Hello Blog Friends!
As mentioned in the last post, this week began with Crosstalk Ministries Annual General Meeting, which took place last Sunday afternoon. As is usually the case, despite sending out documents and invitations to the more than 60 people who had most generously donated to CTM in 2022, only 4 people who are not already members of the Board, attended the meeting.
It is a really good thing that, in 2021, we updated our by-laws as, previously, there had been a quorum of 50% plus 1 of the membership required to hold the AGM and one year we actually had to hold a second AGM in order to ratify the motions. EEK!!
The meeting lasted almost 2 hours and so, Monday morning I tackled the 7 pages of scrawled notes I had written and turned them into 4 pages of neatly typed minutes 😊.
With that onerous task out of the way, I was able to turn my attention to Day Camp matters by composing and sending a number of emails inviting clergy and coordinators to the online Kick Off event that is being organised for the second Saturday in June. Of course all the communities that have already signed up were at the top of my list but I have also sent information to a number of other contacts as we are still hoping and praying to reach our goal of (at least J) 10 Day Camps this year. So far, sadly, no one new has responded, but I must keep on trying and am not yet ready to face defeat.
Over the week some time has also been devoted to reviewing all the PowerPoints that Jillian has prepared for the Classic Day Camp Program. She is still working on the ones for the Backyard package, but fortunately those will require a lot less time as the opening session is considerably shorter than a whole Main Presentation at a classic camp.
All the photos for the craft samples have now been collected and uploaded into folders for both programs, which is another item to check off my “to-do” list J. Early in the week I was finally able to delete the old Lamb on Day Camps blog as ALL of the content (back to 2011) is now properly edited and formatted on this WordPress site. It has taken many months to go through the close to 900 posts and I am really glad to have the task completed.
The main household job this week has been the annual cleaning of all the windows and washing of all the curtains. This task was spread out over three days as I really cannot manage it in one and also cannot block off that much time on one day to complete it. The weather has also not been the best, after several lovely warm days last week we are now back to near freezing temperatures so, of course, it is not possible to clean glass when water turns to ice as it is sprayed on the window panes 😊.
Wednesday I was joined by Jessica who came for a visit including dinner together and today I welcomed Mae Anne who came for lunch. Both of these young women are actively involved in the Day Camps ministry, Jessica having done all the formatting and layout for the Program Manual and Extended Day Manual and Mae Anne being a member of the Day Camp Committee.
I had not seen either of them since before Easter and so was able to give them each a pysanka. For dinner with Jessica I did a slow cooker recipe for Chinese Lamb Ribs and served them with vegetable fried rice. For dessert we enjoyed slices of Tropic Aroma Cake, as the previous day (April 18th) was the anniversary of my Mum’s birthday and despite the fact that she died 23 (can it possibly be??) years ago, I still bake the cake each year to honour her memory. For lunch today I had promised Mae Anne Welsh Rarebit as she had never tried it before, she enjoyed it very much and has asked for the recipe, which you can find here.
There hasn’t been much time for crafting although, after receiving the parcel of yarn I ordered and winding a few balls I started an autumn sweater for myself, which needs to be squeezed in before devoting the next few months to Christmas knitting 😊.
Even though it has been quite a bit colder this week, a bit of garden work has been fitted in, mostly consisting of picking up more small branches from the recent ice-storm and sweeping pathways. But it is great to spend time outside NOT shovelling snow and to see many sweet spring flowers starting to bloom.
Today did include a bit of early morning baking, prior to Mae Anne’s arrival and it is now late afternoon, time to turn my attention to supper prep 😊.
Before I go I will share the Lamb Ribs recipe, as it was very tasty. I expect it would also work with pork of beef ribs too.
Chinese Lamb Ribs
- 3 lbs. lamb ribs
- ¼ cup Tamari
- 1/3 cup lemon marmalade
- 1/8 tsp. chilli flakes
- 3 Tbsps. ketchup
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tsp. fresh gingerroot, minced
In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, marmalade, chilli flakes, ketchup garlic, and minced ginger. Pour half into a 5-qt. slow cooker, top with ribs and drizzle with remaining sauce. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours or until tender. In a small saucepan, thicken the cooking juices with 1 Tbsp. tapioca starch, dissolved in 1 Tbsp. cold water and serve with rice. Serves 4.