my city life 

with Jami Nato

Dear Reader,Question: If you hypothetically dropped your phone in the lake, stone cold sober on a Friday morning, can’t get a replacement till Monday, maybe Tuesday, and are hosting 3 other couples* the entire time… what would you do? (*these are families we decided to quarantine with intentionally during Covid)Answer: Enjoy it without looking at your phone constantly, that’s what you’d do. There would be no Facebook fights, text messages would be responded to hours and hours later. There...

I sat with my Memaw the other night after promising to get over to my parent’s house before she left town. I kept meaning to get over there, to see her, to listen to her, to ask her about her life. To soak it all in, like her hands must have when she lathered up with the giant bottle of off-brand lotion. I remember her putting it on as I watched from her bedroom door as a child; there was a certain way her hands went around each other. She would walk out and smell like, I don’t know…lotion...

I have done most of my business online—I often sell products I don’t ever touch. Sometimes I sell mentorship or information and most of the time, I don’t physically see the person on the other side of my transaction—of course, I communicate with them online and build relationships. So, when we decided to open a local coffee shop (the Lottie), you can imagine my surprise to learn that while some business matters translate, other’s just don’t. Especially during a pandemic. While the pandemic...

Many times, as a mother, you can start to feel like maybe your kids are the worst. Everyone else has better behaved children who don't act like my kids. When I sat down to write this admissions letter, I was grumpy. I had just received a lackluster "progress report." More like "NONprogress report." I questioned if he should even have the privilege of attending the school I was sitting down to write to. And as I got going, my attitude changed, my heart softened, and I decided that he is a true...