A Freilichen Purim everyone! I just looked and it has been well over a month since I have posted. Wow, time flies. We have been quite busy over the last 4 weeks. From (finally!) purchasing a home in our new place to celebrating a Bar Mitzvah the next week. Baruch Hashem, our Beautiful Boy #2 has now become a “Man.” 😀 We merited to have almost all our family over here that weekend. We were still in our apartment, but ate at the new house. It was so nice! 17 people. The weather was even nice. The Oldest-Sister-In-The-Family Club met before everyone started leaving. I must say, it was pretty cool to have all the Oldest Sisters there.
After that, it was teaching our boys handywork jobs. Stripping paint off of cabinets, painting walls, etc. And yes, they all had a hand in actually painting the house (and really painting, not just painting pictures on the walls. :D) It was a hard 2 weeks. We ended up getting someone to do a lot of the painting for we bit off too much. Even the hired painters are taking a while (at least 2 weeks now) to do three rooms, but it is looking nice. Last Shabbos we moved the beds into the house and finally got to “move in,” even though most of our stuff is still at the apartment.
Movers came on Sunday, we were so excited! But, we only got 2/3’s of our stuff. Apparently they did not have a truck big enough for our stuff – they were all stuck in snow. That is what they say. We got most of our sefarim, the guitar, paino and some of our bookcases. Among the rest of the stuff that did not come, we did not get all our bookcases, our two big exercise machines and the big organ. We were told they were going to arrive a few days later, so we spent two days working and moving things around, emptying boxes and trying to find temporary homes for things, but they never arrived. When we called, we were told they were not coming and they did not know when they would have someone available. 😐 A little frustrating and annoying, but we keep telling ourselves, and our children, we have the most important things – most of our sefarim, and our beds (though not all sefarim and not all our beds came, but we bought some of both when we moved here,) and I can start teaching again.
It had been a challenge emptying the boxes for things that are labeled “school supplies” are opened in anticipation of them being books or crayons or whatnot, and only the very top is what the box says and the rest are something else. Most of my kitchen boxes are labeled, “sewing stuff.” Hmm… I don’t remember putting most of my sewing goods in my kitchen. We scrounged around and Baruch Hashem were able to find Purim costumes for boys – one boy was missing his strimel (hat) but when I picked up the box labeled “lamp shades,” I just knew it was in there before I opened the box. (And yes, there actually were two lamp shades in there.) I just needed to spend $15 on costumes for the rest of the boys and we were all set.
It is all about perspective. We have not done schoolwork in a few weeks, and I can tell we all need to get back into a routine, and we are missing some of our stuff – like screws for bed frames, bookcases, our big organ, and some of our other stuff we miss, but things really are good. It has been a good few weeks to ponder on that idea and internalize it. Baruch Hashem. We are very grateful.
I think I will take a quick break in between delivering the rest of the shlach manos and going to the seuda to take out Saba’s piano music which was the one thing I wanted and break in the piano at our new place. Wishing everyone a Freilichen Purim!
It has been a while, but I am still swimming over here and very thankful. Nothing is wrong here, Baruch Hashem, just really busy and preoccupied with life. It has been a mentally strenuous several weeks, and I think we are almost there with the first step. 3 weeks ago we found a house! Woohoo! That is such good news for that means I can let boys go outside and do things, and they can do things inside, such as jumping jacks, or somersaults, etc. It has been a little difficult for we are on the second floor of the complex. We hear how it sounds when people walk – the neighbours upstairs are really good, but even when they just walk, the sound is magnified so much, it sounds like they stomp at every step. I can just imagine how it sounds for the neighbours downstairs when there are 6 of us just walking. Never mind if a beautiful boy accidentally gets off the couch a little to fast and the steps are a bit harder than usual, or, chas v’shalom, something drops!
There is no place here for children to play outside – except on the computers or at the TV down at the office, which is just too tempting. So, my boys are inside most of the time. 🙁 Don’t get me wrong – I am SO thankful that we have this place. It really is nice and laid out beautifully. The kitchen is huge and I could not have asked for a better kitchen, even in a house! It is just that I am looking forward to letting boys be a little bit more like boys again. They really need it (and so do I.) It has been a roller coaster of a ride trying to get this house and our realtor says we can now write a book on the process so we can help others. Hmm… my next book? 🙂 Though, in less than 2 short days we are hoping to sign and be almost there, with just the painting left to do before we officially move in.
