Teaching Your Kids to Make Lemonade from Lemons

"You only live once, but, if you do it right, once is enough"- Mae West. This past weekend we traveled to Baltimore for Father’s Day.  It’s the only weekend this entire summer we’ll be in town so inevitably every second is mapped out.  That’s one of the challenges with marrying your high-school sweetheart—we’re constantly shuttling ourselves between two sets of families (who live 5 miles apart) trying to play fair to both.  Over the years things have gotten much better.  We no longer switch between houses each night.  We unload our bags and … [Read more...]

Judy’s Earthquake Cookies: They’ll Make You Tremble

Two months ago we learned that we had to travel to Baltimore for a funeral of a great-grandmother. Talking about death with my kids is like pulling the scabs off wounds--they immediately bring the conversation back to my mom’s death.  They still can’t really understand why she had to die so young.  However, that made it easier to then turn the conversation around and talk about their great grandmother's full life.  Remarkably, she left a family legacy of 10 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. To brighten the mood and change the … [Read more...]