It’s been a week now, since Angelina Jolie shared with the world about her double mastectomy. I used the news item as a learning moment for our children, not that they know who the actress in, nor much about breast cancer. I explained the desperation, or determination, that one must have to make such a…
I have not seen my 16.5-year-old this excited since he joined the tennis team. Bursting in the house, I heard his voice, “I have big news—really big news—good news—where’s Mama?” He and his father headed upstairs. Petya had just gone back to work at his volunteer job after a hiatus of almost three months during…
We just celebrated Mashenka’s birthday. She turned 15 and somehow, our family has gotten into the habit of having a theme behind everyone’s birthday. It might be an activity, sport, interest, or hobby of one of the children, around which we build their cake. This year, hers was masks. Our oldest daughter loves masks. She…
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “Johnny-come-lately” as a late arrival or participant “circa 1839 and derives from the phrase ‘Johnny Newcome’ used by British officers during the Napoleonic War to describe new recruits”. When my kids started coming home from Russia to join our family, I was a first-time mother over 40, already married over two…
Benedetto is directions-challenged. Our oldest son’s tennis playoffs were happening in a distant city and we wanted to make the trek. Naturally, I had scoped out the tennis center in that part of the world, but my husband insisted he had his own directions. I was happy for him to take the initiative. Not so…
By now, everyone knows that Russia warned America about the elder Chechen brother who eventually masterminded the Boston Marathon terror attack. Russia reportedly also cooperated in questioning the father of the suspects, with Russia proving to be an ally-of-sorts during America’s time of need. Is global warming being taken to the next level in a…
My oldest son and I watched the brief interviews with the Chechen terrorists’ father, now in Dagestan. He claimed that some cops framed people, and that this had undoubtedly happened to his poor sons, accused of placing bombs at the Boston Marathon. My teen thought this through. “Mama, if someone accused us of a crime,…
I was out and about yesterday afternoon, preparing for Mashenka’s birthday coming up in the next month. Calling Benedetto by phone, he asked if I heard the news. “What news?” my heart sank, as I was preparing to leave the country myself in a couple of weeks, and thought it had something to do with…
Alright, I admit it, I push my kids a little: learn to speak English, keep up your Russian, learn some other languages, catch up to grade level after years of no school, master a musical instrument or sport, be involved in community service, develop some manners…. Well, in the latest letter to the Wall Street…
Events like this day are often more meaningful in Israel, because they are commemorated by all, rather than people wondering what the day is all about. Known as “Yom HaShoah”, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, the commemoration starts at sundown, this year on Sunday, April 7th and continues through Monday, April 8th. It is a day…
