Blueberry Picking at Cedar Grove Farm, NC

So, on Sunday Mel and I loaded up the kids and headed to the Cedar Grove Blueberry Farm in Cedar Grove, NC. It was about a half hour from Chapel Hill (of course, I drive like a grandma) but it was a pretty drive and we enjoyed it. We arrived to find a lovely, mature blueberry grove. Most of the bushes at Cedar Grove were 20 years old, so they were taller than Mel. It was a lovely day - low humidity and in the 80s - and we really enjoyed picking. The kids played on a swing set, picked berries, checked out the bugs and played in the rows of blueberry bushes. In the end, we picked 9 and 1/2 lbs of the delicious little fruit. Mel is already talking about going back and tomorrow morning I'll be rising early to make muffins. I give Cedar Grove two big thumbs up. It was a wonderful, wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon

A Dose of Perspective

Perspective is something that you’d think mothers would have a lot of. After all, we have the most important job in the world – raising the next generation. But somehow, in all of the minutia and emotion, perspective is the only thing I seem to loose more than my keys.

This week, Jennifer Bunich passed away unexpectedly. I’d only recently met Jen. She was one of the two smart moms behind the blog Charlotte Smarty Pants. Jen was a lot like me, a lot like all of us. She was a young, working mom with a young daughter and adoring husband. She had a job that she loved and a new passion in the blog that she started. I was instantly taken with the blog and we crafted a partnership that would bring them into Charlotte Baby & Child through columns and newsletter articles. Just a week or so ago, we were working on her ad and head shots. And now, she’s gone.

I find myself what wondering what would be happening right now if that were me and not her. Would I have felt like I really lived my last few weeks? Would I have enjoyed the last few stories I read to my kids. Would I have relished the tuck-in back rubs?

I fear that the answer is no. Between juggling the kids, the magazine fast approaching deadline, a husband out of the country, one bout of stomach virus, a recent diagnosis of asthma and an eighteen month old that’s discovered a fascination with poop-finger-painting, this was one week of my life that I wouldn’t have cared to repeat -- unless you told me it would have been my last. Then, I would have savored every last time I held my daughter while she vomited. I would have relished each moment of holding the nebulizer mask over my sleeping son’s face at 2am. I would have appreciated every kind word from and advertiser and looked at every challenge as an opportunity to grow.

I know that Jen leaves a lot of people behind in the world that loved her and will miss her dearly. And she leaves behind her readers who will miss her witty and to-the-point writing style. I will mourn that I only got to glimpse the tip of the iceberg of this dynamic woman. And I’ll be forever grateful to her for giving me this incredibly powerful does of perspective. One that I really, desperately needed.