Love Affair with the Amish

Every year around our anniversary, my dear husband and I have a little getaway to ourselves, to celebrate our marriage. We usually take turns planning it—one year he plans it, the next year I do. Sometimes we go nearby; other times we travel quite a distance. Occasionally, we’ve waited several months beyond our anniversary, and one year, we brought along a nursing baby…but no matter what, we try to never miss having this trip together, and it is a highlight which we both look forward to every year.

This year was Mark’s turn to do the planning. Knowing my love for Amish culture and all things country, he planned a very special and enjoyable getaway to one of the largest Amish communities, in the heart of Holmes County, Ohio.

Along the journey, there were a couple of delightful pauses. One was at an antique mall, for a couple of hours of browsing. We found great old theology books and a cast iron frying pan in terrific condition!

I’ve got coffee in hand, and I’m ready to browse!

After a delicious lunch, we drove to Lehman’s, an awesome general store that caters to the Amish and others without electricity.

One could get lost here for hours, just looking at everything! More cast iron cookware, along with several other gift items, were purchased while we were here.

When we arrived to our final spot, I was delighted with our accommodations! My hubby had rented a lovely, peaceful cabin, nestled among trees with a view of a quiet pond.

Here’s the outside…

…and a view of the cozy interior.

The quiet porch was perfect for early morning devotions.

Throughout the weekend, we did a lot of sightseeing and soaking up of Amish and Mennonite culture. One highlight was visiting an Amish Farm and Village, where we toured a home and chatted with a delightful Old Order Amish woman named Alma.

Posing with my sweetie in the central room of the Amish house. This room was large enough to accommodate a church service, since the Amish hold services in their homes.

This was part of the kitchen in the Dawdi Haus, which is basically an attached home reserved for a couple’s aging parents. No such thing as nursing homes in the Amish world—retired parents are taken care of by their grown children or grandchildren.

I would love six burners on my stove!

Not exactly a Moen, but quite handsome nonetheless.

The dress on the left is an Amish wedding dress. It is similar in style and color to a girl’s everyday dress, but the material would be of finer quality.

After touring the house, we strolled around the surrounding farm area. This friendly llama, along with several goats, was not bashful about begging for food.

The back side of the Amish house.

As traditionally Amish as this home was, I admit I was a bit surprised at the somewhat shabby exterior. A good paint job was needed, as was some roof repair. As I chatted with Alma and asked questions, she shared that some difficult changes have occurred in their community and way of life, mainly due to economic reasons. No longer do Amish families live mainly as farmers there. Most of them work in outside businesses like carpentry, furniture making, retail, etc., and this has to some degree fractured their families. The fathers are gone all day from the homes—and from what I could tell from visiting local shops and restaurants, so are many of the women and young people.

“I would give anything to go back to the way things were when I was young,” she said. “But now, many of our young people don’t even want to be farmers. They think it’s too hard.” Perhaps this change of employment for the typical Amish man would explain the somewhat neglected appearance of this home’s exterior. And as the Amish interact more and more with their English neighbors, other changes can be seen…such as the one we witnessed as we drove down a country road that day. Toward us came an Amish buggy, driven by a young Amish man, riding alone. He held the horse’s reins with one hand…while texting with the other!

Overall, though, we had a wonderful, enjoyable, educational trip together, my bridegroom and I. I’m so thankful he planned it for us! Thanks, babe…and happy anniversary!

Weekend with Grandparents

This past weekend, our grandparents watched us kids while Mommy and Daddy enjoyed their annual anniversary trip together (you’ll hear more about that tomorrow.) We had a very enjoyable weekend with them, but we’re very glad to have Mom and Dad back. J As a child, you never realize how much your parents do until you have to help do all of it!

Friday night we enjoyed homemade pizza and a good movie.

Saturday was spent at home playing games and other fun things. For dinner my Abuela made a feast including Platanos Maduros.

We also had Puerto Rican steak, linguini with clam sauce and pimientos, corn on the cob, and bread with butter (not pictured.) It was absolutely amazing!

And to finish it all off, we had cheesecake with chocolate chip ice cream. Wow!

My lovely sisters after enjoying that delicious meal.

After that, Ben opened up some belated birthday gifts, including the blueberry flavored popcorn shown in the picture.

Sunday we all went to church and enjoyed a picnic afterward. Later that afternoon, Mommy and Daddy arrived home!

After a warm welcome and a few minutes to settle in, they presented us kids with some gifts they brought back for us. I was thrilled to (finally) receive recipe cards (they’re rather hard to find) and a jelly bag.

The twins received no-sew quilt wall hanging kits.

