We grandparents love to spend time with our grandchildren. My grandchildren range from age 7 to age 22, and each of the six is special in his or her own way.  Five of them  are Generation Z or “Zoomers”, between 14 and 29 years old, the first true digital generation, knowing and living with smartphones and social media attached to them at the hip, and finding anything that will grab their attention otherwise is a miracle. Enter the miracle of American Mah Jongg!  And auspicio

I have just returned from a memoir writing workshop retreat, called “Write By the Lake,” at Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, with Joyce Maynard. A long (we never say old) dear friend, Valerie, went exactly one year ago and told me to immediately sign up. I did.   As I learned at the retreat, I am making a list of the words that describe the experiences of spending a week in rural and rugged Guatemala at Lake Atitlan and with Joyce Maynard, surrounded by thirty- four varieties of bird

I was very moved by an editorial by the columnist, David French, in The New York Times, February 10, 2026, entitled, “The Already and The Not Yet,” in which the first paragraph is, “I couldn’t stop blinking back tears, and I couldn’t understand why,” after seeing the movie called the “Testament of Ann Lee,” the founder of the Shakers religious movement, which fled to America shortly before the American Revolution to escape persecution. And found persecution here in America. S

As many of you may have experienced, when the first grandchild is born, you cannot wait to take them to the circus and other experiences. It is joyful to watch their eyes light up as they see things for the first time. And of course, you take them as soon as you can. We took our oldest grandchild when he was close to four.   Please read the blog post, “ Of First Born Children and First Born Grandchildren: Benefits of Loving The First the Longest.” Especially those of you wai

As a former teacher who used to teach the Palmer Method to my elementary school children and as the mother of six grandchildren, it hurt my heart when in 2010 the U.S. education system removed cursive writing as a school curriculum requirement from the federal Common Core Standards.    New Jersey has just become the 25th state, meaning, as of the beginning of 2026, we now have half of our states, again requiring cursive instruction in public schools. Half, or more than half o

Meteor showers, solar and lunar eclipses, northern lights, and a rocket launch are some of the astronomical events worth an adventure for you, with your children, with your grandchildren in 2026. Some are close to home and some are planning an adventure, so see if you can make at least one to see, and give yourself, your children and grandchildren an out of this world experience in 2026.   FEBRUARY 2026   ARTEMIS II LAUNCH :  BEST FEBRUARY 6, 2026   (OR 7 OR 8) or March to Ap

In my family, eating a bagel for breakfast is a staple of our diet. On holidays, such as break fast after Yom Kippur ends, we celebrate by eating bagels. When I found out that there is a National Bagel Day in the United States, and bagel bakeries are now a big business everywhere here, I thought I would share the following with my grandchildren and all of you! What is a bagel? Bagels are ring shaped bread rolls, one of the few breads that are boiled and then baked, which crea

I almost didn’t write this blog about ‘6 7.’ That is because I recently wrote a blog about skibidi and how shocked I was that a dictionary would permanently add a term such as this and wrote:   “What Word Has Been Added to The Cambridge Dictionary in 2025-‘Skibidi’?”   My grandson, who is fourteen, said that he was also shocked, literally shocked, that a dictionary put the word skibidi in it. He said words come and go and phrases come and go so quickly in his generation that

My mother, a Holocaust survivor and daughter of a Kabbalist rabbi from a small town in pre World War II Poland, had a unique outlook on life. It is not unusual that looking back on my childhood and younger adulthood that I realize now her wisdom was rooted in Kabbalah. I just did not know then. I wrote a previous New Year’s blog about my mother and feelings of gratitude. Rereading it reminded me of the wonderful generational life lessons she instilled in me every day that she

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/fda-head-explains-decision-to-drop-black-box-warnings-from-menopause-hormone-treatment BRAND NEW FDA RELEASE! November 10, 2025! “FDA head Explains Decision to Drop ‘Black Box’ Warnings from Menopause Hormone Treatment.” Alleviate short term symptoms! Hot Flashes. Night Sweats. Mood Swings. Weight Gain. Gain long term benefits. Protect against heart disease, stroke, bone fractures, and dementia. Quoted: “In one study and circulation from two

Within the last several months, I have felt a sudden compulsion to address the Holocaust in my life and write a memoir of how the Holocaust impacted my family and me. Until this point, I could not see movies about the Holocaust, I could not read books about the Holocaust. I could not deal with the Holocaust as a child of Holocaust survivors. This turnabout has perplexed me. Because of this new compulsion, I just returned from a Jewish Heritage tour to Eastern Europe, visited

October 27, 2025, the Wall Street Journal, in “The Big Danger of Microplastics: the tiny bits of plastics that are polluting the globe and posting health risks,” by Simon Constable, joined the growing LOUDER VOICES of the BIG DANGER of microplastics and neoparticles or nanoplastics. I noted that I first started this blog post and collecting articles about microplastics and neoparticles in February, 2023. I am a Bill Maher fan. I saved, among dozens of articles, that, on his M

Whenever a couple near and dear to me tells me that they are entering into a committed relationship, getting engaged, or getting married, I first recommend premarital counseling, which I learned builds a strong foundation for the new committed relationship or marriage. There will be three entities, each person as an individual and as a separate entity, the committed or marital relationship. Combining the entities in a safe, expert setting eases the transition. Why not make g

All of a sudden, or not so sudden with the domination of social media, and everybody in a group sitting on their phones rather than talking to each other, studies about everything about friends and friendships are everywhere. But are they helpful? The Why I was raised by two Holocaust survivors who believed that friends were those who turned you over to the Nazis, and only family members were the people you could depend on and with whom you should surround yourself. Leaving o

The photograph is a 1904 depiction of an acquisitive and manipulative Standard Oil (founded by John D. Rockefeller) as an all-powerful...

I recently learned at age 78 that age 78 is the third critical age when the human body experiences a significant biological aging burst,...

This Grandma’s eighteen and nineteen year old grandchildren wanted a vacation in the Greek Islands and had no interest in Athens or the...

Having teenage grandchildren is an education. Not necessarily an education that I expected nor that I desired. I did teach middle school...

There is a new trauma for the parents of our baby grandchildren and we grandparents have the key to alleviate the angst. The controversy...

As I reflected in Part I, regarding the doctor dilemma we Boomers pass on to our children and grandchildren, it took this Grandma one...