March 4, 2003.

Dear Sisters,

The windows are frosted up again as another cold front comes down from the north. I don't remember such a long, cold winter.

The older girls and I 'follow the whirlwind' as we clean up from the younger children's numerous projects; lego castles, tinkertoy airplanes, stamping, painting, etc. We are all itchin' to get outside and feel the garden soil between our toes---not to mention putting the toys away for the summer.

We've been busy getting tons of school done, and it is wearing thin for all of us. One of the children (who wishes to remain anonymous) said the other day, ''I don't know why we aren't born with all the knowledge we need to survive!" We are making a real push to get school completed before the end of April, so we can start planting the garden early in the Spring and enjoy playing outdoors.

David (16---homestead manager again this year) and I have mailed our seed orders, and the chicks are ordered. This year Matthew (12) wants to raise a few turkeys too. All this argues that there is hope that Spring will arrive!

As I watch my young adult children 'sprouting their wings to fly' it is hard not to worry about their 'dips and dives!' After watching one of my children take a 'dip' recently, I found myself losing sleep. When I would wake up to tend to the littles ones, I found that I couldn't get back to sleep. My mind was going one hundred miles per hour thinking of all the worst possible things that might happen. On my walk with Gerald, he reminded me that I was fretting, worrying, and fretting some more, and it was consuming me. He quoted the following verse to me, one I have heard a thousand times before, but needed to apply right then and there.

It is wonderful to know that we can rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him---He will do what we cannot, as surely as He will bring forth the Spring.

Blessings,

Helen E. Aardsma

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