Growing up, my dad gave blood regularly. He has AB- blood type, which less than 1% of the population has, and it is the universal plasma donor. So, he donated blood as often as he was able (you need to wait at least 56 days between donations). That is why I have always thought it was important to give blood. Before having children, I gave about once a quarter. Now, my time is a lot more precious, so I donate less often. I try to do it twice a year, although there are years wh

At dinner this week, the topic of persuasive essays came up. My 12-year-old has to write one for English class and he shared that he had recently watched some videos that were very persuasive. When we probed a little more, we found that the videos covered extremely conservative positions about personal rights and the gender pay gap. While my son is a very critical thinker, I wanted to watch the videos so we could discuss the difference between the facts they are presenting an

When my oldest son, Zach, was three years old, we were grocery shopping together. I asked him what vegetable he would like to have with dinner and he ran over to the broccoli, grabbed a head and proclaimed loudly: “Broccoli!” A mother with two young girls looked on with what looked like envy :) As a parent, I consider my children’s love of vegetables a success. However, this is no accident. I do the cooking in our house and we do not steam or boil vegetables. That gives you a