English

Y mentioned recently that she is bored in her English class. Not surprising. Her spoken English is fluent even though her reading and writing skills aren't - although those are quickly improving too. I hope to make a trip to Ra'anana (about 45 minutes north of us) to a store there that I was told sells English teaching supplies - workbooks and such. I want to get her a book or two that will supplement what she's getting in school but that will be more of a challenge for her.

Y started a gynmastics class this week and is LOVING it!

My weekend starts tonight. I wonder what the weekend holds?

We have been potty training E for several weeks now. He got "#1" down pat in about 2 days. "#2"......that's been a bug-a-boo. Sigh. I keep comforting myself by saying, "He won't come to his wedding in a diaper." Everyone catches on at some point. Just when?

Chanuka is around the corner and I want to take a day or two off to spend with the kids. But do I want to just stick close to home or pull out all the stops and do something BIG with them??? That is the question. A month before E was born - on Christmas day which was COLD and pouring rain (weren't no shepherds out tending flocks in THAT weather, let me tell you!) - I and the girls jumped on a bus and went to Jerusalem for the day. There is a small, quaint, cosy coffee shop there called Kad V'Chomer where they sell plaster molds of all kinds of things including Judaica items like menorahs, kiddush cups, Shabbat candlesticks, mezzuzah covers, etc. You pay for the one you want and then you sit and paint it. They provide all the brushes and paints and sponges for people who like sponge painting, etc. When you're done painting your piece, you have to leave it there for them to fire it in the kiln and then return to collect it which, coming all the way from Rehovot, was a bit problematic for us. But we have friends who live near Jerusalem who agreed to pick up the three items for us and hold them until we saw them again. So it worked out in the end. The girls each painted a jewelry box and I painted a mezzuah cover which we have up on the doorway of our kitchen at home. This activity is NOT cheap but it was the perfect thing for three artistic girls on a cold, rainy day in Jerusalem. I don't think doing this again would fly, especially now that we have a very active almost-3-year-old but maybe spending the day in Jerusalem would be fun as we hardly ever get there.

T and I did a big food shop last night. I love baklava but rarely buy it. But it just sounded good so last night I did buy a box of it. Which brought to mind the one and only time my Mom ever made it when I was a kid. Dad took one bite of it and started laughing so hard he was crying and couldn't talk for ages. We asked him why he was laughing and when he could finally talk he said, "It's like eating the morning newspaper!" That's what I think of whenever I eat it. LOL.

Have a good weekend!