• Jessica Redford homeschools three kids and wanted a creative outlet that was just for her.
• She started making cake pops and selling them at local events before orders took off.
• She now sells out every Friday from a cake cart outside her home while maintaining family flexibility.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jessica Redford. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Last September, a shopping center opened down the street from me. It had a grocery store with a bakery, and at first, I thought it might be the perfect opportunity for me to get a part-time job.

I’d been homeschooling my three kids, who are now 14, 11, and 8, for years. As they got older and needed me a little less, I started feeling like I wanted something for myself, an outlet for my creativity. A part-time job seemed like the perfect way to have that.

Before having kids, I’d taken cake-making classes and learned the basics, so working in a bakery just minutes from home felt ideal.

But then I started thinking about how much I value the freedom we have as a family. We can go camping or take a day trip whenever we want, and I realized that having set work hours might take that away.

Around the same time, I was scrolling through my phone and came across videos showing how to make, bake, and decorate cake pops. They looked so much easier — and more manageable — than creating huge, elaborate cakes.

I thought I could do that.

I got the encouragement I needed

After a bit of experimenting, I made a batch of cake pops for a Halloween party. Everyone loved them, and that gave me the encouragement I needed to try selling them.

I started posting about my cake pops on Instagram, taking small orders, and attending vendor events.

Then, in November, I had some cake pops left over after a vendor event. The kids and I decided to sit outside on the corner of our neighborhood and sell them to people passing by. My neighbors loved them!

I only had a few left after that, so I took them to my chiropractor as a gift. She posted about them on her social media, and that’s when everything really took off.

Suddenly, I was getting what felt like endless orders for Thanksgiving and Christmas cake pops.

I was burning out

Those months were crazy. I was in the kitchen constantly. It was exciting, but it was also overwhelming. I’m sure God gave me the desire for this business, and it’s my faith that has kept me going even when it was hard.

But by the time January came around, I knew I couldn’t continue at that pace. I needed to step back and figure out a way to make the business work without it completely taking over our lives.

So I took January off to regroup and make a plan.

I decided to sell my cake pops at a local family farm on Tuesdays and Thursdays — somewhere my kids could come along with me. I’d create different designs each week, so there would always be something new for families to look forward to.

Selling at the farm helped me build a reputation among local moms and really get my name out into the community.

After taking a break in July, I wondered whether I could make it work to sell cake pops outside my house from a portable cake cart I’d bought online. I decided to give it a try.

I told customers I’d take a set number of orders throughout the week, then have everything ready for them to collect from the cake cart outside my house on Fridays.

Since starting that over the summer, I’ve sold out every single week.

I’m learning to set boundaries

The past year has been a roller coaster of emotions. I’ve felt incredibly accomplished and excited, but there have also been times when it all felt like too much.

I’m slowly learning to say no and to set boundaries that protect my time, my family, and myself.

My kids have loved being involved in the baking and decorating. They’re my taste testers, and they’re always hoping I’ll mess up a batch so they can eat it themselves.

One of the most important things to me has been showing them that their mom can start and run a business — that, like me, they can create something from nothing.

They’re learning about entrepreneurship along the way, and I hope those lessons will serve them well in the future.

There have definitely been moments when I’ve wanted to give up. But I’m so glad I didn’t quit on myself. I kept going because I wanted to find out what I was capable of.

And now I know.

• Census data shows that the number of millionaire renter households grew by 229% from 2020 to 2024.
• Apartment-search website RentCafe ranked the cities with the fastest growth in millionaire renters.
• Millionaire renters still favor New York and LA, but Southern cities are gaining them fastest.

Even millionaires are renting in today’s expensive real estate market.

Apartment-search website RentCafe found that the number of millionaire renter households grew by 229% when comparing US Census Bureau estimates for 2020 to 2024 with those from 2016 to 2020. That outpaced the 193% growth in millionaire homeowner households during the same period.

RentCafe defines a “millionaire renter” as a household earning at least $1 million a year that rents an apartment or house.

