stories and pictures

It has been a full week fraught with surprise, worry, and anticipation. We are near the end of our fall ...

We were happy to host family for Thanksgiving dinner, and it ended up being the first year we mixed both ...

More has gone on here than our trip to England and Wales, so it would be a shame to make ...

It was our final full day in the UK, and we wanted to make the most of it. Instead of ...

Like I said in the previous post, our AirBNB in Nant-y-Derry was a DELIGHT, even though it didn't have WiFi ...

I was still high as a kite the morning after meeting Philippa Gregory at Sudeley Castle, deliriously happy as we ...

Just when I think I'm done running half marathons, I convince myself to run "just one more." When I learned ...

Our fifth day in England was the most special. Not only was it the day that our driver showed up ...

To Windsor! We hopped the train again, this time westbound to the tiny town of Windsor. Last year we visited ...

When Karin said she wanted to see Hever Castle, I didn't mind one bit. Interestingly, it was on our third ...

We both enjoyed every second of sleep we got that first night. It is definitely the trade-off for flying overnight ...

When Karin and I met in 2001, we became fast friends. This is actually the same origin story for all ...

I seem to average one post a month these days, so that's a good indication of how busy we've been ...

We're only halfway through the month, but the momentum of the new school is already giving me whiplash. Is summer ...

Earlier in the spring, my sister asked me if Jeremy wanted to join Owen on his summer youth trip, and ...

My Uncle Bob and his wife, Carie, came to visit the week of July 4th, and I was more than ...

I know, I know - we just went on vacation. BUT, Karin and I like to skip out of town ...

As promised, we made sure the boys set their feet in London before flying back to the States. A quick ...

The weather was a bit gray when we left Levanto, an indication that the remainder of our Italian experience would ...

It was hard to leave France, if I'm honest. We had just found our stride with the neighborhood and language, ...

We scheduled a morning to sleep in and take our time, which was necessary for happy moods and getting some ...

If you'd have told me as recently as January that I would want to go to Monaco for a Formula ...

It was a genius move to sleep in the hotel connected to Gatwick Airport because our Easy Jet flight from ...

Last year, when Chuck and I flew to the UK, we opted for an overnight flight so we wouldn't lose ...

At some point during winter, Chuck and I started talking about where to take the boys on a summer vacation ...

Several years ago, as a gift to myself, I decided that as long as we are homeschooling our academic year ...

I don't know if this is a short-lived phase or the beginning of something, but I've become a Formula 1 ...

When I became a Mumford & Sons fan, Chuck and I were in the midst of trying to move back ...

In my former life, blogging was an almost-every-other-day thing. I had so much to say, so much to post, so ...

We don't get a lot of snow around here, but when there's a threat of an inch, schools and businesses ...

I have a short list of artists I want to see in concert. As a fan of not wasting time ...

January is supposed to be an inspirational month, a time when folks have the most amount of resolve to improve ...

Honestly, we did our best. It was a tough year, so it's hard to be festive during a time that's ...

I signed up for the Santa Hustle Half Marathon in the Smokies back in the summer, not yet knowing that ...

My parents are moving back to Tennessee, and since they are already in the process of the move, it made ...

For a dozen reasons, we didn't want to leave Scotland. How can one look forward to a trip for more ...

By Day 9, we were acutely aware of how quickly time was passing us by. It was an impossibility to ...

Having spent one full day in Edinburgh and one full day in London, I for sure knew I was a ...

We arrived in Edinburgh Thursday evening just as it was getting dark. We were fortunate to find our Airbnb apartment ...

The night in Horsley near Newcastle was a delight, and the Airbnb apartment where we stayed was in an old, ...

Of all the unpredictable details of our anniversary trip - the pleasant weather, the ease in which we navigated the ...

The plan for Wednesday, October 10, was to spend the morning walking in Oxford and driving through the Cotswolds before ...

Last week I had a near heart attack when this site went blank. A corrupt plugin (or perhaps a plugin ...

Originally, my plan was to drive to Brighton, then Dorset and up to Oxford, but when I couldn't find room ...

Every day we spent in England was meticulously mapped out to make the most of our limited time. Scotland was ...

We visited more than just Hever Castle on Day 3, but my affection for Queen Anne Boleyn warrants its own ...

I've already confessed to the number of photos I took throughout our 12-day trip. I'm not embarrassed or ashamed, but ...

In 2006, Chuck and I started talking about taking a trip to the UK. Until last week, it had always ...

Chuck and I are going on a trip, but before we leave I have eleventy billion tasks to complete. I'm ...

It began on Tuesday night, September 4, when Major lost his mind. Evenings are typically low-key for our blue tick ...

