Thank you for visiting my blog today.
Curious about my blog title? The plain part describes my first 24 years as a Mennonite girl in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and the fancy follows as I move south: first to Charlotte, North Carolina, and then to Jacksonville, Florida.
Watch for stories about faith and family knitted together by memory. You have stories too—or responses to what’s happening now. Do comment. I love words. Share some of yours!
Expect me to post Wednesdays weekly. Subscribe now, so you don’t miss a one.
COMING SOON! Marian’s new book
My Checkered Life:
A Marriage Memoir
Take an intimate look into one couple’s fifty-plus-year marriage in author Marian Beaman’s My Checkered Life: A Marriage Memoir. Using a quilt motif, the author stitches together stories that make up the fabric of their daily lives: the clash of cultures, crisis in a travel trailer, surviving a robbery, and enduring financial hardship.
Discover how the author and her husband learn the art of the argument with explosions both literal and metaphorical. Observe how they find common ground through their shared faith and commitment.
Readers of Marian’s first memoir, Mennonite Daughter: The Story of a Plain Girl can especially relate to her insider narrative, a closeup of one couple’s companionable union.
This volume contains excerpts from autograph books and diaries of the early 1900s, treasured family recipes, original artwork, and restored photographs—the legacy of multiple generations as two American families merge, one from the East, the other from the West. The author connects the dots of her life backwards, with detailed reverse engineering of events to discover meaning in her life as a wife.
Read the Latest
Singing from The Golden Song Book at Rheems School
Once upon a time, I attended Rheems School, a two-room school with a bell on top, accommodating eight grades of students. It was a charming little school set in the middle of the quaint village of Rheems, Pennsylvania, in mid-twentieth century. My aunt,...
Twins Raid Refrigerator: Wordless Wednesday
Brewing Tea, Recycling Specs, and Feeling Happy
At Christmas, I got a special gift from my sister Jean: Mennotea, a present guaranteed to warm my heart and recall my Mennonite childhood. Grandma Longenecker's mint tea in china cups and Mother's gallon jugs of summertime tea instantly came to mind. Intrigued...
Get your copy of Marian’s book
Mennonite Daughter:
The Story of a Plain Girl
Become a Subscriber!
Purple Passages
My Word, it’s 2016!
Have you started a diet? Renewed your gym membership or decided to walk more? Maybe you have resolved to cut down on Facebook time this year . . . Along with such New Year’s resolutions, some of my friends each year choose a guide word to help navigate the unknown...
Kids, Oaks, and Quotes: Purple Passages for August 2015
A Short Story Once upon a time seven children from three different states came to visit their family in Pennsylvania. Some came from far away in a car, plane or train so they could see each other and get to know their grandparents and great-grandparents, who lived in...
Purple Passages in Rainbow Colors
Calm Thoughts, Relax Here Where we relaxed at the home place, counting cars on a Saturday night, swinging on the porch and eating watermelon! * * * Be grateful for calm skies . . . Forever is composed of nows. (# 690) Emily Dickinson * * * I'm going to enjoy every...
About Marian Longenecker Beaman
I publish my blog Plain and Fancy Girl on Wednesdays. Whether you are a commenter or reader only, I appreciate your noticing.
Book Reviews
It began with a “Bam!” Dani’s Marriage Memoir
“Bam! I start, the dogs leap up. The windows rattle. The whole house shakes.” As Dani Shapiro's memoir begins, the author, warm and toasty in her office spies her husband “in the dead of winter, in the driveway wearing nothing but a white terry-cloth bathrobe, his...
East Meets West: Blend or Clash?
Yumiko Sekine, author of Simplicity at Home, grew up in northern Japan, learning traditional crafts and quilting from her mother and grandmother. Just as I did growing up in rural Pennsylvania, Yumiko appreciated quilting and hand-crafts. She still does, and so...
Marriage Memoir, An Update
“Go home and finish writing your new book. I want to read it!" Barbara and I are leaving our Monday morning Bible study. She is only half-kidding when she delivers this quip. Barbara has read Mennonite Daughter: The Story of a Plain Girl. She is looking forward to the...
Drop me a line (or two)
I love hearing from my amazing readers. You can contact me to make a suggestion or offer a comment.