The other day when heading to the mailbox, I saw one of my neighbors with his two children, one who was driving in his little orange car and the other being pulled in another mini-car with a handle attached. We said hello and I told the older boy what a cool car he had. As I rounded the corner, I saw another neighbor, who was pushing her toddler in a blue push car. The toddler waved and I waved back and said hi to his mom. This is what I really wanted to say to these parents. Enjoy this sweet time with your kids in these cute little toy cars. I just got back from a short trip with my oldest so ..read more

The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade feels like punch to the gut. To the generations who grew up after the 1973 decision that protected a pregnant woman’s choice to have an abortion, it feels like a right for a woman to choose what happens with her body was shockingly snatched away this week. In the past couple of years, there’s been a lot of debate of whether the government has control to regulate what people do with their bodies, relating to whether or not laws could be enforced to require face masks in order prevent the spread of COVID-19. It seems ridiculous to compare wear ..read more

Before we move ahead any further into 2022, I just wanted to mention a project that I worked on in 2021. I went into great detail about it in my other blog “My Songwriting Journey,” but since many moments in 2021 were spent working on it, I wanted to include it here as well. The project, “52 Weeks in 2021,” was a result of feeling a little anxious about approaching the age that my mom was when she died – 52. Instead of spending the time dreading it, I decided to instead work on something that I always wanted to do – write songs. She had always encouraged my love of writing – although in my ear ..read more

At the beginning of winter break, we decided to take a little trip from Phoenix to Tucson as we had never traveled there as a family before. However, because we’ve only had our dogs for about three months, we weren’t ready to leave them with anyone yet so we decided to take them with us. The first step was finding a hotel that allows dogs and were thrilled to find that TownePlace Suites by Marriott Tucson allows pets. The room was perfect for our family of five (plus 2 dogs), as it had two separate bedrooms as well as a pull-out couch and a full kitchen stocked with plates, cups, utensils and ..read more

When I was in elementary school, I loved the “Little House” series by Laura Ingalls Wilder and regularly watched the related TV show, “Little House on the Prairie.” My friends and I would play it during recess and I also re-enacted scenes at home with my younger sister. I was always Laura. Despite my love for those books, I recently realized I never introduced them to my sons. Some of our favorite chapter books/graphic novels through the years included the “Junie B Jones” series by Barbara Park and “Diary of Wimpy Kid” series by Jeff Kinney and the boys went through a “Captain Underpants” phas ..read more

We took many things for granted at our oldest son’s bar mitzvah, which was back in November 2019. He read from the Torah during an afternoon Shabbat service followed by Havdalah, where all the youth present were invited up on the bimah with glowsticks – unmasked. Family members from California, Vancouver, Nevada, Texas and New Jersey gathered together after the service for photos. Next, as we as a family made our “entrance” into the party room after being introduced by the DJ, the bar mitzvah boy and his brothers high-fived guests as they ran through the crowd with big grins on their faces. We ..read more

Although the kids have already headed back to school, here’s a quick recap on the summer for memory’s sake. With COVID-19 vaccinations in the spring, summer plans opened up more than last year but we were still being cautious as our youngest isn’t able to get vaccinated yet and there are still breakthrough cases of people getting sick with the virus even after being vaccinated. Each of the camps the boys went to had mask requirements (Z to a teen leadership skills at one JCC and the younger boys at the JCC camp where I work, as well as one week of LEGO camp for my youngest.) In June, Z went to ..read more

Following the recent news in Israel has been so disorienting. The conflict between Israel and Gaza has a long, complicated history, but is one that I thought I was somewhat familiar with. However, the comments on social media I’ve been reading this week seem to be based on an entirely different narrative. What is going on? I’ve started writing this blog post a few times this past week but couldn’t find the right words. I don’t claim to be an expert on the issue so I’ve been hesitant to respond on social media, but as the situation turns worse and worse, I feel like I need to say something on t ..read more

During this year’s spring break, we wanted to take a short trip out of town and a few days beforehand an article about Arizona’s beaches showed up in my newsfeed. Despite my years of living in Arizona, I wasn’t even aware Arizona had beaches (except at Big Surf, which I’ve never been) so I read the article with interest and discovered that Lake Havasu was only about three hours from our home. So the planning began. We’d stay one night in Lake Havasu with three B goals: Boat, Bridge and Beach. Although we were only there for less than 24 hours, we managed to do all three. Although older article ..read more

Twenty-four years ago, my mom was about to celebrate her 52nd birthday. She spent the day, March 7, in a hospital room, surrounded by cards and flowers. She had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer the previous month and the prognosis wasn’t good. She was given about six months to live, but the cancer spread quickly and it was actually six weeks. I lived in Los Angeles at the time and flew back and forth each weekend for those last few weeks. I remember stopping by her apartment and noticing that her calendar was still on February – she had gone into the hospital for a procedure that month an ..read more