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.