My work on the Board of Directors for the Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild www.soapguild.org continues to be very interesting and gratifying.  I’m now serving as Vice President and loving every minute of it.

We recently held our yearly conference in Denver Colorado. There is alot of work that goes into the planning of these events but the end result is always worth it. Our Sister Mary Hope from our Dayton WY monastery attended it for the first time this year. Admist all the meetings and conferences a bit of time was set aside for fun too!

I would be delighted to hear from you!  I am in the soap shop here at Clyde most days and can be reached at 877-672-7627.   We have that perfect solution for your gift giving opportunities!    May our God bless you and your summer days!

Built in 1929 St. Pauls House has long been a arena of  warm and welcoming hospitality having been used for many many years as a guest house for our relatives and friends visiting Clyde.

I wondered if anyone would come…and now over 200 Tea House Guests later I would judge it a great success. It was humbling to hear of so many wonderful experiences guests were having as they shared table and warm conversation with each other.   Stories were told of having had high tea in Chicago and Saudi Arabia with neither of them comparable to their experience in Clyde, MO!

St. Benedict encourages us in his Rule to receive all guests as Christ.   Obviously that maxim was communicated through the attention to detail that was taken in our welcome, our conversations, our food and our joy!

I could not have done it  without the encouragement of my Community; my  sisters and friends who volunteered their time in preparation, serving and clean-up. I understand that no left hungry!

Since December I have had many calls wanting to make reservations for High Tea.  Due to some extensive renovation that will be undertaken in our Monastery main buildings in the coming months High Tea at St. Pauls will not be available for some time to come.   Our guest house space in buildings such as St. Pauls will become living space for our Sisters for at least the next year and a half.  We look forward someday to again sharing with you our guests the conviviality of High Tea!!

In the photo included here you will see our Holy Water font that is located within our monastery cloister.From this I have filled my holy water bottle many times over.Praying for all of you who use my soap is an obligation that I take very seriously. The life of prayer that I have been called to in my vocation flows in and through my life as a soapmaker.

On our Congregations’ website we have several prayer opportunities for you to share in.The first is the  prayer request tab located on the home page in the upper left hand corner.  Here a link for you: http://tinyurl.com/ncsmza The second is to share in our daily life as we pray the Divine Office through our Podcast: http://tinyurl.com/yuvpox.

It’s been a busy week, month, here in the soap shop.  During the month of July Sr. Judy and I made 2,250 bars of soap.   For the year we have produced over 9,000 bars of soap!  Thats alot prayer! Every once and awhile several of our Senior Sisters who reside at Our Lady of Rickenbach here on our grounds stop in for a visit during their daily walks outside.

This coming week our Novice Nancy will make her First Monastic Profession of Vows.   I’m sure I’ll be giving a number of tours of the Soap Shop!   Blessings upon Blessings.

Question:  What are the blessings you’ve experienced in your life?   You’ve also been a blessing to someone?

Prepare 2 bread pans with cooking oil spray and dust with Corn Meal.   In a mixing bowl put 3 cups of flour, 2 envelopes of active dry yeast (or 2 tbl); one tbl of granulated sugar; 2 tsp salt; 1/4 tsp baking soda.

Heat 2 cups of milk and 1/2 cup of water to between 105 and 115 degrees.   Stir into flour mixture.  Stir in 3 more cups of flour.  At this point you can add a cup or two of Craisins, or Raisins. Spoon into prepared pans.  Sprinkle tops with a bit of cornmeal.

Cover and let rise in a warm, draft-free place for 45 minutes or until doubled.

Heat oven to 400 degree.  Bake 25-30  minutes until golden.Cool in pans on wire rack 5 minutes.  Loosen edges with thin knife, remove from pans and cool completely. Then ENJOY.

I think there is a direct correlation between the love of baking and the love of soapmaking!   Though the former surely tastes better.   I’ll share some of my favorite recipes in the course of time.   I love baking for my Sisters here at the monastery.   One of our Novices will make her First Profession of Vows on August 15th and I’ve been asked to do the baking for the brunch following the Profession Ceremony.   That will be such an honor and so much fun!

Do you have any favorite recipes you’d like to share?

Recently we as a community enjoyed a “community  assist”.  So you’re probably asking what is a community assist?  Some of our younger members had  gone to the house of one of our employees who had  graciously offered cherries for the taking.  So we  obliged.You can see us preparing them or “pitting” them in the photo included here.It seemed to take forever to accomplish our task but a good time was had by all. All I need is some cherry fragrance to add to some soap! Would that be a keeper?

