Who is the epitome of the “proud aunt?” That would be me. I have two adorable nephews, ages 10 and 6. One of them eats meat, and the other doesn’t. The budding vegetarian is six years old, and never really acquired a liking for animal protein.

In a household that’s typically high protein and low carb and fans of diets like Keto, this surprised me a little. But, if you knew this headstrong, willful little guy, it makes total sense. …

From the perspective of a former teacher and concerned daughter.

Before you hop on the bandwagon of reopening schools in the middle of a pandemic, would you mind thinking about my mother, from the perspective of not just her daughter, but a former classroom teacher?

She’s a member of the cleaning staff at my former K-12 school.

As a former teacher, and as someone who has a parent whose responsibility is to maintain the cleanliness of classrooms, they are anything BUT hygienic, and require constant upkeep.

My Print-on-Demand Clothing Line Sales Are Increasing, Even During COVID-19.

I’m not a fashionista. I’m not a style icon or a Kardashian, or a person who has ever really known how to put an outfit together.

But that didn’t stop me from creating a clothing line.

What Print On Demand Is

What’s Print on Demand, you ask? You may already know about this process as it relates to printing books, where printed copies are not made until an order is placed. This allows for less backstock of inventory that could go unsold and keeps overhead down for businesses in terms of inventory costs.

Now, print on demand is very popular with t-shirts and other apparel. Perhaps you’ve heard of Teespring, a popular site that allows anyone to create a design and apply it to t-shirts, as well as a range of other products. They’re a popular all-in-one online vendor that handles the printing, customer service, and backend while giving a specific percentage of profit to the creator. …

Are you happy financially? It’s my sincere hope that you are, but just in case you clicked on this article because you, like me, feel a certain kind of way about the number of zeroes in your bank account and want to see it grow — NOW, let me tell you about the mindset shifts that are leading to an instantaneous increase in income.

It starts with specificity.

People say the journey of a lifetime begins with a single step. Let’s take this literally.

A Family On Foot

I grew up with a mom who walked almost everywhere. At times, this was out of necessity- we were poor, and sometimes her car was in disrepair, or perhaps she wanted to save on gas and forgo unnecessary trips in the car. Either way, we walked a lot while my sister and I were growing up.

We walked to and from school, to the store, around town, and for a brief time, on a treadmill that was gifted to us — which was very helpful during the winter.

To this day, she still walks nearly everywhere with a dedication similar to the postal service’s…

As someone with food allergies who also loves to cook and bake, going vegan was intimidating at first, but turned out to be easier than I thought.

A few years ago, I was blindsided by an onslaught of food sensitivities, digestive issues, and skin issues like eczema. Doctors were dismissive, and I hated eating the kind of restrictive diet they suggested. After researching online, I began to cut certain ingredients out of my diet — including my beloved carbs.

Boy, did I miss carbs at first, like my grandmother’s zucchini bread, buttered bread, pizza, waffles and pancakes, and sandwiches! It felt like allergens and unfriendly ingredients were in seemingly everything fun. …

I’m afraid to write this piece for a variety of reasons.

I find self-reflection to be a double-edged sword. Will I always enjoy what I find? No. There’s no guarantee that everything I discover will be sweet and rosy. But I find that as I grow older, knowing how I carry myself, how I affect others with my words and actions becomes more important to me than before. Knowing whether or not I’m a narcissist is important to me.

I wasn’t a narcissistic child.

I was the exact opposite: a bleeding heart, eager for approval, and hungry for reassurance. And since my older sister and I were primarily raised by a single mother, there was a degree of parentification and growing up a little too fast. …

Teachers are superhuman saints and heroes, I’ll start with that undeniable truth. You have to be a certain type of person to help in the molding of an entire generation of young minds.

I tried briefly to be one of those people…I am, in fact, not one of those people.

The job itself wasn’t perilous. I taught fifth grade English at a small, public charter school in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The environment was typically constructive and the children were by and large awesome kids (many of whom are now grown and we remain in contact).

Working as a teacher required an incredible amount of devotion like nothing I’d ever seen. In fact, during the in-service meetings at the end of the summer, when my contract began, I missed my grandmother’s funeral — she died after a long battle with an aggressive uterine cancer that waged war over her entire body. …