Musings

New Tongue Tie Groups Starting Soon

I feel like I say this every month, but it’s hard to believe we are already at the end of the month already! While the world around us is in so much distress and chaos, I hope you have been able to claim moments of calm and joy in your own little bubble.
Tongue Tie Groups starting March 11th!

Introducing a new unique group offering combining clinical care, emotional support, and community comfort.

Hands down, the most common thing I help my newborn and pediatric clients with is nursing and bottle feeding effectively, comfortably, and efficiently. There are many variables that can impact a baby’s ability to latch properly and one of these variables that walks into my office over and over again is tongue and lip ties.

I’m thrilled to start to offer a group treatment model to help care for these families, allowing for clinical, emotional, and community support all in one place over a 6 week series.

Learn more and sign up for the series here.

What is a tongue tie?

We all have a frenum, or a piece of tissue, connecting our tongue to the floor of our mouth. We also have one connecting our upper gums to our upper lip. In some people, this tissue is very tight and tense, preventing full and proper movement of the tongue and mouth. This can potentially impact feeding, speech, sleep, digestion, airway development, and more. Body work and oral mobility and strengthening exercises can often help improve oral function. In some cases, a tongue tie release is warranted with a dentist or ENT to gain full range of motion and function.

Tongue ties are close to my heart not only in my practice, but also in my own personal life. After learning about my daughter’s ties, I have since learned that I myself have a tongue tie that has limited my tongue mobility for nearly 40 years! After an exam with a dentist and speech specialist a few months ago I have learned that the back of my tongue has never reached my hard palate, and that I am not properly swallowing or even enunciating my words. Is this why I grind my teeth at night? Is this why I have struggled with headaches for close to 30 years? I am learning that yes, it very well may be a big factor in these chronic issues. I’ve been working with a myofunctional therapist to help to learn how to properly engage and use my tongue in preparation for a tongue tie release procedure with a skilled dentist in early March.

I know more than ever how confusing and challenging it can be to navigate ties with your kiddos, especially when all this information is new to you. This is exactly why I am so thrilled to start offering these combination support and clinical care groups for people going through this.

Level up

A few years back, inspired by the writer and podcaster Gretchen Rubin, I started choosing a one word theme for each year. Rather than a traditional resolution that to some can feel burdensome, a one word theme can serve as an inspiration, a guidepost, or a tiny reminder of something you want to bring to the next fleeting, yet important, 12 months of your life.

For 2023 my word was 'peace'. I intended this as a reminder to work towards internal peace in my body, mind, and nervous system. Reflecting back on the horrors of current events, this word stings a little. But my dreams for peace within me and across the world continue with more fervor as I see the violence, hate, and death globally. I will always yearn for a peaceful and functional world for us all and our collective children in the uncertain future.

Tomorrow, we wake up to January 2024. For this year's theme, I have chosen the word 'level'. The fact that this word has so many meanings is intentional, I wanted a word that speaks to different parts of me and my many aims and hopes. To serve as a reminder to stay 'level' and steady in the face of uncertainty and anxiety. To be 'level', honest, and balanced with myself, my loved ones, and my wider community. To get some health markers/blood 'level's checked to refocus my hormonal health as I enter my 40s. And also, to 'level' up my business with new offerings to better serve you, my amazing practice, as I further pursue my professional dreams.

Thank you so much for your continued support and trust in 2023 as I transitioned to my practice's new home in Needham. It continues to be my honor to be your chiropractor.

Wishing you a peaceful, joyful, healthful, and 'level' 2024. 🌈

Happy New Year,

Dr. Lizzie

Say "no" so you can say "yes".

We are all confronted with thousands of choices each day.

This time of year in particular we may have numerous invitations, obligations, and outward expectations to respond to with "yes" or "no". I think many women, and mothers especially, struggle with saying "no". Especially saying "no" to people we love, especially when we want to say "no" to protect our own personal boundary. Many of us are conditioned and expected to put others' needs and wants before our own. To me, self care is putting my own needs first, some of the time. Setting and re-setting boundaries to protect my needs takes continuous work and reflection.

When the world, our families, and our outward obligations demand so much of us that we are left with no energy and time for things that are important to us, we need to start getting really comfortable with saying "no".

Saying "no" to one thing is saying "yes" to some thing else.

I want to recognize and appreciate when I am saying "yes" to something important to me that I want to prioritize, rather than dwelling on any guilt of disappointing someone else or fears of missing out on potential fun or something important at an event.

Some examples...