It has been almost 4 months since we have moved here and I feel it has taken way to long to settle down into a routine. Though, looking back, I think my goals were unreasonable. They say that after having a baby, give it a whole year to get your homeschooling back on track. Well, if just adding one more member to the family can do that, imagine what putting all your things in storage for an unidentifiable amount of time, piling everyone and everything you absolutely need to “survive” until that unidentifiable amount of time decides to end, drive across the continent, setting up shop in a brand new place with new people, new places to live, new cultures, new schedules, new everything, and then saying, “Ok, now be normal and go back to how things were before.” Sorry, you can’t do it – the “laws of physics” won’t allow for that. Now, you can hope for a nais (miracle) for the “laws of physics” to change for you, but I don’t think that is what we are supposed to do. I finally sat down a few weeks ago and was able to make a schedule of some sort with most of our learning on it. Whatever is on the schedule seems to usually happen. It is just the stuff that did not have a spot, or that I forgot to add and therefore are still not there that get missed, but we will, G-d willing, work on that. I am coming to the thought that maybe, just maybe we really are doing okay and the fact that it has been less than 4 months and I feel we actually have a fairly good routine (albeit not the best, but at least it is a routine,) that I should be fairly happy.
The boys are doing really good. We have our days, but it seems like the occurrence of those days is less frequent and even when they happen, they are not as severe. The oldest has a full schedule with his college courses, and so I am not too involved with his learning now (*tears*), but I am still there helping him learn to organize when he does things. Trying to teach him to do a little of everything each day, rather than taking a whole day for one subject. One does not learn best that way. We are still working on that, but then it has only been 2 weeks since he has started, but I think we are getting there really fast. I realized during the first week of his classes that even though he does the work on his own, I really am still very involved in guidance. Every day. Multiple times a day. I am so grateful for that! He came home about a month ago and announced he was going to the Rabbi’s Gemara shiur every night before Maariv. He did not ask, he told me. Well, I can’t complain too much, he enjoys it, he is learning, he is keeping himself out of trouble, oh, and he can get there and back by himself. What more could a mother want?
I think the biggest and hardest change is the change in friends. It is hard to leave friends and then it can be harder to make new ones, especially if when making new friends you feel you have none to begin with (because you left them all behind.) Number 2 had it the hardest. He loves his friends and had a very hard time not only not having them but understanding that he can go make new ones and have double the friends. I think he is getting there. He met a new boy who moved to town just a few weeks before us who is also homeschooled. They have hit it off really well and he seems a lot happier now. Number 3 is my laid-back-go-with-the-flow kind of boy and really has settled down quickly and loves playing with their new found homeschool friend as well. Number 4 is getting there. He loves playing with his brothers (especially with the K’nex they just got!) and has always thought of them as his best friends. He is finding it a little hard when they all go out – learning, biking, etc. and he cannot go with them. He is slowly getting bigger now and now goes to shul on Friday night and Shabbos morning with the rest of the boys, and lucked out and was able to learn on Motzei Shabbos with all the Dads and sons at shul (so he could get pizza and prizes as well.)
We are going to closing in less than 2 days, which could not have come at a better time for next Wednesday is Tu B’Shevat, which means my little Number 2, who was born the smallest and who is the tallest of the 4 right now is going to be Bar Mitzvah! Where did the time go? To celebrate, we have lots of family coming over, and just last night the number doubled and more are coming! Wonder if I can keep the last group a secret until then? 😀
To add to the excitement, when people here found out that DH was a scoutmaster, we had many people BEG us to start a Jewish Boy Scout Troop here! So, what could we do since we have 3 boys we want in scouts who need to be in a Troop than to start one. It is official, we have adults and boys (and more joining) and are hoping to have our first meeting very shortly. We are in the middle of planning the first couple of meetings.
For me, it has been interesting getting up at 5:30 am, 7 days a week. I am definitely not a morning person, but I have found that it really gives me some “me” time. After getting DH off to work, and one boy to shul, I have a few minutes to veg out, exercise, shower and do some learning before I wake everyone else up. That was one thing that I was wanting in Rochester. I had a hard time starting our morning when we should have for I wanted to have my “me” time before the boys got up. Well, now I have it and it feels good to be accomplished so early! It helps make the rest of the day better.
I am writing this on the plane back from a three day trip to the Holy Land. I would normally not feel like a post like one should be published for a homeschool blog, however, I think it is just as relevant as a homeschool post as it is a therapeutic one. I am hoping that by posting this, there will be those who read this and get some relief that even when life dishes out challenges, that those are just part of living and it is okay when your homeschooling world does not seem to be happening very well, or even at all.
