house sitting

Did I mention I was housesitting last month?  Yep, that happened.  Also, no blog posts were written then.  Funny how that works. 

It was a good month.  I enjoyed having a place to myself, a kitchen of my own, and a huge bed to hog.  On the other hand, I missed hanging out with the family I live with.  I guess what I can take away from the experience is this: It's all about perspective.  No matter what stage of life you are in, find something about it that is extraordinarily enjoyable, and hang on to that.  I guess I already employ this life strategy on a regular basis, so it was just another opportunity to practice it. 

Some other things discovered while housesitting:
-minerally water makes my hair less curly
-Being left handed/right eye dominant is not ideal for target shooting
-I can survive without regular internet access
-I can still read a cookbook-including using the index!
-One should still walk, even if there is a vehicle readily available.
-If you want to get invited on the next family trip to Hawaii, one should not be such a responsible housesitter.
-Someday, I want a kitchen of my own.  I can do fine in other peoples' kitchens, but if I had my own, I would be able to set it up how I want it.  That would be awesome.

on gossip and small communities

Last weekend, I realized that I have a problem with gossip.  Why this happened last weekend is probably not important, but I will hit you with it anyways.  I wsa hanging out with some friends in Anchorage, and they were talking about someone they know.  Instead of examining the ins and outs of what each of them had heard, they left it at, "well, I have had some conversations with [insert name here], but I don't think it is appropriate to discuss it."

What??  I thought to myself.  Why not go over every single word she said to figure out exactly what could possibly be going on in her situation?  Oh, maybe that's the point....

Its a hard trap to avoid.  It might be easier in a big city, where your social circle, work circle, neighborhood, and church family don't always cross, but here, its the same people every day.  The conversation would go something like this:

Me: So... I inspected a navajo engine today...
Friend (who is a dispatcher): yeah I know.  You kept asking me when parts were coming in.  Then I had to close the door when you ran the engines, cause it was loud. 
Me: yep.
Friend: Yep.  So... I had flights delayed because of weather today...
Me: No kidding.  I was waiting for parts. 
Friend: Did you hear the bear got into [insert community member's name here]'s trash?
Me: Yeah, I heard they.... (conversation digresses to gossip about who burns their trash when)


Maybe its not all that bad.  Parents can talk about their kids.  And their are plenty of people I hang out with that don't work for the same company as me, but its pretty quick and easy to cover what is happening in the hangar, and what happened in their lives, before we move to talking about everyone else. 

Here's where you come in.  I want to start a list of great things to discuss that doesn't involve other people, the weather, or where the bear was last seen.  We have all been friends long enough that we know favorite movies, books, food, desired super powers, and future plans.  What do you talk about when you get together with your friends?

some things to look forward to...

-change
-snow
-cooking for myself
-hosting parties
-no internet
-big house
-caramel apples
-dryer


I'm going to be housesitting for the next 5 weeks.  Some friends of mine are off to Hawaii, and want to make sure that their whole water system is not frozen solid when they get back, so they have asked me to stay at their house while they are gone. 

The above list is not to say that I am discontent with the way things are now, just that I am looking forward to having things different for a little while.  I do well with a little change.  I also will really look forward to coming home at the end of it. 

Who knows?  Maybe I will come up with some deep philosophical things to share while I am there.  Or maybe I will remain silent.  We shall see!

Old time Alaskans tell me that fireweed indicates the change from summer to winter.  All summer, the fireweed can be seen as a timer.  At first, the bottom blooms, with a long stem of blossoms yet to come.  As the summer wears on, you see the first blossoms die as the blooms creep higher up the stem.  When the last blossom blooms, there is seven weeks till winter.  Or the first snowfall.  Tradition is a little uncertain on this one.  Anyways.

Between summer and winter is the prettiest season: fall.  All the leaves on the trees turn yellow, adding drama to the mountainsides.  The fireweed turns to a firey red, and all the tundra comes alive with fall colors.  Termination dust (snow) starts in the tops of the mountains, creeping its way lower and lower until there is snow on the ground. 

How do I know all these things will happen?  Because it happens every year.  I was reading somewhere (I'm pretty sure it was CS Lewis, but not positive) that God created the changing of seasons because humans need both consistency and change.  We find security in knowing what is coming, but when we things don't change, we get stuck in a rut.  Therefore, with the constant change of seasons, we have security in knowing what is coming, while things are constantly in motion around us.  God created us with those needs and He created the world to fill them. 

The glorification of "busy"

As I drug myself out of bed this morning, I was already thinking through the things I need to do in the next couple days.  Work, youth group with the girls, pack, work, head to town, plan trip to town.... not to mention my neglected blog that I hardly think about anymore.  I was stressed before I even drug myself out from under the covers. 

As the summer season slips away and fall comes at us full force, I think the village as a whole hopes to catch their breath.  But it never happens.  Winter activities start up: Bible studies, Awana, prayer meetings, school activities, plotting pranks, craft nights, and regular social gatherings keep us going non-stop.  It seems like the action never stops around here. 


Many of these activities involve relationship building, which is great.  Living in a small community definitely gives us opportunities aplenty to practice relational living and "doing life together" as one of my favorite pastors calls it.  Oftentimes I will come home to a pile of laundry that still needs to be done and a room that I was supposed to clean, and ignore it for a more exciting social opportunity. 



