Anything But Simple

"Books opened my eyes to a broader world, gave me a safe place to explore that did not threaten my own existence. Lost in pages, I lived the lives and dreamed the dreams of a thousand people in a thousand times. I ruined my eyes but saved my mind with books. "

This is one of my favorite quotes from Anything But Simple by Lucinda J. Miller because is exemplifies the very reason why I have loved reading books since I was old enough to read. It is the one thing that stands out in my dad's mind when he recalls my childhood. In this book, Lucinda J. Miller tells readers what it is like living as a Mennonite, the differences between being Amish and Mennonite and her own personal struggles with the guidelines that the church establishes for those living in the community in rural Wisconsin.

"I used to wonder, when I was young, what it would be like if the whole world were Mennonite. What if you'd past a gas station and see Mennonites there, pumping gas? And what if you'd go into the grocery store and there were only Mennonite families doing the shopping? The dads in the lead, smiling in a friendly sort of way and wearing long-sleeved dress shirts like the men wore to church, the wives in their dresses and head coverings pushing heaped carts down the aisles, children gathered around them in bundles.

What if you never had to worry about anyone stealing from you or doing bad things, because everyone obeyed Jesus? (As, in my childish mind, I assumed Mennonites always did.) And what if everywhere you went - to the ocean, to the park, to California - it was as if you were meeting family, because everyone was just like you?"

I guess it is something most of us forget when we look at the Amish and Mennonites is how very different they are compared to us. But what about putting the shoe on the other foot and wonder how difficult it must be for them to live among the English world and the ways that are far different from their own. Anything But Simple conveys what it is like for one young woman growing up and seeing so many things changing around her as the established ways that set Mennonites and Amish apart are now trying to hold on to their faith while living in a world quite different from their own. I really enjoyed the stories that Lucinda shares in her book about her dreams of wanting to be a writer but stuck in a sense dealing with being very different and trying to share her own personal legacy with readers in this book. I applaud them in their efforts much like as Christians, we understand how vastly different the world is around us, trying to hold on to our faith in a growing hostile world.

I received Anything But Simple by Lucinda J. Miller compliments of Herald Press. In accordance with the new FTC Guidelines for blogging and endorsements, you should assume that every book reviewed here at Reviews From The Heart was provided to the reviewer by the publisher, media group or the author for free andments were received, unless specified otherwise. "But if you try for simplicity, is it simple anymore?" Lucinda compares some of the complex code of laws, both written and unwritten, as exists within her denomination, as the Pharisees of Jesus' day might be an excellent comparison. In the Mennonite world everything matters, clothes matter because they define you as separate in society and they define you in Mennonite circles as part of a certain fellowship or conference, a certain level of liberal or conservative. But then again something as insignificant as whether or not a man's top shirt button is closed during church service can become an important issue in certain church groups. In their world, every decision is given excruciating examination in light of the Bible and the church. This is a wonderful insightful book for anyone who really wants to know the truth about living life as a Mennonite and for that reason I give this a 4.5 out of 5 stars.

For more information about Anything But Simple, Lucinda J. Miller, or where you can pick up a copy of this novel today, please click on the links below:

Anything But Simple by Lucinda J. Miller

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The Essential Amish Cookbook

I have always told my family one of my bucket lists was to stay at an Amish farm just to taste the mouth-watering foods that they make and often grow themselves. No artificial anything in them. I've certainly read about most of them but wondered how hard it would be to try and master them in my own kitchen since flights to anywhere the Amish live right now isn't on my budget. Then I was invited to review The Essential Amish Cookbook by Lovina Eicher and I feel as if I had hit the jackpot.

Not only do you get some mouth-watering recipes, but beautifully illustrated photos to definitely bring out the cook and baker in all of us. They are divided first of all by types, of course the first being my first weakness, freshly baked breads and muffins, then you'll find breakfast foods, soups and salads, vegetables and sides, meats and main dishes, cakes and frostings, pies, cookies and bars, dessert and candies, snacks and beverages, relishes, pickles, jams and jellies along with some bigger meals like Amish Church meals and Amish Wedding meals.

The author opens the cookbook with a little about her family and what their individual interests are and what they do each day on their farms. What started out as a simple column under the name The Amish Cook, suddenly expanded into Lovina's Amish Kitchen as it remains in newspapers today. She had co-authors cookbooks before like the Amish Cook at Home, The Amish Cook's Baking Book and the Amish Cook's Anniversary Book and Amish Cooks across America. There is a wholesomeness that comes across not only through Lovina's recipes but in her tips and ideas she posts along with them. Just some of the dishes I have tried and are now our own family favorites are, Refrigerator Rolls, think of those ones in the can that I hate trying to open. You can keep these in the refrigerator for 5-6 days and make only what you need. I love the French Toast (Overnight) Casserole and this will be a must have on Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning, just to make things delicious and so much easier to enjoy during the Christmas festivities.

