Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

But I managed to do it to my favorite RevereWare sauce pan. We were cooking and heard a popping noise. When we lifted the pot, the bottom had come off. I got my set of RevereWare pots for a wedding gift, twenty-three years ago this month, and have dragged them with me everywhere. I had sort of taken for granted that they would last til I died. I did not even know these pots were two pieces instead of one. Oh, well. Now it fits in better with this family of cracked pots.

Thursday was my last evening with the ladies Bible study group from Nsango Na Bomoi, Christine's church. I will miss these faithful women and look forward to seeing them again in January.

We had to order them to smile for the camera! The Congolese usually sport serious faces when they have their photos taken.

Promised Pics, Preparing to Leave, and a Post by One of Our Pilots

As promised, here are pics from Emily’s graduation.  Sorry about the low quantity/quality.  A new camera is very high on my wish list for furlough. I think I may have even found the one I want. 

I love, love, love this photo of Emily and David!













We leave in a week! We’ve been going through all our stuff, getting rid of everything that doesn’t fit or doesn’t bless us or that we do not use. FLYlady would be so proud of me for finally doing this. I only read her book like ten years ago. In an act of ultimate irony I gave it away. Not because it didn’t bless me though. I was moving to Africa and got rid of hundreds of books. We could only bring so much with us. It was either the books or the kids. 

At least when we come back and unpack all this stuff, there will be less of it to deal with and it will all be useful, right? Of course, it will. We never really finished finding proper  places for it all after the last move because we still haven’t finished repairing and painting the house. There were always more pressing issues like burning wires and graduations and car repairs. High on my wish list for AFTER furlough is a more reliable car.

I’m almost afraid to say it, but we have had good electricity the last few days, which makes cleaning and packing a lot easier. We’ve had our other issues. Emily got sick. Now I am sick. The dryer broke, again, and will have to be replaced when we come back after furlough. You would THINK that during DRY season, laundry would dry quickly on the line because the humidity is lower, but it is just not working that way. At least no one has gotten any mango fly worms from our clothes. Yet. (more about mango fly larva, also known as tumbo flies, HERE .) That post about the tumbo flies goes all the way back to 2010 and as I read it I thought "It's no wonder we are tired and ready for a break after two and a half years of that craziness!" 

While we are preparing to leave, our friend and teammate Nick Frey is in Canada for a couple weeks and has written a great post for the MAF Blog (click HERE to read Nick's post) contrasting Kinshasa and Congo with life in a first world nation. His post is a great reminder the heart of MAF and why we are here. He's a pilot so he gets to see the physical isolation of people in Congo on a regular basis. Not so much for our family since we are always in Kinshasa, but we see first hand every day that even in this city of millions, people live in self-imposed isolation, whether intentional or not, behind their concrete walls, their emotional walls, their social status, and their fears and superstitions. Pray for Congo, for our pilots, mechanics, IT folks and national staff, and for our travels next week!

I've updated our Media Page with some new items!

Don't mind me...

Coffee & Donuts (Photo credit: Jeremy Brooks)

…I’m just a missionary on furlough (almost).

We leave in two weeks for our first furlough. I don’t know if this happens to every missionary family but as our departure time creeps closer, we’ve begun to notice some strange mental shifts. Nothing scary or creepy, just little things that by themselves mean nothing but collectively make us a little bizarre.

We see photos on the internet of our friends, and after a cursory glance at the people our eyes are drawn to things in the photos that we never would have noticed a few years ago. Carpet. Door knobs that are not five feet above the floor. Sidewalks. Starbucks. Donuts. And we sort of go into a trance and drool. It’s disgusting.

We talk about things we used to take for granted like peace and quiet and fresh strawberries, peaches and blueberries and we sound like Sam and Frodo at Mordor when they realize they can’t remember the taste of strawberries or the sound of the trees. Pathetic.

English: Wal-Mart location in Moncton (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve heard stories of expats returning to the states and crying the first time they went back to Wal-Mart and thought to myself, "no way, not me, Wal-Mart and I are old friends and I CANNOT WAIT to go back." Lately though I am not so sure of myself. Since we've never had a furlough this is all pure speculation but I might cry after all. I might feel overwhelmed. I might be just as likely to cry tears of joy. “Look, Honey! They have EVERYTHING on our list right here in ONE store! And it all has a price tag on it! And none of it is expired! And the labels are in ENGLISH!”

