What a week!

1. I was recognized by the church and it turned out to be a lovely service. I feel blessed by those who attended and by so many who sent cards, notes and messages.

2. Canuck`s lost the playoffs and a HUGE and terrible riot happened in Vancouver. Enough said.

3. I talked to my Dad and we have one of the best conversations ever!

4. Tomorrow I will celebrate my nephew`s sixth birthday. The critters guy will be at the party and he will bring along 10 critters to share (spiders, lizards etc). I think I will be hiding in the kitchen.

Tonight is the night!

My recognition service is tonight.

A service to officially recognize me as a Recognized Designated Lay Minister and to lift up the 18 years of ministry that I`ve completed so far. It`s taken a year for a church committee to work through my recognition process.

Today I am feeling thankful for the church and feeling disappointed in it too.

Hopefully tonight will be lovely.

Pentecost Picnic

Yesterday in the church we celebrated Pentecost with ribbons, music, fire, scripture and a picnic! About 130 people stayed for the picnic which was an amazing turn out. I bought 120 of everything (hot dogs, buns, plates etc.) and we ran out. That`s always a good sign. The weather was warm and wonderful allowing for egg relays, face painting, games, bocci and water balloon activities to happen. Everybody seemed to have a great time and my colleague said it was the best picnic he has ever been apart of. Yay!

Antique Shop

This is one of my favourite shops to visit. I always find wonderful things to bring home.

Hockey Town

Lucky Local Day!

In the market I found an incredibly amount of delicious local food....
onions
garlic
red peppers
yellow peppers
bok choi
spinach
mushrooms
carrots
baby potatoes
rosemary, dill and basil

In the butcher....
I bought two ethically raised chicken breasts and 10 pieces of bacon

I cooked dinner for Mom and we had a great feast. The smells coming from the kitchen were incredible.

What a lucky day!

TGIF!

The sun is FINALLY shining today! It`s been a long season of rain this year. My week off is going well. I am getting lots of rest, lots of house projects done and lots of time to reflect & plan my future worship services. Mom flies home today and will be here for the month. I can`t wait to pick her up. It`s been a long time.

Local Season Begins!

June 1st makes for a perfect day to begin a season of eating locally. I`ve been in the winter rut of eating lately and it`s time to get back on the bandwagon. My two favourite & inspiring books are ``Animal Vegetable Miracle`` by Barbara Kingsolver and ``The 100 Mile Diet`` by Alisa Smith & J.B. MacKinnon. I read them every year. Together they create perspectives and resources from the USA and Canada. A great mix!

The 100 mile diet, if strictly followed, requires participants to eat food that is grown & produced within 100 miles of their home. This includes every ingredient in a product. Exceptions are allowed if we state them in the beginning. So my exceptions are:
1. Any Fair Trade products including coffee, sugar, spices
2. Ethically raised meat and wild seafood or fish.
3. Social Life Amendment (Meal invitations with family & friends)
4. Travel

So today I began. I visited my local farmer`s market and I spent time in my garden.

At the market I found:
cheese
salad greens (a variety of Fraser Valley leaves)
rhubarb
potato's
two tomato plants grown by Kwantlen College`s Horticulture Students

In my garden I picked:
chives
lettuce
basil

ZUMBA

ZUMBA classes begin tonight. I am excited to try a new activity! I love a new challenge and gaining exercise all at the same time will be an added bonus. It will also be nice to meet some new friends.

Off to Conference!

BC Conference meets this week in Penticton. I am leaving today and making the five hour trip up to the interior. This year I am on the Children at Conference team (again!). I am pretty sure it will be my final year. It`s time to hang up another hat and let other people have a chance to offer their leadership. Next year, Conference will happen at UBC. Nice and close to home. It will be grrrreat!

Victoria Day!

I love the silence of Sunday mornings on long weekends. The world around my neighbourhood is so still. It`s beautiful. All I hear are the sounds of birds. All I smell is bacon waffling through the windows of my neighbours. It`s probably one of the only times when the world wakes up slowly.

Tomorrow is Victoria Day. The day Canada recognizes it`s relationship with the Queen and England. It`s also unofficially the beginning of the summer season. For the first time in 21 years (21!!) I am not away at camp with a group of teenagers. It feels a little strange. Instead I am spending the weekend at home. In my town I am surrounded by the Cloverdale Rodeo. One of the last places I would find myself at. It`s interesting to see all the tourists in town.

