Amish

Growing up without TV

2009-08-08T05:28:00.000-07:00

Our Rick Warren devotional today talked about moral values and how it effects decisions we make. So I didn't grow up watching TV and I would love to say it doesn't effect my decisions. But on the other hand I didn't hear Gods Word taught in Sunday School either. I read Bible Stories out of our tattered book growing up so I wasn't a total heathen and attended church hearing God's Word preached. Still I needed a personal experience with Jesus which happened in my early teen years.

We had a garden and canned vegetables from the garden. We canned chickens because that's what we had mostly during my lifetime. When I was young I remember butchering a pig and smoking hams. At one time in my life dad bought my grandmother's farm next to our farm and my older sisters and brother took care of that farm. I don't think that lasted for many years until my dad sold the farm to "English" people.

We entertained ourselves playing games outside in the summer along with good hard honest work. I loved helping to put up hay and when the "thrashers" would come. Yep, we went "bare footed" all summer. When I became a teenager I started wearing shoes to church. I do a double - take now going "back" into their homes.

My Hobby - Reading

2009-08-07T15:12:00.000-07:00

My mother instilled the love of reading to most of my siblings. Whenever mom would have some time she would find a magazine, or later on in life, books someone brought home from school, she would read them, sometimes overnight.

Growing up we didn't have many books in our home. We had a worn out Bible Story book I read from cover to cover many times. Mom would go to my grandmothers who had like a library and bring books from her house. The bad side to this; dad couldn't stand to see us sitting around reading. Even after all our chores were done it would aggravate him. Sundays was a day we didn't work so I would take a book and crawl into bed to read. Our upstairs didn't have any heat so this was partly to stay warm too. (Out of sight, out of mind!)

My dad played games with us after our evening meal and mom would sit and read. With 12 children she didn't have much time to herself.

I love the library that stocks great books. I have learned to use the internet and request the books then get notified through emails when they come in. Plus you don't need to spend time looking them up.

Cooking from "Scratch"

2009-06-25T08:04:00.000-07:00

When my husband retired our income "downsized". So I decided to do what I could to s-t-r-e-t-c-h the family food budget and make it fit to our monthly income. As long as the "basics" are in the cupboard its not too difficult to make meals.

For example I cook BBQ Pulled Pork. I freeze the extra to use for another meal. (I'll post the recipe at the end of this article.)

Growing up on the farm, we had a garden to help with the groceries. My back yard is too shady to grow veggies. Since I live in town I use the farmers market downtown and I discovered a produce stand about 2 blocks away on 8th Street which is very good.

We eat our main meal at lunch and our light meal in the evening. Over the winter I made many different kinds of soup. Delightful! Baked bread, yummy. I do use the all grain frozen rolls too. Very good and easy to use!!! With our stove in the living room we use to help heat the house; I set the rolls to raise and bake in time for lunch. Plus the house smells good too.

It takes some planning meals out and watching the weekly sales in the local grocery stores. We hardly eat out any more and don't miss that luxury either.

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

1 onion
2 garlic
1 hot pepper (smoked) *I never used this in my recipe
1 small bunch cilantro
I can tomatoes (fire roasted tomatoes) I use whatever
4 pounds pork shoulder (I used whatever I have around)

Cook on high 6 hours

Sour cream cuts the spice

*We use Sweet baby rays bbq sweet ‘n spicy sauce on sandwiches

Spring is on its Way!

2009-03-14T14:32:00.000-07:00

With a day like today, I know that spring will soon be here! Yeah! Its been 6 months now since my husband retired. I have not found a job so I have been trying to cook, bake and keep the house clean. Be a good wife, do the laundry, make the bed every day. (Even though I have been making the bed daily for years now.) It made sense to put that sentence there.

We made it through another winter in Wisconsin! I was hoping to escape this past winter but I ended up being thankful for this winter! I am thankful that we had a warm, nice house to live in! Since we haven't sold our house; this was the place to be! Its been fun visiting our friends, having time to spend with them, with no agenda! Since my job was Volunteer Coordinator, no one needed to run when they saw me coming. :-)

Life is Good!

2009-02-17T11:07:00.001-08:00

My husband retired after 29 years of pastoring at Praise Fellowship last September. Our lives have changed dramatically from what it used to be. Since my job was at the church along with my husband, I am now unemployed. I thought I would go and get a job right off, but the economy crashed last fall. I applied for holiday jobs, nothing! In hind sight, jobs came across my desk last summer that I should have applied for, which were gone by the time I got around to looking for a job.

With my "Amish" upbringing, I slipped right back to how I was brought up. I am cooking all of our meals, shopping wisely, etc. Its hard to tell what this receipt says, but on Wednesday shopping at our local grocery store I saved $ 29.01. (I spent around $60) I would say that was wise shopping! The clerk checking me out commented on my savings! This was my best week by far, but with double couponing I usually save in the twenty dollar range.

