Spinal injury just sounds BAD...

Just over 3 weeks ago, I went to get my yearly mammogram. I was in an out of there lickety-split, with a clean bill of health. I even had the parking spot that was closest to the breast clinic. And then, when I was backing out, I made a mistake. I didn't see a little bit of curb that was jutting into the middle of the street and although my wheels completely missed it, the bottom of my car didn't and when I wanted to pull forward, I realized I was stuck. Looking at the bottom of my car I saw that it was one bolt on the bottom of the car that was stuck. A fairly important bolt, I'm sure. And it was less than 1/2 an inch stuck. Which is when I had the brilliant idea to lift the car with the jack. Only I couldn't find the jack. Plan B. I called over 2 guys and asked them to help me just lift the car that tiny 1/2 inch. Not wanting to look like a helpless woman, I helped too. In fact, I was totally into it. They weren't. And nothing happened. To the car, at least. I finally found the jack, lifted the car that stupid 1/2 inch and was safely out of there. Only my back wasn't OK.

I could tell right away that I'd pulled a muscle or something, but it wasn't too bad and I went about my day certain that by the morning it would be all better. It wasn't. The next day was OK, but the following day it was a lot worse. And it continued to get worse until finally, 6 days after the injury, I went to the doctor who gave me meds (narcotics, actually. Perhaps that's a benefit of being allergic to NSAIDs :-)) and told me I probably had a partially slipped disk. I took the pain killers (they helped. A lot.) and quit before I finished them, relieved that I didn't have any more pain.

And then on Saturday we took a walk. We were only planning to go to the doggie park (where Charlie, our new dog, can run free and practice some of his skills)... but it was close to Givat HaTitora - a hill full of wild flowers and a generally calming atmosphere. So we decided to take a little climb. I didn't realize what kind of climb I was getting myself into until it was too late. I started to feel unsteady and then my knee buckled and I fell, scraping up both of my knees. We finished the walk and I felt myself still unsteady and holding on to the railings extra-specially tightly on the way home (about 1/2 a mile). And at home, I still didn't feel steady. Going up the stairs was difficult and I could tell something was wrong with my left leg. Actually, I thought something was wrong with my left leg, but I also thought that I was probably imagining it. Making it up. By the next morning, I decided it was better to check it out. An appointment for Monday (it was Sunday) seemed like too far away, so I insisted on Sunday afternoon. Hadas (my soldier girl) came with me and was there when the doctor checked my strength (OK, not great) and my reflexes (almost no response in my left leg, hyper-response in my right) and was there when I nearly fainted. (See, Stacey, it's just something I do periodically when I have trouble taking in information ;-)) She got me some water and I put my head between my knees (as well as I could)... and I recovered and went home.

I was able to get a quick appointment for Physical Therapy, where the Physical Therapist (really nice woman, btw) was very thorough and explained everything to me as best she could. Right now I have 2 problems - strength and reflexes. My leg seemed to respond ever-so-slightly to the exercises we did and she says that that is a sign that we caught it early enough so that I won't have any lasting issues (I hope she's right). She also said that she needs to see me again on Monday and then on Thursday - and has me doing exercises at least 4-5x a day until then.

I'm keeping my elbows extended* that this will work and everything will be back to normal soon.

Right now, it's sort of scary.

*The exercise I'm doing requires extending the elbows.

Chemo Graduation

OK, so I'm far not-at-all-happy that my friend had to go through this, but I am very happy that my friend's last chemo treatment is this week - and I'm hoping that what this means is that from now she's going to start feeling better and stronger every day. As always, I tried to think of a way to celebrate the occasion - so I designed a t-shirt to give her.

And since I got good feedback about my design, I'm posting it here so that anyone who wants to use it for any good purpose is welcome to (click on it to see it full size).

Wishing everyone good health and good friends.

In case you were wondering, my kids are average

You know those parents who are always bragging about their kids’ amazing achievements? Well, I sometimes (though not too often, I hope) find myself doing the same thing. But there’s one big difference. I recognize that although my kids can be great at some things (e.g., my 3-1/2 year-old has known all the letters of the alphabet for over 2 years and started reading words during the summer) they’re basically, overall, AVERAGE.

