Nature's remedy

I love sitting next to my little fish pond. It's always peaceful there and there's always some little surprise. Sometimes it's a batch of new guppies that have hatched and are finding their way around their new home. Sometimes it's a couple of lovely dragonflies - red, blue, or both - flying in loops and swirls in search of lunch. And sometimes it's just having all three of our adopted frogs sitting on various lily pads at the same time, just chillin'. I love listening to the gurgling water as it splashes down from the rock water feature. It doesn't matter how stressful a day has been (or promises to be), the pond is a relaxing place where troubles just seem to shrink away. Inevitably, I start to wander around the rest of the garden, checking to see what new flowers have bloomed or what needs pruning or just enjoying being out in the garden for a few peaceful minutes. The hustle of daily life can't be escaped forever, but those few moments by the pond or just looking at what's growing in the garden are better than the most expensive of therapies.

A splash of color...or not.

I've put off painting the house since we moved in. It had been recommended to us when we first moved in, not to paint until we'd been here for at least a year - to give the house a chance to settle and avoid having to deal with cracks in the plaster after we'd already painted. So we waited. But then, once we'd moved in and all of our stuff was in the house, the idea of moving everything one room at a time wasn't really on my list of favorite weekend activities. So we put it off. And we put it off.

But this weekend I finally bit the bullet and started painting. I began in Meged's room as any day now she'll have her new desk delivered and I didn't really want to have that to move as well. So I left the three big kids to basically fend for themselves, tossed Holly in bed for her nap and proceeded to paint. It went fairly smoothly at first. I got three walls painted and began the fourth. That's when it happened.

The roller fell apart. And I'm too stubborn to just leave a wall partially painted and come back to it the next day when a replacement roller has been acquired. Besides, I didn't want to risk leaving a permanent line on the wall where I'd stopped and then needed to restart once the paint was already dry. But although I searched everywhere I could think of, I couldn't find any of my regular sized (meaning decent enough to justify painting a wall with) paint brushes. So what did I do, you may ask? Well, I'll tell you. I used one of my one-inch round craft brushes. To paint an entire wall. Yes. I know. I'm insane.

But...I got the job done. The next morning, however, I did hop over to our local hardware store. This time, though, I decided to avoid scraping the floor tiles for all of the roller splatter and opted for a sponge pad instead. I don't believe in using plastic drop cloths. And I don't have old sheets I'm willing to ruin. So I'd prefer to scrape than use unnecessary plastic. But I'd rather not scrape at all if it can be avoided by changing equipment. Sure, there were some drips with the sponge, but those were easy to get off the floor.

Now I have two bedrooms painted and three more to go - plus, of course, the hallway, bathrooms, living room, dining room and kitchen. But the bedrooms are the most important, so I'll focus on that for now and see how things progress regarding the rest of the house. Maybe I'll put that off until next summer!

the lost art of writing a "syllabus"?

You know, I remember when I went to school, my teachers had the whole year planned out ahead of time. In junior high and high school, we even had our coming year's schedule (with a syllabus for each class) by the end of the school year. Now, I don't mean they had each minute of each day planned. But they knew what subjects would be taught and for the most part what needed to be covered by the end of each quarter.

Yet each year when my kids start school, it's the same thing - no one knows what will be taught, let alone how many hours of each subject or on which days. Every day this week, the kids have come home saying something along the lines of "Today we had sports class, but they didn't tell us yesterday so none of the kids had sports shoes on" or "Our teacher said that we might have English and Art tomorrow, so we're supposed to bring our stuff for those classes just in case." It's completely ridiculous. Each year, this goes on for at least the first 3-4 weeks until finally the school and the teachers for each grade get their act together and decide what the curriculum will be.

How can they expect the students to get their work done on time if the teachers can't even pull it off? And how are the teachers supposed to write a syllabus, if the school can't even figure out the curriculum for the school year before the school year starts?

What a difference a year (or even just the summer) makes!

For the past two years, Brit and Zach have had daily planners in their school bags for writing down homework and anything else they need to remember. Getting them to actually write anything in those planners was a nightmare. Literally months could go by without a single word being written down. Getting privileges taken away, getting rewards for progress, yelling, pleading .... nothing worked to make a bit of difference.

Now, they are the ripe old age of 9 1/2 and suddenly, not only are they writing in their planners every day, they're writing virtual novels - and neatly too (see attached post photo)!

The trick? Well, with Brit it was getting her a High School Musical themed daily planner. "It's so gorgeous, I just HAVE to keep it pretty. And I like seeing all of the Gabriella pictures, so I like writing in it!" For Zach? I haven't a clue. I'm just glad he's writing his homework down finally LOL.

