The Akachan and Other News

The akachan (ah-kah-chon--"baby" in Japanese) is getting cuter by the day. We had some good times this evening holding him to our heart's content, laughing at his accidental smiles and fierce frowns and perplexed expressions--all in his sleep. When his eyes were open, he ranged them all around the room, but didn't have the coordination to focus on anyone's face.

We've spotted evidence of Kuepfer genes. He has a massive cowlick. Just maybe it's the beginning of curly hair. That would be very un-Iwashige-like.

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Today in Sunday School Rachel Y. told us about a special event recently in Montana, the home of members of her husband's family, including his parents.

At Easter, earlier this year, someone gave Rachel's parents-in-law a lily. After the flowers faded, Ella, the wife, planted the lily outside the house. A few weeks ago someone noticed a bud on the lily plant--completely out of season for an early summer blooming bulb.

"It'll freeze," Ella said, resigned to the inevitable. She was struggling with leukemia, and her husband had serious heart problems, and a lily freezing was no doubt low on her list of concerns, despite her love of flowers.

In a sudden downward spiral, Ella's condition worsened, and she died rather unexpectedly about two weeks ago. On the day her body was brought back to her home for the last time, the lily had burst into bloom. It was still fresh on the day of her funeral, and someone plucked the blossom and placed it into her hands. She was buried that way, in the presence of her children and all 61 grandchildren.

How good of God to provide this resurrection symbol when the reality of separation by death saddened Ella's family.

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This was the weekend of youth retreat. Church seemed really empty because of it, and perhaps because four of our ministers preached elsewhere today. As further evidence of the dearth of people attending the regular service, I filled in as SS teacher for Grace Kuepfer, who traveled unexpectedly to Canada for Lorne's 14-year-old nephew's funeral. Before Sunday I got asked to teach another class (I said no.) and also got asked if Hiromi and I could go to the Manor service because Jolene and Sanford were scheduled to go and they were both teaching classes. I said no again. Our Sunday school class was about half its usual size, and the Center contingent at the Manor consisted of only Joel and Hilda. Oops.

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This is the week for parent teacher conferences at school. I always enjoy this time, but this week looks maxed out from early to late each day through Wednesday. We have winter Bible school on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the remainder of the sessions next week on Wednesday through Friday.

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We had our second hard freeze this week. I'm still canning tomatoes that are ripening gradually indoors.

Hiromi and I harvested the daikon radishes we usually grow as a fall crop, and we tied them by their leaves onto the panels that form our garden fence. The process of drying them this way is the first step in making them into a traditional Japanese pickle by a natural fermenting process. Think of it as a crock dill pickle variation, only there are no cucumbers and no dill--only salted giant white "icicle" radishes, and the naturally developing lactic acid bacteria that gives it a sharp, lively flavor.

On his next day off Hiromi plans to harvest the leaf mustard and let it dry outdoors for a day or so before beginning the pickling process, also with salt.

Each vegetable is placed, with salt, in a five-gallon bucket, and pressed under a heavy weight till the desired flavor develops.

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Joel and Hilda plan to travel to see the Grand Canyon, probably leaving on Tuesday of this week.

They're mindful of their good friend Cookie Wiebe's worsening condition, and are aware that her likely-soon home-going could change their plans. She lives in Newton. Along with LeRoy H. and Elena they've shared good times together in the past as part of a discussion group. Cookie's husband David posted pictures of Joel and Hilda's wedding before any official photos were ready.

David and Cookie left for voluntary service in India shortly after the wedding, but not before they had biked across the U.S. together to raise money for MCC--quite a feat for a couple old enough to be grandparents.

Cookie also worked at Newton's MCC headquarters for a number of years, a familiar presence for the ladies from here who went there to volunteer occasionally.

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Our group is rejoicing in the dismissal of all of Timo Miller's charges. I have yet to see any media reports of this development. Perhaps it's not considered as newsworthy as the initial filing of charges was considered to be.

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The final farmer's market of the season is past. Craig went in Shane's place, while Shane brought his wife and baby home from the hospital. Fellow vendors were eager to hear whether Shane and Dorcas' baby had arrived, and Craig was able to give them the news they wanted to hear.

Shane offered a "Tristan Special" to honor the occasion in his meat sales.

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Dan Schrag turns 90 this week, on Wednesday. Cards, calls, and visits in honor of the occasion would be a blessing to Betty, as well as Dan.

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Family and friends of Loyal M. are heading to PA this week for the wedding of Loyal and Arlene. He is LaVerne and Rebecca's son.

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At school, we've been watching the development of a number of Black Swallowtail butterflies that developed from larva that Mr. Schrock brought to school, along with parsley from the plant they were feeding on when he found them.

The butterflies have proven to be very entertaining, especially at the testing table, close to where they hatched. Last week Marvin had one perched on his pencil when it abruptly switched locations and perched on his nose. He could hardly get done scratching the itch after it flew away.

All of them have been released outdoors.

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Last week, a special hot lunch and a bicycle ride on the trails in Carey and Rice Park rewarded those who ended the quarter on privilege. Earlier in the quarter everyone had gone to the Medicine Lodge Peace Treaty Pageant, so we chose to do something cheaper and closer to home for the end-of-quarter activity.

The bike ride had one major snafu, resulting in a ride more than ten miles long instead of the planned seven mile ride for everyone. People weren't complaining though, perhaps because they realized the snafu was the students' fault--not the teachers'. Riding confidently off in the wrong direction without asking for guidance was their first mistake.

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Does anyone know where the "Teaching Company" high school geometry course is? Grant used it, and John used it, and I don't know where it went after that. A student at Pilgrim is interested in taking the course if we can find it.