The Right to Play G-d

The last couple of weeks D and I have actually been conscious enough to watch movies once the kids are in bed. We watched 'Idiocracy' and 'Gattaca'. These are both futuristic movies that focus on the intelligence level man kind.

'Idiocracy' came out in January 2007 and stars Luke Wilson. It was created by Mike Judge, creator of King of the Hill and Beavis and Butthead. Luke Wilson and co-star are cyrogenically frozen in time for 500 years due to a military experiment that went 499 years too long. The world has gone to waste, the average intillegence is about that of Beavis and Butthead and The Constitution is a thing of the past. Everything is run by corporate sponsors including the government. If you can get past the 'idiocracy' of the movie you will see that is quite intelligent. Basically it states that while all the high IQ folks quite having kids because of "intelligent" decisions, the environment, finances, etc. All the stupid people were breeding like bunnies and took over the world. It is an interesting idea and to some extent we see that here in Israel. Only it is religious vs. non-religious and guess who is having the most kids and guess who will get the most votes in 10-20 years? It is an interesting idea.

On the polar opposite is 'Gattaca.' This is an intelligent movie that sets itself in the near future. It is an all star cast, that was nominated for several awards most of them art and music. The idea is that everyone genetically creates a child by picking out the best traits of both parents. People are tracked by their DNA and are labeled Valid or In-valid. In-valids are children who are created naturally. They are society's outcasts, they live in segregated groups, can't hold a job beyond janitor and can't have a relationship except with another in-valid. This is the story of one In-valid man who buys the identity of a Valid who was injured in an accident and is now paralyzed from the waist down. They move in together and so begins the elaborate charade of one becoming the other and the threat of discovery.

These two movies have led to a lot of discussion about "the right to play G-d." All too often we here the comments "they should never have children!" or "I hope they are done!" There have even been discussions about sterilizing those who are not perceived as being capable of parenting. In other words, drug users, those with a low IQ, and so on. Who are we to decide who has the right to have children and those who do not. My closest friends came from families who would not have "made the cut."

If we were to follow to the logic of 'Idiocracy' I have a friend who would be working at a low-level job married to a moron instead of in a highly skilled profession. I know another story where if drug users were sterilized a wonderful couple, now clean and sober, would have been denied parenthood. The examples are endless and I think I made my point.

On the other hand if we go with the theory of 'Gattaca', all genetically created people should live a certain life, a certain life expectancy and so on. This is much like real life, come from a good family, do all the right things and nothing can go wrong. So how do we have kids who come from the "right" families wind up doing the wrong thing? I have a friend who was about as low as one can get, into drugs, belonged to a gang, and so on. This person came from an average middle class family, good parents and so on. What happened I asked one day? The answer, "I simply made the wrong friends." And that was all it took.

While I admit that I am just as guilty as anybody of deciding who should and should not be reproducing, I am trying to mend my ways. I have come to realize that those born of adversity often come out on top because they have the most to gain and the least to lose by striving for more. They are also used to working harder just to get through the day. Those who come from a comfortable life are sometimes afraid to reach higher and lose out on the comfort they already know. This doesn't mean that I wish every child to be born to poverty or drug abusing parents or worse. My wish would be that all children are born to good families, with plenty to eat, clothes to wear and parents who love them with all their heart. But G-d has given all people free will for a reason and that is so that they can decide whether or not they want to bring children into this world. And for those people who bring children into this world "by accident, " well G-d has a plan for this world and all who are in it. Just because we don't understand everything that happens in this world doesn't mean there isn't a reason for it. For those things we must rely on whatever we believe gets us through, be it G-d, Fate, or something else.

Organics revisited

Well I have been meaning to do a follow up for sometime now and tonight is as good as any. In my last blog I briefly mentioned that we had taken a leap to the dark side and are now almost 100% organic. This does not include going out to eat, the Brooklyn Bakery (probably the best bakery in all of Israel because it is American style!), and a few occasional treats. We have been doing this for about 4 weeks now and I have made a lot of disoveries in the process.

