Shelby Bottoms has some beautiful natural features you won’t find at any other park in Nashville — including several beaver dams! But with its close proximity to urban Nashville, you and your family might see a little more than you bargained for… We don’t get out to Nashville’s Shelby Bottoms Park all that often and […]

Looking for an easy North Georgia trail that features several scenic waterfalls? The Raven Cliff Falls Trail is perfect for you and your family! Here’s all you need to know before you go! It’s sort of mind boggling to me that you can drive just an hour and a half from the big city bustle […]

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 […]

These fantastic restaurants near Nashville boast fabulous food and lots of small-town Southern charm. This post was written in partnership with Visit Rutherford.  Nashville’s restaurant scene is on fire right now, but while this means more options on the food front, it also means higher prices, longer waits for a table, and the disappearance of […]

Seventeen years ago (!), some kind soul gave us a waffle iron as a wedding present. Over the years, I’ve made waffles on occasion, but since pancakes are soooo much easier, there’s really only one reason I don’t Kondo the big, heavy iron altogether — PIZZA WAFFLES. Pizza waffles are one of my kids’ favorite […]

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 […]