Hello Blog Friends!
Thank goodness the past week has not been quite as chaotic as the previous one 😊
On the Day Camp front, I was very pleased, on Monday, to receive the Liturgical Dance MP4 video from Mae Anne who was the videographer when it was recorded at her church a couple of weeks ago. Sadly, I was not able to play the file but after alerting her to the issue she was able to troubleshoot and as of Thursday it was ready to add to both the Classic Day Camp Resource Package and the Backyard Day Camp Package. WHEW!!! That meant that, by yesterday, 5 of the 7 registered communities now have their complete Day Camp Programs, woot woot 🎉🎉.
Unfortunately, despite daily efforts to reach out to many churches and communities, there is still no progress to report on finding 3 more host locations. As the month of May rushes by the possibility of finding places diminishes since, understandably, a community needs lead-time if they plan to mount a weeklong activity for children. So the hunt continues, and it is hard not to be discouraged.
We have now settled on Saturday, July 8th for our summer Team Gathering, although the first choice of a Speaker was not available I have approached a second person, who would be excellent, and they are taking a few days to pray about it. Hopefully we will have a positive answer soon as the poster really needs to begin circulating on social media.
The May Board meeting is scheduled for Sunday the 21st so some time was spent this week preparing a draft agenda to be approved by our President, Chris Belle, and this weekend, I will be circulating it to the other directors along with another reminder about sending in content for the upcoming issue of CTM’s “Networks” newsletter. The deadline is this coming Monday and so far nothing has been contributed. Sigh.
Tuesday evening there was a three hour long Diocesan Council meeting to attend. As I am Lay Secretary I had to take the minutes right until the end and have subsequently spent the last two evenings dealing with typing them up. At present there are NINE typed pages, quite the marathon. Ah well, it gets me in training for next month’s Synod 😊.
Thursday Jillian came for a lunch visit. She has now officially stepped back from the Day Camp committee but has been finishing off work on the resource materials and is, of course, still very interested in keeping up with all the news . As it is now less than a month until her baby is due there will not be many more visits (or chances for me to pick her brain for technical advice 😊!). She told me about plans for her baby shower, happening next Saturday, which is also the day when DC committee member, Christopher, is getting married. Fortunately Jillian knows me well enough to not expect me to attend the shower, as it is going to be a very large gathering that will even include a whole roasted pig! I did receive an invitation to the wedding but have opted to be watching it on a livestream as there was no way I could get to Laval by public transportation and as they are expecting over 400 people at the Service, I doubt I would be missed. I shall, instead, make a nice a pot of tea and enjoying the wedding from the relative peace of my living room, assuming Thomason does not decide to run amok while I am otherwise occupied 😊. Christopher and his fiancée, Fabienne will be dropping by tomorrow afternoon for a short visit and to receive the wedding gift I have made for them.
Today I am occupied with the usual baking after first spending two hours working in the garden. My Purple Sand Cherry bush has a dead limb so I made a start at trying to saw it off, but as I only have a small and rather blunt handsaw I fear it will take more than one attempt to complete the task. An acquaintance, for whom I have previously done some sewing, has asked me to make her a skirt and two half-slips, so this afternoon I need to cut them out as there is no pattern and she has lent me the garments to copy and needs them back. There hasn’t been time for much other craft work, although I have now completed the body of my autumn pullover and am about to start the first sleeve.
All of which means we had better end off here with this week’s recipe. This coming Wednesday is Jessica’s monthly dinner visit with me and I am planning a Mediterranean theme so I baked a batch of Lemon Pistachio bars for our dessert. They are extremely tasty so here is the recipe: –
Lemon Pistachio Bars
- 1 cup flour
- ¼ cup icing sugar
- ¼ tsp. sea salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- ¼ cup shelled unsalted pistachios, roughly chopped
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup raw cane sugar
- ½ tsp. baking powder
- 2 Tbsps. flour
- 1 tsp. grated lemon zest
- 4 Tbsps. lemon juice
- ⅓ cup shelled unsalted pistachios
- Icing sugar, for garnish
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a 9” square pan with parchment paper. Place flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse a few times. Add butter and process until well combined. Stir in chopped pistachios. Firmly press mixture into the bottom of the lined pan using the flat bottom of a glass. Bake until lightly browned, about 20 mins. Meanwhile, whisk together the filling ingredients. When the crust is baked, pour the filling into the pan and bake until set, about 20 mins. Let cool completely. Dust with icing sugar and cut into 2-inch squares. Makes 16 squares.