Saying "no" to the holiday party is saying "yes" to getting a good night sleep.

It is okay to prioritize rest and recuperation time. Luxuriate in it when my gut is telling me to opt out.

Saying "no" to volunteering at the kid's school for an upcoming event means saying "yes" to having the time to finish work before holiday travel.

Setting a boundary to work during work hours means that during the holidays I can enjoy being present and not work during family time.

Saying 'no' to buying that extra gift for my kid is saying 'yes' to spending the amount of money I planned for holiday gifts.

Honestly, mine usually only play with the one or two things they like the best. It's okay to prioritize modeling gratitude rather than quick gratification, and try to teach kids to appreciate quality over quantity.

Wishing you and your family a healthy, peaceful, and joyful Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year.

May you say "no" as much as you want, to say "yes" to what you really want. ❤

Sending love and peace,

Dr. Lizzie

Last night I had the strangest dream...

The world has been heavy.

Like everyone watching the horrific events unfold in Israel and Gaza these past few weeks, I have been shocked and overwhelmed by the devastation, the violence, and the immense loss of life. As an American Jew on social media, I have also been struck by the vast diversity of opinions being shared about the state of Israel from the global community, within American progressive politics, within my own Jewish community, and even within my own Jewish family. It is overwhelming. It becomes more overwhelming as we see in real time how these events in the Middle East are fueling explosive incidents of antisemitism and Islamophobia around the world and right here in the US.

Things that used to feel comfortable and safe, like having a mezuzah on our door, or dropping our daughter off at a Jewish preschool, now feel very vulnerable. While these extreme examples of Jewish hate I am seeing all over the world are new experiences to me in my lifetime, the feelings evoked from them are deeply etched into my DNA and my mitochondria from generations and generations of my ancestors fleeing persecution for being Jewish. It's been a lot to bear and to continue to process, and I am working to calm and regulate my nervous system through it all.

When things in the world get this overwhelming, I try to bring my focus back to my own small local community here, and the ripples of healing I can start. Continuing to hold a healing, safe, and welcoming space for expecting and new parents and their children. Calming my patient's nervous systems, one person at a time. Reaching out to people I love. Bringing friends and loved ones together to connect in real life, to discuss these complicated things face to face rather than behind the anonymity of our screens. Making soup. Going for walks. Singing and dancing with my beautiful children.

The more peace and compassion we can bring to our little corner of the world the better. Every little bit counts right now.

Sending love and peace,

Dr. Lizzie

Celebrating 11 years in business.

Once again, the month flew by!

September was full of transitions and new routines with the start of the school year. To purposefully pause and temporarily escape it all, my family of four went camping last weekend over the Autumnal Equinox with my Brother, his Wife, and Daughter up at Greenfield State Park in New Hampshire. We really felt the energetic and atmospheric shift into Fall, bundling up in hats and sweatshirts around the fire. I am always excited for the changing of a season, and am enjoying the cooler days and evolving landscape.

A new season, offering another opportunity to start again, again.

Summer Lovin'

I'm currently taking a little pause from seeing clients as I soak up the last week of Summer vacation before my husband and kids start back at school and the new routines begin. This year my kids are both starting new schools in 1st grade and pre-K respectively, and my husband is also starting a new teaching role in his school. So a lot of new grooves to get used to!

I am so grateful to get to have time off from work without actually traveling. It feels restorative and re-centering, rather than exhausting and disorientating as travel with kids often feels to me. We've been doing projects around the house, playing tourist in our own home state, seeing friends and family, and just catching up on things like getting the kids shoes that fit them and taking them to the dentist.

I hope you, too, can enjoy a peaceful and easeful end of your Summer, and that I see you again soon for your Fall tune up!

Life Moves Pretty fast

Summer is in full swing! For my family, July was PACKED with a family vacation to Rehoboth Beach, an old friend's wedding, camp for my big kid, and even a quick trip to Denver for me to see Taylor Swift (!) in concert with my cousin and get together with a good friend from chiropractic school. So many good things, but it has been exhausting.

August is looking like it will be much quieter, and I am purposefully being very protective of our family's time and obligations for the next month. Being married to a high school teacher gives Summer a different cadence in our house. With more time together as a family and less work obligations, Summer often becomes a flurry of activities and longings to get together with friends and family, take adventures, and get out to explore. I love doing this! But I also love balancing all that activity by taking time to rest, reset, and center ourselves as a family.

