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When You Become the Care Team There are plenty of articles about raising children, building careers, and planning for retirement. What nobody really prepares you for is the moment you realize you have become part of your parents' care team. I am not sure exactly when it happened for me. Maybe it started when my mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 5 years ago, or when my father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease 3 years ago. At the time, both situations felt manag

When you have no kids, do you still need a will? When my husband and I hit our 50s, we thought we had most of life figured out. Then someone asked us if we had a will. We do not have kids, so our first thought was, “Do we even need one?” The answer was yes, but that was only the beginning of the confusion. At first, we considered LegalZoom. Then I found a blog by attorney Ryan Reiffert titled Reasons Not to Use LegalZoom, which included lines like “Hope your family is normali

What a roux really is If you grew up in Louisiana like I did, you probably learned early that a good roux is the heart of Cajun cooking. Serious Eats describes it as a mix of equal parts flour and fat, stirred together until it becomes the base for gumbos, stews, and all the dishes we love. It sounds simple, but anyone who has ever stood over a pot knows it takes time, attention, and a little faith. Why patience matters A roux needs the right texture and color before it can t