My totally awesome, you’re-lucky-if-you-get-to-meet-her daughter has the sass of an average 18-year-old (and, believe me, I really dislike that about her). My could-do-practically-anything-if-he-tried son does just about nothing (well, unless you count lying around in his bed and watching Pokemon cartoons on an iPod as doing something). My I’m-not-sure-if-her-father-is-Japanese* daughter has great people skills, but getting her through school is quite a challenge. My 6-going-on-16 year old daughter can whine any kid out of this town. It’s really a shame there’s no World Whining Record (and corresponding prize) because she’d totally win it. I mean, the other kids would meet her and they’d just back out because they’d know they were beat without even trying. My feisty-little-five-year-old is quick to beat on anyone in her path. And she’s constantly stepping on everything and falling off of everything (not necessarily the same everythings). You know those kids who sit with half their tushes off the chair. That’s her. And she’ll inevitably fall and drag half the tablecloth and everything on it with her. My little one is really the cutest child who’s ever walked the planet. (Oh, you have one of those too?) But he gets so obsessive about things that he can completely drive you out of your mind. Like he’s looking for a really specific toy. So specific that if you have two identical ones, he can tell them apart. And he doesn’t want the one you just found. He wants the other one. And guess what? He really *can* tell them apart. And he’ll continue pestering you until he gets it.

So, while I love my kids, they’ve all definitely got their quirks and it’s going to take quite a while until they’re as perfect as I am… (oops. That was the keyboard going without my brain…) What I meant to say was that when I look at my kids I see the good with the bad and when I put it all together, they come out just about average. Some days are better, some worse. Overall – average.

*Yes, I really once said that to someone when I wasn’t paying attention. No, her father’s not Japanese, his parents were from Algeria – and I’m absolutely positive that I know who her father is.

My funniest experiences

Funniest experiences

Rules: Fill in the following. Tag 4 friends to do the same.

• My funniest dream

  Riding a goldfish under a rainbow...

• My funniest experience with a pet

  My parrot swore at my mother-in-law

• My funniest experience at a job interview

  Dude came in with his shirt on backwards!

• My funniest purchase

  100 cockroaches (don't ask)

• My funniest experience in high school

  High school wasn't funny!

• My funniest cooking experience

  Exploding pressure cooker?

• The funniest thing I ever said to anyone

  Was that MEANT to be a hat?

Everyone tagged
Click here to fill in this meme

A bit about blogging...

Blogging

Rules: Answer the following questions & tag 5 fellow bloggers to do the same.

• The blogging platform I use most is:

  Blogger

• On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the best) I rate it:

  8

• What I like about it is...

  That I know how to use it... well, except for

• What I hate about it is...

  Fixing the template is a disaster

• If I could add any features I could, it/they would be...

  A template editor for real people (as opposed to people who read html as well as they read English)

• My biggest mess-up with my blog has been...

  Moving from FTP publishing, which left me with over 200 static pages, each of which has to be edited separately if I want to make any changes...

• I enjoy blogging because...

  It lets me write things and get people's comments.

• I blog every time that...

  I have inspiration...

• I never blog about... (tricky, huh? ;-))

  Things that are too private to share.

• Tell one experience about someone you've met via blogging.

  I've met some really nice people by blogging - some in real life and some who are my facebook friends.

Everyone tagged
Click here to fill in this meme

Talent, knowledge or experience?

I just created this new meme on sleeQo. You're tagged :-)

Rules: We study, but then don't necessarily end up doing what we learned. Here's your chance to say why you think you're good at something that you do - either your job or one or more aspects of it - or something you do as a hobby.

• Did you have any formal study of this?

  No, but my printing and language studies are very relevant.

• Did you have any informal study / Did you learn on-the-job?

  I learned on the job and I've read a lot on the topic - including textbooks and articles. I also have Ohad to consult with (which I often do).

• What do you think contributes most to your ability to do this well?

  Some of it is definitely talent - an ability to look at things in different ways from other people, to separate topics and reorganize them... and experience is also a huge factor.