I am taking some time off from work at the end of August, but we've decided to stay local. We'll do some day trips around Massachusetts, take care of some errands/logistical stuff that we need to all be together for, and see some local friends. But for the most part we will be laying low as a family and enjoying some unstructured time together before the school year flow begins (with my youngest starting preschool and my oldest starting 1st grade!) and we get hurtled into new routines and new obligations.

I'm wishing that you all get some time and space this Summer for pausing, slowing down, and reconnecting with your loved ones in whatever rhythm suits you and your family. In the wise words of Ferris Bueller, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

Accept ALL the support

What a whirlwind these past few months have been. To be completely honest, which I tend to do here, I recently went through a pretty rough patch with my anxiety. When visiting my in-laws in Florida back in April, my little one had a medical issue that required an ER visit. The staff made a simple but crucial mistake in dramatically misrecording her weight, resulting in her getting the wrong dose of a medication, prolonging her illness and our time away from home. Basically, it was horribly stressful and left my nervous system pretty tattered. My anxiety was already starting to creep into hyperdrive before this incident, and this pushed me over the edge. Processing the whole experience made it clear to me that I needed to go back on my anti-anxiety medication. With the guidance of my mental health care providers, I restarted medication that I had taken in my early postpartum days, and started feeling more in control of my anxiety and mood almost immediately.

This is not an easy thing to write about as a chiropractor. There are many in my profession that are philosophically against these types of pharmaceuticals, and believe that lifestyle choices such as diet, exercise, sleep hygiene, meditation, and yes, getting adjusted regularly are enough to regulate one's physical and emotional health. And truthfully, before becoming a parent, these measures were enough to regulate my anxiety. But in this chapter of my life, they are not enough, and I've learned that for me, adding this particular medication is incredibly helpful.

Not only has this change given me more patience and calm in my parenting and relationships, but it also allowed me to take control of neglected work. I had fallen behind on the back end administrative work that makes my practice function (including missing this monthly newsletter for the first time in over a year) and was so overwhelmed that I just kept procrastinating all these important tasks. It wasn't until I was back on my medication that I could take stock of the situation, make a plan, and then actually do the work. I hadn't even realized this procrastination was a symptom of my anxiety until the treatment resolved the issue.

Things are feeling much better in the past few weeks. Not just in my work life, but I've been able to take back some joy and peace in my personal life as well. It's been easier to return phone calls and emails. I've found myself saying 'yes' to experiences that even just a few months ago would have totally stressed me out: like going to a Dead and Company show at Fenway with my husband this past weekend when a friend of his couldn't use his tickets on short notice. This past week, we also were lucky enough to have a few kid-free days when my kiddos stayed with their grandparents, great aunt, and cousins (Thank you! :). Having a break from the constant and incredibly demanding work of parenting young children was a delightful and much needed respite for my husband and I. We relished in the space and calm.

I share all this to encourage you to be gentle and kind with yourself. To invite you to accept all the support and help you need and can get, even if you were once or still are being told a story that says you "shouldn't" need the help or that you "shouldn't" need a rest. 

Life is hard enough as it is, we don't need to make it any harder for ourselves.

Take the space and calm when you can. Relish in it.

Springing ahead, fast as ever.

Nothing makes time go by faster than having little kids in your life. They change so quickly and so profoundly that with each passing milestone I try to tell myself to pause, reflect, and appreciate the chapter that we are leaving and the new chapter upon us. Recent milestones I am reflecting on right now include:

Passing along my collection of maternity clothes to a patient expecting her first child.

Thinking to myself this morning, "I think it's finally time to throw away our nose frida."

My oldest kiddo recently losing her first tooth.

Breastfeeding my toddler for the last time this past weekend.

With all this change, I am taking some moments to thank my body and my mind for her years of service to my children when they were newborns and babies. I have literally either been pregnant or breastfeeding for the past 7 years (!) with about a 3 week pause between weaning my oldest and getting pregnant again. Ending my breastfeeding journey on my own terms, along with passing along the maternity clothes and my oldest turning into a truly BIG kid is all helping me recognize that this chapter of my life of growing and nurturing very small babies is closing, while this next new chapter of our family and my journey as a Mother continues and evolves.

Time will keep flying whether or not we have the awareness to notice these chapters are closing and opening. Every so often, perhaps with the changing of the seasons, make sure to stop, look around, and see who you and your children have blossomed into.

Colds, viruses, and more.

