Seattle just might be the place to live Gluten Free

It's been a frustrating couple of weeks with my diet, a visit to the ER, feeling bad, a detox gone wrong, and lots and lots of blood tests. Whenever I am feeling bad, I start reading alot of blogs, especially Gluten Free Girl. Tonight I read a posting where they cooked at a farm to gluten free people.  In fact, you can only go there if you or someone close to you is living a gluten free life. It looked and sounded like heaven to me.  I'm beginning to feel that nothing this side of heaven is going to fix me.  Do you think that Paul's problem was gluten?  You know, his thorn in the flesh?  haha!  However, I digress. After reading this article on Dinner at the farm and reading about the restaurants and stores in Seattle, it seems to me that Seattle is the one place on this planet that caters to people with gluten problems.  I'm not sure I would like the whole overcast thing, but I can only dream of visiting there someday and checking out the gluten free community first hand.

DIY Wedding at the Farm

Logan & Emilie Hoffman

Marlin made all the signage for the wedding according to Emilie's specifications.  They were all old boards that we had in the granary.  She tried to incorporate as many home relics as possible.

The Barn by Day



Emilie used old windows for the seating charts.



I spent the year prior to the wedding going from Goodwills to Flea Markets to Rummage Sales all over the state looking for dishes and napkins.  Emilie was going for Shabby Chic and she didn't want the dishes to match. We used Blue Ball Jars (thanks Grandma & Grandpa Hoffman) and old bottles (thanks Barb & Jim!) for vases.  We picked all of the wildflowers that were used. Joe & Emilie got up early and went to Seasecapes (actually now called Garden Gate Greenhouse near Peru, Indiana) to pick flowers while Marlin, Courtney, Colleen and I went to pick the wild ones).

 

 The Schrock aunts and cousins along with Joe & Barb put the flowers in the vases the morning of the wedding and set them all out so they were fresh. I sewed the flags and put a number on the middle flag so people would know which table was theirs.  We used pieces of my grapevine (thanks to the rabbits eating my grapevine at the base last winter I had plenty of grapevine to use) to tie the flags to and inserted them into the jars.

 Emilie said that she wanted her wedding to be about Community and everyone helping together and she certainly achieved that from girl friends helping to set the tables to friends cleaning up the church after the wedding and more friends helping to clean up the barn and load the trailer after the wedding was done.

The tables were set with cream colored tablecloths and oznaburg runners. Grandma Schrock made the runners. She just tore the runners so that the ends were slightly raveled. There was no sewing involved and they looked wonderful!  We folded the napkins in half and placed them under the plate so that they hung down.  All of the napkins were vintage linens that I picked up here and there (thanks again Barb for your help in finding the napkins). My mom, Grandma Schrock, & Barb helped me iron and starch the napkins.  That is definitely a lost art that sometimes I think our generation has lost. It was fun to revive it for this moment.

CD's were set out for the guests to take. We actually made the envelopes by sewing a seam down the side and then gluing a button on the flap. Emilie made flags (see the one in the jar above) that we used to wave instead of using bird seed or rice when the couple was leaving.

The littlest bridesmaid, my Kati Girl

 Emilie made cookies for all the guests to take as a thank you for celebrating their special day. We tied the bag with twine and pinned a cute little button to the twine that she had drawn of her and Logan. I think she did a great job of capturing both their personalities.

 Emilie is known for her pie baking far and wide and wanted pies, not cake, for her wedding dessert.  I told her we were definitely not going to bake the pies ourselves.  When Ben and Joe got married, we bought pies from the Traverse Bay Pie Company and Emilie wanted to carry on the tradition.  Fortunately, the Traverse Bay Pie Company opened up a store in Greenwood, Indiana last year.  They were great to work with and even delivered the pies pipping hot right out of the oven!

The menu consisted of Soup & Salad with an array of cheese & crackers, and homemade biscuits, corn muffins, and rolls. All of the recipes were family recipes and adaptations of recipes that we have found over the years.

The food was served in the little cabin next to the barn. 

Schrockapalooza at the Photobooth

Emilie had this great idea of having a photobooth.  She wanted it to look vintage so she made mustaches, old fashioned glasses and hats and glued them to sticks.  She had a friend of the family take the pictures of people like the ones above of some of our family.  We actually took a picture of the entire Schrock Family and the entire Hoffman Family that were present at the wedding.  It was great fun.

