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Big Wheels Peace Accord
This morning I’m sitting on the couch, drinking coffee, and listening to the boys upstairs playing with some new action figures. The tension between the two of them has been through the roof the past couple weeks, so hearing them playing together does my heart good. Sometimes the struggle of parenthood is managing to equip children with conflict resolution tools while the bullets are flying… at each other and at you as the parent. Sometimes I succumb to the chaos and become the snarliest version of myself, and sometimes I rise above. I take a deep breath, say a little prayer, and try again to initiate a peace accord. Last…
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Hanging Rock Nature Photos
This past weekend we drove up to Hanging Rock for a quickie camping trip. The very best part of the trip was watching the boys explore the woods and climb rocks and fallen trees. I found myself really wishing other families were with us to play with. Some of my best childhood memories are from camping with family friends at Fall Creek Falls. On Saturday, the weather was perfect, and we somehow managed to make it to two waterfalls and up to Hanging Rock itself. The forest floor was covered in mushrooms of all shapes and colors, and sadly, I don’t know my mushrooms and I didn’t get a good shot of…
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A family hike at Umstead and discussion of shoes and health
After visiting Umstead on Friday morning, I was determined that we would go as a family the next morning. As I was browsing Umstead’s Facebook page, “Photos of my friends at William B. Umstead State Park” was at the head of the wall feed, and I saw a lovely spot. I posted a comment asking for the location, and a sister of another friend told me the trail and how far the hike would be. It’s so very odd the way social media takes away a measure of happenstance from a day hike, but as a family with little boys (and one who wants to be carried still), knowing the…
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On the floor of Umstead
Today I let whimsy take over my steering wheel as I was headed out to Gather to drop off my pottery students’ finished pieces. I usually take the direct route down Western Blvd past NCSU, but today I hopped on I-40. I’ve been admiring the fall colors from downtown, and being on the open road with an expanded horizon and rainclouds forming, the sign for William B. Umstead State Park was all I needed to be taken off-track. I don’t know all the entrances to the park, so I went the round-about way to the entrance on Glenwood Avenue and went down to see the boat house and the picnic…
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North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
There are only three weeks left of summer before both of my boys head to school and I’m solo three mornings a week. While I have plans to get a lot of work done, at the top of my list is to go the the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences all by my lonesome. We’ve made several visits this summer, managed to explore most of the floors of both halves, but I feel there is still so much there to be discovered. We certainly have our favorites, and I enjoy seeing the world through their eyes. My three year old drags me to the snakes and poison frogs exhibits…
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Honey in the Raw
This is our family’s second year using a local food delivery service Papa Spuds. We don’t request a delivery every week, and because we grow some of our own vegetables, we make good use of their other offerings like artisan bread, local goat cheese, and occasional sweet treats. The best find by far is the local raw wildflower honey by The Pleasant Bee. They sell their honey through their website, Papa Spuds, and on Saturday morning at the Midtown Farmers Market in Raleigh. This morning I visited The Pleasant Bee’s webpage, and learned that it is a father-daughter company started in 2008 after she took a bee-keeping class at NCSU.…