As a writer and an editor, I’ve had a varied career that’s constantly in flux. I normally find myself changing jobs (or having to change jobs) every five years or less, sometimes not knowing what my next step will be. I’ve written for community newspapers, websites, blogs, magazines, The Wall Street Journal, local businesses and even Soap Opera Digest, where I was a reporter and later a copy editor. My career has been an interesting one, one that has taken me to TV sets to interview actors and has gotten me in radio and television interviews. But, my career has been anything but stable – …
As a mom of two third-grade daughters, I am increasingly grateful for the time that I, as a mom who freelances from home, is able to devote to supervising her kids’ homework. It seems that as my children get older, the time that’s needed from me to be around for my daughters to answer any questions they may have, to track homework due dates and to keep them on track for longer projects, grows. In reading about the subject online on websites like alphamom and and parents.com, I've found that how involved to get with kids' homework is an issue with which parents often struggle. As a …
In the next week or so, I plan to paint the study nook that I have planned for my daughters. I have successfully dismantled the gigantic, heavy desk that once sat in the space, and just last week, I went to a local paint store (that was having a sale on paints) and bought a can of paint in the light shade of green that my kids picked out. I plan to get two inexpensive desks from Walmart (in my daughters’ favorite colors, pink and blue) and put up a brightly colored wall decal (on the wall behind the desk) that my daughters picked out. But this time when I paint, I plan to do it right. Back …
Last weekend, my daughters’ soccer team played two soccer games and lost two soccer games. When the second of the weekend’s games concluded, one of my daughters said, “I knew we were going to lose.”That’s most likely because out of the team’s first three games, our team has lost all three games. But that’s not for lack of skill or effort. My daughters’ coaches have the philosophy that all kids on the team should play, learn the basics of soccer and have fun. That philosophy means that the coaches, like many of the coaches in my daughters’ league, don’t just play the top few players most of …
When my husband and I bought our house years ago, all that stood on our block were trees filled with birds. I liked the quiet and thought it would be a wonderful place to live. Once our house and our neighbors’ homes were built, many of those trees were gone, and I saw how close our house is to the schoolyard behind us, offering little privacy. That schoolyard became even closer to our house when a new classroom wing was added to the school behind our house. Children play in that schoolyard both during the day and in the evening after school, so there is often a lot of kid traffic behind our …
If you were to take a look at my home’s front garden bed, you will find a weedy mess. That’s because in amongst the roses that I love are a variety of weeds that are growing happily, thanks to the frequent watering that I give my rose bushes. So now, I have quite a job before me, as I need to dig out a lot of very well-established weeds. So, next year, I plan to make my life easier. After consulting some gardening books, I have decided to take these actions to minimalize the work I will have to do next year to keep my flowers looking pretty: Apply mulch just after my tulips stop blooming in …
After a two-year struggle with the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, my husband and I finally have a new title for an old car that has been sitting in our garage for six years. The car belonged to my mother in law, who lived with us before passing away in 2005. We found it hard to deal with her sudden passing, so it wasn’t until 2009 that I tried to get rid of her car, which sat in our garage unusable (since we didn’t renew the insurance or registration, not to mention that the battery died) for years. The person who served as the executor of her will is a New York City-based lawyer that …
This weekend, I watched 9/11 anniversary coverage. I saw taped visual footage of how New York City’s firemen and other first responders rushed into the Twin Towers after the terrorist attacks the day of Sept. 11, 2001 and listened to how many of them lost their lives in attempt to get as many people as possible out of the soon-to-fall towers. Out of the evil and hatred of that day shown the bravery and goodwill of those responders, showing how some people, in the face of danger or tragedy, rise above our everyday life to complete amazing acts of courage and kindness towards their fellow man. …
On my kids’ second day of school, I headed out to the local Barnes and Noble store and picked up test-prep workbooks for my daughters for the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (NJ ASK) tests, which as third graders, they will take for the first time in the spring. I purchased two books for each of them: One book that covers mathematics, and another that covers language arts. I plan to have my girls complete a page a night in both textbooks. As their usual homework from school normally only takes about 10 to 15 minutes with an additional 20 minutes of reading time, I figure the …
Yesterday morning, I dropped my twin daughters off for the first day of third grade. My, does time fly! The girls went to bed late the night before. They had gone up to bed on time, but because they were so excited, they absolutely couldn’t sleep, not drifting off to sleep until past 10 p.m To my surprise, my kids were both up before 7 a.m. on the big day, talking happily together in their bedroom. I was disappointed to see that it was a rainy day, since our tradition is to walk to school together on the first day. (We normally wind up driving to school the rest of the school year, since we …
