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.

I am a Christian

First off, let me apologize to those who do not think this is important. And to those who have been hit over the head with radicial ideas in the name of Christianity.

I am a Christian. I believe in God, that Jesus was His Son, that He died for MY sins, rose again and is preparing a place for me in heaven.

Now to become a Christian, I believe I must acknowledge my sin, recognize that God sent His Son to die for my sins, ask for His forgiveness and then try to live a better life.

I am NOT perfect, just forgiven. I cannot be perfect only strive to live the life Christ would have me live. Following His example. And I fail-continually. But I am so glad He is there to forgive and guide me.

What bothers me is how people prevert the true gospel of Christ to suit their own agenda. My grandson has shared about a "street" preacher at IU and the crazy things he is saying. It bothers me that he calls himself a Christian preacher and then is pushing people away with the things he says that comes from the Bible or God or at least his interpertation of Gods direction.

It bothers me when people say they are Christian, but by the way they live and the things they do they give Christianity a bad name. The Bible says by our fruits we are known. I think sometimes people are producing some rotten fruit and claiming to be Christians. I repeat I am not perfect and I make mistakes, but I try not to push my Christianity down peoples throats. Maybe I do not witness like I should, but I am not afraid of rejection as much as causing someone to walk away from Christ because of my imperfections.

I have been struggling lately with a lot of anger and hate about certain things that are happening to people because non-Christians want to tear us down and tie our hands and bind our mouths to the truth. God has confronted me about that and I had to fall on my knees and ask His forgiveness. He had to remind me that He is in control and I need to trust Him that things happen because of His divine plan. I need to get out of His way. That is so hard I do not like not being in control.

Visit to Indy

This last week we went to Indianapolis to visit my sisters. The trip down was eventful! Merv is still recovering from his surgery so he wanted to stretch out in back and rest about 2/3 of the way down. I was driving. I thought there was a strange noise. At first I thought it was a lawn mower, ultra lite plane, or moped. I would slow up and listen and noise would stop. Finally I was going to pull over, but was in an area where there was not much room. I was getting ready to pull over noticed car smelled hot, thermostat did not register hot. Woke Merv as the car died and I lost power steering and power. Did not get complete off road but most of way. He raised hood and car was on fire. He called 911 and Birdie to come get us. Operator said get back from car so we unloaded it and fire department came and put fire out. Hamiltoban Co. sheriffs dept called wrecker, car was towed ($300.00) and later we made arrangements to get alternator repaired ($400.00). Rest of visit was good.

One thing we did was go to Lebanon Ind to drive past Great Grandmother Elizabeths old house and to visit cemetary where we used to play as children.

Usually when you go to someplace you knew as a child, it seems smaller. Not this cemetary-it was huge. Of course Merv had to remind us it has been 50 years and several people have probably died since then.

Great Grandmas house looked about the same, there were some changes but we found it right away. Great Grandmother enjoyed playing dominoes. We would sit around her dining room table and play. She was about 6 feet tall and wore button down the front housedresses. She was rather flat chested and to get them to fit her height the dresses were a little large through the chest area and would hang low and she was a very private person and would wear a brooch at the top neck area to hold it closed. I have several of those brooches. Her front parlor was rarely used and in the winter was very cold. She did not use her upstairs any more either, but we liked to play up there.
She was Grannies mother-in-law but Grannie had a better relationship with her then with her own mother. I wish I could remember more about her.

Changes

I am not sure if it is my age or just me, but when I have to "change"some things I really get flusrated. I got a new laptop. I have not had one before so I guess that is really not a change, but getting used to a new set up is. This is Windows 7, old computer is Vista. Laptop has no mouse yet and not so used to the finger pad. Also not hooked to printer yet so have to look up things I want to print out on old computer that is attached to printer. Supposed to be a way to send it to the printer, but kids have not helped me with that (and I don't want to try on my own).


The biggest change made is a new cell phone. I really hate that change, but old one was acting up. So it means contacting everyone in my list with new number, transfering contacts and numbers to my new phone. Also getting used to new set up on phone, it is very different from my old one. I get a pay as you go phone, not on husbands plan so I don't use up his minutes. It may not be the cheapest way to go, but I have gotten used to having a cell phone. Going online and setting it up was not hard, but aggraviting at times. Still working on learning the phones ins and outs. It has a camera and I was trying to figure out where the view finder is and if I had taken a picture, I would have had a shot of my eye. What I thought was the view finder was the lens. I still have not figured out how to put contacts in. Can't get the letters punched in right makes me unhappy. I know if I would read the book that came with it I would know whats what, but what is the fun in that its more fun to push buttons and see what happens. Isn't the best way to learn by trial and error?



Spare me from changes. Hope this phone is the last one I will ever need, but probably not. Can't they all be exactly alike!