• Friends,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  Spreading the Bloggie Love,  Too Funny To Ignore,  We Are An Awesome Couple,  Working On My Fitness

    Saturday Night Special: Embracing The Pain

    January 23, 2011

    Momo Fali is one of my bloggie besties. She is always a pleasure to talk to, whether it’s on the phone, on Facebook, on Twitter, or of course, in person. (And whether we’re speaking English OR French.) I adore her. My Momo and me The other night, we were on Twitter, having a discussion about her first day of boot camp and her reentry into a health and fitness plan. The conversation was just too good to leave there in the black hole of Twitter archives, so I preserved it in possibly one of the funniest things I’ve ever created. (Thanks for the comedy gold, Momo! And I made you…

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  • I've Got Mad Skillz

    I Take the “Super” Out of “Superhuman”.

    January 18, 2011

    Yesterday was one of the most productive days I’ve had in ages. I got up at 6:15 (slept in by 30 minutes, since the younger boy didn’t have school!), answered some emails, ate a good breakfast (spinach and egg scramble, with a teensy amount of feta), and got dressed for my Zumba class. I headed over to the dance studio, took my class, waved goodbye to my friends and went home. I watched a little “Top Gear” (the British version, not the American copycat) with the younger boy, showered, put a load of clothes in the washer, unloaded the dishwasher, reloaded the dishwasher, ate a nice mini-lunch (Triscuits with light…

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  • Best Thing Ever,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  Shameless Promotion,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    It’s Likely That The Only Bigger News Would Be That I’m Pregnant.

    January 6, 2011

    Bite your tongue. Oh wait, *I* said that. I’m not pregnant, but I am now expecting something this year: the publication of my second book! I know. I can’t believe it myself. I’ve worked on this labor of love since 2005 (with the bulk of it at the top of my priority list for the past two years), and the fact that it will be out there this year totally blows my mind. The last fourteen months have been an interesting (and frustrating) part of this journey. When I sent several proposals out to publishers in November 2009, I proclaimed to the universe how badly I wanted this to happen.…

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  • Do I Really Want My Readers To Know This?,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    2011: The Year of Staying Organized

    January 2, 2011

    As you may recall, I created and executed my own organizational project last month, called “12 Days of Productivity”. My goal was to tackle the clutter in my house which had become an obstacle to my head being clear enough to get other things–like writing assignments–done in an efficient manner. Certain areas of my house (two cabinets in my kitchen and a closet or two, most importantly) stood in my mental path on a daily basis, and I finally decided to just get going on it and plow through it all during the time of year when most of my friends were busy rushing around in preparation for Christmas. Hanukkah…

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  • Best Thing Ever,  Confessions,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  Jew Stuff,  Jim Has Mad Skillz,  We Are An Awesome Couple

    When Good Stalking Leads To A Great Marriage

    December 29, 2010

    Once a month, our temple’s Friday night services include Birthday and Anniversary blessings. It’s a really great tradition, and there’s something about having the rabbi and cantor give a blessing for the upcoming year (being witnessed by the congregation, of course!) that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Jim and I do our best to, as he says, “Go get our blessing” every year, and we did just that two weeks ago. At this part of the service, the rabbi calls all couples who are celebrating a wedding anniversary up to the bimah. As you can imagine, December is not one of the more popular months for weddings, and…

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  • I've Got Mad Skillz,  Jim Has Mad Skillz,  My Dad Has Mad Skillz,  My Kids Have Mad Skillz,  My Mom Has Mad Skillz,  Reflections on Parenting,  We Are An Awesome Couple

    Parenting Secrets From Behind the Tiara

    December 22, 2010

    I wrote this post a couple of years ago, for a friend who needed a guest post on her blog. She has since shut down her site, so I thought I’d post it here! My husband Jim and I are successful parents. Really. If we were in Oprah’s magazine, our mad parenting skillz would be featured on her “What I Know For Sure” page. Of course we are not the only successful parents in the world, but we’re the only ones that matter…to our kids. I am happy to report that our boys are fine, upstanding young men–and it’s not only because we think so: that’s the general consensus from…

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  • I've Got Mad Skillz

    At Least I’m Still Lovable.

    December 21, 2010

    My younger son had a really bad day yesterday. I won’t post the reason why out of respect for his privacy, and he will be fine, but yesterday was a little dicey and I felt a little helpless because I couldn’t fix things for him by snapping my fingers. Late in the evening, the phone rang. I looked at the Caller ID and noticed that it was one of my favorite people, a young lady who is one of his best friends. I wrote back in the spring about how awesome her family is. This girl is home-schooled for part of the day, and lives a few miles away (not…

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  • Food,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  My Sister Has Mad Skillz

    What To Make For Dessert That Will Have Everyone Humming…

    December 20, 2010

    I’m swamped at the moment, between my Productivity project and trying to catch up on a few other things this week, so today I thought I’d give you Christmas-celebratin’ folks a great (and easy!) last-minute recipe, should you need a dessert at some point this week. It’s called Hummingbird Cake and though I’m probably way off, I consider it a sister of the carrot cake. It’s got pecans, pineapple, and banana in it, and the frosting is of the cream cheese variety. It is, as my sister (and Weaselmomma) would say, “STUPID GOOD.” When I wanted to make it last week, I couldn’t find the recipe I got from my…

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  • I've Got Mad Skillz,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    Lost, But More Importantly, Found

    December 16, 2010

    I have, for the last three days so far, been working on getting my house organized in a major project I call my 12 Days of Productivity. The results have been phenomenal, and each day I am more excited to start (and finish! imagine that!) the next part of my plan; I can truly visualize my house looking the way I want it to look, even behind the cabinet and closet doors. Yesterday’s assignment was to clean out the double cabinet over my kitchen desk. This is where I keep about half of my cookbooks, the phone book, my address book, notecards and stationery, and all kinds of other miscellaneous…

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  • Do I Really Want My Readers To Know This?,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  UGH.

    12 Days of Productivity

    December 13, 2010

    I’ve been belly-aching–mostly to myself–about how unorganized our house has become over the past couple of years. A few years ago, I went through everything–EVERYTHING–and cleaned up, cleaned out, and generally streamlined wherever I could. I haven’t taken the time to do that since then, and I have slowly felt myself smothering under our clutter. It was for this reason that I decided to seize the opportunity I got this year, with an early occurrence of Hanukkah and now a couple of weeks during which, publicly, everything is quieter because most people are rushing around worrying about Christmas. I am starting my own home project, the 12 Days of Productivity.…

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