I might do a happy dance.

I might take forty minutes to drive the twelve miles to the store because driving in excess of 35mph feels terrifyingly fast.

I might try to order my meat by the kilo instead of by the pound.

I might try to give a tip to any pedestrian within six feet of my car and thank them for keeping an eye on it for me.

I might hand my merchandise to the cashier and after he/she scans it, ask, possibly in French, “Is that your BEST price?”

If I am going to behave strangely, Wal-mart might just be the safest place to do it. Still, maybe I will make a t-shirt for furlough that says “Don’t mind me, I’m just a missionary on furlough,” just in case someone wonders about me. It might prevent an awkward moment or two.

Almost a Graduate and Almost a Quilt

Remember this quilt top? There's a story to tell that I will share later, but I am just about jumping up and down with excitement because my top is finally getting quilted!

This is my fifth quilt (you can see the other four by clicking on the My Quilts tab at the top of this page). I quilted the first four on my own, one by hand and the rest on my traditional sewing machine. I never seemed to have enough time and electricity to get to this one though, and it is the first one I decided to keep for myself so it got put on back burner. I guess I could have hand quilted it but I just didn't want to. I would pull it out and look at it longingly because I love the batiks and this quilt kept calling me. Finally I caved and decided to take it back to the states when I took Josh back for college and hire a quilter. It got stored for another year partly due to cost and partly because I was nervous about putting my quilt top in the mail.

Ultimately I chose my dear friend Marcia, of Little Pink Rose Quilting and Sewing to be my quilter. Marcia and I have been friends for several years, and her husband has been friends with David and me even longer - we went to college together.

You can get a sneek peak at Marcia's work on my quilt by clicking HERE. It goes without saying that I will post about this quilt again when it is finished and then I'll share why it is special to me.

Meanwhile, we are busy packing and preparing for furlough. Tonight our daughter graduates from high school. We are so proud of her!

I have a glitchy camera and unfortunately will probably have to rely on my friends for good photos and it will take a few days to round them up and post about it. So I wrote a post a while back and scheduled it to publish tomorrow automatically. The blog posts will probably slow down quite a bit after that until we get to the states.

Out-zoning

zero gravity (Photo credit: Tattooed JJ)

I worked in social services for three years in Missouri and had to do the occasional home visit, so I thought I knew what poverty looked like. Until I came to Kinshasa and visited people here. I saw families living in tiny two room, window-less homes with tattered curtains for doors, dirt or concrete floors, no electricity, no indoor bathroom, and no water. This was not in a village in the interior, this was in a city of 10-12 million people. 

Sometimes, we let God lead us out of our self-defined bubble of safety and security and then we think "phew! Made it!" and we praise God. We see that He used it to change us, to bring glory to Him, and we are glad we surrendered our fears, took His hand and let Him lead us.  But that's not the end. Every time we step out of our comfort zone, it creates a new boundary. The zone may grow larger but we still have to keep being willing to let God take us to new levels so that we are humbled, stretched, and usable and He is glorified. It's scary. It's hard. But when we are part of something that is impossible apart from God, and people see it and praise Him, and it's not just us who are changed but also those around us, how awesome is that?!

Fellow MAF'er Liz Schandorff shared her experience in her post "Going Outside My Comfort Zone" on the MAF blog. Liz's experience mirrors some of mine and I hope you will read her post and see why she is willing to step out of her comfort zone again and again - why we all should be.

Good read, folks!

Emily's Loose Ends

I'm trying hard to wrap up more loose ends before we travel. This being her last year of high school and also her last few weeks in Congo, pretty much everything in our life revolves around Emily right now and that's ok. I started this rug for Emily during Christmas break and I injured my thumb in January before I finished the rug. I still have some trouble with my thumb but it is steadily improving. It's finished now, in part because I ran out of the fabric she chose out of my stash. It was intended to match her blue and brown bedroom, which she is moving out of in less than three weeks. Oops.

With Emily in mind I also went in search of a tutorial for a more feminine bag to sew, and found

this one at Craftser. After the interfacing disappointment of my last zipper bags, I wanted to use quilted fabric for this one to give it more stability. This meant I had to make my own pre-quilted fabric, which meant re-learning how to use my walking foot that had not seen the light of day since language school. Poor foot, went to sleep in chilly Canada and woke up in Africa. 

