Could I Be the First Black Amish Person?

Pops and I watched a documentary last night.  We had been on a kick of watching weird-o documentaries and other things on Netflix that I can't quite describe easily.  But, gardening seemed to take us away from that.

Anyway, the video we *saw* last night was about the Amish.  (Note:  SAW does not mean that I actually saw and heard everything.  I fell asleep countless times as is my family trait from the Tomlinson side.)  My take away... can I be the first black Amish person?

Seriously, laugh all you want, we really have this growing desire to live more like them.  Of course, most of this started from our day trip to that IN Amish farm to pick up our 36 (butchered that morning, raised the right way) Amish chicken.  The family we purchased them from were so incredibly welcoming and generous!  Watching the older 2 girls help their mother sort and bag our chickens was amazing!  They worked efficiently, together, and without grumbling though it was messy work... but oddly not smelly!

Anyway, the video was very interesting.  What most attracts me to their lifestyle is their deliberateness in what they do and (what I view as) their seemingly one track mind.

Though we may not "get" why they live like they do, they are deliberate in why they live like they do.  There is a clear purpose.  And it seems they desire to live how they do to bring God glory.  I so respect that.  It seems like they've gone to ultra extremes to not be conformed to the world but to be closer to the Lord.

The Amish are often thought to be legalistic but I find their lifestyle so freeing!  Probably because sometime between living on Hermitage Avenue in the city and on Stratford Way in Frederick, I Iost any fashion-sense I had.  And I got tired of all the expensive chemicals I had to put in my hair to make my hair seem like it's not Black hair!  Ridiculous!  But, so the norm.  Trust me, since I went au naturale, I walk into a room and it seems my hair proceeds me.  I find eyes drawn to my hair because it's so big and different.  If only I could wear one of those Amish white hats or bonnet thing!

People think the clothes of the Amish are boring, I find them low maintenance and reasonable.  How cool that the dresses the girls wear are pretty much all the same and modest.  No worry about wearing a extra shirt underneath or will someone see something if I bend over.  Urgh.  Give me an Amish dress anytime!  (My birthday is in October!!!)

William's been talking about "getting off the electric grid" for a while.  And, honestly, I'm not sure he's joking!  He has been inquiring about an interracial Amish community.  Not online, obviously.  He seems ready to join.

Last weekend, instead of using our Weber charcoal grill, he got some stones and bricks and made a fire pit!  But, then he gerry-rigged this set-up so that we could grill on the grate of the Weber grill and could still put a big cast iron pot right in the wood underneath!

I made homemade spaghetti sauce (using tomatoes from our garden for the sauce) in the pot and he grilled the best hamburgers on top along with another cast iron pot filled with grilled "fried" potatoes.  We just may be one step closer to getting off the grid after all!

But, he does keep asking me, "So, do you think the Amish use toilet paper?"

I keep assuring him that Cloth Family Wipes are totally easy to use and clean.  If only he'd try...