The Graber Family Hearth

Confessions of Baking, Bakeries, Bake Goods, Anything and All things Baked under the Sun.........

2011-10-05T02:12:00.000-05:00

Round Top...... Through The Eyes of Dorcas Graber

Did shivers run up your spine at the very mention of the words? What memories flashed through your mind? Did the taste of smashed cherry pie somehow form on your lips? What was the first thought that passed through your mind.......

For those of you who have moved away from our home you may have easily forgotten that this weekend is Round Top. But it's very know to all members of the Graber Nuts who still reside inside the four walls of what is affectionately know as the Graber Funny Farm. (No, really it's still known as that. Congratulations whoever started it). You know the drill. The late nights, the stressful breakdowns (I try and keep mine dramatic and artistic), the breakfast tacos, the freezing A/C to keep the bake goods, the early mornings, the trading, talking to all those people, and let's not forget the memorial car rides in between where I usually made everyone's breakfast fun by throwing up. :) Didn't you just love me?

I well remember the uneasy feeling I would wake up with and know, just know, that later in the morning my annual appearance would be made. I also remember the first year I did not throw up on the way to Round Top. Was that a time of celebration or what? It was the first year that it was just Rosemary, David, Mom, and me.

As a young child, Round Top was one of the most exciting events of the year! Honestly, I didn't know why y'all always complained so. I thought that is was the best thing ever. And peddling too. I thought peddling was the bomb and didn't find out until later years that Jonathan disliked it very much. Or that he sent me in because the people were more adapt to buy from me then him. Aren't we a family of business geniuses?

Another memory that is forever burned into my memory is that of Ruth baking cookies with Rush Limbaugh talking on the radio. To this day whenever I hear his show, I can taste chocolate chip cookies. Which makes it rather hard to focus on politics. :)

Well, I hope you enjoyed my rambling about Round Top and that maybe somehow I managed to bring up some good memories in your mind.

Life life to the fullest! ;)

Following His Star,

Dorcas (akaMadBakerGirl)

Note: This post was written during Round Top week but due to extreme work overload and sketchy memory was posted at a later date. Enjoy. :)

Confessions of Dreams Come True......

2011-09-02T01:42:00.003-05:00

   Today Mother was cleaning out her room and found my journal from 2006. I spent quite a while reading it and discovered two things. 1. My handwriting, however bad it is right now, was actually worse. 2. God has brought me so far and brought so many dreams of mine to live.

   I just wanted to take this time to say Thank You to all of y'all. Thank you for everything you've ever done for me. Thank you for never giving up on me as I've grown through the years. I know I must've been rather annoying and frustrating at times but you still believed in me and knew God had a plan.

   With God all things ARE possible. Those were just words to me before but now they're really coming to life for me. In the pages of my old journal, there is a dream and desire recorded for all to see. My dream was to one day work on movies for the glory of God. And that dream is coming true.

This summer, I got to work on "Indescribable". "Indescribable" is the hymn history behind the song, "The Love of God". It was an amazing adventure and God taught me so much, This movie was Joseph and Stacie's first project and first of many, hopefully. Stacie was the Director and Joseph, Screenplay Writer, Producer, and 1st AD.

Jonathan also had a part in the film as a horse wrangler and actor. He played the part of Bennie, Mama Ellie's son. Mama Ellie being played by our own very dear mother.

I was your very own Behind The Scenes director and made a BTS video for each week of production which you will see on the DVD. The videos were donors eyes only during production but were be released to the public later. This film was a great learning experience for me. I learned basic lighting skills, how to use and operate two editing programs (Adobe Premier and Sony Vegas), and much, much more about the many wrinkles one runs into with film making. I know that this was a huge step up for me and that God has more in store for me. I am determined to use my new found skills to further His kingdom. I have already acquired a job directing and producing a small political ad for Kyle Gresinger, candidate for Speaker of the House, Patriot Academy 2013.

