The Fire

     I was reading some one's blog and they had had a small fire with minor damage. They went on to share how her sister had a fire and lost their whole house and contents. Luckily they were not home when it happened. Lightning struck their house and no one noticed the flames until it was too late.

     We had a fire almost 10 years ago. We were lucky too, but not because we weren't home we where and it was the middle of the night. I am convinced God woke my up. It was approximately 3:30am.  The morning of December 17, 2001. We were asleep upstairs. "Something" (God) woke me up, I realized smoke was coming up the stairs and the house was totally dark no alarm clock lights etc. I woke up my husband and said I thought the house was on fire. He tried the phone and of course it was dead. He pulled on pants ran across the street to pound on the neighbors door and told them to call the fire department.

    They told us to come in and get warm. We have a volunteer fire department so they had to call people in. I am amazed at how fast they got there. I told them I thought it was in the basement. How I knew that I am not sure, it was pitch black in the house. They went in and found the ceiling of the basement beginning to burn. There was a huge amount of "toxic" smoke.

     Our bedroom was on the top floor not main floor and fire was in basement. How did I know the fire was there? How did I wake up? Thankfully there was more smoke damaged than fire damage. It did take out our electricity because where the fire started was near the fuse box. It also took out our water system because our well and pump was in the basement.

     The cause of the fire was a dehumidifier. The fire investigator tried to get a number off of it and it was so badly burned it was unreadable. It was an inexpensive one from Walmart.

     The fire was out in a short time. We called our married daughter and she came right away. We went to her house and discussed what to do. We could not go in to see damage. Plus it was still dark. My daughter and I had planned to do Christmas shopping later that day. When my husband and I got to my daughters, we realized how very, very lucky we were to be alive. Because it was the middle of winter, flames would not have been seen for a long time and by then the smoke and "toxic" fumes would have killed us. Another lucky thing was that during this time our son and his 3 children were living with us. He shared custody with his ex-wife and it was not his week to have the kids so they were not there that night and he had spent the night with a friend.

      My daughter, son-in-law and their 5 kids lived in a big farm house. They offered to put us all up as long as necessary. That now made 13 people sharing a house. It was interesting. We did it. It is amazing what you can do when you have to.

     I took time off work and went to the house as often as I could to go through things and throw items into the huge dumpster that they put in our front yard. There was no heat, electricity, or water for quite awhile. They got a little electricity hooked up but still no heat or water. When I would call the "clean-up" place to check on progress because many days they were not there to do anything. I was told----"Mrs. Miller, you picked a bad time to have a fire"----REALLY oh next time I will call you first before I have a fire to make sure it is ok with you. They were overbooked and ran into other delays, but did not have the honesty to say up front they were running behind. They kept saying oh a couple more weeks, etc, but it ran a lot longer!! It ended up being 2 1/2 months before we could move back home.

     Oh and the "toxic" fumes-the basement was my craft area and I had lots of supplies stored in plastic bins. They don't burn they melt and release the toxic fumes. Again we were blessed by God's care. The items lost we  were able to replace and we were safe.

creativity or confusion

I am a creative person. I have always needed to do something creative. As a child, I would use graph paper to color the little squares into designs. Wish I had saved some they would be good quilt ideas now. My great grandmother taught me how to do 4 patch and 9 patch quilt squares sewing them by hand. So my interest in fabric began than and continued as I sewed for myself and my family. I still have those squares and am trying to incorporate them into wall hangings with some of the embroidery quilt squares I did as a child. I learned to embroider from my mother and did quite a few items. Most of those I still have. I have many items I purchased with the idea of embroidering them some day. More than I will probably get done at this time of my life.  My grandmother taught me how to crochet. So I have added yarn, crochet thread, hooks and pattern books to my collection of craft items.

Over the years, I have learned to do many other crafts. I got interested in making potporrui, growing and drying herbs and flowers. When I went to work at a greenhouse, I learned to do floral arrangements. Needless to say I added containers that could be used as well as wreaths and lots of silk and dried items.

Then I got interested in ceramics, yes I have paints as well as bisque to paint.
I think I could furnish a small craft shop with materials I have on hand-you name it and I probably have the supplies:  scrapebooking, beading, candle making, cards, home decor anything!

Now the problem is I get to creating and my mind goes in too many directions at once. As I am making something, I see possible options and my hands can't make it fast enough to keep up with my ideas.
I have always seen someones creative idea and that causes my mind to go into other directions adding or  changing what their idea was and make it mine but different.