Its been interesting and a challenge cooking. Lately we have been trying to eat breakfast and later in the afternoon for our main meal with a light supper. We are getting older and don't need as much nourishment as a younger more active person. :-)

I started baking all of the bread we eat. I found all grain frozen rolls, that we love. That supplements my baking. I baked Banana Bread the other week, which turned out wonderful but we ate it within a day or 2 so my husband instructed me not to bake that again! It was yummy.

My chili soup has been perfected! This winter has been great soup weather which included Zesty Vegetable soup, Beef Barley Soup, (I supstituted lintels), very good! If any one would like to try any of my recipes, just let me know. I went online and found some great recipes such as; Split Pea Soup. I always thought that was for old people . . . I guess that's me now!

I started cooking up our beans for soup, (instead of canned beans), instead of the overnight soaking, I do the quick cook, boiling them for several minutes and letting them sit for an hour before cooking them until they get soft. We planned for around a hundred dollars a week for food allowances, but I think we have done much better then we expected and we have been eating well.

We have been walking at the Mall for our exercise because of all the snow and ice on the sidewalks. Making it unsafe for walking. It has finally melted and we have been walking down at the lake again! Yeah! I love the lake, especially early in the morning!

Christmas 2008

2008-12-16T07:54:00.000-08:00

Christmas will be different this year. After we celebrated Christmas last year we packed and moved all of our (Christmas) stuff to PA anticipating selling our house and getting moved. Well, it didn't happen that way and so we are celebrating Christmas without all the trappings this year. Josh and us are going to Raleigh to celebrate with Chris, Holly and our grand children. Than back to Sheboygan to celebrate with Brent & Tracy and Andrei our grandson in Sheboygan.

We didn't get our house put on the market until mid July and the city decided to dig up 6th Street and they worked on it until the end of August. We had an "Open House", mid September and had several people walk through but by than the economy had gone sour and our house didn't sell. Its not like we have a "starter" home.

God gave me a promise several years ago and now I need to live out these promises. It's one thing to tell others how to live and another to live it our myself! "Do not be afraid; I will lead you into green pastures; trust and you will see the glory of God." So that's what I cling to regardless of what's going "out there".

As a child growing up we always celebrated Christmas. When I was very young my grandmother lived next door and we'd go to her house and she would give us small gifts. I remember getting a dainty hanky. Way back in those days (before kleenix was invented) using hankies was a daily part of life. To have a pretty hanky to use was special.

For several years my parents would give us an orange on our plates at the table. We'd set a plate on the table before we'd go to bed. Our parents would give us an orange. We'd receive one gift each and my dad would hide it. It was fun playing "hide and seek" looking for it. I soon learned to ask for things that would last and last. I enjoyed coloring books and treasured coloring the pages. Soon I started asking for chalk and a blackboard, that would last even longer than the coloring book.

Mom and my older sisters would bake cookies and make candy, yummy! I have always loved Christmas and having family get together.

Ed and I made some great family traditions which I love and hope to continue to celebrate for years to come. God has been good, we have 3 great children, with 2 married to wonderful people! We have a great family and I am grateful to God for all his blessings in my life!

Baking Bread

2008-11-20T12:27:00.000-08:00

So how has retirement been so far? I am keeping busy as you can see. I have been baking all the bread we eat. I am cooking up a storm too. Today I baked rolls. Not how I started baking bread, but the new way is the best! After they came out with bread machines, I told my family I wasn't interested. Finally one year I said OK and started using the bread machine. We must have continued to gain weight because I got rid of it. :-) Now I started up again.

I bought this bread machine from the church rummage sale several years ago for two dollars and it didn't have the recipe book along so I have been going online to find recipes. I think I have finally fine tuned this one recipe. My husband wants more grain in the bread so I'll experiment with that too.

I am going back to my Amish days and cooking from "scratch". Fortunately my husband enjoys soups which is easy to make and have on hand. I made a pot of soup this week; Zesty Vegetable Soup. I didn't like it too much, it had a clear broth base and I prefer a tomato base for my soups.

Growing up we baked a batch of bread every week, or maybe every 5 days? I can't remember for sure. But with our large family a little bread machine wouldn't begin to make enough. We had this huge pan and I think we used at least a quart of water for starters. (I use 1 1/4 cup water). It would be an all day process! Summer and winter! I got sick and tired of kneading the dough! It was a big batch and my mom had me start baking early on, I could have been 7 or 8 years old. I was always interested in whatever they were cooking so I got put to work. It was fun when I started but after awhile it got pretty boring and repetitive! We baked at least 6 or 7 loaves of bread each week.

