Fun Questions and Answers ~ Part 4

Have you ever used a fire extinguisher?

No, thankfully there was never a reason for me to need a fire extinguisher.

What time do you eat dinner? And do you always sit around a table to eat?

Dinner is usually served somewhere between 5:30 and 6:00. And yes, we enjoy gathering around the table in the kitchen to eat. It's a time to relax, enjoy good food and conversation. I find it to be a nice way to start unwinding after a busy day.

What is your most meaningful heirloom?

After we got married LV's parents gave us the big clock that they had received when they took over the family farm. Since they were moving and we were taking over the farm, the clock now belonged to us with the instructions to someday pass it on to our youngest son.

We basically said good-bye to our chance of owning any other family heirlooms, because we left the Amish. That doesn't really bother me, but at the same time when I happen to see something I used to love that my parents or grandparents used to own I consider buying it.

I found a cookie jar at an antique shop just like the one we used to have when I was a little girl. I bought it and on my way out of the store the handle on the shopping bag broke spilling the cookie jar onto the floor and smashing it into hundreds of tiny pieces.

Chocolate or vanilla?

Chocolate. Preferably milk chocolate, but please no white chocolate.

Fun Questions and Answers ~ Part 3

Have you ever received a speeding ticket?

No, I haven't. So far I have never been pulled over for any reason. I'm hoping to keep it that way.

What is a sound you hate hearing?

There are a number of different sounds that I don't enjoy.

• Alarm clock jangling way too loud at four in the morning.
• Crying.
• The hiss of a pot boiling over on the stove.
• Squeaky door hinges.
• Cows mooing outside my window in the middle of the night.
• But the one that bothers me the most is fingernails on a chalkboard. Even thinking about it makes me shiver.

What is a sound you love hearing?

• Children's laughter.
• The voices of loved ones.
• Children singing.
• The basement door, in the evening, when LV comes home.
• The clip clop of a horse and buggy passing the house.
• The sound of a rushing waterfall.
• Wind chimes in a gentle summer breeze.

How do you like your steak cooked?

I'm not a fan of steak, at all. Maybe because I haven't found the perfect recipe yet. LV loves it, and I enjoy cooking it, but  I would rather enjoy a salad than have to try eating a steak.

Amish and Compliments

Recently as I was browsing through a bookstore I picked up an Amish fiction book and flipped through it a little. Every page had Pennsylvania Dutch words sprinkled on it and somehow my eyes were always drawn to those first.

One phrase that jumped out at me was gut man.* Basic translation = good man. The reason this stood out to me so much was that no Amish person will ever call someone a gut man, because that is what they call God.

Reading that simple sentence where the main character had been saying that someone was a good man got me thinking of the difference between mainstream America and the Amish culture.

In main stream America it isn't unusual hearing someone make remarks like, "He's a good person." or even "I'm a good person." Compliments seem to flow freely, and sometimes I have to doubt their sincerity. Praise for accomplishments is the norm.

This all took time getting used to when we left the Amish. It was basically unheard of hearing someone describe a person as being good. Compliments weren't used freely. A woman could be well known through out the community for being an excellent cook or baker, but no one would tell her so in person. Someone else could be known to be the best when it comes to raising crops and farming to the extent that others watch when he mows hay and then mow theirs on the same day because he always managed to get his made without rain, but no one would tell him he is good at what he does. The best seamstress in the community could be busy with orders for bonnets and coverings because hers always turn out perfect. Women will talk about her talent only when she isn't present.

I remember the time when I still a little girl, and I painted something. It turned out better than I thought it would and I was very pleased. Mom and Daddy acknowledged it, but when I said something about how pretty I thought it was they reminded me of Proverbs 27:2 Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth;

My view on praise and compliments has changed since leaving the Amish. Right now I would say we're caught somewhere in the middle. We do way more than the Amish, but still less than a lot of other people.

* Pennsylvania Dutch lesson for the day. Gut man is pronounced like this ...... gut rhymes with boot. Man rhymes with fun. If you ever hear an Amish person say Gut Man., they will be talking about God.

Winds of Change

 

Ever since we moved into the house where we live now I have always enjoyed looking out the window and seeing the waterfall. When the weather was warm enough to have our windows open I enjoyed listening to the soothing sound of water rushing over the falls.

 

When they started putting up those windmills I wasn't enthused about having them nearby and when the first blades started poking up above the tree line I wasn't thrilled but it wasn't too bad since all we could see were the blades appearing and disappearing as they turned slowly. And then they plopped nine of them even closer where I have no choice of seeing them when ever I look out the window. Again I thought I'll probably get used to them someday.

 

They didn't have them spinning for quite a while, but that changed in the last several weeks. And my thinking I'll get used to them soon has changed also. Since they are in use they produce noise. The first time I stepped outside the house I was wondering how we can hear the traffic so clearly from the Interstate five miles away. Turns out I wasn't hearing the noise of traffic, but the noise of the windmills. Depending which way the wind is blowing the blades turn in a way that the sunlight reflects off of them and every turn throws splashes of blinding light at the house, giving me a headache.

 

A fan of these monstrosities, I am not.

 

 

Calendar Fun

When I was growing up one of the things I enjoyed the most on January 1st. was sorting through our big pile of calendars to decide which ones we would be using in the new year. It took a lot of careful consideration since the pictures in those calendars were the only pretty things we could hang on our walls and none of us wanted to be stuck having to look at a picture we didn't like for an entire month.

Things seem to be changing and businesses don't hand out calendars like they used to and today when I wanted to hang a new calendar I was faced with the fact that I didn't have much of a choice. In fact we had only one calendar so the decision which one I want to hang was very easy.

It made me feel a little sad. We used to have so much fun with old used calendars. The nicest ones were saved to be turned into scrap books which would be then be given to anyone in the community who was sick or disabled.

Nice oversized ones were taken apart, covered with clear contact paper, and used for writing pads.

 

And when we were little children Mom used to take the ones we liked the least and cut the numbers apart on one page and then handed us another page and a bottle of glue and we matched all the numbers. We were always sad when all the calendars had been used up in that project.

 

Later on we would chose our favorite pictures and place them on a piece of wood. After pouring a clear acrylic coating over them one of my brothers would create puzzles with them on the jigsaw.

 

Every calendar always provided so much enjoyment that I think it's sad they don't seem to be as important as they used to be.