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Purple Passages and a Teddy Bear

by MarianBeaman | Oct 15, 2014 | Lists, Literature, Purple Passage, Quotations, Uncategorized

 LEAVES Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.   – Albert Camus Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.   – Jim Bishop Quotation, noun: The act of repeating erroneously the words of another.      – Ambrose Bierce...

Secrets in My Hatbox

by MarianBeaman | Oct 11, 2014 | Education, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Tips, Uncategorized

Just behind my desk, a wicker table holds three hat-boxes: One is floral, another has a repeating Tuscan scene and the third is transparent, the contents held taut by pale blue gossamer fabric. All are chock full of memorabilia from days gone by. All three, a type of...

Moments of Discovery # 1: How Do You Furnish a House?

by MarianBeaman | Oct 8, 2014 | Family / Nostalgia, Lists, Memory, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Uncategorized

According to The Huffington Post, the median home price in the United States (2014) is $ 188,900.00. Even adjusted for inflation over the years, housing prices have increased enormously since the 1940s. My parents were married in 1940. Until they bought their first...

Family Dinners: Keeping the Spark Alive

by MarianBeaman | Oct 4, 2014 | Family / Nostalgia, Gratitude, Memory, Mennonite Lore, Purple Passage, Recipes, Uncategorized

Are family dinners important? What about empty nesters? Families of one? Do family dinners protect against the effects of teen drug use and cyberbullying? Writer Melodie Miller Davis in her recent blog post “How do you keep family dinner?” got me thinking about...

Way Back in the Day…

by MarianBeaman | Oct 3, 2014 | Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Nostalgia, Quilt, Uncategorized

Did Granny or Mom make clothes out of feed-sacks? Did you wear outfits with rickrack or smocking? Blog friend/author S. K. Nicholls reminisces in this recent post.
The Million Dollar Baby: Ian’s Miracle Birth

The Million Dollar Baby: Ian’s Miracle Birth

by MarianBeaman | Oct 1, 2014 | Conflict, Family / Nostalgia, meditation, Quotations, Reflection, Uncategorized

Since my mother’s death in July, I have written several posts of her home-going including A Grief Observed: Missing Mother and Crossing the Bar. This time I’m focusing on a birth, our grandson Ian’s miraculous birth in 2007, seven years ago this week. According to the...

10 Things My Family Did or Didn’t Do on Sunday

by MarianBeaman | Sep 27, 2014 | Family / Nostalgia, Lists, Mennonite Lore, Quotations

You must not work on Sunday, Sunday, Sunday You must not work on Sunday because it is a sin. But you can work on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday till Sunday comes again. Sung to a melody with a 4-note range similar to “Here We Go Round the...

Milk Toast: Good for What Ails You

by MarianBeaman | Sep 24, 2014 | Coming of Age, Family / Nostalgia, meditation, Memory, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Recipes

Diners at the Bâtard, an upscale restaurant in Tribeca, NYC can enjoy a dessert dish called milk bread, “A Christmastime treat from Germany,” says the September 1, 2014 issue of the New Yorker. The article goes on to describe this milk bread as having...

Purple Passages and a Mirror

by MarianBeaman | Sep 20, 2014 | Family / Nostalgia, Literature, meditation, Purple Passage, Quotations, Reflection

  The earth laughs in flowers.”     –  Ralph Waldo Emerson   MIRRORS Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it.   – Ernest Holmes     Mirrors can both reflect and distort as Tennyson suggests: And moving through a...

The Beach at Sunset: Crossing the Bar

by MarianBeaman | Sep 17, 2014 | Family / Nostalgia, Literature, meditation, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Quotations, Reflection

Sunsets, especially sunsets on the beach are # 1 on the list of clichés to avoid in photography. Yet beach sunsets persist on Instagram and Facebook because they are breath-taking, evocative.   . . . the gauzy hinge between sea and sky, the limitless horizon...
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