Saturday, 16 April 2016

I Hate Today



I hate, hate, hate today!
My nose hurts!
My lips hurt!
My back is hot!
And!
I don’t want to walk to McDonald's!

Do you hate everything about today?

Yes!

What about your new doll Lucy?

I like Lucy. 

BUT

I hate, hate, hate today!
My nose hurts!
My lips hurt!
My back is hot!

Grandpa and I like spending time with you.

I like spending time with you and I like my new doll Lucy.

BUT

I hate, hate, hate today!
My nose hurts!
My lips hurt!
My back is hot.

Did you like the McFlurry we walked to get?

Yes.

I like spending time with you
I like my new doll Lucy and
I liked the McFlurry.

BUT

I hate, hate, hate today!
My nose hurts!
My lips hurt!
My back is hot.

Did you like having pizza with Great Grandma?

Yes
liked having pizza with Great Grandma
I like spending time with you
I like my new doll Lucy and
I liked the McFlurry

BUT

I hate, hate, hate today!
My nose hurts!
My lips hurt!
My back is hot.

Did you like have breakfast out with us?

Yes I liked have breakfast out.
I liked having pizza with Great Grandma
I like spending time with you
I like my new doll Lucy and
I liked the McFlurry

BUT

I hate, hate, hate today!
My nose hurts!
My lips hurt!
My back is hot

OH!? 
Wait a minutes I liked five things today and only hated three things.

I like, like, like today.

A day spent with our youngest granddaughter Ruth and we made the mistake of walking to McDonald’s for ice cream.  

We had a wonderful day.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2016twosnydergirls

Friday, 15 April 2016

Rhubarb Upside Down Cake


One of my fondest memories as a child was sitting in our family rhubarb patch with mother’s sugar bowl eating fresh rhubarb. 

As a child rhubarb always had to come with lots and lots of sugar, however now some 50 years later I enjoy the tart taste of rhubarb and do not need Mother’s sugar bowl.

In preparing for this post we were surprised to find out all of the reported health benefits of rhubarb.  It is believed to help with weight loss, digestion, the production of red blood cells just to name a few.

This recipe comes from Great Grandmother’s recipe collection and too keep the baking as authentic as we could we made it in our deep cast-iron pan.  Using cast-iron the cake has a dark caramelized colour.

We also changed some of ingredients to accommodate our dietary preferences, these changes are in italic.


Ingredients:
  • ¼ cup shortening (coconut oil)
  • ¾ cup sugar (coconut sugar)
  • 2 cups flour (gluten free)
  • 2/1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/4 cup milk (almond milk)
  • 4 cups diced rhubarb
  • 1 cup brown sugar (coconut sugar)
  • 2 tablespoons butter (coconut oil)

Direction:
  1. Melt butter in an oven proof deep dish skillet and add the brown sugar and rhubarb.  Bring this to a simmer for 1 minutes and remove from heat.
  2. Preheat the oven to 375 F.
  3. Batter:
  4. Cream together the shortening and sugar
  5. Sift together all the dry ingredients and add alternately with the milk into the sugar and butter.
  6. Spoon the batter into the skillet over the rhubarb.
  7. Bake in oven for 40 minutes.
  8. Turn upside down onto serving plate  
We serve the cake with both stewed rhubarb as a sauce and also with maple syrup as in the photograph.

From Our Table To Yours

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2016 twosnydergirls

Thursday, 14 April 2016

Crochet The Weather


Conceptualizing the weather has now become a habit and in 2016 we are creating a crochet block for each day this year. 

The centre of the block is the temperature
and
the outer block is the sky.



In 2016 we will also be featuring the poetry of

Dawna Proudman


Wondering
while February lurches
forward into March
if bird song is destined forever
to be recalled
but never again heard

like stories from our childhoods
we tell and tell and tell
until they are smooth worn
familiar and strange
like wave polished glass

memories of the time before
the ice banished all but the crows –
cavorting like old country widows
their magnificent distraction
from snow upon snow
cloud upon cloud

cocky victory struts
charm and confuse
graceful wings trace drifts
like pirate flags over frozen seas
welcomed by default
by those of us left land locked

(even so,
winter could last a hundred years
and still the crow’s raspy throated scold
would always be the antithesis of song
wouldn’t it?)

will there ever come a time
when windows gape again
like the mouths of youngsters
yowling with glee and awe
catching the notes of sparrows,
doves, warblers, finches
spiralling, billowing upwards into
the blue dome of the universe?

will robins ever come again
to drown the tumble and huff
of wind and wires,
the scrape and grate of snow ploughs,
the whirr and whine
of my unoccupied mind?

six months ago so many birds
regaled us from stands of birch and ash
their notes entwined
like grasses, dog hairs, yarns and twigs
in one nest, I could not guess
which bird sang which lilt
as I wilted in the unforgiving heat

now the sounds they made
elude us, the memory
hollow as bird bones
the words mock our losses
no “tweet” “chirp” “thrum”
disrupts the silence

struck dumb like children
waking to realize
the thing we loved and clutched
– teddy bear, blanket, feather or hope –
has once again disappeared
in the night

this then is the time of faith
for there is nothing else
but prayer and blindness 
we give up wishing for ears of glass
search out a hint of sunlight
don armour sufficient
to fend off bitterness
then stand
just there

where the light erases everything else from view
everything else from memory 
close our eyes
listen 
fervently
for whispers and wings

Grandma Snyder
©2013-2016 twosnydergirls

Sunday, 10 April 2016

So That My Soul May Praise You



Today the question of resurrection continues to be on minds of Christians on this the third Sunday following Easter.

How does resurrection play out in our lives for the next 370 days (Easter Sunday  April 16, 2017) or is it a once a year event?

In the lectionary reading this week we see Christ’s resurrection played out in the lives of Old Testament people. 

Act 9:4 the resurrected Christ speaks directly to Saul and his entire world turns up-side-down so much that thereafter he was known as Paul.

King David in Psalm 30 describes how resurrection changed mourning into joy.

John 21 describes how resurrection astonished Simon, Thomas, Nathanael and others, by teaching them a new way.  When all their fishing failed to bring in a single catch the resurrected Christ shows them how to fish anew and their nets were too full to pull in.

How does Christ’s resurrection play out in our lives today?
The answer is just as it did in old testament times!

It surprises us when we turn a corner.
It trips us up when we are distracted by mundane things of life.
It sits on the side of our desks when we are busy with other things patiently waiting for our return.
It disrupts our plans and sets us on new adventures for our God.
It feeds our souls.
It is the newness of life, the creative love of God.


How do we live resurrection?
We live it in joy. 
We live it in abundance. 
We live it in hope. 
We live it through God's love for us.
We live it moment to moment being mindful of God’s love.
We live it welcoming every opportunity to be God’s earthly expression of resurrection love to our communities and family.
We live it by receiving God’s resurrection Love as it is offered to us by others.

So that our souls may praise God always and in all things.

Grandma Snyder

Inspiration for today's post comes from Pastor Juanita Laverty’s Sermon of April 10, 2016

©2013-2016 twosnydergirls

Lectionary scripture verses Acts 9:1-6, (7-20), Psalm 30, Revelation 5:11-14, John 21:1-19