Rosebud's Letter

  Rosebud loves writing letter to her Grandmother who always faithfully answers each one. She is quite happy to have a pen pal and writes regularly.

  Early this morning she came down and handed me another letter that she hoped would get mailed today. I always find it interesting to read her letters and with her permission I'm sharing her latest with you today.

I changed the names to those that I use on my blog but otherwise everything is just the way she wrote it.

Dear Grandmother,

 Yesterday after school we took our bikes up to the barn. Beyond the barn is a big hill. We thought it would be fun to take our bikes up the steep winding field lane. When we finally got to the top I felt like sitting down and resting but when I got on my bike and started down the steep winding field lane I forgot all about my weariness for I had to concentrate on my steering. If I would have looked back or even sideways I would surely have crashed into a rock or into the ditch. There were lots of stones on the lane too when I drove over them my arms shook very much making it harder to steer my bike. That was not my only problem, for there were potholes in the lane too. I tried to avoid them but when ever I drove through one I flew off my seat and landed on it again. There is a little ditch with a stream of water at the bottom of the hill that we had to drive through. We bounced off our seats again when we went through it. We decided not to ride down that hill again. It is too steep.
   Do you have any steep hills?

   A few days ago Sunbeam and I went up the steep pasture behind the house with a bowl to pick violets to make violet syrup. While we were there we happened to get into some poison ivy. When we had picked four cups of violets we started down to the house. Then we had to sit at the kitchen table with Mom and pick all the stems off the violets. It was fun but kind of tiresome. When we finished fixing the violets like the recipe told us to, but instead of turning pink the syrup turned green and stinked awfully so we dumped the syrup and that was the end of our experiment.
 
   This morning I stood up really early. And since it is springtime of the year I started cleaning my room. It is all clean now and nothing is out of it's place and as I say a place for everything and everything in it's place. I always think a clean room makes you feel happier than a messy room. Have you started spring cleaning too?

   Today is sunny but it looks as though it could rain. I hope it doesn't so I can go out to play after school. But I think the plants think just the opposite of what I said. I think they want it to rain to water them. I am sure if I were a flower I would think so. Is it raining at your house? If it is I think the plants are glad.

   Mr. Bumblebee has come back and is satisfying himself by buzzing around the rhododendren bush. A bird made a nest in the rhododendren bush but left it's nest and it's egg to rot. It never came back again. Another bird lives in the bush now. When we walk up the porch steps it flies out. It made me fall down the steps one time. I fell all the way to the bottom.

      Love, Rosebud

Differences in Cultures

   Our transition from being Amish to, well, not being Amish has been interesting in many different ways. I still find it interesting to compare things that are considered proper and polite in one culture that would be considered offensive and rude in another.

   One such thing is among the Amish when we invited someone to come to our house for a meal we expected them to come with nothing except a hearty appetite. To have asked what food to bring along or showing up with something would have been an insult to the hostess and her cooking abilities.

   After we left the Amish and people asked me what they could bring I realized they were used to offering to bring something along out of being considerate and helpful, and I now find myself accepting those offers every once in a while and even, gasp, asking what I can bring when we get an invitation. It really does help when preparing all the extra food to not have to be responsible for everything, but I will still refrain from showing up at an Amish house carrying a salad or some kind of dessert.

Edited to add: If you want to visit the Amish and take some kind of gift along food or otherwise they won't be offended. The offer of bringing food is insulting only within the community.

Butterflies

It was a lovely day in early summer. I had just finished picking all our peas and had several five gallon pails filled to the top ready to shell. I parked the stroller with our sleeping baby under the shade of one of our big oak trees and went to get several bowls to start shelling peas.

Sailor was trying to help and we were enjoying our forenoon when I happened to notice the bark on the old oak tree seemed to be moving. I went to look at it more closely to make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me. I got there in time to see a butterfly inch it's way out of the crack in the bark and sit there fanning it's wings gently and then fluttered away.

There was still movement going on and before long several more butterflies emerged. I sat on the grass to watch in amazement as butterfly after butterfly emerged, tested it's wings and then went fluttering off. Some of them didn't go very far in their first flight and rested on our head and shoulders before going on. Sailor was thrilled at all the butterflies and would have liked to catch and keep a few, but after I explained they were happiest when they were free he was content to watch this unusual event unfold with me.

By the time the last butterfly had emerged there had been close to a hundred. I couldn't help but feel a little in awe and wondering if there was some kind of sign of hopefulness attached to this. Whether there was or not I felt hopeful as if by waiting there would be great things to come yet in our life.

That was the first and only year we ever had butterflies hatching in that tree, and I'll always remember that day fondly!

Healing

Having Sailor's arm in a cast presented a new problem. He couldn't get in and out of his shirts with the way they were made, so I went ahead and made a few that had a short sleeve with snaps along the bottom. I hoped if someone else saw them they would understand that it was a necessity and once his cast came off I would sew a regular sleeve in.

Sailor quickly learned how to to be able to play but once the itching set in it wasn't quite as pleasant. He asked how long it would take for his arm to heal and I tried to explain and then added that God was healing his arm and before too long it would be all better.

That evening as I was making supper I was startled when our back door opened and snow and wind came blowing inside. When I went to close it Sailor was standing there holding it open. I scolded him a little for opening that door and he explained that he wanted God to come inside to fix his arm.

I gathered him up and sat on the rocking chair and wondered how I was supposed to explain to a three year old that God doesn't need doors to be able to heal his arm.

Spinning Chairs

It was on a Saturday afternoon, Rosebud was sitting in her highchair eagerly waiting for the first bite of baby food I was preparing. I spooned it into a little bowl and set it on the table while I dished out a plate with things for Sailor to eat.

He sitting on our desk chair spinning in happy circles. I called his name and told him it's ready to eat. He reached out to grab hold of something to stop spinning, but instead of stopping like he had hoped he went flying to the floor and with the cries that followed I knew immediately it was worse than just a tumble.

I gathered him up from the floor and his screams got worse. I ran out to the porch with him to call LV. He came running to see what was wrong and after trying to calm Sailor he decided we need to take him to the doctor right away. He ran out to our phone shanty to call our regular driver. Thankfully he was at home and said he would be here in about twenty minutes.

We quickly got ready and I fed Rosebud and packed her diaper bag with everything she needed to stay at my parents while we took Sailor to be checked out.

Once we arrived at the E.R. everything was slow because it was a Saturday afternoon and there were hardly any doctors there. They finally took an x-ray and discovered his elbow was broken. They hemmed and hawed and said they really aren't qualified to put a cast on a child here at this hospital. So they gave us some pain medication and an adult sized sling and told us to take him to the Somerset hospital on Monday forenoon.

We were disgusted with them as we took our little hurting boy home and tried to make him as comfortable as possible until Monday morning. I was so afraid that he might bump his elbow that might dislocate the bones and make that it would be a lot worse by Monday morning.

We survived the weekend with many tears and were so relieved when Monday finally came and we could get the proper care for him and he could start on the road to recovery.