To be there and see the action. To see my dream unfold before my eyes in a project that was bigger than I could ever imagine was truly breathtaking. I hope that all of y'all are will enjoy "Indescribable" when it premieres sometime next year. I know that God has already used it to change lives and I pray that more will be changed.For more pictures of "Indescribable", visit our fan page on Facebook.

Another thing I want to add is that my handwriting is really improving. :) I've really been working on it. God has brought some many things to my attention this summer. Things that still need working on and improving so that I will become even more affective in His great plan for my life. And He you used you guys most of all. They say that "Family is like sandpaper. It grinds you down till you're a smooth finished piece." Let us continue to storm hell's gates and ride for the King of Heaven and Earth.

Following His Star,

Dorcas

P.S.

Keep Dreaming! God has a plan for you and one day, when we are gathered around the throne I want to hear 'Well done, good and faithful servant" not "Well, I had a plan but you just quit dreaming and stayed in your comfort zone"..... God can't use us if we don't take that first step of faith.

"Where there is no vision, the people perish..."

Proverbs 29:18

Keep The Vision Alive!

In Memory of Mary D. (Borntreger) Borntrager

2011-07-27T15:49:00.000-05:00

This is posted for Rebecca:

Today it is 46 years that my mother died after 9 days in the hospital. We didn't know she had cancer till she was in the hospital. She left 10 children with the oldest being 18 and the youngest 3 of which I was 10.

Christmas Food Memories

2011-03-04T11:20:00.003-06:00

Hey ya'll! It's time to make the Graber Family Cookbook a reality. I talked to Pops, Mamaw and Ruth and they all said that it's fine for me to go ahead and get the ball rolling. I'm not "making" the cookbook, I'm just helping the family get it done. :-) The cookbook is going to include food-related memories shared by the family. So I guess we'll start with Christmas! Post your fond food-related memories of our family's Christmas's, please. Keep it short, like a paragragh. Thanks! Make it fun and be nice!
Warning: Anything you post, can and will be used in your favor in The Graber Family Cookbook! You do not have the right to remain silent!

What The Shepherd Saw

2011-01-23T22:22:00.005-06:00

Here is the trailer for What the Shepherd Saw, You guys are the first to see it!

Thanksgiving 2010

2011-01-22T08:09:00.000-06:00

Mother's Day Memories

2010-05-09T18:22:00.003-05:00

As I was wishing all my friends on Twitter who are mothers a happy Mother's Day this morning, I realized that it has been 41 years this summer that my mother went on to be with the Lord.

One of the memories that I have of her is when I was yet a very young fellow and we lived there in Middlebury. I must have done something bad, I can not remember what, but there must have been some lying involved. She preached to me the sins of lying and how people who lie will go to the lake of fire and burn forever. She preached it so well that I remember later that afternoon still watching behind me, expecting that anytime now the car with the guys who would haul me off to that lake of fire would show up and it would be over.

One time I was perhaps slow in following some command and again, I can not remember what it was. She was making popcorn and I really liked popcorn and of course wanted some. She did not let me have any until I had completed the task, then she made a big popcorn bowl just for me.

And of course the Monday when I was perhaps around 4 or 5. We had just had church at our house the day before and there were left overs from the church dinner, including some cold coffee in a big kettle (like a 10 qt or something). I saw the coffee and decided that I really wanted some and that it would be good, very good in fact. I tried to convince her but at first she refused to let me have any. Suddenly she changed her mind, said that I could have some, poured me a cup and then taunted me after I had taken one taste about why I was not drinking the coffee. She was not a coffee drinker and I am sure she thought this cured me. Sorry, Mama, but I like my coffee hot. And if you were here today, you would have enjoyed a hot cup yourself. How grand that would have been. To share that cup together with Mama and our family on this glorious Mother's Day of 2010.

At least we have the memories.

Remembering My Father: Fernandis R. Graber

2010-02-09T23:13:00.002-06:00

Three years ago this month I found myself standing in a little Amish cemetery near La Grange, Indiana and watching while my father was being lowered into his grave and then covered with the earth to which we all shall return one day. It was a day of mixed feelings for me as well as for my brothers and sisters.