I was in a hurry and it is a small bag so I only quilted on the vertical. I had some of that radical green left over from Daniel's quilt top, which perfectly matched the green in the TASOK fabric, so I used that for the lining.





I fussy cut one side to make sure the word "TASOK" was all there. This was my first experience with making a bag like this and with shortening a zipper, which turned out to be no big deal. There was a lot of bulk at the zipper corners even after I trimmed the seams but I think it is not too bad for a first effort.

 I like that it is wider on the bottom so it holds more stuff!

The uber-green lining!

I'm also packing and cleaning but no one wants to read about those things, or write about them. But look, I just did.

What Time Is It?

Sew this page ( p. 83) - Result 1 (Photo credit: atibens)

Sewing tools (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;" (Ecclesiastes 3:7) 

This week I have experienced all of those. 

A time to speak: I had to talk to my kids about the consequences of procrastination and doing things half-heartedly. That's not the kind of speaking I enjoy but there are definitely times for it. There were also times for praise and encouragment. I went to my daughter's last school pep rally and got to see her play in the band and perform with the show choir. She had a solo and her microphone failed but she kept on going. Youngest has recently exercised a lot of patience and self-control for one his age so I got to praise him for that. Good times.

A time to keep silence. We are in a busy time right now that mostly revolves around our senior's end of year activities and around goodbyes. Last night our church had a party for the seniors in the youth group and each senior in turn had family and friends gather around them to pray for them. I had to let someone else pray for Emily. I couldn't speak my prayer out loud. It was too personal and I knew if I tried I would lose it in front of everybody. 

A time to sew. I wrote a couple of posts ago that I was going to clean my sewing machine and pack it away until we come back from furlough. I lied. I saw a pattern on the internet for a toiletry bag and had to try to make one. It was supposed to be a cosmetic bag for Emily but it turned out kind of masculine looking. That's ok. I have boys too.

I started with these tutorials: Plaid Scottie's Box Pouch and Skip To My Lou's Boxy Cosmetic Bag, combining elements I liked from each.

and with this. Makes perfect sense, doesn't it? If you want to sew a toiletry bag, you first need a vinyl, asymetrical apron with no strings. Here's the thing. There is no Walmart, Michael's, Hobby Lobby, Hancock, or JoAnn here. No place where I can go to buy things like heavy weight interfacing or fusible vinyl. So I had to improvise in order to come up with a spill proof lining. All I could find that came close to what I needed was this apron.

I did have some medium weight interfacing, which I ironed on to the fabric. It helped but not as much as I had hoped it would.

Like the fabric? I bought it from TASOK a couple years ago when my son was still going there and they had their 50th anniversary. It was designed by the students!

You are not supposed to sew when you are tired. But since that would mean no sewing for the entire 25 or 30 years of child-rearing and I am not a patient person....

See anything wrong here? That's right. The zipper is inside out. I sewed when I was tired. This is what the Bible calls "a time to tear." And that cheapo blue vinyl LOVED my seam ripper. Not. Had to cut some new pieces of vinyl.

I did finally get these made. They aren't as sturdy as I would like but they are cute. And the zippers are right side out.

Processing

shadows and reflections (Photo credit: Pedro Moura Pinheiro)

We leave for our first furlough in exactly three weeks! We have our airplane tickets! We have a TON of stuff to do to prepare and we are in the midst of a flurry of our daughter's end of senior year activities. We have made the mental switch from "if we ever make it to furlough" and now find ourselves thinking about "when we are on furlough."

I'm sure I won't be able to stop myself from writing about furlough and reflecting on our experiences here. I feel like a computer that doesn't have enough memory to run smoothly, so instead of being productive, I'm a perpetual Windows hour glass or a conversation window that says "processing" with a progress bar that is frozen in time. I have managed to collect a few thoughts for the MAF blog, and if you are interested you can read our "First Term Reflections" post HERE.

