Live and Let Di

Legislative and Legislating Behavior

Iâll tell you, reading The News & Observer lately has certainly given me a jolt to go along with the jolt from my morning coffee. Between the misbehavior of our elected officials (and a certain one from the state just below us) and the controversy surrounding certain laws that were voted on, I could hardly decide what to blog about!

Posted 4 mon. ago.

Summer School

My friend Iris has her children in a private school that has a strong academic focus. At the end of each school year, the children are given a workbook to complete over the summer to help them stay focused on learning and prepare them for the next grade. Now personally, I would probably forget the workbooks until the week before school started and then have to cram everything into a week, but Iris…

Posted 5 mon. ago.

It Sucked and Then I Cried

If you are a veteran of the blogosphere and a mom, chances are you have read or at least heard of Dooce. Heather Armstrong is the creator of Dooce. She started her blog when she was single and working in 2002. She was eventually fired because of comments that she made about her employer and her workplace on her blog. This notorious event ultimately launched a new phrase to describe such employment…

Posted 5 mon. ago.

Mine, Mine, Mine

Sometimes I feel like my life as a parent has been punctuated by the sound of those seagulls from Finding Nemo squawking, "Mine, mine, mine, mineâ¦" Possession, it seems, and the transfer of such, is a keystone of parenting with its meaning changing and its importance ebbing and flowing throughout the years.

Posted 5 mon. ago.

The Mouths of Babes (and Teens)

Some of the funniest and most interesting things that I have heard have come from the young voices behind me as I drive. Sometimes being a part-time chauffeur is annoying, but what keeps it from being unbearable are those moments of humor and hilarity that arise when carting kids from point A to point B. The best part is that since your back is to them, you can smirk and/or roll your eyes (hey, I …

Posted 5 mon. ago.

Mobility Milestone

I remember Haley's first steps. She looked so proud. I felt amazed â¦ but also a little concerned about the trouble she could get into with the added mobility. As she became more confident walking, she would gleefully run away from us as we chased her within the safe confines of our house.

Posted 5 mon. ago.

Maudlin or Maude

There aren't too many young people like the titular protagonist of Harold and Maude who spends his privileged youth obsessed with death â¦ attending funerals and feigning suicide. I do remember in elementary school being terrified by those âduck and coverâ drills at school. I would look out my bedroom window at night, wondering when they (and I was never quite sure who they were) wer…

Posted 6 mon. ago.

Guru? Indeed!

Another Monday morning. The Canes lost to the Bruins Sunday night. My kids are slowly rising for another day of school, the countdown at 20-something days until summer. Iâm not driving carpool this week, so Iâll relax over an extra cup of coffee before heading to work. âAt least there are only four Mondays left and one of them is Memorial Day,â says my son. A typical school day…

Posted 6 mon. ago.

Packin' in the Heat

I promise that I will NOT blog about baseball every single weekâ¦although chauffeuring to practice, Hit & Run and games is what I will mostly be doing. But, at the beginning of the season, I think of this as a public service announcement to those Moms whose spring will be consumed with their kidsâ sports.

Posted 6 mon. ago.

Boys of Summer

Somewhere between news clips of whiny A Rod, prima donna multimillionaires who canât be bothered to make it to spring training on time, overbearing parents with visions of college baseball scholarships and the few coaches who focus so hard on winning that they crush the spirits of little boys with big dreams lies the heart of baseballâ¦the boys of summer.

Posted 6 mon. ago.

about this blog

Live and Let Di

Diane is a TriangleMom2Mom featured blogger, appearing every Wednesday.

I try to be the voice of Moms with teens. My daughter Haley is 16. She's at that age where she is convinced that I know nothing. I'm thinking I'll seem a lot smarter when she's 22. We bond over Broadway shows. My son Rory is 13. He started reading the sports page when he was 5 and his passion for anything sports-related has grown ever since. This year he beat out 9 guys in their 40s to win his Fantasy Football League. Watch for him on ESPN in a few years.

My husband Hurley works from home, but travels quite a bit. When he's gone, I usually take a break from making dinner and cleaning the house. Oh, I don't do those things regularly when he's here either! Our parenting philosophy is "choose your battles." The only problem is that we often choose different battles. It keeps it interesting!!!