Barn at Night

Emilie was the brains of the operation and had the Do It Yourself vision. We have so many people to thank that helped along the way so forgive me if I have left anyone out. The wedding was everything we had dreamed and hoped for, and the memories will surely last a lifetime. It was a good way to send off my youngest into her new and exciting life with Logan Hoffman.

A Quarter of a Century Already?

Can it be that my baby boy is a quarter of a century old already? Emilie made Joe a Texas Sheet Cake with 25 in chocolate chips. I'm not much into baking these days since I have this crazy problem that has changed my diet drastically. It's a good thing she has taken up the charge so she can take care of her big brother.

This picture was taken at one of the McGrawsville Youth Rummage Sales.  This halloween costume was a bit too small for Joe, but the funniest thing about this picture is that they took this picture with someone else's camera and she didn't see it for months until she finally developed the film.

I was looking at this picture recently and I realized that it is my fault that Joe has done such crazy things to his hair over the years.  He obviously loved his hair when I spiked it up on this day. Curt wasn't too sure about the whole thing.

Friends since birth, Joe & Sam have always been together.  Here we are at a barn party that our church used to have every fall at the little barn directly across from the church.  The barn is gone today, but the memories live on.

My Three Sons

This picture always makes me laugh.  I look like Rosanna Rosanna Danna (I'm telling my age via Saturday Night Live - Remember, it started with my generation!)  This was taken on Mother's Day.  Joe was less than a week old when I took him to church for the first time.  I always said he was my Mother's Day present.

Stent City

May was a happening month for our family. My father-in-law had a stent a couple of weeks before Emilie got married.  Here he is following his stent surgery.  He got along just great.  Next to the elevator, there were masks for people who have the sniffles.  Daylen was fine or so we thought at the time but we put a mask on him just for fun. He looks like he is dressed up for Halloween. I guess it was a good thing we used a mask since he came down with RSV about a week or so after this picture was taken.

Graduation Day

Cutting the Cake with nephews & nieces standing by.

My youngest graduated from college with a double major in Nursing & Addictions Counseling. My how time flies by. It seems like it was just yesterday when Emilie entered this world and changed my life forever. May God use your talents for His kingdom in a mighty way.  I'm proud of you baby girl!

Congratulations Emilie!

Kati Martinez Schrock

Proud Oma and her little Kati girl

Happy Birthday Kati girl!

We were overjoyed at the birth of our second granddaughter, Kati. I never tire of "birth" days.  Curt always requests that the cake come from Dairy Queen.  It actually works out easier because I don't have to bring both ice cream and a cake.  In the early days, I would bring the bubbly, Sparkling Cider, but then I realized that no one was drinking it so I crossed it off the list.  I started the birthday cake tradition when Curt was born and have done it ever since. I was only at the hospital for a total of 2 hours when Curt was born.  I reminded Marlin to stop at Kroger so we could get a birthday cake.  When we pulled up in the parking lot at Kroger, Marlin told me to stay in the car and he would go get the cake. Seriously, do you really think I would walk into Kroger 2 hours after I gave birth?  haha!

Ten were Bad and Two were good

When your memories become greater than your dreams, you have already written the last chapter. 

 ~Dave Engbrecht

Do you remember the song that we sang in Sunday School when we were young?

Twelve men went to spy on Canaan. Ten were bad and Two were good. 
What do you think they saw in Canaan? Ten were bad and two were good. 
Some saw giants big and tall.  Some saw grapes in clusters fall. Some saw God was in it all!
Ten were bad and Two were good.

Read the story about the spies who went into Canaan (Numbers 13-14). Are we living in the past or looking for what God has in store for us in the future? When God calls us to something, he always provides.  That is one of the ways that we can know that God is in it! The Israelites didn't trust that God would take care of them.  How many times do we settle for second best instead of God's best?  Listen to His heart today.

The whole community was in an uproar, wailing all night long. All the People of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The entire community was in on it: "Why didn't we die in Egypt? Or in this wilderness? Why has God brought us to this country to kill us? Our wives and children are about to become plunder. Why don't we just head back to Egypt? And right now!"

It's in Christ that we find out who we are!

