surviving nc

I just read that the Wake County Public School System is proposing to change two elementary schools from year-round to traditional calendar schedules. This comes after changing two middle schools from year-round to traditional calendar last year. In all cases, the decision has to do with underenrollment. My own children were enrolled in year-round multi-track schools in Wake County and while I would have much preferred they be on a traditional calendar, we didn’t have much … More The Failed Year-Round Experiment

I am up far too early, having gone to bed far too late. But I couldn’t sleep and so at 4:45 I gave up and got up in an effort to steal a little time in a quiet house when no one is awake to bug me. I came up to the bonus room, where our desks live, and spent some time organizing … papers and files and art supplies. Paid some bills and searched for … More Five O’Clock in the Morning

It is Tuesday. The second Tuesday of this July 2025. July 8. It is the third anniversary of my sweet mother’s passing. It is just as hot and humid and sunny today as it was three years ago. This morning, I listened to the few voicemails from her that I was able to save. Some of them are voicemails to my daughters. A message about a particular green yarn that she found for a sweater made … More Thoughts on A Random Tuesday

North Carolina summer has arrived. Yes – it’s true that there is a HEAT DOME oppressing all of the east coast right now … the difference is that my northern neighbors will only be dealing with temperatures in the 100’s and even 90’s for a few days. Here in Raleigh, it’s likely to be like this for the next two months. When I lived up north, I looked forward to summer. After the long, cold, gray … More Big Heat

My sister-in-law passed away Tuesday. She’d been diagnosed with leukemia about six weeks earlier. She was 73. Talk about a wake-up call – the realization that all any of us has is today and nothing else is guaranteed. I mean we all know it, right? Somewhere, deep down. But we fool ourselves into thinking death won’t come for us. It’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately, even before my sister-in-law’s diagnosis, but especially because … More Seize the Day

2025. Can you believe it? I’m resolved to try to slow time down and yet here we are, five days in already. Insane. So far this year … … we’ve had a New Year’s Day hike at Umstead, the local nature park, rather than Hanging Rock which is all of two hours west of here. The girls were out on New Year’s Eve and getting them up early was not going to happen. Still, we hit … More January 5, 2025

… in July of 2022. the two years leading up to her death were so difficult, so ridiculous, that I can’t even remember the timelines properly. I’ve put things out of my head, only to be shocked at what transpired on the random occasions I get to talking about it and remember that, yeah, it was pretty bad. she was diagnosed with breast cancer (of course) in 2009 (I believe). She was 65 at the time, … More My mom died …

One March day a few years ago, after a rather wet and chilly start to the year, the weather had begun to turn a bit milder, which meant I was out working in my garden and yard. As usual, this started out with coffee on the deck, which led to severe pruning of an overgrown hot lips salvia, cutting back stalks of dormant lantana (which will eventually be dug up and moved), raking out debris, mowing … More Hacking Back the Lorapetalum

When I was in college, I had the notion I’d become a photojournalist, traveling the world – no roots, just me and my camera on assignment for National Geographic. I hadn’t been off the East Coast at that point, or even on a plane but I had an incredible wanderlust. It was an exciting prospect but, alas, one that was not to be. Oh, don’t feel sorry for me – it wasn’t like I was George … More Travel.

Living in central North Carolina, a day trip to the beach is easily managed – the southern coast is only two hours away, a straight shot across I-40.  As much as I love the beach, though, my kids like to change it up a bit with a trip to the mountains, but that’s not as easy an endeavor.  To get there, one must travel some five hours west toward the Blue Ridge mountains, gradually climbing the Appalachian … More Hanging Around at Hanging Rock State Park

Several years ago, on a cold January weekend during which my family and I were sufficiently winter-weary, we packed ourselves into the car and headed to the beach for a day trip.  As my husband is fond of saying, sometimes we just need a reminder that the ocean is still there, especially after a long holiday season has passed and we are left with nothing but the prospect of several more months of the long dark … More Beach Mailboxes