A few more Succos inspirations for the future

When I was looking for interesting Sukkah decorating ideas, I came across an article here with different  traditional sukkah decorating ideas from Jewish communities from around the world throughout history, definitely something interesting to consider and something that might come in handy in the future sukkah decorating projects.  Also here is another creative sukkah decorating idea from designmegillah.com with lots of more decorating and holiday ideas to explore.  Finally, here is a link discussing growing an esrog tree from seeds or cuttings and  here is a  list of links for recipes and ideas of what to do with one's esrog once the holiday is over.

A Very Belated Succos Post

I've always loved fall but fall in Israel is very special.  There are no colorful leaves with few exceptions and the weather until the rains come is often indistinguishable from summer but the holiday season mood prevails and that is what makes it different from the other falls in other parts of the world.  I love how the genral mood changes from Yom Kippur solemness and seriousness to Succos joy.   I love  the post -Yom Kippur bang- banging noise of people putting up their sukkahs and the post- Succos bang bang crash noises of putting them away.  So this year's Succos was very nice.  We did get to do some Succos crafting with the kids, although not as much as  I had originally  hoped for but the pompom garland and the chain out of different patterned wrapping papers came out very nice and the kids did a great job decorating the sukkah with decorations new and old (  hopefully I'll post some pictures once I overcome my various computer issues, sigh).  The weather was beautiful.  We really stayed close to home this Chol Hamoed but the kids did get to do some local things and for most part we just stayed home, enjoyed the down time, dealt with chaos if it developed and enjoyed the holiday.  The menu was pretty simple with pot roast, chicken roast, moroccan style chicken stirfry with lemons from our yard, unstuffed cabbage, salads, cake, parve ice cream and such and that worked out just fine.  Everyone enjoyed shaking the arba minim, esrogim (citrons) smelled divine and made me think how someday when we have a place of our own, how nice it would be to have an esrog tree in our yard as well as an arava (willow) tree and some hadassim(myrtles), some day.  The kids enjoyed the Simchas Torah  excitement, I think something has to be done about the overwhelming amount of candy and other sweets that they consumed in schul for the future but in the end it was nice.  The kids helped take down the Sukkah just as they helped put it up and that was that for this holiday .  Somewhere in between all this we brought up the winter clothes, distributed sleeping bags and winter blankets as the weather slowly began to change towards a colder one.  I think the children got a well needed break from everything over the last month and are now ready to dive in, into the rest of the year and settle down to a routine.  I've been aslo trying to organized us for the coming months of life and learning.  I've been meaning to write sooner but with everything going on it was hard to find the time and energy.  The Shalit deal, has also cast it's difficult shadow over many people's Succos this year.  Of course, we were all very happy to have Gilad Shalit back from Hamas captivity after over 5 years but the hefty ransom that the Israeli government decided to pay left lots of people upset, hurt and apprehensive. There were many reasons why the deal was struck at this junction and lots has been written on the subject both for and against only time will tell how the implications will play out, may G-d protect us all much like the sukkah is meant to remind us that true protection comes from Above even if we are in a rather makeshift shelter, which is not much of a shelter at all.  So this has been weighing heavily on my mind and so this post is very very late.

An Israel update for this Erev Yom Kippur

Here is another post that has been in the pipeline for a while, since the Palestinian hoopla at the UN.  Our PM gave a very strong speech pretty much outlining everything that is wrong with the notion of the fruitless peace process,etc see here.  Alas, his words have fallen on many deaf ears or rather the people who really needed to hear them have since continued to behave in exactly the way he has described in his speech undeterred by truth, history or morality.  Sigh.  Here are a few excellent articles that describe the situation and shed light on what is really going on - Land Without Peace by Charles Krauthammer in Washington Post, UN's Theatre of the Absurd by Melanie Phillips and From Israel,Faith that Sustains by Arlene Kushner.  There were quite a few more  but I think these really encapsulate what I would have liked to say.   Today, we bought some new canvas Sukkah walls, some of them have a beautiful picture of Jerusalem with words from Tehilim (Psalms) - just like mountains surround Jerusalem, so  does Hashem encircle His people.  May Hashem bless us with a sweet, beautiful and peaceful year and continue to guard us from all harm and may He spread his Sukkah (Tabernacle) of Peace over the Jewish Nation and over Jerusalem! Gmar Chatima Tova!

Sukkah decorating ideas - garlands and buntings galore

I've been thinking of trying some of these since last year, when I realized that all sorts of garlands can make wonderful sukkah decorations.  They are for most part fairly easy and fast to make and kids like to make them and it's a type of project that can be done with different ages. This definitely a family friendly kind of a project, just the kind I love. So this year when time and energy are very scarce I found this great link on Squidoo ( one of my favorite places for getting great ideas) with literally hundreds of creative ideas for all sorts of garlands and buntings.  I hope to make at least a few of these to add to our ever growing stash of sukkah decorations.  Very exciting and good for creating sweet memories for years to come.  Enjoy!