The company found that nearly half of millionaire renters are millennials, though the number of Gen Z millionaire renters has grown the fastest since 2020. And while New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles remain the biggest hubs for millionaire renters, Southern metros are seeing the fastest growth.

Doug Ressler, manager of business intelligence at Yardi Matrix, the firm behind RentCafe’s report, told Business Insider that while Western metros such as Riverside and Santa Cruz, California, and Northeastern metros such as Utica and Syracuse, New York, are losing millionaire renters, Southern metros are gaining them, largely thanks to their growing job markets.

“These declines are at the intersection of migration, wealth creation, lifestyle choices, and renting as a transitional or capital strategy,” Ressler said. “As corporate headquarters relocate to the South, more senior-level executives are moving there. Many rent before they buy, helping drive the region’s growth in high-income households and millionaires.”

Over the past few years, many companies, including Tesla, Oracle, Charles Schwab, and Palantir, have relocated their headquarters or opened new offices in Texas and Florida, bringing their workers with them. It’s no surprise, then, that several of the fastest-growing metros for millionaire renters are in these two states. Below, the top 10 cities for millionaire renters.

• American tweens and teens could get a piece of SpaceX.
• A SpaceX executive is gifting over 2 million company shares to children through Trump Accounts.
• Find out if your child is eligible.

Your kid could become a SpaceX shareholder by Christmas.

SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell said she and her husband are gifting over 2 million shares of the company to eligible tweens and teens through Trump Accounts, which first rolled out in July. Trump Accounts are tax-advantaged investment and savings accounts for American children under 18.

“Robert and I are thrilled that our gift of over 2 million shares of SpaceX stock will be distributed to children’s Trump accounts in December!” Shotwell said in an X post on Friday.

The announcement comes after SpaceX founder Elon Musk said earlier this month that he would give one share to every child in America.

“This will be the first of many,” he wrote in an X post.

Starting in October, the Treasury Department began automatically enrolling all eligible children in the SpaceX shares program.

Your child may qualify. Here’s what to know.

Who is eligible?

The Shotwells took a twofold approach to their contributions, which are intended for low-income communities.

The first will go toward children ages 11 to 17 who live in zip codes with a median family income of $57,000 or less. Shotwell said eligible families would receive a notice by Monday, November 2.

She said a separate contribution would be distributed later in the month.

“An additional gift will be finalized for eligible 11- to 17-year-old children in military families serving overseas, children in foster care, and more children whose MFI is $90,000 or less living in counties near our home in the great state of Texas,” Shotwell said.

Big donors

Trump Accounts have drawn support from high-profile companies and philanthropists.

The program has collected corporate commitments from companies like Uber, BlackRock, and Visa. Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell and his wife, Susan, are big-time Trump Account donors, gifting $6.25 billion last December.

While the program is for children, the Trump administration has floated the idea of creating accounts for adults. Brad Gerstner, an investor and architect of Trump Accounts, said in October that similar accounts should become available to US citizens under 40.

• “A Court of Splintered Harmony” by Sarah J. Maas was published on October 27.
• It took readers back to the world of “ACOTAR,” but it left them with plenty of questions.
• Nesta’s future and connection to the prison remain mysterious, as do Azriel’s shadows.

“ACOTAR” fans, assemble.

On Tuesday, Bloomsbury published “A Court of Splintered Harmony,” the sixth book in Sarah J. Maas‘ “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series. The book is part one of “The Valkyrie Cycle,” which will continue with parts two and three in “A Court of Forgotten Melody,” coming out on January 12, 2027. Maas has yet to announce a title or release date for part four.

Since “ACOSH” was just the beginning of a larger story, almost no conflicts were resolved by the end, leaving beloved characters like Feyre, Rhysand, Nesta, and Azriel in turmoil.

Maas will likely tie up some of those plots in book seven or eight, but fans will have to ponder their favorite characters’ fates while they wait for the next book.

