A Day with Grandpa

As a child it was always a special treat when our grandparents on Daddy's side came to visit. They lived over five hundred miles and we didn't get to see them often.

One evening when I was nine years old we came home from school to find that Grandpa and Grandma had come to visit. Grandpa always felt a little intimidating to me. He was so big, in every sense. His voice, his hands, and he apparently loved eating. He had huge bushy white eyebrows and a long white beard and was totally bald. He wore round eyes glasses that looked as if someone had happened to sit on them and then he tried to straighten them out by himself. When ever he bunched his eyebrows together and looked sternly at me I always felt like hiding somewhere and took special care to try to be extra good when ever he was around.

He wasn't all scary though and loved to have us gather around him and tell us stories from the Bible. Stories we had never heard before and we were always in awe as he told them. He had a way of changing his voice for every character and he held us spellbound for hours as he told story after story.

Grandma was short and one of the happiest people I know and she had this delightful way of being able to connect with whom ever she was talking with no matter what their age. She always made me feel important and grown up.

In Somerset County the Amish school allows children to have three days off for something other than sickness or doctor visits. We hardly ever used those days but Daddy decided that this visit was important enough that we could have one day to stay at home and be able to spend more time with our grandparents.

It was the perfect day as Grandpa told us story after story before going with Daddy to visit some people.  Grandma helped Mom around the house and baked a batch of her favorite cookies and taught me how to bake a simple milk pie that Daddy used to love when he was a little boy.

They left the next morning before we got up. School seemed dull and boring after such an interesting day.

I have often been glad that Daddy decided to allow us to stay at home that day because that was the last time we saw Grandpa. He passed away a few months later but I will always have those happy memories to cherish.

Weekends

Attempt number five at getting  a blog post written this morning. I don't like wasting your time coming to check for a new post and it hasn't been updated yet.

Our weekend was busy which seems to have had an affect on Buddy and his sleeping schedule and this morning he is more of a Mr. Fussypants.

Weekends are thought of as a time of relaxing, having fun, and recharging but I'm beginning to think the reason that Monday is viewed so unfavorably is because we are all worn out from doing too much over the weekend.

Saturday was busy, we didn't get quite all our things done we had planned and yesterday we had our usual Sunday activities. Going to church, and then in the afternoon and evening sitting and visiting with an older friend that has health issues. We enjoy it but somehow we're always very tired by the end of the day.

Now if you'll excuse me I need to care for Buddy again.  In the meantime I would enjoy hearing how you spend a typical weekend.

Lil' Buddy's Arrival

If you are comfortable with the idea, please tell us more about the time leading up to your baby's birth; I am wondering how it all went and if you had him at home.
Carolyn

After a long difficult pregnancy the baby welcoming day finally arrived. It was much like any other day where I was starting to wonder if I'm going to be pregnant for the rest of my life. 

I followed my usual schedule for the day and planned to try a new recipe for supper. I was reading all the instructions for the second time and I noticed that it would need to bake for at least an hour. Something seemed to tell me that wasn't a great idea and I reluctantly put the cookbook away and opted to make an quick and easy stir fry instead.

Right after we were done eating I got up from the table and my water broke. Immediately I had the urge to push. I told LV we need to go right away. We called our friends to meet us on our way to get the children and I concentrated with everything I had to not have the baby born before we got to the birthing center. I refrained from telling LV that it wouldn't be long since I did not want to risk being stopped for speeding.

We got there in time and minutes later Buddy made his arrival weighing in at a healthy 9 lb 2 oz.  Up until then I had no idea that a birth could possibly be so short, easy, and only very uncomfortable instead of excruciatingly painful.

Celebrations

I see that in several of the previous comments you were already asked how the Amish celebrate Christmas and Easter I am also curious how they celebrate birthdays. And how about other holidays like Thanksgiving, Halloween, Valentines Day, Independence Day, and any other national holidays?
I described the celebration of Christmas and Easter in previous posts so today I will be sharing how some of the other holidays were observed in the community where I grew up.

