"Gathering of Sisters"

About the book

Spend a day with sisters. Once a week Darla Weaver bundles her children into the buggy, hitches up her spirited mare, and drives six miles to the farm where she grew up. There she gathers with her four sisters and their children for a day with their mother. In Gathering of Sisters, Weaver writes about her horse-and-buggy Mennonite family and the weekly women’s gatherings that keep them connected. On warm days, the children play and fish and build houses of hay in the barn. In the winter, everyone stays close to the woodstove, with puzzles and games and crocheting. No matter the weather, the Tuesday get-togethers of this Old Order Mennonite family keep them grounded and centered in their love for God and for each other, even when raising an occasional loving but knowing eyebrow at each other. The rest of the week is full of laundry, and errands, and work that never ends. But Tuesday is about being sisters, daughters, and mothers. Hear straight from Amish and Mennonite people themselves as they write about their daily lives and deeply rooted faith in the Plainspoken series from Herald Press. Each book includes “A Day in the Life of the Author” and the author’s answers to FAQs about the Amish and Mennonites. About the author About the Author: Darla Weaver is a homemaker, gardener, writer and Old Order Mennonite living in the hills of southern Ohio. She is the author of Water My Soul, Many Lighted Windowsand Gathering of Sisters. Weaver has written for Family Life, Ladies Journal, Young Companion, and other magazines for Amish and Old Order Mennonite groups. Before her three children were born she also taught school. Her hobbies are gardening and writing.   My Review: If you ever wanted to know more about the Mennonite and Amish way of life, this is the book for you!  Darla shares her life, a year of it, with accounts from Tuesdays that she spends with her mother, her sisters and their children.  These are days that are filled with family time, a time of connecting, sharing and learning from and through each other.  Each chapter spans one month and it is an account of the visits for the month, including activities, recipes, things learned through conversation and merely being together and working through things together.  This book has such a personal feel to it as it is a personal account shared by Darla herself and it makes me wish for a day like this each week, of a time of connecting and just being a family.  It is a nice break from the every day routine for these women; not that it is an actual break from work, but from the normal routine a time of reconnecting and recharging from being in each other's company.  I love how their faith shines through as well through their conversations, through their interactions.  This is a nice, inspiring book that will encourage you to make the most of time with your own family and carve out time specific for family such as days like this.  To read an excerpt from the book, go here! *Thanks to the publishers for a complimentary copy of this book.*