Family
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Rituals – Intended and Accidental
The Jewish New Year prompts the annual introspection: how to love our imperfect selves? Last year…
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Followers
There are mysteries, after all. I accompanied her to consider the possibility, to Maybe.
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Counting on Thanksgiving.
Can it ever be “too soon to be grateful?”
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More Pandemic Life, and Light, One Year Later
We have never known what comes next. The last year has taught us that.
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Cousins
And like our grandparents asked our parents before us, we we will take our kids’ photos…
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Sweetbitter
We are here, we are together, and we are missing. An exquisite yearning.
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Comfort
My word for this week is “comfort” — How to comfort a grieving friend, when we…
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What Will We Remember?
On the shortest, darkest day of 2020, I think about what pieces of time from this…
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Dance with me: a love letter
Maybe this is a love story about love itself.
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Where to find a muse? Look right in front of you.
Muse. (v) To wonder; (n) A mythical source of creative inspiration. For years motherhood was all…
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We Always Root for Overtime
The car clock says 7am as I turn right on PCH, Aaron in the passenger seat…
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How I Found My Hakuna Matata
Going on a safari was on my mother-in-law Joyce’s bucket list, not mine. Still, we gratefully…
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New Year’s Wishes for My Children.
My dear boys, May you continue to have the courage to step into the beautiful unknown,…
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Amidst the crushing disappointment, there was this ray of light: Natalie ran for Student Body President, and won.
To my best friends’ children, my nieces (and my own kids), this is for you. I…
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Stronger Together: Four Generations Cast Their Votes With Her
I am sitting in the “Bistro” area at my grandmother’s assisted living home this morning. Picture…
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How My Baby (a Teenager) Taught Me that Puppies Are Like Babies
When I tell someone we have two new puppies, the reaction goes, “Puppies are so cute!…
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This is Marriage. This is 18. This is Life.
We had planned a quiet anniversary celebration, since the school board transformed what used to be…
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Dispatches from Graduation Day: Elementary School Edition
The youngest is graduating from elementary school today. “I can’t believe it’s over; I spent more than…
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A Prayer for Purple Swords and Pratfalls
I come home from the market and see a purple foam sword lying on the just…
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Writer’s Life: Julia Dahl
I met Julia Dahl last May at the Jewish Book Council‘s author “pitch fest,” at which hundreds…
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They Get Taller Than You
Sometimes the most biting truths, the ones that come as the biggest shocks, are the most obvious.…
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I Need A Hero: The Family Room Scene
The setting: A family room in California. Late September, 5pm. A smattering of worn socks are…
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Letting Your Kids Get Hurt, and Watching Them Heal, From a Loving Distance
Disclaimer: As I’ve mentioned other places, I opened up to the idea of Torah study only when…
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Last Day on the Cape: So Many Towns and Bookstores, So Little Time
I think of myself as at least a tad bit worldly and well-traveled. So it came as…
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Philadelphia, Stories
When I was a student at Penn, most of my activities were limited to a square…
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Time traveling, to the present.
I know how to time travel. I do it all the time. Backwards: I see a…
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We Survived The Mother’s Day Camping Trip!
The Doritos in the dryer lint are a telltale sign that we’ve been camping. It’s one…
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Best Mother’s Day Gift … Time Together in the Great Outdoors
Mother’s Day has been a bit of a fiasco in recent past. Police helicopters and lost children…
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#IWishMyTeacherKnew: Teen Edition
If you’re one of the sage people who avoids Twitter, you may not have seen these…
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Lost in Translation
It was the vehemence of the assault that surprised me. The attacker: my son. His weapon:…
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Introducing Spring, and Maria
The bees are having an orgy with our bottle brush tree. It’s blooming like mad. Needle thin…
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Never a Dull Moment, With The Big Questions Kid
Have you ever told your children that it was good to be bored? Have you ever…
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On Quitting, Committing, and Letting Go
Commitment. Responsibility. Perseverance. Quitting. These are the words released from my pre-dawn dream into my first…
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How to See Miracles
A person could think such extravagant exuberance could dilute genuine emotional power; if everything is grand,…
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How to Have a Good Day (or “Believe Me, Mom! I’m Sick!”)