Wedding 2

Looks like I will be officiating a September wedding! Tonight I met with a couple who were recommended to me by a mutual friend. I was really nervous but the hour went well and I think everything will work out just fine. The wedding will happen at a well known golf course on a Sunday afternoon. It will be Wedding 2 for officiating!

Circus!

On Saturday I took my 13 year old nephew to the circus. It was a youth circus and it was brilliant!! I was incredibly impressed with the entire, two hour show. All the participants were under 18 years old and were highly qualified in their areas of speciality. One of the teens from my church trains on the ladder. He balanced a ladder on his face and completed many other tricks. The neatest thing is that his photo made it into the local newspaper. How fun!

Global Experience 2011

It`s Official! I am heading to CHINA this summer!!!! My friends won a land tour package to China and they gifted it to me. Wow! I`ll be going on a 10 day Historic Tour through Beijing and Xi`an including the Great Wall of China, the Terra Cotta Warriors, Tiananmen Square and lots of markets. We will be taking a train from Beijing to Xi`an which should be very interesting. I am really excited. Time to get a tour book!

Eat Pray Love

Somedays I just want to leave and head out on my own Eat, Pray, Love adventure. Maybe one day I will.

Final Interview

Today I had my final interview with the Fraser Presbytery Education & Students Committee and after a year long process I have officially been recommended to be recognized as a Designated Lay Minister in the United Church of Canada!!!! This means I will be able to work in any congregation in team or solo ministry. One day I might just have my very own congregation! The official ceremony will happen on Tuesday, June 14th at 7pm at Crescent United Church. All are welcome to attend.

Retreat Time!

The sun is shining and I am leaving today for a two night, three day retreat hosted by the church. We will be staying at a new retreat lodge in Abbotsford. My second retreat in Abbotsford within the last three weeks. Amazing! This time I actually get to attend and participate and I won`t be leading anything. I can`t wait to dig into a new book, go for great walks and do some deep personal reflecting and thinking. I am so thankful to have this opportunity.

2011 Garden List

I have three gardens on the go this year. One is fully planted. One is half way done and the other has yet to be started! I hope to finish all the planting by the end of this week.

Corner Patch (Backyard of a neighbour)
Strawberries, lettuce, beets, basil, peppers, zucchini, cucumber, peas, tomatoes and potatoes, carrots

Balcony Garden
Onions, strawberries, peppers, rhubarb, mint, parsley, basil, dill, cilantro, lavender, blueberries and lots of lettuce

Garden Plot
chives, broccoli, potatoes, onions and more lettuce. I might also try corn for the first time this year.

It will be interesting to see what works out this year. I can`t wait for a tasty summer season.

Mom & Daughter Weekend!

I am SO excited! My Mom arrives this morning and we will spend the weekend together. We will be shopping, gardening, watching the wedding of the year, attending a fashion show and church on Sunday. It looks to be a fun & enjoyable weekend.

Happy Easter!

Wishing you all a wonderful Easter day! Christ is Risen! Allelulia!

Kale Sale!

Tomorrow, Holy Saturday, I will be spending lots of time with food. In the morning I plan to bake three homemade pies using freshly picked rhubarb, local apples and the last of my 2010 frozen strawberries. Then I`ll cook up some locally grown cranberries to create a tasty sauce. In the afternoon I will be heading to Vancouver for the annual Kale Sale to stock up on the tasty treat. Kale Chips are delicious and I hear that pickling Kale is the thing to try this year! After that, a visit to the local winter farmer`s market will surely fill up my fridge for the week. I will end the day celebrating Easter with friends.

A Surprise!

Tonight the Healing Touch team at the church called me at the last minute to offer me a treatment. Two people cancelled at the last minute so the team was ready and willing to offer me time. After working SO hard over the weekend it was a great gift to receive an hour long treatment. If you don`t know what Healing Touch is then I suggest you google it. It`s amazing, powerful, relaxing and transforming. What a gift!

Food for the Journey!

This weekend I am leading a retreat for 30 women in my congregation. We are heading away to a retreat centre in the middle of an area known greatest for fields and fields of daffodils. It should be lovely timing this year.
I am leading the entire retreat; 6 theme sessions and 3 worship services including Palm Sunday. Last year only 12 women came. I think it was because I was new and nobody had experienced my leadership before. I am glad the numbers have doubled this year. It`s exciting! The theme is ``Food for the Journey`` and we will look at food in the bible, food in our faith, food in our families. We`ll be making bread, engaging in a chocolate meditation and eating lots of homemade organic meals. What A treat!

