In the new year, I want to work on slowing down and being more present. I want to do a better job of balancing my endless to-do list with meaningful quality time. I want this for my kids, too.
They race from one thing to the next. (When did high school become a race?) There’s much chatter around AP classes, GPA and these impossible standards whereby they feel they can’t ever quite measure up. Read more…
During the school year, my hubby and I don’t watch much TV. Finding free time at home together as a family can be a challenge too — everyone is so busy. When the kids do have downtime, for the most part, they want to be left alone. But summer is different. Life slows down. Our kids like us again.
Enter “Food Flirts,” our new family favorite summer TV show. In each episode, sisters Marilyn and Sheila Brass discover two ethnically diverse dishes then head home to mash them together to create their own inspired recipes. Read more…
After we got engaged and after we chose a wedding date, we registered for a set of milchig pots and a set of fleishig pots along with dinnerware, flatware, knives, kitchen tools and kitchen appliances such as a stand mixer and a food processor that I still use today.
My hubby says, let’s buy some new pots and pans. We’ve had our pots and pans for over 20 years now. They no longer look pretty and shiny new anymore. But I don’t need new ones. Mine work just fine. Read more…
My grandmother wore a frilly apron with a flower print and ruffles along the edges. It wasn’t fancy but rather useful and comforting. Mine is handsome, taupe in color and matches well with whatever I’m wearing. Read more…
When I was growing up, my parents never talked to me about what was happening in the world. CNN was born when I was 13, but I was too busy watching soap operas, trying to beat my previous score in Pac-Man and playing kickball in the backyard with my friends to notice.
When we first moved to San Francisco in the early ’90s, I was worried. How, I wondered, would our future kids know they were Jewish? There was only one decent bagel shop in town. Read more…
Samuel and I used to walk in the Presidio a couple of days a week after preschool. We’d find trees that had fallen, and we’d sit by their roots. We’d find the best bugs by the roots and the most interesting dirt and small pine cones that we’d bring back home. Read more…
My hair is naturally curly. It’s also high maintenance. I don’t have the time to fuss over my hair. Instead, I straighten it a couple of times a week.
I occasionally hear well-intended comments from people I know who — when they happen to see my hair natural — first, compliment my frizzy curls and then politely suggest that I should be “out” and proud of my Jew-fro. Read more…
May and June are bookended with September and October. The flurry of activity that ends the school year is just as busy as the months that begin it. Soon the kids will have completed another grade in school. One is graduating middle school. Another will start to think about college. Read more…
I’ve read countless articles dispensing all kinds of advice on limiting kids’ screen time. All these articles do is make me feel guilty. I have yet to read a parenting article that takes an honest look at how difficult it is to get your kids off their devices. Read more…