Winter Wonderland Continues....

OK, it is Thursday night and I am back at it again! To be fair, M was crying because she was cold last night and settled right down once she was in bed with us. The snowy weather continued today. Although today it was mostly sunny skies, just cold, but the snow did start melting. :( I managed to get the twins into S's old shoes today so we could all go out and enjoy the snow. Yes, I do have more photos. We just stayed on our block but we were out for about another half hour today. It was really pretty today. M kept eating the snow, she reminded me of my sister! S had a snow ball fight with the neighbor boys and it was very cute. Y just took it all in as is his nature. They did manage to get busses going today, although I have no idea what stores were open if any, beyond the grocery stores and makolets (local neighborhood stores.) I did go out and do my weekly shopping today and it went fine. No, major gaps in the shelves, etc. They were out of a few things, but not surprising on a Thursday evening.

So in continuation of my goals from last night, I finally decided that if I never put into writing the things I wanted to do, I would have no hope of every accomplishing them. But if it is in writing, then I have a list that I can refer to and I can check things off when I finish them. Although I am not such an organized person, when I do finally make lists, I love having them and love seeing my chores/goals crossed off and completed. So I created my lists in hopes that as I refer back to them I will force myself to take more time to pursue my goals so that I can check them off my list. It is a silly way of doing things, but hey we all gotta have a goal right? It is 10:37pm here and I have lost all train of thought. Perhaps it will come back at a later date. A good day/night to all.

Walkin' In a Winter Wonderland.......

That is a sentence I never thought I would use here in Israel, but sure enough it happened! It all just goes to show that the old saying, "never say never, " is true. This morning we woke up at 9:00am to a suprise visit from the snow fairy! Apparantly it had only started snowing at 8:00am, but it was perfect timing for us. We usually never sleep so late, but I guess we must have all sensed that today was a good day to sleep in! D still went into Kollel today, but he went late and brought a couple of friends home for lunch to eat in a warm heated house instead of at the Kollel. Today was a B.Y.O.H (Bring your own heater) day. Most apts. in Israel do not have central heating. Thank you G-d, we do! We are really using it!

To say that Jerusalem is not prepared for snow is an understatement! Everyone is in a panic and apparantly people have been at the stores stocking up like mad for the "big storm." We have had about 6 inche of snow and it looks about like East County (Multnomah County, Gresham, Oregon, U.S.A.) when they get a dusting there. Slushy side roads but clear main roads and side walks filled with wet slushy stuff and lots of mud puddles. Now the response here in Jerusalem to a forecast of snow: school was closed early yesterday (Tuesday) before a flake even touched the ground just because it was a possibility. Today all cars have been asked to stay off the road unless absolutely necessary to go out, there are no busses running today, period; and the taxis although out, are few and far between. Also, all major businesses were closed except grocery stores and mini marts. You would think we were in the mild of a midwest blizzard! Although to be fair the winds are pretty strong and we did see a few downed trees.

Our friend Av has been staying with us this past month as she just got back into the country the end of December. So she helped me bundle of the kids and take them out. We took Y and M out while S got himself ready. We layered them up as much as possible then put plastic bags on their feet. They lasted about 10min, long enough to experience snow and for me to get pictures. I then took S up to the park where we saw a few snowmen and even one with a carrot nose! S loved it and we even took pictures of it. We, and by that I mean, I built a very small baby snowman and then used rocks for eyes and a seed pod for the nose. And although I did not think he was so impressed by it, later I heard him telling his grammy all about it. He also wanted to build a big one but then got distracted by the play equipment which is a big structure made out to be a ship. All in all we lasted about a half hour which is pretty good considering it was raining and we were in tennis shoes. Tonight Av and I went for a walk and it was really pretty to see all the snow on the ground. It deffinitely brought back memories of home and all the cold snowy nights we spent laying bed praying that the snow would last long enough for school to be canceled for the next week!

Since I am up blogging I will take the opportunity to catch up from the past month. I really wanted to do a nice begining of 2008 thoughtful blog, but time and energy seem to be lacking although I did start one. I think it might even be a whole 8 lines. So instead I will try to do a breeze through now.

