five places i've been this week

it's been a long and busy week. i've been barely keeping up...and definitely not reading/writing/responding to comments. sorry! but i've been out and about a little...so here are five places i've been this week...and here's to a new week of far more sleep and therefore far more motivation!

Using Unsharp Mask

Wooden Car Mezuzot (I have one of these and I want another one for my new car)

60 Things this Very Funny Guy Likes About Israel...from 60bloggers

Postville...are you following this story?!

Can I make these? Actually, I just want to eat them. But making them leads to eating...go click. Trust me.

From my del.icio.us...where have you been this week?

And thus begins Numbers...

"In the wilderness"
that's how "bamidbar" translates
not really "Numbers"*

Our parsha opens
with a census of the folks
how many - each tribe.

Tribes were directed
in what order they should camp
and what part of town.

The rules for Levites
are delineated here
all the tasks for them.

*Numbers is the English name for the fourth book of the Torah, called Bamidbar in Hebrew. The word Numbers gives an excellent explanation of what is contained within the book...and so does Bamidbar. Taken together, the words give a very full picture of what is to come in the book!

Shabbat Shalom!
See more haikus here (even though it's a theme week, I stuck with my usual...)

I'm Having a Quickie too!

One person in my house likes to take looooooooonnnngggg showers.

Guess who.

It's not me.
It's not my husband.
It's not the little ones.
It's the 6 year old.

Yep, he likes to take long, steamy showers.

(Me, I can go from pre-shower to fully dressed for work in about 15 minutes!)

So when I saw that the Crunchy Domestic Goddess has a Quickie Shower Challenge, I knew this was the way to do it!

I told David all about my friend Amy, who lives in Colorado, and that she had a challenge for him. He was very excited, he even wanted to do it in under five minutes (which we did). And not only did David take a shower in about 2 1/2 minutes, he did it with his brother Sam!

Aren't you impressed that I showered two of my children in under 5 minutes?
They were really clean too.
Who knew that all it took was a timer challenge!? The allure of a challenge for a 6-year-old.

The only downside? Since Sam didn't quite get the idea of the "challenge" (2 years old is a little young to get it, right?), he was pretty upset at the abrupt end to his shower. We'll work on it.

Later in the evening, I even showed David Amy's blog and had him read the headline on the post. I introduced him to her children and we talked about all the ways that we can help the environment. He even told me that in his Kindergarten class they have cups with their name on them instead of throwing them out each day. I had no idea they were so environmentally-aware in his school.

I'm quite excited about this opportunity to cut down on our water usage.

According to Amy, "reducing the length of your shower by just one minute could save you up to 1,825 gallons of water each year." Wow! You can join the challenge too....

There are even cool shower timers available, although we used the kitchen timer. (Later, we timed toothbrushing too. I think I'm getting a bathroom timer.)

This is what is working for me this week!

P.S. The Kosher Cooking Carnival is up...take a peek!

Tuesday Torah: Flags of Memory

I drove by Wisconsin Memorial Park this weekend.
They had their annual Avenue of the Flags...for Memorial Day.


I had to stop and try to capture a few pictures.


We're not good at Memorial Day here in the U.S. It's not like in Israel. And maybe it should be.

That's my torah this week. What's yours....leave a link.

Camera-Lust, My Deer...

So my dad got a new camera.

I actually have a little taste now of how it must feel to use some of the really cool cameras that so many of you have. It's not an SLR but it is really really cool.

I got to play with it this weekend while we were there. Here are some of my favorite pics that I took using his really great new camera:




We spent a lot of nice time outside on Sunday, in my parents' backyard. Even though they live near a busy street and in a relatively noisy suburban area, there is a large deer population. Someone noticed a really cute little fawn curled up and resting in the "forest" area of the yard, which has been cut back recently. We all walked over to see him (her?) and quietly observe our own little Bambi.

When I brought Sam (age 2) over to see it, the conversation went like this:
Me: Sam, look at the deer.
Sam: Is not a deer, mom. Is a cow.
Me: No, honey, it's a deer.
Sam: No. Cow.
Me: Say "deer"
Sam: "Deer." But is a cow.
...walking away...
Me: I have to go get the camera, this is a blog!
Sam: No, Mommy, is a cow!

(My "Best Shot" for the week...)

See more Best Shots here.

Haveil Havalim is UP!

FrumeSarah did her thing and let me tell you, it's great.

Go check it out. So much to read, so little time!

five places i've been this week

Which companies are green?

Ruth Gruber's excellent op-ed remembrance of 1948

Electric Radiant Floor Heating for Basement....mmm....this sounds nice.

Cool Laptop Skins (i'm so getting one of these for my hubby for dad's day...now you all know and he doesn't because he doesn't read my blog!)

Snacktime! *our new favorite musical obsession*


from my del.icio.us - where have you been?

(I promise to return to some normal posts tomorrow:-)