Like many of you recently, I was home at the beginning of this week with my sick children. This time of year is always a juicy one for viruses and respiratory illnesses but because of covid lock downs and masking policies these past two winters, generally our kids have been way under exposed to these super common germs recently. Which means that many of our kiddos are getting exposed to these germs right now for the first time in their lives. And because our immune systems use prior exposures to elicit future protection, their immune systems are figuring out for the first time how to fight these illnesses, which means they are having more symptoms and needing more time for their bodies to heal and recover. Further, if you have a pandemic baby like I do, they literally have NEVER had a fall or winter without masks indoors, so this might be their very first exposures to many many germs.

This can feel like a brutal onslaught to our children and also to our own schedules/working lives/sanity. It's important to remember it is normal and common for young kids to get sick often; that in the best of years, an average young child will get a virus about once a month. And this is not the best of years.

So what is a parent to do???

  1. Focus on what we can control. Prioritize sleep, nutritious foods, plenty of fluids, and regular movement of our bodies. Get adjusted by your chiropractor! See your acupuncturist and massage therapist as manual therapy helps support lymphatic drainage and immune function. If you have a baby under 6 months old, getting a upper respiratory infection or virus for them is much more complicated, so you might consider limiting your time in crowded indoor spaces and wear masks indoors when outside your household.

  2. Expect that your kid will get sick. Even with all the fish oil supplements and hand washing in the world, your kid will get sick. At least a few times before Spring. Make a plan with your partner ahead of time how you will divide the childcare when they can't go to school or daycare. My husband and I have different 'on call' days throughout the week which helps avoid tense decision making at 6:30am on a sick day.

  3. Practice gratitude. This is tough when your kid is miserable, your day is upended, and you have no idea when they will be allowed back into childcare settings. After witnessing a client of mind recently spend 5 days in the hospital with her newborn for RSV (he's back home and fine now thanks goodness), I can tell you that I was so grateful knowing that despite my kid being sick, I knew she was going to get better soon and get over this. I am grateful that I have flexibility in my job to stay home and care for them. I am grateful we have a safe warm home and food to nurture them back to health. And yes, I am SO grateful for streaming services and wifi to help entertain my kids when they barely have the energy to get off the couch.

  4. Know you are not alone. So many parents are going through this right now. You are doing a great job with a really hard situation. Deep breathes, this too shall pass.

Stay healthy everyone!

10 years later....

In a few days my practice will turn 10! As this auspicious milestone approaches, I find myself reflecting on this past decade of my professional and personal life. I've spent my entire career caring for pregnant people and their babies; supporting, listening, and comforting people in one of the most vulnerable and transformative experiences of their lives. And during that time, right alongside side of the many hundreds of you all, I also got married and became a Mother to my two girls. As your chiropractor I cared for you all, but you also stayed with me and quite literally supported me through huge transitions and challenges in my own life like the marathon bombing, two pregnancies and maternity leaves, illnesses, and a global pandemic.

I am so proud of the practice I've built and its strength ten years in. It's not easy to keep a one-woman-business running in an expensive city. There were many who doubted me early on (at times even myself to be honest) and I'm so pleased to have proven them wrong. Moreover, I am profoundly grateful to each and every one of you for your trust, support, and willingness to share yourself and your families with me for the past ten years. Thank you. I am so looking forward to what the next ten will bring.

Don't leave me Summer!

No matter if you have school aged kids or not, this time of year is a big transition from Summer vibes to Fall, and shifting routines for all of us. I'm mentally preparing to send my oldest child to kindergarten next week 😳 and to take back over the morning routines with my girls solo as my husband returns to work as a high school teacher. 

When change is upon me, I feel more anxious and less settled. So many unknowns starting our daughter in a school system for the first time, and all that comes with that new chapter. I also know there is much work ahead of me. Logistical work of getting two kids up, dressed, fed, and out the door on time for me to still get to the office or the train station. The emotional work of helping a 5 year old transition to a new school with new routines, expectations, and faces. All the other work of parenting and house management that doesn't stop when new things are put on our plates. And oh yes, let's not forget my paid work of being a chiropractor and practice owner! 

It's easy for me to spiral into anxiety just looking at it all. To counter this stress, here are a few strategies I'm employing to ride through this tumultuous time with as much ease and grace as possible.

  1. Keep up the self care routines that work. For me this is keeping up with a weekly yoga class, taking walks on the trail by my home, making (and looking forward to, and enjoying) future kid free plans with friends and my husband, and going to my chiropractor every other week.

  2. Go to sleep early enough to get enough rest. I aim to start heading upstairs to get ready for bed around 9:30 or 10. This doesn't always happen, but I'm always better off when it does.

