It is hard to believe that the Team Members are already half way through their 6-week commitment to Day Camps ministry.
Week 1 is drawing to a close and at least 3 of the Teams are resting today, prior to an insanely busy Sunday on which they will hold Closing Service in one community and then dash to the next for set-up and a Monday morning start.
The Alberta Team held a Friday Closing last evening and today is holding their strategising meeting before hitting the highway tomorrow on a 13-hour road trip to Red Earth First Nation in Saskatchewan.
The week got off to a rocky start for the Montreal Team when it’s Leader came down with gastro, but all is well now and it seems they are prepped to move to their next urban location being held at our sister church, Emmaus Anglican and using St. Stephen’sHouse as it’s venue.
At home base we held our Staff Debrief meeting to review the Retreat week. Lots of good ideas and suggestions were flagged for next year and we had a most productive time over lunch, with Nathanael (age 3) happily occupied building Lego on the living room floor…
That evening Jessica had invited me to join her for the opening night of Shakespeare in the Park. Although I am fond of the Bard I am not fond of getting wet and the forecast was not propitious. When we arrived a hardy crowd had gathered under umbrellas so we laid out our blanket and made it somewhat damply to the second act; not far into which the Director came on stage to announce that it was no longer safe for the cast to continue. Jessica and I squelched back to the Metro station where our ways parted and I sloshed the rest of the way home! Quite a long, full day!!!
The rest of the week has been spent in a blur of texts, calls and emails, sprinkled liberally with plans for tomorrow’s All Ages Service, a certain amount of garden clean up, and a weensy bit of sewing for a friend’s birthday.
Already I am into planning menus for SYC Staff Pre-Camp, a month from now and for which I do the meals and snacks. Over the next two weeks I also need to batten down the hatches for the looong awaited furnace conversion, due to take place at the end of July. Now THAT will be a saga!!!
This is salad weather, and here is the recipe for the really delicious salad I made for Tuesday’s lunch. The recipe comes from here. Do try it this summer while the local strawberries are in season. It was so good (and there were no leftovers) that I’m doing a reprise for my own dinner tonight!
Strawberry Salad
- 2 pints strawberries, sliced if large
- 1 cup maple-toasted almonds(toast almonds in a dry frying pan, add 1 Tbsp Maple syrup, toss to glaze.Cool on parchment)
- 12 cups mixed salad greens, well washed,
torn and dried - 1 cup crumbled Chevre
Dressing: –
- ¾ cup olive oil
- 3 cloves minced garlic or 3 minced garlic
scapes - 2 Tbsps. honey (I used creamy which made a
really thick dressing) - 5 Tbsps. Balsamic Vinegar
Layer the greens, strawberries, Chevre and almonds on a large serving platter. In a small bowl combine all the dressing ingredients and whisk until thick and creamy. Serve with dressing on the side. Serves 6