Growing Pains

There are certain times in your children's lives when you are dumbstruck by how they are growing. My teeny-tiny two-and-a-half year old daughter suddenly seemed gargantuan when I brought her infant brother home from the hospital. Her adorable toddler dresses seemed the size of tents compared to his itty-bitty onesies when I did the laundry.

• Posted 2 mon. ago.

What I Want to Be When I Grow Up

There are a few things I remember about the big family party my grandparents had every Christmas night. My Dad always acted as bartender. My Mom made baked beans. And since we didn't see many of these people at any other time during the year, we typically heard the same refrains: "You've gotten so big!" (Note to family members everywhere, by the time a girl is a teenager, you might want to change …

• Posted 2 mon. ago.

The Golden School Rule

• Posted 2 mon. ago.

Blunch

• Posted 3 mon. ago.

Things Mom Did Today

• Posted 3 mon. ago.

The Darkness

Try to think of the five qualities that define you. I was thinking about this today, so I looked back to some e-mails and some Facebook comments to help me come up with my list. I am generous, funny, smart, loving and a good friend. My high school crush, a football player when I was a cheerleader, even referenced my "pretty teenage legs" and while I reveled for a moment in that compliment, it does…

• Posted 3 mon. ago.

Marriage

As mothers, we supposedly have a “natural” tendency to nurture our children. We worry about their food, their clothes, their self-esteem, their activities and their friends. We want them to be the best they can be. Speaking for myself, I also like to nurture my friends, picking up some silly thing at Wal-Mart that makes me think of them, sending them just the right link to something on-l…

• Posted 3 mon. ago.

Shoo Fly, Shoo!

Weather in July and August in North Carolina can be capricious … dancing from gray rainy days to blistering heat to the perfect cloudy, breezy day. But there is one thing you can depend on … FLIES!

• Posted 4 mon. ago.

Resilience

Sometimes a word so perfectly captures a moment, a characteristic or a way of life, that you hang on to it, your brain pushing it out at the exact moment that you need it. It’s never a word you stumble over or search for. “Resilience” was never really that word for me. My word is more likely “Resourceful.” I pride myself on my resourcefulness. My friends seek me out when t…

• Posted 4 mon. ago.

Sex ed belongs in schools

Last week I opened up this can of worms while discussing recent legislation here in North Carolina. I didn’t feel like I could do the whole issue of sex education justice in just that one post. So if you hated me last week, you might want to click away from me this week.

• Posted 4 mon. ago.