After at least 19 hours we made it!
Two months ago we started our journey across the continent to a new place and a new home. Spending the first 4 weeks in a hotel was definitely a challenge, not only for homeschooling, but in general. Baruch Hashem we found an apartment and that really did help. It really means something to be living in your own place and to arrive in our new city Erev Sukkos, the holiday where we come out of our comfortable homes and spend it outside in temporary dwellings, really did mean something this year. Since our belongings are still in storage, in a different state (and not the one where we came from even!) we had to purchase many new things – most of which we already have but have no access to at the moment. To me, that was the hardest part. However, we managed and made it all work. There are bedrooms with beds for everyone, a nice kitchen, our school work, a second vehicle that we are now needing and even a few extras (just a few, not many!) It took about 2 weeks in the apartment to start to feel like things were settling down. I was getting overwhelmed with all the extra things that needed to be done because of the move and not being able to get into a schedule with our learning. Things were looking up and I had big plans.
Hashem has His plans as well, and no matter how it looks, if we look really hard we see that everything is for the good. The day before we were to go to family for Thanksgiving, something which we try to do every year, my sister sent me a text saying that Saba (grandfather) passed away.
Me, my mother, sister, brother and cousins in Tel Aviv
It was not a surprise, he had been sick for a while, and 5 weeks before when my father went to visit him, he decided that he was going to stay down there until the end. There had been a few close calls over the last few weeks and so it had been more of playing the waiting game. My father had talked to me before a few times to try to get me to come to the levaya (funeral), whenever that would happen, but I kept telling him that unfortunately I don’t think I would be able to come. We are in a new place, it has been just a few weeks, and we do not really know anyone yet, and I cannot leave my boys by themselves. Their father now works an hour from home and cannot just take time off for he has not been able to work long enough to do it. My father kept insisting though, and even though I wanted to say yes, I could not see myself doing it. The big stumbling block was that my grandfather wanted to be buried next to my grandmother in Israel – hard to take an afternoon flight one day and come back the next afternoon (which was something we could have finagled).
But, as I said, if we look hard, Hashem’s plans are always good. Just after his 94th birthday, Hashem could not wait for him any longer and took him back. I remember talking to him for his 90th birthday. He never dreamed he would live until 90. It was almost unheard of in his time.
Fruits are huge in Israel – hard to tell but these were at least 1.5 times larger than we get in the US.
There were so many good things about his last 5 weeks. My father was able to go visit him. Saba was still living at home, though he did have care by this time. My father was able to be with him the remainder of his life so he was not alone. There was no family close by. And, almost as important was the fact that they were able to control the pain so he was comfortable. We could not have asked for anything more.
As soon as I got the message from my sister, I sent a message to my husband. When he got back to his desk he asked if I wanted to go (to the levaya). It took me a few seconds for of course I wanted to go, but we begrudgingly agreed before that unfortunately it was not going to be possible. As I sat there I realized that he was asking a very serious question – of all the days that could be chosen, to leave the day before Thanksgiving was one of the only days that I would be able to go (the week at the end of December would be the other time.) He was planning on taking Wednesday off anyways (he actually worked enough to have one day off,) and his boss let him take Monday and make up the hours. I felt guilty about wanting to go and leaving the rest of the family “fend for themselves” and almost declined the offer since the news had not really set in with me yet, but we know that to do a mitzvah for someone who has passed away is one of the greatest mitzvahs there is for not only is this the last mitzvah you can do for the deceased, you are doing it for the mitzvah and not to get anything in return. You can’t. A deceased person cannot repay you back in any way. “Yes.”
We made it. (My sister’s photo, my phone died. Will post the one with me in it when she sends it to me!)
After much quick thinking, phone calls and texts between my sister and father, we finally got it all figured out. My father had a feeling a few days before and had mother and one brother already on a plane in hopes of still being able to get there in time. Unfortunately they were a few hours too late. We found tickets for all of us to meet in Dallas and fly to Israel. The flight was fairly uneventful, faily, not totally, but it all worked out in the end, and at the anticipated time, we landed in Tel Aviv and were greeted by my aunt, uncle and cousin. We arrived on Thursday evening and the levaya was on Sunday morning. In Judaism, usually the person is buried within 24 hours, and inside Israel, by sunset on the same day. However, the Los Angeles chevra kadisha had an unfortunate incident one time and now has a policy of only sending bodies on direct flights to Israel. The next direct flight from Los Angeles arrived in Tel Aviv 2 hours before Shabbos – not enough time for a Friday levaya.
