I’ve been allergic to peanuts and tree nuts my entire life. When I was a kid, it was relatively simple to stay out of trouble. I would ask if a food I wanted to eat contained nuts, get a "yes" or "no" and base my decision on that information. Through trial and error, I learned about cross contamination and to this day avoid any food that is the same shape and size as another extruded food that contains nuts and is from the same manufacturer. Similarly, if I want a bagel or bread in a shop that makes the bagels and bread on the premises, I ask if the nut products are made at the start or the…

Don’t get me wrong. I agree that our kids are racing to nowhere. I first became aware of this when my son came home upset that he wouldn’t be able to become an engineer because he wasn’t in the “right” math class. He wanted to know if I could talk to someone and get him moved. He’d go to a tutor, he assured me, to be certain he wouldn’t get a bad grade that might impact his GPA. I was speechless—OK, nearly speechless. This happened 11 years ago, when my son had just started sixth grade. Fast forward to today and he is, in fact, in college as an engineering major. He did just fine without me …

I used to be a holiday purist. The holidays were in a line and each holiday deserved its due. Halloween costumes on sale when it was barely October? Christmas music with my coffee before we’d even had our Thanksgiving turkey? It used to drive me nuts! Last year, I barely noticed I was humming along to "Sleigh Bells" before we’d finished November. It’s a song I really like and it felt good to have something cheery going on when nearly every bit of news was about something dire. Fast forward to this year. If ever there were a year in which good news was needed, it’s this year. The euro is …

Thanksgiving is at once both the most complicated and simplest holiday of the year. It's the most complicated because it is a travel and logistical nightmare. Think about it. Everyone celebrating needs a turkey. They’re also all sitting down to eat in the same four- or five-hour window of time, with all guests at the table at said appointed time. For that to happen, a lot of people have to travel at the same time as a lot of other people. It’s not a pretty sight, especially along the Northeast Corridor. The food isn't any less complicated. Everything from rolls to stuffing to salad to turkey …

It’s not like I’ve been Rip Van Winkle, but I certainly missed a decade or two somewhere along the way. I mean, when did it become a fact that sixth grade girls dress like miniature high school seniors? When did it become a fact that sixth grade girls go on actual dates with boys? When did it become a fact that sixth grade girls wear makeup? It seems my daughter is the only 11-year old in Montgomery County who is not allowed to wear off-the-shoulder tops and pool shorts to school. Ditto flip-flops, makeup and camisoles without a shirt over them. She is also the only one who cannot have a …

When Andy Rooney died on Nov. 4 from complications associated with minor surgery, I was naturally a bit sad. It wasn’t like we hung out together, but his crumpled appearance and curmudgeonly comments on “60 Minutes” were part of the background of my life. My kids, of course, had no idea who Andy Rooney was. I was not exactly surprised, but it was a bit jarring. I suppose this is what it felt like to my grandparents and parents when they told me someone I had no remote knowledge of had died. For them, it was significant. Maybe it was even the end of an era. For me it was one more piece of …

The year I turned 11, I was lucky enough to experience not one school in sixth grade, not two schools in sixth grade, but three schools in sixth grade. The first was in Westchester County, outside New York City. It was about the equivalent of the schools right here in Rockville. The second was in a very rural suburb of Hartford, Conn. On the surface, it had nothing in common with our schools. The third was also in Connecticut, in a semi-rural suburb of Springfield, Mass. Ditto for what it had in common with our schools. If it sounds like it was a frazzling experience, it’s only because it was…

NaNoWriMo, also known as National Novel Writing Month, begins Nov. 1. Billed as "30 days of literary abandon," it’s the time to write that novel! You know the one. The one that’s been percolating in the back of your brain for longer than you care to remember? Just go to the site and register. The whole point of NaNoWriMo is that you can’t get it wrong. You simply need to write 50,000 words that only you will read. You can hop from scene to scene, work on character sketches, scenic descriptions, whatever you’d like. As long as you get the word count meter to progress and ultimately reach 50,…

I read cookbooks the way other people read romance novels. Or thrillers. Or mysteries. What exactly can you do with rhubarb? What happens if you put leeks in a reduction with something acidic? And what the heck is a gastrique? While others await the Oscars each year, I look forward to the James Beard Awards. The cookbooks that take the win are amazing books from a variety of traditions. Simply being on the list of nominees ensures a unique experience. You can't go wrong by adding one of them to your shelf. I started reading cookbooks when I had my first apartment and discovered “The Joy of …

This year my oldest returned home from college to join us for Rosh Hashanah. He had no choice. In the two years he’s been on campus, he hasn’t observed a single religious holiday. He’d barely fastened his seat belt when he shared with his younger siblings and me that the Holy Days weren’t really for him any more. It wasn’t that he wasn’t a Jew so much as that he prefers to observe the full moon. If you’re a parent, you know you can’t make this stuff up. You also know that these conversations invariably take place in front of the younger siblings—the ones who are not yet old enough to have …