• What of the following do you think contributes *least* to your ability to do this well: studies, on-the-job training, learning from experts informally, experience, other

  I think that some of the theoretical material has proven useless, as reality often dictates solutions that contradict it.

• Is this more a job or a hobby or a combination of the two?

  More of a job.

• Do you consider yourself a professional?

  Yes.

• Do other people ask for your advice?

  Yes.

• Do you enjoy what you do?

  Mostly. I particularly enjoy starting a new project and higher level design OR finding solutions to things that are really complicated.

• Do you continue to seek more knowledge so that you can improve at what you do?

  All the time.

• Until what age do you think you want to continue doing this?

  I don't know... 10-15-20 years, I guess.

• (Optional) What was your subject for this meme?

  user interface design

Everyone tagged
Click here to fill in this meme

One Person

One person

Rules: Choose one person - either someone you know personally or you know of - and answer the following questions. Post the results on Facebook or on your blog & let people guess who it is.

• Is the person male or female?

  Female

• Is this person one of your facebook friends / famous / other?

  Famous

• What facial feature do you think of first when you think of this person?

  Nose, I guess

• What game would you choose to play with this person?

  Not sure

• Where would you choose to eat dinner with this person?

  Fancy kosher restaurant - doesn't matter which

• How long could you stand being on a desert island with this person?

  Don't know her personally, so I am not sure.

• What color looks best on this person?

  Black.

• Does this person have a skill or talent you envy? If so, which?

  Yes. She is a very talented singer.

• Do you feel this person knows you as well as you know him or her?

  I am positive she doesn't know I exist.

• What is the nicest thing you have heard this person say?

  Can't think of anything...

Here's who I've tagged.
Rona of DrSavta, Leah of triLcat Talks
Click here to fill in this meme

In case you've missed it, I'm promoting sleeQo, a new service that helps you create content for your blog. The more people who join, the easier it's going to be for us to target the memes (questionnaires) to what people want... We're still not ready for heavy traffic, but we need more than what we've got to get a feel for what people need.

Anyway, what I'd really like from anyone who ever gets stuck without content is to try it out & see what you think (feel free to let me know by email or in the comments). Go to the "fill in a meme" page where you can choose a popular meme, a recent meme or by category. Fill it in & post it on your blog (it's better if you register beforehand, but you don't have to register). Leave a link to your blog in the comments of this post & I'll send you a random piece of brand new jewelry from my collection (or you can choose genuine pearl earrings, since I've got quite a few of them). Once you've posted the link, send me an email to rachelinbar at gmail.com with your address & I'll mail it out to you. Easy enough, right?

Thanks!

Five fives

Rules: Answer each of the five questions below with five answers. Tag 5 people to do the same.

• Five things you would do if you were a billionaire.

  Buy a new house for us and for any of my close family members who want/need one, travel often, give money to charities I believe in, buy a new car, get good investment advice

• Five things you did yesterday.

  Worked, gave Yirmi a bath, cut a salad, watched Law & Order (special victims unit), talked to Hadas

• Five jobs you would rather do than your own (if salary and qualifications were not an issue).

  A writer (fiction, not technical writing, thank you very much), high level consulting (never have to do the detailed design, just oversee it), brainstormer, artist, bargain-hunter (is that a job?)

• Five snacks you wish were calorie-free.

  Popcorn, cashews, chocolate, potato chips, pretzels

• Five things that make you happy.

  My husband, my kids, quiet, doing things that are creative, designing something really awesome

