Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts published in “Homemaking”

From Rottleben to Lancaster County — The Stoltzfus Family Heritage

From Rottleben to Lancaster County — The Stoltzfus Family Heritage

By Guest Post on May 31, 2023

by Nic Stoltzfus, Plain Values

I first moved to Pennsylvania in the fall of 2018 to become caretaker of the Nicholas Stoltzfus Homestead in Reading. I was also nearing completion of a coffee-table book I was working on: German Lutherans to Pennsylvania Amish: The Stoltzfus Family Story. I was unsure about how it would go—although my father Elam was born Amish in Lancaster County and grew up there, I was a stranger to this region. I had never spent more than two weeks in Pennsylvania my whole life and didn’t know much about Amish culture and way of life. After all, I was a Floridian who was raised on grits and sunshine, not snow and scrapple.

I made it my mission to learn as much as I could about my Amish and Stoltzfus heritage, and this past year I learned a great deal.

Continue readingFrom Rottleben to Lancaster County — The Stoltzfus Family Heritage
Flying High — Roots + Wings

Flying High — Roots + Wings

By Guest Post on May 18, 2023

by Rory Feek, Plain Values

April is my birthday month, which is always interesting for me. Each year, although I physically turn another year older, my mind never seems to age. The voice inside my head seems to stay forever young and stuck in another time, convinced that time stands still. But the face that I see in the mirror tells a different story. The lines around my eyes are like chapters carved in the book of life that I have lived, the life that I am living still.

When my wife Joey passed away in March 2016, and we came back home to the farm after being gone for five months, I had to find a way to keep living and somehow find new life. I had to find a way to take where we’ve been and all we have learned and carry it into where we are going. I had to find a way to go where God has been leading us all along.

Continue readingFlying High — Roots + Wings
Roots + Wings —Sprouting Wings

Roots + Wings —Sprouting Wings

By Richard Osgar on April 25, 2023

by Rory Feek, Plain Values

Here in the middle of Tennessee, the arrival of March signals the return of spring. The long-awaited blooming of yellow daffodils that encircle our family cemetery here on the farm lets us know that winter is wearing thin and that warmer weather will soon be on its way. The pretty daffodils are also a gentle reminder of my beautiful bride Joey’s passing this month six years ago.

Continue readingRoots + Wings —Sprouting Wings
Light People, an Obelisk, and The GTI

Light People, an Obelisk, and The GTI

By Guest Post on March 22, 2023

Why Light People Marriage Must End In Gay Marriage

by John Heers, of First Things Foundation

First, before we dig into some heavy things, did you know that there is something called the Gay Travel Index?

Here’s what this index does: It ranks the world’s nations for friendliness toward gay people. The index is published by The Advocate, an LGBTQ+-friendly magazine. They use certain criteria. Things like same-sex marriage prohibitions give your country a low score. Gay rights enshrined in law, like the right to adopt as same-sex couples, those things create a high score. The best score is a 10. The worst score is -14.

Do you know who scores very, very high on the Gay Travel Index (GTI)?

Continue readingLight People, an Obelisk, and The GTI
The Roundtable — Amish Insights on: Pride

The Roundtable — Amish Insights on: Pride

By Guest Post on March 6, 2023

By: Jerry D. Miller, Plain Values

Our human tendency is to want to be independent. We do not want to rely on others, but the irony of it is, God created us to be dependent on each other when he created a man and woman in the Garden of Eden.

This Month’s Question:

Homesteaders are often encouraged to be as self-sufficient as possible. How can I overcome the pride of being self-sufficient so that I can reconnect with my community?

Answered by: JerryD. Miller, a deaconin his local Amish church

Continue readingThe Roundtable — Amish Insights on: Pride
Roots + Wings — Planting Roots

Roots + Wings — Planting Roots

By Guest Post on February 20, 2023

By Rory Feek, Plain Values

January always feels like not only the beginning of a new year, but a new opportunity. To do things better, to be better. To do the thing you’ve always wanted to do. A chance for real and lasting change. The first few stories I’ll be sharing monthly in this column are about some of the profound changes for the better that have occurred in my life that brought me here to this moment. First, to share a little about who I am and the story God has given us.

Continue readingRoots + Wings — Planting Roots
Giving Little Ones with Special Needs Room to Bloom

Giving Little Ones with Special Needs Room to Bloom

By Guest Post on February 9, 2023

By Marlin Miller, Publisher of Plain Values

I began our first post with this question and a statement. “What do the Amish, little ones with special needs, two nonprofits, four adoptions, two one-room schoolhouses from the 1800’s and a monthly print magazine have to do with homesteading in 2023? It is the story of our family, and it is a joy to share how the Lord has pieced it together over the last twenty years.” This is the second installment of that story.

Everything we discuss and share inside Plain Values magazine is focused on loving our neighbor. From adopting a child, raising extra tomatoes and peppers, helping that neighbor build a fence or a woodshed… it’s all about living out the two greatest commandments: to love God and love your neighbor.

Continue readingGiving Little Ones with Special Needs Room to Bloom
Putting Down Roots: The XXIst Century Revival of the Catholic Land Movement

Putting Down Roots: The XXIst Century Revival of the Catholic Land Movement

By Guest Post on April 5, 2022

by Maggie Zapp | Synergy Central FL Homestead

When Fr. McNabb published The Catholic Land Movement pamphlet in 1932, I have no doubt he had some inkling that something wicked this way comes. The Luddite riots first established a formal resistance to the inevitable march of technological progress and in many ways, Fr. McNabb picks up that flag once more in the Catholic Land Movement.

While the Luddites feared technological progress would ultimately take their jobs (and in the final outcome they are not wrong – automated robotics have taken over significant portions of the manufacturing process), our modern-day Luddism is founded on a resistance to both the overweening ambitions of globalist corporate oligarchs, combined with increased instances of poor health and autoimmune disease.

Continue readingPutting Down Roots: The XXIst Century Revival of the Catholic Land Movement