Busy, busy busy

A whole month and no post! How does that happen? Well, lets see, started school and all the extra curricular that goes with, hauled oldest back and forth to work at the fair, high holy days, sickness, business, garden. Yup, a little busy. That and I am in a creative funk. Not that I don't have a lot of plans, just no time to put things together.
Homeschooling one less this year hasn't actually decreased my work load as much as I thought it would. The load is actually a little harder because I have so many doing harder work. I have three doing speech club and that is really taking up time. But it has been very rewarding. My kids are learning so much about research and outlines right now. Better than any curriculum I've tried, that's for sure.
High holy days are keeping us pretty busy. Lots of baking and cooking. This has checked a bunch of things off of the Bat Mitzvah list. The younger girls made hangings to put in the schul sukkah. Sarah's is done in needlework, completing the sampler on the list too. I made white skirts out of an old sheet and an old tablecloth for Yom Kippur . Those are pretty cute. Our home sukkah suffered a lot of damage during the last year. We had a slight bug infestation. So no visitors this year. Already, I'm making plans for next year. Hope they somewhat match my sweethearts .
The garden was a bust for the most part again this year. I did find a really good deal on some organic compost and dirt. Hopefully this will make a difference next year. Some sun would help too. We are going to cover the beds and try some winter crops. Hopefully we can get a little something.
So don't be surprised if another month goes by with no post. Nothing is really decreasing in the next few months. We are already planning for our Channuka (Hanukah, Hannuckah...whatever) talent show and contests. The sewing pile is high. My kids start competition for speech in December. So yeah, busy.

She Made a Decision.

I wondered if she was really ready. My son, I knew was, my daughter not so much. Then it happened.

Yesterday, we were looking at the Torah schedule and realized that a mistake had been made. The portion that she has been working on for 7 months is only part of what she needs to do. There is an entire chapter in front and a few verses in back. T0 say she is devastated is an understatement. She cried, I cried, her siblings cried. We are all heartbroken for her. She has struggled with her Hebrew and has really had to work hard. It has only been in the last week that she had been able to read her piece without help. She was so happy. And now this.

So I told her not to worry about it and her dad and I would figure something out after he got home that night.

Later in the afternoon, she came and sat down next to me and put her head on my shoulder. She looked up at me with her big brown eyes full of tears and said that she was really disappointed and that even though it would be really hard she was going to do the whole thing. She said that part of growing up was doing the hard things even when they weren't planned for. She said that she was just going to persevere and get it done.

Wow.

She is learning. She is maturing. She is making choices that make me proud. She scares me a little too.

Now don't get me wrong, she still likes playing barbies with her sibs and won't eat eggs or tuna cuz they're gross, but she is figuring things out.

After she said the same thing to my sweetheart at dinner, he told her that he would stand behind her on her decision and we would support her any way we can.

Come January, we will decide what is going to happen. There may be some modifications to the way we did it with my son. Already, I have some ideas that may make this doable. It is tradition that we are working with here, nothing set in stone (^.^). We will make sure that this ceremony honors God and His Torah.

She is ready.

Waiting Rooms

How do they find me? I try so hard to be a nice person, but some people make it so difficult. There I am sitting in a waiting room some place. As we all sit there waiting for the doctor, nurse, dentist, lawyer, whatever, no one is talking. Everyone is sitting there not looking at each other. They are reading five year old magazines or watching CNN post the same story every fifteen minutes as breaking news. So I say something benign, like "how about that weather" and then it comes out. The person just has to tell me all about the details of their back surgery and how awful the food is and how much water they put on and how their neighbor who is a diabetic drinks twelve cokes a day. Or they witness to me about how God talks to them and sits on a throne just like the one in that movie.
All I wanted to do is have a polite little conversation to pass the time and I get the crazy person. How do I do it? Can't someone just be a nice person who has a fairly normal life. "The weather has been great. Have you done anything fun this summer? Did you like your trip to some nice vacation spot? It was perfect? What a blessing to spend time with your family!"
Now isn't that a nice conversation? But alas alack, I end up with the person who is lonely and just needs an ear to hear. So I say my favorite quote from Corrie ten Boom "Lord love them through me cause I can't." Then I smile and nod and oh and awe at the right time. And thank God when one of us gets called in.

Sarah's Bat Mitzvah

Our home is getting ready for another Bat Mitzvah (actually the first was a Bar, but you know what I mean). So we put together a list of things that I would like for my daughter to be able to do as she passes into the next phase of her life. We did the same for my son, choosing things more appropriate for him. Although there are things on each list that are similiar, there are also things that are specific for each child and their interests.

