The Pumpkinvine Trail While I was in Indiana, hubby and I took a few hours to bike the Pumpkinvine Trail. We didn’t bike ALL of it. We biked 5 miles one way and 5 miles back. That was a lot for us. The trail is a real beauty. In total it is 16.5 miles connecting Goshen, Middlebury and Shipshewana. It …
School Days and Material Witness Material Witness is the story of a little boy who sees something terrible–he sees a man attack a woman. He doesn’t know it at the time, but he sees a man kill a woman. Why would I write such a thing? We would all protect our children from seeing this horrible event, from being …
Parents, Amish Schools A Promise for Miriam released on July 1, and we’ve been talking about Amish schools, since the plot of this story revolves around an Amish schoolhouse. This week I thought I’d share a few things I learned about Amish parents: They do repairs to the schoolhouse when needed. They clean the schoolhouse the week before school begins. They visit, …
School Calendars for the Amish Researching is one of my favorite parts of writing. Now that copies of A Promise for Miriam have begun showing up in bookstores, I thought it would be fun to share some of the things I learned. As a public school teacher myself (15 years, 7th grade – college), I was very interested. My biggest question was …
Places We Like … Amish Life Another question I asked you a few weeks ago is where you would like to visit, where you would go to see the Amish if you could take a trip. I like trips! It’s fun to go somewhere different and see how people live. Here are your answers. Pennsylvania Ohio Indiana Florida Missouri There …
Why We Care … Amish Life A few weeks ago I asked you some questions. I believe it was while I was running a contest. (Sounds like me. Right?) One of the questions was WHY did you care about the Amish? WHAT was it that interested you the most about them? WHY do you read their stories? The answers were …
All Things Amish–Gardening, part 3 March and gardening seems like a real possibility now. Right? This is one of my favorite pictures from my visits to Amish farms. There’s a LOT in this picture–there’s an entire story in this picture. I’ll even admit that THIS picture was the inspiration for Esther’s garden in my Shipshewana series. Isn’t the giant ball …
All Things Amish–Gardening, part 2 Are we in the gardening mood yet? I realize many of you still have snow on the ground. My hope is this series will warm you up a little! I was surprised how large Amish gardens are, but then again they are using them to feed their families. But other things surprised me as well–look …
All Things Amish–Gardening, part 1 February might SEEM like an early time to talk about gardening, but I like the idea of planning out my garden. When I look back over the photos of Amish gardens I have visited, it’s easy to see they are well planned. Lots of work and effort went into these vegetable patches–and for good reason. Here …
All Things Amish–Blue Gate Restaurant in Shipshewana Blue Gate Restaurant is a special place in Shipshewana, and it’s special for several reasons. It’s a memorable place to stop and eat–and yes, I’m talking Amish food. It also is home to a remarkable theater which this year is hosting talent ranging from Amy Grant to plays such as Beverly Lewis’ The …