Our latest newsletter has gone out and features an explanation of what furlough is for, what our plans are, etc. If you aren't on our mailing list, you can read our Spring 2013 newsletter by following the link on our Newsletters Page. One important furlough activity for us (besides hot showers) will be reconnecting with our ministry partners and seeking new ones to help us get our ministry support back up to 100%. The bottom line is if our ministry here is not fully funded, we cannot come back, so please pray with us that God will connect us with the folks He has chosen to be on our team.

A Close Call

English: original description: "Built by Jess Dixon of Andalusia, Alabama. Can fly forward, backward or straight up or hover in the air. Runs on road or flys across country. 40 H.P. motor, air cooled, speeds to 100 m.p.h." (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Last night Daniel and I had a close call as we were driving home from my Bible study meeting. It was dark, which in Kinshasa means it was VERY dark because most of the roads have no street lights and at any given time half the lights that do exist are not on due to power outages. We were on a two lane road approaching a curve and someone came rapidly around the bend, in our lane, straight at us in the wrong direction. There was no shoulder to pull onto and no sidewalk, so there was no way we could get out of their way. We were barely able to stop in time to keep them from plowing into us head-on and they nearly hit someone else as they cut off another driver to avoid us.  As he sped by the driver honked at us for having the audacity to be in our lane when he wanted it for himself.

Driving here is an adventure. Aside from the lack of proper lighting, there is also a lack of street signs, stop signs, order, courtesy, and consequences. Roads are poorly maintained and deep potholes and ruts are common. People just do whatever they want to without regard to rules or other drivers. Defensive driving is bumped to a whole new level here. No matter what time of day or night it is, there are always tons of pedestrians and they are usually walking in the actual street due to a lack of sidewalks. It is not for the faint of heart, which is why I only drive in places I am familiar with. I fantasize about having a flying car and soaring above all the chaos.

It can drive (pun intended) you crazy if you let it, but it is more fun to laugh about it. We sometimes quote movie lines. Here are some I have heard our family and/or friends use specifically with regard to driving in Kinshasa.

“I’m surrounded by idiots.” Scar, in Lion King
“I’ll get you my pretty, and your little dog, too!” Wicked witch, in Wizard of Oz
“Toto, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” Dorothy, Wizard of Oz
 “Never tell me the odds.” Han Solo, Empire Strikes Back
“Wax paint on, wax paint off.” Mr. Miyagi, Karate Kid
“Inconceivable!” Vizzini, Princess Bride
 “Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads.” Doc, Back to the Future
“All me life flashed before me eyes.” Babs, Chicken Run
“I’ve gone way beyond afraid. Right now I’m somewhere between bedwetting and a near death experience.” Rizzo, Muppets Treasure Island

Next time you go driving, please say a prayer for all the missionaries who deal with driving in third world nations.

I'm Sure He Will Thank Me Later

A pair of ASICS stability running shoes, model GEL-Kinsei (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Check this out: Kinetic Pavement. Some really smart people at a company called Pavegen in London have invented a floor tile that converts footfalls into electricity. They even have a long-term goal to make the tiles as affordable as ordinary floor tiles. I'm thinking we should put these in our house and yard. Then when the power is off I can make Daniel run laps to make the lights work. He could invite his friends over for a backyard marathon so I could even run the fridge or the washing machine. It would be a great incentive. "Listen kid, if you want me to bake cookies, you gotta go run so I can use the oven."

He wouldn't like it at first. But in a decade, when he becomes a world famous marathoner, he will thank me. :)

Remembering

Flag of the United States of America (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Having a dad who served in the Air Force, we were always taught growing up to have the utmost respect, admiration, and gratitude for our armed forces and for those who had sacrificed their time, their families, and their lives to safeguard the freedoms and rights we enjoy as U.S. citizens. We learned flag etiquette, something that is scarce nowadays. We stood when our flag came by at parades and sporting events. We always stood at attention with our hands over our hearts, except for Dad, who has earned the right to salute. We never displayed a fray or dirty flag on our flagpole. Disrespecting the flag was akin to being disrespectful toward our soldiers. It was unpatriotic. I have tried hard to pass these values down to my children.

And Memorial Day has always been about more than barbecues.

I have a wonderful friend, Julia, who is an army wife. She is also a mom and a much better writer than I am. Julia's family used to be stationed in Germany. During a trip to the states to visit her family, she had an experience that she wrote about on her blog, Dibbs on the Gibbs . Her story, Riding With a Soldier also recently was published in the Stars and Stripes! I encourage you to read Julia's story, and remember, and never, never take the sacrifices others have made, which we benefit from, for granted.

