Ima on (and off) the Bima: Real-Life Jewish Parenting

Reunion by Julie Silver - Review & Giveaway

2009-12-17T22:23:00.000-06:00

I just want to start off by saying that I earned this CD.

Julie Silver, a sweet-voiced gem of a singer, is also pretty lively on Twitter and Facebook these days. And during a presenation I made at the recent URJ Biennial, she dared me to pinch the cheek of one of my co-presenters. She told me she'd give me a CD if I did it. How could I refuse!? After all, it was for you, my dear readers, so I could offer up this giveaway. So, in the spirit of full disclosure: I earned this CD and now I'm giving it away to one of you, lucky readers. See below for how to be entered to win.

Julie's CD is lovely. It's a pleasant and heart-warming mixture of liturgical music and what other reviews call "story-songs" (I just love the sound of that phrase....I want to tell story-songs!).

My favorite track is Halleluyah, a rendering of Psalm 150, is singable and lively - definitely a new favorite for me! I love how she mixes personal words in English with the prayerful words of Yih'yu l'ratzon and looks for shelter in a re-telling of part of the Hashkivenu prayer.

One of the most interesting songs on the album is Where Am I? This song puts into words the struggle that so many women feel when they read Torah - how can I find myself in these stories that for generations have left me out? How can I respond to statements that the Torah makes like "If a man should make a promise, his word must never fail/if a woman makes a vow to God, the same does not hold true/Her husband or her father must decide what she should do..."? Julie asks the question but doesn't really give an answer - and as she says at the end of the song - "surely this is what our tradition's all about" - we seek answers that we haven't yet found.

Each time I listen to the album, I find a new treasure in Julie's words and music.

It's available to buy here at SoundsWrite but it's a smidge less expensive to download from Amazon.

So...you know you want this CD. Of course you can buy it somewhere else, but you can also WIN IT here!

Leave a comment and make sure I know how to get a hold of you if you win.

Winner will be chosen on Tuesday, December 22nd. Tell your friends!
Extra entry for tweeting but YOU MUST LEAVE A SEPARATE COMMENT to tell me about your tweets, pretty please?
Wouldn't it be nice if you shared it on Facebook too? I'd appreciate it. You know you love me. Thanks, y'all!

Pillow Pets - A Review

2009-12-17T00:01:00.000-06:00

I saw an ad for these on TV. That's what you get when you watch commercials.
I clicked over and totally fell in love.

Yes, I fell under the spell of the Pillow Pet.

I couldn't resist! But then...I thought...hmmm...and I sent off a nice gentle bloggy "beg letter" - can I review your product for my nice blog?

And they said YES!? (Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
(which just goes to show...)

So the fuzzy Pillow Pet arrived at my house. My husband's response: "you only got ONE!?"

Oops.
The kids fell in love:

Yes, that is my 8 year old hugging the furry bee. Yes, they've fought over who gets to sleep with it. Oh, by the way, the 4-year-old won it. I don't really know how, he is the one who has possession. That's 9/10ths of the law, I guess.

Anyway, the Pillow Pet really is great. It's soft and furry, the perfect size pillow for a little person, and adorably squishy. It folds in half (I'd imagine it's great for travel, just like they say) and my 4-year-old is dying to take it to school to show his friends and use it at naptime. They have a bunch of other cute animals, also with adorable names (although my kids named this one Fuzzy). You can see the whole list here, but I'm very sad to report that Pillow Pets are out of stock. I tried to order 2 more and couldn't!

If I were a bigger person, I'd be giving this Pillow Pet away to a nice reader. But I'm not. Sammy just can't part with it...so I'm writing this really nice review instead and I'm hoping that you'll wait until the Pillow Pets come back in stock and buy one to thank those nice people for sending me this one to review for all of you!

Seriously, I never thought I'd like it this much. Who knew!?

I received a Pillow Pet from the company for purposes of review. My kids will not give it up.

My Best Winter Menu...aka Comfort Food

2009-12-16T00:01:00.000-06:00

You're looking at it.
This is my favorite meal to make and to eat in the winter.
I like lots of food, don't get me wrong.
But Sukkot comes, I make this meal for our Sukkah party,
and then I love every wintry opportunity to make it. Oh, and it's super easy.