We packed as much as we could in the three days (one being Shabbos) that I had in the Holy Land. We spent time with all the cousins, visited Tel Aviv and of course Jerusalem and the Kotel. Last time I was there was 18 years ago, and for my parents, even longer – almost thirty years ago for my grandmother’s levaya. It was a trip mixed with joy and happiness and some sadness. We countered the later with the thought that Saba waited almost thirty years to see his dearly missed wife again and he was now going to fulfill that wish.
It was a mixed emotion trip for all. We all shared stories and realized that none of us really knew Saba. Yes, he talked, we all knew about some of
Going into the Jewish Quarter.
his life as a child, his life in the Russian army during WWII, and that he was able to speak 7 different languages. But there was much that we did not know. Over the last few years some of us were able to learn a little bit more about this amazing person and there is so much we will never know. Being with family and being able to share our various stories was so good, and so was having alone time.
As much as I know that Hashem’s plans are always good, I just hope that now that His plans are to let me get back to our learning for a bit before dishing out some more excitement. After all, the boys (and I) do need to learn something this year! This is life, and it is something that I want my boys to understand as well. Things do not always go as planned, and sometimes often times do not go as planned, but we have to be able to adjust ourselves and know that when things go upside down, Hashem has already given us the tools to be able to get through it.
The Sefer Torah (middle one) Saba has commissioned. He watched the party via Skype, just 5 days before his passing.
It was strange coming by myself, without any children nor my husband, even though I was with lots of family the entire time. I took the opportunity to soak as much up of the Holy Land as I could (thanks to the jet lag that did not let me sleep and made me exhausted by the time I had to take the trip home!) Even though I really enjoyed being there, and was so thankful to have the opportunity to do something I did not think I would be able to do, I miss my family and hopefully it won’t take me 18 years to go back, and we can all go, but for a happier occasion. My computer clock says it is 6:22 pm back home. I am hoping that means that we already flew 9 hours
My father, after 28 years he was finally able to return to visit his mother’s resting place, who is now kept company by his father.
from London and I have only 2 hours to go. It’s been a long flight, I had to check in my carry on that had my books for it was too heavy and it’s been a challenge to keep myself busy for the last 9 hours.
I am going to finish my supper and then I think I will try to go to sleep for the last little bit. This was not goodbye Saba, we will see each other again. Until then, keep Savta company for us.
Shavua Tov! It’s Sunday morning. I have 5 at shul for davening and learning and one little one still in bed sleeping. I wonder how long he will be able to sleep. 7 weeks ago today we started on our journey. Wow, it is still hard to believe it’s been that long already. We are still not quite on a real schedule. I did not plan on it taking this long to get back into things.
His box bed.
Spending 4 weeks in a hotel did not help too much. I am so grateful for being able to be there, don’t get me wrong, but it was not the most conducive place to teach 4 boys. We did have a basketball court outside, and an outside pool that they did utilize many days, but the big issue was that there was a TV in each room, a TV in the living room, and if I tried sending them out to stretch their legs, often times they would get magnetically pulled into the hotel lobby…where there was a nice huge flat screen TV that was always on, even in the middle of the night. We could not really have a nice Shabbos meal in the hotel room for the table only had 2 chairs, so we usually ended up in the lobby’s breakfast area with the tables, with half of us facing the TV and the other half with their backs turned to watch. It sucked all of us in. The first Shabbos we were in the apartment, I went around the table and asked everyone what they were thankful for. The surprise answer I got was from the boy who was the worst at being glued to the TV answered, “I’m thankful that there is no TV.”
Making the new bed
All of us are finally on a bed. For the first week one boy had an air mattress while the little one insisted he wanted the boxes that held the covers to our incoming Lovesac sactionals (think of Lego couches – you have two pieces – sides and bases – and you clip them together any way you want to make a couch, loveseat, chair, bed, use a single base as ottoman, etc. and you can change the layout any time you want.) The nice thing is that you order whatever coverings you want. We got the coverings delivered about a week before the actual pieces came, leaving a 5 year old with a “bed.” Not sure how he was able to sleep on it for that long, I did suggest him sleep with a brother in the mean time, but he refused and insisted! He moved all the boxes himself and made his own bed all by himself.