So what do I do as a mom? I didn't make my children help me in the kitchen. When Holly was growing up I told her she should never tell anyone that her mother grew up Amish! Because I didn't make her cook or sew. But the good daughter that she was told me that she had more important things to do with her life, like study and play the piano! She has turned out to be a good cook and she's a great mother too.

For lunch today I made Enchiladas. Yummy! Let me know if you want the recipe and I'll send it out.

Living a life that makes a difference

2008-10-31T06:05:00.000-07:00

Ed and I took a trip to PA this month and I got to celebrate Thanksgiving with my sisters. (The Amish & English). They have their own families so they pick a date in the fall to get together. It so happened that I emailed Liz and ask her if they had a date picked out yet. Since I haven't been available to celebrate with them, she doesn't check with me. So this picture was taken several decades ago but to show you how mixed up we are. 8 out of 12 were at my sister Anna's house this fall. The day was interesting - my oldest sister said that since "the English" don't bring things to do with their hands, she decided to be like us and not do anything, just sit and visit. I have needle work I wanted to finish up but forgot to take it along. We had a nice quiet, interesting afternoon visiting with each other. Families are gifts from God!

Ed and I had a big surprise last Sunday, we had a lunch planned with the Sonnentag's and Kramers, but what they didn't tell us was that they invited Dennis & Joanne Willcott to lunch too. Dennis was a board member and Joanne helped me with Missionettes and Bible Studies. So we had a fun reunion. They moved to PA in the 90's job related and now are back in Wisconsin. Life has interesting turns of events. They moved back home to Wisconsin and we are planning to move home, back to PA. (I wish we would have taken a picture).

Another big event in my life this week was joining the modern age and signing up for Face Book. So I have all these friends out there. This should be more fun! Brent our son tries to keep Ed and I current with all that's going on out there in cyber space. :-) It takes time for me to adjust and change . . . but its coming along! From Amish with no modern gadgets to computers and online . . . .

So next week Ed and I get to travel to CA and enjoy a week of vacation with the Assistant Superintendents of the Assemblies of God. Ed has had this title for several years now which gives him meetings to attend in Waupaca monthly. Our life has slowed down considerably which is nice. We get to enjoy and experience life as it comes down the road. I am looking for a job, partime hopefully. While we are here in Wisconsin, I would be happy to work full time. Especially with the holidays that would be exciting to be in the excitement of things.

Things will be different this year. In years gone by we were serving the church and working with them and now whatever God brings into our lives. My devotional today give talked about how to make life meaningful 1) How to line up our priorities, 2) Lighten up your attitude, 3) Look up to God. This is what I am working on in my life - honoring God in everything that I do.

God's Promises

2008-10-19T07:30:00.000-07:00

Years ago my father in law was visiting us in Sheboygan. We were having a conversation at our kitchen table, just him and I. He was trying to decide what to do with the family farm. He purchased this farm from his parents years ago. I never met his parents, just his brothers and sisters. Anyway, he asked if I wanted to live in Transfer when we retired. Well, I was only fifty that year and the "r" word was not in my vocabulary! I felt indignant thinking about retirement at that time. Realizing that retirement was something that I would need to think about in the future and make adjustments for.

God gave me Jeremiah 29:11 years ago; for I know the plans I have for you. . .plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. I go back from here and read verse 10 . . . when seventy years are completed . . . I will come to you . . .and bring you back to this place. We are waiting for our house to sell before we can go back. :-)

I am living out that life right now. My husband retired after 29 years of ministry here in Sheboygan. I am very thankful that God allowed us to stay put for these many years! Its not that usual for a pastor to only pastor 2 churches in his lifetime! (We still have many more years left?!) So I don't know if this will be the only churches . . .

I am finding life interesting. . . I need to find a job to pay for my health insurance. Its interesting that we bought into a life that spends money for "just in case" . . . but that is how we live life today. Its not that I am against it either. The Amish way is that when disaster strikes a family the community get together and either take an offering or have an auction.

Several years my oldest sister and her husband had an auction to sell their machinery they didn't use anymore and their children didn't want. The food service they used donated their profits to a local Amish family that had something tragic happen in their home. I don't remember the details anymore.

The community I grew up in Lawrence County PA has a very large group of Amish. They have taken families and moved from there to go and establish other communities in other states. I had uncles when I was still Amish move to Michigan. I don't remember any details anymore.

Anytime I want to remember things I ask my older sisters for information. I think my husband gets a kick out of having these Amish as relatives . . .

My parents have been gone for a long time now and I was never "shunned" so they can (are allowed) to do business with me.

In thinking about my parents, when they passed away in the early nineties. When a person is "shunned" by the Amish they aren't allowed to be buried in an Amish cemetary. When my dad passed away they let it be known to us that he could be buried inside the fence. I didn't realize I had such deep feelings but my answer back to them through my sister Emma; they shunned him since the early sixties, I did not want him buried in their cemetary! So both my parents are buried in a Mennonite cemetary. (Is this really better?) Anyway, that's what we did.

