A Surprise B-day Outing

Last Wednesday M. surprised me by taking the day off so we could spend it together celebrating my 40th birthday. I quickly consented! We started with breakfast at a little table outside of Achenbach's Bakery - a cup of hot English Teatime tea with our shared choosings of peanut butter long johns and muffins - chocolate peanut butter and peach.


I never tire of driving the back roads and through the little towns of Lancaster County. We saw so many lovely scenes of farms and flowers and animals. Some of our stops along the way were thrift shops where I found a bundle of homemade gift tags for various holidays, a large glass jar to fill with oats for my kitchen counter, and several packets of stationery for writing to pen pals.


We found an Amish bulk foods and produce store where we bought some of these gorgeous Red Haven peaches to can the next day. (The boys enjoy broiled peaches sprinkled with cinnamon in the wintertime.) The peaches gave off the most enticing smell - it wasn't long before we pulled into the back of a tractor dealer next to a cornfield, put up the hatch and sat in the back out of the drizzle to eat some!


We also stopped in at one of my favorite places in Honey Brook- King's Herb Nook. Their little shop is stuffed full of soaps, all kinds of herbal products, books and odds and ends of bulk foods. We spent several minutes trying to figure out which looseleaf tea we wanted to try and ended up with a bag of Raspberry-Flavored Green Tea - beautiful as well as delicious. I loved their idea of planting tomatoes and herbs in large olive oil cans.


In the middle of nowhere, we came across a little shoe store. My favorite part was the large collage of shopping lists that people had dropped over the years - what fun to read them, especially the ones written by Amish families which included items such as suspenders, bonnets, and long lists of children's names and what their shoe sizes were!


Our day also included a stop in an Amish book store where I bought a thin, plain book called "Tips for (Amish) Teachers" for $2.98. I love reading it - and I've found some ideas to implement with the boys as well as for possible Sunday school or VBS ideas! We also stopped at an Amish hardware store, a delicious little pizza shop for lunch, and a camping/stove store in the middle of nowhere that had a huge reproduction cooking stove that was modernized.


Our last stop was a little stand outside of someone's home where we bought Marty's Aunt a gorgeous bouquet of birthday flowers - her birthday being on the very same day as mine - along with some zinnias for me. Then to "gild the lily," we picked up the boys and had supper together at a favorite restaurant with a sprinkled birthday cake later at home. Some birthday calls and a visit from a friend ended a perfect day. How incredibly rich I am with dear ones who bless me . . .