Vegetarian Chili
I don't have a recipe. I do something like this: open cans of beans, all varieties. Rinse. I usually use "chili" beans, preferably the organic ones. Small can of chili peppers. Can of refried beans. Corn? Sometimes. Spinach? Usually, although it appears not in this photo. (package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed) Oh, don't forget the canned tomatoes. The really big can. Sprinkle in some chili powder. Let simmer.

Cornbread
Go to Costco. Buy the cornbread mix (Penguin brand), follow directions on package plus add one can of creamed corn. Bake it.

Macaroni and Cheese
all measurements approximate. just dump it in.

1 (8 ounce) package elbow macaroni

(or whatever shape pasta you have on hand)
8 oz shredded sharp
Cheddar cheese
1 (12 ounce) container cottage cheese
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Make noodles. Drain. Return to pot. Dump in cheeses and stuff. Mix well. Add salt, pepper, seasonings to taste. Spray nonstick cooking spray in a large baking dish. Spread mixture into pan, bake for about 30 minutes until crusty on top. Sometimes I sprinkle wheat germ on top but don't tell the kids, k?

If you're feeling healthy or the Queen is coming to visit, serve a salad with it.

What's your favorite comfort meal?

Lighting Their Fires - Review & Giveaway

2009-12-14T22:42:00.000-06:00

I was blessed to receive a review copy of Lighting Their Fires: Raising Extraordinary Children in a Mixed-up, Muddled-up, Shook-up World by Rafe Esquith.

The title alone is a pretty awesome thing to unpack. We do live in a pretty crazy world these days, and every parent I know is trying to make it work for them. But something that I seem to notice a lot is a lack of "fire" in kids - there is a lack of passion and a loss of the sense of wonder that I would wish for my children. So the very title got me excited to read this book.

I have not read Esquith's first book, Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire (the guy has a penchant for well-titled books!), so I was unfamiliar with his classroom and his unique teaching methods. But that didn't really matter, even though I now would like to go and read his first book.

Using a class trip to a baseball game to frame his story is an excellent technique. As the innings pass by, the readers are drawn into the real-life weaving of Esquith's teaching, parenting, and enriching tools. He doesn't hesitate to use examples from movies and books to illustrate his point, and he's not afraid to say that he thinks television is a real danger to young minds. I love the way he focuses his goals on things like punctuality, focus, confidence, selflessness, humility - beautiful values that create little human beings, rather than little robots or college applicants.

It's not preachy, and I want to go back and re-read this book. I actually took a really long time to write this review because I wanted my husband to read this book too, but he's been busy so I finally gave up and decided to write it - and also give it away to one of you, my lucky readers!

By the way, may I also recommend Mitten Strings for God and The Gift of an Ordinary Day by Katrina Kenison. I just finished reading the second (the first I read many years ago) and in some ways it was a beautiful coda to Rafe Esquith's book, her writing is lyric and calm even as it seems that her world is being turned upside down as her sons grow and change (and apply to college).

But I digress.

One lucky commenter will win a copy of this book. And if you don't win it, you must go and get it and read it.
Leave a comment telling me your favorite parenting book.
Tweet for an extra entry, but leave me a separate comment to let me know, okay?
I'll pick a winner on Wednesday.

Disclosure: In case you haven't figure it out, I received a review copy of this book from the publisher.

TV or Washing Machine?

2009-12-14T21:52:00.000-06:00

Happy Chanukah...and the Winner!

2009-12-11T16:56:00.001-06:00

Winner of the $25 gift certificate to Oh Nuts is AMY who actually made a comment that she thought I "didn't need her any more"!!!! See, Amy, you were needed...to win! I'll be in touch to get the code from Oh Nuts to you:-)

Wishing you all a wonderful Chanukah and Shabbat!!!

I'll be back with more giveaways and Chanukah stuff after Shabbat. Things got a little crazy around here this week and I didn't quite get to it all....

