Memory Lane

  I will attempt to tell you a few things about what  life was like when I was a child. I was born in Mexico. Some of you are now thinking ... What! Mexico! Yes, there are groups of German Mennonites in Mexico. Perhaps some time in the future I will tell you how that happened to come about. For now though I will write about  what  life was like as I knew it in my early years.

 I remember things that happened from a very young age. Some not so good memories and some very special memories. I will focus today on the good memories. As I already told you we did use horse and buggy as our transportation. Cars were not allowed at this time yet. We lived on a farm, same as everyone else I knew. Life had daily routines of feeding the animals, milking cows and cleaning the barns. Our milk was always poured into big jugs and brought to the road daily. The milk man would pick up every one's milk and bring it to the cheese factory. This was our source of income.

milk jug

 I spent much time outside  when at home, often doing things like playing on haystacks, (with my brother and often the neighbours' kids) helping in the garden, feeding the chickens, gathering eggs and  doing laundry, (yes, outside) Laundry was not an easy chore and required almost a full day.
 We did not have hydro.  In our house you would see oil lamps and a wood stove for heating when needed. Speaking of our house... It was made of mud bricks with a total of three rooms. One of the rooms was built for food storage and that left us with a kitchen and a living room in which we also slept. It was a small place and often it would rain through the ceiling but my mom always kept things very organized and clean! When playing indoors, I enjoyed my dolls! I think I must have had more than the average Mennonite girl! I would treat my dolls as a mom would treat her own baby. I remember asking my mom to babysit while I was away from them.  The thought of my own REAL baby some day was quite exciting!
 This all sounds so innocent and pure. That is how children are but they are born into a world that wants to steal and destroy that from young on! God protected me from a lot through those years. Things did happen around us that made me a target in the line of fire and many things could have happened to me that didn't.  I look back sometimes and remember things that make me shiver but I think on these simple memories I have of just being a child and I know that God was there watching over me!
 One more very special memory I have (going back a bit)is a moving day. For a while we lived in this big house before moving to the one I already spoke of. I can't remember the place we moved away from at that time but I remember the place we moved to! I sat in the back of our buggy, hanging my feet off , with my aunt who was seven years older than I. Slowly we moved along with our furniture on a few buggies like a train. As I sat there in great excitement, swinging my feet back and forth, a herd of cows was what followed down that road. I told my mom about this a while back and she was very surprised I  could recall that. She says I was about 3 years old.
I will be back  with some pictures I have from when I was a little girl and also I will tell you of the day I started "fearing" God.

Psalm 139:13-16 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you,when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Thank you Lord for your protection over me all these years and when all else failed, you never did!