Leigh Sparacino

Home. Work.

Saturday morning Flipper and I drove around the corner to a friend's house with refrigerator boxes crammed full-length into my car, forcing me to drive hunched over and looking out a small square of unobstructed windshield. Luckily for us and every other driver on the road, it was around the corner. I was there to get assistance building a massive mushroom from cardboard. More on that later.

Posted 18 hrs. ago.

A Few Sour Notes

You know how it is before you have children, when your mindset is one of flowers and fairies that frolic in a land where all babies are beautiful and sing with the voices of angels? As an aside, I have always wanted to print a bumper sticker that reads: Parenting. Where fantasy and reality collide. I would make MILLIONS. Anyway, one (or more) wee ones arrive, and then you slowly let go of -- or …

Posted 1 week ago.

I Hate Lunch

I am perilously close to labeling Flipper with one of the most annoying labels of all: picky eater. How, how HOW can this be happening to me??? And do note that I said "me" not "her" because believe me, her myriad inconsistencies affect me WAY more than they do her, the little tender-palated creature.

Posted 2 weeks ago.

The October Rat Race

Today has been a reflection of the whole month: sheer and utter chaos. Event after event after obligation after commitment; why is October so crazy?? Someone tell me, please!! At first I thought it was just me that felt like I was just treading water every day, beavering away at real work and extracurricular work and social life work and kid-life work and never able to get ahead, but I was at a bi…

Posted 3 weeks ago.

Short, but not that sweet

This post is going to be a tad short, but not that sweet. A little tart instead, but staying away from bitter and sour. I think. It will be short because I have to head down to a farm, Edible Earthscapes in Pittsboro, to chaperon our 9th grade class while they finish out of week of farming and camping. As chaperoning these types of field trips is an unexpected but wholly fun and pleasurable part o…

Posted 4 weeks ago.

Farewell to Two Gourmets.

Last week I heard the news that after 70 years in circulation, Gourmet magazine would cease to publish. I was surprised and saddened, although I don't have a subscription to it (I have one to Bon Appetit instead). I hate and fear the death knell I hear sounding for print journalism of all kinds; I have no doubt that one day my favorite paper, the New York Times, will also fade away. But the death …

Posted 1 mon. ago.

Tiredness and Mental Health Days (yes, they ARE re…

I headed down to the Lower School this morning to deliver files and mail from the high school when I saw Flipper holding her teacher's hand, the rest of the class nowhere in sight. My heart fell -- this could only mean that she was sick and they were coming to get me so I could take her home.

Posted 1 mon. ago.

Scary Visit!!

Yesterday I raced home right after lunch to clean my house -- which consisted of tossing random objects into a paper grocery bag and stashing it in my magical "back room" -- the downstairs bedroom that is a repository for all things that cannot find a home anywhere else, and then, when the room gets full, my mom helps me clear it out by donating things or putting it away where it actually belongs.…

Posted 1 mon. ago.

Cutting but not pasting

What are you reading out loud to your child(ren) before bed? We are plowing through the 8th Little House book, the happy one where Laura falls in love and gets married and Mary returns from a college visit confident and joyful and nothing too devastating happens to the family; no crops devoured by grasshoppers, no trying not to starve to death during a brutal winter.

Posted 1 mon. ago.

Please...tell me how!!

Well, I have to say---I just don't know how all of you full-time working mothers do it. (No, Sarah Palin, I'm not actually talking about you). But I am talking about real mothers that work full-time all day every day. I, it must be confessed, work part-time, 30 (plus a few more) hours a week. 7:30-1:30; great hours, I know. Plus insurance!!!! But I have been slowly taking on a bit more in committe…

Posted 2 mon. ago.

about this blog

Leigh Sparacino

Leigh is a TriangleMom2Mom featured blogger, appearing every Monday.

Leigh grew up in Durham, attended college in North Carolina, left the area for an island off the coast of Georgia, the high mountains of Colorado, and her favorite mountains in western North Carolina, before returning to the Triangle eight years ago. She lives near Carrboro with her 4.5-year-old daughter Flipper and two dogs. She is single in marital status only, surrounded by friends, family, and her daughter's very involved and loving father. She works part-time and tries to be as involved as possible in her daughter's school, The Emerson Waldorf School, where Flipper is a kindergartner. She likes wood, glass and other natural materials for toys, loves the principles of Waldorf education and hates plastic. She might be the only person in the world with no TV and who hasn't been to a movie in 15 years, but races to the mailbox every Saturday for the most recent issue of People magazine. In other words, a contradiction. Or just human.