Every time I sit down to balance the checkbook, I cringe. I want everything to balance perfectly, an occurrence that is roughly akin to the total eclipse scheduled for April of this year. It isn’t that I’m not responsible about entering deposits or expenditures, but there are two of us in this household scribbling numbers on those skinny lines, and, once in a while, we don’t get it quite right. Receipts help to keep me honest. Carrying that piece of responsibility from the co

(Imagine music playing in the background…) The Echo on the counter flashes blue when I speak a request to Alexa. Her soothing voice responds and in less than a minute, Classic vinyl on Sirius spools into the heated kitchen. I hum along as I knead the dough for Grandma Jenny’s specialty pastries or poke cabbage leaves into thumbprint rolls filled with ground beef and pork, a New Year’s tradition. Later, I sort through the collection of holiday CDs, play them all in batches, fi