Josiah received a travel bingo kit that he has already put to good use. J

Ben received some Jalapeno beef jerky and Vidalia onion hot sauce, along with a giant floor puzzle of all the American Presidents. Mommy also bought two cast iron frying pans/Dutch ovens (one was an antique). Daddy brought back 2 books, and they both brought back an Amish teacake and chocolate whoopee pies to share. So all in all, it was a very fun weekend for everyone!

Strawberries

One thing we love to do every summer is make strawberry freezer jam. So last week we made a trip to the market and bought a whole case (8 quarts) of Michigan grown strawberries!

I love the bright color!

Josiah washed all of the Tupperware® containers for us. He also washed up the strawberries.

The twins hulled the strawberries.

Instead of cutting and mashing strawberries by hand, we found that our little food processor does this job quite well. So we simply hull the strawberries, and the processor does the rest!

Mixing up the pectin is very sweaty work! For two batches we used Sure-Jell® Pectin, and for the other two we used Certo®. I think I prefer the Certo® because you just pour the jell in versus mixing it with water and thickening it on the stove.

We then mixed up the strawberry puree and the pectin.

Then poured them into the containers.

We ended up with quite a bit of jelly as you can tell! I’m not exactly sure how much jam we got out of 4 quarts of berries. I’m thinking it was close to 20 cups.

For two of the quarts, we washed and hulled the berries. . .

. . .and froze them on cookie sheets. We then put them into freezer bags to use in smoothies, bread, pies, etc.

The last two quarts of berries were left for snacking! They were warm, sweet, and delicious. And with the frozen berries above, we can look forward to enjoying strawberries for many months to come!

Park Day

Last week we were able to attend a park day with our old homeschool group. We have missed so many of these friends since we moved and look forward to seeing them every summer!

Thankfully, the weather worked out okay so that we didn’t get rained on!

The Moms really enjoyed catching up with each other and talking about homeschooling curriculum.

About 20 of the older kids played “Hot Potato” most of the day after having a mini-music-fest with the guitars. Let’s just say that teenage boys + basketballs and soccer balls=pain for whomever they are throwing at! J But we still had lots of fun!

The twins enjoyed spending time with some of the other girls including their pen-pals, who are also twins!

We are really looking forward to attending another park day later in the summer! Fellowship with fellow Christians and homeschoolers is always encouraging!

Morning Prayer

“Almighty God the Maker of every Thing in Heaven and Earth;

The Darkness goes away, and the Day light comes at thy command.

Thou are good and doest good continually.

I thank thee that thou hast taken such Care of me this Night,

and that I am alive and well this Morning.

Save me, O God, from Evil, all this Day long,

and let me love and serve thee forever,

for the Sake of Jesus Christ thy Son.

Amen.”

-- (Dr. Watts, The young Infant’s or Child’s morning Prayer, The New-England Primer.)

(posted by Betsy)

Recipe--Cheddar Bread

Last week, I needed to make a batch of Whole Wheat Bread, but I just wasn’t in the mood for all the work/risings/baking etc. But I needed to have some sugar-free bread to bring on vacation with us. Suddenly, I remembered our recipe for cheddar bread! This bread goes together just like a quick bread, but it is not at all sweet. It has a very mild taste especially if you use mild cheddar cheese versus sharp. This recipe would make excellent muffins to go along with soup!

Cheddar Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon honey

½ a teaspoon onion salt

½ a teaspoon leaf oregano (I used 1 teaspoon of fresh)

¼ teaspoon dry mustard

1-¼ cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese (I used mild because that’s all that we had on hand)

1 egg

1 cup milk (I used whey that was left over from making yogurt)

1 tablespoon butter, melted

Mix dry ingredients together. Mix together wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Add wet ingredients all at once to the dry ingredients. Stir until just moistened. Spread batter in a greased 8 ½ x 4 ½ inch loaf pan. Bake at 350° F for 45 minutes. Makes 1 loaf.

Places We Would Like to Visit

In light of our post a few weeks ago, in which we shared our favorite vacations, I thought it would be appropriate to share about places we would like to visit someday. Some of these may never happen in this life, but we will share them anyway. J

Mark—I have had the great fortune to travel extensively around the world for work and to see many outstanding places.  The place I would enjoy the most would be to see the Holy Lands!  I have been to Turkey, but would like to go back and take a tour of the 7 churches of Revelation.  I absolutely love Italy.  I have been to various cities in the north, but have never been to Rome.  I would also enjoy seeing some of the historical sites in Greece.

