Not quite an empty nest, but it feels like it, and they've only been gone for five minutes!
The big one left on Monday night, off to the salt mines now that she's staff. The others are joining her today, and after the frenzy of gathering and packing and sending one to camp for the first time, I feel like a balloon that's deflating. (I guess that's better than popping).
I'm left with mixed feelings. I am very excited for them for this opportunity to meet new people and just get out of their usual routines. I'm excited for the kids left behind that they can also get out of their usual routines as all the dynamics in the house will shift. I'm excited for the relative quiet, but go back and forth between feeling guilty that I'm excited about it, and not feeling guilty because I sent them off to have a great time.
I hope they do.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Sunday, June 26, 2011
The Season Begins
Our official SUMMER KICKOFF was rained out the other night (see below),though now we're in the thick of things.
Shopping, labeling and packing for camp was the order of the day, and it might just take the rest of the summer to clean up the residual mess, though I'm not quite sure how that's possible since they take most of their stuff with them. At one point there was a lull in the action as we waited for ANOTHER load of towels to be ready, and we took the opportunity to run a quick errand.
Apparently it wasn't that quick, because when we returned we had missed the baby's inaugural dip in the kiddie pool, complete with his new bathing suit and rash guard t-shirt (I think I'll have a hard time getting used to "just shorts" bathing suits!).
I'm glad MBB made it fun, even though the 7 year old was disappointed that one of the "sleep away camp girls" stayed home, thus making it impossible to "practice for the summer." This is something she has been doing for the past month. Anytime just the three little ones were alone in the room, or the car, or anywhere she would proclaim "It's practice for the summer!" Often she would request the others leave so that she "Could practice for the summer." I hope she falls right into it, though I have a feeling she is going to be missing them terribly.
The day ended with a nice family supper, and then the annual trek to the local fireworks, where half the community joins in the oohing and aahing, and we see more people on the sidewalks then any other time.
I took a deep breath, but all I smelled was the OFF! we doused ourselves with, but I knew Summer had begun.
Shopping, labeling and packing for camp was the order of the day, and it might just take the rest of the summer to clean up the residual mess, though I'm not quite sure how that's possible since they take most of their stuff with them. At one point there was a lull in the action as we waited for ANOTHER load of towels to be ready, and we took the opportunity to run a quick errand.
Apparently it wasn't that quick, because when we returned we had missed the baby's inaugural dip in the kiddie pool, complete with his new bathing suit and rash guard t-shirt (I think I'll have a hard time getting used to "just shorts" bathing suits!).
I'm glad MBB made it fun, even though the 7 year old was disappointed that one of the "sleep away camp girls" stayed home, thus making it impossible to "practice for the summer." This is something she has been doing for the past month. Anytime just the three little ones were alone in the room, or the car, or anywhere she would proclaim "It's practice for the summer!" Often she would request the others leave so that she "Could practice for the summer." I hope she falls right into it, though I have a feeling she is going to be missing them terribly.
The day ended with a nice family supper, and then the annual trek to the local fireworks, where half the community joins in the oohing and aahing, and we see more people on the sidewalks then any other time.
I took a deep breath, but all I smelled was the OFF! we doused ourselves with, but I knew Summer had begun.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Take Me Out To the Stadium
We had big plans tonight.
Our crookedonthetakelookingforalegacybeyondbuildingslums Town Supervisor decided that our small town needed a minor league stadium. So it was built in about three minutes (to make sure it was finished before an actual credible legal challenge was forthcoming), and it really is beautiful.
Too bad we didn't get to see the game, since it was rained out, but we had time while delayed to check out the whole place (not that we wouldn't have had time in the midst of a nine inning quasi amateur baseball experience). The stadium is actually 90% complete,but it's more of the advertised extra stuff (batting cages, playground)that's not ready, as opposed to the main parts of the baseball experience.
As one would expect in this area, there is a kosher stand, and it's just as expensive as the regular stand!
We have our rainchecks, and we will try again.
Soon.
Our crookedonthetakelookingforalegacybeyondbuildingslums Town Supervisor decided that our small town needed a minor league stadium. So it was built in about three minutes (to make sure it was finished before an actual credible legal challenge was forthcoming), and it really is beautiful.