Canning . . .

2008-10-02T12:53:00.000-07:00

Canning. I am canning tomatoes today. A friend gave us tomatoes to can. The only problem I had with canning today - I looked in my cupboard for canning jars . . . I took them to PA! I have been reading about freezing tomatoes; so that's what I decided to do with them today. I'll let you know if I like to use frozen tomatoes in our soup.

My growing up years, this was a very important part of life. Canning. We spent hours picking and preparing both fruit and vegetables. We had a huge garden. My mom always said that we would never go hungry. We might not enjoy what was served but something tasty was on the table. Mom would stew tomatoes and we would put it on potatoes. We would make a gravy with the tomatoes. I have never made it again after I left home. I don't ever want to taste it again either. :-) Now I love stewed tomatoes, sometimes I have a real craving for them.

We would have rows and rows of canned product. I grumbled in those days! When I got married I told my mother that I had no intentions of canning. Soon after we got married she brought tomatoes to our apartment with some jars to help me get started. I did can what she brought to me that day but that's all I canned that summer.

My family would can our meat too. I must not have helped with this because I was in school. The Amish can meat in the winter because they don't have refrigeration. I only remember butchering a pig once. I know we must have butchered cows too but I don't remember anything about it.

Ed and I went off to Rhode Island a year after we were married; Ed attended Zion Bible Institute and I got a job. We were allowed to eat in the Bible School's cafeteria whenever we wanted too. (Or needed too). After the first year in Rhode Island, we went back to Transfer for the summer; Ed had taken a leave of absence from his job so he had a good job that summer. I started canning and canned whatever anyone would let me can and took it back to RI! We loved and ate everything we took back with us. We ate hamburgers and hot dogs so I would can hot peppers to help spice up the sandwiches. One batch I didn't wear gloves, I burned my hands badly! Yikes.

Retirement

2008-09-20T20:21:00.000-07:00

Retirement. Interesting word. I have been BUSY! I attended pastor's wives retreat in Waupaca. Came home to Sheboygan for the weekend. On Monday my husband and I drove back to Waupaca for what the Assemblies call Keenager Kamp at Spencer Lake. They asked my husband to teach a workshop on Tuesday titled "Grandparenting". I couldn't imagine what the retreat would be like but I actually enjoyed myself. The people weren't all really old. I got to connect with some old friends of ours. We did come home Tuesday night to get ready for our weekend.

We had a garage sale today, its been years since we did a garage sale. We met some interesting people. Sunday we are having an open house with an ad in the Press. So hopefully someone will choose to buy this house!

One comment on Amish retirement . . . the dad sells his farm to someone in the family that chooses to be a farmer. They build a doty house and the parent can help out on the farm whenever they want. We are planning to build a doty house in Transfer on my husbands family farm. Does that count?

My Story about Dolls

2008-07-08T16:58:00.000-07:00

When I was growing up I loved to play dolls. For some reason I don't remember ever owning a doll of my own. Wierd! It doesn't make sense to me at all. From what I do remember . . . my mother decided to make dolls for Christmas one year. I must have already been in school? Martha, one of my older sisters made the dolls, they were pretty modern with movable arms and legs. Up to that time the dolls must have had the arms sticking out wide. Hard to dress and play with.

Anyway, Amish dolls don't have any facial features or hair. They are made out of cloth. These dolls were made out of white muslin type of cotton material. I loved to play dolls, somehow I must have talked my younger sisters out of allowing me to use one of their dolls. I loved playing with them. (Didn't I already mention that several times?)

I do remember being a favorite to an English couple that lived in Pulaski. They were friends of my parents. My dad might have built a house for them too. For some reason I can't remember their names. But they must have felt sorry for us because our dolls didn't have faces, so they brought a modern, plastic doll for me to play with. My mother must have been wise, she let me play with that doll for the day, but after I went to bed, I never saw the doll again.

I started "giving my testimony" to churches in the area and sometimes I would tell my doll story, so I now have several sets of dolls. One type of doll we never had as children were boy dolls, so now I have boy dolls too.

A really funny story about Amish dolls; (not really funny at all) my husband started selling them on the internet. We went to my sister Anna's house and we bought some to sell on our drive to NYC to help our youngest son, Josh move there for graduate school at Columbia University. Anyway, somehow it worked out the entire time we were moving his stuff into his apartment someone stayed at the van at all times. We kept the box of dolls in the van, we might even have placed them on the drivers seat? We left my bag of sheets and maybe some other odd stuff. Holly was living in Delaware and had come along for the trip.