Betsy—I have never been out west, so I would very much enjoy seeing that part of the country. In Europe, I long to visit England and Italy. The Galapagos Islands would be very intriguing from a creationist point of view. But overall, my dream trip would be to visit the Holy Land, and walk through the places where Jesus walked. And for my final destination, I look forward to journeying to the “real country at the back of the North Wind”…and never returning!

Bianca—I have always wanted to see the western United States. Technically, I’ve been to Texas, but sitting in the Houston airport doesn’t really count! Other than that, the farthest west I’ve been is Indiana. Sad, isn’t it? If possible, I would love to visit all 50 states in my lifetime. Given the opportunity to travel abroad, I think I would like to visit Italy, England, Peru, Jamaica, and maybe China. I’ve already been to Mexico, Puerto Rico, Washington D.C., and Virginia, but I would love to visit them again!

Ben—I am a big time history geek. So some places I would like to visit include: Rome Italy, Athens Greece, and Jerusalem Israel. I would also like to visit London and Paris, and I would love to go out-west some time!

Rubia—I would really like to visit Jerusalem. I would also like to see China, the Galapagos Islands, and Paris, France.

Roma—I would love to visit the Holy Land, the Grand Canyon, Paris, California, and Russia.

Josiah—I would like to visit the Bahamas, New York, Mexico, and China.

Father's Day Weekend

We had an absolutely wonderful Father’s Day weekend this year! We visited my Grandparents in Pennsylvania, and two of my Dad’s cousins drove up from Virginia to be with us! The last time we saw the cousins was when we spent 2 weeks in Virginia and Washington D.C. last year. So we were VERY excited to see them!

We left for PA early on Friday morning, and stopped for lunch at a Big Boy somewhere in Ohio. It was rather funny because we ate there the last time we visited Grandma and Grandpa, around Easter. We sat at the same table, with the same waiter, and he remembered us! When I think about it, we’re probably hard to forget (in a good way, hopefully! J)

We finally arrived, and around dinner time, the cousins showed up!

We enjoyed pizza, popcorn, antipasto salad, and soda pop for dinner. We’ve had pizza and popcorn every Friday since the twins were born! As you can tell from the picture, we kids enjoyed our dinner on Grandma and Grandpa’s screened in back porch. This is truly one of the highlights of our summer: eating outdoors without the bugs!

After staying up late visiting on Friday night, we enjoyed sleeping in a bit on Saturday. Daddy and I left to go on a run around 9:00 a.m. It was good, but a very hard 4 miles. The route we take never seems to get easier!

I showered and enjoyed a late breakfast, and then went outdoors to help weed the gardens. The cousins arrived and sat on the back porch visiting for awhile. After a light lunch of leftovers, we decided to go out to the lake for awhile and walk the trails there.

Cousin B, Cousin E, Daddy, and Ben watching the ships on the Bay.

All of us kids in front of the Bay. The weather was perfect for a walk along the lake shore!

Yes, we do know how to stage funny pictures! J We decided that since the water was shallow, we’d better not push him in this time. J

All of us (minus mom snapping the picture) in front of a monument at the Bay.

We were finally able to see the Flagship Niagara sail! We had learned about this ship a few years ago when we visited a Maritime Museum, but the ship wasn’t there that day. We saw it sailing in the distance last summer, but this year it was up close and personal!

Unfortunately, our view was somewhat blocked by a big freighter dumping sand on the shore. It was cool to watch, but since it was there, we couldn’t go out on the pier to see the lighthouse. L Maybe some other time!

It is impossible for us to resist the tug of Lake Erie! We had to get our feet wet!

But a few minutes later, much more than our feet were wet! J We stayed relatively dry while still having fun.

After our jaunt to the lake, we were able to swim in my Grandparents’ neighbor’s pool. I lifeguarded. J The pool hasn’t warmed up yet. I dove off the board once or twice, but I’m positive I saw ice cubes at the bottom of the pool. J

For dinner we enjoyed hot dogs and brats hot off the grill! My Cousin B told us about slaw dogs. I think it’s a southern thing. He puts coleslaw on his hot dog! I tried it, and it was actually pretty good!

Sunday morning we all were able to go to church together. We were even able to snap a picture of us all “gussied up.”

As a Father’s Day gift for my Grandpa, Cousin B brought up some of my Grandpa’s favorite southern-style barbeque for lunch, all the way from Virginia. It was goooood!

After lunch, we gave out gifts to all of the fathers! I think they all enjoyed them.

We were so blessed to have such a full house for Father’s day! We thoroughly enjoyed our visit with Grandpa, Grandma, Cousin E, and Cousin B. It will be one of the highlights of our year. We wouldn’t trade our time with them for anything, and hope that they will come and visit again very soon!