Too bad we didn't get to see the game, since it was rained out, but we had time while delayed to check out the whole place (not that we wouldn't have had time in the midst of a nine inning quasi amateur baseball experience). The stadium is actually 90% complete,but it's more of the advertised extra stuff (batting cages, playground)that's not ready, as opposed to the main parts of the baseball experience.
As one would expect in this area, there is a kosher stand, and it's just as expensive as the regular stand!
We have our rainchecks, and we will try again.
Soon.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
That Hurts
I was unaware of how many times a day or week I bang things into my ankle. Until now.
Apparently I bruised my ankle in some way a few weeks ago, and it feels like it's on the mend, until I bang something into again! Then I remember, quite painfully, that it is not healed.
I'm not talking about huge bumps, or dropping ten pound weights on it. In its current state of soreness, even a small item brushing against it, in the words of my children "kills!"
But I really did not realize how many times in the course of life things bash into my lower leg.
hmmm
Apparently I bruised my ankle in some way a few weeks ago, and it feels like it's on the mend, until I bang something into again! Then I remember, quite painfully, that it is not healed.
I'm not talking about huge bumps, or dropping ten pound weights on it. In its current state of soreness, even a small item brushing against it, in the words of my children "kills!"
But I really did not realize how many times in the course of life things bash into my lower leg.
hmmm
Monday, June 13, 2011
Inside Out
I go to a class on Sunday mornings. The main topic is faith, but at times based on questions, or what is being explained or expounded upon, or asked about, other topics come up. Yesterday, someone asked a question that touched on Tziniyus, and the response was literally one I have never heard before.
What amazes me, is that having gone through the Bais Yaakov system, and speeches post seminary and high school, which of course being that they were geared to women have to bring up tziniyus, I have never before heard anyone say what she said. The part that pleased me more than any other was that she is my girls' high school principal, and I'm jealous of the high school experience they are having, compared with the one I had. Maybe that's a function of being older and more willing to learn or grow, but it's probably a function of the boot camp miserable high school I went to.
Anyway, someone asked a question about a broad tzinyus issue (being influence by friends more than by the home)and she said the irony of Tzinyus today is that tzinyus is all about the pnimius(the inside) and yet ALL the focus today is on the chitzoniyus (outside). If people understood that tzniyus is about perfecting your inside; how to talk and act- the dressing would just become a natural by product of that. So we spend so much time talking about "inches, inches" that we lose the whole point of focusing on what should be going on inside. The whole thing is upside down or rather inside out.
So what did I get from this? I understand that different things are different challenges for different people. We all have that little voice in our head that tells us we really look better with a shorter skirt, or one more button open, but I think she's right. If it's really all about who you are, and who you are inside, and how you comport yourself in the world, then the challenge really isn't a challenge at all. She didn't say this, but I will extrapolate that if one is comfortable with oneself inside she need not push the envelope to prove herself better or different or even prove her identity at all based on her clothing. The rules wold be easy to follow, because they would be so simple and clear. WE are trying with all the speeches and whatnot to make our insides match our outsides. The outside has to match the inside.
Do all her students internalize this message? Not yet, but I think they'll get there, because it just makes sense in a non-inches kind of way.
What amazes me, is that having gone through the Bais Yaakov system, and speeches post seminary and high school, which of course being that they were geared to women have to bring up tziniyus, I have never before heard anyone say what she said. The part that pleased me more than any other was that she is my girls' high school principal, and I'm jealous of the high school experience they are having, compared with the one I had. Maybe that's a function of being older and more willing to learn or grow, but it's probably a function of the boot camp miserable high school I went to.
Anyway, someone asked a question about a broad tzinyus issue (being influence by friends more than by the home)and she said the irony of Tzinyus today is that tzinyus is all about the pnimius(the inside) and yet ALL the focus today is on the chitzoniyus (outside). If people understood that tzniyus is about perfecting your inside; how to talk and act- the dressing would just become a natural by product of that. So we spend so much time talking about "inches, inches" that we lose the whole point of focusing on what should be going on inside. The whole thing is upside down or rather inside out.
So what did I get from this? I understand that different things are different challenges for different people. We all have that little voice in our head that tells us we really look better with a shorter skirt, or one more button open, but I think she's right. If it's really all about who you are, and who you are inside, and how you comport yourself in the world, then the challenge really isn't a challenge at all. She didn't say this, but I will extrapolate that if one is comfortable with oneself inside she need not push the envelope to prove herself better or different or even prove her identity at all based on her clothing. The rules wold be easy to follow, because they would be so simple and clear. WE are trying with all the speeches and whatnot to make our insides match our outsides. The outside has to match the inside.
