Adventures in Mama-Land

Came across this scene with GZ’s leopard, Lucy, doing a word search: Surprisingly, she was having a great deal of success…   Is this cheating, or creativity???

Our little garden critters totally seem to love being around Gavriel Zev.  The snails in particular just make themselves right at home on his fingers, arms, anywhere.  And he responds with total adoration, whether it’s a worm or a bug or a snail he’s “adopting.” (p.s. and a pat on my OWN back for taking the great shot at the top, then realizing when I imported it onto the computer that his nose was totally snotty… so I fixed it!!!)  (there is a slight powderiness to his nose that was there in real life as well, and I didn’t remove that)

It’s always fun having pieces about homeschooling published in the paper.  They always seem to want a picture of me with my kid(s), actually DOING our little homeschooly thing.  Ha ha ha.  Like that’s really what we do.  So, of course, we have to stage it. Here are a number of attempts to make it look like we’re actually sitting down to learn something together:     This is the picture we ultimately ended up with: I think it’s pretty good… even though I’m pointing at our Chumash workbook while Naomi Rivka studiously “takes notes” (with a pen!) in her Latin book.  We’re both just on the verge of laughter – can you tell???

Damp-haired, wiggly-front-tooth little girl on the verge of 7, I love you.

… is very often bizarre and unpredictable. (but sometimes kinda nice, too!)

(borrowing Aunt Abigail’s camera)

It’s actually an entire vignette in a see-through blue plastic bag:  homeschool mama on too much caffeine (J&J Kosher Iced Frappuccino), grabs a pair of scissors and attacks a whole pile of lapbook materials. Looking at it like this, I guess I should figure out something crafty to do with these pristine off-cuts of hardly-used paper.  But what…? If you lapbook, do you do it when over-caffeinated?  And what do you do with all the scraps?

I have no idea why I love these soccer pictures so much…   YM took Naomi to the park because GZ was still sleeping… and ended up volunteering to help the big kids’ team.  He is a natural mentor; kids love him.  And his absolute favourite activity in elementary school was soccer.  Perfect! 

She was frantically describing a flower to me and I couldn’t get away, so I sent her out with my camera.  54 pictures later, these are some of the highlights…         Some of the pictures, like the shasta daisy, just about took my breath away:  I have never gotten pictures that good out of my camera.  Elisheva says it’s because everything is at eye level for Naomi. Here is her own special picnic-table “weed garden.”  It includes (big square pot) dandelions she planted from seed, (round pot) a “weed maple” I pulled up and handed to her, which is now thriving, and (small square pot) a sprig of golden creeping Jenny that she saved when it was entwined with some ribbon grass I was pulling out.  They are each so precious to her… she’s always running outside and checking on them.

One down; only nine makkos to go!!!

A sure sign of spring:  the bathroom window, open.  There’s no vent in the bathroom, so it is always VERY nice to get fresh air in there after 4-5 months or more of it being shut tight.  You can’t quite see, but this little guy is actually stuck behind the window plastic, which I peeled off at the bottom, but haven’t quite removed.  He looks very Boy in the Bubble that way. The window used to stay open by itself, but like everything else in this house, fell victim to entropy – the eventual decay of everything – and now requires assistance to keep itself open.  When the weather turns nice, I will find an appropriately strong stick or two to wedge underneath and the tub mentschie will be free once more.

Here’s my father, captured on actual film freeing some bagel or blintz from his teeth… along with Jeremy, who died 6 years ago today.  Also the rav of Bobov, behind the pillar, and some old friends I mostly don’t see anymore. Easy to remember how long it’s been:  Naomi Rivka was a teeny newborn when he died… so it’s always the same number as her age. Yeshaya Dov ben Avraham , but for the last years, he went back to using Jeremy.  His family observes the English date, April 8th, which is also coming up this week. And drat!  I just realized that neither kid knows, unless YM miraculously remembered.  I know he said kaddish last month, in Adar 1, so that’s some comfort, but I don’t know if he’s supposed to do both.  We don’t even HAVE yahrzeit candles in the house… bad, bad Mommy.  I was planning to buy some before Pesach.  MUST remember a bit earlier next year. Previous yahrzeit posts: 2009 Hmm… I seem to remember more, but can’t find any.

