Serenity Sunday

Before I launch right into "My List" of things that I'm grateful for this week, I thought you may find this story not only entertaining but hopefully you get a bit of a giggle out of it as well......

Multi-colored chicks for Easter

A farm in the northern US state of Alaska has given Easter egg decoration a whole new meaning. Triple D Farm and Hatchery, in Palmer, injects the eggs with dye to produce multi-coloured baby chicks.

Children visiting the farm in the run-up to Easter were met with more than 400 orange, red, green, purple, pink and blue chickens and ducks. Farm owners insist the non-toxic dye is harmless and temporary, disappearing as the animals grow their new feathers.

"It's something we've done at Easter time for the last few years," Phyllis Burney, fiancee of owner Anthony Schmidt, told BBC News Online. "It's mainly for the children. They are quite in awe when they come to the farm and see the multi-coloured chicks. "One little boy came with his kindergarten last week and when he was asked how the chick became blue, said it was because it had a blue mother," said Ms. Burney. The dye is injected into ordinary chicken eggs a few weeks before Easter. 

The baby chicks are not hurt, but provide a psychedelic spectacle when they hatch. "The dye doesn't last much more than a couple of weeks, once the chicks' new feathers come through," said Ms. Burney. The farm, near the city of Anchorage, annually colours around 200 baby chickens and 200 baby ducks.

My List:

1.) My kids


2.) Laughter


3.) Good memories


4.) Cadbury creme eggs


5.) Great friends


6.) Music


7.) Sprouting clover


8.) Quiet time


9.) Allergy medicine


10.) Weather gadgets

I Know, I Know...I'm A Little Early...

Peeps are deceptively simple looking, with their fluffy interiors and brightly colored sugary coatings. They're starting to hatch in grocery stores all over...in a wide variety of colors and shapes! At first glance, it doesn’t seem as though there is much more that you could do with a little marshmallow chicken or bunny rather than eat it. It turns out that there is a lot more that you can do with the leftover Easter peeps that you will soon have on your hands....even a wonderful ambrosia salad for Ostara...which will be here in no time!

Ingredients:

•1 pkg of 12 marshmallow Peeps (chicks or bunnies)


•2 cans mandarin oranges


•2 cans pineapple tidbits


•1 jar maraschino cherries


•2 chopped bananas


•2 C. shredded coconut flakes (optional)


•4 oz. sour cream


•1 12-oz tub of Cool Whip or other dessert topping

Dice the Peeps into small pieces. Drain the juices from all the fruit. Mix all ingredients together, and allow to chill in the refrigerator for a few hours. Serve as dessert following your Ostara celebration.

"What Is...?" Wednesday

Ash Wednesday, originally called dies cinerum (day of ashes) is mentioned in the earliest copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary and probably dates from at least the 8th Century. One of the earliest descriptions of Ash Wednesday is found in the writings of the Anglo-Saxon abbot Aelfric (955-1020). In his Lives of the Saints, he writes, "We read in the books both in the Old Law and in the New that the men who repented of their sins bestrewed themselves with ashes and clothed their bodies with sackcloth. Now let us do this little at the beginning of our Lent that we strew ashes upon our heads to signify that we ought to repent of our sins during the Lenten fast." 


Aelfric then proceeds to tell the tale of a man who refused to go to church for the ashes and was accidentally killed several days later in a boar hunt... This quotation confirms what is said in many other sources, that throughout the Middle Ages ashes were sprinkled on the head, rather than anointed on the forehead as it is common practice today.


In the typical Ash Wednesday observance, Christians are invited to the altar to receive the imposition of ashes, prior to receiving the holy Supper. The Pastor applies ashes in the shape of the cross on the forehead of each, while speaking the words, "For dust you are and to dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:19). This is of course what God spoke to Adam and Eve after they eaten of the forbidden fruit and "fallen into sin."  This was then interpreted as Adam and Eve experienced the fruit of their sin, namely death. 

Today, this  Christian practice reminds parishioners of their sinfulness and mortality and their need to repent and get right with God before it is too late. Ash Wednesday is the day after Fat Tuesday (in Christian circles) or  as we all know it...Mardi Gras.