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Volunteering for the High Holidays 2016

So much goes into getting ready for Rosh Hashanah each year: Meal preparation; new clothes; traveling to families. But it’s also a time to stop and reflect and give back. Here in Chicago, there are many opportunities to volunteer in honor of the High Holidays. You can find out more details by clicking here to check […]

So Glad They Told Me

Hello People! It’s been several months since I last posted, and if my blog really were my fifth child, as I’ve referred to it, I would rightfully have had social services banging on my door with neglect charges. Thankfully, there’s no blog police, but I do have to answer to myself, and I’ve really missed […]

“Multiples Illuminated,” edited by Megan Woolsey & Alison Lee

As the mother of four children, all of whom arrived within six years of each other, I appreciate the chaos of life in a hectic household. But even when I was in the thick of it with numerous kids in diapers and babies at different stages, I still knew that having each of my children individually […]

Learning Life Skills With Knife Skills

Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop. Clop. Clop. Clop. Clop. The chef’s knife hits the cutting board at a fast clip with a staccato beat. My oldest son deftly dices mango into little golden cubes. He’s 10-and-a-half years old, but on the smaller side for his age, and I’m not used to seeing his hands move […]

A Prescription for Play

My 3-year-old son cries and screams, picks up a Lego and chucks it. I stand there frozen, staring at him, unwilling to give into his antics. He’s my youngest child, and even though he struggles with speech delays and motor planning issues, I refuse to acquiesce to this behavior. I’ve learned over the years how […]

The Family that Vacations Together… Stays Together

            Exactly when the tradition started remains unclear. But sometime in the late 1960’s, my extended family began gathering yearly in Miami, Florida. At the time, our numbers were small: My grandparents, my aunt and uncle and their two children, my uncle and my dad. Years passed, more weddings, more babies, […]

All Together Always. Just Not Right Now.

The taxis pull up to the off campus apartment to take us into Boston. We tumble outside and into the waiting vehicles, giggling and excited for our night on the town. We’ve been waiting for months to celebrate our 21st birthdays together, and I’ve been the hold up as the youngest in the group. Now we […]

Up on Kveller: How My Daughter’s Birth Brought Me Back to Halloween

    Toward the end of my second pregnancy, my doctor offered to make things easy on me and schedule an induction. “Wait. Make it easy? I thought inductions were a prescription for a C-section. I was able to push my son out in 40 minutes the first time. Why would I want to set […]

The Princess & the Playground

  “Remind me again, the name of the princess you were for your fourth birthday? You know, Sleeping Beauty? What’s her actual name?” I’m reminisicing with Miss J before bedtime one night. Her birthday is coming up, and since it coincides with Halloween, she gets to pick any costume she wants. Miss J turns nine […]