Go Canucks Go!

Hockey playoffs begin on Wednesday and I am SO excited. Unfortunately I have a church meeting right smack in the middle of the first game. I guess I`ll have to carefully plan my meetings over the next weeks and months until the Canucks win the Stanley Cup!!!! It`s so great to see all the car flags everywhere. The spirit of community has returned. Go Canucks Go!

Adoption

Mother`s Day will mark one year since I ended my adoption process. A process of which I was involved in for three years. That`s right, THREE YEARS! I am still frustrated by the experience and the BC adoption system. There are thousands of children in this province and in my city who are just waiting for loving homes and it makes no sense to me that they continue to wait.
Moving on....I am considering international adoption. I recently met with a friend who is a long time, amazing, encouraging & knowledgeable adoption worker in Vancouver. We met for two hours as we worked through all the possible options. It comes down to one country and a HUGE amount of money. I am not sure if I will begin this journey. It`s a big decision.

My Green Thumb

I have declared this weekend to be my first full on gardening weekend. Tomorrow I am heading to a ``Green Thumb`` workshop; a workshop on gardening from seed. It`s free and offered by the local nature centre in the city. It wasn`t until after I signed up that I realized it is being led by one of the people I admire the most. A local agronomist, garden writer and food advocate in Richmond. I have worked with her over the years through various food programs in the city. I am SO excited!

This year I will have three gardens and I have them all planned out. The seeds are purchased and I`ve already won a free bag of manure. Yay! Next projects include building a worm composter and a potato growing bin. I love spring!

Travel in the works!

I am getting the itch to travel somewhere big. The last trip I took was in July 2009 to Guatemala. Last year, Israel was in the plan and then the car accident happened. For a number of reasons, the Middle East is not currently in the plan.

I am looking ahead to January 2012. I`ll take three weeks off and head somewhere in the world. Places on my list include France, Greece, Italy, Washington DC, China, India, New Zealand and Africa. It`s time to dream, plan, save and go! I`ll see what plan I come up with.

Family Week

Dad arrives today and my cousin Scott & his wife Christine will visit this weekend. I am BEYOND excited to have family in town. It doesn`t happen often as I am usually the one that travels to the USA. We are going to share some great meals, visit the local markets and on Saturday I will take my cousins to the BC LDS Temple of which I visited three times during its open house last year. They have yet to see its beauty. It looks to be a wonderful family week.

Japan

Tonight I participated in a multi-faith prayer service for Japan. About 70 people attended with only two days notice. 14 different faiths were represented and prayers (spoken and sung) were offered. Everybody lit candles and prayed together in one large circle prayer before leaving for the night. It was amazing, inspiring, holy and peaceful. We can only hope that what we did tonight will bring courage and help to encourage the people of Japan. Tonight was a great example of why I am so thankful to be living in the place I live - a significant multi-cultural, multi-faith community.

Living Lent

The Season of Lent began last night with a great Shrove Tuesday pancake supper followed by an Ash Wednesday prayer service. I love this time of year and could quite easily live through a Lenten type journey all year long. Perhaps I will. My personal challenge over the next six weeks is to remove TV from my life. I can listen to the radio or read the newspaper to keep up to date with news but I will not be finding myself sitting on the couch flipping channels to fill my time. Instead I plan on improving my life by reading books that have been sitting in my book pile for months and implementing more time for prayer. I really need to take this Lenten time to discern what my future will look like as there are so many exciting possibilities. Wish me luck!

Black Eyed Susans

I have a pile of gardening books stacking up on my coffee table just waiting for a block of time where I can draw out my garden plan for 2011. I need to start planting seedlings within the next week or so as I am already behind. The first seeds should have gone in about two weeks ago. This year I am blessed to have three gardening spaces; balcony, community plot and garden patch. My balcony will primarily be for berries, herbs and salad greens. Corn, beets, broccoli, onions, tomatoes and cucumbers will be in the community plot and carrots, peas and some more herbs will be planted in the garden patch. If all goes well I will be supplied all summer long with delicious fruit and veggies. This year I also hope to plant a bunch of flowers including my favourite Black Eyed Susans.

