Thanksgiving Weekend Mini Vacation

I was looking online for places to cut your own Christmas tree near Fergus, and I stumbled onto this "Choose, Cut, and Stay Awhile" package with Cupkie Christmas Village and Thumper Pond Resort. I quickly ran it by Adam, and we surprised the kids with a weekend of fun. Above are a couple of pictures.

For the whole album, you can visit

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=11279&l=1326d&id=1279914409

He Speaks!

Adam had a dream last night that we had to speak Timothy's one-syllable language. So, I thought in case that actually became law, I would give you a Primer...his language is very similar to English, might I add.

Ma = Mom
Da = Dad
Dih = Drink
Mo = More.
Ba = Ball
Duh = Done.
Dow = Down.
Babee = Baby
Coo = Cool!

For you linguistic buffs, each word ends in a glottal stop.

Newest Ekelund On The Way!

We just found out that Ekelund version 4.0 (according to the Flude scale) is arriving in mid-July 2009! Yay! I think Caleb might be the most excited. He now wants "twenty hundred babies." Caleb, Mommy can't do that, baby.

Prayer Request for Janice Flude

Don Raun (a former Chadian missionary) gave us a prayer request for the current LB Chadian missionaries (especially Janice Flude) today. I will also be posting this on my Facebook. You can get a link to their blog updated by Janice's brother in my "Blog Friends" under Flude Brood.

Some of you might know Janice from being a Sem Wife two years ago while they prepared to go into missions. On Saturday, Don stopped by to say that Janice was very sick and in the French Military Clinic in N'djamena. I will type the update email Don received today word for word for you:


"Several of you have written and asked how Janice is doing. Please continue to pray. She continues to have allergic reactions on a daily basis. Two of them have been life threatening. The French doctor believes that it is the Larium (malaria preventative) that she is allergic to. Larium stays in the system for a couple weeks so that is why they believe she continues to have these reactions. It will probably be another week before it subsides. In the meantime, she is on Benadryl and prednisone.

Kirsten (Holzner) says there has been a lot of sickness. Betsy and Katie are both sick right now with fevers and diarrhea. Several of the Flude kids have been sick as well. In the last week most of the adults have had very little sleep dealing with all of this.

Your prayers are MUCH appreciated by those there and by us!!"

Why there isn't much new Ekelund news...

We haven't posted in a while because we have been really busy this month. Adam's sister and family are here from RI visiting for 12 days. So fun! We are busy running around after a 4, 3, 2, 1 year, and 10 month old. I will have pics soon I hope...

"He who has ears, let him hear!"

Friday night and Saturday 160 of us in Fergus Falls joined with 715 other sites across the globe to hear God's word through Beth Moore. She spoke in Louisville, KY and it was simulcasted to over 70,000 people. Praise Him! The worship was led by Travis Cotrell and his worship team. The Lord has seriously blessed them with beautiful instruments.

The theme of the weekend was "100 Fold Harvest," and the text was Luke 8 the Parable of the Sower. Her main points were
1. Treasure the wonder
-the wonder of His Word

2. Protect your heart.
-so the enemy can't take the Word from you

3. Expect a test.
-life is not going to be easy

4. Dig some roots.
-root yourself in His Word, and you will bear fruit

5. Stop the choke.
-stop being anxious and untrusting of Him who is able

6. Retain it.
-remember the word you are given from Him; don't just hear it

7. Press forth to the 100 fold.
-the harvest doesn't necessarily come immediately; we need to perservere.


Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come.

Welcome to the Gun Show

What!?! You gonna mess with her?

Hannah's Turn To Shine

Flude Brood, do you remember Caleb's table grace? The 2nd video is for you...

More Funny Kid Quotes

6-4: To Hannah: "Well, well, well. What happened to not wanting to play hide-n-seek?"

6-11: "When Jesus comes back to earth, I will open the door for Him."

6-23: On the way home, we were trying to keep Caleb awake so he would nap at home in his bed. He said, "My eyes keep saying, 'Take a nap, Caleb. Take a nap'."

6-29: Caleb rode his tricycle to church on this particular Sunday. I asked him how he was going to stop at the intersection. He said, "I will apply the brakes when I want to stop." (Wait. How old are you?)

Finally, a Hannah quote on June 16th. She was copying her brother's speech. "I NEVER get peanut butter and jelly." (The ironic thing? They have pb&j every day for lunch.)

Independence Day

I know I haven't posted in a long time. It seems like I am found on Facebook more often. I am trying to use the public link for my photo albums to share with family and friends since Google discontinued Hello.

Here are some shots from 4th of July. We like to go to the courthouse and take some pictures in front of all the American flags. We are so thankful to the men and women who are currently protecting our freedom and are very fortunate to live in this country.