Category: Domestic Life
-
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!
-
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…
-
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.
-
Another Christmas
Sniffly noses and raspy coughs interrupt the peaceful night. With pillows stuffed into the corner of the couch, a knitted blanket insulates my fuzzy bathrobe and creates a cozy nest. Snuggling into the slippery leather is better than fighting the noise upstairs.
-
Where has all the passion gone?
“Not everyone thinks the way you do,” a friend and coworker once told me. I suppose it was meant to rein in my higher-than-average expectations of myself and others. But as I think about how doomscrolling, social media, and AI are infiltrating, perhaps hijacking, the lives of young people today, I can’t help but think…
-
The way will open
Ants have been harassing me. For a week or so before our big trip west, a couple of times when I sat on the couch in the evenings, I felt a little tickle on my arm or leg. When I glanced down, I saw a big, fat black carpenter ant moseying along my bare skin.…
-
A simpler summer
Clad in well-worn cotton shorts and shirts, we started the day alternating between scorching sun and suffocating shade, maneuvering our bikes between old paint cans and lawn chairs like the drivers at the Marsh truck rodeo, or resting on a blanket under the huge black willow playing Barbie and Janney dolls, with old Jane West…
-
Am I overthinking again?
After one month of dedicated effort, I am no longer a member of my local fitness facility. My pickleball fanatic friend took me as a guest to a new place in town a few weeks ago to enjoy the walking track. We chatted and walked, forgetting the number of laps we made around the balcony…
-
I'm not much of a gambler
But in the garden, I’ll take my chances I’ve never been one to depend on chance. The craps and roulette tables never tempt me as I pass through a smokey casino on a cruise ship. I scurry along to avoid smelling like cigarettes when I emerge on the other side. I learned gambling didn’t pay…
-
We’re having a little party on Saturday
I’ve got to get ready Even though they won’t be coming, I feel my parents nudging me. I kick into Dad mode. Make a list and assign chores to anyone who is standing nearby or is expected to be standing nearby in the coming hours. Used to be that was my kids’ seasonal horror. “You…
