Here we are at the end of the Epiphany season with Ash Wednesday looming on the horizon. Whenever I mention its approach to anyone they immediately ask “what are you giving up for Lent? Oh my goodness I do get tired of that question! Perhaps those asking it get equally tired of my response, which is always- “I don’t give up anything for Lent, I take something on”. And whenever I give that response I’m immediately back in the dark, red carpeted side chapel at St. Matthew’s, about 8 years old and sitting with a group of other children listening to a homily given by Archdeacon Martin on Ash Wednesday morning.
Ash Wednesday was one of the 4 mid-week school days during the year upon which one could MISS MORNING SCHOOL, if one attended the children’s service. At noon we would return smugly to our classes and hand over to our teachers a special printed card from church, signed with a flourish by the Archdeacon, attesting to the fact that we had attended Divine Service and thus were excused from morning school. Ha! I don’t think churches hand out those sorts of cards anymore in our post-Christendom world!!
But back to the homily- Archdeacon Martin told us that he had long ago decided it was better to take something on than to give something up in Lent. He asked us to suggest possible things we could take on. Maybe we could pray specially for a sick friend or relative, or offer to help an elderly neighbour with her garden, or walk someone’s dog, the list was long and varied, but I liked the idea and as I’ve grown up I have followed this pattern every year. These days I always “take on” an extra Lenten Devotional time; pray for a specific group of people and then there are my Pysanky. The time spent working on Pysanky is always a time for quiet prayer and meditation and sometime listening to music. Archdeacon Martin said that when we take on either extra time with Jesus, or time to serve others in Jesus name then we are actually “giving up” time that we might spend on more selfish activities so we really are giving up something, something a lot more special than candy or video games.
And what has been going on in the world of Day Camps? Well, annoyingly a fair amount of time has been expended trying to deal with the various glitches in switching to my lovely new MacAir. Irritating problems like not being able to make attachments on emails (ARGH!!) or not being connected to the office printer (ARGH again!!) but, hopefully Wentworth will return early next week for “round two” of setting up this new piece of electronic wonder.
There has been good stuff too, like hearing of a third First Nation Community in Saskatchewan that is applying to host a Day Camp, and also of three churches in the Toronto area that are signing up. We also have our three Training Locations now in place (yay!!) plus two of the Leaders for those special Day Camps.
The Church Supply List is all prepared and available under the Churches and Communities Tab right here on the Blog, plus in the coming week I hope to email it out to all the churches, which are already signed up (if I can get the attachments working). So lots of encouraging things are in the works as the days move swiftly by towards spring (eek!)
Afternoons have been spent in all manner of activities from making Fimo “Yield” signs, that will become the medallions given to each of the Team Members at our Commissioning Service next July to completing the first of the shirts I’ve been asked to make for Bishop Mary; all the while these projects have been accompanied by the Gungor song “Vapor”, which I have memorised and am now choreographing for the Liturgical Dance at February Crossroads.
Then there have been various visitors passing through, mostly friends needing help to sort out knitting problems, and one evening Sarah brought her new baby, Elise, for me to meet giving me an opportunity to present her with the little quilt I had made. Elise is VERY cute 😊.
Today has mostly been set aside for Baking and Blogging, although, this morning, I spent sometime sewing for a clergy friend who was given a piece of African woven fabric and has asked me if I could line it and shape it into a stole. It is still quite exciting to be using my new sewing machine and I figure it is good to practice as much as possible. Before I take the Hot Cross Buns out of the oven (first batch of many for the Lenten Season!) we need a recipe to end off. Yesterday Victoria called and said that my eldest Godson, William (age 6) wanted to bake chocolate cupcakes for an upcoming school bake sale and was the recipe difficult that I used to make
birthday cupcakes for his brother Alexander? I said it is actually pretty easy
and makes the BEST chocolate cake or cupcakes, so here it is along with a photo of the cupcakes he took to pre-school to share with his friends!
birthday cupcakes for his brother Alexander? I said it is actually pretty easy
and makes the BEST chocolate cake or cupcakes, so here it is along with a photo of the cupcakes he took to pre-school to share with his friends!
Amazon Chocolate Cupcakes
- 3 cups flour
- 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
- 2 tsps. baking soda
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 cups cold water
- ½ cup + 2 Tbsps. vegetable oil
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 Tbsps. white vinegar OR lemon juice
Whisk together flour, cocoa, soda, sugar and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together water, oil, vanilla and vinegar or lemon juice. Whisk together the wet and dry mixtures. Pour through a strainer into a clean bowl, breaking up the lumps and pressing them through. Mix again and pour into paper-lined muffin tins. Bake in a 350°F preheated oven for 25-30 minutes. Cool on racks and frost with buttercream icing. Makes 3 dozen.