Everyone tagged Click here to fill in this meme

Being a grown-up

I remember way back, when I got married the first time (yes, it really was in 1989 - scary, I know) thinking about what makes the transition from being a child to being a grown up. One of the things I couldn't do then was just get in a car without planning exactly where I was going. Every turn stressed me out. (I'd gotten a license right before I turned 18, but was living in Israel alone, so I didn't have a chance to drive until after I got married and we bought an automatic car.) So that was one thing... I don't remember the others - perhaps being able to buy toilet paper without feeling embarrassed... or being able to go for a medical procedure alone. I think it was an issue for me because I was always really independent. I boarded in Atlanta, 2-1/2 hours away from home, from the time I was 12. That meant getting on a Greyhound bus, ending up downtown alone, getting on a bus to school, etc. (And downtown Atlanta was pretty scary for a really shrimpy 12-year-old.) Then, when I was 16, I came to Israel in early June - for a vacation - and stayed nearly 25 years (so far). That was back in the days before cell phones. When you'd make a call from a pay phone just because it was available. And when international calls were $4 a minute AND you had to go to the international calling center behind the main post office (where you sat in a weird little booth and heard your money beep away faster than you thought possible). So, was that being grown up? Being married certainly isn't what does it... (I am not sure my ex will EVER qualify as a grown-up in my book...) So, at the young age of 40, aside from when certain-people-who-will-remain-nameless-but-don't-read-this-blog-or-know-of-its-existence-anyway start trying to tell me how to run my life, I definitely feel like a grown-up (though I've also done a good job of keeping in touch with my inner child - see my jewelry collection as proof :-)) and, as I mentioned in the previous post, my brother Ben and I developed sleeQo - a meme tool that allows you to come in, fill-in the meme of your choice & post it on your blog or on Facebook (or send it by email... whatever you want) - and I'm currently responsible for putting in the initial memes (so people will have what to fill-in when they come visit our site or when we send out the subscription newsletters).

Here are my answers to the "grown up" meme (pronounced meem):

You're a grown up when...

Rules: List 5 things that make you qualify as an adult... Tag 5 *adults* to do the same :-)

1. You can drive and park a car - and even find it once you're ready to go...
2. You can sit at a table in a restaurant alone and not feel awkward.
3. You feel like you know what you should do in most situations - and know who to ask when you're not sure.
4. You know that things that seem like "the end of the world" usually aren't.
5. You care whether your clothes are wrinkled or not - enough to iron them or choose something else to wear.

Everyone tagged Click here to fill in this meme


p.s. to paste your completed meme into Facebook, go into your Notes, press "Write a new note" and then paste in the HTML - we've made it Facebook friendly.

New tool for bloggers

Negative

Rules: Answer as honestly as you can. Tag 3 people.

• A smell I hate

  Lentils cooking.

• Least favorite day of the week...and why

  Thursday, because it means it's almost Friday (but then when Friday comes, I remember all of its disadvantages...)

• TV shows I'll never watch

  Almost all reality shows. Most sports. Political talk shows... I don't really like TV that much.

• Food I refuse to eat

  Pineapple (although I will taste fresh pineapple once every few years, only if it's very cold)

• Bug I can't stand

  Cockroach

• Computer software I use (but hate)

  Rivhit (Israeli accounting software)- terrible UI

• Chore I really dislike

  I don't mind chores too much in general, but I don't enjoy changing the sheets on top bunk.

I tag: Rona, Leah, Vicki, Anita

fill in this meme

Funniest experiences meme

Funniest experiences

Rules: Fill in the following. Tag 4 friends to do the same.

• My funniest dream

  I once dreamt I gave someone a wedding present that was a tablecloth & they found a spoon inside it. They later called to ask if the spoon had been used for dairy or meat (because they were keeping it).

• My funniest experience with a pet

  Can't think of one at the moment.

• My funniest experience at a job interview

  Finding out that the interviewer knows one or more of my siblings.

• My funniest purchase

  Some of the useless jewelry I buy on eBay?

• My funniest experience in high school

  High school was NOT funny. Although perhaps the strangest was taking apart my test in history and handing the pages out to the class because I felt so bad for them that they were so stupid they'd never pass without my help. (12th, grade at Eisenhower High in Lawton Oklahoma)

• My funniest cooking experience

  Gosh. I need to start remembering the funny stuff.

• The funniest thing I ever said to anyone

  This one's easy. One day I was in a store and someone looked at Lilach and said she looked Japanese. She then proceeded to ask me if her father is Japanese - and I, being distracted, answered "I don't know"... (Um. No. He's not.)

Here's who I've tagged.
Rona, Leah, Bethami, Anyone who wants to :-)
fill in this meme

What I've been up to

One of the things I've been doing is working with my amazingly talented brother, Ben, on a new meme site named sleeQo. It's a tool to help bloggers who get stuck without things to write about. It can give you a daily or weekly push in the right direction. You get to be the very first to see it (currently in what can only be called pre-beta...) Actually, this is the first test post :-)

My travels

Fill in the following questions & tag 5 friends (try friends who travel a lot).

