Survivor or Thriver? A Beauty Queen and Some Tips
Are you thriving--or just barely hanging on? This is a close-up of the logo from a woman's retreat I attended a few months ago featuring Leslie Nease, Mrs. North Carolina 2001 and contestant on Survivor China 2007. A fitness trainer, she has written a book on...
Great Grandpa Sam: A Hoot and a Holler
Wiry Grandpa Martin, was a jolly little man. He had an Old MacDonald-type farm with chickens, a couple of cows, two horses, and maybe a pig though I never heard an oink-oink-oink either here or there. Theirs was a Jack Sprat-type union, with his wife Mary as generous...
Homecoming: Old Friends, New Friend
“Going Home, going home, I’m just going home . . . ." William Arms Fisher wrote a spiritual tune with nostalgic lyrics adapted from the famous largo in Dvorak’s 9th Symphony that hints of going home “through an open door.” Last Saturday I walked through the open door...
Mom and Gus: PA Dutch Fare
My mom's sacred space is her kitchen where she offers the sacrifice of her heart and hands to those in need and indeed her family. On my last trip to Pennsylvania, Mother made chicken corn soup from a recipe in her head. When I ask her how much of this or that, her...
Purple Passages with a Pig – October 2013 edition
Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise. Maya Angelou READING “Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are." Mason Cooley, aphorist (1927- __ ) “Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone...
Great Hearts
Linda Garber and Dr. Ty Graden will probably never be featured on the Making a Difference segment of the NBC evening news with Brian Williams, but they do just that every single day. Yesterday morning before Mother’s eye doctor appointment, her pastor’s wife Linda...
Birthday # 95: A Tribute & Party
July 2013 phone conversation between Aunt Ruthie and me: M: Well, Ruthie, how are you doing? AR: Well, I’m puzzled! M: Puzzled? What about? AR: I’m doing puzzles, doing “word find”! Ha ha ha! (Still witty at 95) Teaching: Adoring teachers surround their retiring...
Once Upon a Time: The Tale of a Snow Globe
Announcing the WINNER of Blush: A Mennonite Girl Meets a Glittering World And the Winner is (drum roll, please!) Carolyn Stoner! Thank you one and all for participating so heartily by commenting...
Clean Sheets: It’s a Breeze
My sheets are pinned to the backyard clothes line now, flipping in the breeze. Today I'm celebrating the end of our torrid Florida summer by hanging our sheets outside in the fresh fall air. Very old-fashioned and very retro. I guess I'm an Urban Mama! We live in the...
Babes in an Urban Woods: Part II
On the ground floor again, we breathe a sigh of relief as we spot the bus two blocks away ready to pick us up to go back to the mission. On the way to our mobile haven, we pass pawn shops armed like fortresses, lurid adult bookstores with XXX ratings, filthy-looking...
Babes in an Urban Woods: Part I
During our teens, my church friends--Miriam, Gladys, Hazel, and I congregate at each other's houses after church on Sunday night for ice cream, chips, and stereo music: Songs from the West, anything by Mantovani, and The Singing Nun. We would rather have dates like...
Shirley Showalter’s Memoir “Blush” – a Review & Book Giveaway
My Review Shirley Hershey Showalter’s Blush: A Mennonite Girl Meets a Glittering World sings the song of her early life as a Mennonite girl in 250 pitch-perfect pages. Born into a family of...
Book Giveaway Contest & Taste of Shirley’s Memoir “Blush”
News Flash! Upcoming Review and Book Giveaway of Blush: A Mennonite Girl Meets the Glittering World by Shirley Hershey Showalter On Wednesday, September 25, I will be reviewing Shirley Hershey Showalter’s new memoir - Blush: A Mennonite Girl Meets the Glittering...
Colleen’s Comfort Quilts: Knot Plain, Just Fancy
Since our children were little babes in blankets, Colleen and I have been friends. Our friendship, knitted together by similar values, compatible tastes, and love of beauty, has flexed with her moves from Florida to Maryland to Texas to California and back again. Like...
School Daze: Games We Played
Here we are all bunched up together for a photo documenting our excursion from Rheems Elementary School to the library in town about 3 miles away. But we'll soon board buses, and go back to our two-room school-house in Rheems where we'll probably have lunch or recess....
Remembering is as Remembering Does
Twelve years ago, a day to remember . . .
Purple Passages iii with Pictures
Writing & Stories 4.10.99 Why stories are so effective: The best stories begin as mental pictures which turn into personal mirrors before they become insightful windows through which we’re able to view life with greater clarity and understanding. Anonymous...
School Daze: Songs We Sang
Valentine parties, Easter parades, Hallowe'en fun houses in the basement, Christmas programs, we had them all, but those were special occasions. At Rheems Elementary, a two-room school, we had our daily ritual: Bell ringing from the school-house steeple (always by a...