Josh's roommates hadn't arrived yet so we spent at least a day touring the city. Anyway, I went out to the van to get our sheets when it got to be bedtime, I found the sheets strewn all over the floor of the van and my cutesy polka dotted bag was gone! I was really upset thinking that one of us had done it. But after awhile we realized that we were robbed. So someone (Josh?) made jokes that they heard people walking the streets trying to sell Amish dolls. You needed to be there to enjoy the joke.

Anyway, I think that this will be interesting moving back to PA. When Ed and I got married, our first apartment was in Hubbard Ohio. After Bible School and our first church we lived in Transfer around a year. So this will be another adventure!

Contemplating Turning 60 Years Old...

2008-06-18T15:15:00.000-07:00

When I turned 16 years of age, my parents sold the family farm. This was the house I was born in! We actually moved on my 16th birthday. Now I've turned 60 years of age and my husband and I are moving out of Sheboygan this fall, out of a house we have lived in for 26 years! I have had a good life up to now so I am very grateful for having had the opportunity to live in this house! We bought it in hard times, and now we need to sell it in not such a great time (for sellers). But God helped us before and I believe He will help us again! I will always remember these events in my life.

Way back as a teenager, I was only beginning my adventures with God. I left home for Bible College that fall, which has changed my life forever. I went to Philadelphia my first summer and worked for Teen Challenge. I was right off the farm and went right into the heart of a city! Wow! Being shy and not really knowing much about the world, I would follow others around and pray for them as they would share Christ. One of my friends loved to visit Temple University right up the street from where Teen Challenge was located on Broad Street. I loved everything about getting out and about. My room at the end of the summer was on the fifth floor with no elevator, so I would count the stairs. I soon learned not to forget a hanky or the little stuff! I remember ministering at the Coffee House on a Friday night. One thing I knew back than for sure; Legalism! Christian women wore no make up! :-) One of the people were talking to me and started on make up, why Christians didn't wear make up. But I was firm knowing that would be one thing I would not do!

After I graduated from Bible College I realized that I couldn't do small talk with anyone outside of the church so I ask God to help me not be a freak. I worked on learning to socialize and getting along with people. Than I became a pastor's wife and thought, what should that look like . . . and becoming a mom I had no more time to worry about such small stuff! I am so grateful to God for the life he has allowed me to lead! I am grateful for the traveling I have done, my husband and I have done, and what God will allow in the future!

Having a Happy Family Day

2008-03-15T12:16:00.001-07:00

We had our family over for Sunday dinner after Church. I dug out our toys left over from when our children were growing up. Josh had a big set of a Brio train set. He's showing his nephews how to set it up.

Too bad we had so much snow and ice this winter! Our last winter in snowy, Wisconsin hopefully! The roads were awful and now they have many potholes too. This winter was like the early eighty's when we had the Antarctic winds blow and lots of snow and ice. My father-in-law visited and complained about how awful the roads were. So we got one last blast from the past.

While Holly was visiting from NC, she left balmy weather, one night we had around five degrees overnight and it was really cold another night too. Poor Lincoln couldn't play outside because everything was icy, including the snow. So in desperation we took Lincoln to the mall and also he played at church. One nice sunny day, we played on the parking lot at church. Lincoln found some water from melting snow and splashed to his hearts content while his grandmother froze. I would have done anything because they came to visit us. Thank you to both Holly and Josh for leaving the comfort of home and traveling to Sheboygan.

Remembering . . .

2008-03-15T09:30:00.000-07:00

From one generation to the next, that's where we are now. My father-in-law passed away a year ago March 4th. One day we are the child and the next thing you know your parents have passed away and you are the "older" ones.

My husband inherited his family farm in Transfer, PA. Its all official now. We are planning to build a house on the farm where the barn sat. Josh our youngest son is an architect working in NYC designed our house. My oldest brother-in-law with his Amish crew plans to build this house. One of my nephews with his Amish crew plans to finish the house. I don't have a picture of the house at this time but hopefully I can post it at a later date.

My family were all together last weekend in Sheboygan. Most likely Holly's last time to visit Sheboygan since we plan to move at the end of summer. Holly is expecting her second baby right around the beginning of August and we should have our farewell soon afterwards.

Anyway, Holly flew to Sheboygan with her son Lincoln to meet his new cousin that Brent & Tracy are adopting from Russia. (I wanted to post a picture but I guess I don't know how to get it). Anyway, Andrei arrived to Sheboygan just in time to celebrate his 7th birthday, December 21, than he celebrated Christmas with Tracy's family, the Bloks, Christmas Eve and than the Homer family on Christmas day. It was really nice to have a child to celebrate Christmas with.

So we enjoyed a long weekend with the "cousins" playing together. As grandparents, this is the height of happiness. I have many pictures of my family getting together having fun with my parents sitting in the background looking on. Yikes! I still want to be part of the fun!!! Hope that I feel that way for a long time!