Here's one of my all-time Chanukah favorite songs...Ocho Kandelikas...sung by one of my favorite bands, the LeeVees (hey guys, where's my Sukkot album?)

Winner of the Holy Ground CD

2009-12-08T21:47:00.000-06:00

And the winner is Leah Magid! I'm so happy to send this off to Alaska....
Mazel tov, Leah!

Everyone else - come back soon since I'll be giving away a CD by Julie Silver next....and a children's book....and some other stuff.

Holy Ground - Review and Giveaway

2009-12-05T20:00:00.001-06:00

Craig Taubman, a wonderful Jewish musician (and a friend), published a new album recently.
I love the cover art:

I love the way the shoes are set next to a book - a mixing of the sacred and the ordinary that exemplifies the American Jewish experience.

The title track, Holy Ground, is beautiful. It reminds us that "all of life is holy ground" - wherever we are. What a powerful reminder for those days when we feel that our lives have become mundane and ordinary. It was commissioned in honor of the HUC Rabbinic Class of 2008, and I think it's a perfect song to help new (and veteran) rabbis (and non-rabbis too!) remember the sacred nature of every act they perform, even ones that seem trivial.

My favorite track on the CD is V'shamru. It's a rockin' rollin' awesome version of this traditional reading. And Craig writes in the liner notes: "Don't let PlayStation steal this chance to live and to love." I love this singable song and I love the reminder to carefully guard and protect the joys of Shabbat.

The other track I'm holding onto is Ki Hem Chayenu (not the least of which because it is dedicated to the memory of Grandpa Ben and Grammy from Ben, Anna, Noah, and Dorothy - a family that I hold dear), because it's a really beautiful reminder of the real meaning of the prayer Ahavat Olam. Teach us to number our days that we may have a heart of wisdom...

There are other great tracks that I'm going to learn...a musical setting for Birkat HaGomel, a prayer that Reform Jews have begun to embrace thanks to its inclusion in the new Mishkan Tefillah prayerbook, a Lecha Dodi that is also pretty jazzy (but I'm a fan of Craig's earlier Lecha Dodi too!), Love Your God, a setting for the Shema that is a perfect lullaby.

It's a great CD, would make a great gift, and no one even paid me to say this! (Actually, Craig himself handed me this CD at the Biennial and I told him that I'd be giving it away after I listened to it!)

So...you know you want this CD. I'm sure you can get it somewhere else, but you can also WIN IT here!

Leave a comment and make sure I know how to get a hold of you if you win.

Winner will be chosen on Tuesday, December 8th. Tell your friends!
Extra entry for tweeting but YOU MUST LEAVE A SEPARATE COMMENT to tell me about your tweets, pretty please?
Wouldn't it be nice if you shared it on Facebook too? I'd appreciate it. You know you love me. Thanks, y'all!

Wrestling with the Angel [Re-Post]

2009-12-04T15:02:00.000-06:00

Re-posted from November 23, 2007

Vayishlach, this week's Torah portion...briefly...

Jacob stays alone
sends the family on ahead
scared of Esau's wrath

By himself at night
he wrestles with an angel
or was it a man?

The man could not win
so he pulled the leg muscle
and he cried "uncle"

but Jacob was wise
"I can't let you go until
a blessing you give."

and so he was blessed
his name changed to Israel
means "wrestler with God."

Jake renames the spot
Peni-el, face-to-God's-face
His life changed a lot!

Winner of RotemGear Giveaway

2009-12-03T22:27:00.000-06:00

The winner of the Got Latkes shirt is @irajwise.

Didn't win? Go order your own at RotemGear - so many cute things to choose from. Order fast so you get it in time for Chanukah!

Oh, and come back soon since I'm going to be giving away some great stuff in the next week or so before Chanukah!

Thanks, Shabbat, Love

2009-12-01T00:01:00.001-06:00

Those are the three top words that I use in my tweets.

Did you expect anything else from me!?

Thanks to this cool Tweet Cloud, I can show you!

How fun is that?! Thanks @icodeforlove!!!

--

Even though NaBloPoMo is over, I guess I just can't take a day off!!!

