Amish Country

I hope y'all had a wonderful Christmas season! I know I promised pictures of our trip to Amish Country a long while back, but I have been enjoying the flu and Christmas mania, so I haven't been up to writing! Now, however, I have a spare moment and a clear head, so I will resume the threads of our journey, and take you to Amish Country, Ohio with the few pictures I managed to snap. I apologize for the quality of the photos, because it was rainy most of the time I was unable to get good pictures.

There were buggies everywhere

Many of the farms had the dead corn stalks stacked in this way.

You couldn't be in a big hurry, as a buggy would inevitably be encountered on the way

An Amish homestead.

Many of the homes had windmill powered water pumps

The area was the most picturesque I have ever seen. It. was. beautiful.

This is the stuff puzzles are made of

The term "out in the middle of nowhere" was really true

 

Rolling hills everywhere you looked. Simply gorgeous.

Children at recess

Having a meeting

 



Happy New Year! I will write again in 2013!

Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are my family's absolute favorite cookies...period. They are always a hit at gatherings, too. Best of all, they can be healthier than most of the chocolate chip cookies consumed nowadays, if you use all natural and raw ingredients. Without further ado:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup homemade or organic butter
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp. aluminum free baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups freshly ground soft wheat flour

                            or

• 1 cup whole wheat flour & 1 cup all purpose white flour
• 2 cups organic plain oats
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or carob (more or less, as desired)

Preparation Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease two cookie sheets.
• In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light an fluffy.
• Add eggs and mix well.
• In a separate bowl, combine flour(s), baking soda, and salt.
• Add flour mixture to creamed mixture and stir until combined.
• Add oats and mix well.
• Stir in chocolate chips or.
• Roll dough, which should be slightly sticky, into 1.5 inch balls and place on cookie sheets.
• Bake for 11 - 14 minutes, or until slightly browned on edges. Do not over bake.
• If you do not plan on eating immediately, let cool for about 20 minutes, then place in container and cover with plastic wrap to hold in moisture. This way, you don't have dry, crunchy cookies.

Giveaway & Our Trip

I wanted to let y'all know about a giveaway going on right now at Accordion to Kellie. She is offering some delicious raw chocolate:

To enter, click here.



I am finally getting around to posting the pictures of our trip. Please forgive me for taking so long, I have been unbelievably busy, and will be for the remainder of December.

In late October my family and I made a trip up to the Creation Museum in Kentucky. After spending several days there, we travelled further north into Holmes County, Ohio, home of the world's largest Amish and Mennonite community. We had such an enjoyable time at both locations, and I captured just a bit of that on camera, so without further ado...pictures!

The first day at the museum we walked the gardens, as it was the only day it wasn't supposed to rain.


 



There were rocks throughout the garden with Scripture.

It. was. so. cold.

 

 

 

They were so pretty and well tended. At the end of the garden trail was the petting zoo.

 

Mom wants an Alpaca

I really want a pet Wallaby

I think this was a type of peacock

 

During that day, we also attended the planetarium program, which was absolutely stunning. If you ever visit the Creation Museum, spend the extra money on the planetarium. We looked for a long time in the bookstore....can you say "overwhelming"? I could have bought about 99% of the stuff in there. We also had the privilege of listening to two lectures from Dr. Terry Mortenson. He is an excellent speaker and his lectures were extremely interesting. That concluded day one.

 

On the second, and final, day of our visit to the museum, we went through the main walk. This included so many exhibits that I am unable to do it justice in pictures, but I do have a few. The main message was the seven C's of history: creation, corruption, catastrophe, confusion, Christ, cross, and consummation. They had various exhibits also about the church and the many movements away from the Bible throughout the ages. It was a wonderful and interesting exhibit, to say the least.

 

This is an amazing quilt a lady from Canada made an donated to the Creation Museum.

This is a replica of a fossil found in Ohio.

The sculptured people in the exhibits were very lifelike.

Here I am beside a replica of Lucy

The holograms were awesome

Martin Luther nailing his thesis to the door.

 



 



This thing moved!

 

 

We had our pictures taken by the photographers that work there, and they take and put them on different backgrounds. Here are some of my favorites:

 

 

 

We also got to attend a lecture on the second day by Dr. Georgia Purdom. She did an excellent job explaining the complexity of the human body...all I could say was "Wow!" The Creation Museum was the best museum I have ever been to, not just because it was correct, but it also was so carefully thought out and well done. They certainly did not spare any expense in putting the exhibits together. I would highly recommend a trip to the Creation Museum for every family!

 

I have officially spent too much time posting today, so I will post Amish country pictures next week. Stay tuned! Also, don't forget about the giveaway going on at Accordion to Kellie.