The Pro's are that everything tastes better. The spices have more zip, the bread is wheatie and crunchy with flax seed and nuts, the chicken looks like chicken and has not been man handled into oblivion and tastes like....chicken! The fruit is sweeter and I don't have scrub all the pesticides off. I can just make sure they are dirt free! And futher more, the kids eat almost all of it. The only things they have vetoed are the plain yogurt and the whole wheat crackers. We nixed the yogurt and I keep the crackers. The granolas bars are awesome and I have staked claim to them as there are only 6 to a box and D only gets them when I am feeling generous and the kids don't even think to ask as they know these are Eema's breakfast!

I also like that I don't have to worry about all the hidden sugar, what is there is minimal and is plainly stated. There are no "natural flavorings" to hide sugar in.

The fact that certain individuals in the family have better behavior when they are not hopped up on additives and sugar.

I am learning to make everything from scratch.

I get my groceries delivered right to my door!

The downside:
Cost, cost, cost........but I am getting used to it and since D is doing some tutoring on the side right now it is not affecting our budget.

I have to make everything from scratch. More time, mess and energy and it sucks what little creativity I have right up! This also means that when I miss calculate how much everyone will eat, we get anarchy when there is not enough. Fortunately we have our handy back up of peanutbutter sandwhiches.

I feel like I am living my life in the kitchen.

So really the pros' much outweigh the cons'. I never thought I would go organic, but the benefits have been really rewarding. We have also been discussing the reason for the costs, which is that because pesticides and cheap fillers are not being used, there is higher risk and greater loss in the fresh produce and with products like cookies, etc. You have the fact that their costs are higher, but also that you can't sneak in cheap subsidized fillers so it costs more to use real ingredients. And since I feel that I am living in the kitchen I am going to take a lesson from a friend of mine and make all the meals in one night freeze it and re-heat at meal time. She used to do this when she worked full time and the kids were little. This way she always came home to fresh home cooked meals with out the exhaustion and mess. Now her kids are older and can help out more so they make it as they go. I have done this to some extent already on and off and when I do it, it works great! My favorite is with pancakes. I have given up cold cereal since the kids can eat like 2-3 bowls in one sitting and be hungry in an hour. Not worth the cost or the time. We now do oatmeal and pancakes. When the pancakes are pre-made they heat up quick and the clean up is minimal. With oatmeal I don't do it ahead of time, but it does heat up quickly and it is filling. Although I am thinking of keeping cold cereal for Shabbat as a treat. Overall, I am proud of myself for making the effort to switch eating habits, but I have a long way to go as sometimes our meals are smaller. I think pre-making things will help that though.

What we have discovered is that despite ourselves, we are now part of the elite food snobs. It makes us sound more elitist now that, "we keep organic...." It really is not something we do because we think it is, "the only way" we do it because it is tastier and because it is one more way to stay one up on the kids! And truly that is the bottome line isn't it! ;)

*Disclaimer: Note to all of you who tend to send us junk food from time to time, please don't think we have given up all our bad habits. While we are trying to shield the kids from the dangers of horribly processed mystery food, we figure it is too late for us!

In other food news, for those of you who know me well, you know I am a peanut butter addict and that when I am preggers I can keep Skippy operating all on my own. Well it would seem that the peanut butter gene has been passed to M. If ever there is a tub of peanut butter within' her grasp she will stick her hand in and start scooping it out in globs. Last week she got to the end of the tub while I was in the kitchen cleaning up. She looked about like Winnie the Pooh with his head stuck in the honey jar, only she had her whole hand in there and peanut butter from head to toe! Like mother like daughter!

