By: Lovina Eicher

We attended the wedding Thursday of Matthew and Leanna. Daughter Elizabeth and her friend Timothy were witnesses at the wedding. Matthew is Timothy's brother.

The bride chose the color navy that the two girl witnesses and the bride wore along with a white cape and apron. In this community the bride gets married wearing a black head covering and after she is married she switches to white and will never wear a black covering again.

At Amish weddings there are usually two couples that are witnesses at a wedding, one for the bride and one for the one groom. Usually it is a brother or sister or close friend of the bride and groom.

Services start about 9 a.m. and usually the couples are married by 11:30 a.m. or noon. Afterward a big dinner is served to all the guests. The menu on Thursday was mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, dressing, poor man's steak, cabbage salad, homemade bread, butter and jam, a variety of colorful cakes, key lime, chocolate-vanilla pudding pie and grape Jell-O pudding.

Tables are set up in a big building that can seat quite a few people at one time. It varies on how big the building is as to how many tables can be set up. The couple has around 12 to 16 couples who serve as table-waiters, usually sisters, brothers, cousins or close friends of the bride and groom.

Yesterday our church services were held at our neighbor's home. We have Communion twice a year and yesterday was one of those occasions. It was a nice and chilly day. Seems the weather has been staying cool and we don't get very warm days.

I started a fire in the stove in the basement this morning. The house feels better with some heat in it.

We burn our coal during the winter months but on days like this we burn wood. That is an extra chore to keep going downstairs and adding more wood. I guess I am spoiled because, during the winter when we are burning coal, I only have to add coal once a day. Our stove has a coal hopper and it only has to be filled twice a day during the winter months, I usually fill it in the morning and Joe fills it at night.

We got quite a bit of wood from the trees that were uprooted in our yard earlier this spring. We also sold three of the big logs to the local sawmill. We still need to get someone to move the big tree stumps. One of the branches of the oak tree was stuck down into the ground 3½ to 4 feet. We are thankful no one was close to it when it fell.

Sister Liz, Levi and four of their children stopped in on Saturday for a short visit. They had my sisters Susan and Verena with them. They had been to one of Levi's brothers in this community for dinner. They bought a covered buggy from him at an auction. Levi was taking the buggy back home to Berne, Ind. They will sell their open buggy, which they bought from us when we moved to Michigan, and use the covered one from now on. I am sure they will like it a lot better in the cold winter months and when it rains.

The community in Berne has open buggies but now several churches are allowing covered buggies. When we lived in Berne we had to drive in open buggies. I thought I would have a hard time getting used to a covered buggy. Now I think I would have to get used to driving in the open buggy during the cold winter months. We use a lot fewer coats driving in the covered buggy. When it rained our coats would get dirty from the wheels splattering mud up on us. Some people in this community have small propane heaters in their buggies but we still do not have one.

Today after the laundry is done we plan to can some rhubarb juice. My rhubarb is really big already. Try this delicious recipe for homemade rhubarb juice!

Ingredients:

8 lbs. rhubarb, diced

8 quarts water

2 (12-ounce) cans frozen orange juice

2 (46-ounce) cans pineapple juice

4 c. sugar

2 (3-oz.) boxes strawberry gelatin

Directions:

Combine rhubarb and water and cook until rhubarb is soft. Drain, discarding rhubarb, and add the rest of ingredients to the juice. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Put hot juice into jars, seal and cold pack for five minutes.

By: Lovina Eicher

There is a lot more activity going around here this morning because six of our children are home from school on spring break.

It makes it a little harder for me to concentrate to sit down and write this column. I should have written this before everyone was awake, but the extra sleep sure gave me a better start.

We had a delicious meal of homemade breakfast burritos before starting our day.

It is now 10 a.m. and everyone is busy doing something. Elizabeth, 17, and Susan, 16, are gathering laundry that needs to be washed. Verena, 14, Loretta, 11, and Lovina, 7, are washing dishes and sweeping the floors. Benjamin, 12, Joseph, 9, and Kevin, 6, are headed out to the barn to clean out the chicken coop.

Elizabeth found out the twins that she babysits for are sick so she does not have to go to work today.

After she is done with laundry she wants to work on getting her dress, cape and apron cut out and start sewing on it. Her friend Timothy's brother is getting married in a few weeks. Timothy and Elizabeth will each have a part in the wedding and she needs a certain color of dress.

I am enjoying sewing on my sewing machine again since our friend stopped by to give my machine a tune-up.

It was the first time in nine years that it has had one. It is really working well again. Sewing is so much more fun and easier if your sewing machine works OK.

I started to make Kevin a few more pants and it looks like Joseph needs a few more.

It doesn't take long for the boys to have holes in their pants. I need to put patches on them for the ones they wear at home and make new ones for school.

Easter will be Sunday already so the children want to color eggs this week. I will probably not let them color as many dozens as we usually did.

Our chickens are laying around 16 eggs a day so it is getting hard to keep up outside. We want to get another batch of little chicks started this spring. We plan to order some broilers to butcher so we have our own chicken in the freezer.

The grocery store where we bought meat when we needed it has closed.

We miss it because it was only five miles from here and a quick, easy run with the horse and buggy. It was on the outside edge of town and we didn't have to battle traffic on the busy highway.

Now we'll have to drive the horse and buggy farther and onto more crowded roads to go to a grocery store.

Also on our list to do this week is to make some horseradish to use with the hard-boiled eggs for Easter. We will have church services at our neighbors for Easter Sunday.

Joe will be off from work this Good Friday. We will hide eggs for the children on Friday because we won't be home Sunday.

The children like to find candy-filled eggs out in the yard. All of these activities are fun but we always make the children understand what the true meaning of Easter is.

Lovina's eye had a bad scratch on the cornea last week. She was home from school for three days with a very painful eye.

One day last week she asked me if she could have carrots for lunch. She said, "I heard eating carrots are good for your eyes." It made me smile that she thought of that. The eye doctor prescribed some eye drops and it seemed to help heal the eye.

Now she doesn't act like she has any side effects from it.

Jacob, Emma and family had dinner here yesterday. Joe grilled T-bone steaks and we also had mashed potatoes, gravy, tea, macaroni and cheese, carrot sticks and ranch dip, sliced cheese, white cake, rhubarb coffeecake, cherry delight and peaches. Lovina mixed the white cake so she was proud to see it all ate up.

I will share the recipe for the white cake.

INGREDIENTS:
1 c. water
1 c. butter or margarine
2 c. sugar
Pinch salt
2&? c. flour
2 eggs
2 t. vanilla
1&½ t. soda
? c. buttermilk

Directions:

In a saucepan boil the water and add the butter. Mix the sugar, salt and flour and add to the hot butter-water mixture and beat. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat. Pour into a greased 15-by-10-inch jelly roll pan. Bake at 325° for 15 to 20 minutes. Add frosting if desired.