Thu., April 2, 2015
I said I was going to stay home more this year and so far I haven’t been anywhere. But, of course, assignments I hadn’t anticipated are tempting me to a few places I haven’t seen before. So I have travel on my mind.
Sun., Dec. 22, 2013
Slogging through a cold, dark, winter in the Northwest, it’s easy to find yourself starved for a little fun in the sun. That’s why I didn’t hesitate to join the U. S. inaugural sailing of the Carnival Sunshine out of the Port of New Orleans...
Wed., July 10, 2013
My granddaughter is suddenly a toddler. Over the last few months we’ve watched her crawl then, almost overnight, put one foot in front of another learning first to walk and then run. Her mother, my daughter, is trained to work with patients with mobility issues...
Thu., April 11, 2013
There is a house down the street from where I live and I often pass it on my afternoon walks through the neighborhood. It is a small white house, a classic Cape Cod, probably built in the lean years before the second World War. There...
Mon., March 18, 2013
I don’t want much. I just want the perfect suitcase. I spend hours looking at suitcases and duffles and carry-on bags. I shop online, in department stores and at specialty shops. I read reviews and ask my friends for recommendations. I weigh the merits of...
Thu., Feb. 14, 2013
If you're looking for a way to strengthen your relationship, try hitting the road. Together. According to a survey by the U.S. Travel Association, couples who travel together find more satisfaction. They experience better communication and have longer-lasting relationships. They are more romantic. Today is...
Wed., Jan. 30, 2013
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) Crossing the deck of the busy cruise ship, on my way to get something for lunch, I noticed a little boy crouched quietly, oblivious to the crowd around him as he bent over his shoe. He’d dropped to fasten the buckle...
Wed., Jan. 23, 2013
A decade ago, when I started freelancing after a long hiatus at home with my children, I realized that in order to be competitive and to produce work professionally and independently, it would be important to be as mobile as possible. So--before I’d even heard...
Thu., Jan. 10, 2013
We were fortunate again this year, the whole family was together for Christmas. We gathered, exchanged gifts, caught up on one another’s lives and enjoyed one another’s company. And we ate. We ate a lot. When we weren’t sitting down to our traditional Christmas dinner,...
Sun., Sept. 2, 2012
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) The wind had picked a bit up the night before, sweeping through the tall pine trees, taking with it loose branches and needles, dropping them to the grass below. I noticed something else in the litter on the lawn and as...
Mon., Aug. 13, 2012
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) My son has been on a boat out on the Pacific for weeks now and every so often a few lines arrive by email. “This has been a great trip,” he writes “The hurricane turned so the seas are not so...
Sat., Aug. 4, 2012
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) The little boy stood beside the table that held the mini-iceberg, the chunk of ice that had once been a part of the North Sawyer Glacier before breaking away--calving-- and falling with a splash into the Tracy Arm fjord off Alaska’s...
Sat., July 28, 2012
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) I have friends who actually plan each meal. Not just at holidays, but all year long. Even in the summer. Even on vacation. They look through magazines and cookbooks and pick a recipe because it excites them, not because it uses...
Sat., March 3, 2012
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) Holding my newborn granddaughter, gazing down at her as she sleeps, I study her closely, mapping her with my hands and my eyes just as I did with her mother, my firstborn child. Just as I did with each of my...
Sun., Feb. 5, 2012
I knew even before I opened my eyes, something wasn’t right. Lying on my back in the dark room, I could feel a heaviness on the center of my chest, a pressure that made taking each breath an effort. My mind raced, inventorying the signs...
Wed., Feb. 1, 2012
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) I don't deny it. I'm smitten with my new granddaughter. This new addition to the family is the last thing on my mind at night and the first thing I think of when I wake in the morning. And as I...
Mon., Jan. 9, 2012
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) If you were to ask me if I believe in heaven as a place where I’ll join all the people I’ve known and lost, and with whom I can spend eternity laughing and eating potato salad at one idyllic family reunion,...
Sun., Dec. 25, 2011
I hope that when you opened your eyes this morning--no, even before you opened them, even earlier than that--I hope that when you first found yourself swimming into morning light and out of whatever dreams you’d been having, somewhere in your mind there rang out...
Fri., Dec. 23, 2011
My son, who has been working in Japan, is on his way home. We haven't seen him in several months and I'm hungry for some time with him. My son has grown up to be a wonderful man; an adventurer, a tinkerer and a master...
Sun., Dec. 18, 2011
Each year, after Thanksgiving dinner, some time after the last of the dishes are washed and before the pie comes back out again, I bring up a big handwoven basket from the storeroom in the basement. The basket is the size of a bed pillow,...
Thu., Oct. 27, 2011
Not that there’s ever been any shortage of evidence, but my three older children now have solid proof that we love the youngest more. By their standards, of course. When I was raising my three older children, three little stairsteps born in just under six...
Sun., May 9, 2010
Happy Mother's Day. Another column from the archives...June 5, 2006 Life’s tender moments dance into our hearts Cheryl-Anne Millsap Staff writer The dance starts before we are born. Babies wait in the dark, moving in time to the beat of a mother’s heart and with...
Sat., May 8, 2010
Another Mother's Day column from the past...May 5, 2008 Home Planet: At times, it’s alright to get it wrong Cheryl-Anne Millsap The Spokesman-Review I got my first taste of mother guilt just minutes after the birth of my first child.After I delivered her – an...
Sat., May 8, 2010
Another Mother's Day column from the past... May 13, 2006 Weighty concerns easily forgotten on Mother’s Day Cheryl-Anne Millsap The Spokesman-Review Tomorrow is Mother’s Day.It doesn’t matter if it’s your first Mother’s Day or your 21st; you’ve probably already learned one very important lesson: Mothering...
Wed., May 5, 2010
Looking back on columns about mothers... May 7, 2007 Motherhood really isn’t about smooth landings Cheryl-Anne Millsap Staff writer Imagine we are at a party (let’s make it a cocktail party because I’ve got a new dress and I’d like a chance to wear it...
Cheryl-Anne Millsap's Home Planet column appears each week in the Wednesday "Pinch" supplement. Cheryl-Anne is a regular contributor to Spokane Public Radio and her essays can be heard on Public Radio stations across the country.
