AT A GLANCE
By PJ Feinstein
WF.COM Meet Our Bloggers
We recently had the pleasure of publishing
on our website four guest posts related
to parenting during the COVID-19 crisis.

Meet our April bloggers here, then visit
WashingtonFAMILY.com to read their stories.

Meridith Jacobs is the mother of two girls
and lives in Potomac. Before becoming a stay-
at-home mom, Jacobs was a lawyer and career
advisor. She enjoys crafting, reading, spending
time with family and friends and traveling.

Amy Lyons was the site director for three
years of a K-5 curriculum-based after-school
program at Piney Branch Elementary School
in Gainesville. These days, she writes for a
living and loves to read, hike and travel.

Erin Washington is a lifestyle blogger
and author of “Squats and Margaritas: A
Journey to Finding Balance.” She lives
FAMILY in Leesburg with her two kids and her
husband, a former Redskins football player,
and is currently getting her master’s degree
in TikTok.

Monica Stoltzfus lives in Lorton with her
husband and three energetic daughters. A
former Montgomery County Public School
kindergarten teacher, Stoltzfus stays busy
baking, crafting and working on her debut
picture book about kindness, “The Ripple.”
Her personal blog is called Just Compose
Yourself. If you’re a local parent in the DMV with
a story to share, we’d love to hear from you.

Please email our editor, PJ Feinstein, at
PFeinstein@MidAtlanticMedia.com to learn
how you can be published on our website,
too. T
SHOP LOCAL
Buy a Notebook, Support the Community
When schools closed back in March, Suann
Song noticed that her 13-year-old son was
struggling without structure in his day. So the
founder and creative director of Appointed,
the DC-based desktop paper goods brand,
designed a weekly schedule for him to fill out
each day. It proved to be so useful that Song
went back to her team at Appointed to create
a series of free downloads to help busy parents
and their kids stay organized while working
from home and homeschooling.

Appointed’s new Digital Collection includes
daily, weekly and monthly planning pages as
well as to-do lists for teens and daily checklists
for little kids. There’s also a meal planning
sheet that’s pretty handy now that families are
doing more cooking at home these days.

The Digital Collection received more
than 10,000 downloads in the first 24 hours,
and Song notes that the response has been
remarkable. “We’re happy to be providing a
resource that is helpful during this difficult
time,” she says.

In addition to families, Appointed is also
helping the community at large through
sales of its new District Notepad. Net
proceeds of this special edition notebook,
10 Washington FAMILY MAY 2020
featuring a cherry blossom foil stamp to
symbolize growth, giving and renewal,
are being donated to the local nonprofit
Martha’s Table to support their enhanced
COVID-19 efforts to deliver more than
6,000 bags of healthy groceries to DC
neighborhoods in need every week.

“We’re based in the District, and most of our
team lives in the District. We wanted to create
something that’s a tribute to the city we’re so
proud to call home but is being impacted so
severely by COVID-19,” explains Song.

The free planning pages and 50-page
spiral bound notepad ($18) are available at
appntd.com. T
Kindness Matters
With her new book, “Adventures in
Kindness,” 10-year-old Sophia Fox hopes to
inspire kids and parents to make a difference
in their family, their school and their
community. And the timing of the book’s
publication couldn’t be better.

“We could either be sad all the time about the
situation or we could have a positive attitude,”
says Sophia, a fourth grader from Rockville.

“Yes, everything is hard now and there’s a lot we
can’t do. But there’s a lot we can do too, and I
think it’s better to focus on that.”
Co-written with her mom, Carrie,
“Adventures in Kindness” offers 52 ways for
families to actively contribute to a better
world, such as starting a family giving jar,
making a homemade bird feeder, and sending
someone a happiness kit.

In addition to their new book, the mother-
daughter duo are also spreading kindness
by donating 100 percent of the proceeds
from their limited-edition “Adventures
in Kindness” notecards ($20) to Feeding
America’s COVID-19 relief efforts. The
notecards are a perfect way to show a
neighbor or faraway friend that you’re
thinking about them during this period of
social distancing.

Find the book and the notecards at
adventuresinkindness.com. T