Today is sister Liz and Levi’s silver wedding anniversary. Twenty-five years! They were married the year before Joe and I were. It just seems impossible that those years have passed by so suddenly.

We are done for the night, after getting our clothes ready for the wedding tomorrow and everyone getting cleaned up. Joe and I will attend the wedding tomorrow for Dustin’s brother. The rest will come in the evening. Of course, daughter Loretta and Dustin will also be there having an important part in the wedding. They will be witnesses.

Son-in-law Mose, Dustin and Loretta went deer hunting tonight. Bow season is in. Loretta is hunting with a crossbow. It’s her first year of hunting. They saw deer but didn’t get a chance to get any.

Monday I went to help with preparations for the wedding. We diced onions for the dressing. We then put the onions in glass jars to keep the onion smell in. Then we measured out the seasonings for the dressing. We made barbecue sauce for the chicken that will be grilled. Crispy rice cereal was crushed for some chicken that will be baked. Oreo cookies were crushed for the dirt pudding. Windows were cleaned, and some more jobs that can be done ahead of time were completed. On Tuesday and Wednesday, more women are coming to help. I took a casserole and all the other women brought a dish of some kind. Having lunch prepared makes it easier for the mother of the bride.

We are having nice fall weather this week. Leaves are changing color. My husband Joe and sons cleared out the rest of the garden for the season. Gardening is now history for 2017! I was glad to be done with the garden for this year. It’s nice to be done with the canning. Grape juice is in jars as well.

The next job on our “to do list” is butcher the 100 chickens we are raising for meat. Half of them will be for Mose and Susan. I will be glad when that big job is done!

On Tuesday of next week daughter Susan and I will assist in preparing for the wedding of Esther and Wayne. Esther is son-in-law Mose’s sister. Daughter Susan is also a cook. Their wedding will be on Friday the thirteenth.

This Saturday we are invited to the local feed mill for a hog roast. This is a customer appreciation dinner.

Today daughter Elizabeth and Abigail spent the day here. And of course daughter Susan came over. I love days like this. We did odds and ends and also made Long John rolls for the family in our church who will be hosting church services on Sunday. Our church district has a large plastic food storage container that travels around between families. The idea is that the container needs to be filled with some kind of snack and then given to the next family who will host church services. When you are getting ready to host church services and are too busy to bake for lunches or snacks for the ladies who come help you clean, the snacks make it easy. We made enough Long John rolls for us to have some as well. Long Johns are oblong-shaped frosted doughnuts.

My friend Ruth and five of her high school friends stopped in on Sunday afternoon. Monday daughter Verena, 19, and son Joseph, 15, gave them a horse and buggy ride and a pony-and-pony buggy ride. It was a very lovely autumn day. The group of ladies enjoyed a meal at a local Amish house. I joined them at Ruth’s lake house for an evening of visiting, and Ruth gave us a ride on the pontoon. It was nice to see the sun set over the lake. Only God could do such artistic scenes.

Our thoughts and prayers are with all the families that had lives lost and were hurt in the Las Vegas shooting. How terrible for all involved. May God be with all of them! Also prayers to all affected by the hurricanes and wildfires. I cannot imagine how people feel when they lose all their possessions. Then again, our earthly possessions can be replaced but not our loved ones.

God is a great comfort in times when we don’t understand why things happen. Stay strong and God bless each of you dearly!

I will share the barbecue sauce recipe that we made for chicken this week.

Barbecue Sauce

6 cups ketchup
2 tablespoons mustard
2 cups honey
1 cup white vinegar
4 tablespoons garlic, minced
6 tablespoons onion, minced
1 cup salt

Heat all ingredients together in a saucepan on the stove and stir until blended. Let cool and refrigerate until use.

Lovina Eicher is an Old Order Amish writer, cook, wife and mother of eight. She is the co-author of three cookbooks; her new cookbook, The Essential Amish Cookbook, is available from 800-245-7894. Readers can write to Eicher at PO Box 1689, South Holland, IL 60473 (please include a self-addressed stamped envelope for a reply) or at [email protected].