My eldest

Eldest human child: 5 year-old Xander sewing at school

Eldest family member: 8 year-old Simcha at Mom's house.  I miss him!

How can we help Israel?

Last night I attended a very powerful solidarity rally with the entire Sacramento community, and it convinced me to break my silence.  My father, stepmother, brother, and grandmother all live in Israel, and my mother is currently visiting.  The words "Operation Protective Edge" sounds like a skirmish; but this isn't a skirmish, this is war.  Israel is winning the war of the rockets, but losing the war of public relations.  We want to help from home.  How can wedo that?  The below information is from the Sacramento Federation website.

WHAT CAN I DO FOR ISRAEL NOW?

DONATE TO ISRAEL'S EMERGENCY CAMPAIGN 

The Israel Emergency Campaign, "Stop the Sirens" supports victims of terror; addresses the needs of vulnerable populations; and provides respite to children. 100% of your donation will go directly to fund Israelis in need. 

SIGN A LETTER OF SOLIDARITY OR ASK YOUR
CHILDREN TO MAKE A CARD

Our Sacramento Sister City of Ashkelon and Partnership 2Gether Region of Hof Ashkelon and Kiryat Malachi are being bombarded with rockets daily. Let our brothers and sisters know we are thinking of them and stand united with them by signing a letter of solidarity. 

RESPOND TO THE MEDIA

Israel is being lambasted in the media every day. Consider writing a Letter to the Editor or calling your public radio station when you read or hear unbalanced reporting. Check our website for daily updates and talking points or download this advocacy package.

SUPPORT ISRAEL'S ECONOMY

Tourism is suffering in Israel this summer. Show your support by buying products such as SodaStream, Ahava, or other Israel-made products.   

THANK OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS FOR SUPPORTING ISRAEL

House Resolution 657 and Senate Resolution 498 passed unanimously, reaffirming bipartisan support for Israel’s right to defend itself and calling on Hamas to cease its rocket attacks on Israeli civilians. Please contact elected officials and thank them for their support of Israel’s right to self-defense and for their support of funding for the Iron Dome missile defense system.  

SEND PIZZA TO FAMILIES IN ISRAEL

Help boost the morale of Israeli citizens who are bearing the brunt of Hamas-fired rockets by ordering pizza from local southern vendors to be delivered to families and soldiers in the region. 

Generational differences

Everyone is in the car, talking about Connor's new tooth, and Ari's missing tooth, and when teeth come in and where they go and the different types.

Xander asks to learn more about the differences between baby and adult teeth.  Jonathan is just about to say we would read about it when Xander interjects: "Let's look it up on YouTube!"*

And to think, we only had encyclopedias...


*And yes, lest you think otherwise, we love books and do find out information from other sources than online.  But videos are a great teaching tool - where else we can watch real trains choo-choo-ing along, or rockets shooting off into space?

Public service announcement

Do not play swords, even felt swords, with a child while holding things in one's other hand.

Especially, when holding a glass in one's other hand.

Glass shatters very easily.

Glass gets all over the floor.

Three year-olds are terrified of glass shattering and parents yelling at them to stay absolutely still, don't move, you're barefoot and there's glass all over the floor. ... even if it was the three year-old who aimed at said glass with a felt sword and broke it in the first place.

Again... do not play swords EVER while holding glass.

The End.

You may now go back to your regularly scheduled programming.

The weekend so far

- Temple

- Harry Potter party at the local library

- Climbaroo

- Girls' night out with Megan and Maryann

- Celebrating Jonathan's birthday early since I work on Wednesday

- Bucket o'Lego for Xander

- Transformers from Jonathan's mom

- Up and down news from Israel.  Will the truce last?  I haven't posted anything on here very specifically, because I want this to be a family blog, and not political.  But that doesn't mean I'm not following along very carefully.

YUM!

Jonathan's mom came to visit, and she brought cake layers!  She made three chocolate layers at home, and left them for us to put together.  The boys and I filled it with whipped cream and cherry pie filling, and frosted and decorated it ourselves.

Xander said it looked "so pretty."  I thought.... well, you can guess what I thought.  But it tasted great. :)

I give.

My new laptop has Windows 8.

I've tried and tried to get used to it.

I can't take it anymore.

I'm asking Jonathan to completely wipe the drive and start over.

Next Monday will be the dedicated Windows 7 install day.

Why oh why would Microsoft mess with success?!

Why I love In n'Out

I know I'm a rabbi, and that they're Christian and have Bible quotes on the bottom of their food packages.  But... I really like animal fries.  And they have excellent quality burgers.

Most importantly, they have amazing service.  I was with all three kiddos yesterday when Jonathan was at home dealing with our Ohio property, and my order was like Sally's in When Harry Met Sally.  Grilled cheese sandwiches, with cheese and bread only.  One milkshake but in two cups.  Fries with spread on the side.

The fabulous near-teenager who took our order cut short the brotherly spat between Ari and Xander over what flavor milkshake to get when she offered to make one half-cup in strawberry, and the other half-cup in vanilla.  She also told us to sit down, that she would bring us our waters.