Thanksgiving we always went to church in the forenoon. It was basically the same as regular church services. Everyone always seemed to be in extra good spirits and the sermons usually centered on blessings and things we have to be thankful for. The last hymn (The German version of Now Thank we all our God) that we sang after the preaching was over wasn't quite as slow and drawn out as most church songs and used to be one of my favorites and one of the first church songs I learned to sing on my own.

We always had a big Thanksgiving feast at home afterwards. Most years we invited all the extended family that was living in the same community.

We never observed Halloween in any way.

Valentines Day wasn't necessarily observed on Feb. 14th.  Courting couples usually exchanged chocolates and gifts on the Sunday following Valentines Day.

Independence Day for the most part was simply another day. In the evenings we would sit outside in the yard to watch a local fireworks show.

Any other holidays like Labor Day and Memorial Day were not observed. We had our own special holidays.  January 6th  Epiphany was observed by fasting in the forenoon and often going to visit friends in the afternoon.

Forty days after Easter we observed Ascension Day again with fasting and then visiting and nine days after that we observed Pentecost.

Birthdays were celebrated differently in different families. In my family Mom always made a decorated cake and there would be a small gift or two. It was a day of fun and freedom from regular chores and we could choose our favorite food for dinner.  In LV's family all they had was a verbal Happy Birthday in the morning when they got up and then the rest of the day was no different from any other day.

Troubles with the New Girl

LV's memories continued.

LV hurried with his school work, he was working on making a little cardboard buggy in his spare time which was much more fun than the rest of his school work. Once the wheels were attached he spun them around and then had an idea. If he cut strips of paper and glued them together and then wrap them tightly around the axle the wheels would spin by themselves if he wound them up.

After spending a lot of time he finally completed it and carefully wound the wheels until the paper strip was wrapped tightly around the axle. He let it go and watched as the wheels spun in the air. He was happy that his experiment worked. Now if only he could test it out on the floor and see if it had enough power to roll across the floor.

He checked to see what Teacher Hannah was doing. She was busy with another class at the front of the room. He carefully set the buggy on the floor and let go. It went rolling across the aisle and crashed into the wall next to the desk where the new girl, Mary Ann was sitting.

Happy that the buggy worked he motioned to her to pick it up and give it back to him. She sat there and stubbornly shook her head no. What a stuck up little girl. All she would have to do was take a single step out of her desk and get his buggy. There was hardly any chance that Teacher Hannah would see her do that. He asked again but she still refused so there was nothing left to do but retrieve it himself.

Slipping out of his desk he crawled over and got it. He almost made it safely back to his desk when Teacher Hannah turned around and saw him. She asked him to give her the buggy and then stay after school. LV scooted down in his seat and scowled at Mary Ann. What an awful little girl. It was all her fault that he got caught and now had to stay after school

Exhausted

After spending nearly all night last night trying to comfort a less than happy baby I'm still fighting waves of sleepiness right now. Not being able to get a wink of sleep until four in the morning has a way of draining me.

I love rocking Lil' Buddy though and singing lullabies to him. Some that my Mom used to sing and I had totally forgotten until I find myself started to sing them while trying to comfort the baby.

I love lullabies. Some sweet and gentle, others on the more humorous side. Our children's favorite was and is an old Pennsylvania Dutch lullaby about a group of rabbits sitting in the yard and what they are saying about the baby. That one is fun to sing to a toddler more than a newborn and I find myself crooning Hush my babe lie still and slumber, most of all.

To all you parents out there. What were some of your favorite lullabies?

A Question to Ponder

Sunbeam, while holding lil' Buddy: Mom, how can someone so boring be so interesting?

I had never stopped to think of a baby that way before and couldn't help but smile. I wasn't sure how to answer her though since she was right, a newborn is boring in the sense that they don't talk, they don't play, or do anything that makes most children or people fun to be around.

But it's really hard to find something more captivating than a little baby and their sweet, helpless, innocence.