As the school year begins, I am wondering as I have in years past about whether I should insist on making more of my daughters’ school lunches. I let them purchase their lunch most days at school, but am disheartened to see that what they wind up eating is mostly unhealthy things such as chicken nuggets, hamburgers and macaroni and cheese. Of course, my daughters love buying lunch. I guess they are still at an age where that kind of food is very appetizing and fun to eat. If I start insisting that they bring in a lunch more often, I would have to make their lunches more appealing to them – …
In past school years, the tradition at my house has been that when my elementary-aged school kids get home, they immediately go to the kitchen table and complete their homework. Which is great, but sometimes I wish that they could have their own study space. That’s because our kitchen table often gets covered with a mess of books, pencils, paper and rulers, etc., that must be cleared off before I can set the table for dinner. Also, there was a time in the past when a magic marker the kids used permanently stained our wooden kitchen table. While trying to remove the stain, I accidentally …
To prep for the recent hurricane, I recently emptied out one-half of my home’s very crowded garage. I relocated many things to our backyard shed, including mowers, bikes, seed and fertilizer, and a variety of garden tools. But now that the hurricane has past, I’d like to move some of the stuff back to the garage, since it’s almost impossible now to get around our shed. And while I can get our minivan into the garage now, it is still a rather tight squeeze. I figure that some garage organization is in order. With the exception of a set of plastic shelves in one corner of our garage, there is …
There’s no motivation like an approaching hurricane. My husband and I haven’t been able to park our minivan in the garage for years. For months, I intended to empty out the garage to create some storage and parking space, but never seemed to have the time. Friday, I somehow found the time. With foreboding forecasts about Hurricane Irene, I desperately wanted to park the van in the garage. So, I put in some backbreaking labor, and about two hours later, our van was in the garage. I got the van in by transferring our lawn mower, snowblower and other outdoor equipment and lawn supplies (…
With Hurricane Irene on its way with fierce winds and rain (the storm is expected to hit our area Sunday), I am planning to stock my house and pantry with essentials, should we be stranded at home over the weekend, or should our home lose power. Along with batteries and bottled water, I intend to load up my fridge and shelves with necessities to get us through the weekend. I’ve planned a few meals centered around low-cost or non-refrigerated items, should our fridge lose power. (So, I won’t be stocking our fridge with expensive cuts of meat for the weekend.) For the menu, I’ve planned meals …
These days, many area parents and elementary school kids are anxiously checking their mailboxes daily, looking for notices from the local school district. These notices will let them know what teachers kids will be assigned to for the upcoming school year. One of my daughters, who is particularly studious, is hoping to get a third-grade teacher who is known to be good but tough on her students — my daughter is hoping to have a teacher who will push her to learn more. Meanwhile, my other daughter, who likes school, but can be on the shy side, is hoping to get a teacher who is nice, nurturing …
Now that the summer is nearly over, I am compiling a list of chores to do around the house when the kids go back to school. I am hoping to arrange my work schedule so I will have a few hours here and there during the day to get much needed projects done around the house. A major project I would like to get done is to stain or paint the pressure-treated wooden floor of the brand-new shed that my husband and I had installed in our yard last summer. (We waited a few months before staining or painting the floor on the advice of our handyman, but then our busy schedules got in the way of getting …
While some moms may be anxiously counting down the days until the first day of school, I am not. I am a mom who loves having her kids at home with me over the summer. Sure, there have been times when I’ve had to burn the candle from both ends to get in writing time and to get around-the-house chores completed. There have been days when my kids have been cranky or bored, pestering me about what we can do that day. But, I am sure going to feel not just a little sad when they return to school just after Labor Day. I’ve been enjoying my time with my girls, especially as they’ve enjoyed new sights…
Some 20-plus years after our college graduations, some Bryn Mawr College friends of mine and I are looking to reconnect and spend a “girls” weekend out without spouses or significant others, or kids. ( I put “girls” in quotes, because since we’ve been out of college for at least two decades, we are certainly more than just school-aged girls.) We’ve kept in touch over the years, but since we are spread out between Boston, Pittsburgh, Brooklyn, New Jersey and Washington, D.C., the times we have actually all been in the same place since leaving Bryn Mawr have been few and far between. We have …
It is hard to believe that in about three weeks, area kids will be going back to school. While there is still some summer left, it is surprising that the new school year is just around the corner. I have been getting ready for the school year by consulting the K-5 school supply list for my daughters’ school district, East Windsor Regional Schools. I’ve already purchased all the supplies noted on the list, as many stores in the area have been offering them at discounted prices. I’ve also purchased a new pair of school shoes for each of my daughters. I got a pretty good deal on them, as I …