Dad had been born in Middlebury, Indiana 78 years earlier in the early years of the Great Depression. He had married my mother in 1951. Then he, along with mother, served in Terre Haute, Indiana in the IW or Conscientious objector program. Six and a half years after their marriage I was born and was the only child till more than ten years later when my sister arrived in 1968. Three and a half years before she was born we had left both dad and my childhood home of Middlebury, Indiana and moved to Missouri. Mother had suffered with cancer before my sister was born and was in remission but sometime after that it all came back and she passed away in 1969 just days after my sister's first birthday. Dad married again in 1970 to Suvilla Stutzman who stepped right in and took on the job of raising us and being the help meet she was meant to be. Sister Ruby was born in 1971 and Vernon joined us in 1972. In 1973 we moved back to Michigan (and I say back, because for Dad it was going back closer to his childhood home) where LeAnna was born. Four years of living in Michigan and we moved to La Grange County, Indiana where Irene and Henry were born. This place on 400W in La Grange County became the old home place for Dad's family, even though I left home and married later that year. Dad eventually built a Doddy house there and Henry moved into the big house when he was married to Leah and they took over the farm from Dad. Here in LaGrange County, less than 15 miles from his childhood home, Dad lived out his years.

So there I was, with most of my family around me, on a cold day in February 2007, watching as the era of Dad's life here on earth came to a close. I remembered standing at another grave hundreds of miles away on a hot August day in 1969 when my mother was being lowered into the grave. I remembered so many things that had happened over the years in my life that had involved Dad. I remembered a year earlier when my Uncle Ora had passed on and Dad was there, on a wheelchair, to witness the events. It was a bitter cold day in Bronson, Michigan where that funeral was held in someone's workshop and Dad was very cold. I was able to spend several hours with him and Mom the next morning before heading back to Detroit in my rental car and flying back home to Texas, never seeing him alive again. But it was a very good visit. We talked about things from over the years and dad recounted memories he had. We talked like we hadn't talked in years. I remembered when we had left the Amish in Montana years earlier. Dad had protested in his way. He didn't like it. But eventually he accepted it. Accepted it to a point. And there, that morning, around the kitchen table in Dad's house, we for the first time in years, had a wonderful time together. Right now I can't remember much that we talked about. But that doesn't matter right now.

But standing there beside his grave that morning, I was flooded with a flood of memories. Memories that are still coming back today. His life was over, but we are still living and still bringing to memory things he did and said over the years. The good times we had. The not so good times that we had gone through. But in my heart I had forgiven him for things that had happened that I didn't like. Things that had affected me in ways that I didn't like. Things in which I thought he was wrong. Was he wrong? No, usually not, but stubborn first born sons often think like that. But now I was filled with a peace. We had made our peace a year earlier. And I am very thankful to this day for those few hours we spent around the kitchen table in his house that morning.

Christmas 2009

2010-01-04T21:47:00.004-06:00

Christmas 2009 turned out to be very special in several ways.

Today I was thinking about Christmases past and realized I don't have many memories specifically of Christmas when I was young. I have memories of Christmas at school because at school we made a big deal out of it. We had gift exchanges, special games that day, singing the Christmas songs (yes, including many songs about Santa Claus). We always had a day just before Christmas that we did not do lessons but did special Christmas stuff all day. Those were the days we pushed all the desks up against each wall of the little one-room schoolhouse (plus an entry) there near Clark, Missouri and we would play games that involved the whole school including the teacher. Later we would exchange greetings, get candy and oranges and stuff like that from the teacher and exchange gifts. We had exchanged names earlier. Actually I can't remember having a program for the parents. I really don't think we did. Later when we (Mom and I) were teachers we did have programs for the parents and that was the big Christmas thing but back in the day in Clark I don't think we really had any Christmas programs.

