Breakfast, Casseroles, Vegetables

Elizabeth hosts the family for brunch, family games, and birthdays

2 Comments
This column will bring us more than halfway through 2017 already! My arms are sore this morning from all the painting we did yesterday. Sister Emma and I helped paint three rooms at our sisters Verena and Susan’s house yesterday. The new floor will be put down next week so we wanted the painting done before … Continue Reading ››
Casseroles, The Essential Amish Kitchen, Vegetables

Enjoying summer vegetables makes meal planning easier

3 Comments
Our weather has been hot and humid this week. This morning it is looking like it could rain. We need rain and it would also cool everything off. Daughter Elizabeth and sweet little Abigail came yesterday to spend the day. We did laundry, which seemed extra huge with bedding and curtains in the wash. We washed … Continue Reading ››
Cakes, Desserts

Daughter Verena updates all the Eicher family doings: from cleaning to pontooning

5 Comments
Hello! I hope you are all doing well. This is Lovina’s nineteen-year-old daughter, Verena, writing. Mom was so tired so I told her I’ll take her place for this week. Loretta received this lovely birthday gift for her 17th birthday July 1 from her mother … Continue Reading ››
Breads and Muffins, Breakfast, Cakes, Casseroles, Desserts

With husband and children on vacation, Lovina serves up extra recipes

4 Comments
We recently butchered our old laying hens and canned around fifty quarts of chicken broth. My husband, Joe, and our children are home on vacation the week of July 4. So this week I’m sharing some extra recipes. The Eicher family canned chicken broth … Continue Reading ››
Salads

That time the toddler conspired to free the baby from the playpen . . .

5 Comments
Another week has gone by, and it’s time to get another column on its way. This will wrap up June already. Half of 2017 is now history. We are invited to a wedding in Berne, Ind., tomorrow for Lana, the daughter of one of Joe’s cousins. She is getting married to my cousin’s son, Abe. It … Continue Reading ››
Cakes, Desserts, Vegetables

What happens when Lovina accidentally sleeps in—until 6:30 a.m.

2 Comments
It is already Thursday forenoon, and I still don’t have this column on its way! I made an attempt to write it last night after everyone went to bed, but I kept dozing off. I finally gave up and decided I would write it this morning. Well, my day didn’t start out as intended. I woke … Continue Reading ››
Cakes, Desserts

Hot, humid days mean it’s time for haying—and a water fight

2 Comments
June 14, 2017: Twenty-three years ago today my husband, Joe, and I became parents for the first time. We were blessed with a little girl. We named her after my mother, Elizabeth. Since her marriage on August 14, 2015, she goes by the name Mrs. Timothy (Elizabeth) Bontrager. A little girl, Abigail, was born to … Continue Reading ››
Casseroles, Meats, Noodles

Son’s eighth-grade graduation tugs at Lovina’s heartstrings

4 Comments
It’s a sunny pleasant evening in June. The temperature stayed in the low 70s today. Tomorrow evening we will be putting in hay. It has been a good week for haymaking. Last night our family attended the eighth-grade graduation for the class of 2017. Son Joseph was among the twenty students who graduated. Sixteen boys and … Continue Reading ››
Casseroles, Noodles

Pie-baking, wagon-riding and book-signing usher in the month of June

4 Comments
We turn another page on the calendar today. Month number six already in 2017! Tomorrow is the big day for niece Rosa and Menno. I wish them many happy, healthy years together. May God be their guide through the good and bad times in their marriage. It takes effort from both sides to make a marriage … Continue Reading ››
Cookies, Desserts

Remembering the deep grief of seven years ago

May 24—this date always takes my thoughts back to May 24, 2010. The day started out just like any other day. I was out on the porch watering the flowers while the children waited for the bus. The bus came and I could hear our phone ringing in the pole barn. I decided to finish … Continue Reading ››