If you want to see joy happen right in front of your eyes, help a young child shop at the Book Fair. Their little faces when they hand over their envelope and when you give them their change and their bag with their brand new book in it - it’s pure joy to watch. Last year, I did a little one on one volunteering with a young child who had some trouble paying attention in class, and he didn’t have a lot of resources coming in from home, so I bought him a book. I sat down and re

Me: don’t always be posting on instagram. I hate that instagram. Put your phone down and interact with people for a change. Kid: (puts phone down, gets invited to a party, attends) Me: WHY ISN’T SHE UPDATING HER INSTAGRAM? WHAT IS GOING ON AT THIS PARTY? Honestly. What did our mothers do when they wanted to know what was going on at a party? Did they even care? Are we living totally vicariously through our teenage children who are out there having brand new life experiences w

Spoiler alert: contains references to LEGO Movie 2 … specifically that the characters fear “Armomageddon” throughout the film, which is of course translated to “our mom will get in” and hilarious. In summary, LEGO 2 has the cutie patootie little boy from the first movie becoming a brooding tween, and his little sister is all up in his toys. The mom has threatened that they will have to bin up all their LEGO if they can’t share. Guess what? They can’t share. So mom asks them o

Tonight we gather - as Americans do - around the flat screen TV at our neighbor’s house, munching on buffalo chicken dip and bowls of chili and watching grown men in white leggings knock each other down and chase one another around a field on national television. We do this to celebrate the end of football season and to officially usher in the season of basketball, which will lead us right into the season of baseball and then finally, back to football again. In most homes, th

Do any of these stories have a familiar ring to you? You inherited an outsized stock position in a large industrial conglomerate from a grandparent who’s since passed away. You’ve held on to the stock even as the company’s heydays are long past, because of the importance of the investment to your family. You bought stock in a small software company in the early days of the tech revolution. The strong growth you earned on your investment helped you pay for your children’s co