Shifting focus

I've been thinking about writing this post for a while but it was one thing after another and it just didn't come together as I kept revising and updating in my mind.  But tonight as I once again faced the prospect of wanting to write and not getting to it, it occured to me that what I was really aiming to say is very relevant to Yom Kippur, which will be upon us shortly.  On one hand, things have really not been going according to plan,my plan that is:) First, the printer broke down, the computer was more dysfunctional than not, then the whole family came down with a virus ( fevers, head aches, flu symptoms, rashes, oy) and more of the same.   So the planned lessons, the holiday baking I was hoping to do, the art projects I was dreaming about, etc, all became an impossibility and had to be either canceled altogether or severely curtailed. But on the other hand, all of the above opened up many opportunities for meaningful discussions, for informal lessons, for creating a more peaceful and relaxed atmosphere, for letting us shift focus and concentrate on things that are really important, for allowing us to absorb life lessons that seemed to be raining down in abundance suddenly.  And it made me think that really this message is one of the messages for this introspective time of the Jewish year.  One has to be able to shift focus when necessary in order to change for the better, to concentrate on what has to be done right now rather than what one wishes to be doing, to have faith and let G-d point one in the direction one needs to go, to be patient and flexible  and accept one's limitations for the time being. So often I find myself getting frustrated when I can't get to do what I think needs to be done and yet so often I find that these unintentional detours provide the unparalleled growth opportunities that would've probably never come about or certainly not as naturally or with just the right amount of impact had things gone according to plan.  So on this Yom Kippur Eve I'd like to wish everyone a Gmar Hatima Tova (May you be sealed for a good year)and a year full of blessing and faith and many meaningful detours!

Some timely inspiration for the upcoming Jewish holidays

Here is a great link to an ebook, Reflections for Yom Kippur by the Chief Rabbi of England, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, which I saw on  Jewishmom.com.  It's very inspirational reading for this time of the year and  offers a lot of Jewish wisdom in a very easy to read format.  I haven't read the whole thing, but what I've read so far has been fantastic.  Enjoy!

The goings on

As I look at my sleeping children at the end of another busy day, so many things run through my mind.  Our life is full to the bursting these days.  Every day (especially towards bed time) feels like a marathon.  There is always more to do and try than could comfortable fit into one 24 hour period:)  My head is full of thoughts and ideas but many a time I am just too exhausted to write anything by the time I have a break from some of my mothering duties:)  I look at the sweet sleeping faces, the fluffy cheeks, their relaxed features.  I fix a blanket here and plant a caress there.  This one had a hard day.  And this one had a better than usual day.  How does this one have so much energy to keep on going even after so much activity and after all the others have long since fallen asleep?  Will this problem get better?  Is there a way to make things simpler right now?  I there a way to bring more order and more calm into our often hectic lives?  It's so easy to lose sight of the big picture, when one is so overwhelmed with seemingly endless details of normal living and yet when one gets hold of this bigger picture, it makes things so much more manageable.  Every day I learn something new about the nature of educating one's children.  Every day brings its' own gifts and pieces of wisdom.  The lessons have been going well for most part but I thing we need to readjust some things.  We decided that some subjects we should do together and some separately.  I think we should institute more reading aloud to the older set.  This past week we have been somewhat bogged down with getting some of the basics done.  But they are doing well and progressing and I am getting a better idea of what each one needs to work on.  We finished with the long division so now we can  move on to other things finally.  I need to find more geography material for them, which they like so much.  The boys are really enjoying their Tae Kwan Do lessons. And since I have unearthed a lot of our art supplies recently, the girls have been doing a lot of cutting and pasting and coloring and painting and other crafting with all the things that I generally leave out for them to use when and how the mood strikes them. I've been doing a lot of reading and discovering lots of interesting educational things (hopefully I'll post some of the links sooner rather than later).  I guess this is one CM principle I really stick to consistently - the parents should continue to educate themselves:) I have lots of ideas for Rosh Hashana projects, mostly inspired by other non-Rosh Hashana art projects I've seen on my favorite crafting websites.  I am trying to keep disciplining issues and power struggles out of our lessons, because the whole point is to get the kids to love and appreciate learning.  I am trying to align our lessons with general CM ideas- short lessons, high standards, lots of living books and experiences.  I think it just works better for us this way and we do get to cover many things, though never as much as I'd ideally like:)  So we are mostly sticking to the basics- math, copywork, reading, writing, geography.  And when I get uptight about getting more things in, I remind myself, that there are many ways to acquire a particular skill, so if they are memorizing their Chumash and Mishnayos but poetry isn't quite their thing yet, we are still getting the benefits of memorization.  And so it goes.  I love watching them swing in the hammock or ride their bikes or sit quetly with a book.  I love watching the two youngest dance to the music on the CD player with great happiness and abandon or lie outside watching the clouds and talking to the birds.  I love it when I see my 5 year old take her abacus to bed with her or paint beautiful magical watercolors.  And this kind of moments give me the confidence that we are in fact doing something right even as things are quite imperfect.  And so I try to get a quiet moment to collect my thoughts and my lists of project ideas and living books to investigate grows longer and longer and I don't know if and when I'll get to the things I so much would like to do. And so ends another beautiful, difficult, imperfect, full to the bursting day.