In the meantime, check out some of the biggest questions “ACOTAR” fans may have after finishing “A Court of Splintered Harmony” — and possible answers from Maas’ other series, “Crescent City” and “Throne of Glass.”

Spoilers for all three of Maas’ series ahead.

Why is Bryaxis different?

In one of the most dramatic scenes in “ACOSH,” the big bad monster Bryaxis returns to Velaris. She crashes Feyre and Rhysand’s son Nyx’s naming day ceremony, tormenting the attendees with visions of their worst fears.

Bryaxis has always been terrifying to the fae, as she feeds on people’s fears, but after the attack, Rhys remarks that she seems “different than when she escaped after the war. Darker.”

It’s hard not to see what he’s saying. In “A Court of Wings and Ruin,” Bryaxis helped Feyre when she realized she was High Lady of the Night Court, seeming to feel some affinity to the court, but in “ACOSH,” she preyed on Feyre and her friends gleefully.

Rhysand adds that he thinks Koschei’s emergence may be related to Bryaxis’ change, though he offers no proof. Is Koschei or some other being influencing her? Or is Bryaxis different simply because she’s seen the world outside the library?

What did everyone see when Bryaxis attacked?

Maas only shows Bryaxis’ attack from Feyre, Azriel, and Nesta’s perspectives, and their fears are pretty ghastly.

Feyre is scared of Nyx being tortured or taken from her, while Azriel sees himself hurting everyone he loves. Nesta’s tormented with everything from the Cauldron to Cassian rejecting her before she can pull herself out of Bryaxis’ hold.

Those fears offer insight into what each character is going through, so it’s intriguing that Maas keeps the visions Bryaxis shows Rhysand, Cassian, Amren, Mor, Elain, Lucien, and Emerie a mystery.

Of course, fans can hazard a guess at what some of those characters may have seen. Emerie could be having visions of her father clipping her wings, while Rhysand has made clear Feyre and Nyx are his priority throughout the novel. Amren is heard whispering to herself, “You survived it; you got through it,” suggesting she saw visions of the prison or the Cauldron. The Cauldron could have been a fear for Elain too.

The mystery leaves us with an even bigger question: What will these characters do to keep those fears from coming true?

What is Feyre’s plan?

Bryaxis’ attack has already pushed one character into action: Feyre, who says the incident was “a gift,” as she “knew now what I had to do. And I did not fear it at all.”

Bryaxis’ return helped the High Lady hatch a plan for how to handle the death god Koschei and protect the humans in the fae realms, two problems she and Rhysand were at a loss for how to solve after their allies declined to help them. Feyre even asks her mate to make himself High King as a solution, a proposition he soundly rejects.

Feyre doesn’t reveal any details about her new plan before the book ends, though it may have something to do with the sword Gwydion.

After Nesta tries to gift it to her, Feyre tells her sister to keep it “until the blood truly needs to begin spilling,” thinking to herself, “Until I did precisely what I needed to do.”

Maybe she thinks her plan will lead to violence. Considering she tried to storm the library to kill Bryaxis, it seems she’ll do just about anything to protect Nyx.

Who is the fae warrior who trapped Koschei?

The death god Koschei doesn’t appear on page in the novel, and it’s unclear what creatures or characters he may be controlling, from Bryaxis to the royals from other fae realms.

Most intriguing of the mysteries surrounding him, though, may be the identity of the fae warrior who trapped him. The Bone Carver first revealed that his brother was contained in the lake by an ancient fae warrior in “A Court of Wings and Ruin,” saying the warrior’s identity had been forgotten by history but that her bloodline is still present in some human families.

And in “ACOSH,” Vassa revealed that she and the other women Koschei has trapped with him are all descendants of that warrior.

“Throne of Glass” may offer clues about who that fae warrior is. The Bone Carver told Feyre that he and his siblings are from another world, and there just so happens to be a world-walking creature trapped in a lake in “Heir of Fire.” Is Maas setting up new connections in the Maasiverse?

What is the extent of Elain’s powers?

