A very long short Pesach update

Sometimes it takes many years for some ideas to take root and become actualized.  I think that this year I caught a little bit of the Pesach liberating spirit, touched that breaking out of our self -imposed limitations feeling,  came to terms with the idea that setbacks are also part and parcel of the ultimate redemption.  Cleaning and organizing and crashing and coming back again to enjoy the seder.  Somehow, over the years despite the lack of time for in depth study, the words of the Haggadah itself became more meaningful and more immediate. Spending time with kids, going on outings, realizing it's just too much right now and we really need to rethink our Chol Hamoed family outing policy.  Beautiful vistas, stretches of azure skies and hills and trees and happy muddy children.   So idyllic in many ways, I've got pictures to prove it, but tired and irritable mother and an exhausted father. Sigh.  But tomorrow is another day.  So for today -happy, energetic, ready to go children.  We decided to implement a different strategy.  Dh took the bigger four on a trip and I stayed home with the babies.  Dh and the bigger ones really enjoyed the outing minus the difficulties of juggling infants and a very energetic headstrong toddler.  And I, I was a little sad to not be able to go but I really appreciated the time just with the little ones, finally getting some relatively undivided attention.  So, sunny skies, birds overhead, babies swinging in a hammock in a gentle breeze, a toddler collecting twigs and riding around me, a sweet, almost heady smell of some blossoms from as of yet unidentified tree (looks like some sort of an ash) and some sure knowledge of being where one should be.  It's been a marathon of cooking and trying to balance everyone's needs and wants and still get that special feeling that each holiday brings and not lose that special something that each holiday brings.   Yes, I think I've got some of that liberating Pesach spirit, by slowly changing things to shape a life I should really be living.  Thank G-d.  And tomorrow is another day with its' ups and downs,  its' joys and disappointments, its infinite potential for something special and holy and meaningful, something too good to lose to crankiness and pettiness.  So I'll try to pass that part over and skip into the day that I'd like it to be, one little change at a time.

Making it

When my older children were small,  we used to do a lot of craft projects together.  Nothing fancy but it was a regular and generally enjoyable feature of our days.  These days, there is a lot of free style coloring, drawing, painting, cutting and pasting, clay modeling, etc. Eventually, I do hope to get more organized art lessons but for now this model works for us.  What I do want to focus on right now with the kids, are more practical DIY type projects.  I really like those type of projects myself and children take great pride in making useful things for themselves or for the family.  For example, we made this liquid soap together the other day.  It was a relatively short and easy project with something for everyone to do.  Everyone four years old and up participated by either grating the soap, pouring and/or mixing and now usually when given a choice they hands down prefer to use "their" soap.  We also experimented with making jello flavored with ices (based on this recipe) and again the kids participated in the making, the eating and brainstorming for future improvements. So why do I favor these practical projects other than some unrequited nesting instinct still left over from this past pregnancy or the fact that quite a few educational philosophies such as Charlotte Mason and Montessori recommend purposeful activities?  A few reasons really.  One, this is a good way to teach practical skills.  Two, it helps kids and adults to snap out of today's consumerism oriented mentality and into a more producing oriented one.  Three, it teaches appreciation of the simple things in life and the simple ways one can enrich his life and that of others.  It teaches resourcefulness and creativity with what one has and gives one a sense of true accomplishment based on doing rather than owning.  It helps one to reconnect with one's humanity as creative beings we were meant to be. Something that I feel, our great dependence on gadgetry and convenience deprives us of.  And besides everything else, it allows us to do things as a family, further increasing the family cohesiveness and creating a life that is uniquely our own.  So I am really hoping we will be making things here, simple things that don't require too much time necessarily or extravagant ingredients.  These days when everything tends to be commercialized including the simple living and healthy choices, it's really amazing what one can make at home with just a few basic skills.  I think it's a gift I would very much want to give our children, the ability and the privilege to be a producer, to make and to make do, to not be excessively influenced by the world around them to their detriment.  I thinks, especially with Pesach(Passover) coming up, a holiday of freedom, this is an important lesson that will make them free in a higher sense.   G-d willing, I'll write about specific projects I have in mind in the near future.

