Making an Amish Dress

 I'll give you a bit of history about this subject in order for you to grasp our familiarity with the Amish community.  We live next to six large, Old Order Amish communities.  We spend a lot of time with several different Amish families and have made some great friends.  Our daughters play together.  This picture is of our daughter (which explains the white tennis shoes) trying on one of their dresses.  She absolutely loves these dresses.  Trying to make one of these dresses isn't because we feel she needs to wear these dresses, however, they

Can you sleep when the wind blows?

Years ago, a farmer owned land along the Atlantic seacoast.  He constantly advertised for hired hands. Most people were reluctant to work on farms along the Atlantic.  They dreaded the awful storms that raged across the Atlantic, wreaking havoc on the buildings and crops.  As the farmer interviewed applicants for the job, he received a steady stream of refusals.

Finally, a short, thin man, well past middle age, approached the farmer. 'Are you a good farm hand?' the farmer asked him. 'Well, I can sleep when the wind blows,' answered the little man.

Although puzzled by this answer, the farmer, desperate for help, hired him. The little man worked well around the farm, busy from dawn to dusk, and the farmer felt satisfied with the man's work. 

Then one night the wind howled loudly in from offshore.  Jumping out of bed, the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed next door to the hired hand's sleeping quarters. He shook the little man and yelled, 'Get up! A storm is coming!  Tie things down before they blow away!'  The little man rolled over in bed and said firmly, 'No sir. I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows.'

Enraged by the response, the farmer was tempted to fire him on the spot. Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm.  To his amazement, he discovered that all of the haystacks had been covered with tarpaulins.  The cows were in the barn, the chickens were in the coops, and the doors were barred.  The shutters were tightly secured. Everything was tied down. 

Nothing could blow away. The farmer then understood what his hired hand meant, so he returned to his bed to also sleep while  The wind blew. 

MORAL OF THIS STORY
When you're prepared, spiritually, mentally, and physically, you have nothing to fear. Can you sleep when the wind blows through your life?  The hired hand in the story was able to sleep because he had secured the farm against the storm.  We secure ourselves against the storms of life by grounding ourselves in the Word of God. 

We don't need to understand, we just need to hold  
His hand to have peace in the middle of storms.

This story is one that caught my attention a long time ago.  It's one of those that sticks in my mind when I try to take short cuts or procrastinate......I like my sleep, so things get put up and tied down, life is prepared for......prayers are prayed,  soft quiet moments are taken with my husband and children, we are grateful for the simpler things in life and we sleep very well.

Resurrection Day...Rejoice!!!

 

Lord have mercy on me, a sinner...

This powerful video can say more than my words could ever say on this Resurrection Day.  May we all truly remember His sacrifice, 

His gift of grace, 

His enduring love.

What's For Dinner?

I know I'm not the only one spending more time outside than inside these days and if you're like me, you lose track of time trying to get one more plant transplanted or one more garden bed tilled and fertilized.  Today was one of those days.  There was only enough time to throw some odd thing together, but what?  While I cooked up some hamburger meat I tried to figure out what to do with it and began going through the cupboards.  There was some whole wheat spaghetti noodles so I boiled some water for those...grabbed a jar of fresh spaghetti sauce and coated the bottom of a cake pan with some sauce.  Drained the noodles and put them in the cake pan, swirling them through the sauce and then added the hamburger....sprinkled the top with some rainbow garden peppers and covered it with shredded and Parmesan cheese, then put it in the oven for 20 minutes on 350.  The family loved it and it was one of the easiest things I've done.  Colorful too with red, yellow, green and purple peppers on it!

Do you remember in my last post that none of the chicks were supposed to be named?  Well meet Amy, the local

Spring Time on the Homestead

 

Nothing says spring like new chicks!  Lots has been going on here on the ole' homestead with spring being well under way.  The peach blossoms have come and gone, the Magnolia blooms are falling, the gooseberry bushes are blooming, the chicks are cheeping and there is

Free 3 Month Trial with HSLDA

Don't miss out on this wonderful offer!  If you have heard of HSLDA, or if you home school and haven't heard of them.....this is an excellent opportunity to familiarize yourself with who they are and how they will protect you as homeschoolers.  HSLDA stands for Home School Legal Defense Association.  Here is a small paragraph from their information page to tell you who they are....

