6 mins read

Join in the Fight to Make School Lunches Healthier!

Corn dogs, canned fruit and a bag of chipsthat was a typical hot lunch offering at the posh private school my daughter attended in Marin County, California six years ago. It took me, and five other Marin moms, more than a year to initiate organic lunch programs in our local private schools. We had to work hard to convince parents and administrators that it was worth an extra $1 a day to serve organic food to our kids. There are still many schools in my county where kids are given unhealthy (highly processed, microwaved and packaged) foods and drinks (soda and high fructose corn syrup sweetened juices) on campuses and in cafeterias. Instead of real and nutritious food, they are eating food that doesnt help their brains or bodies develop optimally.

5 mins read

Today’s Teens: Sheltered, Tamed and Organized

My oldest son Edison, who is now sixteen, was invited to stay for a few days with a friend, whose parents live on a vineyard in Napa Valley. We live in Los Angeles. So I checked Amtrak, and found a not-too-circuitous route involving an Amtrak bus, a train, and another bus. It seemed like just the right kind of adventure for a 16 year-old.

4 mins read

Chapter 4: Chemo Begins, With a Bonus: Bronchitis

To start at the beginning, read Chapter 1: Abby’s Crap News – AKA My “Journey” With Cancer The Kindness of Strangers and Others I cut my hair. And then I cut it again. I can’t even remember the last time I wore my hair short – I don’t particularly like it short, but I know it’s going to fall out within weeks, so I wanted to feel some modicum of control over the process. (Or the illusion of control, anyway.)

6 mins read

Rivers, Bluegrass and Gold – A Northern California Roadtrip

Our family of four headed north from our home in Santa Monica in our loyal 2002 Volkswagen Van to visit San Francisco and explore the North California Coast up to the Redwoods of Mendocino and across the central valley of California to the historic gold country along Highway 49: Nevada City, Downieville and the Yuba River.