Honoring the journey—then and now
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Quaker Quilting Qualms
Quilting has been on my mind lately. A friend recently kindly offered to create a table runner from my late husband’s shirts. I gamely suggested I might be the one to hand quilt it. But after my experience with the 1914 Double Irish Chain family quilt that has just appeared, I may have to change…
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Reconstruction Diary Meditations: The Black Orphans of Helena’s Civil War
Saturday, October 20, 1866 The Orphan Asylum is quite pleasantly situated about 9 miles from Helena. There are over fifty children here. John Harvey is here [and] has been teaching, but is now going to take charge of the farming. Mary Stuart had a chill day before yesterday and did not feel able to come…
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I’m in a fight with a robot
This isn’t how I expected my week to go. Nonetheless, here I am. After getting my dander up last weekend about the genealogy workshop speaker who encouraged the attendees to let AI write our blog posts for us, despite her protestations that she didn’t let it write hers–yeah, right–this past week, I decided to go…
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Reconstruction Diary Meditations: Greetings from Scenic Cairo, Illinois!
Tuesday, October 16, 1866 We left Raysville at half past six o’clock [and] arrived at Indianapolis a little after 8. Met all the teachers whom we expected to meet there. We tarried long enough to get tickets for Cairo and get our baggage checked through to the same. [We] traveled pretty steadily until three o’clock…
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What’s My Motivation? Creating Believable Characters
Why do you behave the way you do? For that matter, why do I? If we’re like most people, it probably depends on a lot of different things. So how about the characters we writers create? Creating realistic characters often comes from a fair amount of think time, not just writing off-the-cuff. Creating a well-rounded…
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Reconstruction Diary Meditations: Travel Travails
Saturday, October 6, 1866 Lizzie & I went in to Richmond this morning to attend a part of [Indiana] Yearly Meeting. Several others of our acquaintance also went in. Cousin Rebecca Harvey and her brother Jesse are here. We also very unexpectedly met Juliet Stanley, a teacher we first met at Jackson. Miss [sic]. I…
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Why I’m Never Going Back to the Classroom
I admire my retired friends who go back into the classroom. My book club and mystery-trip group are filled with educators who could venture back into the hallways of academia. Some do! Not me. Teaching has changed. As I occasionally scroll through Facebook and X, I see some alarming posts. Teachers complaining about student behavior being…
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I thought I was so smart …
… then the bunnies outsmarted me. What’s up, doc? A rabbit is back. Or maybe it never left. You might know that my son recently built a new gate in the fence for me. It’s lovely. But it also has become an obstacle for the rabbits who used the gap below the old fence as their…
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Reconstruction Diary Meditations: The Battle of Walnut Grove
Sunday, September 23, 1866 Lizzie went to Spiceland meeting to bring Hannah Lymons to our house. She went to Uncle David’s for dinner, then to Jason Williams with H [and] L. Jason and his son Joseph are both sick; their recovery is quite doubtful. Mother went to meeting riding with Lizzie as far as S…
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Grief By the Numbers at Five Months
After… 28 years of marriage3300 nights together23 weeks since Jerry died153 days since Jerry died3 times I’ve left the house wearing mismatched socks8 physical books I’ve read6 times I’ve snapped at someone who is just trying to help me7 days I have baked goodies20 times I’ve remembered the day we met148 mornings I’ve kept to my chronological Bible-reading plan5 times…
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