New bed
This move has definitely been the hardest move our family has made. You would think that since we had movers come and pack the entire house and load and move it all, our stress would be limited! However, I think the reason it is the hardest move yet is because we are left with an unknown. We are not able to access any of the stuff that was on the moving truck for it is in storage in Alabama. We are in Texas. And, we are not able to have it delivered unless we want all of it delivered, and it won’t all fit in the apartment. So, we were stuck with taking what would fit in our van (including all of us!) and the few boxes that we shipped to the hotel. For a few weeks, or even a month, that would not be too bad, however, we are unsure how long it will be before we find a house. a month from now, 2, 5, a year? People offered to lend us items but I do not want to borrow for an indefinite length of time. S0, we find ourselves buying things that we need, even though we already own the items (folding chairs, tables, dishes, cups, some clothing, beds, blankets, havdallah candle, sefarim, etc.)
However, I think we are about there. I have tried to have some learning for the boys over the last 5 weeks, and the last two weeks have come close to what we need to be doing. It just takes time, and that is something that I cannot rush and for the first time in 2 months our home smelled like Shabbos. 🙂
Tea Time!
I have not created a schedule yet, I have just mentally tallied what items needed to get done each day and tried to fit them in the best way I could. For the most part we got things done. We are all still trying to adjust. One boy is having problems sleeping and one day he refused to get up. Instead of getting mad and threatening to put ice on his back (which I have threatened to do, but not actually done,) I let him sleep. It definitely was not worth the hardship of having him up and acting up because he was exhausted. 1:30 he finally woke up – but his attitude was very acceptable. The little one has not gotten enough sleep as well. He has a hard time going to bed when his brothers are up. I don’t blame him – I wouldn’t want to miss anything either! I laid down with him on Shabbos so he would have a nap. 3 hours later he woke up. He was up for 1.5 hours and then very surprisingly went to sleep again. It’s after 9am and he is still sleeping. I think he was tired. I am hoping that this will help his behaviour as well now. I think he is also a little bored for all he can find to do is play with Legos and make paper airplanes. (My other suggestions are not liked very much….)
Airplanes – big and small
My conclusion: Moving is hard! Even when things are done for you, the bottom line is that it is still hard and no one can tell you otherwise. The good news is that like everything else, there is something you can rely upon to keep you going. Time. Time helps everything. 7 weeks later and I think we are almost there (until we find a house of our own! But I do not think things are going to take this long to settle down afterwards.) G-d willing, I will be able to make a schedule to try out this week. I have one more thing to add to it than what we have been doing. I had a pretty “lazy” week this past week and now I am ready to get rolling into something better, however, being it is Thanksgiving this week, I am not sure how much of a schedule we will be able to do 😉 But that too is part of the schedule, we go visit family each Thanksgiving, so this is a good thing.
I see movement from under the blanket so it is now time to get going and hug up a cuddly boy. Wishing everyone a wonderful week and for those who celebrate, a good Thanksgiving!
We reviewed the book, “Every Picture Tells a Story,” Volume 1, Bereishis, by Chaim Natan Firszt, along with the corresponding coloring book. Here is my review.
The book is an illustrated, hard cover book on the weekly parsha with Torah verses and commentaries geared for every age. There are beautiful, hand drawn, full colored pictures on the left side of the page while the right side has a verse/verses from the Torah as well as a short commentary below it, both in Hebrew and then in English. The pictures and texts go in order of the weekly parshiyos and include the source of the verses. Above the picture is the name of the parsha as well as a short phrase describing the picture, again both in Hebrew and English. The corresponding coloring book is the outline of the pictures found in the main book.
When I opened it up, I found it to be a very simple and clean layout. It is a very nice book to look at (and I would like to say that the text had almost a majestic feel,) and was very easy to read. The author took a few select main points from each parsha to highlight. I liked the fact that there was one idea per page with the selected verse(s) containing one thought, a commentary underneath to go with it and a nice color picture for reinforcement. The only thing that I found a little annoying, was the fact that the Hebrew verses had nekudos (vowels,) but the commentary underneath did not. The English translation was very nice. One nice thing about it is that for words that are commonly used by their Hebrew name in English (i.e. the names of people), the first occurrence of the word includes the English word in brackets. For the rest of the of the time, just the Hebrew is used. However, all Hebrew words are found in the glossary at the back of the book.
The book can be enjoyed by everyone (I enjoyed reading it,) for the language was not watered down and the text is short enough to keep the attention of the younger children. I have been reading it to my 5 year old son, going over the weekly parsha several times a week, and he enjoys looking at the pictures, even after I read the selected pages for the parsha. My 11 and 12 year old also looked at it and enjoyed it but found it was good as a once or twice reading book only. What I really enjoyed, and it will be something that we all will be using often, are the pages at the end of the book. There are various wonderful family trees with the Hebrew dates, as well as a beautiful chart about the Shevatim (the 12 tribes) and their zodiac places.
