It's Snowing!

It's Snowing!

And that leaves me with an inexplicable desire to skip around the kitchen table singing jingle bells! (I used to do that!!) When I was a little kid I truly believed that singing Christmas songs/playing Christmas music would make it snow more. Since winter is my favourite season I can't wait for mountains of snow so I can take my snowshoes and x-country skis out of hibernation!

In the meantime enjoy these links to some Christmas music. The Youtube video is for the delightful pop song "Peppermint Winter" by Owl City. The second Youtube video is just for my older sister, one of her favourite Christmas songs.  For those who don't like pop music so much follow this link to a collection of Sufjan Steven's Christmas music. There you can find such delightful songs as "What Child is this Anyway" and "That was the worst Christmas Ever" alongside such Christmas classics as "O Come O Come Immanuel" and "Once in Royal David's City." His sound is unique so if you are unfamiliar with it just check it out!

Or send me a link to your favourite Christmas music so I can enjoy!

A Chemist's Candy Conundrum

Unsuspecting chemist attempting taffy making

Because of my background in chemistry I normally am not very intimidated by anything in the kitchen. I like to think that if I can synthesize complex organic molecules in the lab it shouldn't be too hard to do whatever is needed in the kitchen. And so when I decided to try making saltwater taffy in preparation for leading a group of seventh graders in doing the same I didn't think much of it. I watched an instructional video, read the recipe, gathered my ingredients and dove in.

 I soon found out that making taffy is tough and I know the old saying is that a poor work(wo)man blames her tools but honestly it would have helped if I had a candy thermometer that could read the temperature accurately. My first batch appeared to be going well until I had the candy out and started pulling it. With my first pull I knew something must be wrong. I know pulling taffy is tough but I only managed about 5 pulls before I was done.

The result was a rock hard candy that had to be cut with a chopping knife rather than a pair of scissors. The candies themselves do not taste bad, although they taste more like caramels then the orange flavour they are supposed to be. If I were to market these candies I would probably give them a "sermon-long" guarantee, they seriously last a looong time in your mouth. 

Disappointing rock hard results

 With a little bit of investigating I found that my candy thermometer was approx 8 C off in reading the temperature. Not good when an exact temperature was needed.

Warning: contents of pan are approx 8 C hotter than they appear

So like any good scientist I delved into some research and read a bunch of peer reviewed journals (aka candymaking and recipe blogs.) I soon determined that the faulty temperature was probably the main culprit for the too hard candy. Also if I needed to quadruple the amount of flavouring I used if I wanted to actually taste the flavouring.

It being only 9:30 pm I figured I had time for a second go. So I gathered my ingredients and set out armed with my improved knowledge. My mixture boiled.... and boiled... and all the sane members of my family went to bed (so sadly no more pictures.)  Finally I thought I had the correct temperature and took my concoction off the stove. I added food colouring and flavour and poured some out to test the consistency. I soon found out that this batch was too cool. So I put it back on the stove and reheated.... and repeated that process several times before I finally decided I might have it right. By now I had several burns on my hands from inadvertently grabbing the metal thermometer (ouch!) I poured the mixture out and waited hopefully. But alas the sugar molecules in the taffy were mocking my labcoat and as I greased up my hands to pull the taffy I soon found out I still had not heated the candy enough as the would be taffy dripped down my arm and turned into an oozy sticky (but delicious!) mess.

Figuring I couldn't make it any worse I plopped it in a container and stuck it in the microwave for 45seconds and poured out the result once again. After some cooling time I once again greased up my now burnt and blistered hands and made an attempt to pull the taffy. I still think the taffy is too soft but by now I was well into the next day and rather tired of this taffy so I stretched it out and cut it up. Not being a huge candylover I am not sure what the correct taste or texture of saltwater taffy is. I do know that with a little bit of refrigeration and a whole lot of icing sugar my taffy manages to maintain a shape. As for the taste it mostly tastes like butter, salt and icing sugar with a hint of orange flavour. For lack of a better example I am going to just go ahead and say that is how it's supposed to turn out until someone with more candy knowledge corrects me.

 (I figure I have a few hours to enjoy my success until they wake up.)

What have I been doing Lately??

Sometimes people who haven't seen me in awhile ask me what I have been up to. Often I can't really think of anything on the spot so I don't have much of an answer other than "being unemployed." This isn't all I do, I just frequently forget what all I have been busy with. So this blog post shall serve as evidence that I do in fact do things. 

Yesterday I had a blanket bee and ended up sewing a bunch of blankets.

Newly restrung violin!!