The end of Dec. Av arrived to stay with us after officialy making Aliyah(becoming an Israeli citizen). She has been a huge help and we have all enjoyed her company even if she does keep reminding us that at the young age of 34+ we are deffinitely "OLD"! When did that happen? We often get a laugh when we are talking about movies and realizing that what she saw at 13 we saw at 28.......wah, wah, wah......But seriously we enjoy having her here and it is working fine. She may be moving in a week and we will miss her, but we also understand the need for her to be on her own and not wanting to live with three wild indians and their chieftans all the time!

The begining of the New Year has had me thinking of goals and life and milestones. Some of this had to do with sitting in a government office for an hour by myself. Hey anything to pass the time!
So I finally decided to make a list of anything I ever wanted to do and catergorized them into long term and short term goals. Like I said, I had a lot of time on my hands. So one of the things I wanted to do was learn how to knit. And guess what? I started! My friend M taught me about two weeks ago and I am trying to find time to work on it. I think I have 8 lines done! I am hoping it will be a scarf for S, if I keep going at the current rate I am sure it will be ready by next winter! The other thing I am doing now is reading Wicked. Although this was not a goal, it is something I started last October, as in 2006, but could not seem to stay awake through. It might have had something to do with being sleep deprived and dealing with 6mo. old twins and a toddler. I am excited to find that it is much better now that I can stay awake! I am also relieved to see that I can still read a book that is considered an actual novel and not just a 200 hundred page romance/mystery novel. I was begining to worry about myself and my intelligence level.... I am about half way through and really enjoying it. It is really interesting to see all the thought that Gregory Maguire(the author) put into this additional story of the Wizard of Oz. I know some of it comes from the entire series by L. Frank Baum, but some is pure creative liscensing from the author and I like it. Speaking of thoughts I will save mine for another time as I have a fussy M right now! No rest for the weary mother of a busy crew!

Weather Report

It Snowed! Hopefully photos will follow!

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.

Hacked!!

My email address was hacked and taken away by scammers, I am not in Canada or beset by robbers but if you still want to send $1200 call me and get my real life address!! You would not belive the number the phone calls I have received from old friends all over the world. Just know dont send any more emails to my yahoo account since I cant get in and some scumbag will read them instead
(posted by D by order of A)

Here is the text of the scam email:

Hi,
I am in a hurry writing you this message,Cos i don't have much time on the pc here,so i have to brief you my present situation which requires your urgent response..Actually, I had a trip to canada two days ago but unfortunately for me all my money got stolen at the hotel where i lodged due to a robbery incident that happened in the hotel.I had been so restless since last night cos i have been without any money i am even oweing the hotel here as well moreover the Hotel's telephone lines here got dissconnected by the robbers and they are trying to get them fixed back.I have access to only emails at the library because my mobile cant work here so i didnt bring it along,please i want you to help me with money so please can you send me $1200 so i can return back i would refund it back to you as soon as i get home,I am so confused right now and dont know what to do,you can have it sent through western union but My passport is with the Embassy here so not sure if i can use my name to collect it now,But you can send it directly to the western union manager here and i would get it through her, I have already spoken to her,so will get it immediately its sent but let me know if you can helpme then i will make findings.please let me hear from you so i can collect her full name and address where you can send the money to today please.Its really urgent for me as i dont know what to do right now than to leave here soonest you send it to me and i'll pay you back immediately i get home..Thanks alot for your kindness,
I will really appreciate your quick response.

Alina

Getting Dressed

I have no time to write and am way behind, but had to put this down before it is forgotten. S is of the age now where he wants to pick what to wear. This has been going on for a year or so and often the end result are the strange looks we get from people who wonder, "who is dressing that kid?!" Most of you know that our kid wears a hat and coat no matter what the weather, even in the middle of summer and he refuses to wear shorts. This has nothing to do with the neighborhood we live in. All the kids here wear shorts. We have decided this is because he wants to dress like D, who doesn't wear shorts because he spends most of his time in Kollel wear shorts are not appropriate. So what is the latest? Grammy D got him a Thomas outfit. Shorts overalls with matching shirt. I told her I didn't know if he would wear it, but bring it along and we will see what happens. So earlier this month when they were here, she brought is along. She took it out, got him all excited, cut the tags and we put it on. Wow, he was so excited sporting that new outfit! Then he looked down...."I need pants!" he said. So now he wears his Thomas shorts overalls with long pants over them. We need to take lots of pictures so we can post them at his Bar Mitzvah! And people look at us like we are crazy! We try to explain that it is not our fault, but who are you going to believe an almost 4 year old, or his parents!

