Hello Blog Friends,
Christ is Risen!
To start off on a positive note- this week we received a 4th Day Camp Application, which was an occasion for a bit of rejoicing 😊. It comes from FFBCM (First Filipino Baptist Church) a community that has hosted Day Camps for many years, provided us with many Team Members and Committee members and that also offers both prayers and financial support to the ministry. It is so good to know that a large Day Camp will be happening in their church building this summer.
Throughout the week I have continued to wrack my brains for people whom I might have overlooked who might possibly be interested in hosting a Day Camp. We did have an enquiry from another church, with which we also have a long association, asking if there was any way we could send them a Team. Although of course we would like to help, this request is really impossible to honour purely for legal reasons, as our insurance would no longer cover such an ad hoc arrangement nor would we be able to obtain police check forms for candidates under the protocol CTM holds with the SPVM. I shall be mentioning the matter at our upcoming DC committee meeting next Tuesday and the only suggestion I could offer would be to arrange for that parish to have direct contact with one of our Team Alumni. If this person is an adult, and holds a valid Police Check form, there is nothing to prevent them arranging to help the parish run their Camp as long as it is clear that they are not being sent there under the auspices of CTM.
After last Sunday’s Board meeting I spent a couple of mornings typing up the minutes, having the draft approved by our President and then circulating them to the other Board members. This was the last meeting of the current Board as next month we will be holding our AGM at which there will be several members stepping down and at least one new Director appointed.
A couple of weeks ago, as I worked through the office email Inbox I was very surprised to see a name that had been off my “radar screen” for many years, a Team Member who came from the UK to do Day Camps in 1981!! Of course this was long before my tenure as Day Camp Director but after her summer on Team she subsequently married a fellow Team Member from Montreal and so moved to this Diocese. When her husband was ordained and they moved to a small rural community north of the city we became friends but a few years later when they left the province and moved to the Prairies we lost touch. Recently she had visited the CTM website, found this Blog and reached out to me 😊. She has been reading the older posts (thank goodness my reformatting started with the earliest ones!!!) and catching up on the world of Day Camps and we have since exchanged several emails through which I have been able to catch up on her life. This experience is just one more of the myriad reasons that Day Camps is so amazing and why despite the setbacks of the past two years, I am still committed to doing all I can to see that this ministry continues and thrives 😊
Every afternoon I have also continued with the daunting task of Post editing and have just started upon “Lent 2014”. I try not to think about how many more years of posts still need to be done and just focus on the content and on making them more legible, with proper format.
Tuesday right after lunch I managed to squeeze in another spring cleaning task-the cleaning and reorganising of my pantry shelves, after which there was just time to set the table and boil the kettle before Jillian arrived for a lovely Tea Time visit.We talked Day Camps “shop” while munching on crumpets spread with honey or homemade plum jam and drinking some lovely Himalayan black tea, recently gifted to me by a friend.
By Wednesday I was finally able to wrap the parcel of very special dresses and the baby bowtie and post it off to the Maritimes. I am very anxious to hear that the parcel has arrived safely since it represents many hours of work plus quite an expenditure on the part of my friend for patterns, fabric, buttons and thread! I truly hope that both Mum and little girls are happy with them and also, of course, that they fit properly!
I have a couple of lengths of cotton fabric, gifted to me a few months ago by a friend who was clearing out some of her stash and am hoping to turn them into some summer garments for myself. Evenings I’ve been scrolling through some free online patterns, particularly from a favourite designer. Most of her patterns are out of my price range but, delightfully, she does have a few free ones, so I’m thinking I will choose a couple of those to make up before the summer.
The fifth wedding anniversary of a dear Day Camps friend is also fast approaching and having consulted the chart of anniversaries and noted that wood is the featured material one is supposed to give, I’m currently puzzling out what I can make from supplies on hand 😊, I’m thinking perhaps a birch bark basket, hmm.
It’s rather cloudy this morning but I’m still planning to whiffle around the garden and see if more bulbs have flowered. The Alpine tulips are now in bloom and a few hyacinths are in bud, all of which is exciting. This afternoon there is a list of baking projects so I think I had better end off here with a recipe and get some other work done 😊.
One evening this week I adapted an Asian Recipe I found on the New York Times Recipe App. It was very tasty so I’ll share it here:-
Rice Noodles with Bok Choy & Egg Drop Sauce
- 12 oz. brown rice noodles
- 3 tablespoons neutral oil, such as sunflower
- 3 tablespoons Tamari
- 2 cups vegetable stock
- 1 tsp. turbinado sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 tsp. powdered ginger
- 1 carrot, peeled and thinly sliced diagonally
- 4 heads baby bok choy, trimmed and sliced lengthwise into 4 pieces
- 1 Tbsp. Vegan Worcestershire Sauce
- 2 eggs, beaten
- a small handful of cilantro leaves (optional)
Cook the noodles according to package directions, drain and set aside. In a small bowl combine the vegetable stock, cornstarch and brown sugar, 1 Tbsp. Tamari and the Worcestershire sauce.. Heat a cast iron skillet, add the cooked noodles, 2 Tbsps. oil and 2 Tbsps. Tamari, toss with tongs and cook until slightly charred. Remove the noodles to a bowl. Add 1 Tbsp. oil to the skillet then add the garlic and ginger and sauté for 1 minute, add the carrot for another minute then the bok choy. Stir the vegetable stock mixture and add to the pan, cooking until the sauce thickens. VERY SLOWLY drizzle the beaten egg into the skillet in a circular motion, do not stir. Remove from the heat and return the noodles to the skillet, tossing well to combine. Divide between 3 bowls and serve immediately, garnished with cilantro, if using.