Family

2008-02-17T11:49:00.000-08:00

Here are my younger sisters sitting in front of my brother's Steve's house in PA. You can see our mother sitting in the background watching all of our goings on. (Can you guess us?)

I try to stay in touch with my family communicating with them several times a year. Family are important to me and staying in contact helps to know what's going on with them. With all the modern gadgets now, its rather easy to stay in touch.
My Amish family . . . well now that's another story. Mail and if they call me is the only way to stay in touch. Since this is a new year and another set of birthdays coming up. Two of my older sisters have a birthday coming up along with my oldest brother in law.

I was just remembering my strict upbringing and thinking about ministry. My dad was called by God to be a minister. The Amish select their ministers by "casting lots". They take the eligible men and seat them in order on a bench at their church service and place a piece of paper in the song book. They pass out the song books and the man with the paper is their next minister. My dad heard God calling his name and he received the book with the paper. When he became a bishop, they used the same system. My dad heard God call his name again.

My memory of dad becoming a bishop was this. I was told to wear my cap when I went out to play. I hated this on my head and would take it off as soon as I went outside. So then I started getting spanked and after awhile I must have seen that fighting this was totally useless.

Our family also starting having prayer time together in the mornings. This was hard because the prayers came from a German prayer book. They weren't all that long but sort of annoying at first. Not that we had much of a choice in the matter!

I love my family and I am looking forward to the day when we will live closer to them.

Christmas is over for another year

2008-01-05T11:09:00.000-08:00

Christmas has come and gone, now the Christmas stuff needs to be put away for another year. Thinking back to my childhood, life was so much simpler. We didn't put up any type of decorations in or outside, we did give & receive gifts and had homemade cookies and homemake candies. I was so happy when I got to help with the baking.

Right after we were first married I made all my childhood sweets. Only after several years of gaining weight realizing that I also ate all of it and have cut down on all those sweets! Even after I got old enough to bake and cook, there were so many of us that one or two rounds of passing out the goodies, they would be gone. So my mom and older sisters would hide them. When I would come home from school, my favorite part of the day would be to "hunt for them and sneak a piece".

It'll take me several days to get everything put away here and order brought back to our home. Compared to my upbringing I now live an extravagant life. As a child we daily had to sweep and dust, one of our early morning jobs. Daily chores. Coming from a large family, everyone had a job.

For example, making a meal, washing dishes, drying and putting them away, clearing the table. I never had to do all of that until I got married. I was exhausted the first year of our marriage because I had to get used to doing everything. It was always wonderful when my husband volunteered to help. We didn't have a dish washer either so if the dishes didn't get put away after getting washed, they sat on the counter. Yikes! God bless the inventors of dishwashers!

Christmas

2007-12-08T07:27:00.000-08:00

Growing up Amish, we had no decorations inside of our house. I didn't have a christmas tree until after I married. So Ed and I had the biggest and bestest tree ever. Decorated beautifully! I invited my mom and dad and brother and sisters; but that year they had the flu and no one could come. So Ed and I enjoyed our tree alone.

Growing up we received gifts at Christmas. I so totally treasured that gift. I learned early on to ask for something that would last and last. I hated broken crayons, so that was on my list often along with a coloring book(big book!). I would color one page at a time so it would last longer. Another gift I ask for several times was a blackboard and chalk because I could play school with that and it would last. That breaks too and I didn't like broken or cracked boards so that was asked for several times.

My first memory of Christmas growing up, we set the kitchen table with a plate at the "spot" where we sat and in the morning we would have an orange on our plate. That must have been a "big" thing. Several years I remember my dad would hide our gift and we'd run around looking for it. I loved that!

One year my older sisters made cloth dolls for my younger sisters. These dolls were pretty modern because the arms and legs moved. Of course all the dolls had no faces. (graven image - - forbidden!!!) Sometimes English people would feel sorry for us "poor children", playing with dolls and no faces, they would bring us a plastic doll, my parents allowed us to play with them that day and than after we'd go to bed, they would forever disappear.

One year my dad built a big barn for the boys and a doll house for the girls. Another year he built a cupboard and dry sink for the girls. One year the "older" children received an ice cream freezer. To this day I love popcorn with ice cream. We would make homemade ice cream and pop popcorn. Yummy!

At our family reunions (the Amish can't call our get togethers reunions), my parents were excommunicated and shunned.

I loved Christmas growing up! We would have big family dinners. After we started raising turkeys for sale, mom would bake the biggest turkey for dinner. She would get it into the oven early in the morning so it would be cooked in time for dinner at lunch.

