Trick or Treat

Today I learned something really cool about God's timing. I walked to the library and ended up spending a good hour or so sitting in a comfy chair reading the part of the first Harry Potter book. After I realize how long I had sat there and wondered why the heck I had wasted so much time, I brought the book back to put it away and Adrienne was there. She was working at one of the tables, and I sat down and talked with her for a good 20 minutes or so. It was a really really neat talk, and I am glad I was there. And then tonight at the Ablaze bible study at church we talked about the Holy Spirit, and how he works in our lives, and orchestrates things. Oh, so true.

And today was, afterall, Halloween. Halloween is great until you get to be about 13. Trick or treating is one of the greatest things ever though. Mom spent the day making Elly a costume, and it was beautiful. She was an Indian Princess. She had a fringed dress with beads and bells and embroidery. It was so neat. In her headband she had a feather from Dad's turkey that he got last spring. She wore a beaded leather belt too, and just looked so cute.

I picked up a book while I was a the library called Hitch and it is by Jeanette Ingold, who also wrote Mountain Solo and The Big Burn, two other books which I enjoyed immensely. I wrote about The Big Burn when I read it last year. Hitch is about a seventeen year old boy from Texas who joins a CCC [Civilian Conservation Corps] crew in Montana during the Great Depression. It weaves an amazing story about these boys who mostly joined because they had to; they desperately needed a job. How for six months they learned, lived, worked and built together. In the book there are some great moments where their work goes beyond just a job, it's not about politics, it's about what people really need. When the main character, Moss, reflects on how different it will be when they all leave and won't be together anymore, it sort of reminded me of my own summer at the ranch. Granted, we weren't working during the Depression, we didn't help rebuild a piece of land, a community, a country...But we lived and worked together away from each of our own personal lives, just sharing that time, together. And it didn't last either, but it prepared us for things we'll go through in the future. Just like in the book, where the author subtly hints to the coming of World War II, that they were preparing for something more, and these boys who would be the men to fight it.
It's a good book.

Amazing Grace

I am currently listening to a version of "Amazing Grace" by Alabama. Hmm. I love this song.
Today I was home alone except for Uncle Dave. Everyone else was up at Pinkham. I woke up and read my history book first. I am reading A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. The chapter I read today was called "Drawing the Color Line" Zinn discusses how Africans came to be enslaved in the New World. The Americas were in desperate need of manpower to cultivate land and crops for food. Indians were in their own land, and Whites were in their own European culture, making it hard to impossible to make them slaves. Africans however, were made morally and physically helpless in the face of this force, because they were taken away from their land, their culture, their families, and treated as less than human. This is not to say they were completely cooperative. Who could be? They put up their own resistance, in their own way. The chapter focuses on the fact that if racism isn't natural, then it is a consequence of certain conditions. Those were the conditions that made it possible to enslave a certain race for over 200 years.

Then I made myself an incredibly little lunch. I toasted a piece of bread in a pan on the stove with olive oil, salt, garlic, and alpine touch. Then I sliced a not-quite-ripe tomato and fried it in the same pan with some garlic salt and lemon pepper ground on it. Then I put the fried tomatoes on the toast and ate it like a sandwich. Green Fried Tomatoes...who woulda thought?

I spent the afternoon cleaning and re-arranging Elly's room. I made her a little chair/couch in the corner with pillows, Grandma Lempi's couch cushion, and Erika's pillow. It's her little reading corner. Her crates of books are on either side. I strung up some colored Christmas lights and moved around the dressers. I bought her some pretty little purple and white carnations! Then I neatly folded and laid out all of the new clothes Mommy and I bought her on the bed. Seeing her face and hearing her giggle when she saw it all was PRICELESS!

Youth group was great tonight. We had our first Iron Group night of the year. Iron Groups are just the small groups within the large group. When you have 75 kids showing up on any given Tuesday, it's hard to connect with them all. So once a month we have Iron Groups, where we meet and get to know eachother as a little family. This year Chad and Nadine are leading the a group of all Jr. High age kids, and I am helping lead it. At first I didn't really want to do it, but I am very glad I decided too. It'll challenge me to step out, do something different, really get to know people. Lead, and love them! We mostly just got to know eachother and play games. We had a really good time, actually. Chaemous, Ethan, and Shirley are also helping lead.

