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

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

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

Moreston Heritage Village

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2016 twosnydergirls

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