Follow me to a ladies’ work day.
Amish traditions, ideas, and practices vary drastically from one church to the next, but my guess would be that most Amish housewives wash off the interior of their house once, or some even twice a year.
Since it is a major task, we enjoy teaming up and helping one another. After all, it’s nice being together more than just on Sundays.
Today was a workday at my sister-in-law Virginia’s house. Most of the ladies brought their horse and buggy and others came with a driver. Stepping inside Virginia’s house, I smelled cleaners, a quick glance revealed that curtains had been taken off to be laundered. I scanned the list on the kitchen table. The upstairs of her house, including walls, windows, and furniture was in need of a cleaning.
I chose the boys’ bedroom. Filling up a bucket with hot water I squirted in some soap and added a dash of white vinegar. I decided to work from top to bottom. The ceiling and walls were not super dirty, just dusty with some tell tale marks of flies and a few spiders they had been fighting.
Joshua, who had come with me, played at the toy cabinet just outside the bedroom door. When the walls and ceiling were done I began washing off the bedroom suite. “This is probably a set Daniel made,” I mused. As I worked alone my thoughts kept rolling, “... much has changed since that work day seven years ago, when Daniel called to let me know he got a call from DCFS with our first foster placement (which ended in adoption).”
Usually I enjoyed working with someone else, but today it felt good to be by myself, and God, of course. I showed Joshua the fox hide on the dresser that had been dried and cured. Antlers and turkey calls were more markings of things the boys enjoyed doing.
With the floor scrubbed and furniture polished, I headed back for the list. I was amazed at how swiftly the list was being scratched off. By now ladies were all over, cleaning something somewhere. I stuck the casserole in the oven and by 11:30 everything was marked off the list and we were ready to sit down and eat together. The many times Virginia helped others’ clean their house came back to bless her before the new baby arrived.
One lady brings a hot dish and the others all pitch in with their choice of salad or dessert. I have been astonished many times over, how the meal ends up having a perfect balance of everything. Today there was coleslaw, pie, cake, fruit slush, tapioca, and jello yogurt.
By 12:30 the dishes were washed and people were heading back home.
Ah, the wonder of being home in my own house again. Joshua and I filled our water bottle and headed straight for the cabin where he is now napping and I am writing. In less than an hour the children will be home, so I’ll need to start think of heading back and getting an after school snack on the table. Stories from all five of the school children are poured out over this time. We’re working at the skill of only one person talking at a time, but we haven’t mastered it yet.
After snack the children will be teamed up by twos and sent off to do some tasks before having off time until supper.
The first grade boys will probably be wondering about workday. This morning it was hard for them to imagine that they will be going to school instead of workday with me, as they had always done in years gone by.
Okay, there are several recipes I’d like to pass on; maybe for today we’ll go with our fresh fruit slush. It is similar to what we had today. The children, down to Joshua, help me peel and slice bananas to make this slush for the school lunches. For our next batch, I’m going to try adding tropical fruit for a different twist.
Whenever I find bananas on sale I’ll buy a box full and whatever we don’t eat fresh, is turned into slush, only we don’t really go by an exact recipe. Recently Joshua, my little raspberry guy, helped pick raspberries from our patch which we put in. We all enjoyed that for a change. My sister Faith likes strawberries in hers. Grapes, blueberries, and pineapples also add a yummy dimension.
Fruit Slush
1-quart sliced peaches
Six bananas, sliced
6 oz. orange juice concentrate
1 cup of water
1/2 cup sugar or to taste
One tsp. stevia (optional)
Instructions
Stir all together, refrigerate or freeze. If you like, try adding a handful of grapes, blueberries, raspberries or some crushed pineapple for some extra flavor.
Gloria Yoder is an Amish house-wife in rural Illinois. She is the third writer of The Amish Cook column since its inception in 1991. Yoder can be reached by writing: The Amish Cook, P.O. Box 157, Middletown, Ohio 45042.