I told Mal this morning that I am continually amazed when God speaks to me repeatedly during the week.  This week it was through the book of Ephesians.  He put it in front of me 3 times this week so I think I'd better stand up and take notice.  Here is just a sample of His wonderful Word.  You should read it sometime!


It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone. Ephesians 1: 11-12

Chocolate and Smiles

It is not often that I get the treat of spending a day with my eldest granddaughter (at the time she was my only granddaughter), Haley, and her mother, Monica. This particular day was such a happy memory for me.  We met Emilie in Indianapolis for a wedding dress fitting followed by supper at one of my favorite restaurants, Ted's Montana Grill (they always treat me right in a gluten free kind of way!).  It was a great time with all my girls. After Emilie & Courtney had made their way back to campus, I had the honor of introducing Monica to Whole Foods (another source of Gluten Free for me). It was near Easter so they had a table full of Organic Easter Treats so I had Haley pick something out and I told her I would buy it for her.  She settled on this chocolate easter bunny on a stick which made her grin from ear to ear.  That smile sure warms an "Oma's" heart.

April Showers for Emilie

 April found us counting down the days to Emilie's wedding by celebrating with wedding showers. The sisters in laws planned a shower for Emilie and discovered what we already knew...that Monica has a gift and passion for planning parties, and more specifically...wedding parties!

My eldest Grand-daughter and her Oma.

The Schrock Women

When Emilie was in Elementary school, she drew this for me.  I clipped it to the bulletin board in the laundry room and it hung there until now.  She wrote "To Daddy From Emilie Schrock. I hope you are at my wedding and will walk me down the hile."

Open Up and say Ahhhh!

A couple of years ago, my son made me an arbor out of an old ladder.  I hang a random number of things on it...hanging plants, bird houses, and wind chimes.  A Wren built a nest in the birdhouse this year and every day when I water the plants, she scolds me from her perch in the Red Bud nearby. On occasion, I hear the chirping as I am watering the flowers, but I have never seen any baby birds...until today.  This was the scene as I returned home today.

Gardenlicious!

Although my parents were both farm raised kids, I spent my growing up years treking from place to place and country to country.  I didn't have the opportunity to raise a garden until I got married at the age of 21. I still remember that first summer when I drove out to the farm from town several times a week to tend the garden.  I was so green and so proud of every thing that was harvested. When I had four kids at home, we had a very large garden and I used to give the kids the honor of helping me weed and harvest the garden.  I don't think any of them really liked it and they probably ate more than they picked.  I never tire of the harvest. This was my harvest tonight when I got home from work along with a bucket full of green beans.  Ahhhh, the country life is simply the best!

A winter's tale

OK, one more post and then I have to get back at re-organizing my house!  Why didn't I do this when the snow was blowing?? I can't put it off any longer.  I've started and made messes and half done projects in every room in my house, and I've got to get back at it when this post is done.  I must say I have made great progress in the areas that you probably wouldn't even notice, but on to this last winter's tale.

Buddy's Semi Sleeping Peacefully

I have to add that my husband, my buddy of 33 years, does not share the same love for winter that I have, and here are the pictures to show you why.  On this particular day, we drove into town, not realizing that we were in for a treat.  Half way there, we agreed that we were out of our minds for getting out on a day like this.  These days are best viewed from the comforts of our home with a fire going and a cup of tea in hand!

My little house on the corner.

Maybe this has something to do with the reason he does not like winter!

Icing at the Woo

You probably don't want to remember the ice storms from this past winter, but I don't look at them as negative happenings because I got to spend the night in the dorm with my daughter.  I miss that! Because she is married and gone, I will never get to experience that again.  We'll see how I like this winter when I'm driving home in snow, and ice, and sleet.  Will I still love winter?  You'd better believe it!

Have you ever seen anything more beautiful?

The Beginning of my 2011 Journey: Ari's First Birthday

My new July resolution is to blog more so post a comment and let me know that you're looking in on my story from time to time!  I love interacting with people and get plenty of that in my job, but it just doesn't hold a candle to hearing from family and friends. That being said, I'm going to attempt to recapture some of the more memorable events of 2011 starting with the birthday of this little guy. This little guy is something else.  He is one of the most serious little guys that I know and I love him dearly. Say "cheese" Ari Lee!!