Then on the actual Christmas day I have very few memories. Seems like perhaps we often went to Aunt Edna's house but we didn't call it that. We just called it 'Elmers". We went to Elmers a lot so they all blend together. But we often went to other people as well when we were invited. I remember the big dinners and things like that. Christmas as a day became more special to me, at least the way I remember it now, after I was a teenager and we moved to Michigan. Now we were closer to Indiana and all the aunts and uncles in the area, so we often got together around Thanksgiving or Christmas with all the aunts and uncles and cousins. Those were special times. I remember the uncles telling all kinds of stories about when they were younger.

After we were married it became more about family, at least the way I remember it. I am not sure just how soon we started having a big deal with the family at home for Christmas, but it definitely was already happening in Montana, perhaps in Tennessee. Before that it was usually something we did with the extended family, such as a dinner or something. For me it was also marked in Amish church, as at Christmas you would restart the year with the scriptures that were to be used in Amish church service. You would start real close to Christmas with Luke 1 and 2 as the chapters of choice for reading that Sunday in church. Then it would be followed by Matthew 2 and 3 (usually including part of chapter 1), and then the year would follow the pattern that was set by tradition.

Today for us it has become, and rightfully so, a family thing. And that is exactly what happened in New Mexico this year. We all somehow got there, strangling in over a day or so. Actually it probably wasn't that bad, but some of us had more snow and ice to deal with than others. Personally we had a very nice drive to NM and then a very nice drive home. The Lord was good to put the snow up just a bit higher in elevation that I didn't really have to live in it every day, but we were able to go up into the snow and the children had especial fun in it.

When we did the family picture in front of the tree, starting with Mom and then working our way through the family, that was special. Somehow it brought back memories of bygone times, when the family was smaller. It wasn't always like this, and it won't stay like this for long. The most sure thing about life and living is that there will be change. There will be births.........and marriages....and inevitably.......deaths.

Somehow I was abruptly reminded of that when the tree was being decorated and Joseph brought out his contribution -- the little egg shaped balls with every persons name painted on them. I didn't think of it right away, and nobody else did either. But all of a sudden it hit me, and I knew I had to do something about it right away. Not everybody understood right away what was happening to me, but suddenly the memories of Timothy hit me so hard that I knew we had to do something about it, and now. I don't blame Joseph for forgetting. And I don't blame anyone else for not understanding right away. But suddenly it all came flooding back and I knew I had to do something right away. I was so thankful when one of you came up with the cross to hang there on the tree, along with all of our names, in memory of Timothy L. Graber, 1981-1981.

The following morning when we were taking the family pictures -- and again appropriately we took one special photo of where Timothy was missing.

When all of this went down back in 1981 I suppose I did not show as much emotion as I could have. But it did hurt, and there is a spot for Timothy in my heart yet. This Christmas my whole family was there, and the memory of Timothy was very fittingly included. There was just a bit more healing going on. And a bit more understanding. And a bit more of surrendering to God knowing that He sees the bigger picture when we don't. And also knowing that we just saw a bit more of that bigger picture.

There are many other memories. Coffee in the morning (from a pot that brews before you get up, but often didn't!). Mountains. Clear air. Quiet. Quiet that you could hear early mornings outside. Four wheeler rides. Games played together. Pool shot. Candy ate. Memories shared. Food cooked. Food ate together. Watching wondrous expressions on the faces of grandkids. Grandkids who were experiencing new memories but didn't realize yet how important those memories were. Knowing that somewhere out there was a great big world and stuff was going on. But for us, it was right there in that valley. On those mountains. In that house. Memories we will never forget as long as we live.

We all left there and have now gone back to our everyday lives. But somehow, those days together in NM are a link to who we where before to who we are now. And for me especially, have connected the past to the present in a way that never happened before. And I am glad for it. I really enjoyed it.

Does Anybody remember ALL of this??