I think that younger children will benefit the most from the book for it takes just a few main ideas from the parsha using short passages and commentaries, however the charts at the back are wonderful and extremely useful for all of us. When I am learning parsha with my 5 year old son, I do not use this as his only source of learning because it it limiting as a summary of the parsha but we read from “Every Picture Tells a Story” afterwards because it focuses on a few main points and then goes into some detail and explanations so he learns a little bit more but is not overwhelmed. All in all, I really like the book and do recommend it.
I am sitting here, about 1.5 hours before supper, and it is quiet. One boy off to finish his essay that is due tonight, one boy reading and two playing basketball outside with the new ball Grandpa bought them this weekend. I have no clue what is for supper, but I figured with about 15 minutes (max) of quiet time, it might be almost enough time to write. As long as I type fast! (Yeah right, but nice dream.) This is not really a homeschooling post about boys, I think this is a homeschooling post about me. After all these years, I am still learning and still connecting the dots.
I have decided to start off by saying what I am thankful for today. I have not asked my boys to tell me what they are thankful for in a while, but if I start off, perhaps we can get back into it. I am so thankful that our house is basically sold! 30 hours after having it on the market we got an offer. Inspection was done, we have come to a compromise as to who is paying for what needed items and all that is left is to find *the* date. Phew. The market in our (old) area has plummeted and that was hard to accept, and they did take a bit to accept our compromise, but Hashem has helped us all the way and it was only 2.5 weeks after moving out that we came to this point. I don’t need to think about how things could have gone, I don’t want to change the past. I am more than happy and more than thankful to be able to think of it as gone.
And if moving across the continent was not enough movement for me, Mr. Little and I took another cross continent trip last week to Vancouver
Visiting Granny – still looking pretty good!
for my cousin’s wedding. 😀 Two airplanes and a 3 hours drive (did not have a passport to fly to Canada, so had to drive across the border with our Nexus cards — much needed, took only 30 seconds to cross the border.) Had to wake up at 3:30 in the morning, and arrived at the hotel 13 hours later. On the drive way up Mr. Little asked if we were staying in a hotel. I said , “Yes, it’s been such a long time since we’ve stayed in a hotel hasn’t it?” “Mom……we live in a hotel….” Hmm…. guess he was a little too young for my attempted sense of humor. 🙂 It was exciting to see the minds of a little one. I saw snow capped mountains and showed them to him. At least I thought he saw them. After a little while he got so excited for ahead of us was something tall reaching into the sky that was all white. “What is that Mommy?” “It is a mountain that is all covered in snow.” “I thought it only snowed in Rochester!”
The drive was nice. Even though I have only driven on the Vancouver-Seattle route a couple of times, it really was peaceful and felt very homey. It really is in the same area that I know and I could tell. It reminded me so much of the fun, long drives we took most years on the Canada side to visit the family. I noticed that two different geographical places can have similar climate, similar vegetation and maybe even similar landscapes, each place is unique. I think I liked the drive because of that. I have not found an area that is the same as this. Close, but not the same.
Oldest Girl in the Family Club
My sister traveled across the continent with her 5 children (by herself! Kol Hakavod!) and we arrived in time to share her hotel suite. When we went to the front desk to ask for her, I mentioned that I think my sister was staying there (I had printed off the address but not the hotel name) and the two employees nodded their heads and said, “Yes!” They said that the only reason they are telling me the room number (opposed to calling the room for me) was that they were only told about 7 times that I was coming (though my sister keeps saying she only told them once – I think she was excited to see her older sister 😉 ) and that I looked like her twin so they were very confident that was just fine. So, 4 boys, 2 girls and 2 Mommys squeezed into a rather spacious suite with a full kitchen and a jacuzzi tub 😀 Oh Friday was fun, with all sorts of cousins and aunts and whatnot showing up to our room. Most of the family stayed in the same hotel as us, so when Shabbos came around and all the weather did was pour the entire day, and get 6 little kids all cooped up and frustrated, it was nice when all the other family members (and the other little kids) made appearances in our room (we had the most space… and the most people, so it seemed nature to crash our room.) We even created a new club for my 6 and 4 year old nieces and myself – the Oldest Girl in the Family Club. Awesome club – sharing the Oldest Girls secrets, such as what clouds are made of and where wood comes from. You see, when my sister’s oldest daughter (6 years old) said I looked like her Mommy, her Mommy told her a secret – I was her older (and oldest) sister! Her jaw dropped to the ground. Unbelieveable! And so the club was started with my brother’s oldest joining in when she arrived. Birthday cake for the birthday boy (my nephew) Motzei Shabbos was the highlight of the day and just another great reason for everyone to crash at our place – all at once this time.