Meged is such a funny kid. She's got this idea that she already needs to know the stuff they'll be working on in school. So she's all stressed out wondering how she's supposed to do multiplication if she doesn't even know how to do 3-digit addition yet. This from the kid who already knows how to read (and kids here aren't expected to even know how to write the alphabet upon entering 1st grade). She also knows how to do all of the math work expected of a kid at the end of 1st grade. I keep trying to explain that her teacher will "teach" her what she needs to know....that's why she's called a "teacher". But I don't think Meged really buys my story. She wants to bring every one of her books to school every day too, even though the teacher said they don't need any books until at least the middle of next week. Yet every night, Meged says "But what if we need them tomorrow? I won't be able to do the work if I don't have them with me!" Poor troubled soul....

Holly has taken up DIY of late. She takes her little battery operated drill around the house and tries to "fix" everything...even her inflatable pool ring. And what with all the hammering and sawing she does in her room, I half expect for her to grab some wood and build a bookcase or something.

New beginnings

The first day of school. Every year it has a different energy than any other school day. The kids are excited about being back in school after the long hot summer. And I'm excited about getting some time alone with Holly for long leisurely walks in the morning or just doing errands without rushing. But I already miss the big kids. Meged is starting first grade today - her first day of "real" school. Brit and Zach will be turning 10 this year. Double digits. Holly has pretty much weaned herself recently. All of these major milestones are hard for me to take. My babies are growing up way too fast.

But this year is also going to be really exciting as each day takes us closer to the US for our big adventure. Brit and Zach are progressing at such an amazing rate in their English studies. Sure, they still have a way to go in order to get up to speed with the kids their age in the US, but I am so proud of the effort and seriousness they put into learning. They're learning American social studies, history, and science as well as their regular language arts topics - all of this on top of the work they get from school. Brit read a condensed Heidi and one of the Ramona books this summer. Zach read a condensed White Fang and several short stories in English. Meged is already reading in Hebrew and halfway through our English reading book. At this rate, by Christmas, she'll be reading in English at a 2nd grade level. Then we'll have more than half a year to work on other subjects 1st graders in the US are expected to work on. I'm not saying there won't be things they'll still need to learn and get used to once we move, but all of this preparation is going to make the move so much easier for them.

There are big changes in after school activities this year too. Zach has been excelling at gymnastics since he started two years ago and even chose to take a gymnastics camp this summer and last. So I expected he'd want to continue taking classes to increase his skills and he would have if all else were equal. But we can't put him in endless classes every year, so he wants to try something slightly different this time around - trampolines! He also started getting into chess over the past year, so he'll be taking a chess class too this year.

Brit was also in gymnastics for two years, but really it wasn't her thing. She went to an art camp over the summer and really learned a lot even though not much time was spent on drawing - which is really her forte. She had been excited about doing a drawing class this year....or so I thought. It was actually me who thought it would be great to have someone professional guiding her, but she was just going along with the idea. She finally told me that she doesn't enjoy drawing what someone else tells her to draw. It has to come from her heart. What a true artist! Even though I do think she'd get a lot out of it and learn new techniques to improve her skills, I was so proud of her for telling it like it is and not letting anyone sway her artistic aspirations. She is such a happy soul when drawing and I wouldn't want to do anything to risk sullying the joy she gets from it. In any case, she's been coveting a spot in the trampoline class as well, so she and Zach will be in the class together this year.

Meged was in gymnastics last year and although she enjoyed it, let's just say that her talents lie elsewhere! This year she wants to do something artistic - preferably painting. But whatever it ends up being, I'm sure she'll get a lot out of it. She just likes creating stuff, no matter what it is - like her Mama!

Holly has taken on Meged's previous Elmo obsession. A day just doesn't start out right without an Elmo DVD. She has also turned out to be quite the helper both in the house and the garden. Whatever it is I'm doing, she's right there pitching in to help. Of course, half the help makes more work for me, but it's great fun to watch her slaving away in the garden or "mopping" the floors. Such a funny kid.

So all in all, life goes on - ever changing and ever evolving. Sometimes that's a sad thing, but even when you want to hold on to the kids being little, you really can't deny how lovely it is to watch your child blossom.