  3. Don't overbook the weekends. So much competes for our limited time on the weekends between kid's activities, birthday parties, social gatherings, events, etc. This is also the time when my husband and I do the grocery shopping, meal prepping for the week, when I sneak in that yoga class, and other random errands and chores that didn't fit into our work weeks. I know many people enjoy being busy and doing things out of the house all the time, but I am not that person. I am a homebody and really need the quiet, unstructured days of the weekend to recharge. I'm getting much better at saying 'no' to invitations when we already have something going on that day, but I can always be better. I want to ensure a few completely open days each month for a spontaneous family adventure or just to have a quiet day to play in our backyard.

  4. Be kind and gentle with myself and my family. This is the most important. Transitions are hard, so be patient with yourself and your kiddos as you all get used to the new routines.

I'd love to hear any tips or strategies that you have for navigating this back to school time with ease! Let me know what works for you!

Focusing on the sweet stuff.

This Spring and Summer I've started a new hobby: beekeeping. Over the Winter, I enrolled in a very comprehensive class run through the Norfolk County Beekeepers Association that taught me all I need to know to get my journey started with actual real live honey bees! The girls moved in at the end of April and I have been observing, inspecting, managing, and learning since then.

While I am an extreme novice, and will easily spend decades learning more about these fascinating creatures and their habits, here are a few fun facts I have picked up so far.

Honey Bee colonies are almost entirely female.

Out of tens of thousands of honey bees in a single hive, only a handful are the male drones. The rest of the hive from the foragers, to the architects, to the guards are all female. These male drones play a role in fertilizing Queens from other nearby hives, but other than that they are basically useless sperm sacks in terms of the role they play in the hive. Come Fall the ladies kick out all the drones to die in the cold as they use up too much resources without contributing to the hive.

Honey Bees move through different roles throughout their life as they age.

As I alluded to above, there are many different roles that a bee plays in the hive throughout her short life. The youngest bees act as nurses to the growing eggs and larva. The oldest bees are those who take on the dangerous task of foraging in the wild open world for pollen. Some never make it back to their hive on their final flight. If you see a honey bee buzzing on a flower, she is an elder of the hive.

It's all about the collective survival of the hive.

As a first year beekeeper my primary goal is to help my bees survive the harsh New England winter. These preparations that ensure the hive is healthy and robust start in early Spring. Life in the hive is not about the individual, it is about playing your part in concert with your community to ensure collective survival.

So many lessons to be drawn from the humble honey bee!I'm excited to learn more on my beekeeping journey and look forward to sharing more in the months to come.

Let the sunshine in.

Today I am home with my two girls, and so, not typically, I caught the news almost in real time today of the Supreme Court decision striking down the federal right to an abortion in our country. Although I was anticipating the news, it felt like a punch to the gut, and I am angry and scared for our country and our people. But I spent the last newsletter raging about reproductive rights, so today I want to write about something more peaceful and bigger than all of us, the recent Summer Solstice.

I've been paying more attention in recent years to the cycles of the moon and how they relate to my body and my internal rhythms. I've also been thinking more about the Druid Wheel of the Year, the Jewish lunar calendar, and how natural calendars provide touchstones with Mother Nature and her cycles.

This year, I've also been taking early morning walks about 4 times a week along the same path in the woods near my home, another way that I have been witnessing and embracing the ever changing landscape of my neighborhood throughout the year, from darkness to light, bare branches to buds and leaves, and quiet stillness to singing birds and nibbling bunnies.

I was out on one of my walks on Tuesday morning at 5:13 am at the time of the Solstice, and it brought me joy and peace to see the sun rise and shine brightly on the longest day of the year. A good reminder that through all of this, the Earth keeps spinning and the cycles of the year continue whether we take moments to notice them or not. The more chaotic, stressful, and angry the World seems, the more of these moments I want to take and appreciate.

My body, my choice, my story.

I am enraged by the continued decimation of our reproductive rights in this country. This particular issue impacts me on a very personal level as a professional working almost exclusively with the perinatal population, as a woman with a uterus, as a mother of two girls, and as someone who had an abortion as a young adult.

Learning that we are losing the federal right to terminate a pregnancy that we cannot or do not want to continue is a huge abuse in itself, but amongst the backdrop of the hellscape that is parental support in this country it feels like a searing personal attack.

The government that can essentially force people to remain pregnant and birth babies against their will is the same government that every step of the way makes it nearly impossible to raise babies here without going broke, suffering crippling anxiety, or both.