If you spent the five years between “ACOTAR” releases dreaming of learning more about Elain, you’re going to have to dream a little longer.

Maas kept Elain’s inner thoughts a mystery in “ACOSH,” so the reader doesn’t know how she feels about Azriel, Lucien, or her place in the Night Court.

They also know very little about Elain’s Seer powers, which she gained in “A Court of Mist and Fury” and confirmed she still has in “ACOSH.” We never actually see her use them, though, making the powers all the more obscure.

But Elain may have hinted she had a vision in the book. After her disastrous tryst with Azriel, she tells her sisters, “I thought I’d found my place, thought I had a future with Azriel, but…” She might be unsure how she feels about Azriel, but the comment may also mean she had a vision showing her that she and the shadowsinger would not be together.

And with Elain repeatedly saying phrases like “I’m not supposed to be here” and “I can’t be here” about the Night Court, it’s hard not to think she knows more about the future than she’s letting on.

What’s the deal with Azriel’s shadows?

Readers learn a lot about Azriel’s shadows in “ACOSH,” from how they found him as a child to their weather-detecting abilities (sounds helpful in a world without weather apps). Still, some of their behaviors remain a mystery, like why they repeatedly avoid Elain.

In the book, Azriel’s shadows refuse to be in the same room as Elain. Azriel sees their absence as “a gift,” though he winds up in trouble because of their absence twice in the novel: during Bryaxis’ attack on the naming day ceremony and when Lucien catches him and Elain together.

His shadows also avoid Erebos, a shadowy humanoid who pledged his service to Azriel because of his shadowsinger abilities. Many fans are suspicious of Erebos, who is described as having “golden eyes that simmered like hot coals.” You might be extra suspicious if you’ve read “Empire of Storms” in the “TOG” series, in which another character’s “golden eyes simmered like hot coals” (yep, simmering coals again): the Valg King Erawan. Of course, the phrase could be a coincidence, or it could be another sign of the Maasiverse expanding.

Erebos may be connected to “Crescent City,” too. He tells Azriel that he could hear his blade, Truth-Teller, sing, as Bryce Quinlan could in “House of Flame and Shadow.”

Back to the shadows, though. Azriel seems to see it as a sign of Erebos’ darkness that his shadows cringe from the creature, even as he views their avoidance of Elain as a positive.

Meanwhile, Azriel’s shadows are drawn to the priestess and Valkyrie warrior Gwyn in the text. They race toward her when they hear her singing in the House of Wind and “lingered at her feet, peering up at her” until Azriel summons them back to himself. What do Azriel’s shadows really know about the people around him?

We also learn in the book that Azriel has never let his shadows use his full power out of fear of what they may do, so even he doesn’t know what they’re truly capable of.

What is Nesta’s connection to the lost Dusk Court?

At the end of “ACOSH,” Nesta winnows to the prison with the sword Gwydion at Amren’s behest, but the scene leaves the reader with more questions than answers about Nesta’s future.

First, when she arrives at the prison, Nesta asks herself, “Had the bone gates always towered so high? Had the darkness within always been so thick?” It’s likely the space looks slightly different to her because she’s afraid, but some fans think it’s possible Nesta world-walked unintentionally.

Likewise, after Nesta enters the gate, Gwydion lights up — and then disappears. Nesta doesn’t know where it went or why before the book ends, but again, “Crescent City” may offer clues.

Gwydion was on Midgard, where it was known as the Starsword, for 15,000 years before Bryce gave it to Nesta at the end of “HOFAS.” To bear the Starsword, Starborn Fae on Midgard traditionally enter the Cave of Princes on a misty island called Avallen and attempt to retrieve it (Bryce says the tunnels in the cave are nearly identical to those in Prythian). It’s possible Gwydion is putting Nesta through the same trial, disappearing until she proves herself worthy of wielding it.

All those questions also relate to the revelation that the prison was once the Dusk Court, an eighth court in Prythian. Bryce began to awaken its former life before she returned to Midgard in “HOFAS,” though it still looks like the prison at the start of “ACOSH.” Will Nesta finish reviving the court? And did Amren sense that it was Nesta’s path when she encouraged her to go inside it with Gwydion?