Thoughts of Home

My husband recently announced that he's now finally agreed to relocate to the US for a few years. He still hasn't even started looking for a job in the US yet. But now that the announcement has been made rather than just some obscure promise of "someday", it has the feeling of being real and I can't say how much this means to me - the chance to go home. Since before my kids were even conceived, I've dreamed of showing them where I grew up. I want them to see me on my own turf, not just always as a foreigner unable to speak the language properly. I want them to see fireflies and listen to cicadas chirping in the summertime. I want them to know what the Christmas Season really is, even for non-religious or even non-Christian Americans. I want them to know about Haunted Houses and candy corn. I want them to experience hay rides and swimming at the lake. I want them to see a rodeo and go to baseball games where they can eat corn dogs and root beer floats afterwards. I want them to know what Monday night football is and to have a favorite team to root for. I want my kids to go to summer picnics where potato salad and macaroni salad aren't weird foreign food. I want them to know what a Peanut Buster Parfait and a brownie fudge sundae are. I want them to go to a school where P.E. class can be done indoors in the auditorium on cold rainy days. I want them to know what a Sonic Drive-In is. I want them to know what caroling and hot spiced cider are and to be able to make snow angels in their own front yard. I want the kids to have a neighbor bring Christmas cookies over in December and the kids in turn not think it's weird, but rather be glad and invite them in for some hot cocoa or this year's running of The Grinch. I want them to know what it feels like to go on a real Easter Egg hunt. I want them to know what Easter Peeps are...even if they end up thinking they're as disgusting as I do. I want to be able to fill their Easter baskets with all of those candies that you can only get at Easter time. I want them to know what it feels like to walk in the rain on a warm summer evening. I want them to go Trick-or-Treating, even if it does end up just being in the mall. I want them to experience a five day school week and a two day weekend. I just want them to know my kind of normal life. So, here's to this promise and the desperate hope that it will materialize into a reality. If everything goes as planned, this time next year I'll be writing a blog post from the US detailing how successful our move has been so far. Until then, I'll just do my best to keep my excitement under control.

...the living is easy

Ah, summertime. I love this time of year. Especially before the August heat waves hit! But seriously, I could practically sing the song about my own life. All except for the cotton. Not much of that growing in my garden. Not any, to be completely honest. But we do have fairly tall butterfly weed attracting all sorts of pretty things, so it's not all bad. And Daddy may not be rich financially, but rich can come in so many other forms. My family is my most precious commodity and they make me endlessly wealthy.

Speaking of butterflies in the garden, Meged (my six year old daughter) brought home some caterpillars from her after school garden class. I had to actually resort to pilfering a few leaves from the garden center to feed the little guys before they started construction on their little cottony condos. But I digress. It's so nice to see Meged enjoying these little babies of hers, checking on them every day after school, giddy with excitement about the day they'll finally emerge from their cocoons. I don't know if I should tell her that the chances of her actually standing next to the box on the day they begin to unfold their wings are pretty slim. I figure it's best to let her enjoy this while it lasts and hope for the best. Next year we'll construct a proper butterfly hutch so she can be sure to witness their first day out in the fresh air. Or I could stop putting it off and just make one now for her. I just hope it's not too late.

... pause for summer ...

Funny, I just found this draft from back in May. I guess I forgot to complete the post after I went out and made aforementioned butterfly hutch. It turned out rather rickety, but Meged didn't care or even notice as far as I know. The butterflies sprang forth from their cocoons a few weeks later and in a splendid display of anticlimax never left the box....but rather went about their business making more babies and then died. Meged was, fortunately, not too devastated by this suicidal behavior.

It's now just a blink away from September and the beginning of the school year. This was our best summer ever. Hence the utter lack of posts since May - we were too busy having fun to sit down and blog! I'll miss the kids when they go back to school. We truly had a lovely time together these past nine weeks and more than ever I feel so blessed to be mother to these four most amazing children.

Earth un-friendly flags

My tomato plants are starting to bear fruit, I've got pumpkin plants in bloom this year and we really don't have to worry about our supply of fresh herbs each weekend as we enjoy grilling outdoors and eating in the open air. I've left the artichokes to flower for the most part, not really seeing the point in harvesting one artichoke at a time. Perhaps next year, the crop will be more prolific and we'll be able to enjoy the bounty. But for now, the wild blue flowers will be reward enough. My Periwinkles are finally in the ground and starting to grow and my compost pile will soon pay me back for all of the offerings I've left it this year. Holly (my 17 month old) loves our garden just as much as her Mama and we enjoy time outside every day.

So with all of this to be thankful for, what could I possibly have to complain about? Well, not much actually. But there is one thing that's been bugging me for the past several weeks. We recently celebrated Israeli Independence Day and something about the holiday traditions irked the environmentalist in me. Each year, I'm guessing that hundreds of thousands of miniature flags are sold to be mounted on car windows for a few days and then discarded. The nylon alone in this mass of flags is worrisome enough. But the amount of plastic that gets thrown out each year in the form of flag "poles" is sickening.