I know I am not alone in this feeling of "busy."  I can only imagine how much more busy the people living in town are, who have more friends, commutes, gym memberships and text messaging to keep them even more busy.  Just being in amongst the hustle and bustle of a bunch of people makes me feel the need to GO GO GO every time I visit town.

After the socially acceptable, "hi, how are you?" "Good how are you?" "good" interaction, the next commonly asked question is, "how have you been?"  It seems like everyone's standard answer is "Busy!  Just really busy..."  I take pride in my activities.  I feel complete when my schedule is so full that I can't stop for an evening to drop by a friend's house just to visit for a little while, or invite one of the high school girls over to make cookies. 

I guess its nothing new.  Psalms 46 addresses the chaos of life, and especially what I tend to miss in my day to day busyness.  I've copy/pasted the whole thing, underlining the text that I need to work harder to put into practice.  I'm sure I am not the only one who could use some improvement in this area! 

Psalm 46
1 God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.
² Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
³ though its waters roar and foam
    and the mountains quake with their surging.^[c]

⁴ There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy place where the Most High dwells.
⁵ God is within her, she will not fall;
    God will help her at break of day.
⁶ Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
    he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

⁷ The Lord Almighty is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

⁸ Come and see what the Lord has done,
    the desolations he has brought on the earth.
⁹ He makes wars cease
    to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
    he burns the shields^[d] with fire.
¹⁰ He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; 

    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth.”

¹¹ The Lord Almighty is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

life on earth and corrosion

One of the outside (not owned by my company) planes that we maintain is an old DeHavilland Beaver.  Produced in the 50s, they were built to be a bush plane.  There are a few around here that are well maintained, making them a dream machine to work on and see flying.  The one we get to work on was operated in Hawaii for many years, flying in and out of salt water.  Corossive environments such as that are detrimental to aircraft structures, and extreme measures are required to keep them safe. 

That got me thinking about life as a Christian.  Growing up, I often dreamed about a point of maturity where the Christian walk will be easier.  As if there is a point where I will be so tight with God, that I don't even entertain distractions.  But as I have grown up, I am realizing the case will never be.  I think even in Heaven we will be growing and building our relationships with God.  Sure the sin nature will be gone, so it probably will be easier.  But that's not the point I am going for here. 

As I was pondering why it is so hard to maintain a relationship with God, I thought about the world in which I live.  I realized that the problem isn't just me being bad at relationships, its the environment, kind of like float planes in salt water.  So what do I do with this information?  Do I just let my plane sit in the harbor and rot?  Or do I drag it onto shore, spending hours washing it off with fresh water, inspecting to make sure the paint is keeping the metal from being exposed, and coat all hardware with a rust-inhibiting chemical? 

Do I accept the environmental hazards, and let my relationship with Christ fall victim to harsh conditions, or do I see the challenge, and take extra precaution to protect myself from the world? 

If you know me at all, you probably know which option I strive to achieve.  It's just comforting to me to be able to identify why it is difficult :)

birthday cake

Ralph (the owner of the house I rent a room in) celebrated a birthday last week, so I decided to throw him a party, complete with a cake.  I asked Autumn if she would help me (a clever ruse to kidnap her beautiful kitchen) and planned to head over there Wednesday after work. 

I was planning on making a jelly roll, and frosting it to look like a birch log, making some crack about "another year down!"  chopping down trees sort of thing.  Decorating looks pretty easy, would turn out really well, etc.  However, I didn't realize that jelly rolls are actually difficult to make.  Involving beating egg yolks for 5 minutes (hooray the kitchenaide) and whipping egg whites to the point of stiff peaks.  Not that those things are particularly hard, just quite involved.  Then you fold stuff together, and bake for 15 minutes, and flip it over on a towel covered in powdered sugar, roll up, and let cool before unrolling to spread the filling out.  Re-roll, and decorate. 

Armed with Autumn's mantra of "frosting covers a multitude of sins" we start on this adventure.  We followed the directions, mostly.  I got a little impatient with the egg yolks, so I shorted them about a minute of whipping.  Not detrimental.  I got things a little out of order when it comes to folding them together.  Shouldn't matter.  Baked it fine, maybe a little dry on one side.  Our big problem came when it hung on to the pan for dear life.  Yes, to those of you asking, we did grease the pan.  We flipped it over onto the towel (insert physics lesson here regarding displaced air and powdered sugar's nearly weightless state, resulting in displaced air transferring powdered sugar EVERYWHERE).  No luck.  We tapped on the pan.  The only result of that was more powdered sugar shooting out the sides.  Finally Autumn handed me a spatula.  The thing came off in chunks.  Non-salvagable chunks.  Even frosting couldn't piece this jelly roll together. 

Thankful for plan B, I ran home and grabbed some boxed cake mixes, and made a lovely double layered cake, complete with artwork from Ralph's 5 year old grandson adorning the top.  The guys in the hangar even got to enjoy "brownie thins" the next day, so it wasn't a total loss! 

My aunt suggested baking the jelly roll on parchment paper.  It will come out of the pan easier, and you can peel the paper off before rolling in the towel.  I guess this won't be my last jelly roll attempt...