Dear family:

These are now the last days of winter, and it looks as if we will not get any real snow after all. The boys are disappointed, but I am ready for the sunny days of spring. Our area is in desperate need of rain, and so far there hasn’t been much of that, either. We have had some very windy days, though.

Today was a real change of pace for me, as I didn’t have anything scheduled on the calendar. David and Christopher left early in the morning to take Lehigh students up to Manhattan to serve at a soup kitchen. I went out browsing through furniture stores with Mom, as they are trying to figure out what to do about some of their furniture needs. Then I took Peter out for a driving lesson. We lasted about 40 minutes, and then decided to come home. David had returned from New York, so he offered to take Peter out again. Peter is a quick learner, but there is no question that teaching someone to drive stick shift is not relaxing. Although we were invited out tonight, our plan is to just unwind at home with a movie and get to bed early. We have had a lot going on recently.

Stephen has been our headline news. He became sick about ten days ago, and instead of getting better, he developed new symptoms, including a bright red rash which spread over most of his body. This appeared to mystify the doctor. He had a marathon appointment in which he was examined by three doctors, and they discussed various theories such as strep throat, mono, and scarlet fever. Towards the end of this the hospital had a fire alarm, so we had to go down five flights of stairs. Then they wanted to do blood work. Poor Stephen, he was completely done in. Although he has slowly gotten better, and the tests were all negative, he still has a residual cough and body rash. I came down with a cold and felt pretty miserable for a few days, too. Ben got a mild case of the same bug as well.

Somehow we kept on going, and got done the things that had to be done. One recent project has been organizing a memorial service for Ethel Houck, which we had yesterday morning. It was a Feaver family affair – David led the service (his first funeral), Dad played the organ, I read a eulogy, Second Peter read one sent by First Peter, and Uncle David videotaped it. I think it all went off very well. The only moment of serious panic was before the service began. Dad finished the prelude but David was sitting up front deep in prayer and meditation — or was he asleep? All of us thought he had fallen asleep, and were frantically thinking of ways to wake him up; he insists he was not even dozing. We scheduled the service around some out of town people coming, and instead of a reception, David and I took them out to lunch. After we said goodbye to them, I had to come home and get some supper cooking here, because Daniel had called the night before and said he would be showing up for dinner with three college friends. They came up to deliver a hamster and guinea pig to Christopher to babysit while they all go to Florida for spring break. They were late in arriving, and no sooner did they show up, than we had to leave for church for Speech Night. Homeschoolers in Pennsylvania have to give a speech each year of their high school education, and so our church put together this program for the five students in our congregation to give their speeches and be evaluated. Chris’ speech on "The Snowflake Theory" was the best, in my unbiased opinion. The whole day was quite intense, and that’s why we are taking it easy tonight!

This is the season for banquets. Last week David and I went to the CPC banquet to hear Alan Keyes speak. He is a very gifted speaker. I decided to vote for him when I heard him in the presidential debate. Brother Peter insists I am just throwing my vote away, but he impressed me as clear- thinking, articulate and unapologetically Christian (Catholic).

The very next night we went to a banquet for Peter’s high school. They showed a video made of the school, and we eagerly looked for Peter throughout, only to see him for about one second with his face turned away from the camera. Then we had a dinner theater production of the story of William Tyndale, which did serve to impress us with the tremendous commitment of these Christian heroes. I was pulled onto center stage to dance with the court jester, naturally a potential source of embarrassment to Peter (and maybe David!).