The need for cookies is past

Morning: Jonathan made me chai and baked blueberry scones.  SCONES, people.  

Afternoon:  The preschool summer school is closed for a week while the teachers get ready for the school year to begin.  So Xander, Jonathan, and Odelia went to the zoo.  And because it's close to temple, they came to visit me at lunch.  Yay unexpected kid visits! 

Evening: I gave a presentation at a Board meeting and it went well.  Recapping what's gone on for everyone else, it made me realize... it's been a really busy month.

Post-kid bedtime: I wrote my first sermon in ages and had tons of fun doing it.

12:30am: getting ready for bed.  But maybe I'll just check people.com first. :)

Oy va voy, what a day

1) Drop off kids.
2) Drive to San Rafael, two hours away with traffic.
3) Meet with special accountant who knows clergy tax laws like the back of his hand.
4) Leave accountant's office still somewhat perplexed by tax laws.
5) Thank goodness husband understands.
6) Drive two hours back.
7) Pick up kids.
8) Dinner outside; melt.
9) Go in bathroom to brush Xander's teeth and find out entire room is flooded.
10) Spend 30 minutes with husband fixing toilet and mopping floor.
11) Put children to bed.
12) Cookie.
13) More cookie.
14) Just one more cookie.
15) Last cookie... I swear.

Words and more words

First, I just finished reading I Am Forbidden, by Anouk Markovitz.  It's about the Satmar Chasidic community - one of the strictest of the Ultra-Orthodox sects - and covers four generations, from pre-Holocaust to the present day.  It was a good book, but unsettling.  It's hard to believe that people can be indoctrinated in such a severe fashion... and the religion is technically my own.  I think I was looking for a more Hollywood ending that just never came.

On a lighter note, I saw this on Facebook and thought it was cute:

Amen to that.

Ari at school

From Ari's teacher:

"We took a buggy ride to the preschool art show today and within 5 minutes the whole buggy fell asleep. The visiting moms and dads of Summer Camp students gathered around and jokingly asked us what we spiked their bottles with. Hey! Spotting squirrels, and building block towers is grueling work."

Jenn is so descriptive in her daily notes, I love it.  (Xander gets notes too, but not like this).

Day in the City

Jonathan's birthday was Monday, so to celebrate we went to San Francisco!

First on the agenda was lunch at House of Nanking, his favorite Chinese in the world.


                                                    

            Ari and I ordering off the menu.

 Leaving the restaurant.  The weird shirt I'm wearing is the baby carrier, folded down.

 For Ari, the best part about SF was WALKING!!

 Spontaneous hug.

 Loving life.

 Seeing the sights.

The rest of the day was Pier 39, aka Fisherman's Wharf!

 Streetcar on the way.

Sea lions at the wharf.

Ari comfy in the wrap, watching the sea lions.

We took no pictures of the rest of our time there, since we were corralling two very excited children.  But aside from the sea lions, the highlights were:

- riding the trolley

- eating hot dogs and waffle cones

- seeing bigger kids go on a bungee trampoline

- watching a juggling show by street performers

- listening to saxophone and trumpet players

- riding the carousel

- walking all around the wharf, looking at boats and chasing the seagulls

- oohing and aaahing at Alcatraz

- playing on the small playground adjacent to the wharf 

Then we resumed our sightseeing.

 Lombard Street, the curviest street in the world.

 View driving down Lombard Street.

 On the way to the Golden Gate bridge.

 Awe-inspiring.

 It's biiiiiig.

 He fell asleep halfway across the Golden Gate.

Richmond-San Rafael bridge going home (the Bay Bridge which we took on the way over would have been way too much traffic.)

Just for fun - you can see that we did a big circle!  From the Bay bridge to the City to the Golden Gate back to Richmond and northeast to Sacramento, it was a very full day.



(And shout-out to Amanda and Michelle from the Archives - hiiii!)

Feeding the ducks

We are lucky enough to have a pond with geese and ducks about a half mile from our house.  So on Shabbat, we took our $1 loaf of stale bread and set off!

 Xander leading the charge.

 Tossing bread with gusto.

 Step one: tear bread into proper size in hand.

 Step two: squeal with glee.

 Step three: TOSS!

 Quiet reflection.

 And we have liftoff.

 The ducks were very calm and peaceful.

 The white one had a broken leg and couldn't come out of the water, so we spent special attention making sure it got fed.

 Full view of the lake.

 The geese were a little intimidating.

 They squawked loudly!

 Ari refused to be put down... too scary!  The geese were bigger than he was.

 Safe at last.

 Discussing how the waterfall works.

Home later that night, explaining the excursion to Simcha.

STARK contrast to ubiquitous pro-life ads in the midwest

My new favorite billboard, seen tonight on the way back from San Francisco:

"Pork chops still a beating heart.  Go vegan."