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…
A number of the things we all buy happen to be manufactured in China. This is semi-unavoidable. However, I recently made the mistake of my life by buying mail-order items from China. What possessed me, I cannot say. Perhaps the low prices (90% off!), or the knock-off designer looks. I don’t have a lot of…
While everyone’s on vacation and enjoying a few days off, I thought I’d use this time to bring us up to speed on odd and unrelated issues. -The PSAT Mystery – still no scores after six months (see earlier blogs). Latest in: either the school assistant principal is telling a big whopper, or she doesn’t…
Around any holiday, our family likes to take photos. It might be us around the holiday table, or engaged in a certain activity, or on a special day excursion. This week, we took some absolutely lovely photos at the beach. Our family always has some general things that we do that make our pictures pop…
Four years and under $5,000. Read. my. lips. Your intrepid Discount Diva has found you yet another educational bargain. Have adoption costs, therapy sessions, and the economy wiped you out? Have no fear. Your kids can still attend university and graduate with an accredited degree for pennies on the dollar. The entire cost of four…
My kids are learning a lot about life, only I’m not so sure that this is what I want them to know. “If you have a career, you have to pay more tax,” Sashenka, our youngest, revealed. “But if you don’t work, you don’t have to pay anything-!” she enthused, in a way that I’ve…
Used to be, once upon a time, that you could find affordable, 2-piece pajamas for children or adults. Since most of our kids are now in adult sizes, make that six “adults”. I can find pajama pants, designed to be worn with tank tops (in the winter?), or skimpy, waffle-weave t-shirts. The way Benedetto likes…
At this consumer-driven time of year, I felt it was time to give our kids a checkbook. No, not a real one, a play one. But I couldn’t locate the play checkbook that I KNOW I bought at some point, so I photocopied a page from my own check register. Definitely not a page showing…
Maybe the sky is falling and we’re on the edge of a fiscal cliff, but airfare prices are plummeting, too. They’re falling so low, it makes me, world traveler who likes to stay home once in a while, want to plan a trip… so as not to miss out! I receive travel alerts in my…
Upon the occasion of Sashenka’s 12th birthday, I decided to take the girls to one of the oldest, continuously-operating teahouses in the environs. We would enjoy genteel conversation and dainty delicacies even if it killed us. Mashenka, our 14-year-old, immediately liked the idea. Sashenka, however, would probably prefer driving a Formula One race car off…
