A few highlights from the past week

I always seem to have neat things happen to me during the week as I’m working.  I try to make a note of them for posts like this one.

Last week I was treated to a rendition of the Noah’s Ark song (sung to the tune of ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’, by five sisters, ages fifteen to two.  I’d heard the Amish sing from the Ausbund before, but never the more playful tunes in English.  Very nice.

Later that evening I sat in a contractor’s kitchen as his three daughters one-by-one hopped up on his lap and sang their prayers to him as they always do before bed.  The last one, the youngest, sort of hummed the tune as she didn’t quite know the words yet.  Afterwards he tried to translate the words of the prayer for me.  Really a special thing.

I also ran into my first-ever salesperson Amish mom.  She sells kitchenware among the community.  She likes it and is apparently is doing quite well.  I can see why as she has a very gregarious personality and a natural enthusiasm.

A number of moms have their own source of income, some as business owners–craft shops, quiltmakers and bakeries are not unusual businesses for Amish women to have.  Typically Amish women will work before marriage, sometimes as teachers or waitresses, but usually give it up to be at home with the kids.

Some will stay on though, like the laid-back waitress mom at the diner I ate at in Indiana last summer.  She managed work one or two days a week, a home and two little kids–no small feat.