A different server brought out our food to the table instead of merely calling out the number.  And then when she overheard me tell the kids that they had to eat at least half their sandwich, she offered to cut them in half for me herself and bring them back re-wrapped.

Oh yeah, and she also laughed at all my stickers. :)

The nuances of eloquence

Xander takes my breath away sometimes.

(All my children do, but Xander's the most articulate, so I know what's going on in his mind more so than the others.)

I was wrapping birthday presents for the boys' friends, Ava, turning 3, and her brother Mateo, turning 6.  For background, know that these are the children who, when I once kissed Jonathan and then told my boys that I hope they love their future spouse as much as I loved Daddy - Xander agreed and said he was going to marry Mateo, and Ari chimed in that he would marry Ava.

Xander said he wanted to make them something, in addition to the purchased presents.  His eyes lit up as he said, "I know, Mommy, I'll make them paper airplanes!"  So he did, very laboriously, with scissors and tape and folding and refolding.  And he wrote on each one, "FROM-XANDER, TOO-AVA" and then "TOO-MATEO."  I very carefully placed each plane in the gift bag, so they would be easily visible.

"They're going to love them," I mentioned to Xander as we were getting in the car to go to the joint birthday party.  "They'll be able to tell how much work you put into them."

"Yes," said Xander.  "And how much love."

My heart melted.


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(In the interest of full disclosure, however, Xander also won the family whining contest on the way home.  He didn't like the pizza at the party and was still hungry, the cake was vanilla not chocolate, he had to pee and we weren't home yet, why couldn't he eat all the candy from his goody bag, why did Ari have a different color bag than he did, why did we have to leave so early, why didn't we give him a quarter for the arcade game at the play place, and more that I can't remember.

Articulation sure has its ups and downs, let me tell you!)

Alef bet vet/ gimel dalet heeeey....

Xander was speaking with the Israeli camp counselor, Noa, when she said something about the letters in the Hebrew alphabet.  Xander offered to teach her the song about it, and sang the aleph-bet song to her flawlessly.  She was majorly impressed.  Everyone else around looked a little stunned.

I turned to another counselor standing nearby and said sotto voce, "If I Facebook'd this, it would be "hashtag rabbi's kid."

Sad little babeleh

Taken a few days before the tooth came in: he hated being put down and cried himself to sleep in the car, clutching Sophie the giraffe for dear life.

Mazel tov!!

My sister just got into Cal Poly Pomona!  Go Odelia!  You've worked hard for it.

AND this afternoon, Connor's first tooth cut through.

It's been a very big day. :)

Work, children, and a message to my grandmother.

- Remember how a few weeks ago I spoke about Judaism at the mosque?  Well, last night I went to the speaker on Islam, which was held at a Protestant mega-church.  The speaker was fascinating!  He was eloquent and direct.  Best of all, he didn't pull any punches on the hard questions.  Islam in its pure form is a kind religion, he said, preaching generosity and love.  It empowers women.  Anything we see in other countries where that doesn't happen, according to him, is because of culture, of "backwards, barbaric culture."  The Taliban "corrupted the religion" and twisted it, and they and terrorists give Islam a bad name, so that he and his family always feel they need to defend it.  It was a really powerful talk, and gave me great insight into what it's like to be a Muslim in a post 9-11 world.

- Xander is at Camp Shelanu and loving it.  Ari is too young and is not handling it well.  We're trying to pick him up early from school, do things with him alone to combat his feeling of being left out.  It's not working.  He is left out because he's too young.  Any suggestions?

- Connor still doesn't have any teeth.  Sigh.

- We had to return the new laptop - I write this from a second new one.  The first one was a touchscreen.  And that was NOT child friendly.  Who knew the amount of times my kids touched my screen when I'm online?  It was waaaay more than I realized, they kept exiting my windows accidentally without saving things.  This current one is distinctly not touch-screen, so feels like a step back in a way.  But on the other hand, absolutely nothing has been deleted since I got it.  So all is well.

And lastly, Savta, I signed you up for a yahoo email account.  Go to "www.yahoo.com"  Your user name is lillianliss.  Password is your maiden name, with the first letter capitalized, and then the full year your middle daughter was born, all together with no spaces.  If anyone wants to email you, your email is "lillianliss@yahoo.com."

How I spend my evenings

French toast, fruit, and singing songs (from last weekend)

A special Bubby-made breakfast of French toast and strawberries.

Connor "walking" with some help.

Xander's singing a "Connor song" of his own creation.

Boys wrestling.

Good morning, Bubby!  Let's cuddle.

Artsy shot my mom took of the clouds, as reflected in our van's back window.

4th and 5th of July

4th of July: Life is good, says Connor, as long as I'm with Robin.

Wheee!

Working the punk to start the smokers.

Aaagh, so much smoke!

Post-smokers glory.

And then we went in for dinner, and Xander fell asleep.  So we regrouped for the 5th of July, but this time Ari fell asleep.  So it was Xander, Jonathan, and the neighbors with young kids, who came out to keep us company!

A very, very happy boy.

Who needs a prompt to say "cheese" when you have firework jubilation?!

