There are two weeks now until the beginning of Lent, so I thought that this might be a good moment to share some resources with you. Close enough to the date to be immediate, but with time enough for you to still do some planning.
Lent is an opportunity to get intentional about readings and practices – and with Sundays as built-in days off, there’s room not to feel too daunted. I have included a mix of family-based material, things you might want to read on your own, and things which could be used at your church. If you have other suggestions to add to this Messy Table list, please let me know.
I am thinking about tackling the Church Fathers list this year – I’ll keep you posted, and maybe you’ll keep me accountable…
http://www.churchyear.net/lentfathers.html – reading the Church Fathers in Lent
http://www.slate.com/id/2137092/ – A good Slate article on Lent from a Protestant perspective
http://www.textweek.com/lent.htm – every worship leader’s favourite bookmark
http://www.livelent.net/index.html – random kindness as inspired by the Lenten season
http://www.suite101.com/content/lenten-activity-for-kids-a43409 – a good family craft idea – something significant for a centrepiece
http://old.shipoffools.com/lent/index.html – a calendar list of suggestions to do over the 40 days
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4303.Lent_Reading_List – if you are looking for a good book…
https://www.ionabooks.com/lent-and-easter-readings-from-iona.html – a “downloadable” Lenten book from the Iona community
http://thebanner.org/features/article/?id=3147 – the Reformed Traditions of Lent, thanks to the good folk at the CRC
http://www.presbyterian.ca/easter – our own denominational resources, complete with congregational liturgies.
… And because we don’t start Lent with an empty table, I thought a pancake recipe might be in order.
This is my mum’s recipe, and one of the first recipes I memorized. Easy to remember: just 7 ingredients, and most of them in 2s. When I was pregnant with Beangirl, I used to keep bags of the dries measured and mixed in the cupboard, just waiting for a groggy morning mix with the wets. Making the easy even easier.
Ingredients:
Dries: 2 cups of flour
2 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
Wets: 2 cups of milk
2 eggs
1/3 cup corn oil
1/4 cup granulated sugar (you do get a better result if you act like sugar is a liquid and add it to other liquids. Take it on faith.)
How to:
Measure dries into a large bowl and use your whisk to mix together thoroughly. Then, in a separate bowl, beat wets together. Then add wets to dries and whisk. Don’t over mix – you don’t want too smooth a batter. Leave it to sit while you heat your frying pan, medium heat. Rub the pan with a little butter (because your pancakes will taste lovely if you do,) then spoon in batter. Small bubbles will form and when they pop, it is time to gently flip. Vigour now will result in flatter pancakes. Be kind, and they will be soft and lofty. Cook on the second side until a finger print will softly rebound.
Serve, of course, with lashings of butter and syrup.
Or, as Blue likes them, with lemon juice and lots of sugar.
