If I needed two words (okay, two brief phrases) to describe my week, I’d choose—“upside down” and “sweet as pie.” Obviously, pie can be sweet or savory or even sweet pies can be different levels of sweet, so, I fold nuance into my catchphrases.
This beet and peach pie was baked by six-year olds and was gluten-free to boot.
I assisted pie judge, State Representative Stephen Kulik as he judged best pie at last week’s Pie Contest at our beloved Tuesday Market to benefit its FoodStampsx2 Program. If you want to know more about FoodStampsx2 and our Indiegogo, you can and if you do, please consider giving and/or spreading the good word. We need a big push to reach our goal here in the middle of our fundraising month.
Steve knew many farmers at the Market, his constituents. He’s a champion of farmers and small farms and local agriculture and has had a finger in the pie of nearly every effort to promote and support farms and farmland and food security in our region for a long time. But that’s not all—he’s a blue ribbon pie baker. Now that I’ve acted as support team-slash-scribe for two judges—last year, Mayor Narkewicz—I’ve developed this theory: you can learn a lot about a person based upon how that person judges a pie contest. Steve was very considered—and brought out the stealth ingredient, which was his pie-baking prowess—about each pie. We could have made a prize of his critiques: he counseled specifics like a little more cinnamon or a little more salt in the crust. He found praise for each pie, even though the baker was not within earshot. He took the task seriously, yet he had fun with the process. Plus, he likes pie… a lot. He surveyed the samples before he began and said, “That’s like, what, a big slice of pie’s worth of pie?” He was undaunted by the challenge.
Plus, a Hampshire student won! My worlds converged happily with that. Overall, that day was super sweet and so many other days have had super sweet moments, too. However, I feel as if my life is like a marathon that asks me to have too many sprints sprinkled in. I’m a bit wrung out, and thus, upside down, figuratively. My gal hangs that way quite literally and very happily, too. I think we’re both glad she’s got gymnastics back in her life.
Three to be grateful for this week include the slow grind into routine and the way we get our routine muscles back, the fact that my cute, little Only in Northampton page on Facebook topped 1,000 admirers, and last is this: through some trying situations, health or unexpected scary moments or whatever, my nears and dears seem to be helping one another very sincerely. It’s nice in a general way when people step up; it’s beyond nice when people in your inner circles do so.
Three to share:
My latest piece for Brain, Child is about my wanting to go grey and fearing it, because the timing meant I might meet a potential, much younger birth mother and look too old to raise her baby.
My third guy appeared in a pretty wonderful yoyo video this week. He’s checking how many views it’s received daily, so help a young yoyoer out. His slow motion section is super cool.
We got a white noise machine—and it’s fantastic. Why didn’t I get one sooner?
