Planning a move to Nashville? You’re not alone! I mean, you are really, really not alone! Thousands of people just like you are moving here every single month, and everyone has QUESTIONS — so many questions, in fact, that my Facebook feed is overrun with them every. Damn. Day. Well, I’ve got good news for […]

  Oops. I wrote this post, then with all the excitement over Nashville’s cherry blossom trees, totally forgot to publish it. So today, I’m righting that wrong for the many tens of readers who come here FOR THE BOOK REVIEWS. I read some fantastic books last month, including a novel that just might end up […]

Nashville was in an uproar over the weekend after the surprise announcement that 21 of our cherry blossom trees downtown would be removed and turned into mulch to make way for an NFL draft stage. The outcry over the planned removal of these trees was massive. A petition was created to save the trees, tens of […]

Spring has definitely sprung, which means it’s officially time for moms across America to panic about summer break. The kids will be out of school soon, after all, and they’ve gotta have shit to do. So hire those babysitters, ladies! Fill out those sleepaway camp applications! Register for every sport camp, art camp, coding camp, […]

I got married when my stepdaughters were 10 and 12 years old. Two years later, they were living with us full-time and I was pregnant. What followed was a whirlwind of acne and diapers, boyfriends and baby bottles, angst and alphabet songs. It was a hot mess of a time and a true trial by […]

It’s been a busy (and short!) month, but I still managed to read/listen to seven books. W00t. Two of them will definitely be on my ‘Best of 2019’ list. Two will probably be on my ‘Worst of 2019’ list. What’d I love? What’d I hate? Read on to find out…   Follow the River, James […]

I got to try QuikFix free of charge. My opinions, as always, are my own.  I can’t count the number of times I’ve had odd jobs that would be perfect for a college kid in need of beer money cash to help pay off student loan debt. I have the numbers of several good handymen, but it […]

Get ready for the ultimate Chattanooga family vacation. If there’s any city I feel completely knowledgeable about (besides Nashville), it’s Chattanooga, Tennessee. My oldest stepdaughter enrolled at UT Chattanooga in 2008, my younger stepdaughter followed her a few years later, and at least one of them has lived in Chattanooga ever since. We generally visit […]

I always get off to a slow reading start in January — I think it’s because I generally devote lots of time to reading in December, when everything shuts down for the holidays and the kids have time off and it just feels like the perfect time to curl up with a good book. By […]

  Last weekend, my eleven-year-old son and I went to the zoo. It was a cold, snowy day and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. We had fun watching the clouded leopards and Andean bears in their exhibits… But what we really enjoyed was the playground. The Nashville Zoo’s playground is massive– It’s […]