Honoring the journey—then and now
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From double-sided cabinets to persimmon pudding: Four generations in and out of the kitchen
When my mom was a girl, children weren’t exactly welcome in the kitchen with the grown-ups. But I love having my granddaughter as sous-chef!
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From Classroom to Keyboard: My Writing Routine
My Social Media Manager/daughter Sally Shideler scolds me. She’s the one who uploads all the posts I create for Facebook and Substack and WordPress. She’s the one who looks at my analytics and discusses strategy for promoting my book to readers and publishers. She’s the one who does the stuff I don’t enjoy. It’s a…
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Wrapped in a blanket of Quaker faith
The crickets weren’t chirping. The birds huddling in the trees didn’t sing. No roosters crowed, and no soft breezes wafted through the open doorway.
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Reconstruction Diary Meditations: Did my ancestor suffer from seasonal depression?
Diary Entry: Saturday, February 3, 1866 The forenoon of today has been spent making a bonnet to wear, and owing to a headache feeling unable to do much more. Anna French is better today. At two oclock an ambulance wagon came round to take us out riding and eight of our family took passage for…
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Finding Silence: A Quaker’s Refuge in a Catholic Adoration Chapel
I’m not Catholic. But I’ve come to appreciate several elements of Catholicism. With the closest unprogrammed–or silent–Quaker meeting about 30 minutes away, sometimes I need a dose of Catholicism, or at least my version. Unprogrammed Friends meetings near me are hard to find these days. I know of only two within an hour’s drive. To…
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Making Reading Basics a Little Easier
A student’s age didn’t matter to Mary Jane and Lizzie when they taught freedmen in Mississippi. Kindergarten-age children through adults flocked to the new schoolhouses to learn to read. They were so motivated that some local whites began to fear that the blacks might become more educated than their own children! But it wasn’t easy.…
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Podcast 4: I hate the Facebook hoops!
What’s going on with all this Facebook publicity? Why do I have to wave my hat and draw attention to myself?
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Diary Entry: Wednesday, January 24, 1866
Last night we had quite a shower of rain, and this morning the weather is cool again and remained so all day. I had fifty scholars at school today, suffered with the headache considerably yesterday and last night… -Mary Jane Edwards, writing in Jackson, Mississippi…
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Reconstruction Diary Meditations: Remember our farming ancestors in winter
We think we have it bad this weekend with the snowfall and frigid temperatures. But a massive winter storm – idyllic though Currier & Ives make it appear in their 1868 “American Homestead Winter” – would have been a huge challenge for my ancestors, Mary Jane and Lizzie Edwards and anyone who lived on a…
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Would sage help my American Girl clothes?
I may have to light some dried sage and waft its smoke over the little red-striped cotton pajamas! I’m afraid they’ve absorbed a lot of negativity.
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