Some people feel guilty about their anxieties and regard them as a defect of faith but they are afflictions, not sins. Like all afflictions, they are, if we can so take them, our share in the Passion of Christ.

C.S. Lewis

Whole Wheat Thins

These are so easy to make and they'll save you tons of money - if you're the sort of person who can't resist buying those little boxes of snacking crackers at the supermarket.

4 cups whole-wheat flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. sugar

1/2 cup shortening or lard

2/3 cup water or milk

Mix the dry ingredients then cut in the shortening until finely blended. Pour in the water and stir until batter forms into a soft ball, like pastry. (if you have a food processor all this can be done in a few seconds) Divide the dough into 4 parts. Roll each part as thin as possible. Slide the sheet of dough onto a non-buttered cookie sheet, With a pizza cutter or pastry wheel or knife, mark the dough into small squares. To prevent bubbling, prick the dough all over with the tines of a fork. Sprinkle with salt (we use celtic sea salt).

Bake at 400° for almost 10 minutes, or until crisp and pale brown. Slide the sheet onto a cooling rack and break them were you marked them before cooking.These keep very well, if they last long enough!

~My own notes:

-I use water

-whole spelt usually as Mom and I try not to use the wheat flour

-Less sugar (or sometimes I have used none - but they taste better with a bit)

-I have been using organic coconut oil in these crackers - it tastes great! I only use about 1/4 cup as you do not need much of it

-I usually store in a large jar

Taken from "Schmecks Appeal" By Edna Staebler

(Edna lived to be 100 years old...and she loved these crackers!)

~ Jenny ~

June 28th 2005 - June 4th 2010

Scott and I went out tonight to the annual CWL potluck dinner. I am a member of the CWL and Scott was asked to come to provide about fifteen minutes of solo violin music after dinner. You played really nice Scotty! Thank-you for coming.

Friends Are A Gift From God

Caroline and I went out for lunch yesterday. It was so good to see you Caroline! See you again in a few weeks.

Love, Erin

Dancing

Last night Scott and I went out to a local Contra dance. It was the last one of the season here. They will start up again in September. My friend Louise came too. It was great to see you Louise! I forgot to take pictures so here is a picture of Fred and Ginger instead...

Have a great rest of your weekend!

Erin

I posted a Cinnamon Roll recipe on my other blog. Come check it out!

Erin

Happy Birthday Daddy!

May 25th, 2010

Dad and the three kids

Slippers!

As you can see...they were very much needed

Fun cards

We love you Dad! We hope you have a wonderful year ahead. May the Lord shower his blessings upon you.

Love,

Erin

New York Mission Post!!

April 27, 2010. New York, NY.

This year’s Holy Week missions had a strong Manhattan contingent, with 50 young women, 10 young men, and about a dozen families involved in various service projects around the Big Apple.

The mission, running from Thursday afternoon to Sunday morning, was based out of Old St Patrick’s Cathedral in SoHo. During the mission, the youth reached out to the people of the district, inviting them to the church for the Easter liturgies. At the same time, they engaged in various corporal works of mercy in conjunction with some of New York’s charitable organizations.

Caroline and I

The service projects started on Friday morning with Meals on Wheels, as we youth teamed up to deliver meals to the elderly, staying to socialize and spend some time when they could.

Meanwhile, another group helped prepare and serve lunch at a center for the elderly.

A few of us- posing

Holy Thursday - washing of the feet

Talking to a lady on the streets

Preaching

In the evening, we participated in a Midnight Run from 10 pm to 1 am. A Midnight Run is an evening delivery of essential clothing and toiletries to homeless people throughout the city. The missionaries had been preparing in the months prior to the mission with a clothing and toiletries drive, collecting items as diverse as underwear, socks, rain ponchos, sweaters, jackets, pants, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, and more.

Before we started our deliveries, two former homeless people came and gave all the missionaries a talk to help them understand what they would be experiencing, sharing their own stories of how they came to be homeless.

One of them had graduated from college and worked for the Pentagon and the Air Force. He had a family, a wife, and a house in DC. But when his wife died, he mentally broke down. He forgot to pay his bills and go to work. Before too long, he found himself on the street. One of New York’s programs for homeless people helped him to start getting back on his feet again, although he still lives in a shelter.

The other speaker shared how his drug addiction had lost him his job and landed him on the street for 16 years. It took him a long time to recognize that he had an addiction and start detoxing, but he finally did it.

One of the co-workers that Caroline has worked with in the past year and her cousin who came down for the mission :)

Sleeping

The kitchen "crew" serving lunch at the center for the elderly

Walking down the streets in NY


Saturday in Harlem

On Saturday, the missionaries headed over to the Children’s Day Society in Harlem. There, they organized five stations of games for the kids: basketball, steal the bacon, Easter egg decoration, musical chairs, and dodge ball. The kids switched off from one station to the other until they had their fill of games.

The games were followed by a cookout and an Easter egg hunt. One missionary spent the whole day with the same three girls, bonding

“The kids really liked the personal attention from the missionaries,” observed Caroline, noting that the boys started shooting hoops and playing pickup basketball with the young men, while some of the young women found themselves surrounded by a small posse of little girls.

Friends

Easter Eggs!

Some of the things in this post is from a great newspaper article that was written about the mission.

It is hard to put into words what a blessing the mission was to me. I think many of us there saw God working miracles in the lives of those on the street and the people who were helping on the mission. It re-emphasized to me that the smallest gesture can make a change in someones life. In closing I want to share with you two quotes that help me summarize my experience in NY city.

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.

Each one of them is Jesus in disguise.

-Mother Teresa

God bless you, Erin

Lunch With Friends

As we walk our path of life,

We meet people everyday.

Most are simply met by chance.

But, some are sent our way.

These become special friends

Whose bond we can't explain;

The ones who understand us

And share our joy and pain.

Their love contains no boundaries.

So, even we are apart.

Their presence enhances us

With a warmth felt in the heart.

This love becomes a passageway,

When even the miles disappear.

And so, these friends, God sends our way,

Remain forever near.

Author unknown

It was wonderful to see you my friends - Caroline, Tannis and Louise! We will have to go out together again sometime soon.

Love, Erin