Violation of My Personal Space!

It is 1:30am here and I have been up at a friend's house cooking and getting our meals ready for Shabbat. Only the top element in our oven currently works so I have been using a friend's oven to cook. So tonight when I went to put in the chicken we got the idea to cook together it was really fun. So how was I rewarded for being prepared and not leaving everything to the last minute? There was a SNAKE on our front stairs. At first I did not notice as it was well concealed just the tail hung out and I was hopeful that it was a shoelace, then I looked from up above at the top of the stairs as it was second from the top and I still just could not decide. Finaly I did what any rational person would do, I went in and made my husband get dressed and go dispose of the little beast! Fortunately he was awake. I told him it was either a shoe lace or a snake and he better get out there and take care of it! He did not like the idea of getting dressed for a shoelace, but when I went out again it was moving! Oh Yucky! My space has been invaded by a small, scaly, creature with no fur and no feet! My kids play on those stairs! They play on that walk way! How am I supposed to relax out there when some slithering creepy crawly could be slurking aournd! Now D pushed that snake off the stairs and into the property below, however, it had the nerve to climb the stairs! I have no idea where it might be now. And to make matters worse I still had to make a second trip back to my friend M.St. to retrieve the rest of my cooking. I was so scared of running into that little wee beastie, let me tell you! Fortunately Frankie the cat has befriended us and do you know when we called him, because we wanted him to kill the wretched creature, he came! And he was standing guard at the top of the stairs when I came back. I have always been a bit annoyed with Frankie because he is always pestering us, but maybe Frankie is not so bad after all. I hav been totally violated and I am holding the snake 100% responsible for that. Maybe not that I have written about it I can sleep. They say that writing is good therapy. But I am still traumatized! Icky! Icky! Yucky!!!!!!!!

The Human Race

I have a lot of catching up to do, but I am not sure I have the energy tonight. So before this becomes completely irrelevant I want to get it posted. In my last blog I mentioned we came back from a weekend stay in Beit Shemesh and we all had a little bug. Well that was not to be then end of our sick days. In fact we would all be collectively sick for about 2 weeks! A few days after we came back from Beit Shemesh I came down with Mastisitis or a plugged milk duct. I woke up on that Wed. morning at 3:00am with chills and sore milk duct area. Once D figured out how bad I was we were up at the urgent care in minutes. Fortunately we live minutes from even walking. We asked the neighbors to watch our kids. I got sick on the final days of High Holidays at the begining of Simchat Torah. This where my commentary on the human race comes in. The urgent care unit is completely run by Arabs so that Jews don't have to work during the holidays. The same is true on Shabbat. In this day and age there is obviously a lot of tension between Jews and Arabs. It has been an on going war for the last 3,000 years or so and I don't imagine that Condoleza Rice or the Bush Administration can really solve these issues in a few summit meetings. Come on folks this isn't Scooby Doo, mystery sovled in 20 min.! So I was amazed that my medical care would be from "the opposition." The medical care there was excellent. I wound up having to go up every 8 hours for an anti-biotic I.V. drip from Wed. until Sunday AM. I had the same doctor for all but two of those visits. That man worked hard and played to a full house! In the evening after the holiday ended and right before Shabbat and right after there was no room to even wait in the waiting room it was so full. Yet my doctor was very thorough and very respectful and very competent from the first visit until his last visit on shift. In the end my final wrap up came from a different doctor. I wish that this harmony that I witnessed in the Urgent Care could be the way the world runs. It was truly a melting pot of the human race. Jews, both religious and non-religious, Arabs, and people who did not fit either category. Yet, the staff, was courteous and respectful to everyone and each person got the same care and the same treatment. In the waiting room there was not seperate seating, everyone waited together and those who were the worst were offered seats by those who were capable of standing. While it is wonderful see that people shine the brightest under difficult circumstances, I wish that human beings would be that compassionate under the best of circumstances too.

Everything But the Kitchen Sink!