It’s the kind of morning where you are not sure which way the day is going…
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“Good Grief!” or How to Be a Friend (Grief Haven, Part 2)
I’m not trying to bum you out with all this grief business. But it’s life, right? And…
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How One Mother’s Grief Led Her to Create a Haven for Thousands More
I hope I never know what it’s like to walk in the shoes of Sarah Shaw.…
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News from The “Will Wonders Never Cease?” Department (aka How to Make Jewish Grandmas Kvell)
This just in from The “Will Wonders Never Cease?!” Department. 1. Not only did I not…
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How to Reduce Stress in a Ten Year Old (And What Does He Have to Stress About Anyway?)
What I do know is that he is a kid for whom “unscheduled” is the highest…
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How I Spent My Summer Vacation: Swimming, Hiking, and Ducking Bombs in Israel
I didn’t notice the air raid siren. Everyone else in our tour group was evacuating the…
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My Mother’s Day Gift to You: What Not To Do
The greatest meaning a person can find in life is in service to others. (And also…
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How to Make Mother’s Day Memorable
Although misplacing my nine-year-old son has become a commonplace experience, it is nonetheless still unsettling. The…
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Best Birthday Gifts for Mom
Does a mom experience any sweeter feeling than watching quietly from the staircase as her child, unknowing…
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Throwback Thursday: My Kid’s Words Take Me Way Back, Deep
If you’ve been on Facebook at some point in your life, you’ve seen people calling out…
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“Sun Kisses, Moon Hugs” free eBooks for all…until tonight!
Thanks again to Susan Schaefer Bernardo for offering a free Kindle download of her beautiful children’s…
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A Giveaway for International Book Giving Day!
I didn’t know there was such a thing as International Book Giving Day until my friend,…
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Dare to Dream, and Do
I turned on the computer with every good intention to go straight to my Word file…
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Dare to Kick Self-Doubt in the Shins
It’s early in the week for the self-doubt to start, but there it is. “This is…
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Halloween, in the Right Place
This is one of the days I love Venice. It helps that the boys are in…
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“It Might Be Wonderful”
I was searching for the source of a quote I read years ago, whose essence has…
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How You Look At It: Perspective on a “Wasted” Afternoon
Morning confession: I let my son watch television all afternoon yesterday when he should have been…
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Sugar-Free? I Dare You.
There can be no doubt about who is the favorite for “Meanest Parents” award. After threatening…
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Recovering from Mother’s Day
I had my worst Mother’s Day, to date. No one woke me with burnt toast. I…
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Grandma Power: Electing Women and Protecting the Environment
This week is the Grandmother Power Blogging Campaign, brainchild of photojournalist Paola Gianturco and writer/inspirer Tara Mohr.…
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Countdown to Showtime(s)!
May is a big month for we thespians who make up the Diamond-Heisen parental team. Christopher…
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DELIVER ME is Now on Kindle!
DELIVER ME is Now on Kindle! Some of you may be on your third or fourth…
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Little Guy, Big Ideas
I took Emmett out of school a little early last week. We were heading to a…
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It Takes a Village, and Mine is Yummy
I’m noticing connections between parenting and writing this week. Both can be thankless pursuits. You do…
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This Time We Can Help
My eight-year-old son comes to me in the dawning day in mismatched pajamas. He hesitates for…
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“Biggest Massive Most Joyous Fiercest Action the World Has Ever Known”
Vaginas of the World Unite. I thought that might grab your attention. The quotation in the…
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Change the World, Part 2: Get to Work
I last wrote about how I’d take the inspiration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on…
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Easy Peasy Resolutions (To Make Me The #1 Most Hated Mom)
Resolution #1: More patience. Even if it’s the 15th time I’ve asked them to do something…
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Steal This Idea: Share Good Stuff
My family got addicted to The Voice this season. (Well, everyone except Grandma Lilli, who says…
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Hanukah Games — Yiddish Password Rules!
And on the 6th night of Hanukah, the Jews played Yiddish Password. When I was a…
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Guilt Takes a Holiday: Gratitude for Little Things
It has come to my attention that I have done something terrible. I have given the…
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Obama’s Reelection, Prop 30 and Legos
It wasn’t only the candidates who put on turbo-powered overdrive in the last hectic week. My…
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It’s all Greek to me
No Torah Study for me today. After last week’s Jewish Journal article in which I gushed…
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The (Great Big Parenting) Book
As some of you know, I’ve become something of a Torah study geek of late. Weirder…
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Occupy the Beach
My eleven-year-old and his gang of thugs are a bunch of scofflaws. Never mind that they…
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Thinking of You, Twelve Years Gone
January 27, 2000. I was sitting at the kitchen table finishing a bowl of cereal, soaking…
Laura Nicole Diamond 