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Helen's Mulberry Lane Farm Journal
March 03, 2011.
We are itching to get into the greenhouse and start our tomatoe plants for the year. The garden is calling us as we watch the snow melt, and the puddles dry up. The seeds are arriving in the mail, as well as peat pots and pellets. Always exciting to know spring is on its way!
I will be adding some new products to our local market stand this year. All organic: steel cut oats, both hard and soft wheat berries, gluten, oat bran, unsweetened coconut, dried mangoes, dried apricots, raisins, and brown rice. We will also have local honey for sale at our market stand. Watch for these new products! If you are interested in bulk orders and want even better prices per pound, let me know. If you don't see something you want in the area of bulk grains, seeds, nuts, etc., e-mail me and I will see if I can get it for you. I am slowly adding products to my e-store as well, for you folks who wish to receive orders by mail.
We look forward to seeing you again in the spring. Stay tuned for our opening specials!
Speaking of specials, our sister company, Dr. Aardsma's Drills, is having a "50% off Spring Fever Sale" right now! Dr. Aardsma's Drills Check it out and spread the word to your friends!
Gerald
Gerald has just celebrated his birthday. Here is a little about the man I love.
Gerald's health has been stable all year for which we praise the Lord! I know many of you faithfully pray for Gerald, and we do thank you! Gerald continues with his monthly IVIG treatments at the hospital. I believe God has used us to touch numerous hospital staff lives through our interaction with them. The world is filled with needy hearts and it is wonderful to know that God has the answers to those needs! We hope to start weekly treatments at home (SCIG) soon, which will keep Gerald more stable throughout the month.
Gerald continues with his research, his main occupation and love. In his spare moments, between the research, he is writing "The Flood Happened 3500 B.C." the second book in a series of books. (The first in the series is The Exodus Happened 2450 B.C.) This new book about the flood has turned out to be a very big project, but it is always exciting for us to follow his research and watch the progress. It makes great meal time conversation!
Gerald is often deep in thought, but always surfaces to tend to my needs and that of the family. He is as great a grandfather as he is a father! He often reminds me of Mark 9:41: "For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward."
I'm so grateful for Gerald, the impact he has had on my life, that of our children, our grandchildren and the world beyond our home.
One hundred years from now,
It won't matter what car I drove,
What kind of house I lived in,
How much I had in my bank account,
Nor what my clothes looked like,
But, the world may be a little better
Because I was important in the life of a child.
Gerald takes a moment from our daughter Jennifer's furnace repairs to play with our grandson Samuel.
October, 2010.
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This past year Gerald and I read biographies and watched documentaries about Lou Gehrig, the famous baseball player who died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (abbreviated ALS, also referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease) in 1941. He was only 44 years old when he died. ALS is a deadly form of motor neuron disease similar to the CIDP that Gerald has. When our neurologist saw Gerald for the first time four years ago this month, he thought Gerald had ALS. We are very grateful he didn't have it, because Gerald would be dead now.
Learning about Lou and his wife Eleanor was both fascinating and heart breaking. His wife was an amazing woman---a wonderful support to Lou. She never remarried and dedicated the rest of her life to supporting ALS research.
Eleanor said about Lou after he died: "I would not have traded two minutes of joy and the grief with that man for two decades of anything with another." That is how I feel about my "Ger", as I call him.
Gerald enjoys a relaxing break from his research.
Photo by Helen E. Aardsma, September, 2010.
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On Gerald's birthday he received some precious letters from many of his children, with heartfelt thanks to him for how much they mean to them and how he has impacted their lives. Sweet letters and cards to read and re-read and put in our memory boxes, yet too personal to share here.
He received this kind e-mail from his brother Allen and I reprint it here with his permission.
Happy Birthday, brother!
I don't know what you think about your life to this point in time, but I
think it's been one of the very finest Christian lives I've been
acquainted with in my 56 years.
Success in this life is measured many different ways by many different
people, and I suppose there are various kinds of success, but if spiritual
and eternal success is measured by faithfulness to the Lord - and I
believe it is - by that standard, you are a most successful man.
And there are other ways in which faithfulness characterizes your life
among which are:
You've been faithful to your dear wife and family.
You've been faithful to your principles.
You've been faithful to your purposes.
My birthday prayer for you today, brother, is that you will see yourself
as a successful follower of Jesus Christ, and that you will remain
faithful to Him throughout this next year. ...
I wanted you to know that I see you as a great success in many ways. And
that's just how I think the Lord sees you, too.
Well done, thou good and faithful servant.
May God bless you this year with the realization of some of your as yet
unattained dreams and goals.
With great love and respect, and best wishes,
Allen
Allen and Gerald in their teen years.
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As Gerald and I head near and nearer to our 60th birthdays, we cherish our time together more and more. We do not know the future and how much longer we will have together. Life is so fragile and it seems to become more fragile as we get older.
I can see why older folks talk about the past so much---there are so many years to remember---joyful memories mixed with the painful ones.
I love the song, "A Sweet Memory of Gladness" by Roger Whittaker---it always makes me cry when I hear it. As you read the words below let me encourage you to think and cherish the wonderful memories that God has given you.
A memory of gladness,
Can raise the heavy heart.
When laden down with sadness,
When you feel the tear drops start.
One peaceful moment,
Can erase the pain.
One memory of gladness,
And smile again.
A flash of frozen time
lives in your heart forever.
My wedding day, August, 1974.
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Sweet memories of a smiling face,
We run to when we fall.
To loving arms tenderly hold you close,
Soft words of comfort you recall.
A memory of gladness.
Reunion with Gerald's family,
Acre Lake, PA. Summer, 1982.
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A single act of kindness,
A flash of frozen time.
Stays in your mind forever,
Makes common soul sublime.
The joy of knowing,
someone somewhere cares.
Lives in your heart forever,
Happiness two souls share.
Happiness two souls share.
Meeting our grandaughter Kelsey,
for the first time.
February, 2005.
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Recently our grandson, Joshua, was doing a report on Albert Einstein for his schoolwork. When he and his brother Ethan saw some pictures of Einstein, their conversation went something like this:
Ethan: "He looks like he's crazy."
Joshua: "Don't you know all great scientists look that way?"
Ethan: "No, they don't. Grandpa doesn't."
Joshua: "Oh yeah, that's true."
Steve, Joshua, Jennifer, (our daughter),
Ethan (standing), little Sammy and Katie.
Fall, 2010.
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Thanks for stopping by,
Helen
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