• My best trip ever...
  Normandy and Brittany with Ohad in September 2002. Totally amazing :-)


• My worst trip ever...
  They all had their high points. Hard to think of one as bad.


• Most important thing I ever lost on a trip...
  Nothing I can think of.


• Most important thing I ever forgot to take on a trip...
  Conditioner?


• Thing I miss most when I'm away...
  Ohad (unless he's with me). If Ohad's with me then cooked food...


• Thing I miss least when I'm away...
  Screaming and tripping on toys.


• Favorite travel partner...
  Ohad. Definitely.


• Place I hope to travel to someday...
  Portugal, China, and maybe some tropical islands.

Here's who I've tagged.

Rona

Leah

Sam

Fill in this meme

Your comments are welcome!

I'd like to thank...

My loyal readers who come back day-after-day to check why I haven't written anything new. It's probably because I'm either insanely busy, severely disorganized or a combination of the two. I kind of wonder if it's what people describe as ADD. Sometimes I feel like there's a seven-ring circus going on in my head (three rings I could handle, I mean, I do have 6 kids...) and everything's so interesting and so colorful and appealing that I don't know what to do first... On a good day, the solution is to shut everything down and work on the things I have to work on (you know, the stuff that brings in the soy schnitzel). On a not-so-good day, I start doing seven different things and sometimes, miraculously, I am able to stay focused on one thing long enough to realize I've worked on it. I have learned not to rely on my memory too much (to do things) because I forget just about everything that isn't very important... So we've got a calendar on the fridge and I write down everything that's going on and I do remember to look there (at least usually).


Anyway, I've got a whole bunch of ideas that I'm trying to develop - one's a spin-off site of fertilitystories. I bought a new domain, but now I want to build a content management system so that at least one of my websites will actually be built properly. But since I don't like risk, I haven't taken someone else to build it for me - and I don't have the time to build it myself... I've also continued to work on internationalshippingshops (do I have a thing about long mushed-up names? For this one, I bought the domain OverseasJoe, which for some odd reason I think is hilarious...) and it's actually starting to get some traffic. I'm also an affiliate of Book Depository... oh yeah, and my brother, Ben, and I started building a really cool site about a year ago - only Ben got a real job in the meantime and decided that money was more important than helping his sister (can you imagine? ;-)) so that's a bit stuck too (although I've got an idea up my sleeve to get it jumpstarted again)... And, in the meantime, I decided that I had to design something that kids could make for Chanuka that would let you turn a wheel and have the Chanukiya light up the right number of candles according to the day of Chanuka. You can't see it that well, but when you turn the dial on the bottom then through the holes you can see the 'lit candles' that correspond with the number on the top. Hadas decorated this one :-)

And then we hosted a "Bayit cham" where 4 kids from the preschool come over in the afternoon and you do some sort of activity with them - so we made these (and used my fancy new laminating machine, which made them very impressive, but also impossible to photograph). Amazingly *all*of them came out well. This is the first time I've ever planned something so complicated and it was really exciting to see the results.

When I say complicated, I mean the bottom part looks like this:

After getting good feedback on it from pretty much everyone, I am going to look into selling the design - anyone want to test it for me? I can send you a pdf...

I'm also taking my next-to-last course at the Open University - Survey Methodology - it's a great course, but requires a lot of time (doesn't everything?) - and I think I've decided not to sign up for next semester. With Hadas being in 11th grade, I still have a chance to finally get my degree at the same time as she does... (I have to write 2 seminar papers, so I plan to write one during the spring semester this year and one next year, after I take the final course.) This degree really isn't going to give me anything, but it is really important to me to finish things I've started... Uh oh, which takes me back up to the first paragraph and all the things I want to do.

Hey, I managed to get through writing a blog post today. That's something.