PG Tips

I have now discoverd why the English are so bent on their tea. It is what coffee and beer are to those of the Pacific Northwest. For ages I have avoided caffeine because it is usually causes a host of unpleasan side affects. However, the majority of the population in my husband's Kollel is British and boy do they know tea. For months he had been raving about it and guarding his stash, a gift from a friend, like an Oregonian with a latte. Well after a sleepless night with the kids I had to try it. Wow! Thank you G_d! I could function again! That was Tetley's, you know the one they advertise as a party gift to the losers on Jeopardy. Well let me tell you, that is no loser parting gift, I was thinking I would love to be a loser on that show just to get a year's supply of it! And then we had friends bring us back tea after a visit home to England. They brought us PG Tips, now think double latte instead of single. This tea company is the Starbucks of the Northwest, including their own line of merchandise. The glorious thing about PG Tips is that it has all the caffeine I could ever need, brews in 5 minutes start to finish and doesn't require a fancy machine. Add whole milk and sugar and you have an instant buzz that will last at least until 2 or 3:00p at which time I switch to chai tea which only has half the caffeine. The downside to this nirvana, we can't find it here. We have to get our fix direct from England. This means begging our beloved British friends to bring us back a stash everytime they go. Now two weeks later we are down to single digit numbers and trying to find our next hit. After all those years of learning about the Boston Tea Party I now understand why the Brits were so ticked when their tea was dumped over board! If someone dumped my PG Tips in the ocean I would want to shoot them too!

The Festival of Lights

This year Chanukkah for us seems to be pretty rushed. Hurry up and light, open gifts, eat and get the kids to bed. At around 4:30p we can already hear the Lone Ranger music playing mentally in the background as we try to get everything done with out a melt down. But last night we had a moment of peace. We went our for pizza as a special treat for Channukah and for the first day of the new hebrew month. On the way home we stopped to look at all the Menorahs (Chanukkiah) lit in the windows and in door way entrances. It is traditional for a Channukiah to be lit in a window or in the entrance of a door so that all can see it who pass by. Since we live in Jerusalem and there are numerous aparment buildings, one tradition is to place the Menorah at the entrance of the apartment building, each family having their own and it is put in a glass case kind of like a fancy aquarium. People also put them in their windows too. Some families also have a tradition of lighting one Menorah for each member of the family so one window can be crowded by 6 or 7 or more Channukiahs. Walking home it was so peaceful and beautiful to see all the lights glowing and seeing families gathered around lighting candles. S and I had fun looking to see who could find the next place with a Chanukkiah in it. It reminded me of all the years of going to look at holiday lights with my family back home. Jerusalem is such a busy place but it seemed for just that moment in time that all was still and peaceful and pure. Happy Holidays no matter what you celebrate!

This and that and all that jazz!

Well we have had a lot going on and nothing all at the same time. I can't seem to remember what I want to write about when I have time so I am going to try and force it out of my head now. First of all November started out with a visit from my in-laws which went very well. D and I got to go out on a real date to a real restaraunt with no kids! Needless to say there were a lot of jokes before we left the house! I told them it was like being in high school again, asking if we can go out on a date and asking how late we can be out! It worked out really well though, Grammy and S made pancakes for dinner and the kids settled down and went to sleep nicely. M spent the whole time camped in the rocking chair with grandpa have long talks and reading stories. It was really sweet and S had a great time playing pirates with Grammy on the back porch. I think she did great at keeping up.

Lately we have had a lot of Shabbos guests and D is building a radio with our friend SB's daughter for a school project so we get to see them every week! M is in love with their little dog Fritz. He is 6mo. old approx. and he and M play so cute together! She squeaks when he is there and gets all excited.

In other news we have totally gone organic. Yes, I know this is shocking after my last post on the topic, but I have to admit, S's behavior is ultimately so much better after we chopped the sugar and switched. We are not purists as I did mention we went for donuts for first night Channukah and I do buy other treats when occasion calls for it, but over all we are doing organic and I have to say, if nothing else, it takes so much better! The flavors are much stronger and I love being able to just rinse the fruits and veggies with out wondering if I got all the pesticides off.

OK it is 3:00am and I can't remember anything else about anything else! Happy Hannukah!

Our little Diva!

M is becoming our little fashion diva lately. She now is very specific on what she wears and won't get dressed unless it is what she wants to wear. The other day I went to put her in a dress that she just would not wear. I gave her two choices, she could either get dressed and come with us to get donuts for first night Chanukkah or she could stay home with abba. Both were met with a "nah" which means no. And I am sure I heard a "I don wanna! "Then she got up and walked out of the room. So out of frustration I said, "Do you want to wear a new dress?" (I had been saving this since it is a size 2) To this she turns right around comes back in and gets dressed! I even took pictures. Today she would only wear jeans and a short sleeve button down shirt. I have to admit for 1 & 1/2 she has good taste! I hope it lasts.