February 11, 2016
I just want to remember today forever.
I went to Bertha Graber, our Amish friend because she told me she
might be making noodles sometime this week. When I got to her house
around two, she had just started the rolling of the dough. For the
next few hours I helped her make noodles. She first cut it into
little pieces, then we rolled it three different times, each time
getting it thinner and longer than before. After we did that to all
of the pieces, we hung them up to dry on her clothes drying rack.
After 5 minutes we flipped them all over, and let them dry for 5 more
minutes. Then we put them through the piece that cuts them into
individual noodles. She let me put every piece through the machine
for getting them thinner, and then for cutting the noodles too. She
said that she has 3 boys in the field who would all be jealous of me
and how I got to use the noodle maker instead of them. :) Sorry boys!
We laid them out 1 layer thick in cake
pans, where they were brought upstairs and onto a spare bed with
clean sheets, and laid all over the bed. She said she will go and
move them around every few days. She will keep them on the bed until
the middle of March (about 1 month). Then, she will pack them lightly
into 4 gallon containers. She will use these noodles all year...that
should give you a hint as to how many noodles we made. She has a
family of 9.
http://www.thekitchn.com/kitchen-equipment-choosing-a-p-74531
All the while that we worked, we talked
and I learned so much from her, and her older, Amish wisdom. She is
about 55, a little larger, very neat and tidy. She wore a dark blue
dress, with a black apron and a black bonnet. She is very quick and
hustles all about the kitchen doing many things at once. She told me
that her morning has been so full and busy with making the noodle
dough, cleaning the house, hand washing all of the family's laundry
(remember 9 people), and baking cookies for their lunch pails. (She
gave me some cookies by the way- the BEST molasses cookies I have
ever tasted.)
We talked about parenting, and she
spoke of how some people “child-proof” their house. She said
that was ridiculous, and she just tells her kids “No.” and then
gives them a little spank if they don't listen. She says it always
works. She told me a story of one time she had a beautiful glass
vase that was on the table. The children started to go near it, so
she just moved it up high onto a shelf that she thought was
impossible to reach. The kids climbed onto the table and reached the
glass vase. She said that was when she learned that there is no
point in “child-proofing” a house, because they will always learn
to find a way around the child-proofing. You need to teach your
children the word “No” and consequences. She told me of an old
saying, “A child will never burn their hand on the stove twice.”
It was amazing to see her with her
little grandchildren. Little Bertha was 3, and Danny was 2. She let
them play for most of the afternoon, but when we needed their help,
she called them right in, and gave them each a cake pan with a layer
of noodles and had them walk up the stairs to their mother waiting by
the extra bed to take the noodles and put them on the bed. I was
amazed at the 3 and especially the 2 year old walking up stairs- and
while carrying a pan with both hands! Start them young! Every time
I go over to Bertha's house her kids are busy helping with something.
Don't get me wrong, they can play and have fun, but that is after
the work is done.
Little Bertha fell off a bench at the
table and hit her head. Grandma Bertha went over to her, picked her
up, told her she was fine, stop screaming, and put a pan in her hands
and told her to take it to her mother right away. There was no
babying her. It was a hand up, and carry on with life.
I asked her about the beliefs of the
Amish. She told me they believe in the Bible. So do we. Then she
clarified, “only the King James version.” So do we. They
believe in being saved by faith and working. So do we. She then
clarified that they do NOT believe that they can just “repent”,
say they are sorry, and carry on making the same mistakes as before
and expect to be saved, but that you actually have to try to be
better, improve, and be a good person. Hey, so do we. She told me
she is friends with another “Mormon” lady ( Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints), and they talked about religion before
and she realized that Mormons are very similar to Amish in beliefs
and standards. She did say that they are allowed alcohol and
cigarettes, but not excessively, and when it turns to an addiction,
it is against their religion. I asked her why Amish don't use
technology, and she said, “Where does it stop? If I use some
technology for one thing, and then it leads to use of it for another,
and another, and another, and at some point it is too much, and takes over your life. We don't
use it or own it for anything, so it will stop.” I agree,
technology can be a slippery slope. I know that technology can be
wonderful (I'm using it right now!), but there are also many damaging
things caused by technology.
Bertha sent me away today with a pan of
noodles, a bag full of cookies, a container of homemade strawberry
yogurt made with strawberries from their garden and the yogurt made
with milk from their cows, and three recipe cards (noodles, yogurt,
and molasses cookies), and an afternoon of memories I will never
forget. It was incredible. I wish I could have taken pictures of
our time together- but Amish don't do pictures and I wanted to
respect her and their religion. I LOVE learning of and immersing
myself in other cultures. That was a reason I loved Argentina so
much. I got to learn their culture and spend time with them in their
homes, getting to know individuals and their stories. That is why I
loved India and spending a few weeks there eating in peoples homes,
learning their stories, eating their food, dressing in saris with a
red bindi on my forehead. I thought my days of travel were over when
I settled down and had my baby, but no! I am learning I can learn of
other people and other cultures here and now.
February 12, 2016
Around 10:30 this morning about 15
minutes after I put the kids down for a nap, there was a knock on the
door and a young Amish boy stood there, with his horse tied at the
fence. He said his mom was making noodles again this morning. I
asked when she was going to start, and he said, “As soon as you get
there!” I hurried up, packed up the babies, and ran off to
Bertha's house. This time I was there to see how they mixed it from
the beginning. I had to leave for an appointment for one of the
kids, but by the time I got back, we were rolling it through the
noodle maker again. We finished the big batch, ate a lot of molasses
cookies, and were on our way.