One of my favorites and so simple I hadn't considered it before is the BLT salad. I mean for those of you skipping your bread, why not simply incorporate a few of the ingredients and have it as a salad with a few extra surprises to make it so tasty. This has been perfect for us during our California heatwave since it is cold, crisp and delicious, plus there is bacon. Hello? Bacon!!! No further explanation is required. There are so many I can't wait to try out but let me say this if you LOVE to cook, this is a must have. What a great Mother's Day gift as well!

I received The Essential Amish Cookbook by Lovina Eicher compliments of the Herald Press. In accordance with the new FTC Guidelines for blogging and endorsements, you should assume that every book reviewed here at Reviews From The Heart was provided to the reviewer by the publisher, media group or the author for free and were received, unless specified otherwise. If you think those recipes sounded delicious wait til you try their desserts like Pumpkin Cookies with icing, Banana Whoopie Pies, Apple Pie and even some great canning recipes that I have always wanted to try to keep those seasonal favorites going all year long like cucumber salad, pickles, jams and jellies! Just think of the great gifts these would make to a family member or friend who is need of comfort food when they're not feeling well. I easily give this cook book a 5 out of 5 stars.

For more information about The Essential Amish Cookbook, Lovina Eicher or where you can pick up a copy of this cookbook today, please click on the links below:

The Essential Amish Cookbook by Lovina Eicher

You can find Lovina's Amish Kitchen on Facebook and learn more about Amish cooking and living.

To read more review on The Essential Amish Cookbook, please visit Herald Press' website. 

Prayers for A Simpler Life

I absolutely love the simplicity of the Mennonite or Amish life styles. Their sense of community and their love of God is something to be admired and replicated within our own lives and homes. Yet in our far-too busy lifestyles, we barely have time to complete all the items off our "To-Do" list, and can't even find time for prayer or God. We make bargains to ourselves we will try and do a better job of that tomorrow. Yet what if we simply took the time at the beginning of our day and just spent 10 minutes with God, reflecting on His attributes, growing our faith, seeing the light of God's truth in our daily lives, dealing with negative emotions, improving our relationships with others, understanding the Fruit of the Spirit, seeing analogies in our lives with that of the ocean, learning how to have a servant's heart, and even dealing with the joys of cooking and seeing lessons of faith in that. Perhaps it is reflecting on the beauty of God in the way we get ready for our day, dealing with the stress women do, understanding the sacrifices to God that can improve our lives and finally coming back to the spring that refreshes and provides water for a thirsty and parched soul.

In 13 weeks, once a day, Faith Sommers, a Mennonite mother leads readers into a short devotional, Prayers for a Simpler Life, focusing on each of these situations to help us understand that even in our daily routines, God can be found and a lesson gleaned from something as easy as gardening or putting on our makeup. Each promises to take up no more than 10 minutes but it is a place to begin our days with time with God instead of waiting for the end of the day to do so. Yet you can do both or either one or simply work these into your day however it may suit you. Each daily devotion is coupled with a passage from Scripture to set the tone of each devotion topic along with a short prayer, a real life example from Faith's own life experience and a simple reflection for you to consider on the subject.

This would be an ideal way to begin a women's study either in a small group setting or in a larger church atmosphere because each of these topics deals with the daily struggles of women and the stress loads we bear, from raising children, dealing with our marriages, husbands, friends, and even finding time to serve when we can't even find time to get through our daily tasks at home. It creates a balance and gives readers a reprieve for a short time, to realize that God is always present and He is always teaching us from everything we deal with each day without realizing it.

I received Prayers For a Simpler Life by Faith Sommers compliments of Herald Press. The best part I love about this book is that it often leads you to further personal study on the subject and really makes you evaluate the simplicity of the things we take for granted every single day. Since it is spring in my next of the woods, the week on using gardening and planting was a huge life to my parched soul and now I look forward to bringing my garden back to life and enjoying my time in it even more. I would give this book a 4.5 out of 5 stars in my personal opinion.

For more information about Prayers for a Simpler Life, Faith Sommers or where you can pick up a copy of this book today, please click on the links below:

Prayers for a Simpler Life by Faith Sommers

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Christian's Hope

I love it when I come across an Amish novel that conveys a story line I hadn't come across previously in other novels. Christian's Hope is the third novel by Ervin R. Stutzman in the Return to Northkill series, that is based from a true historical event. In this amazing novel, Christian Hochstetler is reunited with his Amish family after being taken captive by the Shawnee Indians 7 years ago, as part of an agreement with the British to return those held captive back to their families if they still existed.

