Amish beauty

There are so many times as I'm driving through "Amish land" I wish I had my camera. Well, I finally did on this day so I snapped a few pictures.

For the vast majority of what I've seen them do in their fields & around their homes (they have the most immaculate yards you've ever seen, I still plan to take a couple pictures of my favorite homes) they do not use modern equipment. Hence the old-time looking hay in rather artistic-looking piles.

This is one of their cemeteries. True to their mode of pure simplicity all the headstones look the same.

This was incredible. This guy was driving a team of EIGHT ginormous horses to till this field, standing up mind you. It's so far away because I didn't want him to see me taking his picture (they aren't allowed to have pictures of any people in their homes in any form...to my knowledge they believe it is like a graven image).

Well, as a further announcement, we are actually moving to "Amish Land" a.ka. the town of Grabill. It's closer to church (15 min instead of 25), Tony's work (20 instead of 35), the library (1 block instead of .5 miles :) , my FAVORITE store "Grabill Country Sales" home of the bulk products where I save oodles of money & discover some new awesomeness every visit (last time it was the 100% all-natural jam sweetened ONLY with juice & in tons of variety--can't wait to try the 'pear' flavor I got), the boys soccer team, etc...

One of the main reasons we wanted to move (aside from me being done with the 'no-laundry- facilities-in-our-apt' experience) was the school situation. Two elementary schools are combining & closing & so now all the 4th-12th graders will be in the same school--the high school. I'm just not a fan of that idea, even though it's supposed to be separated, etc. That on top of the fact that I found out I'm not supposed to teach music lessons here--not even for trade--& we decided it was time. This house has tons of work to be done (pictures will be following :), but it has some great potential (sneak preview: hardwood floors & a metal pole-barn especially suited for roller-skating people!) so we're really excited & I feel like we were led to this house & it's a huge blessing. In another 2 weeks we will have moved for the FOURTH time in THREE years. Let's hope we get to stay in this one longer than a year. That's the goal, but no promises.