The goings on

It was an odd kind of a week.  The big kids just didn't seem to be able to settle down to doing their work but we got some basics done. Lots of informal learning though.   I am finally getting to spend some good quality time with the younger kids.   Ds1.5 is really into books all of a sudden.  It is so sweet to watch him play and grow.  Come to think of it, I had some good individual quality times with the older ones as well.  The big boys had their Tae Kwan Do test for the next belt.  It's been very good for them on so many levels - coordination, discipline, etc.  They have a great teacher who really coaches the kids and helps them succeed and learn important life skills like respect, discipline and self defense.  The weather was beautiful and we got to spend some lovely times outside.  We got a little bit of nature study in, when we identified some plants from my medicinal local plants guide in our yard, but more on that later.  There were a few very foggy overwhelming exhausting days.  We made some lists and started getting things for Pesach(Passover).  We are looking forward to the holiday.   The news from Toulouse, France where four innocent Jews, including three children HY"D were murdered was horrifying.  Whenever I hear the word Jew in the same sentence as France,  I just want to scream LEAVE!!! Alas, Europe hasn't changed much.  It's sad, this growing antisemitism, sad but not shocking.  Then, Rav Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg passed away,  a really great person, and while he is undoubtedly in a very good place, it's very sad for those left behind.  Otherwise, the kids had a great time collecting most of the remaining lemons from our tree.  Those lemons smell like heaven.   I see a lot of lemonade in our future and perhaps this citrus cleaner.  Some day when we have a garden of our own, I really hope we'll plant some more fruit trees.  I got some dry erase markers and the kids ( everyone above the age of 1) had a wonderful time writing and drawing on our glass doors, no need for a white board.  I am thinking that using the same idea, one can use a picture frame with glass, insert a page of writing or a picture for tracing and have the little ones practice.   I could never figure out what makes any given Erev Shabbos either wonderful or terrible.  But this one was a dream, B"H.   The babies slept, so we didn't have to juggle crying babies with the frenzied  preparations. Everyone got to help make something.  We baked.  We made mayonnaise again - a recent DIY successful experiment.  I have a long list( too many) of different DIY projects to do with the kids in the coming weeks,  I really hope we'll get to at least some of them.  And so it goes - lots going on, too little writing, perhaps too much planning, hopefully more actual doing and just taking it one day at a time.  Thank G-d!

On the way to Tel Aviv

Last week we had to go to Tel Aviv to take care of some business.   I love watching the scenery out the window.  It's just amazing.  We were in a bit of a hurry and I forgot my camera but I'll describe what I saw.  I have taken this same trip quite a few times and yet every time, it's an experience.  What one sees is a tapestry of very different things juxtaposed next to each other.  Bucolic scenery next to industrial type structures, archeological digs right in the middle of very ordinary surroundings, beautiful untouched wild spaces next to modern architecture and cultivated agricultural fields.   Orchards next to railroads,  ancient ruins next to modern buildings,  very Middle Eastern next to very Western.  And once one gets to Tel Aviv- old dilapidated buildings next to snazzy slick modern ones, religious and secular, old and new, tightly packed spaces and industrial architecture on one side and the gorgeous blue sea with sailboats placidly gliding in the sun on the other.  I looked up for a second, we were on Kibbutz Galiyot (Ingathering of Exiles) Blvd.  And it got me thinking that this kind of hodgepodge of very different elements in a small space reminds me of the current state of modern Israel.  Different people from different places, yet part of the same nation and with plenty in common. So much already built and so much that remains to be done.   All this in just a few years on the place where sand dunes used to be, amazing!  The Jewish people had come home.  Some things so beautiful and so perfect and some so far from perfection that it makes one's heart ache, some things so clear and some really perplexing.  Will it ever be fixed, will it ever get better, how much more and how much longer can the Jewish nation take it.    And then I remember, we are indeed on the Kibbutz Galiot Blvd.  It will be made right and beautiful and perfect and harmonious in the end.  G-d has His plan and He will get us where we need to go.

The goings on

It's been a very long while. I've been wanting to get back to writing here for so long.  B"H, we are settling into a rythm of sorts. We kept our home learning on the low burner, but kept with it all along, albeit on a very basic level -math, copywork, hebrew reading, writing, grammar and lots of informal learning.  I hope we'll be adding more things on as we get more into the swing of things, like history, geography and art for example.  When the weather is warm, the kids spend lots of time outside.  We are managing to fit in little projects here and there when we can.  We made liquid soap, baked hamantashen twice, made cute little bags out of old t-shirts among others.  I'll try to post some links for these when I can.  I have a year's worth (at least) backlog of things to write about, a very long list of projects to attempt, books to read, a house to organize, etc.  Thank G-d, a lot going on and so much to be grateful for. 