Don't forget the Got Latkes shirt giveaway (ends soon) and the Oh Nuts giveaway going on right now...

Reflection

2009-11-30T00:04:00.000-06:00

A little self-reflection, courtesy of Sam.

See other great shots from the weekend at Tracey's place.

Don't forget the Got Latkes shirt giveaway (ends soon) and the Oh Nuts giveaway going on right now...

A Celebration and a Giveaway!

2009-11-29T11:24:00.002-06:00

I am so proud to have (almost) completed my third NaBloPoMo!

It's been a great month around here ... a whole bunch of birthdays, a whole bunch of baking, hosting Haveil Havalim (it's so convenient to host during November), and I even went to the Biennial and got famous!

So, to celebrate, a really great giveaway from my friend over at RotemGear.

Go check out her cool stuff, she has a great collection of t-shirts and other wearables with funny and quirky Jewish stuff on them. Some of them make me laugh out loud!

Winner will get a "Got Latkes?" T-shirt - isn't it adorable???

To win:
Go over to RotemGear (I'll wait) and pick your favorite t-shirt. Come back here and leave a comment telling me which one is your favorite.

Get an extra entry by tweeting about it. Make sure to leave me a comment telling me you did that, please.

Make sure I have a way to get ahold of you if you win!

Giveaway will close on DECEMBER 3rd...so get commenting, folks!

Anyone can win, but non-US addresses won't get their shirt in time for Chanukah this year.

Another chance to win is available over at the RotemGear blog...write a Chanukah-themed limerick to win!

Don't forget, I'm also giving away a $25 gift certificate to Oh Nuts over here.

A Guest Poster (sorta)

2009-11-28T23:06:00.001-06:00

It's late, it's almost the last day of NaBloPoMo...and here I am...

I haven't written many of these "filler" posts but...motzei Shabbat is as good of a time as any.

So, I went looking for a funny video to share with you instead of writing a post.

But really, please come back tomorrow since I'll be posting a giveaway from RotemGear!

Oh, AND the guest who is looking over my shoulder as I write this, Rabbi Anne Persin, wants to say hi to all my loyal readers. {{{{waving}}}}

Okay, so here's the video that Anne decided I should post today. In case you haven't seen it yet, it's pretty funny:

Who ate the pie?

2009-11-27T00:01:00.000-06:00

Come back after Shabbat for a really cool giveaway from RotemGear!

Shabbat Shalom!!!

I'm Thankful

2009-11-26T07:49:00.000-06:00

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

—Emma Lazarus, 1883

Happy Thanksgiving!

What's on Your Wish List?

2009-11-25T10:48:00.000-06:00

I totally ~~stole~~ ~~borrowed~~ am playing along with the Angel Forever.

TodaysMama and Provo Craft are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year?

- one morning to sleep in as late as i want and a whole day to laze around in bed
- a family vacation to a warm place
- a CSA membership for the summer
- a personal chef to cook all the CSA food (hey, a girl can dream, right?)
- one of these shirts
- this phone...or this one.

2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?

When I went to college, a dear friend of my grandmother's knit me an afghan. I still have it, and I still treasure it. She remembered the colors of my Bat Mitzvah invitation and made it to match. What an amazing gift.

3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?

I'd like to learn to knit and felt purses. I think they're so cool.

4. What was the best ~~Christmas~~ Chanukah gift you received as a child?

I remember receiving a "boom box" the year I turned 8. It was a joint present for Chanukah and my birthday and I loved it. It brought music into my own room and I thought that was the greatest thing in the world.

5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?

My children really want for nothing...they've just had birthdays and our cup runneth over.

That said, Sam is into Ben10 gear, David into Legos and DS games, and Yael really wants this Dora dollhouse.

6. What is your favorite holiday food?

Sufganiyot. The chocolate-filled ones. Preferably hot and fresh and purchased in Mahane Yehuda. But since that won't happen, I'll be heading over to Mizrahi Grill for my sufganiyot this year.

7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?

I'm thinking of doing some jars of cookie mix. Might make a nice gift...

8. What is your favorite holiday movie?

Lights: The Miracle of Chanukah

9. Favorite holiday song?

(okay, maybe not it's my very favorite, but I do love this one!!!!)