Pretty firework #1

Pretty firework #2

The grand finale firework

More grand finale.  After this it kinda caught on fire.

I include this picture so you can see Osher in the background, inspecting the proceedings.  He hung out with us all night!

A website is born!

www.rabbiloving.com

Check it out and tell me what you think. :)

History repeated

A long long time ago, when I was but a wee lass...

Overly-ripe bananas were on sale at Alpha Beta.  (The last of which, according to Wikipedia, became Ralph's in 1995.)

Jan put about 5 bunches in the shopping cart.  "Gwen [my other mother] will find something to do with them," she told me.  The teller was shocked.  "She doesn't know you're bringing them home?"  she asked.  Uh, no.

Gwen made banana bread, banana pancakes, banana everything.  We gave baked banana goods to the neighbors.
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25 years later, Mom apparently forgot how unhappy Gwen was that day.

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When she came to Sacramento to visit, she brought me 7 overly ripe bananas, which she had at home and "didn't want to waste."

I already had 6 bananas at home that were on the verge of going.

---------------------------

So.  I am not a baker.  But....

I made banana soft serve.
I made banana strawberry smoothies.
I made chocolate banana creamsicles.
I made banana fritters.

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In two days we ate EVERY SINGLE BANANA.

I am proud. :)

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Recipes, for those who are curious: 

Banana Soft Serve 
 2 ripe or overripe bananas 
2 tsp vanilla Chocolate Syrup (optional) 

Break up the banana into 1-inch chunks. Freeze. Add it to the blender slowly. Put in vanilla halfway through. Keep going, even though you have to use a spatula to push it toward the blades. 

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Chocolate Banana Creamsicles 
3 large over-ripened bananas 
1 cup coconut milk (I used rice milk) 
4 tbsp cocoa powder (I used chocolate chips) 
1 tsp vanilla extract 
a pinch of salt 
Dixie cups 
popsicle sticks 

Shove everything in the blender and process until smooth. Divide among popsicle molds (or dixie cups), insert stick in middle, and freeze for at least 4 hours. 

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Jamaican Banana Fritters 
1 ⅔ cup mashed overripe Bananas (about 5 medium bananas) 
3 Tbsp Brown Sugar 
¼ tsp Nutmeg 
¼ tsp Cinnamon 
½ tsp Vanilla extract 
pinch salt 
1 cup all-purpose Flour 
1-2 Tbsp Cooking Oil 
1 Tbsp granulated Sugar 

Mash bananas with sugar and spices; stir flour into banana mixture 
Heat 1 or 2 Tbsp cooking oil on High and, using a serving spoon, spoon batter into pan 
Fry fritters until crisp and brown on both sides; you may have to add more cooking oil. 
When you press them if no batter oozes out they’re done.
 Remove fritters from pan and place on paper towel. 
Sprinkle with white sugar and eat warm.

Instilling a love of Judaism from a very young age

Somehow we missed something in the kids' education.

Jonathan told Xander last night that when he was on top of his bunk bed, he "looked like a king in his castle."

Xander disagreed, saying that castles were only in fairy tales, and kings weren't real.

We told him that no, kings and queens and castles are real.

That England has a Queen and a Prince right now.  That other countries have kings and queens and not presidents.

He looked extremely dubious.  I don't think he believed us at all.

Maybe it's time to read some kid-friendly history with the children....

Guest post from Mom: 4th of July

well, this day and evening ended up being totally different than expected. Xander has a fever so was pretty wiped out all day. By the time fireworks rolled around, he enjoyed some poppers and smokers and then just fazed out exhausted. He didn't even have enough energy to enjoy Mommy's homemade smoothies. By 9p, Ari came up to me whining, "i want to go sleep" and that was after a two hour nap and two hours of shopping with Bubby in 95 degree heat. Happily, even I took a 90 minute nap while rocking Connor. He insists that one holds him standing up so I wandered and sang to him, which he likes, and when I finally did have an opportunity to sit down he wouldn't let me recline. But no matter. I slept sitting up. I'll take sleep where and when i can get it! hahaha It was lovely. He's teething so the poor little thing cries in his sleep and then relaxes when the pain goes away. So tomorrow we'll try fireworks again....already warned the neighbors. I guess the universe knew better when all the guests who were supposed to show tonight cancelled earlier in the day. And the house is quiet....for the moment.

(we did fireworks last night instead)

Belated Father's Day gifts

What the kids made Jonathan in school.  Aren't they nice?

Connor, Daddy, and a book. AKA "Teething"

The book was the "Just for Daddy" sticker book that Ari decorated for Father's Day.

YUM.

I really like chocolate chip cookie dough.

So does Xander.

Jonathan insists we do not eat the dough, as we're at risk for salmonella.

But... see aforementioned sentence.  I really like cookie dough.

So Sunday I made chocolate chip cookies with the boys.

I found a recipe online that uses milk instead of eggs.

No eggs = no salmonella.

I think we ate at least five cookies' worth of dough before we actually baked them.

We baked one cookie sheet worth, and then put the rest in tupperware for the future.

YAY for dough!  YAY for licking the spoon!  YAY for a happy husband!

If only all of my problems were solved so easily.