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I was talking to my parents last week when my mom told me she found $20 in the parking lot of a huge strip center. She felt really bad that someone lost it. The money was paper clipped to a shopping list. It had obviously fallen out of someone's pocket or purse. And now it was gone. There was no way to know who it belonged to, or where they might have been shopping. Before I had the chance to ask her what she did with the money she said she "paid it forward." She didn't feel right about keeping it. She wanted to pay it forward. Now it's not like she found a bagful of money, or even a $100. It was $20 dollars. Many of us spend $20 without even thinking twice about it. But something about this $20 and the note attached made this personal and my mom didn't feel right about keeping it. Maybe it was the handwriting, or the items on the list. Who knows. My dad immediately chimmed in saying she didn't pay it forward to him. He wanted to add it to his St...

I guess Elli heard me talking about my performance review at work, because she announced the other night she was going to review me. She had a list of pros and cons to share with me. I'm not a huge fan of the performance review at work, so I really wasn't looking forward to this spontaneous review at home. Of course Elli was grinning ear to ear. She couldn't wait to share her opinion of how I was doing. She wanted to start with the Pros. I was quite relieved. Not that I think I'm a bad mom, but starting with the positives seemed like a good idea. PROS #1. I really like how you work as hard on projects at home, as you do at work. I know this is true because after one of your work events you complain about how tired you are. You do the same thing after my birthday parties, so I know you worked really hard. #2. I like how you think of me when you're out shopping. You know I like those chocolate cookies (pointing to cookies on the counter) and you boug...