10. Favorite holiday pastime?

Playing dreidel and singing songs

Feel free to play along. The amazing prizes up for grabs can be found here. Thanks to TodaysMama for all of the fun. You have until December 13 to join in.

How to Raise a Reader

2009-11-24T21:17:00.000-06:00

I love to read. Perhaps I've mentioned that before.

But I've always worried that my own love of reading (and that of my husband) would not be enough to create little readers.

Our oldest loves to read. He's 8 years old, and he's zipping through books. He has read some of the Harry Potter books, he's read the Little House books, and he's currently devouring every Encyclopedia Brown book I can get him.

Sounds good, right? But it's not enough for this Ima. Now that I've created one reader, I'm onto the next...and it seems to be working pretty well!

We are trying the same path with Sam as we did with David, and it seems to be following quite the same course. Nevertheless, it still makes me giggle with delight that he's so into the books we're introducing. What's the secret we've found? The Magic Tree House books.

David loved them and now Sam does too. I can't quite figure out what the draw is, except that there are a lot of them, and they have various topics that are all interesting to little boys. (We haven't quite gotten Yael on the Magic Tree House bandwagon yet, but as you'll see, she's doing fine on her own as well.)

We are currently spending a brief amount of time visiting my parents. When I say brief, I mean that we will be home before Shabbat. Less than 4 days will be spent away from home.

Sam packed some cars:

But he also packed some books:

And when we arrived, he laid them all out on the floor. To be fair, the top row (7 books) were packed by Yael with help from her Abba. But the other row, the long row, with about 20 books, was packed entirely by Sam himself.

Think he brought enough?

David packed about 8 books. (And I threw in 2 extras for him in my bag.)

And what about me? Four.

Guess it just runs in the family!

Oh NUTS Giveaway for Chanukah!

2009-11-23T22:03:00.000-06:00

Oh yes, my loyal readers (all 6 of you...thanks, guys), the fun that you've experienced for the last 2 years is back...it's year 3 of the Ima's Chanukah Countdown!

And to kick it off right, Oh Nuts has generously offered a $25 gift certificate to one LUCKY reader!

Three ways to enter:

1. Go to the Oh Nuts Hanukkah gifts page. Choose your favorite Hanukkah Gift and leave a comment RIGHT HERE on this post with the name and url of the gift.

I will pick ONE lucky winner! You have until December 10th, the day before Chanukah!

2. Go to the Oh Nuts Facebook page and post on the wall the url and name of your favorite Hanukkah Gift. PLEASE also write "I am here via Ima on and off the Bima"

3. Follow @ohnuts and should Tweet:
Win a free Hanukkah Gift from http://bit.ly/6nIsCi Follow @ohnuts and Retweet to enter.

Absolutely full disclosure:
Oh Nuts has agreed to give me personally a gift if I hit 40 comments on this post.
So help me out, y'all!? Thanks! Tell your friends...

Stay tuned for more Chanukah Countdown giveaways and Chanukah posts over the next 2 1/2 weeks...

Haveil Havalim...

2009-11-22T20:28:00.000-06:00

Mother in Israel has put up a really nice Haveil Havalim.

Go check it out and see what's going on in the Jewish and Israeli blogosphere. Much to see....

Day 22 of NaBloPoMo...into the home stretch!

Date Night!

2009-11-21T18:25:00.000-06:00

Sharing Germs

2009-11-20T00:01:00.000-06:00

So, my husband and I were having a ~~fight~~ ~~discussion~~ ~~intense debate~~ heated conversation the other day. I was in the driver's seat, getting ready to leave, and he was standing outside my window.

Sam was eager for us to leave.

We were intent on our conversation.

Finally, he shouted "we're going to be late!" (which is what, of course, I always say) and we realized it was time to end the discussion.

As he walked away, the same thought occurred to both of us.
We've both just finished reading NurtureShock, a really remarkable book about children and what we think we know and don't really know. A general common wisdom is to not fight in front of the kids - but then kids don't see the "make up" or the resolution of the um, conversation. (Go. Read. This. Book.)

