We're growing a garden!

Those of you who know me since I was a kid will probably remember my gardening days. Every summer, I used to plant tomatoes and cucumbers in the backyard. It was always a thrill for us to see the plants grow.

Well now that I've actually got a small yard, I decided to plant a garden here too. To make a long story short, I was making a salad one day and decided to sprout the seeds...and now we've got 2 tomato plants and 2 (there were 3 but one got trampled on!) pepper plants. I put up a 'fence' (see pictures below) but it doesn't seem to stop the kids from reaching in and touching!

The kids are all excited about it- every day they go to check on the plants to see if they've grown (they have...these picture are about 2 weeks old but I haven't had a chance to blog until now) - I have a feeling that we may not end up getting any real produce because the second something starts to grow it is bound to get picked...although I keep telling the kids that when the tomatoes start to grow, they don't taste yummy! We'll see what happens! So far it has definitely been an educational venture, if nothing more!

Rock-a-bye....baby?

One way of saving trees...

Color on your skin instead! It washes right off (well, after much scrubbing in the bath...) and can be reused again and again!

Yisrael's thoughts on Lag B'Omer and Shavuos

Yisrael is very good at expressing his thoughts. He always comes home from Cheder and gives me the whole run down on what went on, including his 'insights'.

Here's a few:

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Today, he came home and told me that he learned about Lag B'Omer. "Mommy, I want to go to Meron on Lag B'Omer" he said.

"You'll have to talk to Tatty about that, honey" I replied.

"But I want to go to Meron, Mommy! I want to talk to Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai!"

"Oh, Yisrael! Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai was niftar, so you can't talk to him!" I tried to explain (Yisrael is just starting to understand the concept of death)

"So I will talk to his neshama!"

Yoish! Is he destined to become a mekubal ?!?

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Yesterday, Yisrael came home and told me, "Mommy, I want Shavuos to come SO FAST".

I asked him why, to which he replied "Because I want to get the Torah!"

I think he thinks we're REALLY going to get the Torah on Shavuos...I hate to dissappoint him. But I took it as a bit of a mussar- this little 4 year old is so excited for Kabbalas HaTorah when he doesn't even know what that really means... how much more excited WE should be!

Putting things in perspective

I was talking to someone recently, who commented on how much they enjoy my blog. I said that I love it too- its a great way to hold onto memories- I already enjoy looking back and seeing all the cute stories and anecdotes!

But beyond that, I've found that the blog helps me see things in the right perspective. I am always on the lookout for good blog material- so I make sure to make mental notes of cute things that happen!

Here's one case:

A few weeks ago, I was upstairs changing the baby when I heard crashing noises. It sounded like silverware hitting the stone floor- Azriel Shraga enjoys doing that sometimes. But the noise didn't stop...so I ran downstairs, and saw the following mess


Yikes! Instead of just throwing down the fleishig silverware, my darling children had emptied out every last piece of silverware in the house! Milchig, fleishig, Shabbos... plus all my parve utensils too!

Of course my first instinct was to scream at them...but then, before I did, the following thought popped into my mind- "this would make a real funny blog post....and you know what, in a few years, you'll just look back at it and laugh...so why get upset!" So of course I ran to get my camera, and the kids looked at me a bit puzzled..."Mommy, we're not getting a punishment?!"

So thank you, my dear readers, for helping me maintain a positive perspective!

Our new "neighbors"

Our next door neighbors got a very fun afikoman present- pet rabbits! The kids are absolutely in love with them- they are always running over to their house to play with them. Yisrael is a real natural- he picks them up and holds them (sometimes a little to tightly, which gets my neighbor's kids a little nervous!) and Bruria loves to hold them but is too scared to grab them by herself. At first Azriel Shraga was a bit scared, but he's warming up and he'll let me put them on his lap and he'll even pet them a drop.

My neighbor makes fun of me that I enjoy the rabbits more than any of the kids (!), and Bentzi has already warned me that I shouldn't get any ideas in my head....he says we have enough babies in the house!

Back to Blogging

Its been a really long time since I've blogged (I realized that I'd better blog today or else I won't have a single April post!) but things have been QUITE hectic over the past month, between pre-Pesach cleaning, Pesach, and post-Pesach laundry and shopping. This week we are finally starting to settle back into a normal routine, which means that I've got piles of work...but I decided to take a quick break and give you a glimpse of what's been going on over the past month!

Enjoy!