Home School Legal Defense Association is a nonprofit advocacy organization established to defend and advance the constitutional right of parents to direct the education of their children and to protect family freedoms. Through annual memberships, HSLDA is tens of thousands of families united in service together, providing a strong voice when and where needed.  

 HSLDA is offering 3 free months as a trial offer.  After that, the monthly fees are only $10.  They are an incredible legal force to have for protecting our rights as homeschoolers and

Our Modest Taste of Dressing

To follow up on my previous post, I would first like to say that I write from my heart......my human heart.  I am not the most eloquent with words and may not speak with love and gentleness all the time.  This blog is strictly my opinion, in which will hopefully give support to the many women who are having the same struggles that I am having.......I do realize there are going to be women who come across my posts and think I am attempting to gather flies with vinegar instead of honey.....that isn't the case.  As my Pastor says, when we speak truth of scripture, people who are not in line with that scripture will want to shoot the messenger. 

It has also been brought to my attention that there are other ways to dress than what I mentioned.  I agree, there are many other ways of dressing, ways of dressing according to the world.  The question is, are you dressing in a way that honors God? 

The choices we have made for our family, about how we dress, is between God and us.  I am not here to "push" it on anyone else, that is between God and them.  We dress in a very "prairie" way because that is our taste.  As each woman begins to turn her heart towards dressing modestly, she will begin her own journey.  As a Christian we grow into our own faith, our faith may not look like the faith of our parents....meaning maybe your parents are missionaries and you are not being called as a missionary, but as a writer.  God has called each of us for a different purpose with one goal.  Likewise, our own sense of modesty will be different from one anothers, but should prayerfully be towards one goal.....to honor God.

In saying all of that.....here are some pictures that illustrates our way of dressing.  Since I am usually the one behind the camera, there aren't any pictures of me but my daughter and I dress in the same manner.

The above skirt is one that can be worn with a pretty blouse, sweater.... we both have this style of skirt.

The above jumper is a chore dress for working in the garden, the pasture, with the livestock....

The above dress is worn for church and for town.

 

The above dress is strictly worn as a chore dress around the farm.....it has gotten more snug than we care for and now is worn with a shirt over it.  Since the skirt is a great skirt, it will soon be made into just a skirt or with a new bodice if I can find the time with planting season coming on fast.

This is a picture I was able to catch a few years ago when our grand daughter was visiting.  It shows how different our dress was then compared to now.  Now, we would never show that much skin on our arms, not only for modest reasons, but also for reasons of sun exposure.

If you have already been blessed by knowing who Stacy McDonald is....here is a bit of her writing on scriptural modesty.  Below is a link to her whole text.

We as women love to adorn ourselves. Before redemption, many of us “adorned” ourselves in provocative clothing that was purposely intended to entice and seduce men. Some may have adorned themselves in costly jewelry or expensive clothing to pridefully flaunt their wealth or status to others. How does God say we should “adorn” ourselves? “In modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety…” We must honestly ask ourselves (and our husbands!) if this describes our current wardrobe. The Christian woman should not be "focused" on outward appearance. Men are attracted to the female form. If we´re showing ours off, purposely or not, we´re not being modest! Shorts show off legs. Plain and simple. Tight or low blouses show off other things. Pants can also show off the crotch area and the bottom. (I don't know how to say that more politely!) 

Please see the whole text at "Let's Talk Modesty".

I would like to thank you for all of your supportive comments, sometimes we feel so alone as we make this journey and it is SUCH a blessing to hear from others who rally around us, letting us know we are on the right path.  What is SO frustrating is standing in the midst of other professed Christian women that give us so much grief due to our choice to dress modestly.  There have been times, in church, where we are almost verbally attacked because we choose to dress differently and for some reason it offends some other women.  I truly believe that most of the comments and questions are due to curiosity, but most are never said with love and gentleness. 

There is the occasional comical discussion where someone attempts to "liberate" my way of thinking.  They will literally take it upon themselves to feel the need to free my "legalistic" ways.  As if I truly believe that if I dress "holy" enough, that will gain me my salvation.  It is interesting when after I patiently listen to all that they have to say and I respond softly with answers to why we dress the way that we dress, backing it up with scripture, reassuring them that it is something we do to honor God and not to work our way into His good graces, they listen whole-heartedly. 

One of the many things I have learned is when I step out, voicing my convictions and testimony, it gives others the strength to follow.  Never underestimate your ability to speak truth into someone's life!  Your voice may be used by God to say just the right thing to the one person who is waiting to hear it!