The Radical Homemaker

Warning: Blending authenticity with joy may arouse contempt.

Anything But Science

“Anything but science.” I’m not sure when that became my mantra. Maybe it was in ninth grade, in Earth Science, when the belligerent varsity soccer coach/teacher loomed over me as I stared through the stereoscopic lenses at the aerial topographic photograph. Lacking depth perception, I couldn’t see a single three dimensional image. He breathed heavily […]

Our Buttercream Friend

I was working in my office last week when I heard the crash.  I lowered my head and waited for the report as I heard footsteps dash across the floor.   “Mom!”  Saoirse burst into the room.  “The electricians dropped something big, and….I’m so sorry, Mom!”  She paused, a few tears of sympathy in the […]

Cave Men, Tomatoes, Ground Beef and…Love

It’s three in the morning. I’m standing in my kitchen, staring down 70 pounds of tomatoes and 35 pounds of onions, all awaiting their destiny in a year’s supply of tomato sauce. Lined up next to the basement stairs are 40 pounds of green beans, already chopped and neatly canned in quart jars. August doesn’t […]

Boundaries

  “Mom, there’s something I have to tell you,” Ula’s eyes were wide with distress as she kneeled at her kitchen chair.  I had made her shredded zucchini with a marinara meat sauce, one of her favorite August meals.  She wasn’t touching it.  That worried me.   “What is it sweetie?”  I reached over and […]

The Retention Bonus

“Say, the price for your brisket isn’t bad,” the man said as he glanced over the list at our farmers’ market stall, “when you consider how much you get paid for your steaks!” I tried not to let it get to me. In spite of the barb, it had been a decent market day, and […]

Normal: A Drama

  NORMAL:  ACT I, SCENE I:     I don’t play the part of “normal mom” very well, nor do I play it very often.  Saoirse and Ula have been trained to sleep in, to afford me as many quiet pre-dawn silent work hours as possible.  If they step into my office before 7:30 in […]

How To Cook An Elephant

Our family doesn’t spend a lot of time on current events.  There is no television service; it is nearly impossible to listen to the radio amidst the din of kids and dogs; none of us could find the time to sit still long enough to read a newspaper before it was needed to light the […]

Sundried Tomatoes or Mountain Streams?

We are driving home from Ula’s eye doctor appointment in Schenectady as Saoirse wistfully glances back over her shoulder at the mountains in the distance.  She sighs. “Can we please go to the Adirondacks this summer?”  Her question interrupts my own thoughts, where I am tallying how much garlic I have left in storage, calculating […]

Regrets and Student Debts

On June 18th, 1999, while on a camping trip, Bob and I were hiking through Asticou Terraces on Northeast Harbor in Maine.  We’d had a series of thunder and lightning storms, but on that afternoon, the clouds finally parted and rays of sunlight dappled golden splashes along the forest floor.  We came to a resting […]