I may never be able to eat again

We’ve spent the last nine days or so in Shickley, Nebraska, which is pretty much the coolest place on earth. Ask Randy, he’ll definitely agree with me. Don’t ask Elizabeth, because she will only tell you lies. My mother, bless her heart, agreed to host us for the whole time. She didn’t have to do all the cooking, however. We cooked our own lunches while she was at work, and in the evenings I scheduled us meals with different people from the church (Salem Mennonite). All evening meals included the Seeds group (except when Jess went home), my mom, and my eleven-year-old sister, Kristin. The food part is important, so I think I should make a list of what we had where.

Tuesday: Cecil and Sharon Kennel; porkchops, potatoes, corn, cucumbers, dinner rolls, fruit salad, and two desserts-poke cake and dark chocolate
Wednesday: Loretta Troyer and Dorothy Schlegel (my great-aunts), Dave, Gladys, and Julie Schlegel (cousins); turkey, corn, fried potatoes, broccoli-cauliflower salad, apple sauce, green jello, dinner rolls, with a cherry cream cheese dessert
Thursday: Taco feed with Tim, Becky, David, Pip Hochstetler, and Lowell Steider; This included homemade taco shells and all the trimmings for tacos. In addition, we had cherry and strawberry pie for dessert.
Friday: Will, Marge, Stephanie, Derek, and Christey Swartzendruber; porkchops, corn on the cob, cucumbers, fiesta rice, and ice cream with strawberries.
Saturday: We were joined by Neal “the Wheel” Friesen and Marcos Stoltzfus. We cooked waffles, bacon, eggs, and Neal made a special pudding for the waffles-a Nancy Friesen specialty.
Sunday: A light supper of lasagna and garlic bread. This was followed by an intense game of Rook between the Seeds and my great-aunts Dorothy and Loretta.
Monday: My great-aunts cooked for us again. We had poor man’s steak (hamburger cooked in cream of mushroom sauce) fried potatoes, corn, dinner rolls, green jello, applesauce, and cherry pie.
Tuesday: BLT’s and about 30 ears of corn between six people. Or if you’re my sister Kristin, you would eat four ears of corn, one piece of bacon, and consider that a balanced meal.
Wednesday: We ate a completely fried meal, at nearby restaurant named Bubba’s in Strang, Nebraska (population-32). It was “wing night,” which means you order wings and fries and they just dump them all on your table in a pile. It’s a mess, but a delicious, fried mess.

All this to say, we were very well taken care of in Shickley. I can hear all you doubters wonering if we did anything besides eating. Yes, of course we did. But at the moment as I sit quietly waiting for supper, this list of the meals from the past week seems the most important.