the mingling of food, family, and life
Portland had been frozen over by one of our annual ice storms but I bravely stepped into my car. Slowly and carefully, I made my way across town. A virtual ice pond. The streets were all but deserted. An odd stillness to the city surrounded me. My trek across town seemed suspicious. As though I…Continue Reading
My back was on fire. My fingers were like dough. My hiney felt as though I’d been sitting on a cement curb for 6 hours waiting for the start of some parade. And, I could no longer deny that I do indeed need some form of optical assistance. What I could have whipped out with…Continue Reading
I love to putter. Putter, as in, being able to wake-up alarmless, make a cup of tea, start to unload the dishwasher and then, leaving the door wide open, satisfy a sudden desire to peruse through my favorite food blogs upon which half-way through the list, I am seized by an urgent need to tidy…Continue Reading
While my dear, sweet husband would prefer to remain anonymous on these here pages of “La Pomme” or at least, keep to the role of an extra…an extra, as in, one of the 70,000 in the stands of the filming of a great sports film…I do feel that there is something you should know about…Continue Reading
Then he sat in his favorite chair, drank a cup of hot peppermint tea and ate a slice of bread with honey on it. The farmer felt very cozy and a bit tired.”Dream Snow” by Eric CarleI wish I could say to you, dear friend, that I spent my college years drinking coffee, or even…Continue Reading
With Herculean effort, I was dragging the bag, filled with the remnants of my vegetable garden, up the never-ending flight of stairs and muttering to myself about what a hair-brained idea of mine it had been to put the garden back there. What kept me going; however, was knowing that my dear, sweet children were…Continue Reading
The warm smells from dinner still lingered in the house. Smells from perhaps a “fall off the bone” tender beef stew, maybe chicken and dumplings or my mother’s delicious chicken and wild rice soup with her homemade dill bread. The dishwasher was humming. The voices from the TV were soft. Distant. I …
Remember when you could run with wild abandon down the trail and your only concern was whether or not you might slip on the gravel under foot? Although, perhaps that hadn’t even entered your mind but was simply the worry of the mother watching from behind. The mother torn between the image of you there,…Continue Reading
We had just closed the chapter on the 2009 fall sports season. Nana and Papa had already headed back up the I-5 corridor after kindly attending yet another sporting event. I had in the car with me, my chickens plus one cousin. They were unusually quiet and with the sun beaming in at just the…Continue Reading
I’m not ashamed to admit that when the 10-year old’s coach suggested that we get his wrist checked out, my first thought was not the welfare of my child, but the fact that this checking out would occur on my one free day. Well, one of two free days. Those precious days during the week…Continue Reading
Once every six weeks or so, I enter “La Salon” and I emerge…drum roll, please…The Breck Shampoo girl. Silky, smooth, flip through the air hair. Fan anyone? All the days in between, I prefer the air-dry method for my crazy, curly hair that can only be tamed with a hair band – in other …
So, it had been one of those weeks. You know the kind. The kind where the baby, trying to make use of his limited vocabulary, hollers at his older brother in peak frustration, “Just…just…just go put your head in the potty!” and then storms out of the room, leaving the 10-year old to shrug …
The first word that comes to mind is scraggy. Well, that and bedhead. The four-year-old kind of bedhead where they’ve tried to smooth down the front of their hair with some water but left the tufts around the crown sticking straight up. Trying to appear stately but still rather rumpled. Besides that, I’ve never …
Despite its self-proclaimed “Day of Rest”, I was exhausted from the weekend. The morning was dark until way past 8am. I was sleepy. I knew that exercising would help clear my mind but I was too tired to exercise. I stared out the window as the torrential rain rammed against the side of our house.…Continue Reading
How do you know when you should be your child’s advocate? Or when their hurt is simply nothing more than a lesson from life? Do you have that conversation with that teacher? That parent? That coach? Or do you simply stand back and let life take its course. Life’s not fair. We don’t …
“Will you walk into my parlor?” said the Spider to the Fly,“’Tis the prettiest little parlor that ever you did spy.”The Spider and the Fly, by Tony DiTerlizzi and Mary Howitt I sit here at the dining room table my desk. I am wearing a down vest and flip-flops. My feet are cold. I need…Continue Reading
When my mother-in-law emailed to say that she was coming to visit us for a week this August, I…rejoiced. Contrary to the negative connotation that the words “mother-in-law” usually elicit, I have the good fortune of being married to a man whose mother is simply, lovely. When she comes to town, we drink …
We are of the opinion, our household that is, that the tooth fairy is an unreliable, flighty little thing. That she is prone to wild mood swings and is picky. Picky, picky, picky. Our dear children, having just survived another round of the molting process, bless their hearts, will wrap their precious little …
Apparently, there is a bobcat a-foot in our neighborhood. He’s reportedly been seen sunning himself on the side of the road, peeking through the rails of back decks and even, chasing a female runner up one of the wooded trails. While he’s not easy to spot due to his coloring, the telltale sign that he’s…Continue Reading
Clearly, the baby has not yet grasped the concept of “sleeping-in.” In my semi-conscious state, my mind barely registers that he is speaking to me. “Mom?” Pause. A little louder, “Mom? What animal sleeps during the day?” As I try to break through the fog that has not yet lifted from my mind in this…Continue Reading
I left the house in summer attire. Tank top. Flip flops. Sunglasses. And, headed out into the warm, balmy morning air for our local football jamboree. Upon arriving, I couldn’t help but smile when I saw the skinny little legs poking out from under the mountainous shoulder attire. Hard to believe the fall sports …
Carrie Minns, writer, photographer & mother of three, can be found sipping tea or sipping wine depending on how things are going herding & feeding the chickens here in the coop.