Children`s Retreat

I am getting excited! This weekend is the annual Children`s Retreat. A gathering of around 80 children and 30 leaders at a retreat centre close to Cultus Lake. The children will be between the ages of 8-12, many of whom have never been away from home before. Our theme for the event will be based on Jeremiah`s call. An opportunity to experience children empowering each other to use the gifts they have been given. In preparation we`ve asked some children to share their talents with the group. So far we have a cello player, a bagpiper, someone who volunteers in Guatemala every summer with her mom and a child who began a project to raise money for those who are homeless. It looks to be an amazing weekend and I look forward to learning from an incredible group of children.

Ta Da!

Graduation!

After six years of part time study and full time work I graduated this week from Douglas College. I received a Diploma in Child and Youth Counselling from the Faculty of Child, Youth & Community Studies. It was a very special day and I felt surrounded by friends and family from around the world. Here is a photo from my two wonderful friends. Harvinder is on the left and Cynthia is on the right. We`ve been friends for 21 years!! Mom took the photo and Dad (who wasn`t there) treated us all to a delicious steak dinner.

Cranberry Crackerjacks

A new cookie recipe to try. It is super tasty and I found it in the latest copy of ``Edible Vancouver``.

Cranberry Crackerjacks
1 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
3 quarter of a cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1.5 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup fine coconut
1.5 cups puffed rice cereal
1 cup dried cranberries

Notes: I used organic dried cranberries because they are larger and fresh (in the bulk section) and organic rice cereal but you can also use rice krispies.

In a large bowl combine oil,eggs, sugars and vanilla. Beat well. Combine flour, baking powder and baking soda in small bowl and gradually add to the oil mixture, stirring well. Add oats, coconut, cereal and cranberries. Mix thoroughly to combine.

Use hands to tightly pack the mixture into balls about 1.5 inches in diameter. Flatten a bit with fork dipped in water and bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Between batches, continue to stir well, so you aren`t left with just bits of cranberries and pouffed rice at the end.

Book News!

Earlier last year I was invited to be one of three people involved with a national church book project. I was asked to be an editor of sorts to read through hundreds of blog entries and choose the best ones. I can`t remember how many exactly but I do remember it being a challenging task. I received a financial gift for the job and one amazing opportunity. Now that book has been published and I am mentioned in the introduction. It is called ``Faith in a Time of Change``. Yahoo!

Retreat

My week of study leave begins today and I am so thankful for this time to dig deep into my connection with God through reflection, prayer, silence and outdoor walks. I arrived tonight on Bowen Island, the place of sanctuary that I so love.

I am staying at Rivendell, a place of retreat up high in the mountains. I have my own room and bathroom. It`s a sacred space.Let the creativity, prayers, dreams and reflections begins....

Fairhaven

Mom and I spent the day in Fairhaven, Washington yesterday. It`s one of my favourite places to visit in the area. This isn`t surprising considering there is a bookstore, gardening shop, cooking school and pottery store. The only thing missing is a fabric shop! We had great tasting lunch in a British-styled tea room followed by a great walk in the sunshine. It was a mild and beautiful day and the ocean was gorgeous. Mom and I had a great time. The added bonus being that the border waits in both directions were just twenty minutes. Photo: Standing on the corner in front of the double decker bus. A place to visit in the summer for great tasting fish & chips.

Apple Jam

2011 has begun with vacation time! Last week I was in Toronto to visit friends and to reconnect with a city that I love. On one of the more snowy days we decided to stay at home and make apple jam using apples from around Carmen`s cabin property. I had never tasted apple jam before so it was a new and exciting thing to try. We filled two dozen jars in a matter of hours. It makes for a delicious treat on crackers or toast. Here is a similar recipe I found online so you can try it out.

Apple Jam

Ingredients:
•2 kilograms of apples, cleaned
•3 cups water
•1 lemon
•1 1/5 kilograms sugar
•1 tablespoon cinnamon (optional)

Cooking:
Wash, clean and chop apples and put them in the water with lemon juice.
Pour 1/2 kilogram of sugar in water with apples and cook them till apples soften.
Pour rest of the sugar in boiling apple mix and cook it for 10 minutes more. Stir cinnamon in apples and remove them from the heat.
Pour warm jam in clean jam jars, seal them and process for 10 minutes in boiling water bath.