I’m sure this is not breaking news to the more Senior Soccer Moms out there, but somehow, after shuttling my two midfielders back and forth from field to field for the last three years, I have just now discovered the genius of the Shin Sock. They are exactly what they sound like — shin guards ...

If I didn’t know that September was here by the first-day-of-school butterflies, the sudden, almost primal urge to re-organize my bulletin board, or the to-do list spinning through my brain like a slot machine at 3am, I’d know it by looking at my DALS email inbox. Help! You all write. I need quick dinner ideas for the back-to-school scramble. ...

In some ways, I feel like my mother’s philosophy of raising children can be distilled into two of her favorite expressions. The first one is this: Only boring people get bored. This was not so much an expression as it was a response to the “I’m booorrred” cries from my brother, sister, or me when ...

I know. Bummer. An entire post devoted to salad. Not a BLT salad or a wedge of iceberg with thousand island dripping in and around the crevices. But a yawn-inducing, omega-3-rich, good-for-you, raw bowl of nutrients that falls into the “leafy green” category. Thanks, Jenny! Thanks for the big bowl of homework! Go ahead, leave ...

Ever since second grade when I did a report on the Arctic Tern I’ve loved birds. I used to sit in my backyard with binoculars looking up into the 75-year-old Elm tree in search of the American goldfinch, which in my mind was the most exotic species that existed in southern Westchester. But when I ...

I’m not quite sure how this happened, but last Friday night, Andy and I managed to have a nice quiet dinner at home — just the two of us — even though there were six girls under nine years old in our house as we did so. It was Dinner-and-a-Movie night — P and A ...

My new favorite birthday present is this book 642 Things to Draw. I bought a half dozen of them for my 7 and 8-year-old daughters’ friends.