Things I have learned this week

1) Children have a knack for vomiting where you least want them to. Ari's managed to hit three out of four beds in the house. Thank goodness he's starting to feel better now, the poor boy has been miserable.

2) It is SO much easier to do laundry (i.e. three sets of bedsheets!) when the washer and dryer are on the same floor as the bedrooms.

3) Board books in Hebrew, even the simple ones, show a large difference in culture. Not many fruit and vegetable picture books in English include radish and eggplant as staples in one's diet.

4) Shredding old documents will keep my eldest child occupied for up to 15 minutes at a time, and the younger one for 10 (he doesn't actually shred, just plays in the paper).

5) I can very very easily become a Jamba Juice addict. We cracked up when Xander asked Jonathan what the jamba fruit looked like. He's drank orange juice, apple juice, grape juice... made sense to him!

6) Pen pals are a thing of the past. Xander now has a regular Skype date with his former preschool classmate, and he thinks it's absolutely normal. Technology never ceases to amaze me.

7) When reading books about animals (and making the appropriate animal noises) with the kids, Yentl gets very confused. Who is that strange cat meowing, she asks, and why is it that whenever I come over to Mommy to find out where it is, she starts to laugh?

8) Congregants don't seem to mind when my children act crazily at Friday night services. The senior rabbi called up my family this past Shabbat to light the candles... right as Xander and Jonathan left to go potty. They came up halfway through, with Xander proclaiming loudly that he wanted to help and to PUT HIM DOWN. I inwardly cringed, but everyone else only smiled.

9) Having my own office at temple, with an administrative assistant sitting outside the door? Really does that help with that whole "feeling like a rabbi" thing."

10) Life is a circle. That has never been more apparent than this weekend, when I conducted pre-marital counseling, officiated at a funeral, and received a very welcome phone call informing me of Sarah Eve's arrival into the world. A big hearty mazel tov to her joyful and exhausted parents, Maura and Liad!