A peaceful afternoon

That's what I'm looking forward to. In a few moments, I'm going to start my late lunch/early dinner meal. I baked an Earl Grey Tea Chocolate Cake yesterday (I have to make the glaze and put it on and I also bought whipped cream to eat with it). I am also going to make a lamb loaf with Cumberland sauce, and I realized that the cheese grits casserole I like needs to bake the same time at the same temperature, so that's going to be my starch. The vegetables will be mashed sweet potatoes (from a can - I can get good ones at the natural foods store) and Harvard beets.

All of that will provide leftovers for the rest of the week, which is a bonus (even though this week I have zero evening meetings instead of four).

And then I think I'm going to go and sew. I started back up on the "Tilted nine-patch" top and I have all the right-leaning blocks to cut, then I'm going to put the sashing on the left-leaning blocks and trim them. (I have used spray starch on everything to help deal with the bias edges).

I want to get back more to quilting. Seeing a couple patterns I want to make in Quilty has spurred me on to that. A lot of them are fairly simple - variants on the good old nine-patch, but I keep coming back to nine-patches and four-patches. There's a lot you can do with them, they look good in lots of different fabrics. I don't think it's any mistake they've persisted as piecing patterns for 200 years or whatever.

Services were nice. (Perhaps my concern about people thinking the new minister were too "high church" were misplaced - several people commented they liked the changes, that it makes things more "special," and yes, I think that's right: it makes it different from everyday life and I go to church to be reminded that everyday life is not all there is).

It was good to see the candles that were extinguished Thursday night relit, and I do think there's something very symbolic about that. I like all the symbolism; I think I tend to think in terms of symbols and so the symbolic means a lot to me. I notice things like the extra candles. 

A young man was baptized - I knew him from when he was a baby (I am getting old). I wound up doing an epistle reading (one change the minister is making is recruiting different people to do the Scripture reading instead of doing it himself, and that's another change I like and agree with). I also did the offertory invitation and prayer because that was right after the baptism and he was apparently changing clothes. (it worked out just right with time. I was afraid I'd get done with the prayer and be left standing there like a deer in the headlights wondering what to do before he got back, but as I was finishing up, I saw him walk back in out of the corner of my eye).

We also finally got to meet his wife (I think she is shy, and also, they live some distance away and I think it was just a long drive for a busy person - she is a teacher). She strikes me as a nice person but I do think she's somewhat shy. I hope she comes again.

There was an egg hunt for the kids right after church. Luckily the rain held off but it looks increasingly like it's going to rain. (We need it, and it gives me the excuse I need NOT to try mowing the lawn today)

A blessed Easter to all who celebrate.