Our federal government is doing nothing to reform a healthcare system with the highest maternal mortality rate in the industrialized world and soaring out-of-pocket costs for parents. It does not provide any guaranteed paid parental leave or subsidized childcare. Right now, it's struggling to supply our country's existing infants with enough baby formula to survive. Our federal government can't even make progress on laws that would protect our children from getting murdered by assault weapons in our public schools.

Like many of you, I'm feeling so angry, overwhelmed, and also helpless. But there are two action steps I keep hearing from expert activists that I'd like to share and encourage you to do the same if you are so moved.

Donate to an abortion fund.

Share your own personal story with abortion.

We all know someone who is touched by abortion, although we may not realize it because it is so stigmatized and women often go through it silently. But, I won't be silent or ashamed any longer, and neither should you.

Reader, I had an abortion. When I was 21 years old I got pregnant after two different methods of birth control failed (broken condom and morning after pill). While it certainly didn’t feel that way at the time, I was so lucky. I felt safe talking to my mom who supported me as I decided I wanted an abortion. I had access to a safe abortion with a skilled OB/GYN in a clean hospital. I had follow up care. I even could have it quick enough to return to college for the start of a semester and not miss any classes.

The fact that I was able to have an abortion opened up even more opportunities to me, international travel, graduate school, a carefree young adulthood, the ability to start my own business, the chance to meet my life partner untethered by a child from a former relationship, the CHOICE to become a parent when I was emotionally ready. The fact that I was able to have an abortion enabled me to be where I am today, writing to you as your chiropractor.

The truth is, abortion will always exist for those of us privileged enough to travel to get one safely. But I believe this choice should belong to everyone who might find themselves pregnant at any stage of life, and their partners if they have one. Not just the wealthy or those privileged to live in states where abortion will remain safe and legal. "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere", said Martin Luther King, Jr. And right now, we have raging injustice towards women in this country and it is threatening the rights of us all.

I encourage you all to share your abortion story with those who will listen. To donate to abortion funds to make abortion accessible to those who need one today and cannot get one. To contact our state legislators and implore them to protect our lives with reproductive rights and comprehensive gun law reform. To vote for leaders who will fight for these rights. Because if you don't think abortion affects you, you're wrong.

Spring Cleaning.

Both my husband and I are the youngest of three children in our own families of origin, which among many other things, helped us amass enough hand-me-down baby gear and clothing to outfit an entire daycare. We have been incredibly grateful not only for all the money we saved in not having to buy so many things for our two girls, but also for the inevitable sweet nostalgia that comes when your baby sleeps in the same bassinet as her older sister, nieces, and nephew did or wears the same adorable outfit that once fit those other kiddos when they were that tiny.

I've been collecting, washing, folding, and storing these items in SO MANY PLASTIC BINS for over 5 years. Until this month! The time has come in my own Motherhood journey to say goodbye to the infant stage and pass along all of this baby gear. I kept a few special items for sentimental reasons, mailed a few of the nicer clothing pieces that weren't stained to my cousin and her baby girl in Idaho, and the rest I donated to this amazing local organization called Room To Grow. After making this donation, I felt about 1000 pounds lighter, and now have made a little room in the girls' closet for bigger kids clothes and toys.

Is it time for you to let go of any of those baby items? Spring is a great time to make space and room in your home by donating unused/unwanted items. This really can help us mentally too. As Gretchen Rubin always says, "outer order leads to inner calm."

"A Day of Feasting and Joy"

Today Jewish people celebrate the holiday of Purim. This is one of our most joyous and raucous holidays where holy rabbis literally tell us to get totally drunk in celebration.

Why do we celebrate? Because thousands of years ago, a Jewish queen named Esther successfully stopped the plot of her husband's evil adviser to systematically murder all the Jews in their city. Esther devised a plan, stood up to her non-Jewish husband the King, and saved the lives of all her people in the city. For this we party, we drink, we eat, we dress in costumes, we listen to this amazing Book of Esther, and we yell and boo and make noise whenever the evil adviser's name is spoken in the story.

We celebrate life with abandon.

I share this with all of you because the world is dark right now. The horrifying news from Ukraine, along with the threats that it bring us is enough to make any of us shut down in anxiety and fear.

We can help by doing what is in our control. Not only with money and resources that we can share with those in need, but with choosing to take moments to celebrate life amidst this death and fear. By putting love and good energy into our communities. By investing in our own and our children's emotional and physical health. By calling on the strength of our foremothers and forefathers who faced hardships in the past and persevered.

By living life with joy and purpose.