L ~ Letters

    Circle letters were an important part of our lives when we were Amish. I was in a number of different ones and my Mom in I have no idea how many different ones.
    A circle letter consisted of on average ten people. The address sheet contained the names, birthdates, and addresses of all those participating in the letter. The first person on the address sheet would write a letter, mail it to the second person who would read the letter then write one and send both letters on to person number three. By the time it reached person ten the circle letter was officially started. Person ten would then write a letter and send the entire packet of letters back to person number one who would remove the original letter she/he wrote, write a new letter and continue it on its rounds with each person removing their old letter and writing a new one.
    Mom kept all the letters she wrote. I'm so glad she did! 
    The past few evenings I have been reading some of the letters she had written. They're all interesting to me, but my favorites are the ones she wrote for her circle letter that included only her mom and sisters. She was much more open and less restrained in those as she wrote of everything going on in her life. Of settling into a new home in a different community and all the challenges that involved. Of the day to day antics of her children and her thoughts and feelings on a multitude of things.
    

    This one amused me as she detailed her day juggling canning peaches, getting laundry done with my less than enthusiastic eight year old help, and rescuing a goat stuck in a woven fence.

K ~ Knock Knocks

     When Steven was but a wee lad he was introduced to knock-knock jokes and immediately latched on to them.
    What followed was a period of truly dreadful jokes we all suffered through. They made zero sense, but he loved them.
    At some point I grabbed a pen and would jot them down, thinking that someday once he's older he can read them and see what we had endured.
    I found those jokes again last year and read some of them to him. He was properly unimpressed, but I quite enjoyed them this time around. Somehow time took the mind-numbing tedium from them and left only the sweet memory behind of a little boy inventing his jokes.
    I have decided to compile them into a book and try my hand at illustrating each one. 

    Here's an example of one of the "jokes"

    Knock knock
    Who's there?
    Grasshopper
    Grasshopper who?
    Grasshopper door.

    The joke makes zero sense, but drawing a little scene involving a grasshopper door is going to be fun.

    I may have to decide whether to give him the completed book for Christmas or keep if for myself.

J ~ Jams & Jellies

    There's something satisfying about making jams and jellies. My favorite is strawberry, with quite a few other fruits tying for the second place spot.
    Several years ago Steven found a recipe for dandelion jelly that he wanted me to help him make. And our journey into floral jellies was started.
    

    It turns out dandelion jelly is actually really great. It tastes a bit like honey. If words other than actual flavors can be used to describe the taste I would say it tastes like sunshine and happiness.

    I have used lavender. A good way to describe it would be that it holds a bit of mysterious intrigue, a touch of aloofness, but it's overall pleasant.   

    Last summer I made violet jelly. It was a fun process. The tea I made with freshly picked violet blossoms was at first blue, but when I added a few tablespoons of lemon juice it turned into a vibrant pink. 

    Violet jelly is delightful. I would describe the flavor as shy but wistfully charming.

    Fruity jams and jellies are my favorite, but floral jellies are a lovely change every once in a while. That is, all except forsythia. I tried using forsythia last summer, but as it turns out - it tastes of despair and bitter betrayal

I ~ Ice Cream Empire

    Playing games is part of our daily life. Not only do we enjoy it, but we have found that they often aid in learning more effortlessly.
    For an example, the game Ice Cream Empire.

    It was a game that used to get quite a lot of table time when Steven was younger. He loved the little trucks that were used as tokens to drive around the gameboard hauling the ice cream chips on the back as we bought and sold ice cream and built our chains of stores across the states.

    He thought it was all great fun, while the teacher part of me smiled at the learning that was unwittingly happening.
    The game board had all the states labeled, and as he was building his chains of stores he was also learning the names and locations of the states.

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    As he bought and sold ice cream he was doing math.

    Though not heavy on the strategic side of games there were critical thinking skills involved in decision making.
    There are two superficial things I really don't like about this game. The first is the artwork on the cover. It looks very unprofessional to me and always makes me cringe just a bit when I see it. The second, the cursive writing. As someone who has taught our children to write in cursive and the care that went into their daily penmanship, the poor display of spacing, slant, and letter formation bugs me a lot.
    

Would I recommend this game? Yes, as far as a fun family game goes it is a decent choice. While not in our top ten list of games, I'm still glad it's part of our collection.

H ~ Handkerchiefs

    Pretty handkerchiefs were treasured among Amish girls. There were no rules pertaining to them unlike almost every other aspect of our life. They provided a tiny bit of self expression which was a welcome change. 

    Both boy and girl toddlers often had handkerchiefs with fun designs. My brothers each had several with various barnyard scenes, while I had one with bunnies. 

    I was probably three or so when I traded that one in for something more grown-up when my Grandma Swarey gave me my first real Sunday handkerchief. Up until then I would play with Mom's pretty handkerchiefs at church. To be able to tuck my very own grown up handkerchief in my pocket to take to church felt so special!
    On a side note, does anyone have any idea how to restore fabric that has developed spots from being stored? It looks a lot like foxing in old books. I'd love to take care of it if possible.

    It wasn't too long after my first pretty handkerchief that I received the one I used to play with and fold into things while I sat next to Mom during the three hour long church services.  

    It was used to make a "mouse". It was always satisfying to create it, but even more satisfying to pull its tail and have it turn back into my handkerchief ready to be made into a mouse again. 
    Unlike the twin babies in a cradle that I used to fold it into and rock and play with for a while, there really wasn't much to do with a mouse other than give it to my baby brother and let him pull the tail to undo it, and then make another one for him to repeat the process.

Example of the twin babies in a cradle.

    On my tenth birthday I received another handkerchief. That Sunday I carefully tucked it into the pocket of my new "grown-up" style dress. I was now too old to play with a handkerchief in church and started sitting with the big girls instead of with Mom.
    I had no reason to use  my handkerchief that day, but the knowledge of it being in my pocket felt good. 

    I had quite a collection of handkerchiefs by this time, and I always enjoyed choosing just the right one before leaving for church. 
    Mom encouraged me to save my prettiest ones until I turned sixteen and joined the youth. I was glad I had and by then I started matching the color of my handkerchief to the dress I was wearing. Except when I wore black, then I always paired a pink handkerchief with it. 

    Unlike some of my cousins who lived in different communities where the youth girls would fold their pretty handkerchiefs in quarters and pin them to the outside of their pockets where they could be seen through the lightweight while organdy aprons they wore, mine were always tucked into my pocket because our aprons were all heavy weight enough nothing would have shown through.

    

    The last time I recall choosing my handkerchief with special care was on our wedding day. Having a blue wedding dress of course needed a blue handkerchief to go with it.