Is it just me or is Halloween getting old? It used to be that I looked forward to making a big pot of chili and cornbread and then greeting ghosts and goblins with a caldron filled with mini chocolate bars. Now every time the doorbell rings, I’m annoyed that I have to take off my reader glasses, put a book mark in between pages of Tina Fey’s “Bossy Pants,” and drag my butt off the couch to hand over candy to a 10-year-old wearing gym shorts and a Nike t-shirt who brags that he’s dressed like a fifth grader (because he is one). (more…)

Just when I think my volunteer days at school are over, the other day I decide to help at my daughter’s Scholastic book fair. I realize that nothing is more embarrassing for a seventh grader than to spot her mom in the school library, especially when the stranger wears a red sticker on her blouse that has the same last name as her daughter. (more…)

Ten years ago, on the morning of September 11, my day started out ordinary. My husband Scott went to work; Jack, in first grade, was at school learning how to tell the time; and Sari, only 2 years old, dressed her dolls in beads and bows, oblivious to the national crisis that was about to explode before our very eyes. (more…)

Finally, I have a column/blog of my own. I’m Luci, the apricot toy poodle whom many of you have come to know from reading my mom’s “Mishegas of Motherhood” columns over the years. Only this time I’m doing the talking. (more…)

I don’t mean to sound cliché, but attending my son’s confirmation service at temple earlier this month reminds me, once again, how time passes so quickly. It doesn’t just remind me of how grown up our children are, it hits me like a ton of bricks as Jack and his fellow Class of 5771, many whom he went to preschool with, proudly stand on the bima and lead the service, chant the Mi Chamocha, and, most significantly, share their personal thoughts on what being a Jew means to them. (more…)

Check out this article written in www.jewishinstlouis.org about Sari’s mitzvah project.

Click here for more information about the Special Needs Soccer Association (SPENSA).

If the record heat wave isn’t enough to drive you mad, then the loud and rambunctious cicadas that have invaded St. Louis like the biblical eighth plague of locusts is sure to make you crazy. (more…)

As I steam out the wrinkles in Jack’s blue confirmation robe, I’m feeling kind of melancholy. My 16-year-old son has completed another course of study in Judaism and is officially considered an adult member of the Jewish community—turns out he wasn’t quite a man yet at 13 when he became a bar mitzvah three years ago.
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The last time that I remember being truly pampered was in 2008. That’s the year I had gallbladder surgery. I was incapacitated for five days with nothing better to do than lay on the couch, sip lemon lime soda through a straw, eat peanut butter crackers, catch up on People magazine, and watch television all day. Not that I’m complaining. I really enjoyed those drug-induced hallucinatory power naps.

This Mother’s Day I want to relax, only without the anesthesia. (more…)

When I think of good deed doers (as in mitzvah makers), I think of Amy Krouse Rosenthal. She’s a mom, a writer, a short film maker (as in both her height and length of her mini movies). She’s a visionary, an optimist, and a player (as in word juggling and positive pranking, more on that later). She happens to be Jewish, and she celebrates all walks of life by spreading niceness. In a world with so much negativity, Rosenthal is a positive force to be reckoned with (as in tikkun olam, repairing the world).

If you ask me, she’s the original “Happiness Project.” (more…)