“ACOSH” also didn’t provide any closure on the Made item in the sea in front of the prison that called “find me” to Nesta (and seemingly Rhysand).

Is there spidersilk in Prythian?

In the novel, the High Priestess Clotho makes and gifts Rhysand and Feyre “a braided, silvery piece of fabric” to bind them to Nyx during his naming day ceremony. Nesta describes the fabric as glistening and delicate, and Clotho says it’s one of a kind. It also keeps Rhys and Feyre tethered to their son throughout the attack, indicating its strength.

Later, Lucien notices the “extraordinary silver thread” in a tapestry that hangs in Feyre’s home, adding that “it became a river of light” when he looked at it through his magical eye.

Both descriptions of the silver fabric are similar to those of the spidersilk that appears in the “Throne of Glass” series. Made by the massive Stygian spiders — who are Valg handmaidens and foot soldiers — the silk is described “as delicate as gossamer, lovelier than silk, and stronger than steel” in “The Assassin’s Blade.”

Plus, the cover of “A Court of Forgotten Melody” features a spider with a spool of fabric below it. That imagery could represent a Stygian spider, and fae and other magical creatures from “Throne of Glass” may be influencing the events of “ACOTAR.”

It wouldn’t be a total surprise if Maas further incorporated “TOG” into the world of “ACOTAR.” Characters related to both series appear in “Crescent City,” and a character from “TOG” briefly falls through the sky in Prythian during the events of “A Court of Silver Flames.”

We’ll have to wait until January 2027 to see what Maas has planned.

• I started dyeing my hair in my 40s after seeing a photo of myself that made me look tired.
• Over the decades, I spent an estimated $26,000 on hair color and touch-ups every six weeks.
• I finally decided to embrace my gray after meeting women my age who looked beautiful naturally.

My mother had the most gorgeous hair. It was a deep, rich red that looked more like Bordeaux than carrots. My favorite photograph of her is from her modeling days when she posed as one of the original Breck girls.

Three of my four grandparents were redheads. My grandmothers had the more common copper color. It was my mother’s father who passed down the auburn and my other grandfather’s black hair that fated my cousins and me to our very dark brown.

In my family, hair was a frequent topic of conversation. For my mother, in her later years, the talk often focused on how hers wasn’t turning gray. I never questioned her claim that she was miraculously maintaining her original color, even though it seemed a little incredible that no wispy whites were visible on her 60+-year-old head, while silver streaks started multiplying on mine in my early 40s.

My new lighter strands didn’t bother me. In fact, I liked them. I thought they added dimension to my flat brown until I looked at a photo of myself and saw a sad, tired woman.

I colored my hair because I was curious

Maybe I was tired because at 42, I’d become a single mother of five children ranging in age from 8 months to 16 years. Or maybe it was just natural selection. My father started to turn gray in his late 30s.

No matter the reason, I decided to abandon my defiant stance of aging naturally and color my hair. I was curious about the process and what the results might be.

For years, I booked appointments every six weeks, investing hundreds of dollars in dye jobs and touch-ups. I estimate that over the decades, I’ve spent about $26,000. But the color never felt authentic. At each visit, I told my stylist to be honest with me when I was too old to keep this up. There’s nothing less attractive than an older woman with a head full of unnaturally dark hair.

My dyed hair looked weird in photos

I hate how artificial my hair looks in our family photos. Everyone else has soft brown, but mine looks harsh.

That made me start to consider solutions like leaving a few of the pieces around my face gray. My stylist thought I was nuts, so we compromised with different formulas, but I still wasn’t satisfied.

It was a confluence of events that pushed me toward the decision to stop coloring my hair. First, my stylist increased the price of a cut and color to $200. Then I met a group of women my age who did not bother to dye their hair. They were beautiful! One wore hers loose in long, luxurious waves. Another let it curl naturally, and a third styled hers in a sleek bob. They looked fantastic.

