Hello from snowy Montreal!
We may have had a green Christmas but January has certainly made up for it. Last weekend we had about 30cms of snow and over that past few days another 20cms, I’m getting plenty of shovelling exercise for sure!
It has also been a week filled with meetings, all of which, of course, take place virtually on Skype, Zoom, Google Meet or FaceTime. Last Sunday’s CTM Board meeting was another marathon but we have finally wrestled the By-Laws into submission and a draft is now being prepared to send to a legal advisor for review .Yay 😊!!!! Monday morning I tackled the minutes of that meeting and by Tuesday was able to circulate them to the other Board members.
Monday evening we held the monthly Day Camp Committee meeting. I am so thankful to have such a great committee. Everyone is enthusiastic, full of creativity and best of all- hard workers!! We discussed plans for online cooking lessons for small children and their families from our Day Camp host communities and a Lenten Day Retreat for Team Alumnae. We also set a date for a one-off special meeting to formulate details of the Virtual Day Camp Experience we will be offering for summer 2021 and discussed setting deadlines for a group of alumni who have volunteered to make samples of the crafts that will be part of this summer’s program.
One committee member will be “meeting “ me on FaceTime next week to work together on the schedule and content of the Lenten Retreat. She has also offered to write a “blurb” advertising the cooking lessons so I shall be reaching out to our list of contacts next week updating them on all these events.
In the long term we are also building a list of former Retreat Week workshop leaders who we will approach to see if we can assemble a small library of instructional videos on various aspects of Children’s Ministry that we can offer to churches and communities.
Finally we compiled a list of prayer concerns around all these topics, which Mae Anne will be sending soon to the Day Camp Prayer Support Group.
Tuesday I had a Diocesan meeting to attend. A staff worker usually takes the minutes at the monthly meetings but she is currently on medical leave so I felt, as Lay Secretary of Synod I should offer to take over for this time. I ended up with several pages of handwritten notes and Wednesday evening managed to finish typing them up and sent them off to the Chair of the committee.
Tuesday evening The Pod met and we shared a Bible Study for the second Sunday of Epiphany, listened to an Epiphany song from “The Loft Sessions” by Steve Bell, and watched 2 short films from The Work of the People based on the Psalms set for this week in the lectionary.
Thursday afternoon Jillian was finally able to stop in for a short visit. Current government restrictions allow for those living alone to have one visitor at a time so even though we had to wear masks and stay 2 meters apart at least I was able to welcome a dear friend into my home.
At odd moments throughout the week I made 4 litres of yoghurt, a month’s batch of cat food and also big batch of food for Thomason. My winter masks got completed and since Sue has leant me a spare sewing machine she had up at their cabin I was able to mend a dress that Thomason had, in his enthusiasm, accidentally torn 😊. I’m hoping, next week to get to some of the sewing projects that have been waiting for attention since my machine broke down.
This afternoon there is baking to attend to so I had better wrap this up with a recipe.
Over the past few weeks I have really been enjoying experimenting with the small waffle iron Mikaela gifted to me last winter. These cornbread waffles are super easy and versatile. Do give them a try!
Cornbread Waffles
- 1 cup cornmeal
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup plain yoghurt
- 1/2 cup frozen corn, uncooked
- 1 Tbsp. bacon drippings or cooking oil
Mix all ingredients together with a spoon. Lightly grease the waffle iron. Cook 1 ½ -2 mins. or until they get as brown as you like them, using approx.. ¼ cup of batter per waffle. Makes 6 waffles. Enjoy!