Dreams can be Dangerous

2007-11-21T09:23:00.000-08:00

I am trying to read through the bible this year. Meaning that by the end of 2008 I want to have finished this task. In the nineties PF sold bibles that are set up to read Old and New Testaments, either Psalms and Proverbs every day. I never finished the year out back than so now with not so many distractions in my life, I should accomplish this small task.

But getting back to the title . . . I was reading about Joseph and his dreams this week and it reminded me of the first dream that I remember when I was either 5 or 6 years old. My family had a beat up bible story book and it had a great story along with pictures of Jacob leaving home after he stole Esau's birthright and his blessing. In a dream he saw a ladder going to heaven and God telling him that he was with him and would bless him and bring him back to this land. The bible says that Jacob saw angels assending and desending on this ladder.

I was either 5 or 6 years old when I remembered my first dream. My sister Anna who is about 2 years older than me, we'd talk about stuff and we talked about remembering dreams. Up to this time I don't remember remembering any of my dreams. So we talked about how to remember them.

Anyway, I had this dream around this time of my life. I don't know if I ate pickles and ice cream before bed or how it happened, but I was so shook up about this dream that I still remember it to this day. Along with several dreams that I have had over the years. Anyway I dreamed that something like a lion was chasing me down our corn field. Sometimes we would run through our fields of corn and play hide and seek, so this was nothing new but I had a lion after me and I saw a ladder coming out of the skies rescuing me.

I think somehow I heard the scripture found in I Peter 5:8 . . .your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. (NKJV) So I might have been older like 9 or 10 years old because I might have heard the preacher in church preach on this verse. I don't know how it all fits together, I just know that I had this dream and I believe that it has an interpretation; since my family "got saved", I believe that it means that God offered salvation to our family and we accepted Christ and made him Lord of our lives. For me, I accepted Jesus and found God's safety and protection over my life. That even when I was a child God had his hand on my life.

So this Thanksgiving season I am very grateful to God for giving me "salvation", and that he protected my life down through the years and that He will continue to protect me and my family.

Mr. and Mrs. Clark

2007-11-01T11:42:00.001-07:00

This picture was taken at our church in Sheboygan, WI on our tenth anniversary celebration of us pastoring 1st Assembly, which is now called Prasie Fellowship. The church invited family to come help us celebrate as a surprise to my husband and I. My mom fortunately couldn't stand not telling me that we would be having company over the weekend. Thank God she called me on Friday night, or the day before they arrived and let me know that we'd have company over the weekend. Mr. & Mrs. Clark drove my parents to Sheboygan. It was VERY nice to have the Clarks visit my home and see my family and our church.

Mrs. Virginia Clark is the lady that visited our home and would always talk about God. Eventually my parents attended the New Castle Revival Center.

Dick, Ginny's husband was not attending church during the time Ginny was witnessing to our family. Having known how the Amish are; he told Ginny she was wasting her time talking to us. But she felt that God wanted to work in our lives and continued to witness to our family. So Dick told her that if she got my family to attend her church he would start attending church too. So the first time my parents attended church with Ginny, she drove past their house and tooted the horn so Dick could see my parents in their car. I don't know how long it took, but after awhile Dick started attending this church too. He accepted Christ into his heart and life and started serving God. He became their Sunday School superintendent and became involved. So you never know what God wants to do!

Another Picture of our Farm

2007-10-05T08:05:00.001-07:00

This is the other part of the farm I grew up on. The front building is the chicken coop and the back part the barn. They were connected. Dad built the little building in front of the chicken coop to sell the eggs and it had water in the back to cool the eggs (from a spring?) and to keep them cool until sold. Dad had a shop on the 2nd floor of the chicken coop too. In front of the chicken coop is what we called a skating pond. It had a drop of about 4 feet from the lane. We would sled down the lane from where dad had his saw mill and if we went fast enough we would fly over the drop off. Of course it was a challenge to go fast enough! I have many memories from this farm!

These buildings need paint. Saloma when she was still home painted all of our buildings. That's the only time I ever remember them being painted. That was the bad thing about living on a paved road that I felt shame, that our buildings weren't painted. All of my siblings and no one bothered painting!!!

The House I was Born in

2007-10-05T07:49:00.001-07:00

This house is where I was born along with most of my siblings. This picture must have been talken years after my parents sold our farm.

What I remember . . . it was a one story house over a hundred years old, moved from somewhere else. When I was in school, maybe first grade? My dad put a 2nd story on our home. He had a frolic and when I got home from school, the 2nd story was on. I was impressed! Being very young it was so very exciting! Every day more would be done. Actually my dad never totally finished our home. The windows upstairs were never finished off. When we had snow it would snow onto our bed in the upstairs, south west bedroom.

I was always pretty happy because we lived on a paved road. St route 208. Many Amish live on dirt roads, but this was paved!