Music. I love music…

I remember, when I was living in Shikunei HaElef  (Hebrew University dormitory) in Givat Ram (Jerusalem) back in 1986 just how quiet Shabbat was. I lived in the building of the observant girls. A total of 7 of the 20 rooms were occupied and I’d managed to get rid of my roommate by having her upgraded to the better dorms (the Kiryah – yes, I actually went and begged them to give her a room and she was very thankful), so I had a room to myself. I think there was one other girl who wasn’t Israeli-born, but she had a boyfriend who she went to visit on Shabbat and all the other girls went home. I was almost always left in the building completely alone. In fact, most of the buildings were empty over the weekend and the few people who stayed weren’t the ones I’d choose to talk to. I was also significantly younger, being just 17, when most students there were in their 20’s. So I spent Shabbat on my own. I read books, slept a lot and I sang, sometimes for hours. I could sing as loudly as I wanted, since there wasn’t anyone there to hear – and with it being so quiet, I found that singing made me feel less lonely (and hey, it seemed more normal than talking to myself). I don’t remember what songs I sang, but I know it always made me feel happy. In every house I ever lived, I knew where the best acoustics were and even before Hadas was born, I started singing to her. She knew all the words to Leader of the Band by the time she was 4 and we sang it together in a talent contest about then.

After I got divorced, I took voice lessons for a while. My teacher was convinced that I should sing opera. I told her I was willing to try, but she never actually brought me the music. I enjoyed the lessons, but I don’t think I’d ever sing in front of anyone but my family – and I don’t think they care how good my voice sounds, so I stopped taking lessons, but I kept singing to the kids, of course. They know all the songs I love… and if they hear a song on the radio, even Abigail will say, “Is that John Denver?” I often sing to the little kids before they go to sleep (usually they choose the songs – one of the ones Abigail loves is No Wonder – not exactly what you’d expect a 4-year-old to like).

These past few years have been crazy-busy. I just realized that I hadn’t bought a CD for about a year (the last one was a Barbra Streisand one that I didn’t have yet – I have quite a few)… and I realized I enjoy the few songs I know that Sarah McLachlan sings –(like  Blackbird & Ordinary Miracle) so I ordered a disk (of course it turned out to be out of stock).

I was thinking about how much I missed having time to listen to music (I mean, who can hear a whole song with 3-4-5-6 kids at home?)  and I remembered a tape that I had with this song – but this video is so much better :-)

Shabbat isn’t as quiet as it used to be. I think I kind of miss that sometimes.

Some things lose their meaning (at least temporarily)

As a child, Yom Kippur meant counting down the pages until the service would (finally) end. From the time I was 8, I was pretty serious about fasting – and that year, I made it through to the very end - only the service ended later than the fast and I ran out to the water fountain to get a drink (thinking I was about to die). I think that it was the same year that I was in a choir of 4 that participated in the service. (My dad was the Rabbi, so the auditioning process was fairly simple.) As a young adult, I was able to understand more of the prayer and connect with more of the ideas of the day, probably giving it some of the meaning I’d learned and some of my own. Yom Kippur began to be extremely powerful, giving me a true opportunity to look at who I had been up until then and being able to make a decision as to who I wanted to be from then on… I would sit in shul and daven, not necessarily paying attention to every word (I don’t know who can), but feeling the importance of the prayer and of repenting. When finally, the shofar was blown, I  burst into tears… As a mom, I want to pass these feelings on to my children. I want all the holidays to be meaningful for them.

My little kids don’t behave well in shul. It could be the fact that there are 3 of them. Or that the shul is way-too-crowded (it is). Or the fact that other kids are playing outside. Or that I just have wild kids (not really).  So even if I took them with me, it’s impossible to concentrate between handing out bamba and drinks, wiping noses, changing diapers, taking one of the girls to the bathroom and breaking up their fights… And, living in Israel, you can’t really hire a non-Jewish babysitter to care for your kids (I know some synagogues in the US have some sort of arrangement), so instead of spending the day in shul or at least in solemn thought, I spend it figuring out how long I can keep the kids busy building with Duplo, what stories will keep them calmest, and trying not to forget to feed them, since they don’t fast (in addition to listening to one of the older kids moan and groan about how impossible it is to fast and that s/he just can’t do it…). Instead of counting down the pages, I count down the hours and minutes until the fast is over, hoping I’ve gotten a little bit of thought in at some point during the day.