Today I bought strings for my violin to replace the ones that had broken. I learned how to restring a violin all by myself and managed to even tune it (somewhat) with the aid of an electronic tuner. Hurray for Youtube instructional videos! without which I would still be hopelessly lost and dealing with a broken violin. Now the air in our house is filled with the "sweet" sounds of a violinist who hasn't had any instruction, or practice since the age of 5 or 6. I sense alot of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in my future.

In other news I have been painting! I am working on a top secret painting commissioned by my younger sister and a few other paintings that have popped into my head. 

inspiration sketch for next painting

 The other day I went down to the beach. Fortunately I thought ahead and brought my raingear and warm clothes. The wind was howling and the waves were crashing. I walked out along the rocks and spent some time playing on the swings but soon was a little chilled and had to head for the warmth of my car. Summer clearly is gone and with it any chance of doing more kayaking this year. After experiencing a taste of winter in Calgary my snowshoes, skis, and me are anxiously anticipating that marvellous white stuff falling from the sky. (although it will probably be a few more months before any significant accumulation here.)

 So that is some of the things I have been up to lately. I'll leave you with some youtube videos of my favourite songs at the moment. The first one is by a band called Rend Collective Experiment. They are a worship band from Ireland and several of their songs currently top my favourites list.  The next song is by NeedtoBreathe. I just bought their CD and have been enjoying it immensely hope you do to!

I Guess I'm an Adult Now... (It feels weird)

I recently started volunteering with a Girls club in my church called GEMS. (Girls Everywhere Meeting the Saviour) I grew up attending GEMS, during highschool I volunteered with GEMS, and now as an unemployed boomerang I have been asked to serve as a GEMS counsellor. (Until I get a job that takes me somewhere else of course.)  When asked I was a little surprised, I didn't really consider myself grownup enough to be a counsellor. And though I have time right now, I can't commit to anything long term. But my church was in desperate need of new counsellors and for better or worse I was recruited.

So now I am a counsellor, along with several ladies who were GEMS counsellors when I was a Gem. And I have been having lots of "I'm an adult now" realizations. Like for instance last week- we were headed to Laser Quest with the cadets. I showed up at the church and was greeted by expectant faces looking for me to tell them what to do and where to go. AHH! On the bus I quickly realized I must be an adult when I found the noise level of 30+ kids aged 8-14 a little overwhelming. It took a moment for me to remember that I was the one responsible for reminding the kids to keep their heads and hands inside the bus, not yell, not fight, put their phones away, be nice, etc. Most of the other counsellors have real life experience as parents- Me, I still live with my parents.

Somehow we all survived. Surprisingly enough I think some of the kids like me even though I don't know half of their names. Some of them even think I am funny because I told them a story of that time I licked a slug.....  I still feel weird about calling adults by their first names instead of calling them Mrs. or Mr. So-and-So like I have been calling them all my life. And I have to remind myself that I need to remind the girls of the rules and even try to follow them myself. (What are the rules again??) But you have to start somewhere.

My denomination has been having discussions on how to engage young adults in the church. My denomination has a fairly "young" demographic compared to other churches in Canada. I grew up with a large number of children my age in my church (approx 15 born the same year as me alone.) And there were lots of programs to keep us involved in the church Sunday school, Vacation Bible school, Cadets, GEMS, Youthgroup, and Catechism to name a few. But all of these programs had one focus: to entertain and educate US in the faith. Others gave, We received.

For a church to survive and for these programs to continue something vital has to occur. Sometime after profession of faith and church membership we need to switch our focus. We can't expect to solely receive anymore, we need to focus on serving. It is a hard transition to make. We need to start acting like adults even though we might not actually feel grownup. (Because who really ever feels grownup anyway??)

Most young adults do profession of faith near the end of highschool just before they head off to university or college. Shortly after professing their faith and committing themselves to a community of faith they may find themselves ripped out and transplanted into another one. The following years are busy filled with much change and adjustment. Some young adults like myself may find themselves moving repeatedly for the next 5-10 years after their profession of faith.

That makes it hard to be involved in a church community! But it is NOT an excuse for inaction! Serving a church community draws you in and provides some stabilization amongst the riotous (and exciting!) surf of the young adult years. (YES I threw in a kayaking metaphor!) However it can help if churches are ready to encourage us with a variety of service opportunities that take into consideration our varying abilities to commit. (just like you may need different kayaks for different water conditions, river kayaks, sea kayaks .... okay I'll stop now.)

Anyhow in Summary:
Serving = Scary but awesome, I totally recommend it
Growing up = Weird, and I guess I am not quite there yet but possibly making more progress than I realized
Church community = necessary even/especially amidst chaos
Kayaking = wish it wasn't so cold and rainy, where did summer go?