Sarah’s Bat Mitzvah List

Kitchen
· Make bread and Challa
· Know enough recipes for a month of meals
· How to read and follow recipes
· How to sharpen a knife
· How to make coffee and tea
· Can fruit and vegi’s with mom

Sewing
· Sew a garment for yourself
· Pick a pattern at a store
· Choose fabric
· Follow pattern directions
· Needlework Sampler
· Crochet

Misc.
· Basic first aide
· Babsitting class
· Fill out an envelope
· Write a thank you note
· Knot board
· Build a fire
· BBQ
· Check fluid levels on the car

Festivals
· Know the order and reason of Festivals
· Know how to make foods associated with each Festival
· Know how to do Passover clean
· Know how to sing the Blessings of each Festival

Torah
· Know your portion in Hebrew and English
· Know the books of the Torah
· Pick a verse in the New Testament that has meaning to you and memorize and explain its significance

It may seem like a lot, but we started working on this when she turned 12, so we have a bunch of it already done. Her biggest struggle has been the Hebrew but she gets better and stronger every day. She will have it down by February, no problem.

Birthday Parties

Birthday parties. Do you have them? Do you do the whole themed, crafty, matchy matchy thing? Since I've started blogging and blog hopping, I have to say that I do have a little mom guilt about birthday parties. Not that it lasts long really. I think we have had a total of 4 parties for the six kids we have. And none of them were much of a themed thing. I think I did a princess thing way back, but that was it. There would just be too many. If I did these elaborate parties for all of them, I would be so broke. Even if I thrifted and hand made all these neat little projects. Time is money too people!
So yeah, don't do the birthday party thing. But we do have a big tadoo Bar/Bat Mitzvah thing. That is my excuse, um I mean reason, we don't do parties. Yeah, that sounds good.
If I only had one or two kids, though, I'm sure I would totally be into giving a Star Wars, Dr. Who, Hello Kitty, Barbie, Circus themed party with hours and hours of work put into them that the twenty three year olds will never remember.

ps. We do have a special birthday week for each birthday child, so they don't miss out on anything but the party.

Twenty Years!

There have been a lot of firsts in 20 years. Our first home, our first child, our first death, our first time out of country together, our first family trip on a plane, our first dream, our first time worshiping God together, our first garden, our first trip to the ocean, our first sorrow, our first....

But my favorite first is the first day of the rest of my life with my sweetheart. Twenty seems like such a big number, but it seems like just yesterday that we chose eachother. I'm excited to see what other firsts we have in the next 20 years.


The answer to my prayers, God made us for eachother.

Wasteland

Defining moments. I have thought many times, but for the grace of God, there go I.

This afternoon the kids and I watched a documentary called Wasteland. It is about the "pickers" in the garbage dump in Rio de Janeiro. There are a whole group of people who go through the garbage as it is dumped and pick out the recyclables. These they sell it for next to nothing to support themselves and their families. There is an artist, Vic Muniz, that goes to create art and highlight these people. During the course of the movie, the viewer learns about a handful of people who are "pickers" and their plight. Amazing movie. At the end, the artist says, "It could have been me. I could have ended up just like these people." (That's my paraphrase.)

Now of course, with any movie about a dump, there is a message about how much we throw away and how much we waste and take for granted. There is message about finding beauty and self worth through the garbage. It shows how the human spirit can shine even in the worse of circumstances.

My kids didn't complain about washing the dishes after seeing that children start at 7 and 8 years old working in the garbage. They saw what a privileged life we lead, even if it isn't the life of the rich and famous. They also saw how being able to give large amounts of time and money makes a huge difference. I hope they learned to value all people, no matter how "dirty" they may seem.

I got a deeper message for myself. But for the grace of God. I was there. I was in the yuck of the world and living a messy life. I didn't see my value. I made choices that led me down paths that I should have never been on. I can say it wasn't my fault. There were others that helped me and made me. But the truth is, there was always a small voice deep in my heart that said, "This is wrong, you are better than this. You deserve more than this." But still I made choices.

There are things that I regret. There are people I am sure I have hurt along the way. There are things I will never share with my children. I am ashamed and sorry. I am also forgiven.

When in a dark, dark place that I thought at the time was light, Jesus came to me and said, "You are mine, you don't belong here." Just as clear as day and as if He stood right before me, He spoke to me. I wish I could say that I turned to Him right then and there, but I didn't. It took many more trials and tribulations before I totally submitted to Him.

Now I have given myself to Him, submitted my whole self to Him, call and treat Him as my Lord. I follow His laws to the best of my ability. I see my value and my worth through His eyes. I know that as ugly as life was, I am forgiven. I am not proud of what I did. I don't look back on those times with fond memories. Yes, they made me who I was, but I wasn't good. It is the blood of Christ that makes me who I am today. Clean and free to follow the path He showed me how to walk.

Thank you Lord, for always waiting for me, when I made those choices and they defined who I was. I thank you for allowing my greatest defining moment be when I asked You into my heart and You loved me enough to come into it and cleanse me and make me new. Thank You for showing me that my value was more than the world said, than people said, than I believed.

There was a change in the people who were in this movie. Becoming part of this challenge changed how they saw themselves. They saw that they could be more and that they could be proud of who they were.

Thank you God for showing me the same.