Magical Memoir Moments
Playing and Working: Launching a Book while Helping to Launch Children
If what you love to do most is learn, then your work can always be play. And if the book you make is about childhood, what better way to learn and work than to play with children? That’s what Stuart and I have been doing this week. Here are our two teachers and playmates. Meet…
Praising Herald Press: A Birthday Guest Post for Jane Friedman
I’m on my way out the door on my birthday. I’m celebrating in two locations today. First, there was breakfast at the Prince Street Cafe in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Then I discovered that I had a guest post over on Jane Friedman’s blog. So that was another reason to celebrate, and to share with you here….
Making New Friends at the Mennonite Church-USA Convention: Lakota and Choctaw Women
Yesterday, Independence Day, I felt an inward nudge to visit the Native Mennonite American Ministries booth here at the Mennonite gathering in Phoenix. I wanted to know more about Mennonites who are also Native Americans. Writing my memoir Blush has brought more awareness about the long history of this great land. Six generations of my…
Why a Night at Forgotten Seasons is the First Prize of the 100 Day Challenge: An Interview With Kathy Wenger
Forgotten Seasons, a bed & breakfast near Lititz, Pennsylvania, holds a special place in my heart. When I thought about a prize for the 100 Day Challenge, a night at Forgotten Seasons seemed like a natural. All across America, family farms are disappearing. They are either turned into residential and commercial development or into…
Hershey Chocolate: A Life-long Combination
Now that you know that the last two numbers have been written with Hershey chocolate syrup, and now that you know frugality is a life-long habit of mine, you are probably wondering how I put that syrup to good use. Shirley Hershey was my name for 21 years, and it’s still part of my identity….
A Story for Father's Day: What I Learned About Love from Daddy
My father was a farmer. He was just 23 years old when I was born. Three years later, my brother Henry entered our world. We were sharecroppers living on an 80-acre dairy farm near Manheim, Pennsylvania. My memories of this farm are almost entirely happy ones. Almost. Below is an excerpt from Chapter 15, “Dueling…
Frugality: Lessons Remembered from My Mennonite Upbringing
Can you guess why I took this picture? No, I didn’t go on a butter binge. Nor am I experimenting with French cooking. These are wrappers saved over the last year. Every time I look at a butter wrapper, I smile, remembering a statement one of Stuart’s Old Order Mennonite aunts made years ago when…
Returning Thanks: An Annoying Duty to a Child, A Profound Memory for the Adult
My father’s father, David Paul Hershey, figures large in my memory of growing up. That’s primarily because the relationship between him and my father was complicated. Daddy bought the family farm (called The Home Place in my memoir Blush). Enough said. For now. But despite the differences of opinion between the two patriarchs who ruled…
The Secret of the Best Wedding Blessings: Find the Memoir Moments That Fit Your Child's Purest Self
Three years ago today our only daughter became a bride and wife. Stuart and I were asked to write wedding blessings to read in the ceremony. We were honored and a little daunted by the seriousness of the occasion. How to choose the words when the heart was so full, the memories so overwhelming, the…
57 Varieties of Wisdom: Sooner or Later, We All Quote Our Mothers (and Fathers)
As I intimated in my last post, the response to my Facebook query asking for examples of sayings from parents was amazing. Fifty-seven responses in all, counting multiple entries and conversations about entries. Then my Facebook friend Linda Hoye posted a Mary Englebreit painting featuring these words: “Sooner or Later, We All Quote Our Mothers.”…