On the rare occasion one sees magnetic flags that are stuck on the car door or trunk lid. But there are still far too many of these disposable plastic flags being sold every year. So, what can be done about all of this plastic? Perfectly "good" plastic that only had the misfortune of being "used" for a week on someone's car. Well, I admit that I don't know all there is to know about what the sun does to this plastic and whether or not it's possible to reuse these plastic flag mounts. But I do think that at the very least, the mounts should be collected at the end of the Independence Day festivities and recycled in one form or another in a gesture of national pride if not concern for the environment in general.

With that in mind, I've decided to try to get this organized for next year. It's too late to prevent all of those flags from being dumped in lands fills this time around, but perhaps we can change things for next year. Afterall, the holiday is celebrating a love of this land. One can only hope that people will respond favorably to efforts to keeping their country just a little bit cleaner.

Fingers crossed....

Time flies.....

It's been a long time since my last post. That's how it is with kids. You get up to get a cup of coffee and by the time you sit down to drink it, 3 months have gone by. Anyway, life is one big moving picture and trying to capture some of it's essence is tricky.

Brit and Zach are completing their first book report assignment for school. It may seem like no big deal to the casual observer. But to me it's this...thing...ominous, foreboding and resolute - telling me my little kids really aren't so little anymore. And there's just no way for me to bury my head in the sand about it any longer. I think next year will be harder when they hit the double digits.

Watching your kids grow up is a bittersweet thing. You want so desperately to hold on to them being little and cherubic and forever ready for hugs and kisses and cuddles...always saying and doing the cutest things that make you want to just nibble on them a bit. Oh, yeah, they can be pains in the ass too. No doubt about it. But when they're cute, man are they ever CUTE! But as they grow you get to watch this metamorphosis that quite often just leaves you breathless. From little pitter-pattery toddlers who think the string from an old helium balloon is the greatest thing they've ever seen to preteens having their first crushes, spending the night at friend's houses, and learning about sex. I sometimes wish we had a 24 hour video recording system making a permanent record of every moment of their lives - including the kids temper tantrums and the times I've had my own near tantrums out of frustration after a long day of bad behavior from the kids. It's all part of this magical thing called "childhood" and the good wouldn't be as good without the bad for balance. And when they're grown and off living their own lives away from us, I know I'll want to sit down and have a good cry in front of an old home movie, watching them at their most charming and irresistable.

Don't grow up too fast kids. Mommy needs you little for a while yet.

Anticipation of Spring

Since we don't really have a true winter here in Israel. And since there's little hope of seeing any true winter weather (i.e. snow) in my area, I'm definitely looking forward to springtime when things will be a little warmer, a littler drier and a lot more conducive to outside activity.

We usually take a trip to the south in spring time. I love the geography there and the chance to see wildlife and birdlife is simply irresistible. My all-time favorite bird-spotting was when I happened across a Little Green Bee-eater just north of Eilat. I hope - now that my littlest is big enough to go in the backpack - I'll be able to fit some more photography into our next trip. Here's dreaming...

Guacamole fresh from the garden

I was just sitting here thinking that despite all the troubles in the world, despite all of the sources of stress, despite all the dangers lurking around bends in the road - well, it's nice to be able to go to my kitchen and make guacamole for breakfast using only ingredients from my garden (with the avocados donated from my brother and sister-in-law's garden. The lemons and the garlic were from my garden. And if I'd wanted to add them, I could have put in tomatoes from my garden as well. In the summer, we have just about any herb you could want for tea or any other culinary purpose. I've got various lemon, lime, limquat, clemantine and (soon) pink grapefruit trees that produce more fruit than we can even come close to using up. And this creates a nice reason to reach out to neighbors so we can share all of the excess fruit. They in turn share apples, grapes and lichee fruit with us. I bring kumquat preserves to my mother-in-law a few times a year. We have artichoke plants scattered around the garden mixed among all of the flowers and trees and we've got forests of aloe vera in case we get burned in the kitchen using up all of the bounty we've collected in the garden. With all of the reasons to get worked up in life, it's my garden that always reminds me of the wonderful joy and simple pleasures just waiting for us if we only stop to see them.