Basically this is a quick blog that covers our life in a nutshell over the last month. At the end of August we got moved into our new apartment. It is 4 doors down from where we were this summer. It saved in moving costs, but unfortunately it turns out it is also a temporary situation. When we agreed to move in we were warned that the owners were trying to sell, but they expected it to take a while, turns out they had a potential buyer before we could even move in. But we are here for 6 months. This gives us enough time to unpack, catch our breath and think about our next move. Otherwise, it is nice and S has two neighbor boys to play with. We still have not gotten him into school, a bit challenging for all involved, but we are making do. In between getting moved and settled we have been celebrating the High Holidays starting with Rosh Hashana and now we are preparing to end a month's worth of activities with Simchat Torah.

The High Holidays are always enjoyable but hectic. We go from holiday to Shabbat a few days to prepare for the next holiday and then it is Shabbas again. Rosh Hashana was great We had one couple who stayed by us from D's Kollel which was really nice. They are newly married and we had wanted to go the wedding but it was in England and out of our budget. It gave me time to get to know her and that was nice. We also had two other couples who were in and out. One was our regular friends from up the hill that we see regularly and the other couple, also in the Kollel live in Bet Shemesh and have an almost 3 and almost 1 yr. S. and the 3 year old girl got along great and we just spent this past Shabbas at their house. A welcome break for all of us. We spent the first days of Sukkos at home and then out to Bet Shemesh where we stayed until Sunday night and went to a concert. The concert was 2 days we just went to the first, and consisted of main stream religious bands. Think Amy Grant and the like. Really a lot of fun and free too! It was the first time D and I have been to something like this since we have been here and it was great to have another couple to hang out with.

Sukkos was also really nice this year. Since our back porch was too small for our Sukka we put it up in the parking lot, which just got lots of comments of "so your the ones with the sukkah up there..." but nobody minded. It just meant a lot more running back and forth then we would have liked, but it was good exercise. We slept the first two nights out there, but then we were out in Beit Shemesh and then we got a little bug so that was that. But the night before I took S to Geula a religious neighborhood in Jerusalem so we could check out all the vendors selling Sukkah decorations it is a lot like checking out Chirstmas decorations in the season. It was really neat. Sukkot is really the decorating holiday, but instead of a tree we do a whole sukkah. One of these days I want to put up some of my old Christmas ornaments. I had my Cotton Bowl ornament already to go until somebody who shal remain nameless, but has the initials SJ broke it! Grrrrr....... In perspective it is just an ornament but still......I made him feel really guilty. Worked better than yelling or otherwise.

D is home one more week so I will try to get as much done as possible in catching up with chores and recovering from the holidays. Then we will be getting ready for my in-laws to come at the end of the month.

The kids are doing well all things considered and we are happy that S has friends on the block to play with. Although he tends to wander off and the other two boys are quite good at staying in their boundaries. The good thing is they tend to let me know when he has wandered off yet again. The good thing is he knows where he is going and I know where he goes and he usually comes back right away so we are just trying to be patient. And I do mean "Trying"! or maybe he is just trying my patience.........

Y is learning to use a spoon and should be feeding himself soon! At least that is what I am hoping for! He continues to be a whirling dirvish and a busy boy and his curls are growing in nicely. We have posted our latest picks so if you need the link again contact me off line.

M is up and running and very proud of her new found independance. She loves stairs and I have to watch her like a hawk when we are outside as she will head for the stairs up to the parking lot.

I think that covers everything up until now and I will hopefully be back on line more regularly with regular events and updates.

More on Veggies.....

I bet you all think you are pretty smart and think you know where carrots come from. So did we until S informed us that we were wrong! We were recently having a dinner discussion and D asked S, "where do carrots come from?" S: "From the rabbit!" We of course assumed that he got this from one of his stories where a rabbit sells carrots, or who knows! No we explained, they come from the ground. Then Av who was having dinner with us said, " He means in Winnie the Pooh!" " Oh of course!" We said! Because in Winnie the Pooh who grows the carrots, Rabbit! So while all of you people out there really thought carrots came from the ground, rest assured that you are wrong! According to S, they come from Rabbit and he won't be convinced otherwise!

