Thanksgiving with Mem’s Family – Part I

Getting together with Mem’s relatives for the holidays was a pleasant break in the routine of our lives. We had long since outgrown the buggy, so when we went to Momme and Dodde’s (Grandma and Granpa’s), eight miles away, we hired our neighbor to take us there. She was one of the “taxi drivers” in…

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Amish and Spanking

On November 6, Dr. Donald Kraybill wrote an article about Amish and spanking for The Huffington Post, and Erik Wesner posted a follow-up on Amish America. Below is my response to these articles. “They also note that the book of Hebrews suggests that God disciplines Christians as a father disciplines a son and that such…

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The Mennobrarian Book Review

At the end of the book, Saloma is finally home. ~ Monica the Mennobrarian Monica the Mennobrarian has posted a review of my memoir Why I Left the Amish on her blog. Have you ever had someone say so many touching things about you that you cried? That is how I felt when I read…

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Paul’s Birthday

This is an incredibly busy week, so I haven’t had any time to update my blog. David and I are painting basement walls and trim boards for the soffit boards, fascia boards, and trim boards being cut and installed on the outside of the house.  Between each of us having a job, coordinating the progress…

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A Twenty-Year Visitor

Twenty seven years ago this night, I was going into labor with my first child. The nine-month (plus twelve days) gestation period was coming to an end. David kept saying throughout the pregnancy, “It’s like we are going to have a visitor we’ve never met show up, except this visitor will stay for the next…

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November

Much as I dread the oncoming winter, that the month of November signifies, November has been a month of many transitions in my adult life. Many, though not all, of those have been good transitions. In 1977, I left the Amish for the first time on November 7. Then it was three years later, to…

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Remembering Mem

Katie J. Miller December 14, 1920 — October 24, 2005 The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living. ~ Cicero As I say good-bye to October, my thoughts go back five years, when my mother (Mem) had just died (on October 24, 2005, the same day as Rosa Parks). In…

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More Kindred Connections

In my recent post “Kindred Connections” I wrote about my long-ago and lately rekindled connection to John and Pat Anderson. A friend of Pat Anderson’s named Lynn Kimmerle, recently called me about reviewing my book. She let me know she received a galley copy from my publisher a few days ago, so I thought it…

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Leaves of October

Today was a true Indian Summer day… we had Squaw Winter these past ten days or so, which makes Indian Summer official, according to my mother.   My husband and I were painting trim boards for the outside of the house this afternoon. It got breezy at some point, so that the bright autumn leaves…

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Kindred Connections

Thirty years ago, when I was living with the Jake Kurtz family and teaching in a one-room Amish school, the Kurtzes and I would get frequent “Yankee” visitors. (I’ve since found out that my home community is the only one that uses this term — most Amish use the term “English” or “Englishers.” I believe…

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