I think I have a little celebrity crush going.  I haven’t had a celebrity crush since 7th grade when I thought Scott Baio on Happy Days was the best looking guy on the planet.  Although Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Robert Pattinson (Edward of  “Twilight” fame), and Justin Bieber are the male celebrities most talked about in our home, I don’t feel partial to them—that would just be creepy given they all could be my sons. Instead, my celebrity crush is... Read more

Why am I using baseball terms when the Bruins just won the Stanley Cup?  Because I know nothing about hockey and can’t think of any comparable hockey terms.   So here’s the story: Over the weekend, we did Phase 2 of family rehab (something I’ll blog about soon), and one of the commitments we made was that each kid should cook dinner once a week.  Which means I have to teach two of them how to cook. Tonight it was Ren’s... Read more

On Sunday afternoon at a special youth baptism/confirmation service, Ling was confirmed.  She “confirmed” the baptismal vows we made for her when she was a baby, owning her own faith and commitment to following Jesus.  It was a great and joyous time. As part of the process, she wrote a testimony about her faith journey and presented it during Sunday School to all the kids of the church.  Unfortunately, due to a work engagement, I didn’t hear the testimony (something... Read more

My college roommate used to call me Imelda.  Yes, that Imelda—the one married to a Filipino dictator and who owned 2700 pairs of shoes. I don’t have 2700 shoes, but I do have just a little bit of a shoe obsession.  I think it comes from growing up shoe poor.   My Chinese parents grew up food poor.  Mama couldn’t buy roasted sweet potatoes as a snack when all her classmates could, hence her sweet potato obsession.  When 8 year-old... Read more

That’s not the weight I’ve lost on the i-diet in this past week and 2 days (in fact, I put on 2 lbs between yesterday and today because I cheated and ate a half Panini with prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, tomato and basil for lunch—this is what salt does!) It’s the weight of chocolate I just removed from our kitchen cabinets.  That doesn’t even include my super secret stash of chocolate stored elsewhere (which the kids constantly steal from anyway). My... Read more

1.     Wake up at 4 a.m. to take friends and hubby to the airport (consolidated 2 airport trips into one—would be much more unhappy if hubby was going on vacation with friend’s family) 2.     Hubby gone 3.     On the i-diet 4.     Come home from great day at work to child melting down because despite having 4 A+s she didn’t win an award for anything but doing her homework all year. . . 18 other kids also won the homework award. ... Read more

This is why I love the I-diet so much.  When you follow it and don’t cheat, it actually works! Livestrong.com, Lance Armstrong’s website for health, also helps.  Over the years, I’ve signed up twice for on-line Weight Watchers  at about $35/month.  I thought that if I paid good money for weight loss help, I’d actually work at weight loss.  That worked the first time I tried, but it took me about 6 months to lose 10 lbs.  The second time it didn’t... Read more

My friend Helen, who I’ve known for 21 years, lives across the street.  She’s part of my women’s accountability group, her son James is one of Ren’s very best friends, and we swap kid care once a week. Whenever possible, we also like to stand around in each others’ kitchens and chat, often about things we don’t really want our little pitchers (or my increasingly big pitchers) with big ears to hear—so we send them away, which they all hate. ... Read more

Scott and I are back on the I-diet. Two years ago, I heard Susan Roberts, a Tufts nutrition professor,  talking about her “Instinct Diet” on NPR.  She claimed to take the very best of all scientific research and roll it into one diet.  Now that’s the way to get me—I’m such an academic snob that waving scientific research from a top academic institution makes me trust you.  Also, one of my students went through the Tufts Nutrition Program and not only... Read more

“You plan great retreats for InterVarsity, I think it’s time you planned an equally terrific family retreat,” Scott said last week.  Despite my bleary, congested, achy, fevery condition, I thought he was right. As an IT manager, he said our family needs a “re-boot.” As an InterVarsity campus minister, I agreed that our family needs a “retreat.” But Kai-Kai, as she stood at the whiteboard serving as scribe, decided what our family really needs is “rehab.” “White-boarding” our family I... Read more