by MarianBeaman | Mar 14, 2017 | blog, meditation, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, popular culture, Quilt, Quotations, Uncategorized
How to Make an American Quilt, the Movie Women stitch quilt as a wedding gift for girl Girl doesn’t know whether she wants to get married. Women in quilting circle tell stories about life and love that fit the quilt’s theme Where Love Resides Wrapped in a quilt,...
by MarianBeaman | Mar 7, 2017 | blog, book review, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Mennonite Lore, Uncategorized
Her Story The title for Rhoda Janzen’s latest memoir, Mennonite Meets Mr. Right, could be recast as Egg-Head Mennonite Intellectual Meets Pentecostal Hunk Mitch. I succumbed easily to her comic style, which engaged me while reading her first memoir, Mennonite in a...
by MarianBeaman | Feb 28, 2017 | blog, Family / Nostalgia, meditation, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Uncategorized
It’s a safe bet that I’d find clothes in your closet, boots, maybe a tennis racket. But I don’t think I’d find an otter hat, a movie camera, a stack of paintings or a ruffle iron. Sorting through ninety years of accumulation, my sisters and I have found all that ~ and...
by MarianBeaman | Feb 22, 2017 | blog, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Mennonite History, Nostalgia, Quotations, Uncategorized
Five journals, spiral-bound, sit in my writing studio. Their pages, bowed from cargo storage on flights from Florida to Pennsylvania, contain snatches of conversation from the last nine years of Aunt Ruthie’s life. Since 2008, she has had to cope with a pacemaker...
by MarianBeaman | Feb 14, 2017 | blog, Memory, Quotations, Travel, Uncategorized
Love Locks Their love, they thought, was an iron-clad statement, fixed to the grill work of Pont des Arts bridge in Paris. Etched with their initials, couples professed undying love as they tossed the key to their lovelock into the Seine. City workers in 2015 with a...
by MarianBeaman | Feb 8, 2017 | blog, Family / Nostalgia, Literature, Quotations, Uncategorized
The Lion and the Mouse Once upon a time a mischievous mouse scampered across the outstretched paw of a sleeping lion, awakening him from his nap. The king of beasts clapped his paw upon the pitiful creature that squealed: “ Please don’t kill me! The day may come when...
by MarianBeaman | Feb 1, 2017 | blog, meditation, neighborhood, Quotations, Uncategorized
If you are reading this, you have arrived at my new website, marianbeaman.com – welcome! It is still a work in progress. Another introduction is in order: I have been dying for you to meet my new neighbors who live peacefully on the lake behind our patio. After...
by MarianBeaman | Jan 18, 2017 | blog
Truth be told, 2 women and 1 man have been working hard to update my Plain and Fancy Girl website. We will be wearing hard hats and steel-toed boots, not pumps, until February 1 when the new site will be unveiled. Surprise!
by MarianBeaman | Jan 11, 2017 | Uncategorized
Last Week Joe Schrock of TIP TOP Window Cleaning announced his arrival by knocking lightly on my door. I spotted his truck on my driveway. I had contacted Joe about cleaning the windows at our new house. They were dirty when we moved in and got even worse when...
by MarianBeaman | Jan 4, 2017 | Uncategorized
No, this is not my new car. But Focus is a well-known member of the Ford Motor brand. Drivers know that if they point their steering wheel in the right direction, four wheels will turn and the car will head toward a specific destination. Announcing My Word for...