The Jewish High Holy Days are here. Rosh Hashanah. Yom Kippur. The Days of Awe. I love them all. During the High Holy Days, Jews around the world take time to reflect on the Jewish year just ending and the new Jewish year just starting. Some Jews believe their fate is literally written and sealed during this period. Others believe their fate is something they influence. Still others don't give any of it a thought. In our house we each use this time to consider the person we want to be and discuss the ways in which we were and were not successful. Were we in integrity with ourselves? Did our …

I’ve been a mom for 20 years and an adoptive mom for 15 of those. It doesn’t surprise me any more when other kids have questions for my kids about adoption. What does surprise me is how universally misinformed kids are, as revealed in the questions they ask. I know. Adoption is not part of the curriculum. Everything kids know about adoption they’ve learned from television and the movies. Unfortunately, that means the things they “know” are things like babies abandoned in the rain and snow with a note pinned to their chest, lazy birds who head south and leave others to hatch their eggs and “…

Flu season begins in November, with the peak at the start of February. On an individual level, it’s not guaranteed that a flu vaccine will prevent you from getting the flu, but it is likely it will decrease the severity of the flu if you do get it. It might even keep you from getting the flu at all. Although Montgomery County has a vaccination rate in the top 10 in the United States, there are still many people who prefer to go without a flu shot. Some balance a few weeks of missed study or work with the $25 or less it will cost, the time it will take and the discomfort they may feel and …

The first week of school usually passes in a blur. There are papers to sign, checks to write and jitters to calm. By the second week you’re ready for some down time but homework begins in earnest, sports kick into gear and there are afterschool activities looming. I’ve been doing the mom thing for more than 20 years now. Some things made sense right away: The car doesn’t leave the driveway until seat belts are clicked.  Some things took a lot a lot longer to sink in: Just because kids say they don’t care, doesn’t mean they don’t care. Some things are intuitive: No kid wants to go to bed on …

It's Sunday. School is opening as scheduled after all for my kids. They’re packing up their stuff. They're worrying about lunch and whether or not it’s possible to change just one class. They're wondering about what the year will be like. I’m wondering if it’s really possible that I know the answers to the summer math packets by heart. It doesn’t seem likely but I’m pretty sure I do. I’m also pretty sure I know the plot to every book in the curriculum. All three kids have done this math packet the summer before sixth grade. All three kids have been in the same reading classes. Would it really…

I’ve always considered traditions an important part of family. Since interviewing Meg Cox, family traditions expert and author of "The Book of New Family Traditions," for a piece on end of summer traditions last week, I’ve been giving traditions even more thought. Cox is correct in her assertion that traditions are more important than ever to give kids a sense of what she calls “their tribe.”  Given the frenetic pace of contemporary life and the far-flung way we live, I think family traditions give adults some important benefits, too. For one thing, you have to think about what’s important to…

I’m a sucker for new technology. We’ve already established that. So when Apple's OS X Lion desktop operating system came out, I was ripe for the picking. I could not wait to be one step closer to having all my tech-gadgets in harmony. Forget that I’ve already wiped out all the appointments in my calendar—twice—while trying to reach this state of nirvana. Forget that my livelihood—not to mention entire books in progress—depends upon my computer functioning properly. (I think I block that thought out of my mind completely because it’s just too frightening to contemplate.) I approached my …

When I first moved down here nearly 30 years ago, I was astonished at the huge role national politics played in day-to-day life. Pick up The Washington Post and political coverage dominated the front page—above the fold! As the political climate has grown ever more contentious, it's no longer a happy astonishment I feel. It's more like the cringing feeling that comes with a dripping faucet or the approach of a co-worker who never, ever has a good word to say about anyone or anything. We've had presidents and hopefuls who couldn't spell, who used the Oval Office for booty calls, viewed the …

I had no idea that Whack-a-Mole existed until I had children. Even then, I remained blissfully unaware of this game until my then-only child was turning 5. The first time I saw the little animals popping up through the holes, I leaned closer to see what they were. My son didn't bother. He stepped right up, gripped the plastic covered mallet with assurance, and whacked those little whatevers soundly on the head. Fast forward 15 years. It occurred to me last week that my summer has pretty much been a rousing game of Whack-a-Mole. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s just that it’s …

The point where addiction and individual rights meet is, for me, a place with more than enough regret and guilt to go around. For the addicted individual, it's the point where their rights are protected. For the family of the addicted individual, it's the point where even the best-intentioned are not able to make the decisions they would gladly make to safeguard the health and safety of a loved one.Unfortunately, I am familiar with these issues because of several older family members who have served as lifelong cautionary tales for me, my three brothers, and each of my 21 cousins.  To commit …