Cary Stiles

Outskirts of Town Chickamauga, Georgia {Series}

Outskirts of Town: Chickamauga, Georgia Family Road Trip

Fast food restaurants, gas stations, auto parts stores. Pass all those places and keep driving, either down Roy Parrish Jr. Parkway (also known as Route 27) or through the Chickamauga Battlefield. Then, you'll find the...

Little League Lessons

Recently, I reminisced with a family member about high school sports. He said, “We were the only show in town. There weren’t any professional sports teams. And there wasn’t anything to do. Amateur sports...

Growing Older

Albert Einstein said, “I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.” An appropriate sentiment for a time in life when I have more perspective, a...

Pot Roast: A Classic Comfort Food

Pot roast is not the most exciting food, but it provides comfort as well as some funny, heartwarming memories of a time when I learned to cook. First of all, the evolution of my...

Forest Bathing to Counteract the Winter Blues

It’s the new year. Some people have started their resolutions. By February, most of the resolutions will fade to memories. Resolutions are hard to achieve in the dead of winter when we want the...

Six Tips to Jump Start the New Year

Winter doesn’t officially begin until December 21st, but it’s coming. In some ways, it's already here. Bone chilling cold temperatures, snow, and rain. After the holidays, the kids return to school and the house...

Play Date Rules for Introverted Moms

Recently, twins appeared at our front door. At first I thought they were selling cookies or some nonsense. They stood at my door, looking lost, along with their big brother. My older son...

Why it’s Absolutely Okay Not to Breastfeed

  As my boys grow, they have more energy than I can muster after a pot of coffee. They are thriving and are healthy boys. They play soccer, baseball, they swim, and basically run around...

SEC Football for the Uninitiated

In 2011, a man called Paul Finebaum’s ESPN radio show. (For the uninitiated, Finebaum is the King of SEC football reportage.) The caller, an Alabama fan, announced he had poisoned a tree, a specific...
Panic: Life as Germ-Phobic Mom

Panic: Life as Germ-Phobic Mom

It starts as a normal day. Then...boom. A text, a mention of stomach virus on social media or at the ball field, and I immediately panic. My mind begins to race. I feel nauseous....