Leanne Shawler, Artist

Updated to add more resources.... It is just barely starting for us here, but I want to compile some links and ideas for things to do when you get stir-crazy, and you're done with your tele-working or making sure the kids have taken their class online: Bake or cook: hopefully you have stock on hand (my store was low on flour this morning) but if you like to bake or cook, now you finally have the time, and if you have kids that are old enough to help, teach them to cook! Make chicken stock (I've been saving odds and ends in the freezer) or muffins or brownies or bread. Either make what you need to enjoy over the next few days or freeze to eat later. Inventory your pantry, fridge and freezer -- what can you make out of what you've got? Put together a recipe list so you can pull something together. Short of meat? Can you convert a recipe to vegetarian and maybe a plant-based protein like beans? Visit museums online. You can tour 12 Museums online. That stack of va...

After announcing I was giving up other people’s approval for Lent, you might have noticed I didn’t do much blogging. Much was going on, much processing, and I thought I would unpack all that, but today, just a little bit and a looking ahead. Yesterday started the 50 Days of Easter. Easter is not just one day, but a season of rejoicing. And it’s more than that too, I’ve come to realize. I think as a child I intuitively knew this because I was that child who hoarded her Easter eggs until May. But Easter is not about hoarding. It’s not about ekeing out the chocolate , the love and grace given to us on that day two thousand years ago and every day since. It's an abundant gift that always is renewing. I spent Lent giving up people's approval for Lent. There were some spectacular failures in that, but without them, I would not have been open to realizing what comes next. It was the Maundy Thursday service, and Monica gave a sermon inspired by the Holy Spirit. It ...