So he came back to the car to kiss me good bye.
It was a nice long kiss.

Mr. Impatient in the back seat yelled again "let's go!"

And then he took a new tack:
"You're going to get sick!"

It's not a bad point.

Rituals for Thanksgiving

2009-11-19T00:01:00.002-06:00

It's hard to believe that the holiday of Thanksgiving is nearly upon us. Just one more week!

Thanksgiving is such a wonderful American holiday. It's simple - say thank you for the blessings in life and share a meal with those you love.

But often, the meal takes over, stress of family and needing a "picture perfect" celebration cause a little fraying at the edges. Creating an atmosphere of gratitude can be tricky when you're just trying to keep your 3-year-old from pulling the tablecloth off the table, don't you think?

I have created 3 different Thanksgiving services, based loosely on the idea of the Passover seder. After all, one good holiday centered around the table deserves another, doesn't it?

Feel free to read all three and pick and choose from within them! Your family might be somewhere between the longer edition and the quick version.

The first, a Thanksgiving Seder, is the longest of the three - suitable for strong attention spans.
Thanksgiving Seder

The second, a Thanksgiving Seder for Families with Young Children, is a quick version, meant to be fun and light for the preschool and elementary school set.
Thanksgiving Seder for Families with Small Children

And finally, an ecumenical version. What do I mean by that? It talks about God but it's not particularistic, i.e. not really very Jewish. (I know that some of you loyal readers aren't Jewish or share your table with people of many faiths and still might enjoy this concept!)

Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service for Families

All three include ideas for usage and suggestions for incorporating your own cultural and ethnic heritage. I hope you like it and I hope you let me know if you use it.

May your celebration be full and enriching!
Happy Thanksgiving!

Magnifying Glass....Cake!?

2009-11-18T00:01:00.000-06:00

So what kind of cake would you make for a Secret Agent party? We discussed making binoculars out of chocolate donuts. That sounded delicious but complicated.

Instead, I settled on a magnifying glass cake.

It took 2 boxes of cake mix. Seriously, cake mix is really good stuff.
I used one box of chocolate and one box of sprinkle cake.
I made 2 rounds, 1 square, and 12 cupcakes. The cupcakes were just for kicks so as not to waste the rest of the cake mix. They went to the staff in my office!)

I recently read this piece by Gale Gand in the Chicago Tribune. Turns out, even pastry chefs sometimes get birthday cake stage fright! Anyway, I'm not in any way a trained pastry chef, all I know about frosting cakes comes from trial and error. But she mentioned that it was important to chill the cakes - which I've never done before. It did seem to help but I didn't beat the chocolate frosting enough (or something) and it was stiff and hard to work with. I thought it was just me, until I realized that the vanilla frosting was delightfully spreadable. Oh well....live and learn. It sure tasted yummy!

Came out kinda cool, didn't it? And it was delicious. One of the yummiest cakes I've ever made.

Secret Agent/Spy Party

2009-11-17T00:01:00.000-06:00

For David' 8th birthday, he requested a spy party. I did a little research and came up with this secret agent/spy party.

Each secret agent was greeted by the Spymaster (AKA the Abba), and put their fingerprint and signature on an ID card created by the Ima. They got a notebook and pencil and lined up for some Secret Agent calisthenics and other spy warmup tricks.

We played a form of "pin the tail on the donkey" - each Secret Agent had to sign his or her name while blindfolded. Think David is cheating?

Secret Agents need to have good memories. They spent one full minute in absolute quiet (a miracle in itself) observing 30 small objects and then had a few minutes to write down what they could remember. They had a great time and took it really seriously!

The Spymaster read one story from Encyclopedia Brown, my favorite boy detective. You'd think this was a boring party trick but in fact, they were very into it!

We ended with a Disguise relay race. Every spy needs to be able to wear a good disguise. These spies had to put on a shirt, hat, and glasses and then pose for the camera - here's my 8-year-old Secret Agent...striking a pose!

Oh, and a really cool cake.

Stay tuned tomorrow to see the cool cake.

Planning parties is so much fun!