If I could not create, I think I would stop breathing. But I wish I could be better focused and more organized. As you can see from the above picture, when I am creating, I am messy:)

The Amish

I read a blog where someone had gone on a trip and went through an area where there is an Amish community. My husband was raised Amish. He was one of nine siblings. He is a twin and likes to joke that he has 3 twin brothers. How is that possible? He had an older set of twin brothers. He and his twin are the younger set. There are 53 sets of twins in 3 generations of the Miller family (at least his Millers). Four of his siblings have passed away. Only one older brother and my husband chose to leave the Amish and live "English" as they call us.

Leaving the Amish and "going English" is a very BIG step. Merv and his older brother had not joined the Amish church so it was not as difficult as it can be. A tremendous amount of pressure is put on the children to stay in the faith they were brought up in. The parents feel like they have failed if the children leave the Amish church. He grew up in Amish area in Northern Indiana.

My husband was drafted during the Viet Nam war. The Amish are pacifist and do not believe in war. My husband did his service at a hospital in Indianapolis. I grew up in Indiananpolis and my senior year of high school worked in the office of this hospital. We met at lunch time in the cafeteria. We began to date and fell in love and started talking marriage. My husband said to me "I am from the Amish and most of my family are still Amish". I said "what's that"? He tried to explain, but I did not get it. He would go home occassionally for visits and as he began to stay down in Indy more and more, his family knew something was going on. When asked on one visit if he was seeing someone he said yes and it was serious. His parents wrote several letters to him prior to our marriage about what it might mean to marry English. They do not believe in divorce at all for any reason and they were afraid if we married we would not make it.

I grew up in a prostant church and went from the time I was a baby all through my growing up. Church, faith and my God and Saviour have always been important to me. Any time I dated someone I would invite them to church with me. We would go on Sunday morning or if we worked that day, Sunday evenings. Merv later told me he had not had any idea of what God or the church was about till he came to my church. In the Amish church, they meet every other week in each others homes. The preacher or preachers (sometimes up to 3) preach; but they preach in German, not the Pennsylvaina Dutch that the Amish speak in everyday. So he did not always understand what was being said and as with most Amish children they are just thinking of playing with their friends after service.

We made plans to marry and only 2 of Merv's unmarried sisters made the trip down. The Amish do not drive cars only horse and buggies. They do hire drivers for some trips. After we were married, we moved to Northern Indiana because Merv had a job waiting for him after his service was done. Once we were married his family was very welcoming. They have always been supportive of us. We have been married for 45 years this June:)

The Amish are very family oriented. Family is very important also visitation and caring for those in their community who are in need. They do not believe in insurance, but each church communnity will step in and pay the hospital bills of those in their church. If there is a huge hospital expense, they will have some kind of fund raiser and these are supported by the larger Amish community and a lot of the English too. The fund raisers are usually some sort of a meal and it is good food!

The Amish like the rest of us are not perfect, but they do strive to be a "plain" people and not "worldly". One of the discussions I have heard is people talk about the "shunning" that is done. This is not as practiced as it used to be. It would be done to those who had joined the Amish church and then left for assorted reasons. The act of shunning could be very hurtful, making the shunned person sit at a separate table when eating in the family home. I have never seen this pracitced in my husband's family. They are loving and welcoming. They do forget sometimes that I do not speak "Dutch" and will get to talking and not include me, but that is very rare. Most of the time when we are with them they make the effort to speak English. Most Amish children do not speak English until they go to school.

Originially it was encouraged that the Amish farm or carpenter or craftsmanship. Almost all of the women do not work outside of the home. Because of the economy that is not always possible anymore. A lot of the men work at RV factories in this area. The family usually has a very large garden, growing and canning a lot of their own food. The women sew all their families clothes as well and they do not have dryers so the clothes go on the line year round. The whole family works very hard. Children are expected do help with all the chores.

One change over the years has been the addition of phone buildings. These are not public phones with coin operation. Several families will get together and purchase a phone line with multiple numbers. The phones cannot be in the house, so they are at the edge of someones property. These have become necessary because of several tragic accidents where emergency personal could not be called in time to help someone. Another change all of the homes being built now have indoor plumbing. When my husband and I first married, several still had outhouses and pumped water for dishes. They do not have electricity in their homes.

It is an interesting lifestyle that I have been priviledged to learn about. At times I have craved the simplicity and quietness; BUT, I could not give up my TV, computer, and not being able to walk in and flip a switch to turn on a light.

SPRING:)

It has been many years since I could truly say, I am looking forward to spring:)



I worked at a greenhouse for 23 years. Many years I did look forward to spring but for the last several, spring brought me more dread than joy. It was an enjoyable but very stressful and physical job. Most of the year you work at a nice pace, but the 5-6 weeks of getting ready, stocking, long hours were getting to me. My arthritis would really get me down, but you have to push on, because that is when a greenhouse makes the money to survive the rest of the year.



