My family and I just returned from nearly a week in magnificent Paris, on a skip generation vacation with myself and young adult grandchildren. Parents left home. Bertrand D’Aleman of My Private Paris was and is our private guide who, with charm, skill, and an enthusiastic entertaining style, can also maximize your time in and enjoyment of Paris, a very large and very crowded city. Ten years ago, we took our then thirteen year grandson to tour Paris with Bertrand for the f

As a retired lawyer, and a judge for twenty years on the bench, I keep hearing that we won’t have any need for lawyers anymore in the future because AI will be able to write legal documents and AI can help someone act on their own in the courthouse. Having been a family court judge when 80% of the cases in front of me were self- represented, I can tell you it was a nightmare for the litigants representing themselves and a nightmare for me as the judge. And that was before A

I have always heard about spring cleaning, and now that it is spring, I feel guilty not thinking about spring cleaning. Then, ‘death cleaning’ appeared in my radar, and the first thing I thought of is that it is a terrible title! But it is a real thing! You get to a certain age and you start to automatically read obituaries. It’s not that you’re anticipating death, it’s just that what those dead accomplished in their life becomes interesting. In the New York Times, Obi

All the news today is that “Women in Their 20s May Not Be Having Babies, but by 45 Most Probably Will," New York Times, April 9, 2026, by Claire Cain Miller. Statistics from the National Center for Health Statistics say that the fertility rate, the number of births per thousand women of childbearing age, dropped to 53.1 from 53.8 in 2024 and has been falling since 2007 “…. showing a rise in the fertility rate among women in their 30s and 40s. The fertility rate for women

Paris has always had wonderful beauty products and South Korea beauty products are up and coming and new. What a great unique Mother’s Day gift! I love beauty products from Paris and South Korea that are confirmed to be good from friends. I am so lucky to have a Parisian American friend, Coreen, for almost thirty years who lives part time in Florida with me, and knows all about Parisian beauty products, and a new Asian American friend, Cora, from San Francisco and East Hamp

I met Cora Wen at the memoir writers’ retreat in Guatemala. There was something about Cora that drew me to her. Maybe it was that both of us came from immigrant families. Her energy is addictive. Cora was my therapeutic yoga teacher as well. We met at 7 AM every morning and she helped heal my broken shoulder, the Eastern way, and its excellent healing surprised my Western doctor. East and West. Much better when our lives – and our health -- are intertwined. Cora wrote P

Roughly 252,756 miles away from the earth, a jar of Nutella, a chocolate hazelnut spread, floated past an astronaut’s head and drifted across NASA’s livestream during the Artemis II lunar flyby this week. This was the subject of a Wall Street Journal, article, Saturday/Sunday, April 11-12, 2026. The author, Ben Cohen, gives us the origin of Nutella. “During a Post war cocoa shortage in the 1940s, an Italian pastry chef named Pietro Ferrero had the genius idea to combine the

Spring has arrived, although in some areas, it seems just like a dream waiting to be realized. Keep this list (and the bonus surprise) so when outdoor time becomes a reality, you remember to appreciate nature and life renewed. Babies (0–12 months) 1. Outdoor blanket time: Lay a blanket on the grass and let them feel the breeze, watch leaves, and listen to birds. 2. Sensory nature basket: Fill a small basket with safe items like soft flowers, big leaves, or grass for to

Enjoy April Fools’ Day 2026 with simple, funny and harmless April Fools’ Day jokes . Here you are, parents and grandparents! They are divided by age group so the humor lands right and stays safe. The adult ones #3 and #5 work for all ages! See the BONUS one at the end! 3. The Endless Toilet Paper Roll Glue or tape the loose end of the toilet paper to the roll so it spins but doesn’t tear off. They’ll keep pulling… and pulling… but nothing separates. HAPPY APRIL FOOLS’ DAY!

One of the worst moments in life is when the doctor advises to call hospice for you or your loved one. Inside, you panic. This is navigating a new unknown. The end is now close, and no one wants to contemplate this inevitable. Hospice care is supposed to be specialized, compassionate care for individuals with terminal illnesses (generally less than six months to live) that is supposed to prioritize quality of life, comfort, and dignity over curative treatment . Suppo

As a grandmother, I will do anything to make my grandchildren happy. I knew about MrBeast on YouTube because my then seven-year-old and 13 year-old grandchildren kept showing me all the contests where he was giving away ridiculously large amounts of cash. They were hooked on MrBeast, who has been on YouTube for thirteen years, longer than the ages of my grandchildren when they introduced me to him. When MrBeast announced that he was selling chocolate, of course they wanted th

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