Mom, Alex and I joined the Amish community for Ladies Day yesterday. A quarterly event organized by mom's friend Barbara (our metabolic doctor's wife) we meet to talk about health topics, food, gardening, food preservation, etc. (topics are chosen by the group at each meeting) We met at the Hans Herr House in Willow Street yesterday, which was open with volunteers demonstrating blacksmithing, colonial period games, weaving linen, candle making, etc. Built in 1719, the Hans Herr House is where Anabaptist settlers first lived in Lancaster County, so it was a fitting place to visit with a group of mostly Amish and Mennonites.
We spent the morning walking around to the various buildings and demonstrations.
I sewed this dress using a vintage Butterick pattern from my mom's collection this week, and think I'll be making many more. I love the pleats in the front and it kept me feeling cool on a super hot day!
Alex liked drawing with a feather quill pen:
I took a picture of these mill wheels because they reminded me of when my Aunt Sondra (the turtle in the photo above is named "Woody Sondra," when we asked Alex what Woody's middle name was he chose "Sondra!") & Uncle Ben lived at a house on an old mill. There was a mill wheel like this in the yard, and I can vividly remember when my brother and I were playing with one of their cats. We set her down into the center of the wheel, and then had such a hard time getting her back out, I still remember that terrified feeling.
These mill wheels were there for a much more somber reason- the museum director told us that Anabaptists in Europe were killed by tying a rope through a mill wheel and then around a persons neck and throwing them in the river. The Herr family fled this persecution with their 7 children and after landing in Germantown, Pa. walked the 70 miles to settle in Lancaster County.
One of my favorite parts of Ladies Day is the food- we all bring a nutritionally dense potluck dish to share. When we got back to our chairs with our full lunch plates we found a little boy was laid down to nap on Alex's blanket. Instead of joining him for a nap, Alex raced circles all around the blanket while the boy napped, stopping every few minutes to flop down on the ground. Just when I thought he would sleep too he jumped up to run around some more. After lunch a man from the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society came to lead us in a hymn sing. Have you ever heard Amish and Mennonite acapella singing? Their hymn singing in German is just so beautiful, I closed my eyes to soak in the sound.
"Where are Alex's eyes?"
I'll be one of the speakers when we meet next in October. The group has been asking for about a year now for information on alternatives to plastic in the kitchen, and Barbara asked if I would speak about what I've been using instead of plastic. So I'll be sharing things like my cloth snack bags, making cloth bowl covers, using glass containers for leftovers, etc. Speaking to a group like this (there are typically 60-90 of us) is something I never would have done a few years ago, but I'm glad I'm brave enough to do it now and am looking forward to the ideas we'll share.