A Sweet Spot

A Sweet Spot

I don’t have any cute photos of my daughter’s chubby face smeared with frosting from her first birthday party. Already pregnant with my son, I’d become a child nutrition zealot in response to my double dose of motherhood. Instead of wrecking a big sugary cake, my bald...
Your Holiday Guide to Avoiding Slave Labor

Your Holiday Guide to Avoiding Slave Labor

Pope Francis got into the holiday spirit this year by calling on shoppers not to buy products made by modern-day slaves. This is, of course, excellent advice. Odds are, most of us — whether Catholic or not — would love to take it. But how? Most products don’t...
Paying for Cheap Chocolate

Paying for Cheap Chocolate

One Halloween, my husband persuaded our kids to give away most of the candy they’d just collected while trick-or-treating. They were preschoolers and the house we were renting then had previously drawn teens with haunted tours. We’d run out of candy when a...
Making Valentine’s Day More Meaningful

Making Valentine’s Day More Meaningful

Valentine’s Day, it seems, has all the trappings of a made-up Hallmark holiday. It’s a holiday created purely to encourage us to go out and give our money to a few select industries: greeting cards, candy, roses, restaurants, etc. As it turns out, the...
Child Labor Shouldn’t Haunt Halloween

Child Labor Shouldn’t Haunt Halloween

I can’t bring myself to be the Grinch who stole Halloween. I just can’t, even though I write about healthy food. I even eat (mostly) healthy food. Friends and colleagues expect me to have something to say about Halloween. But how can anyone condemn an...