Last year, our new neighborhood park finally got trees and plants. And I was thrilled to see a major portion of the park dedicated to edible plants that the community is free to enjoy. There are sage plants, thyme, basil, lemon balm, lemon verbena, mint, lavender, oregano, rosehip and likely other herbs I can't recall at the moment. There are olive and pomegranate trees, carob and fig trees. I'm so impressed that the city has decided to think beyond the box and do more than add play grounds and park benches. This year the city also instituted a program to distribute the yearly crop of dates and figs free of charge to the community. They also made the date palm branches and fruit "brooms" available to anyone who wanted them. All of these efforts can only improve our community spirit and bring us that much closer together as a community should be.

So if you've got a plot of dirt, plant something edible in it. Use it, enjoy it, share it and care for it.

Beaufort

Category:	Movies
Genre:	War, History, Action, Drama, Foreign Language
Director:	Joseph Cedar

The Israeli movie Beaufort, nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, is a movie you don’t want to miss. Even if you don’t typically go for subtitled movies, I think you’ll have a hard time not appreciating this one. You won’t get a glossed over Hollywood version of war in this film. No matter what your feelings about the Mid-East conflict are, go into this one with your mind and heart open to the rich characters so wonderfully portrayed by the mostly very young Israeli cast. In particular, Oshri Cohen does a magnificent job in his role as the conflicted officer Liraz who feels torn between his orders to prepare for retreat and his feeling that the retreat itself is a betrayal to the very thing for which he and his men have been fighting - and dying. I give it a resounding 2 thumbs up!

Crosswalks and self-obsessed drivers

I live in a city that has various nicknames: the city of the future, the city of children, the green city. The vast majority of the families in our fair city have young children - children who go to school, children who walk home from school, children who go to friends houses to play, children who walk to after school activities, etc. In short, there are, at any given hour after sunrise and before sunset, children who need to use crosswalks to get to wherever they are headed. And all of these children have parents who live in this city. Or in reverse, nearly all of the adults driving around the city have young children.

So why is it that seemingly none of these parents has the ability to slow down or *gasp* god forbid STOP to let a child cross the street at a designated crosswalk?! It's as if the moment these adults (I will not call them grown-ups) enter their cars, they suddenly forget they even have children and that they'd like for their own children to arrive safely at their destinations just as the children they nearly ran down with their cars would like to arrive safely.

When I walk my kids to or from school or to or from their sports or dance classes, I have to risk life and limb forcing myself out into the street playing chicken with the cars whose drivers would likely spontaneously combust were they to yield to a pedestrian and risk getting home or to work 30 seconds later. More often than not, I find myself half way out into the street jumping up and down, waving my arms around like a maniac shouting and cursing at the drivers to go retake their road test - until finally 20 or 30 cars later eventually someone slows down. Likely they've done so, not out of concern for the children who need to cross, but rather the points that would be deducted from their license were they to actually splatter me across the pavement. So someone yields, the nervous children make their way across the street sighing with relief that they are still in one piece - only to have to go through the whole scenario again when they make their way back home again.

Drivers, wake up. You are NOT the center of the universe. Your life will NOT be less meaningful if you are forced to slow down a little to allow a kid to cross the street safely. Yours is NOT the most urgent of tasks and therefore you do NOT have priority over everyone else on the road (or sidewalk). Slow down. Be courteous. You won't be doing anyone any favors - it's the law.

The Book Thief

Category:	Books
Genre:	Literature & Fiction
Author:	Markus Zusak

I recently read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and for the first time in a very long time I was forcing myself not to stay up all night in order to get to the end. Not because it wasn’t good. Quite the opposite. I was rationing the pages so that I could enjoy it that much longer. What a gorgeous tapestry of human emotion and the trials and tribulations that are so intricately interwoven with them. Bravo!

Holly, my jolly sweet dolly

Holly is in perpetual motion. She has a ready smile for just about anyone and she’s an irresistible little cling-on. She attacks everything with gusto, never approaching anything half-heartedly. My mischievous little sweetie! And for her, life just wouldn't be right if not for fruits and veggies. This little girl wrote the book on getting enough of this food group every day!

The life force that is Meged

Meged is the kind of child who can charm her way through a snake’s pit, come out skipping and giggling on the other side and then ask to go right back through again. She’s fearless, full of energy and never lets life’s big or small challenges stop her from singing and dancing. She’s a powerhouse and a blessing.

Zach, my angel

Zach has a sweet soul. His love and tenderness for his baby sister Holly is a joy to witness. Sure, he’s also a rough and tumble boy. But when he’s sweet, he’s truly angelic.

Brit's big brown smiling almond eyes

When Brit smiles her impish little smile, her whole face becomes this vision of innocence and fairies and love and energy all at once. And her eyes reflect it all. My lovely Brit. How your smiles light up my day!