Our Neighbors... the Amish

You may or may not know this about where we live, but we are surrounded by Amish. Our neighbors are Amish, the people across the street are Amish, and the people around the corner where I buy our milk are Amish. There is an Amish schoolhouse within view of our bedroom and kitchen windows, and everyday around 2 or 3 many Amish children with their lunch boxes traipse through our yard on their way home from school. Occasionally they climb a tree in our front lawn. Now, you might also know, that I did not grow up surrounded by Amish, unlike my husband, whose grandfather WAS Amish. So, Amish ways and customs are new to me. I love being surrounded by the Amish. They make me feel thankful for everything that I have, and they make me desire to live a more simple life. Their presence helps me to wonder at the smaller things in life, the things I usually take for granted.

Well, as I am getting more used to living in close proximity with these people, who make me feel like I have stepped back into time, I observe some of their ways, and I am constantly learning about them. Let me just say, I am intensely curious about these private people. Well, increasingly since the harvest is in, I keep observing large (and I mean LARGE) groups of Amish gathered together at one farm or another. When I was on my way to the grocery store the other day, I almost stopped along side of the road, I was so amazed at how many Amish people were gathered. What amazed me more, was that I thought I saw some young Amish FLIRTING! I asked my mother-in-law about it, and she asked me if it was a Tuesday or a Thursday, and I told her it was a Tuesday. I learned, that the Amish have their weddings after the harvest on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In fact, yesterday, there was an Amish wedding across the road, which would account for why no one was home yesterday for me to buy milk from.

Amish weddings are a new topic for me. I never really wondered about them, but now, as a newlywed myself, I am facinated by them. So, I looked up some facts about them.

1. Amish weddings typically take place after harvest, when they have more free time. (The men aren't in the fields every day anymore)

2. A wedding typically takes place on Tuesday or Thursday.

3. A couple won't announce their engagement until a few weeks before their wedding. The courtship is pretty secretive.

4.  The bride does not typically wear a white dress, but it is an occasion for a new dress, and their attendants dress in the same color.

5. The men in the wedding wear shirts of the same color. Servers for the wedding wear colors the bride picks out for them.

6. The wedding meal typically has to serve 200-600 people, so the women of the community all gather the day before to prepare. (and I thought my wedding was big!)

7. Apparently celery is a big deal. It is one of the main foods of the wedding meal (the stuff the fowl with celery, creamed celery, and its used as appetizers) The Amish community can sometimes guess there is a wedding if the family is planting a lot of celery.

8. There is a morning church service, followed by the ceremony. After which is the feasting.

9. There is a tradition called "going to the table", which is overseen by two appointed married couples. All of the unmarried females between 16 and thirty are invited to go upstairs and sit in some of the bedrooms, while the men are all outside in the barns. The married couple has to convince the men to go upstairs and invite one of the girls to "go to the table". They are allowed to hold hands as they come down the stairs and sit at a long table.

10. The couple normally spends the night at the Bride's parents home in order to help clean up. Many couples will stay with one of their parents until they have a place to move into.

11. Sometimes the bride will match unmarried men and women to sit together for the evening meal. (Sounds like a fun job!)

Well, these are all the traditions and pictures that I have gathered from the internet. I will ask Jesse's family if they know of anymore, and to make sure these ones are accurate!

On the hunt

One of the big things in our life right now, is my hunt for a job. It has been... frustrating... discouraging. I am really thankful for how Jesse has challenged me to trust God's will, and also how he has challenged me to continue looking. In some ways, I was ready to give up after the first interview.

I have my Master's degree in Counseling. I would like to get a job in my field, but that doesn't seem to be the way things are working out. I think I have realized though, what I really want in a job, I really want to work a job that I believe in. I am afraid that I will get a job that I feel like I go to just to put hours in, I am afraid of feeling meaningless.

So what are the factors in getting a job:
- money (lets face it, the most basic reason that people get jobs, a need for money)
- something to do, get out of the house
- skill (does the job utilize your skills, do you have the skills required for the job)
- enjoyment (how many people say that they would like to find a job they enjoy? although, it seems like many end up not enjoying that enjoyable job)
- meaning (like I mentioned, you want to feel like your effort is worth something, meaning depends on the individual, what do they value)
- effort (how much is this job going to drain you)
- environment (are you going to feel comfortable with the environment, get along well with your co-workers, do you get breaks, etc)

These factors I believe also factor into the employers choice of employee:
- money (will they be satisfied with how much it pays?)
-skill (do they have the skill set needed to do the job well? will they excel in this job?)
-enjoyment (will they enjoy their job? or will they constantly be on the look out for greener grass?)
- meaning (will they believe in what the company is doing enough to continue at the company, and to go further in the company? Will they care about the best interest of the company?)
- effort (will they put in the amount of effort needed? or will the company have to put more effort into them to get the work done? will they meet the company half way?)
- environment (will they work well with the employees already in place? will it be a good work environment for them? if they work best with others, will they be around others? if they work best alone, is it a solo job?)

These are my thoughts today, from my experiences.

Pumpkin this, pumpkin that...

In the spirit of fall... I made 5 loaves of pumpkin bread, and then last night, me and Jesse decided to have waffles for dinner... and of course we ate the waffles in our pjs while watching Jeopardy and an episode of Pushing Daisies. Do you want to know what kind of waffles we had? We had PUMPKIN waffles! With apple cider syrup. I am writing to tell you, it was pretty much amazing. In fact, we plan to make them again on Saturday, that is how in love we are with these waffles!

Would you like the recipe?
I found it on allrecipes.com, but I will repeat it here for you, with some of the changes that we made.

Pumpkin Waffles:
1 cup pumpkin puree
4 eggs
2 cups milk
1/4 cup veg. oil
1/4 cup butter
(mix the above together)

In a separate bowl, mix:
1 cup flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
4 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup brown sugar

Mix the wet mixture and dry mix together. Use your preheated waffle iron, and put the batter in the waffle iron... etc. Yummy! (Just so you know, the pumpkin taste is very subtle)

Apple Cider Syrup:
1 cup apple cider
1/2 tbsp orange juice or 1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tbsp corn starch
t tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp. butter

Mix the cider, orange or lemon juice, sigar, cornstarch, and cinnamon together in a small sauce pan. Cook the mixture over medium heat until it starts to boil. Boil until the syrup begins to thicken. Remove from heat, and stir in the butter until melted. serve warm.