Amy Laundrie

The summer wind whispers my name and the sun’s rays beckon to me. I ask my family if they want to go on a nature walk. My daughter Heidi, her two sons, and my youngest granddaughter hike along. We enter…

While friends Jeanne and Bull Kahler joined my husband and me for an outdoor meal on a picnic table, we recalled memories of a three-day backpacking trip we’d taken many years ago in the Wyoming wilderness. We have fond memories…

I’m not a powerful swimmer, and since I was snorkeling, I wasn’t wearing a life jacket. I had gotten out farther than I planned, lured by a school of bluegills and a trout. The memorizing underwater plants resembling an emerald…

What is the oldest treasure in your house? Is it something as tiny as a rare coin or as large as an antique dresser? Is it a practical item such as your grandfather’s toolbox or something as decorative as a…

I open the cabin bathroom door after it had been closed up for two weeks and see hundreds of dead ants. Their black bodies litter the floor, bathtub, and float in the toilet. My husband had sprayed before we left…

I made arrangements this week to give away my duck pen. I’ve been raising ducks for twenty-some years. I started it as a project in my elementary classroom and finding it enjoyable, continued it even after I retired. Back in…

Fourth of July preparations brought back vivid memories of my husband’s and my 2016 Washington D.C. trip. I witnessed acts of patriotism and sadly, one act of selfish, assumed privilege. My husband Frank and I joined a tour group of…

Karen Weber-Mendham won a million dollars in the 2013 Lay’s Potato Chips “Do Us A Flavor” contest. Yet from my perspective, her life hasn’t changed. She still works at the Land O’ Lakes library in northern Wisconsin, still gives her…

Carefree, warm days are on the horizon! Get out, let your worries go, and lose yourself like you did as a kid.  What are your fondest childhood summer memories? Exploring? Camping? Baseball? Hanging with friends?  One of my earliest childhood…