My Visit with author Beverly Lewis

2007-10-02T07:56:00.000-07:00

Beverly Lewis writes books about Amish and Mennonites in the Lancaster County area. She grew up in that area and moved away during her high school years. Sam & Judy Walker (owners of our Bible Book Store in Sheboygan) talked to me last year about growing up Amish and mentioned that they met Beverly Lewis. So they booked her in Sheboygan area while on a book signing tour. They arranged with Beverly to meet me and I also had an hour private interview time with her. I was anxious about our time together and right out mentioned that I wasn't expecting anything from her.

At General Council last August I saw in an Evangel College ad that she had gratuated from Evangel in 1972. Since Brent & Holly both graduated from Evangel I mentioned this to her when I met her at the end of the book signing at Sonlight. Sam invited me to have lunch with their selected people. At first I didn't know how I would feel about this but after talking to Sam again the day before her arrival I had decided to attend the luncheon. I was glad that I attended this event. It helped me to relax and not be too excited for our time together. About 25 people were at the luncheon. Beverly asked everyone to introduce themselves and mention something about themselves. Very interesting.

I bought her latest book published "The Parting" where it was written during the 1960's. The Amish in Lancaster County were "getting saved" through reading the Bible. I had Beverly sign that book along with "The Shunning". This was one of the first ones I read from her writings. I have always tried to stay away from any TV shows about the Amish. I do however own 2 videos that were done and one was a comedy and the other pretty well written and acted out.

Anyway, our time together I gave her my families testimony. She told me a little about herself too, that she has Mennonite relatives. Some continue to live in Lancaster County where she continues to get up-to-date materials.

I felt privileged to have this time together and I sent Sam and Judy Walker a thank you note for arranging our time together.

The House My Parents Rented

2007-09-23T19:43:00.000-07:00

This was called the Greer Farm. My parents sold our farm and we moved here on my 16th birthday. Since my parents were excommunicated and shunned by my Amish relatives, including 4 sisters and 1 brother. When we left the farm our parents left whatever they wanted my older siblings to have. I heard either Saloma or Martha talk about going through the house after we moved out of it and talking whatever was left behind. This is all sorta sad with the shunning practice of the Amish.

Mom took her dishes when she moved from here and made 12 bags and randomly put dishes in these bags for her children. (If I remember correctly it was for everyone). This is the last picture I have of all of us dressed Amish. Mary Beth & Blair Clark are the other 2 children. Maybe my next trip to PA I'll drive past this house and see if it still sits up close to the road.

My Salvation Experience

2007-08-21T12:40:00.000-07:00

Mr. Clark visited our home regularly. Sometimes just to talk and other times to buy eggs. By now I tried to make sure I was hanging around when she visited to hear the stories she told. Never hearing anything like it ever before in my life! She would have the most amazing stories about how God answered prayer. That in itself was fascinating! She would talk about prophecies, the promises of God and stories about how much God loves us.

Anyway, I was walking home from school one day alone. Thinking about some of the stories I had been hearing. About prophecies that were being fulfilled and I felt heavy conviction from God knowing that if I died that day I was not ready for heaven. Not knowing what to do about it I certainly tried to forget all this stuff!

So after our family started attending this church in New Castle, I was alone in the kitchen one afternoon, ironing. God started talking to my heart that day. It was like I could see "the world out there", it was like God said to me that I could now go "out there and do anything that I wanted to do". The world had sparkle and a glitter about it too. I am forever thankful for God coming and talking to me. I knew in that moment and I told God that I wanted to follow in the path he set before me, I never served God before in my life and I wanted to try God. I didn't have any peace following my own way, so I would try this life that was before me.

Growing up after I learned to read. We had this tattered Bible story book in the desk which stood in our living room. I would read that book over and over again. We didn't have much reading material and since I didn't have a Sunday School to learn these Bible stories, I read them out of this Bible story book while growing up. Several stories would stick with me and I would think about them. Because I always believed the Bible, believed in God, heaven and hell I didn't doubt any of these stories, I just didn't know how it all worked.

One of my jobs was to go daily to get a gallon of milk from our Amish neighbor. I would walk through our neighbors driveway, but than they got a mean dog and chained him close to the drive way, so I was scared to walk past him and I would cut through our little orchard next to the neighbors property. I would really be scared because in the winter it would be dark in the morning when I did this chore. So I would talk to God trying to not be too scared. Having out door plumbing and needing to go out before going to bed I would make a sister go with me. Growing up we would tell each other ghost stories and all kinds of scary stories. So I was really scared. (We didn't have a TV or radio for entertainment either.) After starting going to this church and making a decision to serve God, after several weeks, it came to me that I could go outside in the dark without any fear. I wassooo happy! I was happy about this for a very long time!

After my parents were excommunicated from the Amish church, my dad put electricity into our house so places weren't so dark any more. This will be another story for another day.