2009-11-19T23:05:00.001-06:00

November 2004

Let it hereby be known to each member of the Graber Family that it is our desire to have each and every member together for Thanksgiving Dinner and a day of working together putting together a memory book of photos for each one.
It is also our desire to start a tradition of taking an annual family picture plus creating a video where each member performs for a recording either by singing, acting, saying something witty or wise, or simply saying, “Hi”, for future generations to observe and learn from.
Please dress according to family principles and have your creative juices flowing.
If for some reason you can’t be present on Thanksgiving Day, please give notice as soon as possible so we can arrange another date as close to Thanksgiving as possible.

Looking forward to seeing ya’ll–

Dad and Mother Graber

Warm Memories...

2009-11-08T17:52:00.003-06:00

On the subject of warm memories, I have a few that are were rather cold at the time but are extremely warm in my mind.
I wish we could duplicate them.

Remember waaaay back in Montana? Those beautiful clear nights with a full moon reflection of the snow and flying down a hill on an innertube. I wish we could do that again, I do remember a time though that on a new route...hitting a covered stump and getting some snowburn.

But remember that hill there by the garden? That was a good tubing hill and then that curvy road by the shop scared me quite a bit.

Timothy Graber

2009-11-01T21:15:00.005-06:00

On November the first 1981 they brought home my baby, wrapped in a soft yellow blanket but life had fled. I sat on the bed with Ruth on one side and Joseph on the other as their Dad soberly handed the bundle to me . I helped each of them hold their baby brother one last time as I explained to them that Timothy was no longer in that body, he'd gone to heaven to be with Jesus.

Timothy died in the Cuero Hospital and I was in too bad shape physically to be with him so I was at home while Grandma Borntrager and Dad , Lester, were in the hospital with Timothy.

Love It

2009-10-18T19:45:00.004-05:00

Everytime I come to this blog I think of a warm fireplace with everybody relaxing around it sharing stories and a few jokes.....I can hear the wind whipping the snow into a blizzard outside and uh, I am sorry dad but I don't see any internet here...a few books and Joseph telling some story about a lost billfold in Montana.
Ruth is curled up on the couch with Dorcas who asked some question about Idlewild whom both Rosemary and Rachel start to answer simultaneously-dad shakes his head and gets up to get more popcorn that mom just got done making in the kitchen.
David is making a truck out of legos on the floor but my dog just snatched it and ran with Timmy right behind him.
Mom is sitting back down in her rocking chair as Brittany curls up in her 'mamaws' lap. The door blows open as Isaiah blows in with some more wood for the fire.
Me? I'm sitting over there cleaning my gun after scolding Ace who's quietly laying by my feet.

Don't you just love it? Or am I the only one....?

Mother Hospitalized

2009-07-19T09:02:00.002-05:00

On July 18th, 1965 was an inbetween Sunday at our Turkey Farm in Missouri. The boys had been invited somewhere with the young folks , at one place for dinner and another place in the evening. Along in the afternoon my mother started having severe stomach pains where she'd groan out loud. In retrospect, mother had not been well all summer but we weren't alarmed or at least I can't remember that I was. Anyway that afternoon Dad sent us out with a white bed sheet to wave in the air out by the buggy shop in hopes the boys would see it as they passed on the road half a mile away. Sure enough, Rudy and Truman saw it and leaving the lineof buggies they came home . I don't remember clearly but I think Dad sent Rudy to call the Doctor , Dr. Hull, and he came to the house , examined mother and said he'd take her to the hospital as she was seriously ill. We children, all ten of us from 18 yr old Rudy to 3 yr old Mary stood in a row and shook mother's hand as she told us good-bye and went with Dad and the doctor. Nine days later she died in the hospital. They did exploratory surgery and found her stomach so full of cancer that they just closed her up and said there was no hope of a cure.
The last time I saw her alive she was delirious and kept saying,"Where are the girls? I want to see the girls."
Dad would line us along the bedside and tell us to touch her hand, then he'd tell her the girls were all here but she didn't recognize us.
I prayed for my mother to be healed, surely God would answer my desperate prayers.And when my mother died I concluded that my prayers were useless and quit praying, but only for a little while because as sure as I didn't pray at night before I went to sleep I would have terrible nightmares. So I started praying again that God would send an angel to watch over me while I slept and it always worked.
Now in January of that year my best friend Mary's mother had died very suddenly of a blood clot in her head, if I got it r ight and my mother died in July , then in December my friend Barbara's mother died at childbirth. So there in that little church of possibly 20 families there were three families with each 10 children who were motherless. Thirty motherless children in one church. Now that was a wake up call and material for many an Amish sermon.

