How to Hygge, The Comforts of Home, Part 2
Savor the Moment: “Smell the treat before you eat it. Linger over a good conversation at dinner. Choose enjoyment over accomplishments and possessions.” Build a Comfortable nest: Blankets, pillows, soft pajamas may help - Make a a "hyggekrog," a nook, a place where...
Wordless Wednesday: Skywriting Over Germany
How German pilot celebrated the roll-out of Covid-19 vaccine in December 2020 Is the Covid-19 vaccine available in your area? Do you plan to get the vaccine when it is offered?
Taking the Plunge: Liesbet Travels the Sea
Almost exactly one year ago this week, Liesbet, Mark, and Maya visited our home, via their RV Zesty. I wrote about our 4-hour visit HERE. Liesbet and I spent part of the time discussing her work-in-progress memoir, PLUNGE, here just a manuscript on her Tablet...
Cathedral Windows: from Candy to Communion
The surge of the Covid-19 virus and the ensuing lockdown launched nearly a year of frantic baking and a run on flour and sugar in the grocery aisles. What first had become a coping mechanism during the pandemic has perhaps evolved into a new pastime (or passion) as...
My Word: It’s Beyond Me!
Beauty, the word I chose for my focus word for 2020, seemed to mock the events that unfolded in early March and following: the pandemic, political strife, urban uproar all contributed to create a topsy-turvy world. Still, nature cycled through seasons, revealing its...
12 Christmas Writing Prompts
Wendy Jayne Scott, my author friend from New Zealand, offers writing prompts to engage young people in storytelling by firing up their imaginations (ages 6-up) Here are 3 examples from her book of 12 prompts: It’s Christmas Eve, and you’re supposed to be tucked...
10 Life Lessons from the Queen
As Groucho Marx once said, “Anyone can get old — all you have to do is to live long enough. 🙂 But living long enough is not enough, apparently. It's a good idea to savor life, one well lived. This from an article published recently by Brian Kozlowksi...
Mennonite Daughter Offers Special Promo
Books Make Great Gifts Here's a Gift to Share! Discover the charms of living in rural PA in the 1940s-60s Follow the author in her path toward forgiveness American Link Canadian Link Amazon Universal Link Thank ...
Thanksgiving 2020: The Silly, the Secular, and the Sacred
The Silly Detail, enlarged The Secular The Sacred Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. ~ Psalm 100:3 KJV As you approach Thanksgiving...
Sixteen Year Old Aunt Ruthie Writes about an Election
“Where have you been hiding?” I asked myself as I discovered a tiny, green volume under three other, larger diaries. Over three years ago, my sisters and I cleared out our Aunt Ruthie’s house. They agreed to my placing her diaries and journals in my suitcase, flying...
Eating from Sarah’s Tree of Life
Sarah Klassen is a Canadian poet novelist storyteller with Mennonite roots Sarah is 88 years old. Recently Sarah has published her second poetry collection, The Tree of Life, a gem of a book, glowing with color like sunlight filtered through stained glass. ...
Dr. Katherine Meets Mennonite Daughter
Dr. Katherine Hutchinson-Hayes is Young Glamorous An accomplished author and speaker Dr. Katherine Hutchinson-Hayes wants to live in a world where lattes are free, lines are short, and people are judged by what’s inside instead of outside. So do I! *** I met...
Fifties Halloween Party with a Modern Writer’s Tip
Fun House Halloween was a big deal at our two-room school. Every October, the students in my teacher/aunt Miss Longenecker’s lower grades and Mrs. Kilhelfner’s upper-grades skipped class for Halloween amusement in the fun house that transformed the basement of Rheems...
Wordless Wednesday: Drying Rose Petals
Click below to hear the crackle of baked petals, sort of like crunchy leaves in autumn . . . in Florida, not! RevCrunchingPetals7704.TRIM How it began: A fresh-petal illustration from Mennonite Daughter, Chapter...
Memoirist Marian Joins Rave Reviews Book and Blog Party
Welcome to the #RRBC "ROCKIN' 2020 AWAY" BOOK, BLOG & TRAILER Block Party! @martabeaman #Giveaways * * * Here's What I'm Giving Away Today: $ 10.00 Target Gift Card Post a comment to go into the draw - Good Luck! (One winner only) Dear readers: Thank you...
13-Year-Old Ian: Not Quite a Bar Mitzvah
Ian Christopher Beaman Born in 2007 2 pounds, 5 ounces Now age 13 Strapping young man, full of vigor, praise God! A precarious beginning, indeed Our fourth grandchild appeared unexpectedly in early October, on his mother’s birthday, not as anticipated in early...
I Didn’t See that Coming: My 2020 Schedule
The book promotion part of my life started out robust in early 2020. My calendar was chock full of goodies, bulging with Ways to engage with readers and market Mennonite Daughter. Here is what January looked like . . . Then came February . . . How...
Remembering Sunday Dinners, PA Dutch Style and a New Author
The tradition of Sunday dinner with guests, thriving in our Mennonite (and larger) community as late as the early 1970s, was an expression of a communal spirit. It was an equally culinary and sacramental Sabbath experience. Now, except among the Plain...