Two sets of sisters – a group of mothers, sisters, and aunts. 🙂
Showering, visiting Granny (the Matriarch of our side of the family) who was not feeling well enough to come to the wedding (at 97 years old, she’s doing pretty good and almost came), getting ready, going to the wedding, to driving the first third of the trek back home right after supper, we had a busy day (and my sister then said *I* was the one that had a harder trip – to do this only 2.5 weeks after moving across the continent!) We even had to take our dessert back with us and had it as our almost midnight snack at the hotel before going to sleep. (Oh, the chocolate cake was just heavenly!) After a little cufuffle with an email from the airlines at 3:30 in the morning (right before we woke up), saying that our first flight was now changed to 2 hours later (but no mention of the second one that we were going to miss then,) to closing my eyes for an hour (for 4 am was just too much for me and anyways the plane was 2 hours later), only to find out that during that hour our flight was changed back and we missed our flight, we did make it back home not that much later than planned. I did have another comforting thought. While up in the air, looking out of the window, I realized that Home has nothing to do with looks, nothing to do with size, nothing to do with where it is, and nothing to do with what you decide to live in. At that moment, I was remembering the most crazy, wonderful time I have had with basically all my family (minus my family left at home) that I have had in a long time, and that I was also so excited to be going back to “our” hotel. We have been here for about 3 weeks now, and have about one more week to go and even though we are a bit cramped, and even though my “bookcase” is growing (rather nicely I might add,) and even though it is frustrating dealing with boys for there is not much for them to do after school work is done, none of that really matters for I was just so excited to be coming back… to be coming home.
I am calling this blog Day Two for Day Two was SOOOOOOO much better than Day One. We still have not plunged into a real routine but the movers have our schedule and I have not had time to really put a good one together yet. Three weeks off of school with painting, packing, throwing out, moving, Yomim Tovim, etc. really prevent boys from wanting to go back to school. Had to get up at 5:30 am (after spending until almost 1 am trying to wash and dry clothes – kept missing the opportunity to use the hotel’s washers and dryers and brought back wet clothes for I was too tired to put more coins in and wait longer,) to get Daddy off to work. This is going to be hard to get used too. He has to be there at 7:30 in the morning and he doesn’t have a 7-9 minute commute anymore, it’s an hour. Boys got up and dressed and shipped to the eating area for our free breakfast (well, we do pay for it in the cost of the hotel, but we won’t go there, “free” sounds nicer,) and finally got them davening while I snagged the washer and dryer again, and finally got some kodesh learning printed off and got started.
My mistake was that I thought I was doing well. You see, I finally get everyone settled and doing a second set of work. Mr. #1 was in one bedroom doing one thing, one boy was playing with Legos and two boys were sitting with me ready to learn. Ah, I had it all made! And then I made the mistake. I remembered that someone else was using the washer after me and I hogged both dryers and needed to get my stuff out. Anything I did at this point would have produced the same effect. I was lazy and sent two boys to quickly grab our clothes from the dryer and come back. I neglected to define the word, or perhaps the whole sentence. One boy came back crying and sat down beside me. We waited. And waited. And waited. I had said boy sit down and I was going to start the class without the other boy, but then I got to thinking that I did not want to have to repeat the learning. I sent the boy back to find his brother and the missing clothes. And waited.
Finally! Both boys returned. Minus the clothes. 😐 Turned them around and they finally brought back the items. Phew. Not sure how long that took but I think it was about 10 ish by the time we started our learning. The learning went not too bad. It happens to be my favorite lesson in the entire book (Madame How and Lady Why.) I then sent them to go and do some team reading for another lesson. Mistake number two. About half way through the reading I find out one boy went ahead and read almost all of the book for he was “waiting for his brother” (their famous phrase). Sigh. I’ll just say they were not getting along too well at that time. I ended up sitting them both on the couch and telling them to be quiet while I made lunch. That seemed to do the trick and I sent them back to read. The rest of the day was a bit better. Though Daddy is gone an awfully long time now, with the much longer treck both directions and them working him harder as well. That is hard on the boys too.
