Almost four months old

We're looking forward to some visitors this week. BearHunter's family, all but his brother, will be up here for two to three weeks. We know they'll all be doting on baby. Who knows, will mom get more rest or less than usual?

At the same time two of our California church friends are coming for a long weekend. Their baby is due on Calla Lily's birthday! It'll be fun to hang out with some people that we have deeper relationships with. I'm looking forward to the refreshment of good friends.

We've begun Communion dinners at the YWAM base. We've chosen Wednesday nights as our weekly time to devote a couple of hours to fellowshipping over a meal. And experience the Lord's supper similar to how it was for the first century church. Not just juice/wine and crackers, but a whole meal together. There is something special about lingering at the table over good food and conversations, everyone sharing with each other. We enjoyed our first time last week and hope it develops into a highlight of our week. To accommodate a family atmosphere, we moved the tables together so we can fit 12 around one large square. Once the rest of the school returns, we'll have to create a new dining space, but for now it works perfectly.

Ruby Raspberry Tummy

Ruby: as mentioned before, we added a ruby to each of our rings in honor of our baby's birth. Here's what our rings look like now.

Raspberry: next picture is raspberry picking BearHunter style. He likes to get right in there, down low where you can see the raspberries that others missed. At this time of year, there's still a few berries left. I just made another batch of raspberry rhubarb jam, as gifts for our speakers during the next lecture series in January. I've enjoyed canning jam this summer once my neighbor taught me how.

Tummy time: Squeakums has tummy time on the kitchen table frequently while I'm fixing myself something to eat, or washing up the dishes. He seems to get animated and enjoy it unless it's time for him to eat.

PTL

Today there was much rejoicing at our base. There's only two families here now, including ourselves The other staff and students are again off to Saint Lawrence Island and other parts of Alaska doing their different ministries. That's not the cause of our rejoicing. The exciting news was that we are getting some moose meat.

A friend who was given two roadkills will give some to us. Although we're on the want list for roadkills, we never seem to be at the top of the list. And another friend is donating to us half a moose, since it was illegally shot (they have to be a specific age and size to be legal). So that means we don't have to buy beef for awhile, which helps our food budget tremendously. And searching for good moose recipes will be fun! Got any? Send 'em my way.

Next exciting source of rejoicing is the provision for Calla Lily's dental work. It had been so long since I'd had a cleaning that I scheduled an exam and x-rays. That seemed the most important part of an exam. And when paying cash, I wanted to choose wisely. They discovered I needed a filling to be replaced; it had been improperly done in California a couple of years ago. I split my appointments over three months, to spread out the cost. We shared our need in our last newsletter and have had the cost covered by special donations. Looks like we'll have some extra, so BearHunter can go see the dentist as well. Praise God. By the way, I was apprehensive about getting in the chair since I have a history of being tolerant to the numbing shots and require repeat doses throughout procedures. However, thanks to prayers, I only needed one shot and it wasn't that bad. The dentist found some further decay due to the incomplete coverage of the last filling. But the work went smoothly with very little discomfort.

Blogspot says you can post videos now. But I haven't found the option on mine yet. Hopefully soon I'll be able to upload some brief clips of Squeakums. I know he's the most popular item on our site these days.

So what's up with the little guy? Well, he's clasping his hands and stuffing things, particularly blankets, in his mouth. He's squealing as well, and laughing a little bit. He's got his own little potty. We get him to use him sometimes, but frequently miss the window of opportunity.