It is a dreary April morning with no sun in sight. We had a thunderstorm during the night with lots of strong wind and rain. My garden beds are still empty, and I haven’t even started with getting seeds, plants, etc. around. I should have onions and potatoes already in the ground.

Time has a way of slipping by, and we will enter the fifth month of 2026 on Friday. How can it be possible that we are entering May already?

Last week on Wednesday, my daughters Elizabeth, Susan Verena, and Lovina, along with their preschool-aged children and daughter-in-law Grace, spent the day at daughter Loretta’s house. We assisted her with cleaning. Dustin and Loretta will host the next church services on Mother’s Day. We washed windows, washed walls and ceilings in the bathrooms, bedrooms and breezeway. We also did her laundry, including bedding and curtains. It was a nice day to dry the laundry, but then later in the afternoon it started raining.

I came home from Dustin’s and was getting ready to start supper for Joe and me. Sons Benjamin and Kevin were invited to a birthday supper for a friend. Of course, Benjamin’s special friend Joanna went with them. Daughter Verena came over and told me she was talking with sister Verena on the phone, who said she feels too weak to get out of her recliner. (Our church allowed sister Verena and our handicapped daughters to have their phones in the house since it’s not easy for them to go to the phone in an outside building.) She asked if I would come down to her house.

Sister Verena lives a little over half a mile from us. Joe and I went to see what was going on. She hasn’t eaten much in the last few days, and I think she was dehydrated. We called her neighbor, Mary, and asked if she would drive Verena to our house in her Gator. We helped Verena get into our house, and I gave her water. She was really thirsty. When we came home, Daniel Ray and our daughter Verena had supper ready for all of us. How thoughtful and so much help to me! I’m so thankful for Mary, too. She walks past Verena’s house every day and often stops to check on her. Bless her heart! Sister Verena has been staying here with us for a week now.

We took her to church on Sunday at daughter Lovina and Daniel’s house. She drove one of our son Kevin’s mobility scooters. Otherwise, she gets around with the aid of a walker. She will be 60 in August. Her health seems to decline gradually. She mostly stays on the couch. I take her meals, and she mostly just gets up to use the bathroom. She likes to read, so I gave her some books to help pass the time. I’m not much of a nurse, but I think just being around activity helps her.

We still have a chairlift on our stairs that son Kevin isn’t able to use anymore. Verena doesn’t want to use it to sleep upstairs; she says she can sleep fine on the couch. She is still sleeping right now, but when she wakes, I want to make breakfast for her and Kevin. I am thankful for my health so I can help be a caregiver to my loved ones.

Don’t get me wrong, though, I can feel those aches and pains and all that comes with turning 55 this month. Haha! My right knee keeps locking up on me, so I can’t bend it sometimes. I went to get an X-ray done yesterday to see what’s causing it. I will find out the results next week. I wouldn’t worry about it, but I want to be able to help others.

On Thursday, I went with Kevin to an appointment in Ann Arbor. We left a little before 1 p.m. and didn’t arrive home until almost 8 p.m. It was a long, tiresome day for both of us. It is a two-hour drive one way. 

Several readers asked for the recipe for peanut butter spread and cheese spread. I will share one recipe I have for peanut butter spread, then I’ll share the other recipes in the following weeks.

God bless!

Peanut Butter Spread 1

5 pounds of peanut butter

1 cup butter (2 sticks), room temperature

2 quarts maple syrup (or maple-flavored pancake syrup)

3 16-ounce containers of whipped topping

Mix peanut butter and butter until well combined, then gradually add maple syrup. Fold in whipped topping until all is combined. Keep refrigerated. Freezes well.

• Lovina’s Amish Kitchen is written by Lovina Eicher, an 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. Readers can write to Eicher at Lovina’s Amish Kitchen, P.O. Box 234, Sturgis, MI 49091 (please include a self-addressed stamped envelope for a reply), or email questionsforlovina@gmail.com and your message will be passed on to her to read. She does not personally respond to emails.