February 28, 2002.

Dear Sisters,

It has been an unusually mild winter here, so there has not been much cabin fever this year. The children have been outside without coats and even shoes some days, and I have been able to hang laundry outside too! We're putting in our garden seed orders this week. It is hard to believe we will be planting again in a few weeks.

Jennifer's second baby (and my third grandchild) is due mid-April. Jennifer has some unique high-risk problems from her first birth via emergency breech c-section. She greatly desires to have a VBAC. I request your prayers on her behalf. Watch for Jennifer's full birth story in an upcoming newsletter.

I am happy to announce the release of a new product I think many homeschoolers will find helpful: Dr. Aardsma's Spelling Drill. Last year we introduced Dr. Aardsma's Math Drill. It has been very popular and enthusiastically received in the home school community. Dr. Aardsma's Spelling Drill is a similar, no-frills, no-nonsense, school-room workhorse which takes the work and frustration out of drilling spelling. Our family has been testing this new product over the past few weeks. What a wonderful home schooling tool I have found this to be. I have been homeschooling for almost 20 years and daily drilling of spelling has been a chore that I have found frustrating. The children are being challenged in spelling as never before, and they are learning by leaps and bounds. See the enclosed 2002 catalog for more details. (Please note: Our catalog is no longer available. See www.arpinternational.com.)

Don't forget to check out the photo album on www.motherscompanion.com. You can view in color all the photos in this newsletter as well as a few additional ones. (Please note: The photo album is currently unavailable.)

Our role as mothers provides us with a unique opportunity to be a light in this world of darkness. Piles of dirty dishes scrubbed shiney clean each day, bedraggled hair neatly put into braids each morning, reading to the little ones their favorite book for the third time in two hours, speaking a kind word to a recalcitrant teenager, smelly laundry freshly washed each morning and put away each evening, bringing a hot meal to a mom who just delivered her ninth baby, taking a toddler to the bathroom during a daughter's piano recital---all these, and more, are good deeds, when done for Jesus with a cheerful heart and a smile.

Blessings,

Helen E. Aardsma