For a number of years, my daughter Lisa and I have attended the annual auction and sale held by a nearby Amish community. We have both long been fascinated by the Amish and love the opportunity to see their handiwork up close, as well as purchase a few items. It’s held in September every year and the proceeds go to fund their school. We went recently and it made me think of things we can learn from the Amish way of life.
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1. Home Cooking Tastes Best
One of the things Lisa and I look forward to at the Amish auction are the homemade cinnamon rolls. They are SO good! And so are the pies, bread, rolls, noodles, jams and jellies, and all the other tasty homemade treats. I cook most things from scratch but have gotten out of the habit of baking homemade bread and making my own yogurt. If life slows down a bit as summer draws to a close, I intend to get back to doing both of these things.
2. Simplicity
You may recall that the word I chose for my 2018 focus was “simplicity”. I can’t honestly say I’ve implemented as much simplicity in my life as I had hoped but it remains an important goal for me. The ways of the Amish may not be easy, but in many ways they exude simplicity. Everything from the clothes they wear to the way they decorate their homes demonstrates this quality. While my grandmother was not Amish, she did live her life in a very simple way and there is much about this which appeals to me.
3. Fashion Freedom
No one would call the Amish stylish but I suspect there’s a great deal of freedom associated with the way they dress. Imagine how easy it would be to get dressed each morning if your wardrobe only consisted of four dresses: one for wash, one for wear, one for dress, and one for spare. I have no plans to limit my wardrobe to four dresses but many are embracing the concept of a capsule wardrobe and that seems doable to me.
4. Working With One’s Hands is Satisfying
My favorite part of the Amish auction is admiring the gorgeous handmade quilts. They sell for around $1000 each so all I do is look. Each tiny stitch is nearly perfect and the patterns are truly works of art. Likewise, the handmade furniture is beautiful in its simple perfection. It’s certainly easier to buy bed coverings and home furnishings but that will never replace the satisfaction of a home filled with items made by one’s own hands. I’m not taking up quilt-making anytime soon and furniture building isn’t in my future at all. However, I’d love to learn how to crochet and perhaps embroider such things as tea towels and pillow cases.
5. Social Media and the Internet are Distractions
When we look at those gorgeous quilts and huge quantities of homemade goods for sale each year, Lisa and I always joke about how much more we might accomplish if we didn’t have computers or social media. Obviously, without access to a computer I wouldn’t be writing this blog. And social media is a great way to connect with friends, family and blog readers. But they can also be huge time wasters if we aren’t careful. I am experimenting with ways to cut down on the time I spend online in order to free up time for other pursuits. Expect a blog post on this topic sometime in the near future.
If you share my interest in the Amish and their way of life, here are some resources you might be interested in:
The Amish Way of Life and Culture – Everything you Wanted to Know!
You may also enjoy:
How Much is Enough?~ Contentment in a World of Excess
That last point is something I’ve been focusing on lately. I’ve been trying to stay active, to create things (via various avenues), staying busy, and focusing on things around the house instead of spending so much time online. It’s actually helped my mood, my attitude, my perspective on a lot of things… I still spend *some* time online, but I’ve been definitely making an effort to keep it to a minimum, and it shows in my productivity levels and all the things I’ve managed to get done. While I’d never want to live without the internet like the Amish, limiting its use definitely has its benefits. 🙂
It’s such a balancing act, isn’t it? I’m working on coming up with some personal “rules” about my online usage.
I agree about home cooking. I’m a bit out of the habit of it myself at the moment, because my health issues have meant we’ve been cheating a lot with buying ready prepared stuff. But I like to make stuff from scratch when I can, and not just because it gives me more variety to my meals as a vegetarian, but also because I always think it tastes better somehow. Plus, you get the satisfaction of not only knowing everything that’s in it, but being able to feel good that you mad it.
I can knit, but can’t crochet. I can sew too, though can’t promise my stitches will be totally neat and straight. I used to do cross stitch, but it started getting too difficult as my sight was going, so I stopped doing it. I’ve done embroidery too. I haven’t done any embroidery since I was in Girl Guides and embroidered some stuff in that. I don’t know that I’d be able to now… It’s doubtful. If I still had my plate bag from Guides, I’d take a picture to show you. It was made from a plain pillowcase, which I embroidered pictures of the pets we had at the time on to (a hamster, a Golden Retriever, and a cat) and made a drawstring opening for the opening so it could be pulled closed to keep my plate, bowl, cup, and cutlery safe during camping trips. I earned my toy maker badge from Girl Guides by making a doll using my sewing skills. I don’t have her any more though, because I gave her to a little girl I used to babysit.
I’m working on ways to reduce my online time too.
You are so right about food tasting better from scratch. And it really spoils you! Fortunately there are better quality/tasting prepared foods these days for those times when we need them. I do hope your health improves but in the meantime it’s nice to have easier options for meals.
I’ve always been fascinated with the Amish, too. I do a lot of home cooking, but I’m always thankful for the opportunity of take-out when I’m just not in the mood or don’t have time to cook. I need to set better boundaries for myself for staying off the computer and social media, that’s for sure. I have so many creative things I want to pursue and I know I’d have time if I limited my time on my computer and phone!
Those social media boundaries are certainly a challenge for me!
When you mention cooking from scratch, it brought back memories of when the boys were elementary aged, Bruce was in school, and I was cooking 3 meals a day, or at least providing them. My neighbor and fellow homeschooling mom of 9 kids, shared a couple of cookbooks with me. It was the Mennonite “more with less” cookbook, and it’s sequel. It was heavy on carbs, but we were far less conscious of them then. But, it was just plain, good recipes and advice, some of which was even usable! Lol. Mostly, it was pretty large quantities, but at that point in my life, if I could make enough of something for dinner that we could all have leftovers for lunch, that wasn’t a bad thing. I STILL make the cinnamon rolls from that cookbook. Did you use that one at some point?
I think I do have that cookbook. I don’t recall any specific recipes. I’ll have to look for it. 🙂