In other news, the million dollar question has been answered. But we still don't have a million dollars. However, we do have a 6 mo. lease on a 3.5 bedroom 1.5 bath apt.! Hurray! It even has a nice big porch, known as a mirpeset in Israel. Although they are trying to sell and the lease will go in 6mo. increments, we feel this will give us time to find something more permanent in the neighborhood which is totally full right now. In fact the entire Jerusalem area is full and the only stuff available is the stuff that nobody wants! So for at least the next 6mo. we know we have good neighbors, a good landlord and a good place to be. And the great thing is, it is about 4 doors down from where we are now, so no moving van needed! And we get to keep enjoying all the things that we liked about living here over the summer!

Just a little up date!

Just wanted to let you all know that our Princess Puff Puff is walking! Hurray! She has been working on it for about 2 weeks now, but over Shabbat this week she really got it down. She is still not %100 like Y, but she is doing pretty good! They are getting so big! Yesterday in an act of desperation I took out the blow up pool and let the kids go for it. They had a blast. Although I learned my lesson, must have swimmy diapers on at all times! I thought I would let them go free, no, big mess! Very bad idea! I had been putting off taking out the pool as I did not think it would fit on our "front porch" (I use this term very loosely. ) And I was right, it didn't, but it fit just enough and the neighbors downstairs did not mind a little water coming down. In fact it seems we even can use some of the space downstairs for it, but having it upstairs lets me do more and still keep an eye on them. We are in the middle of a horrid heat wave that is making us all think about praying for snow! So I think we will be keeping the pool filled this week until it settles down.

The Great Organic Race

I have been sitting on this thought for a while and now I am up at 1:00am waiting for a reply to an e-mail so I thought I would dive in!

What is it with people who only eat organic food? Now, I don't look down on this and in fact, I the junk food junkie queen, am trying to get my family to eat better these days. On Shabbat just about everything I make is from scratch, right down to our challah! (pause for applause, thank you yes, I know it is amazing considering there was a time I thought making a cake from scratch meant making it from a better crocker box instead of buying it at the store!) So anyway, now I am trying to do this more during the week. This week I am going to attempt to make our bread from scratch instead of store bought. We will see how it goes. But what I have discovered is that my attempts at healthy eating are quite feeble in fact. It seems that white sugar and plain white flour are just not good enough. We must eat whole wheat flour, whole wheat pasta :p, only fresh organic veggies will do, not just your average run of the mill fresh veggies, organic light brown sugar, etc. In fact it seems to go so far that if I buy fresh squeezed Orange Juice from a grocery store this is only second rate to doing it at home myself. Now that is true, but lets face it with three little kids cruising the joint, I am not sure I am up for it on a daily basis. I feel like everyone has to prove that they are more organic than the next person. It is like the great "arms race" of the '80's where each country had to prove that they were more armed than the next guy. I understand people with allergies to additives, or gluten, or soy, and so on, some people really do have to be really careful, but don't look at me like a Neanderthal just because I am still buying my orange juice in a container instead of doing it myself!
The other things that gets me is the cost. Here is something that has no pesticides, no additives, no preservatives, but costs 3 times more than the "junk!" Can someone please explain this to me! To buy 1 kilo (2.2lbs) of organic flour costs 16 shekel about $3.80 U.S. To buy 1 kilo of white regular old flour costs 3 shekel or about .70 cents. Does it really make that big of a difference, am I really going to feel better, look better, because I spent $4.00 on flour instead of .70 cents. Perhaps someone in the organic world can explain this to me. And save the pesticide speech, yes, I know they can be nasty but that is what soap and water are for!

What is Kollel?

We frequently get asked about what we are doing here and what D does and when does the program end etc. Since Kollel is a pretty foreign idea to the average person we have always just said, well there is no set time and D could go in many directions and left it at that. Well today, thanks to Wikipedia, I have a real answer. I am cutting and pasting in the Wikipedia definition in, but there is definitely more information there than I am giving. So without further ado here is the Wikipedia definition of Kollel: A kollel (Hebrew: כולל; "a gathering/collection [of scholars]") is an institute for advanced studies of the Talmud and of rabbinic literature for Jewish adults, essentially a yeshiva which pays married men a regular monthly stipend or annual salary (and/or provides housing and meals) to study Judaism's classic texts in depth. The plural in Hebrew is kollelim. I feel that this is a pretty accurate description and will give everyone a better sense of what D is doing here.

