Full Beaver Moon

It
was

the
afternoon

before
the
night.






The

sun

shone

bright.




As
we
walked
along
the
way,

sunlight
glistened
on
standing
water.






Morning
brought
change.



Frost
froze
the
range







while

the
Full
Beaver
Moon

hovered

on
the
horizon.

Confirmation

A

T-shirt

from

Mom...


And a church solo (of this song) sung by Dad...





...were two ways

we celebrated

Isaac's Confirmation

today on

All Saints' Day.




With Great Gratitude to all who helped in Multitude of Ways!

Trick or Treat

Noah knows the trick to
scoring Halloween treats.

Drive the Country Block.

Visit eight rural neighbors' houses.

Collect as much as - or more than - his townee friends in a fraction of the time they spend on Labor spooking their Neighbors.

Trick or Treat.


"You're our first and only trick-or-treater. Take two handfuls!"

Put to Rest

Aaron came home from school Wednesday with a finger injury.

I gasped at the swelling in the lower part of his index finger and the distortion as he opened his hand. "Can you move it?" I asked. "It looks broken."

Aaron demonstrated movement in the middle joint but noted pain in the joint to the hand. Then he explained how the he was putting a spiral on the football during gym class to send the ball down field when another student put up his arm to block the pass.

Aaron's finger tip, hit the boy's arm and hyper-extended the digit at the joint to his hand. After class ended at 11:30 AM, he went to the nurse's office. She treated Aaron's finger with ice, tape and a promise to call home before swooshing him out of her office which was swamped with the students falling victim to the flu.

By the time Aaron reach home, the swelling had doubled and his finger tip was bruised. The phone rang. The nurse apologized for her tardy call due to the unusual number of sick students sent to her office and then home. I thanked her and said we'd follow up with an x-ray at the clinic.

Our local doctor had no late-afternoon openings and referred us to UrgentCare in the nearby city. Given the current flu epidemic, I hesitated before putting through the call. Fortunately, the receptionist was able to put us in as the evening's last appointment at 7:30 PM.

That meant Aaron could attend his confirmation class from 5:30-7:00 PM and still get medical attention. We checked in at the clinic desk and stood in the vacant waiting area to avoid further exposure to H1N1 and other germs.

A nurse promptly called Aaron and brought us into an ordinary exam room. She apologized for the heavy disinfectant odor. I thanked her for doing the job noting, "THIS is the LAST place we want to be - in a clinic full of flu patients." She offered further advice for our return home. "Strip off all your clothes, WASH everything including your jackets and shower! The doctor will be with you momentarily."

As she left, I noticed a can of hand-sanitizing foam mounted on the wall for patients to use upon departure. Aaron saw it too. "Give me some of that!"

Less than two minutes later, the doctor knocked, entered and began listening to Aaron's injury story. He examined Aaron's finger, ordered an x-ray, reviewed the results and returned with a referral to the orthopedic surgeon.

"There's a suspicious spot in the joint," he said qualifying the need for a specialist. "We'll leave a message for them tonight. They'll call you first thing in the morning. Meanwhile, use Ibuprofin for pain or swelling and buddy tape your fingers. The nurse will come in to show you how."

Before 8 PM, Aaron and I were walking out the door with a roll of tape from the nurse and followed by the doctor who was dressed to leave for the night.

Aaron went to school Thursday morning to take a couple tests.

The orthopedic receptionist

gave us a mid-afternoon appointment.

That appointment also cruised by from reception to billing to the doctor. He swiftly examined Aaron's finger and decided to "Put it to Rest" for a couple weeks. "We'll put it in a splint. Treat it like a cast. Make an appointment. And come back in two weeks. Then we'll x-ray it to see if there's any calcification to indicate a fracture."

Today Aaron came home from school wishing he'd made a sign to hang from his arm. "I should've drawn a picture of my finger tip hitting an arm," he said, "Everyone's asking: Aaron! What happened?"

I nodded, "And another drawing with a doctor pointing: Put To Rest."

No Flute Playing at Monday's concert. And quite possibly,
No Deer Hunting on the Opener.

Unexpected

We all teach.

Family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, customers, even the person next-in-line at the checkout learn from us - by virtue of how we interact with others.

Am I kind, patient, helpful? Do I get your goat, touch your heart, make you laugh or frown?

Quite often I wonder what our three boys are picking up from me. Are they grasping the REALLY important stuff? Last night I glimpsed hope while reading aloud to Noah at bedtime.

We were working on Laura Ingalls Wilder's seventh book called "Little Town on the Prairie" and had reached the last chapter called "Unexpected in December."

It was Christmas Eve of 1882 in DeSmet - a newly established town in Dakota Territory. Pa was in town while Ma and the three girls were busy with preparations, but missing Mary, the oldest Ingalls daughter who had been away in Iowa for months studying at the College for the Blind. Money was tight. The family managed tuition costs, but couldn't afford to bring Mary home for the holidays.

Laura ached for her sister and wished aloud that Mary had never gone away. Ma said Laura mustn't feel that way because Mary was doing so well in her studies, music and artwork. Yet Ma wondered aloud how they would afford summer clothes, a little spending money and an expensive Braille slate for Mary.

Laura suggested she would soon be 16 years old and then be able to test for a teaching certificate. With a teacher's salary, she could help provide for Mary's needs. Ma knew Laura had been studying very hard towards that goal and had given a great show of her knowledge the night before at the School Exhibition.

Just then, a knock at their door produced an opportunity for Laura to teach at a school 12 miles away. The school board chairman had seen Laura perform at the School Exhibition and was willing to wave the age requirement if she was willing to take a certification test on the spot and work with five pupils grades 4 and under.

Laura agreed and passed the test with ease. She was hired to start the following Monday to work for two months and earn $40 - more than enough money to provide for her sister's needs as well as a train ticket to bring Mary home for the coming summer!

As we closed the book, Noah pulled up his quilts and said, "I know who made all that happen."

"Who?" I asked. And Noah smiled, "God!"

"You're right," I replied marveling at the wisdom my third grader drew from a story that happened long ago.

"That's an AWESOME connection!"

Yes, we all teach... Yet this lesson learned was Unexpected.

Signs of the Times

What could it be that brought mild temperatures to keep our north-central Minnesota foliage green through late October this year?

Usually trees turn color in late September and lose their leaves by October's first week. This year was markedly different.

Take a look out our picture window via this afternoon's video. The snowfall was one of many this month as our weather moved from eternal spring to hint at winter's return.

Happy Hunter

I'm behind in blog posts - but here's family news worth noting from Friday, October 16th.

A whirring sound caught Aaron's attention on the wooded trail. A bird flew up. He fired once, followed it 180° and fired again bringing down what he believed to be his first grouse.

Upon retrieval, he found his first bird bagged was a woodcock.

Though the woodcock is much smaller than the ruffed grouse, both birds' wings create a similar takeoff sound. And fortunately, both birds were "in season" when Aaron, Dan and Moose flushed numerous birds and brought home two for this year's Wild Game Stew. Happy Hunter!

(Photos courtesy of Paka Pict's)