Here we are at the beginning of a new month! This date is always a pretty difficult one for me as it is the anniversary of my Mum’s death.
It was a huge blessing for both my Mum and for us as a small family that she was able to die at home in her own bed (quite an unusual occurrence these days although the norm for people for centuries) right here in this house. Nearly every year around the first of March we changed the house decorations over to the Lent/Spring/Easter arrangements. 19 years ago I was performing many of the same tasks that day as I plan to begin today and so there are many bittersweet memories tied up with this “Changing of the Decorations”. However, what better way to prepare for Lent and for the Feast of the Resurrection than to take time to remember especially the death of one’s mother, strong in the conviction that she died believing we would be united again one day in heavenly places.
But on to all things “Day Camps”…
Yesterday marked a big milestone in our little world as I was able to send out to 17 host communities the brand new COMMUNITY PLANNER over which many people, (and especially Jessica our layout editor) have been labouring for the past three or four months. WOOT WOOT 😊!!!! We all really hope that this new tool will help communities as they prepare for their Day Camps and will in turn guarantee smoother implementation of the Program once the Travelling Teams arrive. 😊
Of course we are not at all out of the woods yet as the new Travelling Team Planner and the 2019 Luke Street Program Manual are both still far from completion. In just a couple of hours I expect to be receiving the first Team Applications, which will be AWESOME 😊. Mikaela is coming over at 11am to drop off forms for herself and TWO siblings, ALL of whom have previous Travelling Team experience (be still my beating heart!!)and are excellent candidates for Team.
So although it has been an extraordinarily exhausting week there is so much for which I can give thanks as I spend the next couple of days meeting the challenge of “Changing the Decorations” while also wrangling a VERY energetic and rapidly growing puppy!
Steven gets to miss the upcoming circus as he leaves tomorrow morning for 2 days of intensive testing at CFB Trenton where he will be going as the next step in the application process for the RCAF. Fortunately I am blessed with a couple of dear friends who have offered to drop by on Monday afternoon, when I expect to be at the height of my decorating frenzy and who will offer a bit of puppy-wrangling assistance.
Right now said puppy is enjoying one of his (rare!) periods of deep sleep as this morning, early, he and I walked to the bank to make a CTM deposit. Of course he mostly rode in a large shoulder bag but he did also manage to walk on the leash for several blocks, a tiring experience for someone who is just 8 weeks old 😊
Well I need to put on a pot of coffee and get out some ginger scones to prepare for Mikaela’s visit and also have a very long “to-do” list to work on for phase one of the Changing of the Decorations, but first I’ll finish off with this week’s recipe 😊
The aforementioned ginger scones went over very well at last Sunday’s Pod so I thought I would share the recipe…
Ginger Scones
- 2¼ cups unbleached flour
- ¼ cup cane sugar
- 1 Tbsp. baking powder
- ¼ tsp. lemon zest
- 11 Tbsps. cold butter
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- ½ cup diced candied ginger, chopped
Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and lemon zest in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to mix. Add the butter and continue pulsing until mixture resembles coarse meal. With the motor running, slowly pour in the cream and process just until the dough comes together. Add the ginger and pulse briefly. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead gently. Pat the dough into a square approx. ¾” thick and cut into 12 equal pieces. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet, brush with additional cream and sprinkle with extra sugar. Bake in a preheated 400º oven for 18-20mins. or until golden. Makes 1 dozen scones.