Happy Passover! The holiday inspired me to write The Four Questions: A Middle Aged Mom’s Retrospective for Mazel Together. (Click over there if you’ve ever sat at the kids table, waiting for Elijah. I know you’ll feel me). I struggled with whether to use the term “middle aged” and decided nothing else would do. I am on a quest to find the perfect eye cream and the oldies station plays music from my childhood, and am therefore definitely middle aged.

If you’re not familiar with Passover, it’s a Jewish holiday that lasts eight days. You celebrate the first two nights by getting together with friends/family for a seder, which is a meal featuring four ceremonial glasses of wine, a number of specific foods and customs, and the re-telling of the story of the Jews’ exodus from Egypt. It always coincides with Easter, as Easter was Jesus’s last meal. The holiday is associated with freedom, rebirth, springtime, and matzoh (a flat bread that we eat during Passover to commemorate the fact that when God parted the Red Sea and let the Jews escape slavery, there was no time to let their bread rise).

In other news, I’m tapering for my half marathon, which is coming up on the 23rd. I was supposed to be running my longest run (14 miles with four at goal half marathon pace) when I was struck by the flu. It was horrible. Not only did I have to skip that run and a bunch of others, I feel like I’ve lost a TON of fitness, which is discouraging. But, by the same token, I didn’t become the runner I am from this four month training block alone. It’s all the blocks stacked on top of each other over the past fifteen plus years, so I’m trying remember that.

I’ve been published a number of times since my last blog post. I realize you might have
a) seen my stuff in your Facebook feed and read it (thanks!)
b) seen and it and thought “I’ll come back to that” and maybe even opened it up in a tab to read later, along with 85 other tabs (I can’t be the only one who does this)
or c) maybe Facebook never even showed you my stuff
In any case, here are
d) links to my stuff you’d like to go read any of it now

also
e) The random multiple choices are in my head because I just devoured Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s memoir Textbook. I had the chance to stretch out on the couch and read while my family went out for lunch without me (it was glorious). If you haven’t read it, you should. Maybe you read Modern Love Essay, You May Want to Marry My Husband that went viral recently; she wrote that, too. Her memoir is sharp, funny, poignant, and different.

and while I’m on the topic of books…
f) All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood blew my mind. Never have I rooted harder for a heroine than I did for Wavy. Did you read it? What did you think? I’m pretty sure this is going to make my Best of 2017 list. Also, I recommend checking out Greenwood’s Twitter feed. It’s highly entertaining.

Anyway, here are those links to stuff I wrote:

http://www.parent.co/every-parent-know-threatening-burn-toys/

http://www.parent.co/our-kind-responsible-babysitter-is-a-dude-yes-they-do-that/

http://www.parent.co/you-get-what-you-get/

http://www.parent.co/9-ways-to-assemble-an-arsenal-of-awesome-babysitters/

http://www.parent.co/secret-formula-healthy-relationship/

http://www.parent.co/how-to-talk-about-sex-early-often-and-in-small-doses/

https://mazeltogether.org/purim-kicks-halloweens-butt/