Today, as Yirmi sleeps, I’m trying to get into the mood of 9 b’Av. It’s hard. It’s not only hard because I spent half the morning feeding the little kids and the other half playing with them. It’s hard because when it’s finally quiet and I have a moment to think, so many other things keep jumping into my head… And I think that’s one of the hardest things for me about being a stay-at-home-and-work-from-home-mom to little kids. It’s difficult to find time for uninterrupted thought. I never realized how important that is.

I am looking forward to a time when I will be able to feel the holidays – and feel that they are meaningful to me again - and not just be busy finding a way to somehow survive them.

Making pita

Ever since we took Abigail to Kibbutz Gezer, where they had an activity that included making pita, I’ve been thinking that I’d like to make pita at home. I’ve done it once in the past and it came out great, but then I lost the recipe and couldn’t find another one that looked worth trying.

Here are some of Abigail’s pictures – she really enjoyed it!

They made sure to keep the kids safe – only the taboon guy got close to it.

Mr. Taboon also made sure the pita didn’t get burnt.

Too bad they couldn’t protect the pita from the destructive things a four-year-old can do – in this case, putting chocolate spread on it. What a waste! Anyway, when Ohad said today that he preferred I use the outdoor barbeque to make chicken, I figured I’d finally use the cheapo wok we bought and make more pita. (You flip the wok upside down on the barbeque. Works like a charm.) Instead, I ended up finding a recipe that actually recommended you make the pita in the oven and I didn’t feel like standing in front of the barbeque anyway, so I made them in the oven.

The recipe makes 8. We were able to take 2 to freeze – the others all got eaten straight out of the oven.

The kids kept asking me how you make the pockets. You don’t. They just magically appear :-)

Tefillin...

Today, 13 years less 30 days (in the lunar calendar) - Matan was born. And today, on Lag Ba'Omer, he put on tefillin for the very first time.

Me with Matan and Yirmi (and a head covering). And, believe me, it's just the way I'm standing...

My dad with Matan, after shacharit, taking off the tefillin.

After shul, most of us went for breakfast and I even gave a very short speech - now translated to English (only because I never give any speeches at all, so if I've already written something, I may as well share it):

I chose to speak about “Shma Yisrael”.

“Shma Yisrael” is the first prayer I taught my children. Every night before they went to sleep, I made sure to say the first line with them. As soon as they were able to say that, we went on to the second line and then I taught them to sing the whole first paragraph, just as my parents taught me.

Shma Yisrael is unique in that it includes rules about when to say it, “teach them diligently to your children and speak of them while you sit in your home, while you walk on the way, when you retire and when you arise” and about the places where we should put the passages, “You shall bind them as a sign upon your arm, and they shall be for a reminder between your eyes. And you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house and upon your gates.”

As young children, only parts of this can be fulfilled – “speak of them while you sit in your home, while you walk on the way, when you retire and when you arise”. Later on, one can fulfill, “You shall bind them as a sign upon your arm, and they shall be for a reminder between your eyes.” (Putting on tefillin) – which is what Matan has begun to do today.

Matan, I hope that in the future, as you grow, you will be able to fulfill more and more of the words of Shma, to “write them upon the doorposts of your house” and, when the time comes, also to “teach them diligently to your children”.

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I think (hope) it sounded better in Hebrew :-)

Thank you once again to all who joined us today!!!

If you need a good laugh

Loved, loved, loved this...

What do we leave behind us?

As I sit in my little kids’ room waiting for them to fall asleep, I sometimes wonder what they’ll remember of me when they’re older. Will they remember me sitting in their room, singing to them, often for a whole hour, with them setting up their own ‘playlists’? The songs I sang? Will they remember how I matched their clothes and set up outfits in the drawers so it would be easy to dress them in the morning? Will they remember the silly voices I make for them when I read them stories? Or how I we play a game we call, “hug me but don’t make me fall”? And then I think what my parents have given me and what I remember of my grandparents… and what of all that is really important.

I’ve even come to some conclusions about what is important to me… I guess I could sum it up as two things:

Values and devotion. I know what things my grandparents valued and to what things they devoted their lives – (two obvious examples are Judaism and education).

