The Radical Homemaker

Warning: Blending authenticity with joy may arouse contempt.

If I’d Only Known.

Saoirse and I are standing on a curb in front of a Starbucks in Albany amidst a sea of suits and cell phones.   It doesn’t take long for me to find Steve, who we are waiting for.  Steve Hoare owns Black Dome Press, a small, local, independent publishing house that focuses on books of […]

The Responsiveness Badge

Facebook has a new “responsiveness badge.”  The other business owners in my entrepreneurship night class are talking about it.  To earn it, page admins must respond to 90% of messages within fifteen minutes, 24 hours a day, seven days per week. I snort at the irony.  We are in this class because we are independent […]

Life Insurance

I can’t predict the future.  Does that mean I have to sell my soul? My fingers are gliding over the bindings of the books in the the stacks of the library.  I have a half hour to kill before I head over to the small business management night class I’m taking.  In recent months, I’ve […]

Darned Life

My favorite purple sweater is turning green.  It was one of Bob’s cast-offs.  It went through the laundry a few years before we were even married, and came out of a hot wash fitting me perfectly.  Like most old clothing, it has far more value than my new clothing, by virtue of the fact that […]

The Chicken Orchestra

As Ula’s vision increases, so does her imagination…and her independence.  Where does that leave my identity as her mother? Dad and I are standing in the driveway, having a heated discussion about some management decisions. The start of the season is fast approaching, and with the new farm store and cafe on the horizon, a […]

I am not sorry.

For Halloween this year, Saoirse dressed as a flapper. Ula dressed up as a vampiress from Venice. I went as Frantic Mother. I’ve worn that costume for over a decade now. But this was the first year I actually realized I was clothed in it. It was early October when I finally started to figure […]

Making Neighbors

Is it possible to stay neighborly if they’re detonating explosives next door? Don’t move to Upstate New York if you can’t abide the sound of gunfire.  This time of year, it reverberates across every ridge top and echoes down every valley.  It blasts out from the next field over, and the next porch over. I’m […]

Where does eternity go for supper?

In the death that signifies the end of the growing season, I wondered if I would ever know forever.  Then I met it for dinner.   Until it’s time to carve the turkeys, I work almost completely alone on the day of the community turkey supper.  Bob is madly cleaning the house for some out-of-town guests […]

Blame the Blood Moon

It seemed like there should be something magical about a Blood Moon.  And there was. “Shanny,” Aunt Kimmie’s gravely baritone rumbles into my voicemail.  “Sunday night.”  She says.  Then she pauses.  I think she assumes I’ll know whatever it is she’s reminding me of.  Maybe the ghosts who watch her drink her morning coffee are […]