Amidst the chaos of lockdown policies that disrupted education across America, Miriam Shaw and Julie Woolslayer met at a school-board meeting in 2021. Their shared concerns about curriculum transparency and medical freedom for students led to a friendship. Soon, they joined with other moms to advocate for local
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My family and I left the Chicago area this summer. It was time. Like other areas of the country, Chicagoland has changed, not for the better. Many policies are either unfriendly or downright harmful to families. Crime has soared. Since this time last year, overall crime is
Read more →Excellent public schools, world-class libraries, pristine parks and green spaces—this is the stuff of a young family’s dream. It’s also the stuff of Naperville, one of Chicago’s southwest suburbs. Families flock to Naperville because of the strong reputation of its public schools. It’s also home to some
Read more →Chicago is my home. I wasn’t born here, but I’m from here. Usually, where we’re from means where we were born. But that’s not the case for everyone. It’s not for me. Home is the place that shapes and influences us more than anywhere else. It’s a
Read more →Last weekend I walked my first marathon-and-half, as part of the 2013 Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. I trekked in, around and through Chicago. It was exhilarating. I was part of a $5.2 million fundraising effort, a small fish in a big sea of people sweeping the
Read more →My son Noah turned three today. We celebrated in the heart of Chicago, visiting the neighborhood where we lived when he was born. Our jaunt left me wistful. City life holds the secrets of my salad days, when life was relatively unfettered. Our Streeterville high-rise was a stone’s throw from
Read more →Some days I’m swallowed by a sea of diapers, dishes and laundry. When I wake and before slumbering, I pump extra breast milk, lulled by the pump’s monotonous whoosh-puff. Until my husband interrupts my stupor. He moos like a cow. The stale joke makes me bristle. I
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