I need sleep. *twas grace that taught my heart to fear, twas grace my fear relieved*

Chacos & Pottery

Today Elly and I spent our Thursday together at the Ceramics Annex that is in the Stumptown Art Studio. SAS is a non-profit art center, and they have "Paint Your Own Pottery" as a continuous fundraiser. You can go in and choose one of their plain white pottery pieces...they have everything. Figurines, tea pots, wine decanters, mugs, margarita glasses, plates, platters, light switch covers, beer steins, serving and mixing bowls... Then you go grab a tile that serves as your palette, pick your colors and go sit at a table, each with its own pot of brushes. When you are finished you leave it with them for a week so they can glaze and fire it. Each piece is a different price, and all the funds go to support the studio. The studio holds classes for adults and kids. I had never done anything with pottery, and it was amazingly enjoyable. I painted a gravy boat and Elly painted a cowboy boot. The studio also has walk-in glass fusing. Here you take bits of glass and can make tiles, plates, pendants, candle-holders, wine stoppers, and more by arranging the different colors and then firing it through a kiln, which melts the glass together. I want to try that next time!

This morning I met with Nadine. Bless her! She is one of the neatest women I know. I am so glad I have her in my life as a mentor and friend. Today we just basically talked. A little bit about everything. We talked about the house on Skyles Lake owned by Rick Hubble. I called him yesterday and talked with him about the house. He owns a house that isn't finished yet, but he isn't using it for anything. I've talked to Dad, Mom, Sandy, Keith Haas, Nadine and a couple other people about maybe leasing and using it for ministry. It could serve as a base for Athelas. We can house people there, host events and dinners. It could be used as a meeting place. We could rent it out. It's all just really exciting. Rick lives in Salt Lake, but is coming up here to Whitefish this weekend, so hopefully we can meet with him.

Yesterday I went to City Brew and spent some time just working on stuff. I looked on the internet for the Alaskan Icefield Expeditions website. AIE is based on the Mendenhall glacier in Juneau, and the Denver glacier in Skagway. They helicopter guests off of a cruise ship and bring them on dog sled tours on the glaciers. Anyway, a bunch of people who work there came to the ranch and told Mom and Dad all about their company. They are hiring for next summer. I also looked on the Youth Encounter website about their community based teams. They have their Captive Free teams that travel around and do events, but the community based teams I think are essentially trained the same way, but they stay in a community for up to a year, and work with the local church. I think that would be wonderful for our church. There are a lot of ministries that they can be involved in. There's Athelas, Potter's Field, Trinity Camp, Dickey Lake Camp, Hungry Horse Camp, and so many other ministries. They can work with Chad and Nadine and do things at the Edge. I just there is so much they could be used for. It would be really neat!
While I was out, I finally mailed my Chaco sandals to get repaired. The soles started peeling and I hadn't even had them a year! So hopefully I'll get them back soon. I noticed they were peeling back in July, but I had to wear them out to the end of the Chaco weather season before I could mail them in. Haha. Now that its cold and October, I figured I'd waited long enough.

Yesterday I also worked on my design project. It's not going very well, however. I really don't know what else to do. I'll write about that later.

I'm going to go wash out the paint I got in my hair at the pottery place. I am blue!

Productivity

It's amazing what being HOME can do for you.
Today I woke up and met Pam, Ian, Brennen, Lauren, Courtney and Patrick for breakfast at Coffee Traders. Pam had a book and the topic this morning was about friends. The coolest part was just sitting there together and praying. That is so ESSENTIAL; prayer and fellowship.
When I got back I spent some time cleaning and doing dishes, and reveling in the gorgeous blue sky and sunshine! I did Lesson 6 review in my Algebra 2 book. I couldn't figure out how to find the radius of a sphere when they gave me the surface area...which I thought I could do. That really confused me, because I just couldn't get the right answer.
I then took my little puppy for a walk. Since Ivan is almost 11 years old, he isn't quite a puppy anymore, but he's mine all the same. The weather was wonderful. I think sunshine fuels people.
Tackling the project of installing Rosetta Stone language program on my laptop was next. It went quite flawlessly, and pretty soon I was up and running. I'm doing French II right now. I really like that it is self-paced, and it just keeps track of where you are. It also teaches you like you learned your native language as a child. It has lots of pictures, sounds, and matching. It's an excellent program.
It was so nice to just get lots of little things done today. I made this month's Melaleuca order, cleaned my bathroom, washed my sheets, finally paid Sandy for my Reliv, went to the dentist and got three fillings...That one wasn't so nice. Well, not as bad as I thought. I was definitely dreading it. But I got to listen to my cd player through it all, and Rush of Fools kept me calm. :) The worst part is the three hours of having a numb face. It's fun not being able to talk quite right and feel like your lip is three times its normal size.
Youth group was really great. I am very excited to be part of it! Part of this ministry. I'll write about Iron Groups and the Core later.
I'm going to go watch Sum of All Fears, hopefully with French subtitles. -Krista