Do all her students internalize this message? Not yet, but I think they'll get there, because it just makes sense in a non-inches kind of way.
Monday, June 6, 2011
The More Things Change....
I was at the gas station with one of the bigger kids today, and when I got back in the car I handed her the change to put back in my purse. She looked at the $10 bill, and asked "Is this a new design???"
No, it was the design that's been around for about forty years...
No, it was the design that's been around for about forty years...
We've Been Here Before
San Franscisco has managed to get a question on the ballot seeking to ban male circumcision for males under the age of 18, with no religious exemption. The penalty is up $1,000 fine or up to one year in jail.
We've discussed this here at chez blogberg, and have come to a few conclusions. Firstly, for religious Jews those penalties pale in comparison with the persecutions of the past for similar bans. That does not make this attack on an essential commandment for Jews any less worrisome, but we know that we can prevail.
However, what of the non-religious, but somewhat affiliated Jew? Will he go that extra mile (literally in some cases, over the border to a different city) to get his child circumcised and enter the covenant, or will he choose to step back and have his progeny not carry this most basic sign of Jewishness?
Part of the argument (the actual wording by the group who put it up is the "San Francisco Male Genital Mutilation" bill-though the city attorney changed to"Male Circumcision" on the ballot), is that parents are guardians, and do not have the right to "mutilate" a child.
Mutilation is a tough word, it brings out all sorts of reactions and is in and of itself inflammatory, but I'm left with the question of what does that mean for our children. My son was born with Ptosis, his left eye droops badly. We have him scheduled for surgery in a few months. Maybe we should wait until he is 18, and he can decide whether or not he wants this done. The analogy is not exactly the same, but the idea is similar, in that we will have him undergo surgery to correct a problem, one that may be mostly cosmetic,and might still lead to other issues ( not major) in its wake. Are we mutilating him? If a baby needs a graft from one part of his body to another, is it mutilation to take skin from his buttocks, or leg or arm, to replace a need elsewhere? You are taking skin? is that mutilation?
I read 95% of circumcision in this country is not performed on Jews, thus I'm not sure that this is a fight that only Jews will need to take up. Rabbi Adlerstein from Los Angeles has a good piece from Cross-Currents blog on this topic. I do wonder, if you take the religious aspect out of it, what is the actual impetus for this ban.
Maybe there isn't.
We've discussed this here at chez blogberg, and have come to a few conclusions. Firstly, for religious Jews those penalties pale in comparison with the persecutions of the past for similar bans. That does not make this attack on an essential commandment for Jews any less worrisome, but we know that we can prevail.
However, what of the non-religious, but somewhat affiliated Jew? Will he go that extra mile (literally in some cases, over the border to a different city) to get his child circumcised and enter the covenant, or will he choose to step back and have his progeny not carry this most basic sign of Jewishness?
Part of the argument (the actual wording by the group who put it up is the "San Francisco Male Genital Mutilation" bill-though the city attorney changed to"Male Circumcision" on the ballot), is that parents are guardians, and do not have the right to "mutilate" a child.
Mutilation is a tough word, it brings out all sorts of reactions and is in and of itself inflammatory, but I'm left with the question of what does that mean for our children. My son was born with Ptosis, his left eye droops badly. We have him scheduled for surgery in a few months. Maybe we should wait until he is 18, and he can decide whether or not he wants this done. The analogy is not exactly the same, but the idea is similar, in that we will have him undergo surgery to correct a problem, one that may be mostly cosmetic,and might still lead to other issues ( not major) in its wake. Are we mutilating him? If a baby needs a graft from one part of his body to another, is it mutilation to take skin from his buttocks, or leg or arm, to replace a need elsewhere? You are taking skin? is that mutilation?
I read 95% of circumcision in this country is not performed on Jews, thus I'm not sure that this is a fight that only Jews will need to take up. Rabbi Adlerstein from Los Angeles has a good piece from Cross-Currents blog on this topic. I do wonder, if you take the religious aspect out of it, what is the actual impetus for this ban.
Maybe there isn't.
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