• 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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  • Jim Has Mad Skillz

    Desperately in Need of a Christmas Miracle

    May 6, 2010

    It’s a sad state of affairs around here in regards to the older boy’s car. He and Jim (mostly Jim, due to the older boy’s being smothered during the final couple weeks of senior year with work, testing, lacrosse, papers, prom prep, and other such busy-ness) have been working on the car for nearly two weeks, trying to figure out exactly why it won’t start. Jim has taken apart everything in the starting assembly. He’s tested the starter, ignition switch, and relays, and he was, over the past couple of days, checking each and every wire for a short somewhere. I have frequently remarked that it would be SO tremendous…

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  • Jim Has Mad Skillz,  My Kid Has Mad Skillz

    It’s a Guy Thang.

    April 17, 2010

    I have a certain type of appreciation for cars. It’s a girly type of appreciation: I enjoy nice-looking cars and cars that have nice gadgets and, of course, cars that look like they are smiling. I’ve never had the type of appreciation for cars that a typical teenaged boy has (rightfully so, I guess, my being a girl and all). The older boy bought his first car* early last fall, and he has spent some of the little free time he has had since then researching cool things to put on the car, like snazzy (sorry, that’s a mom-ish term, isn’t it?) headlights, custom-made wheels with his personal logo metal-worked…

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