A Historic Event!

Kikongo landing strip and MAF pilot David Francis. Photo by Jocelyn Frey.

Our friend and pastor, Mike Lowery, rides an MAF plane from here in Kinshasa to the village of Kikongo once a month. He stays a few days, ministering and teaching in a school for pastors, then takes another MAF plane back to Kinshasa.

These men of God are getting training that would otherwise be inaccessible because of the ministry of MAF and the dedication of missionaries Glen Chapman and Mike Lowery. There is no way to measure the impact that can have as these men take what they learn back to their own churches and villages.

Another facet of MAF's ministry besides the airplane is our IT service. MAF was involved in bringing internet to Kikongo for the missionaries there. Because of this, a truly historic event took place at the Bible school recently, and you can read Pastor Mike's really cool story about it by clicking HERE.

It is an incredible privilege to be part of MAF and the missions community here! We could not be here serving alongside these folks without the prayers and ministry support of many others, so we are truly part of a huge team and are very grateful! By supporting our ministry with MAF, you are also supporting the work God is doing in Kikongo.

Two Finishes

This morning I walked in the annual 5K Run/Walk Kima Mbangu (Run Fast). This was my third year participating alongside of fellow MAF wives Sandy Franci and Valerie Hochstetler. We also had a pilot running, and four MK's volunteering, so MAF was very well represented.

This was a fundraiser to benefit women in Congo, one of the most challenging and statistically unsafe places in the world to be a female. My daughter, Emily, went with me and was a volunteer helper.

At the halfway mark she brought me water and cheered me on for a bit.

Not long after we began the walk, I got a toe cramp. There are verses in Scripture that talk about God's people being different parts of the same body, and if you never thought being just a little toe was very noteworthy, you have never tried to walk or jog with a toe cramp. At that time, my little toe was getting ALL of the attention. A real runner would push through and ignore the pain. I am not a real runner. I started drinking water too late and by the time I reached the end I had a headache that made me forget all about my toe. But, I did get to the end!

Another finish for me this week was the quilt top I have been working on for Daniel.



I had help reaching this finish also. Elliot. As you can see he is doing better and has gained back most of the weight he lost when he was ill. Why do cats think know that whenever a person places anything on the floor, it is expressly for them to lie upon?

I wanted you to see the "texture" that the print on the black fabric lends to the quilt.












Sorry about the poor photo. I'm a quilter, not a photographer. And my kids are just kids, not quilt racks. This will go into storage, along with my freshly cleaned sewing machine, until we return from furlough.

*** Totally off subject, but our newsletter has just gone to print. If you don't receive it and would like to, you can let us know by sending us an email. Our address is in the sidebar to the right.***

Home Alone and New Linkies

David (bottom) at work here in Kinshasa. Photo by David Francis

David has been in Lubumbashi for the last few days, doing a mini-inspection on a plane there. Even though we have been here two and a half years, this was my first time doing the single mom thing in Congo. He will be coming home late tonight and I will be very glad to see him. Power has been terrible, about two hours a day. Internet has been terrible. Someone left a toilet running over night so for part of the time water was an issue. And the cat has been sick. In fact I thought for a couple of days that Elliot was going to die.

The vet came and without examining my cat or taking any samples announced that it was worms. Elliot was lethargic, refusing to eat or drink, and couldn't even meow. I told him I didn't think it was worms because in the past when he had worms he ate an insane amount and his belly swelled and this time he was not eating at all. I also told him that we suspected he had eaten something poisonous or that he had gotten a kidney infection since he was also incontinent. The vet put him on antibiotics.

That was Monday. Yesterday Elliot got his meow back, although it sounds pathetic. And he is a little more active, meaning he will follow me out of the room now or jump up on my lap. He is drinking water and eating again but can't keep anything down so he is still losing weight. I am not sure what else to do for him.

Bug Freakout (Photo credit: betsystreeter)

Furlough is rapidly approaching and the reality of how much we still have to do in preparation is starting to make me feel a little panicky.








