Allison Matulli, Ed.D., J.D., M.Ed. is an author, law professor, childhood educator, and Free Speech advocate and Fellow for the First Amendment at the Freedom Forum. Dr. Matulli has dedicated her career to helping communities and their children understand the law, with specific attention to the First Amendment. Combining her legal training and education background, […]
We threw a birthday party for my four-year old at a local kids’ venue. When she decided she was done with her meal, she looked down her nose at the poor sweet teenage staff member and said, “Cake. NOW.” My eldest has been challenging and debating with me constantly. Her instant response to anything I […]
Last weekend I took my youngest to a new dance class. She’s been trying her ballet and tap shoes on for days. It’s adorable. I asked her afterwards if she enjoyed the class and if she liked the teacher. As she rolled around the rug in her little pink tutu, she looked up with her […]
Wigilia (Vig-eel-yah), which translates to “vigil” or “eve,” is a traditional Polish Christmas Eve celebration to commemorate the birth of Christ. Families have a large feast and then attend Midnight mass. It was also an excuse for all the grown ups to be able to get the madness of opening gifts over with on Christmas […]
Today is my mom’s birthday and I always have a moment at some point in the day where it hits me full on. It’s like that little memory nugget lies dormant and then bursts forth into my brain when I least expect it and my heart doubles its pace for a moment or two as […]
My eight-month old is facing the biggest challenge of her young life thus far. She wants desperately to crawl so she can independently explore the world around her. She gets up on all fours, rocks back and forth with gusto. She has mastered the art of scooting backward, and I sometimes turn to find her […]
The first 18 years of my life were filled with curiosity, imagination, and melodrama. Images run through my mind of my childhood and teen years with golden summer afternoons reading with my mom, delicious savory and sweet smells wafting from the kitchen where she made culinary magic happen daily; pre-dawn school mornings where I sat […]
May is a weird month. Both my parents died in May. But they also got married in May. I have many bittersweet moments during this month. Today marks five years since my dad’s death. These days somehow creep up on me every year. Often I forget until mid way through the day. But I find […]
In celebration of my blog being a year old, I seem to have completely forgotten to write any posts for the last month. I started this blog with the intention of capturing stories of my family and my observations about life, culture and identity. I think I’ve successfully filled this site with random ramblings and […]
I guess it is appropriate that I’m writing this post almost a week after the actual holiday, since it’s a testament to my procrastinating DNA. a few years ago I went home for Thanksgiving and my dad was all excited to cook a big turkey dinner for my sister and me. He spent all day […]