Photo courtesy of Lovina’s Amish Kitchen Lovina’s granddaughter Jennifer, 8, wrote her first column last week.

Hi, I am Jennifer Susan and I am 8 years old. I like to read and write and hold my baby sister Sharlene. She likes when I feed her corn pops.

Sometimes I rock her to sleep and sometimes I play with her. I have two sisters and four brothers. My sister Kaitlyn and I sleep in the same room. We like to play with dolls and we like to take them outside when it is nice. We bring our dolls inside when we are done playing because we don’t want them ruined.

I am staying at my Aunt Verena’s right now. My brother Jr and sister Sharlene are here too. Kaitlyn, Isaiah, Ryan and Curtis went with Mom to the dentist. I am glad I did not have to go to the dentist today. Verena gave Jr and Sharlene a scooter ride. Now they are taking a nap.

Kaitlyn and I do the dishes for our chores. Sometimes we sweep the floors. Isaiah does the chicken chores. Ryan does the pony chores and Curtis does the dog chores. We have four horses, one pony, a lot of chickens, two dogs and ducks in our pond.

I like to play games outside with my brothers and sisters. I like when Dad and Mom play Uno with us. We play Uno on Fridays because we don’t have to get up for school the next day.

Our dog Ranger is a fire truck dog. He is a dalmatian dog. My Mom bought me my dog Rosie when I was younger. Rosie is a small dog, she doesn’t grow. My Mom got Rosie for me when my Daddy Mose passed away because I was sad. Rosie is 5 years old. (Rosie is a Blue Merle Pomeranian). We took Ranger and Rosie to the vet with Jodi. Her car is small and Ranger couldn’t move around because he is big. Rosie was trying to run around in the car. Ranger was trying to fight with the dogs with big ears at the vet.

My favorite thing to do at school is reading books and playing with my friend Isabella. My brother Isaiah is in the same class as me because we are the same age. I turned 8 in January and Isaiah will turn 8 in May. I am older than Isaiah still. Isaiah is way shorter than me. I like carrots, broccoli and Cheetos for my snack. I eat a lot of carrots because they are healthy.

Maybe I will write again. Bye.

Granddaughter Jennifer (daughter Susan and Ervin) wrote the above column for me while she was at daughter Verena’s. Since it isn’t quite long enough, I’ll fill in the rest.

On Good Friday our whole family gathered at Susan and Ervin’s house for a delicious meal. On the menu was mashed potatoes, noodles, dressing, meatballs, cheese, deviled eggs, peach pie, chocolate cupcakes, Jello and ice cream.

Joe and I took our horse Jett. It was a nice day for a buggy ride. Jett seems pretty calm around traffic and doesn’t spook much off things along the road. The children enjoyed pony rides in the afternoon. Ervin and Susan have a long driveway so it’s nice for the young ones to drive the pony without going on the road. Tim and Elizabeth had come the two miles with their pony, so they had two ponies to drive.

Saturday our whole family came home to help us clean the pole barn for church. The men also cleaned up outside whatever needed to be done. We were glad for all their help. Many hands make lighter work. Lunch was pizza, chips, ice cream and cookies. We all are out in the pole barn so the house doesn’t get messed up.

I made this dessert recently and the grandchildren really liked it. I used strawberry gelatin, but I didn’t have strawberries to put on top of it but it is even good without fruit on top. Some use mandarin oranges for orange gelatin. It’s easy and didn’t take long to make.

God bless!

Quick and easy dessert

Ingredients

2 – boxes of gelatin (3 ounce each and any flavor)

2 cups boiling water

1 cup white sugar

16-ounce whipped topping

8 ounces cream cheese (softened to room temperature)

Directions

Mix water, gelatin and sugar and stir until dissolved. Cool off but don’t let it set. Beat cream cheese and whipped topping until smooth then add with the gelatin mixture. Pour into a 9×13 container. Optional: top with your choice of fruit.

Lovina’s Amish Kitchen is written by Lovina Eicher, Old Order Amish writer, cook, wife, and mother of eight. Her three cookbooks, The Cherished Table, The Essential Amish Cookbook, and Amish Family Recipes, are available wherever books are sold.