Black History Month is coming to an end soon but now is still a great opportunity for parents to talk to their children about race, civil rights, and the history of African Americans. The following are some books for children that provide historical context to the history of black people in our country, as well as highlighting many of our nation’s black heroes. I’ve listed them in order of maturity, starting with simple picture books for young children going up to chapter books for . . .

I’ve written before about how, as a working mom, I often feel like like life is a juggling act. I know this is true for stay-at-home moms. It’s really hard to make time for ourselves and self-care is usually not a priority. My friend Jessica just wrote a book called The Fringe Hours about this very thing, and she and I caught up on what prompted her to focus on this topic.   What made you passionate enough about this topic to want to write a book about it? Because I work full-time, blog, . . .

This Is Empowerment | Dooce “When a mentor with Krochet Kids Peru showed up at her door she was holding Akemi in her arms and was convinced that they were there to take away her baby. She recounted this story to us there eight months later with a bit of a chuckle, physically showing how she tried to hide the baby, knowing now how far she’s come because of that knock on the door. But this is a circumstance I and so many of you will not ever be able to comprehend. Never would we stand at the door . . .

This morning we attended one of the weekly meetings of the women in Krochet Kids’ empowerment program. The women have regular empowerment meetings that deal with daily life skills, self-esteem, skill building, goal setting, and financial independence. Most of these women entered the program because they were deemed vulnerable ... to domestic violence or poverty or other hardships. Krochet Kids assesses the baseline of each woman when she enters the program, and together they establish tangible . . .

On Thursdays I dip into the archives. This post is from June 2009. In a good drama, the protagonist of the story always has a tragic flaw - a character defect that ultimately leads to horrible things happening. For Antigone, it was excessive ambition. For Othello, it was jealousy. For Oedipus, it was pride. (And sleeping with his mother, but that's another story). My tragic flaw is that I spill things. A lot. I've been spilling things since I was a child. I blame it on an . . .

Today we spent time at the headquarters of Krochet Kids Peru to see their operations at work. I have visited here before, almost two years ago, and I was blown away by the growth that has happened in that short time. On my first visit, the operations all took place in a single room. Now, the participants have tripled and Krochet Kids encompasses several buildings. We started the day with a tour from Blake, who explained how each piece is made. When they grew so big they had to expand to two . . .