Big boy and girl, kind of camouflaged against the stripes of the sofa.  Date reads “Pesach, 5757” (this yeaer is 5771, making this approximately 14 years ago).  Boy 2, girl 1.   This was back in the days when I could afford and cared enough to make sure that each kid had at least one brand-new-from-a-store matching outfit before Yom Tov.  Who did I think I was???  ;-) I found this photo in Ted’s folder as I was transferring some other Pesach-related stuff to the other computer.  He’s making up his grand six-week Pesach Plan.  Heaven help us all!

And then I’ll let you go, I promise. Xmas 1973: 3-year-old me - “Hey - you told me we were going to see the Rebbe!!!” 2-year-old Eli – can’t think of a caption pathetic enough to capture the expression in those eyes… I have to say – they had much better winterwear for kids in those days – I’m not kidding.  This silvery thing was my favourite snowsuit EVER.  Look at this huge ring pull, chest zipper and metal belt buckle! Probably developed by NASA – this was just a few years after the moon landing, and I sure looked like I could go there myself in this thing if I wanted to. And look what’s on our feet: Not boots, these are GALOSHES or something.  I think these are the ones:  they were warm and waterproof, and pulled right on over your shoes. Anyway!  Enough nostalgia.  Except for two cute schoolday photos – probably Grade 1 and 2. In the Grade 1 photo, I am at my nadir (zenith?) of waifish, hollow-eyed skinniness.  In ballet, I remember thinking

As always, when I need a current photo to go with an article I’ve written, I’m scrambling in the middle of the night taking pathetic clumsy self-portraits.  I needed Ted to join me in this one… don’t ask.  These are the numerous attempts, passing the camera back and forth between us, to get a creditable shot of us both.  There are puppets in some of the pictures! Here are the two I ended up sending my editor:   What type of article is this for???  Well, I’ll let you know when it comes out.  Hint:  it’s for the BRIDAL supplement of the Canadian Jewish News.  ;-) Related posts that may well fascinate you: The last time I needed an “author pic”!

… is NO school! I saw an idea for this “leaf rainbow” online, and Naomi Rivka is very into rainbows right now.  The differences between leaves are not that striking at first, so she didn’t get what I was doing at the park asking for different shades of leaves, or when I started laying them out on the floor.  But by the end, she was right in there, bossing me around and swapping them so they’d be in the “right” order.  It may not be school , but if this isn’t education, I don’t know what is… p.s.  Yes, she’s wearing a long necklace in the “swing” photos.  Shortly after that, some mama instinct kicked back in & I remembered that it’s dangerous to wear a swingy chokey necklace on playground equipment, so I offered to hold onto it for her.  That’s why it’s missing in the bottom photo with the leaves.

In which your trusty blogger learns one of those exciting Life Lessons:  How to Change a Spare Tire. Every moment is a homeschool moment, right??? Ted wanted to call a tow truck.  He said it would “only” be $50.  #1, no WAY is it only $50 to come and tow the car to the dealership out on St Clair.  And #2, we’re going to be paying enough to replace the TWO TIRES that got busted yesterday (coincidence, or sabotage ???)… why not take advantage of the FREE spare? There are so many things around the house that he’s not afraid to tackle that terrify me – like plumbing.  But I’m not afraid of a little car tire…

On Friday, my sisters took Naomi Rivka to BuskerFest downtown, and she came home looking like this: It’s hard to tell in the picture, but every centimetre of her face was painted… the centre area where it looks like nothing is actually a very subtle shading of gold/bronze shades. Everybody was amazed.  Ted and Elisheva and I ran around grabbing cameras to take pictures before it wore off, but the paint actually stayed on pretty faithfully, right through bath time and into Shabbos…