Interests and talents. I know my maternal grandfather was interested in photography, he wrote and sang beautifully… My maternal grandmother knitted fabulously (she could copy anything she saw in a store) and had an ability to distinguish more colors than the average person. My paternal grandfather was incredibly organized and read a lot… He also translated quite a few poems (both ways, I believe – from Hebrew to English and English to Hebrew). My paternal grandmother – hmmm… I don’t really know that much about her, even though I was 6-1/2 when she died. Time to ask my dad…

One of my aunts loves movies, is a talented artist and likes dinosaurs (we have a whole collection of stuffed dinosaurs :-)). My other aunt died when she was just 16, but I know she doodled in her notebooks and I think we have a lot in common…

With parents, I think it becomes even more specific, beyond the things I wrote about above, it’s also what type of books and music they like, specific things they do or have done, how they like to spend their time, expressions they use, places they visit and even physical objects that they are particularly fond of… and habits, quirks… I’m sure a lot of other things too.

These thoughts have made me even more aware of the things I want to emphasize to my children. So, Hadas knows that I have an organ donor card that I carry in my wallet and that I signed up to the bone marrow registry. All of them know that I donated my hair to children with cancer. (It was fun, highly recommended – pics below.)

Before

The braid

After

I spend time talking to the kids about things that are important to me, explaining my belief and giving them examples of the way I interpret things (e.g., despite the fact that I don’t drive on the Sabbath, when one of the kids was in bad emotional shape at their dad’s house, I felt that the right thing to do was to drive to them right away). I get silly with the kids and dance with them to Bryan Adams… and they’ve seen me eat peanut butter with a spoon (like my mother used to :-)) Sometimes Hadas (who goes to a boarding school in Jerusalem) calls me and tells me she heard a song I like on the radio (yes, she still knows what a radio is). And Matan  laughs at me when I’m not sure about a word and I pull out the dictionary. Lilach can always catch me when I’m being ridiculous (often) and trying to trick them. Abigail and Nomi know that when I take them out of the tub, I wrap them up in a towel and tell them to be careful not to fall and then I laugh with them that they “fell into my arms” as I carry them to the other room. Yirmi knows that I sing silly songs to him all day long… (oh yes, I do.)

I believe that making our lives meaningful to us is what makes them meaningful to our children (and then to their children). This also gives them the message that they should work to make their lives meaningful… and maybe the title of this post is misleading, because it isn’t just what we leave behind when we die, it’s what our children and grandchildren (and maybe even generations beyond that) have with them throughout their lives.

What do you think is important? What do you want to give your children ?

One-handed

This past year, I've had the pleasure of holding Yirmi - a lot. Often I was nursing him, while other times he fell asleep curled up in my arms, so peacefully that I didn't want to put him down. I really don't believe you can spoil a baby by holding him too much (if so, all my kids are terribly spoiled). I like to imagine that I'm transferring the feeling of comfort and being loved that will stay with him forever...

I sat on the couch a lot, was happy that once again I was breastfeeding during the Olympics. And I sat up in my bed, with the TV pillow that Ohad bought me as a gift when Nomi was born (sometimes falling asleep briefly while still holding him), but probably my favorite place was in front of the computer (because I'm such an addict. I totally am). So although I can't open my computer with just one hand (poor design, if you ask me), I've found some things that I can do:

- Read and answer some of the ~300 emails I get a day (though since I've switched to gmail, it's now closer to 80). The answers when I'm typing with one hand are usually shorter. I learned to touch-type 25(!) years ago and taught myself to touch type in Hebrew about 20 years ago, so typing with one hand just seems to go so slowly.

- Read updates on Facebook. I'm so not a snoop, but when people post things about their lives, I find it fascinating.

- Catch up on reading blogs. Though I've gotten pretty far behind and am even worse about commenting.

- Play Scramble (via Facebook). I play using only the mouse. I think it's the most brilliant model for a game ever, particularly the room that I play in.

- Doodle on Sumo. Here are the things I did yesterday:






And my favorite...


Any other ideas for games or fun things to do on the computer that don't require the keyboard?