Baptism

2009-07-19T08:09:00.002-05:00

July 15th, 1972 - At the age of 17 I was baptised on the confession of my faith by a godly elderly patriarch, Christian M Borntreger, by name . He was widely known in Amish circles as , "Der Alt Christ". Let it suffice to say that this day I was officially initiated into the intrinsic essence of the Amish religion. My life was never the same after that day. Of course there were myriad things leading up to this day but this was a day I could put my finger on and say from this day forward I could no longer hide behind my Dad and be protected from the long fingers of the --------- Ordnung (?) or mechanisms of the Amish church.

That July morning the sun rose as usual on our Wisconsin Dairy Farm. We got up at five, got in the 30+ cows, fed and milked them plus feeding the calves, horses, pigs and chickens and got back to the house for a 7 o'clock breakfast of eggs, bacon and cooked mush followed by Wheaties and milk. After breakfast there was the usual rush of washing dishes, hitching the horses to the buggy and getting changed into our church clothes which for me this special morning was a new black dress and a new starched white cape and apron. I don't remember my cap being new but I'm sure it was freshly washed and pressed with sugar and vinegar.

One out of the ordinary thing happened that morning when Dad wrote a letter and flagged the Bishop down as he passed to give it to him as he wanted to explain some things that he didn't care for all the other preachers to know and the bishop was so hard of hearing he couldn't talk to him privately in public.

The 12 mile drive with horses and buggy was uneventful but soothing to have the whole family together with Dad at the lines. Once at the place where church was held at Joe A. Borntregers the family went to their proper positions in the Amish church and I felt very vulnerable.

I remember filing in at the proper time behind Lizzie, the other girl who was being baptised, and sitting in the living room on the long benches waiting for the men to come in. As we sat there I noticed the curtains at the windows twisted back and up in an unnatural way and attributed it to the fact that it must have been the boys because they had no older girls to do such things.

That day I got baptised and our family got our "zeugniss" or church letter to move to Bronson 'Mi . ;Which was the reason Lizzie and I only had church instruction for five Sundays instead of the usual seven. I could write a book about all the things that happened that day and the things leading up to and following that day in the history of my life but I will leave that for another time.

But after all these years I still believe my baptism fulfilled all the requirements of a Biblical baptism.

May 15, 1970

2009-05-16T06:20:00.002-05:00

On May 15, 1970 I thought my world had come to an end. All that I held dear was past and gone. What was left in life to look forward to ? You see, I had just graduated from the eighth grade. Now what did I have to look forward to? I went to my room or corner of the room that was mine and cried tears of despondency as I looked at the desolate future stretching out before me. Years of drudgery without the welcome break of books and learning. I found a pen and paper and sorted out my feelings till I reached a conclusion. Of course, what was I thinking ? I would teach school. How could I have momentarily forgotten that goal I'd set for myself soon after I started going to school? From that moment on I set my face towards the goal of becoming the youngest school teacher allowed in the school room. Where was the despair and despondency of just moments before? Oh, the resiliency of youth! Now I had the challenge of a whole life time ahead of me. Bring on the future!

Welcome to the Graber Connection!

2008-12-28T21:34:00.002-06:00

Ruth had this wonderful idea that we could have a shared family blog. So here it is! We are in the process of inviting all family members and enabling them to write for this blog. All of us will need google accounts to be able to access it. This will be a great way to stay connected.