It was this same tribe of Shawnee Indians that killed his mother and two siblings and took his father and brother Joseph captive as well while they tried to escape. Only Christian was held captive much longer than they were and now finds living in the white man's world something he can't do. He can't imagine a life living in a home, cutting his long hair and spending a life as a farmer instead of running wild in nature, hunting and fishing. Even though they have all had to make adjustments upon returning, Christian doesn't believe that he is capable of returning to the Amish lifestyle and tries to convince his brother Joseph to join him in returning back to their Indian families at least for a few days to see if he can fit in either world any longer.

His main drive to return to his Indian family is a longing for a woman named Morning Dew that he believes he loves and wants to marry so perhaps he can still find a way to exist in both worlds somehow. Even though his father Jacob is reluctant to let him go, he knows he can't force him to change his ways and understands that it has to be a decision that Christian makes of his own accord, not something anyone in the family can pressure him to do. But it seems like some in the Amish town of Northkill are not too happy to have Indians living among them, especially ones that took lives of the ones they loved or burned their property and that includes Christian. Is it possible to have it both ways or will he have to make the touch decision to walk away from the only life he has ever known?

I received Christian's Hope by Ervin R. Stutzman compliments of Herald Press and Litfuse Publicity. This is the third book in the series and deals with the story of the circumstances surrounding this real life event from Christian's perspective. In previous novels Jacob's Choice, being the first and then Joseph's Dilemma each take a different perspective in the eyes of three men who had to figure out how to reconcile with what happened to each of them and how to restore what was left of their lives. I absolutely LOVED this novel, first because it offered up something I hadn't read before in other Amish novels and secondly, because it was based on a historical fact which makes the reader like me most interested because you are learning again about another piece in American history most have never heard of before and that is precisely why I give this novel a 4.5 out of 5 stars in my opinion. Since I hadn't read the other two novels I thought I might get lost in this one, but the author did a brilliant job in the introduction giving you enough insight into this novel that you can appreciate it as a stand alone or as part of the series.

For more information about Christian's Hope, Ervin R. Stutzman or where you can pick up a copy of this novel today, please click on the links below:

Christian's Hope by Ervin R. Stutzman

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Simple Pleasures

"Amish novels, Amish tourist sites, and television shows offer second and third hand accounts of Amish, Mennonite, and Hutterite life. Some of these messages are sensitive and accurate. Some are not. Most are flat-out wrong.

Now readers can listen directly to the voices of these Anabaptists through Plainspoken. In the book in this series, readers get to hear Amish, Mennonite and Hutterite writers talk about the texture of their daily lives: how they spend their time, what they value, what makes them laugh, and how they summon strength from their Christian faith and community." (Introduction, Author's Note)

In Simple Pleasures by Marianne Jantzi, readers get to read from the journal writings of a family of four Amish to gain an inside and true-life memories of what one woman captured and began a column in the Collection, an Amish-Mennonite newspaper. If you are looking for well-writing fiction, you will not find it in this book. These are moment by moment memories of what one woman captures in her life as a Canadian Amish woman working in her own business and home with her family and community. From how she deals with being stuck inside on very cold days and wishing it was warm out, to having an appreciation for where you're at in life. How they occupy their time, and how their house isn't as organized as they would like when company comes calling. To dealing with their children who want pets, to sometimes dealing with the hardships when death comes to early.

Here is a sample of what you'll find inside.

I was reading an article about baking bread; the writer mentioned that her husband carved her a bread spoon. I read on, intrigued. A bread spoon? Who ever heard of such a thing, and what could its purpose be? The husband had carved it from a piece of soft maple a little over twelve inches long. It gently curved outward to an almost-flat bowl a little more than three inches wide, somewhat like a paddle. Its shape worked very well in beating together bread ingredients. So that's what it was! That 'odd-shaped wooden spoon we received as a wedding gift." It's always what I grab to mix buns, rolls and the occasional donuts. A bread paddle, no less! No wonder it works so well. Then again, maybe it's not. Maybe I'm guessing wrong. I've done that before."  (pg. 75).

I received Simple Pleasures by Marianne Jantzi compliments of Litfuse Publicity and Herald Press for my honest review. I did not receive any monetary compensation aside from a free copy of this book, in exchange for my honest review. I absolutely loved the simplicity of what you'll find inside. Just like opening an Amish journal and who would have ever guessed that there are Amish in Canada? I love getting an honest look at how wonderful these communities are and how they aren't as put together as some fiction books might have you believe. They are just as real as you and I without all the modern conveniences. For me this one rated a 4 out of 5 stars in my opinion. There are even some great recipes tucked inside I can't wait to try! This is the fourth book in the Plainspoken Series of books.

For more information about Simple Pleasures or where you can pick up a copy of this book today, please click on the links below:

Simple Pleasures by Marianne Jantzi

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Gather Around The Amish Table

One of the things I most admire about the Amish and Mennonite communities besides their amazing sense of community and faith, but their love of cooking. I would love to sample some of their down home, all natural meals one day but for now, like most of us, I will take to trying my own hand based on recipes handed down from generation to generation from the Plain communities.