Taking inspiration from these new friends, I broke up with my stylist and decided to embrace my gray.

It’s a slow process that still requires some chemical intervention, but I’m enjoying it. Gone is the artificial tone of the remaining darker hair, replaced by a combination of white, gray, and a tiny bit of brown. My new stylist tells me I can always go back to coloring it if I don’t like the final result, but I don’t think I will.

As for my mother’s hair never turning gray? That wasn’t true. After she died, I found boxes and boxes of Living Color hair dye in her bathroom. I bet she would have been gorgeous with naturally gray hair.

• Lance Zaal lives in the LaLaurie Mansion, a reportedly haunted property in New Orleans.
• His foray into ghostly properties began when he purchased the Lizzie Borden house in 2021.
• He wants these properties to highlight history, not just the paranormal, he says.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Lance Zaal, president of US Ghost Adventures. Zaal was the subject of a recent Business Insider story. It has been edited for length and clarity.

When I heard that the Lizzie Borden House was for sale in 2021, I was immediately fascinated. Most people know the famous nursery rhyme: “Lizzie Borden took an axe…”

But few know the history of the home where the crime occurred. They don’t realize that the 1892 case was one of the earliest and most widespread use of crime scene photos. Or that Lizzie was tried by an all-male jury and quickly acquitted, with the case still unsolved.

When I took over the property, those weren’t the scariest details. What was more terrifying was the state of the place. There were rotten doors I could put my hands through, and a toxic workplace full of employees who couldn’t stand each other.

Too often, historic properties are treated as cash cows and not reinvested in. I take the opposite approach: I believe these buildings with difficult and uncomfortable histories need to be cared for and accessible to everyone.

I started with food tours before buying haunted properties

I never wanted to become an entrepreneur. When I lost my job in tech consulting, I planned to get another, but as I did that, I explored creating my own business: food tours. By 2014, I was making more money running tours than I had as a consultant.

Over time, I realized that haunted tours had strong demand and started incorporating them into my company in various cities. Buying the Borden House for $1.6 million was a natural progression for my business — a way to venture into hospitality and have a brick-and-mortar space.

Since then, I’ve expanded into other properties with sordid pasts. My company owns the Villisca Axe Murders House — the Iowa home where eight people were killed in an unsolved attack — and the Welty House, the site of fierce fighting during the Battle of Gettysburg. Since 2024, I’ve lived in the LaLaurie Mansion, supposedly New Orleans’ most haunted property.

Highlighting history, not just haunts, is good for business

It’s important to me that these historic places be financially strong and stable. It’s good business to broaden their appeal and not let interest from ghost hunters drown out that of history buffs or the general public.

Because of that, I’ve highlighted the history in each place. At the Borden house, visitors learn about the victims and the criminal justice system at the turn of the 20th century. At the LaLaurie Mansion, people learn not only about the abuse enslaved people suffered at the lands of Delphine LaLaurie, but also the fact that the home was later the site of one of the first desegregated schools in the South.

These are stories of American history and culture. They don’t belong just to ghost hunters or paranormal chasers — though we welcome those visitors. They belong to all of us.

I’ve experienced things I can’t explain

I try to keep an open mind when it comes to the paranormal. I’ve experienced odd things I can’t explain. It’s rare, but it’s happened.

Once, when I was in 8th grade, my mother and I were housesitting. We saw a door handle rattle, then turn, but no one was there. It was frightening until I researched the home’s history and the people who had lived there. Gaining knowledge made me feel in control of my fear.

In my current house, the LaLaurie Mansion, there are carved angels in the crown molding of one room. They’ve been there since 1832. When I think about all they’ve seen, the house feels sacred to me.

Sometimes, hauntings are used to bury the very real, horrible history of a place. I want to turn that around, using lore and legend to bring the history of America to the forefront. It’s not a true story unless you tell the full story. Taking an honest look at our past can help us understand how we got to where we are today.