Posts
Drat! What a GOOD idea: free Jewish kids' books!
If you are a Jewish family in one of many, MANY places around the US and Canada (including Quebec, Alberta and Manitoba, but NOT Ontario), you can receive free Jewish books and CDs, one a month, fo… Read more
Cooking, cooking, cooking... shepherd's pie down
I feel like I'm building an arsenal. You know, like a pile of munitions I will keep in my sandbagged foxhole. And when the enemy converges - pam! I will lob a shepherd's pie at them! What a… Read more
Sukkos (First Days) Meal Plan
Naomi Rivka is just about out of her mind with rapture, having had a hint of what she can expect over Yom Tov. Suffice to say that she is seeing some of her favourite people in the entire world.Here… Read moreCrazy Neighbour Lady!
At last, I caught her in all her mad glory while I was out taking pictures of the sukkah.This rant was started by the fact that - on this exceptionally windy day - a branch blew onto her lawn. So, n… Read more
The Sukkah, 5760/2009 edition!
Drat, didn’t get a picture of the door.Ted has outdone himself and created two fabulous innovations for 5760: a door in front (maybe a back door next year?) and a special method of laying in the cro… Read moreGavriel Zev's birthday supper...
He couldn't choose his supper last year. This year, when I asked him what he wanted for supper, he said "boop." Soup it is! ~ Cream of Broccoli soup ~ La-z-Mommy Fish sticks ~ French Fries … Read more
Atonement for Gardening Sins
Even as the garden falls slowly into autumn disrepair (and my neighbour’s with the great garden does not, a reminder that disrepair is not inevitable), there is almost always one thing going right – … Read more
Happy Birthday…!
To the most beautiful, glamourous 2-year-old on the planet! Check out the gorgeous blonde hair; the lovely pink bib. Sheesh… gotta do something this year to bolster his MALE gender identity! Read more
Erev Yom Kippur
The limes are for tomorrow night’s Lahm Pah (aka lime pie, but you have to say it with a southern accent!).We’re supposed to be eating at my mother’s after the fast, and I know for a fact that she… Read more
Tribe Finding: Where are all the Jewish Homeschoolers?
I never expected Jewish homeschooling to be so lonely.Unrealistic?Well, I knew there weren’t a million parents doing it… but NONE?Not a single other Jewish child over the age of three who is home ful… Read more
Boosta Award o’ th’ Day
Yes, the Baalaboosta of the Day award goes, hands-down, to MEEEEEeee!For making my own farfel, from scratch, because Ted’s been unable to find it in the store. Okay, it doesn’t look like farfel becau… Read more
A small strange first
A first: three of my kids, whether breastfeeding or bottlefeeding, had the very common trait of nursing until they fall asleep and then releasing the nipple so I could gently pull away (I don'… Read moreProcrastination
Me at naptime: "Goodnight." Naomi Rivka: "Where is your bubby?" "She died." "What did she used to make?" "What?" "What did she used to make? Neap… Read more
Homeschool Must-Have: Days of the Week
Here’s what we’ve ended up with for tracking days of the week.Each of the three big pieces came with four slots to insert the days, but it was a real pain trying to get the corners into the slots, so… Read moreFew and far between Daddy memory
When was it? Last summer? Last spring? Money was tight, very tight, and I was finally sitting down with him, the long-procrastinated conversation where I was telling him things were tight, Ted'… Read moreOne more on deafness
Sweet story: When Naomi Rivka was a baby, maybe a year and a bit, and I was first signing with her, YM (then 10ish) was taking the deaf bus. Not a euphemism: he was going to school every day on one … Read moreDeafness and ASL: Rethinking Disability
I was worried about signing up for an ASL course because I thought it was really weird taking a casual approach to what most of society perceives as someone else's disability (deafness). Like ta… Read more
When the going gets tough…
(supper-making time and the oven is locked!)…the tough head downstairs, haul the million-year-old, million-pound “Enterprise” away from the wall, swivel the gas connection to the ON position, push th… Read more
Food learnin’
A bit late now, but I thought I’d mention two exciting new techniques I learned from the FoodWishes.com blog, where I found a nice Cabbage Roll recipe.Now, I don’t know if I’d recreate the cabbage r… Read more
On a totally nother note
Have you ever noticed that there is NO smell as haunting, as pervasive, as difficult-to-track as an off lemon??? It starts small, an alcohol fruity tang in the air... and grows till the smell is EVERY… Read moreKICKED OUT OF SHUL!
Now I'm calm… in fact, I'm wondering if I'm too calm to talk about how upset I was yesterday.WE GOT KICKED OUT OF SHUL!Believe me, I was shaking when it happened; I couldn't see, I co… Read moreP.S. It is very hard to work
And stay up late and feel appreciated to the near constant drumbeat of Elisheva's "So what? If you're tired, go to bed! Nobody usually eats much dessert on Shabbos, anyway!" She … Read moreGaaah... still UP!!! :-o
Spent most of my "productive" time this afternoon up to my neck in Neapolitan cakes... leaving this evening to single-handedly create: ~ Pumpkin cheesecake ~ Cinnamon rolls, and a... ~ HUGE … Read moreYom Tov baking
I am hemorrhaging butter. We cannot buy it fast enough to keep it in stock in the freezer. This is the way life should be. Read moreHow to get CRANKY: Shop with your kids - at Superstore!
Sent today to the good folks at StuporStore. Where I hate to shop if I have children along!!! Grrr... ----- Original Message ----- "I was in the Dufferin/Steeles Superstore location in T… Read moreYou know you're a parent when...
Rushing to get out the door to class, round up supplies, duck into bathroom. Wash hands and inadvertently flick necessary-for-class pen (hard-to-find pen because kids take everything) across room into… Read moreWhich is why
I'm sad that it comes down to a dishwasher. Something as small as using a dishwasher for both milk and meat can mean I don't get to eat in somebody's home. A dishwasher, and not the qua… Read moreIrritating
At Mrs. ViKi's today, a mother I should know better than to be irritated by somehow got launched on a rant about "fundamentalist" Jews.She is Jewish herself, and openly, proudly non-pr… Read more