I have written a few times in the past about the plight of women in this country and about ministries here that are specifically for women. This week, Save the Children published a report of the world's best and worst places to be mothers, and Congo made the list. Click HERE to see what position DRC has in the list of 176 countries. Pray for the women and girls of Congo.

I added a few updates to our Media page. There are new articles, blog posts and videos for you to check out, including one about the importance and the cost of aircraft maintenance, which is what David does here.

**UPDATE Elliot is improving! He's super skinny but now that he is eating and holding his food down he should plump back up soon.

Un Moment Chocolat - A Chocolate Moment

During family conference a few weeks ago I was blessed with an incredible gift: a bag of Dove Caramel Chocolates. This week when I opened the last precious piece the little message on the wrapper said "Share a chocolate moment with a friend." Well, none of my friends were around at the time. And it WAS the LAST piece.

So, I ate it.

Last weekend, I was in a store with my friend Christine (one of the unfortunate friends I did not share a chocolate moment with when I ate the LAST piece of Dove) and we saw these gigantic bars of chocolate.

 A single bar was eleven pounds! Eleven pounds of Belgian chocolate! (voice squeaking loudly here). Imagine the chocolate moment I could have with THAT! I'm pretty sure if word got out that I had eleven pounds of Belgian chocolate I would have about 200 girlfriends ready to join me in a Guiness Word Record "moment chocolat."  Sadly, to quote a favorite VeggieTale movie, the price was "out of range."

Another favorite VeggieTales quote is from Madame Blueberry. Bob asks Larry "How much stuff do you need to make you happy?" Larry's answer is "I dunno. How much stuff is there?" Just the other day David asked me what I was doing and I said I was downloading a free quilt pattern. He asked me how many quilt patterns one person can need. I, of course, gave him the same answer I give him when he asks me how many books I need or how much fabric I need - "I dunno. How many are there?"

Have you ever tried to memorize anything from the book of Lamentations? I never have until now. Lamentations is a book that I under-appreciated for a long time. I think it's because of the title. When you think about laments, lamenting, lamentations,..it just doesn't sound as good as it really is. So, I am going to share a Lamentations moment with you. I just added Lamentation 3:22-23 to my memory verses. Here are the verses:

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."

If any one ever asks me how much of God's grace, love, and mercies I need, I will smile and say, "I dunno. How much is there?" Thankfully, they are unending, and never "out of range."

Languishing Brownies

Brownies (Photo credit: yum9me)

This could be an interesting post because I am so distracted. We HAD power today, so I made up a batch of brownie batter. I decided to be a cool mom and used the last of our Heath bits in the brownies. Popped them into the oven. A few minutes later the power went off. David went out to check the box since all of the neighbors have power and he has been gone awhile, which means something burnt up and we can't even run the generator. MY BROWNIES ARE LANGUISHING!!! 

This week I ordered limes from Papa Joseph. In French, lemons are "citrons" and limes are "citrons vertes (green)". This is a photo of locally grown produce. The little one is a lime and the big ones are lemons. See the problem with calling limes the green ones? They are ALL green. Papa Joseph misunderstood and I ended up with a bag of lemons. Lemons aren't as tasty as limes in my Coke, but they made good lemonade so we are just rolling with it. Interestingly, oranges here are also green, and yet they are still called oranges an no one seems to think that is weird.

Here's an update on our house. Yes, we are STILL working on the house. When we moved in, the plumbing in the kitchen had been repaired/replaced and there was a section behind the sink where the tiles were busted out; and there was a gap between the concrete wall and the countertop that I could put my hand into - which meant unwelcome guests could crawl through from the other side. This week we hired Leopold to fix the wall and I am very happy to have a whole wall in the kitchen now.





I managed to get some more sewing time and made some progress on Daniel's quilt top. I am using a pattern called Blissful Dreams that I purchased too many years ago from Down Home Quilting. I still have to add borders to it. Daniel asked me to hand quilt it instead of machine quilting it, so when I finish the top it will get packed away until after furlough. I don't plan to haul it across the ocean and then add backing and batting and haul it back. Apologies to my facebook friends who have already seen this.


***Here is a brownie update, because brownies are important. They are a little funny looking but I think they will taste just fine. Hooray for brownies! The neutral line in our box keeps burning up and we keep replacing it. This time it burned a bunch of stuff and David got it going temporarily but says he pretty much has to replace everything.