Recipe for getting through a difficult week.

8 hours of sleep every night.

30 minutes to wake up slowly enjoy that transition period from sleeping to waking you know the time when the bed is just the right temperature and reality has not yet crashed into your consciousness. 

1 hour to shower, and dress, while enjoying a good cup of your favourite hot drink.

30 minutes to eat a healthy breakfast.

Now is the time you go to work either at home or outside the home.

Stop for both a morning and afternoon break – get outside and walk finding joy in the sounds of life all around you.

Eat a healthy lunch and spend 10 minutes mediating on something that makes you happy.

Once home prepare supper and eat this meal at the kitchen or dinning room table.  

Even if you live alone you are worth it take the time.

Clean up the kitchen right away.

Take 30 minutes to lay out the clothing you will wear tomorrow.

45 minutes to soak in the tub.

Get to bed early.

Forgive yourself for any sharp words you directed at others or yourself.

Affirm that you going through a stressful period and acknowledge that it will also come to an end.

Create for yourself an emotional first aid kit.  

This is a small container that you can carry with you.  In your emotional first aid kit place pictures of people and places that make you happy.  Quotes that remind you that this too will pass.  A photograph of you smiling.  

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2016 twosnydergirls

Turkey Vulture

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2016 twosnydergirls

I Am Making All Things New

"a new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." John 13:34

The events of this week have brought a new depth of understanding to the command to love one another without cost to the other.  

The first occurred in the silence created by the drumming of a traditional Aboriginal singer who followed Karen McClain words "what is the one thing you can do today that will ripple peace and love out into the world?".  At an event where lawyers, judges, social workers and police were recipients of such love from a community that paid too great a price to receive Christian love over many years even to today.

The second this morning as a Quaker spoke to us about the power of silence that opens up space for God to speak to us.  "Sitting in silence knowing everything is possible" Ursula Franklin

Understanding, knowing, practicing the love of God.  Love that seeks to know through silence.  Love that ripples from one person to another.  Love that does not seek to change.  Love that desires only to know, understand, and be present.  Love that seeks only to serve the other.  

Not God's love as we define it full of terms and conditions.  

Grandma Snyder 

©2013-2016 twosnydergirls 

Lectionary  scriptures Acts 11:1-8, Psalm 148, Revelation 21:1-6, John 13:31-35.

Earth Day Cedar Tea

We were first introduced to cedar tea at the Grey Roots MapleMoon Festival and it feels right to share this amazing tea with you on Earth Day.  

The tea has been made for longer than can be remembered by the Indigenous people on North America.  It was served to the first white settlers to ward of scurvy as Cedar tea is high in vitamin C.

How to make Cedar Tea:

• Walk out into your local cedar bush taking with you a small amount of tobacco.  Once in the bush breath deeply notice how the bush smells and then stand silently listening to the bush and the animals you call it home.

• Locate a healthy cedar tree with fresh growth and place the tobacco at the base of the tree, this is your gift to the tree.

• Using a sharp knife or scissors cut (never rip) off the equivalent of 1 cup of cedar new growth cedar.   You are now ready to leave the bush if you want to.

• Once home wash the cedar in cold water, remove any brown bits or thick woody stems.  Place what you will not be using in a dish and set it aside.

• Place the cedar  in the bottom of a clean tea pot and cover with boiling water or in a sauce pan and fill with water bring to a boil.

• Steep the cedar for at least 45 minutes.  You can reheat the water if you like your tea very hot.  If boiling the cedar taste after 15 minutes.

• Strain the tea and enjoy.

• When you are done with the cedar, gather up with the discarded bites with the cedar you used in your tea and again return to the bush. Place these on the ground where they will nourish the cedar bush.

By respecting nature, 

we will always have cedar tea to enjoy.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2016 twosnydergirls    

Pelicans

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2016 twosnydergirls

One Person At A Time

At the end of the day there just seems to have been too little time to meet all of demands that we face.

It is tasks that are being referred to.  

It is all of the people who need or want a piece of our time.

The needs of children, grandchildren, spouses, siblings, neighbours, parents, grandparents, of the homeless, the poor, the refugees, the oppressed …

Have you ever felt like you would like to move away from people and the demands that they make either real or perceived and live the life of hermit?

By 5:00 pm on most days that is exactly how I feel.

Yet on those rare occasions when I spend a day without the needs of others, I find myself sitting in coffee shops just to feel connected.

There are two things going on that I and others like me need to be mindful of.

The first is perception.

My perception is just that, my way of understanding someone else’s behaviour, it is not their truth in fact my perception could be totally wrong -  it is always best to ask if there is something they would like and OK to say no or not now.

Mother Teresa provides wisdom for the second.

It is not the number of people that require our assistance, it is the help we render to the person who is next to us that changes our families, our neighbourhoods, our county and the world.

When we are present with each other, taking the time to understand, to listen, we create change, we render help in a co-operative way, we provide a service both to ourselves and the other.

Grandma Snyder

                                         ©2013-2016 twosnydergirls

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

Seeds to Food Fun Activities for Children

It is time once again to think about planting seeds for our gardens and at our Mennonite Church we will once again plant our Peace garden.

This is a project that was started last year to help our children understand stewardship of both our environment and to our community at large.

Our Peace garden is a Three Sister Garden a form of companion planting that we have taken from the first people’s of North America.

The children plant, care for and harvest the garden making the produce available to the members of our congregation and the members in turn make a donation to our local food bank.

This year we have added a new element planting the seeds that will become our squash, watermelons, pumpkins and sunflowers.

Keeping with the stewardship theme we asked the children to collect toilet paper rolls, for seed pots and when we used all of those we made newspaper pots.

Here is the link we used in make both 

We also saved milk containers these we cut in half and they became the water tight contains that we placed our seed pots.

Here is the link we used 

Everyone had a great time even to cleaning up.

Grandma Snyder

2013-2016 twosnydergirls