Seeing double

And so on one fine candle lit Friday night they arrived - two beautiful baby boys! Identical twins! After all the waiting and praying and hoping, here they were.  Two beautiful infants with starry eyes.  Two sweet heart shaped faces looking up at me. Two more babies to nurse, to cuddle and to rock.  Two voices calling for my attention.  Two new holy souls entering this world on a holy day.  Two new lights to illuminate our life.  These days my arms and my days are very,very full.  So much love, so much joy, yes, so much work.  Juggling these babies and all their siblings in graduated sizes and all the other things on the to do list:)  I really feel a whole lot more than doubly blessed.

The goings on

Oh, it's been a while!  There have been quite a few things going on here but writing informative blog posts just hasn't been one of them:)  Sigh.  I guess it's another thing to add to a very very long and probably, highly unrealistic postpartum plan list.  So here is a short synopsis of what we have been up to.  We finished Multiplication 2 and Division 2 of the Math Mammoth Series.  I think we'll need to do some more practice with the word problems just to keep up with the retention. I should go and look at the mathmammoth.com to see what's available as far as additional word problems are concerned.  We are continuing with the Italics cursive copywork and I am very happy we have waited a bit on the cursive front, because now it's going more smoothly and enjoyably than I think it would have gone had we tried earlier.  In geography, we covered various landforms  using some worksheets the link for which I need to find again.  We are continuing with Grammarland, which is very enjoyable but as far as getting enough practice, I think we'll need to follow up with something else in the future.  The boys are doing well with their hebrew reading, writing, grammar and are motivated to make quicker progress so we can move on to other more exciting and challenging things.  We did some good work on dictionary using skills with ds8.  Ds9 continues to read everything in sight and to my great delight ds8 is also beginning to show more signs in his progress towards independent reading.  I need to work on English reading with both of them and start some with the girls as well.  History and science have been happening frequently but in a very informal way.  Dh is very good with this kind of spontaneous teaching and these subjects just happen to be something that he really loves and it shows. We had many good discussions on many subjects and practical matters.  The boys are doing well in Tae Kwan Do.  Everyone has been spending a lot of time out of doors.  It is noticeably colder and it it's a full time job to make sure everyone doesn't forget to dress for the weather and is supplied with plenty of vitamin C and doesn't get such unnecessarily:) It has been perfect soup and tea weather and we have adjusted ourselves accordingly:) We celebrated Rosh Chodesh Kislev with brownies and sufganiot (jelly doughnuts) and a good time was had by all.  We had some great rain storms, something that all of us are very excited about, here in Israel where the rain season is pretty short.  It was wonderful just to sit and watch the downpours.   Equally exciting,  to see the leaves being twirled around by the wind and the birds frolicking around the yard.  All of the above gave me some ideas for future science/nature study explorations.  We read lots of Chanukah books and in general there has been regular reading aloud to the five and younger audience.  I need to get back to reading to the older kids more.  There has been a lot of kid inspired arts and crafts sessions.  Dd5 is making nice progress with her Hebrew printing and copying.  We have also started doing a little bit of more formal math with the younger set which makes them feel very grown up, because they too are now doing their work:)  In general, there were  a few things that I've would have loved to get to but I don't think are going to happen until I can manage more things physically such as art and organized crafting and other subjects that I would like to add in at least on occasion.  Those will just have to wait for the time being.  But I think most of the basics have gotten done even though  I had to keep our lessons a whole lot more structured than I would like in the long run, just to instill good discipline and good work habits and such.  I hope in the future we can introduce more unstructured learning time when I could just read to the kids and discuss and maybe reserve an official crafting day for us to do more projects together, something that I miss and I think they do too.  I've been reading a lot and making extensive lists of all the exciting projects I've found and ideas I've researched and promising looking books I saw recommended.  There are many posts waiting in the pipeline and Heaven only knows when they'll materialize, but here are a few I'd like to get to soon -Chanukah inspirations and projects, ruminations on a healthy diet, diy projects I'd like to get to sometime this year and other crafty links and thoughts and a whole bunch of great links on the subject of language arts that I have found and enjoyed recently.  So there is a lot to be grateful for and a lot to look forward to, life here is always full and overflowing and extremely busy- thank G-d.