I really miss working with the girls I worked with. They are more like family then co-workers. I had terrific employers who were really good to me. I will miss them this spring, but I will not miss the physical pain I was dealing with.


Now I am excited to watch the days get longer, the sun shine more and can really slow down and smell the flowers. I would be concentrating on work and getting through the season, that trees would be leafed out and grass green before I really noticed. Now I will enjoy that.



I loved waiting on the customers and helping them with their garden needs. I will especially miss helping them select perennials for specific areas. But now I can fix some of my perennial areas and make them more "senior" friendly.


I will enjoy going to the greenhouse as a customer and not as an employee. Thank you McIntosh for all the years and friendship.

Together time

Mary and I will drive to Bloomington next Friday to get Michael. He will be home for a week for Spring Break. I am trying to figure a time for us to be together as a family. Gage leaves April 12 for the Air Force basic camp in San Antonio, Texas. We don't know when he will be home again, probably be over a year:(

It is hard to work out a time that works for 16 different people. This is something I really want. Who knows when it could happen again.

We tried to work out a dinner for our 40th wedding anniversary and it just did not happen; here it is 3 years later.

We have had Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations together, doesn't matter to me if it on the "holiday" or a day close, but just getting to be together is important to me.

As I get older I realize these times will become harder and harder to do; 16 people with different schools, jobs, obligations it is hard to line up times together so the ones now are very important to me.

Some of my most precious memories are of times together as a family growing up. Maybe life wasn't so complicated then; but it seems we did not have many times when there were scheduling conflicts and we all managed to together.

I remember several Thanksgivings when we would have a meal with Merv's family here then drive on to Indy to be with my family. Many Christmases too. Made for a busy but full day.

Living 3 hours away from my family made the trip longer than a "day" trip. Several times for emergency's we made a one day trip out of it, but usually we would stay for the weekend or at Christmas time several days. Many is the time we loaded the car with presents (not letting the kids know) and had Christmas morning down at Mom's. Have some pictures and videos that are worth more than gold to me because of the pictures of loved ones who have since passed. Also loved ones still around, but don't get to see to often.

Need to remember the camera for pictures too. Mary took pictures at Thanksgiving and I love them. Even the ones where the grand kids are goofing off. It is difficult to get 16 people smiling and eyes open and facing the camera at the same time. I am so thankful to have those pictures, right now they are just on my laptop, need to figure out how to get prints. I will keep working at it and plugging away to get us all together.

Several years ago, my husband and I discussed adding a bedroom and bathroom downstairs because we knew as we aged it would be more convient for us. Also our house really only has 2 bedrooms and they are upstairs. We put up a divider in the biggest bedroom to make it into two bedrooms for our kids. The lady who owned the house before we did had had a toliet put in a small pantry area. No sink, you had to wash your hands at the kitchen sink.

We did not do it when we first talked about it because I did not want to go that deep in debt.

In November of 2010, I just mentioned to someone with my husband near by, that I wished we had gone ahead and put in the new rooms. I really did not think we would, it is just climbing the stairs with my arthritis is a pain. (haha) Well the next thing I know he has a friend who is a contractor come by and look at it and give us an estimate. I did not get my hopes up because I figured the cost would be more than we would want to finance.

Surprise, surprise, it was half of what I expected. So we refinanced the house and borrowed extra to do the rooms.

We told Rich (the contractor) what we had in mind and he made a drawing. One thing he was going to put windows in on the west side (of course), but I wanted a door on that side of the house instead of one of the windows. I just casually mentioned to Rich with my husband near by that maybe in the future we could add a deck. Next thing I know Merv has talked to Rich about doing the deck.

So now I will have a bedroom, bathroom, walk in closet (something I have never had), and a deck. I am so excited to watch the work that has been going on since a little before Christmas.

It is funny how the little things can excit me. When the walls first went up and I saw the closet, I kept talking about it. Then it was the doors. They are just beautiful.

Well, the room is pretty much finished. My bed is downstairs and I have slept in the room this week. It is a wonderful room. I am having fun slowly putting things in the room. Also going through things and sorting and pitching.

I will have lots of things for our community garage sale in June. Also donating things to Goodwill.

It was a blessing for me that my husband (Merv) has done this. What a considerate man!!
He did it because he knew I was struggling with the stairs and not having a full bath downstairs. It will also help the resell value of our house.
While doing this we put in central air and a new well. Life is wonderful!
Something else my husband does that is great. When he does not have work, he goes to the restruant uptown and after catching up on the "news" he brings me back a large hot coffee.