Hello Blog Friends!
With the Autumn season now well underway there has been a lot of prep work going on in the past week as we roll out a number of activities taking place in the next couple of months as well as focusing on all that is entailed in assembling the 2023 Program. Here are some highlights from the last few days…
Early in the week I put together the agenda for our October DC committee meeting and sent it off to all the members. Once that was out of the way, work began on creating the 3 “challenges” that will be included as optional extras during the episodes of the upcoming Cook Along. The notice has already gone out to all the families who have participated in the past three seasons as well as to the coordinators of the three Day Camps held this summer. I have encouraged them to share the poster with their lists of campers in the hopes of welcoming some new faces to the Cook-Along community 😊.
By midweek I was back to adding content to the Harvest/Fall Networks newsletter as the draft needed to be passed on to Guylaine by yesterday so that she has a few days to proof it before we hit the “publish” button. This issue should be in people’s inboxes ahead of Thanksgiving Weekend-October 8th to 10th.
Over the week I have also taken a deep dive into the 2023 Program Manual and have begun designing the 5 Registration Time crafts. As mentioned in my last post, the Creative Connection Chapter from the previous iteration of “Something to Celebrate!” does not look as if it will require much rewriting but in addition to those 2 sections of the manual I will also be creating a new Extended Day Program (EDP) to accompany the 2023 materials as there is no EDP from the previous time this program was presented.So it looks as if I have plenty to do on the program front 😊!
As the new logo has not yet been submitted, I cannot yet complete the 2023 flyer to be sent to both returning and prospective host communities but Wednesday morning I did take a bit of time to begin composing that message, in the hopes that once the logo arrives I can paste it into the flyer and be good to go!
A bit of progress has also been made on the ubiquitous grant application. Yesterday afternoon I met on FaceTime with Christopher and we attempted to pull everyone’s changes and suggestions into one cohesive document. This draft is going back to Jessica as she has a lot of experience writing grant applications and can hopefully tweak the content to provide a more compelling argument in favour of our application.😊
In order the meet part of the financial component on the form we also need to have a budget formulated that guarantees we have 50% of our needs for the coming year already committed in pledges, fee payments or donations. As we never know until close to summer how many communities are likely to host Day Camps, it is very hard to make an accurate projection this far ahead, sigh.But I am still labouring over the draft as I need to run it by our Treasurer before it is ready to add to the application form.
Outside of all these varied tasks, I was super happy, this week, to complete the Christmas gifts for my Godsons. I found instructions for Balance Boards while hunting on the Internet and thought that they would be a good fit for 4 active boys. After several unpleasant hours with a blunt handsaw, sanding and painting them was a pleasant job and I’m proud of the finished product 😊. I also finished and blocked the pair of socks I’ve been knitting (another Christmas gift!) and have cast on a sweet little mohair pullover (yes it is a Christmas gift too, for a small person in my aquaintence). Later today, once the bake is in hand,I plan to hem a dozen furoshiki in which to wrap said gifts, except I shall need to resort to some sturdy brown paper wrapping for the balance boards as they are too large for a furoshiki and small boys are not really interested in reusable wrapping -they just want into get to the gifts 😊
Work also continues in the garden as I move ahead with the transition into autumn mode and continue cutting down plants ready for the coming winter. This morning I moved the deck furniture inside to its basement storage area, planted 4 pots of chrysanthemums in the flowerbeds and laid the coco-fibre matting on the front stairs. As it was quite chilly work, I’m glad that the oven has now been turned on and I have transitioned into bake mode. Today’s list included GF loaves,Norwegian Crispbread, chocolate chip cookies and cornmeal muffins.
Before I begin the mixing process, let’s end off with our recipe. As we begin October I’ve been pondering whether or not do another month-long series. I thought maybe a month of muffins might be a good idea and so today we kick off with…
Cornmeal Muffins
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1¼ cups milk
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup honey
- 1 cup cornmeal
- 3 tsps. baking powder
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1 ¼ cups flour
- 1/2 cup grated cheddar-optional
Line muffin cups with parchment liners and set aside. Preheat oven to 400º. In a large bowl whisk together the dry ingredients. Combine the wet ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk well. Blend the wet ingredients into the dry; do not over mix! Fill muffin cups and bake for 15-20 minutes. Makes 1 dozen muffins.