As for what I am doing here, well, I think from the blog that is pretty obvious, I am keeping a trim figure by running after 3 very busy rugrats all day! And by the way our Princess Puff Puff is in the process of learning how to walk and is taking a few more steps every day! This means I will now be running in 3 directions on our zoo outings soon instead of 2!

We're still here!

Just wanted to post a quick note to let the world kow that we are still here. I am not sure where our days are going but they are going in a hurry. There are so many times I have gone to blog and I am too tired. Today is one of those days, but since it has been a few weeks I decided it is time.

Last week we finally made it to the zoo again and on a Tues. unfortunately our homeschool friends were not there and by the time we left the zoo I was ready to leave my kids there. S was all over the place, Y wanted to walk because he can now and suffice to say I was frequently running in two directions to collect kids. Malki was the only one that I willing allowed to come home. Getting home was an adventure all together. Since everyone was on vacation last week, the busses going home were packed! One after the other filling up until the last two busses arrived and neither went to our neighborhood. So here I am standing in the dark with 3 kids and a handful of people who are waiting for rides or pre-arranged taxis in Timbuktu. Fortunately we were able to catch a taxi home, it cost us 45 shekel which is around $10 U.S. then we were so tired that we bought a pizza for dinner. So much for our cheap day out!

Sunday evening we left the kids home with Av and went to a bat mitzvah for NB the daughter of our good friend SB. It was at a park and we saw all of our friends from the bookstore and a few others. The park was way cool and we went on a tour via tram and made two stops, one at a1500 year old wine press and the other at an olive press, I am not sure how old. It was a really nice evening. It also gave a chance to say good-bye to B&I who are headed back to the States after 3 years here. We will miss them at Sukkot as they usually come to us.

Monday morning first thing we had a brit milah for some friends of ours that we know from Portland. It was very nice and afterward we all came home and crashed.

Tues. D and I got a mini-date while we left the kids at home with a friend so we could run out and vote within our political party. D and I are registered with Likud and we wanted to make sure our vote was cast. Unfotunately Netanyahu won. We were tired, did not want to go out late at night, and we knew our candidate did not stand to win, but in Israel every vote counts and out we went. Even though our candidate lost, I am glad we went and did our duty. It was also interesting to be out at that time of night. I am sure this city never sleeps! We were out at 11:00p and people were still coming into vote and there was major traffic. It was crazy. No wonder we can't go to bed at a reasonable hour. It is too busy here!

Thurs. after 2.5 days in the house I took the kids to the post office to get a package from their wonderful Aunt S and then we took the bus to the mall where they have had little rides up for the summer. I put all three kids on little cars that were connected and run on a track. So of course to S it was a train. A good time was had by all until it was time to head to the grocery store. After surviving the grocery store we headed home, until the stoller broke and here I was with 3 little kids and $80 worth of groceries. Does the fun never end?! So we much to S's excitement we got to take another taxi home. Fortunately it was much cheaper than the zoo.

So here it is Friday and this past week feels like a month and yesterday feels like 3 days. We are having Av and friend for Shabbat the first time we have had company all summer and I hope it goes well. Actually with Av here, hopefully we will get some rest!

Houston we have arrived!

Well, we have arrived at a new level of parenting anyway. I am excited to announce that Y is a walking fool now, hurray! And M took her first real steps on Thurs. at then park when we were taking a break from helping our friend Am and hubby move. What is really great is that they can now climb up the stairs! This means that I have less trips up and down the stairs when getting everything into the house, especially after a trip to the grocery store.

Otherwise, not much is new on the scene here. We are enjoying D being on vacation and have been to a couple of different parks and one outing and that is it. Despite the mobility of *Prince Puckler and Princess Puff Puff, it is still rough to get everyone out the door. S is our busy boy, but does help supervise the troops and is sure to let us know when something is amiss, usually with a loud "Nooooooo!" which alerts us to that A) someone is into something they should not be OR B) Someone has encroached on the sacred Thomas the Tank Engine Trains! But he does love his siblings and on occasion they even play nicely together.

*Prince Puckler-Ice Cream store in Eugene known as Prince Puckler's with the best chocolate raspberry ice cream I have ever had. It was a little family owned place and the ice cream was so creamy.....Yum!