It's All About Perspective

We're driving to school...
Sam sees a nativity scene in front of a house.

Sam: What's that?
Me: Well, it's the story of Christmas...
Sam: Can you tell me the story?
Me: There's a mom and a dad and the mom is pregnant, but she doesn't have a place to have the baby.
Sam: So she had the baby in a sukkah?

Hmm. I see his point.

1,000 Mitzvahs {Review}

I received a review copy of 1000 Mitzvahs: How Small Acts of Kindness Can Heal, Inspire, and Change Your Life by Linda Cohen.

When Linda's father died, she took a "spiritual sabbatical"...what a great term. During that time, she embarked on a project to honor her father's memory - performing 1000 mitzvot...acts of kindness.

Note to purists: in the introduction, she explains that she deliberately chose to use the Americanized plural mitzvahs instead of mitzvot, and to loosely view the concept of mitzvot as "good deeds" instead of only "commandments."

The book is a restructuring of the blog that Linda kept throughout her project. The mitzvot (I can't write mitzvahs, sorry) are numbered out of order, but instead grouped by subject or type of project. I like that the various mitzvot that Linda lists are written as short vignettes, rather than merely prescriptions for action. Many of the concepts are things like "Mitzvah 943: Thank Someone for the Work They Do" - simple, and don't require a lot of work or materials to accomplish.

"Encourage Your Children's Initiative" to "Hold the Umbrella" - it's quite a stretch, perhaps, to consider these all mitzvot. But it doesn't lessen the power of the idea - living intentionally and mindfully can help assuage grief, pain, and loss. Ultimately, stepping outside our own bubble and helping others in small and large ways really does give us a sense of perspective and healing.

Check out the website: www.1000mitzvahs.org
and the Facebook page: facebook.com/1000-mitzvahs

Full disclosure: I received a copy of the book from the publisher but no compensation in any other way. Anyone else want to send me free books?

Hanukkah Kit {Review and Giveaway!}

I was invited to review a new product from a company called Jewish Holidays in a Box. I love this idea. A simple kit for each holiday to help families learn more about the holiday and feel confident and comfortable with their celebrations.
Right now, they only have the Hanukkah Kits to ship, and I received mine over the Thanksgiving weekend.

To read more and participate in the Giveaway, visit Thoughts from Rabbi Phyllis, my other blog.

A Hanukkah Bear - I See Me {Review}

I was given the opportunity to review a product from I See Me! - they create personalized books for children. I replied to the email and then promptly forgot about it.

So imagine my delight over the weekend when a package arrived for me!

I See Me has a full range of personalized books, but the one that I am reviewing is their Chanukah story, a sweet little book called "A Hanukkah Bear for Solomon." (They also have a book called "A Christmas Bear for...")

It's really a lovely book, with rhyming words and beautiful illustrations. The story is pretty basic - a child really wants a teddy bear, and throughout the week of Chanukah opens different gifts - a dreidel, gelt, toys, etc, and he eats latkes, lights candles, and eventually gets his sweet little bear on the last night.

The book is personalized on almost every page, which was really neat. I especially liked this page, which had gift tags for all the kids in our family. (They asked for this information, and I couldn't quite understand how it was all going to work out.)

I get a little crabby about Chanukah books that are focused on gifts, since I don't really feel like that is the main emphasis of the holiday of Chanukah. The nice thing, though, is that this book doesn't actually detail daily gifts as much as it helps to indicate that the whole 8 days are a celebration and family time.

There also aren't any pictures of people, which is really nice since families of all shapes, sizes and colors could read a book like this without feeling uncomfortable or left out. I filled out an information form, and I was asked for the "sender" of the book and gift. I used "mom and dad" but I'd imagine that you could put anything there and those names would be in the text of the book - "Then Mom and Dad gave him the last gift of all..." It would be so nice for a single parent family, or a same-sex couple, for example, to have whatever terminology they prefer. I like the potential for inclusion of everyone in a book like this one.

Solly is definitely not old enough to appreciate this book but I know that his siblings will love reading it and he will really like it as he gets older. It also came with a cuddly Gund bear that I know he will really like right now! The kiddo loves his bears.

Overall, I was very impressed with this product.

There is a bit of a lag time on orders, since it's all personalized, so they suggest that you order by December 3rd for Chanukah delivery!

I See Me also has a Facebook page, and they give discounts/deals on that page, so go and "like" them there if you're interested.

Full disclosure: I received this product free from the company. I was not compensated in any other way for my review and they didn't tell me what to say.

Did you write that song?

When I was a little girl I actually believed that my father WAS Paul Simon and Billy Joel.

After all, didn't he write those songs that he sang to me?

It was a bit of a shock when I realized that he hadn't written them...someone else had.

This was my favorite:

Except, of course, he changed the words to be "little sleepy girl" - so I was certain he had written it.

Now I sing this song to my own children.
For the last ten years.

For the first time...just this past week, David said to me: "Hey, mom, is that a song that you made up or one that someone else wrote?"

No, David, I didn't write it. A man named Paul Simon wrote it.

And the spell was broken.
But he didn't seem to mind.

New Thanksgiving Tradition: Challah Turkey

Me: Guys, I'm going to make turkey challah for Shabbat. I'm so excited.
David: Ew, are you going to put turkey in the challah? That's disgusting.
Me: Yep, turkey in the challah. Doesn't that sound good?

I seriously had the kid going for a few minutes...then he realized that I, their vegetarian mama, was NOT putting turkey into my challah.

Instead...voila, a new tradition is born:

After all, the Shabbat after Thanksgiving is actually

Yom Sheni shel Thanksgiving...

(the Second Day of Thanksgiving)

See other turkey challot here.

And the original inspiration...

Need advice: My challot do not have good definition of their shapes.

What am I doing wrong?

Kiwi Bread?

Me: So, guys, I got a new oven. What should we bake to test it out?
Sam: Kiwi bread! 
Me: Um...what's kiwi bread?
Sam: You know, kiwi bread! It's so yummy. Make kiwi bread.
Me: Yeah, that doesn't help much...do you know what kiwi is?
Sam: Yes, it's green.
Me: {totally puzzled}
Sam, after a few minutes of thought: OH! I mean ZUCCHINI bread! 

Right.

I couldn't find the recipe that I know I've used in the distant past (um, at least a year ago...how does he remember these things?) so I turned to Smitten Kitchen. Her recipes are always winners. This one was no different. Definitely a keeper.

(I left out the nuts and raisins. My kids are purists.)

The only edit I made was to coat the inside of the pan, after greasing, with cinnamon sugar. Which just makes it even better.

Delicious.

Now, does anyone have a recipe for Kiwi Bread?