My baby is turning 9 and I’m so grateful for long views and second chances. As our oldest kids are now young adults, my regrets for my parenting mistakes when they were small play a big role in how we parent this little one.

“After Pesach” – the words are haunting me now. For weeks as we prepared for the holiday of Passover, everything else got relegated to the “later” pile: after Pesach. Camp forms – after Pesach. Figure out why the bank is charging my daughter a $7 fee each month – after Pesach. Deal with the swamp in the backyard each time it rains (which is daily) – after Pesach.

I spent last week roaming around Harry Potter’s Wizarding World in Orlando, Florida with two of our kids over spring break. Let me just get this over with: I’m a heathen muggle. For the non-Potterheads what that means is that not only did I stop reading the series after the second book, but I caught up with Harry’s life on Wikipedia. Don’t hate me. Also I didn’t see a single movie and I don’t even remember the name of the second book.

Location: Chicago. Purpose: Two-Day Soul Retreat for Orthodox Women. Sponsors: Chicago Torah Network and the Orthodox Union.

There is something very interesting that happens when you teach your teenage child how to drive: you develop a phantom brake in your right leg when you are sitting in the passenger seat. In some part of your brain you know this brake isn’t real but it still makes you feel in control, so there’s that.

During the recent “Polar Vortex” I was blessed to be vacationing in Miami Beach, Florida. I had been invited to speak in Palm Beach Gardens and my daughters were on winter break at the Hebrew Academy, so we booked tickets and flew south. The plan was to stay in my grandmother’s condo for three days and two nights and chill at the beach and pool – and eat lots of good kosher food.

Sometimes the Jewish community spends years trying to figure out how to solve a problem when the solution comes from the most unexpected place.