In Gather Around The Amish Table by Lucy Leid, she has compiled a host of recipes ranging from breakfast food to main dishes, appetizers, home made bread, to desserts and those famous Amish whoopie and shoefly pies! Using information she has gleaned through reading Die Botschaft for the last thirty years which is a plain newspaper that is sent out weekly that contains everything you wanted to know about what goes on in a plain community as well as those time honored recipes we've come to love but which we could make ourselves. These recipes are wonderfully collected and displayed in various chapters including some whimsical stories that often accompanied those recipes and how they came to be in the newspaper. There is even some household tips, and great ideas such a making your own baby wipes, bird treats and all purpose cleaner in addition to those wonderful recipes I have begun to make for my family.

Some of my favorites are Four Hour Root Beer, that's right you can make your own gallon of rootbeer from this wonderful recipe, Peanut Butter Fudge, Southern Buckeyes, Peppermint Twirl Ice Cream, Lillian's Lemon Bars, Pumpkin Cookies, Blueberry Pie, Hawaiian Cake, Creamy Chicken and Rice, and all kinds of breakfast treats and casseroles. A word to the wise here however, before you attempt to make any of these, note the serving size. They range from a small family of 4 to groups of 20 or more, so be wary. There is even a recipe for Apple Butter that yields 24 pints. This is just what you would expect to see in an Amish Cookbook and I can't wait to try most of them.

I received Gather Around the Amish Table by Lucy Leid compliments of Herald Press and Litfuse Publicity for my honest review. I did not receive any monetary compensation for a favorable review outside of a free copy of this book to read, and the opinions expressed here are my own honest ones. My only complaint would be that this isn't much bigger but I may have to find a way to subscribe to Die Botschaft myself and try and capture and sample all the wonderful goodness you would come to expect from an Amish or Mennonite home. For that reason I would rate this one a 5 out of 5 stars in this reader's opinion as I am off to make another delicious treat for my family.

For more information about Gather Around The Amish Table, Lucy Leid or where you can pick up a copy of this book today, please click on the links below:

Gather Around The Amish Table by Lucy Leid

You can find Lucy Leid on Facebook at MennoMedia for more delicious ideas, tips and recipes. 

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Called to Be Amish

Each time I read an Amish book or watch a television show about the Amish, I am in awe of their lifestyle. The simplicity of keeping to their faith, while working hard with the modern conveniences we find in our homes like electricity and air conditioning and the love of their community. While most shows on television portray an exaggerated form of Amish living, most are a far cry from what really goes on. They live their lives much like we do, but their faith is what sustains them in trying times.

In the book, Called to Be Amish, author Marlene C. Miller takes readers into what is it like for an English girl raised in an abusive and unloving home and finds love in an Amish young man who laces up her skates once winter day. Knowing the mixing faith cultures that are very different is challenging enough but this true life story is how Marlene eventually made that transition to willingly give up the life she knew living among the English to embrace the Amish way of life. She wasn't pressured into making that decision, since the Amish don't encourage English people to join the Old Amish order unless that can be sure the decision is one made from the heart and not by love for a man.

It shows not only the difficulties on both sides, English and Amish alike that come from learning a new language, a new way of life, and the hard work that truly goes into making a life among the Amish which is far from simple. From learning how to do without modern conveniences like a phone or electricity, to how to learn how to handle driving a horse and buggy, setting up for a home church at your home, dealing with death, and celebrating a wedding. It is far from simply wearing a plain dress, apron and kapp, it is appreciating the life God has chosen for you, accepting God's will for whatever happens in life and never truly being alone because you have the strength of an entire community behind you.

I received Called to Be Amish by Marlene C. Miller compliments of Herald Press and Litfuse Publicity for my honest review. I did not receive any monetary compensation for a favorable review and the opinions expressed here are my own personal ones. I loved learning about becoming Amish as my family is quick to remind me of the many times, I have wanted to visit an Amish family and farm for a few days to get a sense of what getting back to basics really means. I treasure their faith most of all as it is one that is lived out with 100% honesty daily. They accept whatever happens in their lives as God's will and they never seek to adopt any of the outside influences of the English changing lifestyle. It is sad to see that not many Amish are left, only 275,000, as most younger Amish are leaving to join the English world now that farming is becoming more challenging and the price of land is growing more expensive than some people can buy as well as limited availability among the growing towns and families. There are some great recipes the author shares at the conclusion of this book and I will be looking for more Plainspoken Series Books in the future, written by Amish and Mennonite men and woman about their lifestyles. I rate this one a 5 out of 5 stars in my opinion.

For more information about Called to Be Amish, Marlene C. Miller or where you can pick up a copy of this book today, please click on the links below:

Called to Be Amish by Marlene C. Miller

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