Emi is ambivalent. She is five years old, losing her baby-fat and gaining the responsibilities of a kindergartener. At school she loves the thrill of being in "K," though she is anxious over the newness of it all. At home, she revels in her status as an older sibling even as she is bitterly jealous about having to share me with her brother.

When my oldest son started his first day of Kindergarten I, like many mothers, cried the minute he sat down in his classroom. He was a big boy now. He was entering a new phase in his life, yet I still remember the first day I held him in my arms as a newborn.

I can smell something in the next county.  I can detect unseen mold under a bathtub mat.  I can sniff out spoiled milk from behind refrigerator doors.  Like any superpower, this particular trait can sometimes be a gift, and sometimes a curse.

Is there something the matter with me? As a wife? Because here’s the thing: I don’t always like to do my “wifely duty.”

I think it’s a shame that greed gets such a bad rap. I’m not even talking “seven deadly sin” kind of greed. Even simple, “how ‘bout a little something for me’ kind of thinking is frowned upon in our society. Why do we think that somehow people are more worthy of our esteem if they only wish for others? What’s wrong with wishing for something for ourselves?