These days  Sr. Judy and I have been busy making many new batches of soap to stock the shelves.  They seem to have sprouted wings as they fly off the shelves of late. But that is a good thing. I hope you are enjoying your days of summer as much as we are here in the beautiful northwest corner of Missouri.  

Question: What do you think?  Do you have a good cherry pie recipe to share?

After some initial time of instruction I led them through the production of their first batch of Cold Process Soapmaking.  Even though my preferred method is Hot Process Soapmaking I believe that they needed to know both processes.  We dutifully wrapped our finished soap mold in several woolen blankets and managed to only peak once to see if indeed the gel stage of soapmaking was underway!  Yes!!    I never had done  ’soap swirling’ so I thought now was as good a time as any to give it a whirl.  I am looking forward to seeing the fruit of our labors.  

Lotion making was an instant hit. We worked steadily for three days and ended up with numerous batches of soap and 3 batches of Soap.  I hear that since I left they have continued production and are well on their way to a successful venture.

On the left is Bro. Dominic pouring his lotion.  On the right you will see the Abiquiu Students and myself. This was the first time I had ever undertaken such an adventure and it made me grateful for all who have mentored me as well as for my Community who has supported and cheered me on along the way. The Benedictine moto is “Ora et Labora” which translated means prayer and work. In our lifestyle there is such a wonderful opportunity for the blending of the two. 

As we move into the days of summer I wish you a most blest summer season.  Up next will be my sharing of the Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild meeting.  Stay tuned!

Today is a simply gorgeous day here in Clyde.  We now have two “general use” digital cameras that we can check out when needed. So this morning I snapped one for you.  The building now designated as the soap shop used to be our former ‘ice house’ in the days before electricity.  Ice would be harvested from local ponds and stored in the center of the building as early refrigeration. I am so thankful that we have maintained this building over the years and that it now has a whole new life. Every inch is in use.

In my next post I hope to have some photos of my students at Abiquiu and will also tell you about the Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild Conference that was held in Palm Springs, CA.

Actually I am on my way this coming Friday to attend the annual Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild Conference in Indian Wells near Palm Springs, CA.   I hope to garner lots of great information through wonderful opportunities to network with other Soapmakers. Before we know it Spring will be turning into Summer.   Wishing you each every good gift!

Orders are beginning to pick up again so that is gift. There are two new fragrances available in the Soap Shop:   Dreamscape and Mountain Rain.  Dreamscape - this rich and dense fragrance will envelope you like a warm blanket on a winter’s night (since snow is still predicted!!). Mountain Rain - the crisp, light, and clean fragrance of a mountain meadow after a summer rain -delightful!

Sr. Judy who works with me here in the soap shop asked if she could make a batch of soap this morning with my lending guidance as needed.   So that was the plan and all was going well until we encountered a ‘light’ moment that I’ll never forget. Sister was setting the fragrance out for the batches we planned to make when she looked at the cans of fragrances on the shelf and declared “where is the fragrance-free?”  at which point we both lost it!

Wishing you a blessed Holy Week and Easter!

Spring is surely in the air as the magnolia tree that stands next to the soap shop building is budding forth.You can see it too in the photo below.

Each day during this Lenten Season is leading us deeper into anticipation of Holy Easter.Where does the time go…we celebrated the 4th Sunday of Lent just yesterday.As a child I was overjoyed to take part in an Easter Egg hunt at Grandma’s house.I’m sure you have similar memories such as dressing up in your Easter finery and making your way to Church to celebrate in full voice the glory of the Ressurrection.Even into his senior years it was my Mothers’ task and my Fathers’ expectation that she would fix him an Easter basket!

I have so much to be grateful for this in this holy time of year.One of the topics near and dear to my heart is the theme of ‘gratitude’.  Gratitude for the countless volunteers that have made my work and success here in the soap shop possible. First on my list of many more to come is:  Sr. M. John Meyer, OSB.   Sister has for years now been ordering the bolts of fabric as well as overseeing the cutting of strips to be used in the sewing of the soap bags.Thank you Sr. M. John for your selfless generosity and for all the behind the scenes work you have accomplished.

I’ve  measured out my oils for a batch of soapmaking tomorrow. Many have asked me how many bars of soap I make in a year.  I am finally keeping track this year and so far I have made 3,750 bars. Swiss Lavender is still the overall favorite!

Blessings!