Finding Friends & Hatching Plans
A toy train and a baby doll. That’s what these brother and sister pairs are exchanging with each other. Trading is fun among friends, no matter what their size. Big or little, old or young – most people like to exchange gifts, conversation, sometimes even big ideas....
A Lunchables and An Invisible Thread
I bought this portable meal, a Lunchables, to give to a homeless person. So why is it still sitting in my refrigerator? Last week I planned to give this lunch to the next person I saw holding a “Hungry & Homeless – Will you Help?” sign as I waited in my car for...
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...
Aunt Ruthie: Art through the Ages
My Mennonite Aunt Ruthie Longenecker is elderly now. She has always loved art and is still producing beautiful things nearing age 97. Like Mary Delany, known for her exquisite scissors art, age is no hindrance to creativity. Note the red and teal crayons in Ruthie's...
Through a Glass Darkly: Anniversary # 48
This week Cliff and I celebrate our 48th wedding anniversary. We are not experts on marriage by any means, but we have learned a thing or two about navigating its mysteries and negotiating the best for both We sometimes see through a glass darkly Image captured...
Finding Silver
When we cleared out Mother's house last year, we set aside some of her treasures to be passed down to the next generation. This month we are labeling these items with specific names to avoid mix-ups. One of Mom's prized and most used wedding presents was her set of...
Moments of Extreme Emotion: A Lunatic in London
I knew we were in trouble when the rotary path took us around Buckingham Palace and not directly to the Comfort Inn, Hyde Park, where we were aiming to roost for our stay. Never mind that the steering wheel on our dark blue Vauxhall was set to the right, opposite the...
Do You Like to Color?
Have you heard? Coloring books for adults are all the rage right now. According to Parade magazine (July 12, 2015), apparently hundreds of coloring books are available now to help you “cheer up, chill out, and get your creative juices flowing.” 50 Shades of Happy: The...
Remembrances of Mother, A Year Later
This week our family remembers the fourth week of July 2014. Last year Mother observed her 96th birthday on July 23. She died unexpectedly on July 28, five days later. This post will commemorate this milestone in two ways: cards sent to me along with images of Mom's...
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...
Oh, Beautiful – Amber Grain & Grainy Amber
Did you grow up country? Can you picture a Dad, brother, or uncle toiling under the torrid July sun in the wheat field? If so, you know that farmers always wore hats with brims. The ruddy-faced farmers I knew in the fifties probably didn't use Coppertone or any other...
A Plate, a Parade, and a Song
First of all, there was no parade and no song. But there was a plate. A plate of cupcakes. I can show you the plate, but the cupcakes are missing. Why? Because our grandchildren ate them all up. In fact the two older boys ate theirs up seconds after they landed on the...
2 Tales from Roxann and Cheeno, Our Fresh Air Children
His yellow tag says: Cheeno Duncan - Host Family: Ray & Ruth Longenecker How would you feel if you were an 8 or 10-year-old from New York City and after a 3-hour train ride landed you in the farm pastures of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, lush but unfamiliar?...
Liberty Bell, Still Ringing
You are seeing the thumbnail of an animated card waiting for you over on my Facebook page. The festivities in the town square here are set to the tune of Sousa's Liberty Bell March. The tune, famous in the 1970s as the theme song for Monty Python's Flying Circus,...
I Spy an Elk!
Gladys asks me, "Would you like to drive up to Cataloochee National Park to see the elk sometime this week? We have to go at dusk because that's when they come out to feed." I'm quick to respond: "Sounds good to me." I've never seen elk up close. Besides I thought...
Creation Clips
We are spending the week in the cool Smoky Mountains, savoring the beauties of nature in Waynesville, North Carolina. Nothing breaks the silence except birdsong. Rhododendron buds unfold into blossom, a walking stick is a great companion, just like Laurelville Camp in...
Marian, Janice, and Jean Go to Laurelville
Lacing a belt of green and yellow gimp in crafts class Trips to the snack shop for an orange Nehi Bible study on the rocks, girls like us with braids, some with prayer caps These are my sharpest memories of Girls’ Week at Laurelville Mennonite Camp just off the...
4 Months, 4 Gifts: A Tribute to My Dad
March 1986: Mom and Dad Longenecker visit the families of my sister Janice and me in Jacksonville, Florida. We all enjoy Epcot in Disney World, Dad's chance to see a faux version of the Switzerland he never actually visited but planned to some day. My super-charged...