Amelia has never been a great sleeper but at two, her inconsolable acid hours gravitated from evenings to mornings. You just never know whether she will wake all smiles, thoroughly rested and ready for the day or refuse breakfast with wails and sobs that defy consolation. Some mornings she just wakes up on the wrong …
Talking Myself Into It
After a dozen zoo trips in his second year, Thomas decided at three that he would feed the giraffes by himself. I’d held him while the imposing head reached through the rails and the long black tongue snaked out to take the greens from my outstretched hand. He talked about it after each visit, claiming …
Look To The Mountains
Our collective gaze is directed toward the western North Carolina mountains. Places I’ve known and visited as a child- Chimney Rock, Lake Lure, Black Mountain- so recently devastated by a storm that should have never reached their borders, were caught completely off their guard. When Helene stalled out over the Smokies after several days of …
No More Stumbling in the Dark
Our younger son, Jacob, recently renewed his hunting license in time for bow season. He has two small tree stands on property we own that had fallen into disrepair, but just before Helene, he and his dad replaced the tether straps and made them ready for deer season. He placed trail cameras which quickly confirmed …
Accustomed To The Dark
Our power was out for a week in the aftermath of Helene. My husband and I, and of course Jake, our Great Dane shared our space with my daughter and her boys whose neighborhood in the North Carolina foothills was hit harder and also at times with my son’s family who lives locally but was …
Biting Isn’t For Babies
Toddler silliness can quickly escalate to ugliness. Hitting, pushing, or biting seem to come out of nowhere but if you’re paying attention, it has usually been building gradually toward a crescendo. Either both want to do the same thing or simply don’t want the other to do it. The most recent incident involved opening the …
Why Timothy?
What do you do when your third grandchild doesn’t settle to the same bedtime songs as his older brother and cousin? You reframe Jesus Loves Me, Jesus Loves The Little Children, and This Little Light of Mine to the tune of Hey Diddle Diddle. There are several soft crinkly baby books in my Lolly Bus …
Over Reacting
In the south, we know how to prepare for ice and snow, but when it comes to hurricanes, well, that’s a different story entirely. We’ve owned a home on the coast so we’ve done due diligence. We’ve installed storm shutters and breakaway lower walls. We’ve dealt with evacuation and flooding, eroding dunes, tainted water, and …
I Hear You
My newest grands, Timothy and Ezra, are at ages where they recognize and respond to familiar faces and voices. Ezra began following his dad with his eyes and Timothy had just started sitting up independently before our recent beach trip. My parents accompanied us and we spent time with my sister and her family while …
Loves Name
Thomas knows his letters and their starting sounds at age three and he recognizes some words by sight, prominently among them God and good. I remember telling him as we read our bedtime Bible stories as much as a year ago that God is the most important word he can know. At first he regularly …
A Fitting Reply 