We are fully immersed in the fall schedule - homeschool co-op classes, soccer for Jeremy, another round of equine therapy ...

We'd gone out to dinner one night this summer to one of those restaurants with TVs scattered throughout the room ...

Last fall, after Jackson finished nearly three months of occupational therapy to help with his spatial awareness, fine motor skills, ...

Earlier this year, Chuck started asking me what I wanted to do to celebrate turning 40 years old. Figuring that ...

We've caught a bad bug. Something happened this summer, and I can't necessarily pinpoint when everything shifted. The idea of ...

While our lifestyle affords us plenty of family time, Chuck and I don't get a lot of time just the ...

Typically, by mid-June, I'd be nurturing a well-groomed garden and plucking off a zucchini here, a tomato there. In previous ...

The first time Jackson asked to repaint his bedroom, which had been a shade of light blue since buying this ...

The original idea for one our 2018 Girls Weekends was to reunite in New York City where our friendship really ...

The moment we finished our last day at the homeschool co-op where the boys attend and I teach, my brain ...

Eleven years ago I entertained a personal physical challenge: could I run 13.1 miles?  For some, that was a reasonable, ...

There are good things that happen during a time of mourning - favorite stories are told, family members gather to ...

I don't remember the first time I met my future father-in-law, but it was sometime in the early spring of ...

Yesterday was a bad day of school. Those days happen. Sometimes it's on account of bad moods, other times it's ...

Are you ready for the longest race report ever? There are a dozen reasons why I shouldn't have run this ...

After our day at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (and subsequent day of rest by the pool) it was ...

Previous post: Hogsmeade Village After lunch we walked through Universal to reach the discreet entrance to Diagon Alley, which was ...

We had one full day at Universal, and that limitation required careful planning in regard to arrival time, meal time, ...

As homeschoolers, we do what we want. It's glorious. It's magnificent. Our first spring break was spent at home, and ...

Five years ago I was accosted by a girl in my head. She showed up uninvited, as if she'd been ...

A couple of days ago I was on a six-mile run while listening to West Cork, an Audible True Crime ...

You can start here if you like. You can also start with Part One where I talk about the importance ...

Read Part One first. The reason to take care of yourself first can be summed up with a simple analogy: ...

I've been sitting on this post for a while. Sometimes it's hard for me to know when to share something ...

This post probably feels random for most of you, but bear with me. One of the things I decided to ...

Last week Jeremy got his tonsils and adenoids taken out after we realized that more than 50 percent of his ...

It all began with "Mr. Brightside" and Hot Fuss in 2004. It was a new sound, something I hadn't heard ...

Parts of Tennessee got its first snow of the year last week, but we weren't that lucky. Yesterday, however, we ...

When I was approached by my friend, Donna, to consider reviewing the weighted blankets she sells, I readily agreed. I'm ...

Since our experience in Hilton Head two Christmases ago was so positive, we decided to do it again. However, instead ...

There are three primary reasons why I have kept this blog active for more than 12 years. First, I created ...

It took the bulk of my day to finish this video, but that's only because iMovie is trial and error ...

We were all sad on Friday morning. Though we'd done and seen so much in three full days, we were ...

One of the best pieces of advice we got from our AirBNB hosts was to avoid the Blue Lagoon, a ...

When we got back in town Tuesday night, after our excursion to Reynisfjara Beach, we went to a local grocery ...

Continued from previous post: Adventure in Iceland - Day One The goal of Tuesday was to get to Reynisfjara Beach ...

So it went something a little like this: Him: What are your thoughts on Iceland? Me: I have no thoughts ...

It has been a busy season for all the hats I wear. Teaching, writing, photography - these things come in ...

I ran a beautiful, dry half marathon Saturday afternoon and earned my 18th medal. My time was totally average, and ...

In the interest of time and space, here's a recap of how I ran 13.1 miles in the pouring rain ...

I recently started contributing to the Knoxville Moms Blog, the local sister site of the nationwide network called City Moms Blog. While ...

When my first byline was published, it was in the Chattanooga Times prior to its merging with the Chattanooga Free Press, and ...

Our anniversary fell on a Saturday this year, and while last year's anniversary celebration was bigger and better, this year ...

It was a beautiful day for college football. Jackson and I were on campus to volunteer at the UKirk house ...

Welp, I have a 14-year-old. Not sure how that happened, yet here we are. For his birthday, Jeremy wanted to ...

I adore taking photos of newborns. They're squishy, sleepy, easy to move around and put in cozy positions. I love ...

When word got out that a LEGO convention was coming to Knoxville, Jeremy insisted we attend. As if there was ...

When we made the decision to homeschool during the summer of 2011, it came at the tail end of a ...

We were some of the lucky ones whose house was situated in the path of totality, so a handful of ...