The Amish and My Mom

My mom and I set out to spend the day in Holmes County, Ohio to spend quality time with the Amish folks there. We left bright and early so that we could eat breakfast, do lunch, and even have dinner while in "Amish Country." On the way, I called The Man to check in and to tell him good morning. I let him know our plans for the day and he mentioned that he needed some office furniture for his new office....a coat tree and a little table for magazines. Shopping is my specialty, so it shouldn't be a problem! ;)

We started off having breakfast at Boyd & Wurthmann restaurant, where the locals eat. It's fun sitting in there among the local crowd having coffee and just relaxing. From there, we ventured out to shop at Sol's. It's a huge arts and crafts mall...HUGE! We spent about 2 hours in Sol's. I found a solid oak coat tree for The Man's office, so I bought it and hauled it out to Mom's car. Luckily, one of her back seats went down, so it fit in the back! It was a close call!

My mom is an avid quilter (I will focus an entire blog post on that at a later date), so we spent a lot of our day looking at material. We drove near and far looking at all of the quilting/material shops, in all of the little towns in the area. I'm not a seamstress or a quilter, but I fell in love with all of the different material that these shops had to offer, plus it's fun to chat with the workers in the shop. We seem to have the same fascination with one another. We found some special material for The Man at a shop in Charm (I think...either Charm or Millersburg), so we started talking about a lap quilt she was going to make for him. After purchasing the material, we went to the Helping Hands Quilt Shop in Berlin to look at more material. In the downstairs part of the Helping Hands, she showed me a quilt that was similar to the one she wanted to make for him. There was a sweet Amish woman, making a pair of man's pants, working in there. We stood and chatted with her for awhile.

We then decided to forgo lunch and have a piece of pie instead. We went back to Boyd and Wurthmann for my favorite: graham cracker cream pie. It is the nectar of the gods. It's a vanilla cream pie (obviously) in a graham cracker crust. It's topped with whipped cream and graham cracker crumbs. After our 'lunch', we were still on the hunt for material and a small table for The Man's office. We were successful in finding even more material...the table, not so much. On the way out of Berlin, we stopped at a huge Christmas store to look around. Fun!

By dinnertime we were starving so we decided to eat at the Dutch Valley Restaurant in Sugarcreek. Oh Mama! It has a buffet of luscious Amish made food...broasted and fried chicken, ham, roast beef, mashed potatoes, dressing, noodles, green beans, corn, casseroles, rolls, a variety of desserts, plus a full salad bar. Heaven!

From there, we hit just about every furniture store in Sugarcreek. Imagine our surprise when we ran into my uncle and aunt in one of them! How hilarious! I heard this, "Hellooooo!" on my left and thought to myself, "That's a crazy way to welcome a customer!" I turned around and it was my aunt! I gave her a huge hug and turned around to see my uncle at the counter signing papers for new furniture. They showed us the bedroom furniture that they just purchased and I told them I was looking for a little table for The Man's office. My aunt suggested a different store that they just visited. So, after visiting with them for a while in the store, Mom and I took off down the road to the other furniture store.....where we found the PERFECT little table! :)

After we found the table, we decided to head back to my mom's house. It's a 2 hour drive and we were exhausted. We literally shopped until we dropped.

We spent the day talking, laughing, shopping, talking, and laughing some more. I'm so fortunate to have my mother in my life. She truly is one of my best friends! We share many of the same interests (including the love of all things Amish). She is very non-judgmental and really sees the good in all people. I strive to be more like her every day!

I love you, MOM!