pretty darn fast. It was quite hilarious as Wil kept escaping from behind the kitchen door barricade, Jill kept whisking various breakable ornaments (especially Pysanky) from Owen’s path, I tried to preserve my 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle from destruction as we 3 adults tried to drink tea in a (somewhat!) civilised fashion…”just a quiet afternoon at the Taylor’s”.
The house has been a bit upside-down since Thursday afternoon when I began the annual Herculean task of window and door washing with the attendant laundering of ALL the curtains and loose covers. This house has 26 double windows, and 8 doors so that is a lot of washing. I was not amused as I sat knitting last evening to hear an unexpected rainsquall dashing at the North side windows!
Today I got all the loose covers back on the chairs and hung what seemed like a million curtains!While completing this chore we also were treated to ice pellets and some snow!! UGH!!
Thursday Afternoon I managed to squeeze in the baking and icing of my Mum’s Birthday cake. It is so hard to believe that it is now 13 Birthdays since she was alive to enjoy it. Baking (and eating!) it every year is a small way by which I seek to honour her memory, although I must say I have preferred to share it with others than to eat a slice alone as happened this year.
So there hasn’t been any sewing happening this week. I have managed to make a start at serious garden work, with more and more Spring Flowers appearing, I have continued knitting Tigger, and the Team Crosses are slowly coming together, to date, about half are completed.
Tomorrow afternoon is supposed to be fine so I’m really hoping to get back into the garden as the ice pellets foiled my plans today! AND I’m also planning to bike to church, unless we have another blizzard!
Of course there has been some interesting cooking all week! For the Committee I did a Chinese Meal, which included homemade chicken wontons in a “Meal-in-a –Bowl” main course, followed by Chinese Date Crisps (a bit like Moon cakes), and a watermelon fruit bowl.
And, while baking, I celebrated spring with some Maple/Almond Scones, which I thought I would share…
Maple Nut Scones
- 3-1/2 cups unbleached flour
- 1 tsp. salt
- 4 tsps. Baking powder
- 2/3 cup cold butter or margarine
- 1 cups coarsely chopped nuts (I like almonds)
- ½ cup maple syrup
- 1 cup milk.
In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder and nuts. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in maple syrup and milk and gather into a rough dough.
Turn out onto a well-floured board and pat into an 8” round. Cut into 12 wedges and transfer to a parchment–lined baking sheet.
Bake for 15-20 mins. in a preheated 425F oven.
These freeze well.
Sunday Thoughts...
Even though it was pretty chilly this morning, at least we awoke to bright sunshine, so I was able to bike to church! There was a Worship Team trio playing today-drums, bass and guitar, so the music set was quite special. We also had guest Preacher, John Milton, who spoke on John 20:19-29, the story of “Doubting Thomas”. Of course the passage is an oft quoted one but I was very interested by John’s unpacking of the parallels between the Resurrection story and the Creation Story as portrayed in the Book of Genesis.
I guess I had never given the analogy much thought but John talked about how Christ’s rising on the First Day of the Week parallels the beginning of Creation and how His Resurrection marks the start of a “New Creation”, he mentioned how Christ “rested in the Tomb” on the Sabbath, as God rested on the Sabbath and even about how Christ was first thought to be a Gardener by the women who came to the Tomb. All of this was so interesting and gives a fresh perspective on an aspect of the Resurrection story, or on another of the “Resurrection Stations” as Nick has been referring to them. It was great to cycle home and to work in my own garden for a while this afternoon. I think I’m just going to pop outside again and do a bit more digging!