Today is going much better though. One good thing about having “free” breakfasts is that there is a time limit. Breakfast is over at 9 am during the week. This is a great insensitive to get boys out of bed on time. I might tell them that breakfast is closed passed a certain time but they can go sneak some food in between lessons. Here, the food is all put away and locked in the kitchen and not even I have the key! Did have to threaten to drag one boy out of bed (he sooooo does not like that) but they got up, dressed, ate and were back in the room ON TIME! I felt pretty good.
All in all, the boys were pretty good today. I have made a deal with one boy; I will buy him a (Jewish) song of his choice for every 7 days of good behaviour (does not have to be consecutive.) I don’t always have cash, but $0.99 on the credit card I can do. This song will belong to him to play. The catch: No tantrums, respectful speech to both of his parents, talking nice to brothers, etc. He is very motivated. He has had mainly good days, a few dips but all in all is doing so much better. He keeps talking about getting to that 7th day. 🙂
Boys sat well this morning when I gave them just a little bit of writing work to do and the little one was davening and learning with me while the cleaning staff cleaned our room (a HUGE bonus of being stuck in a hotel!) Unfortunately, today she forgot to mop the so little, tiny bit of kitchen flooring – there was something sticky that fell on it earlier this morning. We got math done this afternoon, after a picnic outside in the pool area (love being able to picnic!) and now, 3/4 boys are swimming outside (gym time), leaving me to have some awkward quiet time with seemingly nothing to do (though I am sure there really is, I just can’t think of much right now.) Need to check on the other 1/4 and figure out why his reading is taking so long (I’m sure he made his way from the loby where he was reading to the business area with the computers,) and then get supper going. It is so nice to be able to do some mostly real cooking on the two burners stove (do not have an oven.) That really helps a lot. Our stomachs are happier as well.
As things are slowly falling into place, and we are slowly doing things (unless forced to do it quickly) one does when one moves (changing addresses, new tags on cars, dealing with new health insurance, etc.) we are slowly trying to get used to the new culture (though the climate is not hard to get used to) and I think things will be well. It was a nice surprise when my oldest came in with our missing USPS box full of gemaras, mishanyos and all the other school books we were missing! Being Parshas Noach, a friend told me, “Bo el haTeva. Here comes the box!” Nothing is coincidence, and it is so “of course!” We had one slightly bent gemara (for it was very, very skinny,) missing a really tiny hebrew reading book, but did acquire a strange, unknown magazine and a pair of socks. For boys. And the right size for one of them to boot.
So, yes, today is going much better. Now to get out of my hermit state and off to be a parent again and find my 4 belongings. 🙂
Well, it’s the last day of Sukkos, and it sure has been quite an adventure the last couple of weeks (well, the last several weeks really,) for we have moved. Not just any move, but all the way to sunny Dallas, TX. And we didn’t just move here, we DROVE here, across the continent, all the way from just a few miles south of the Canadian border, down, down, down, southwards, just about reaching the Gulf Coast. What an adventure, what a drive! A cross country drive with the boys was something we have wanted to do for a long time, and in case I did not feel it before, I sure felt like a homeschool family on the trip. 😀 Needless to say, most boys have not done official school work in several weeks – of of the many bonuses of homeschooling. Mr. Big Boy #1 has been working on his college classes – they keep going no matter what else is going on in your life.
On Rosh Hashanah, things were feeling pretty normal except for the fact that the house was upside down as we were getting ready to move (I had been trying to thin things down in the house, rooms were moved around to paint, etc. so no, it was not “normal” but as long as I was out of the house I felt things were still pretty normal. The kiddush that Shabbos was sponsored by some most wonderful friends in our honor – all whom we are missing. Then, as everyone was preparing themselves during the Aseres Yemai Teshuva (the 10 days of Repentence – the days in between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur), I felt like I was Pesach cleaning (oops, sorry for mentioning *the* word now,) both physically and spiritually. The movers came, packed, and then loaded (almost) all our precious (and not so precious) belongings onto a truck and drove off. They were a crew! At least they did not pack a pail of dirty diapers like the previous movers did (after I told them not to!) but they almost took our bikes that were chained up way in the backyard that were chained up to make sure they did not take them. By Yom Kippur, our house went from being turned upside down, to a House of Maze, to just plain empty. It is amazing how quickly other people can pack your things for they are not emotionally attached to them in any way.
Motzei Yom Kippur the boys were helping us out until 1 am or later (oops, did not realize what time it was and we really did need all their help,) and the Mom and Dad finally went to bed at 5:30 in the morning. The alarm was set for 7:30 am. Funny enough, we woke up before the alarm. Between packing what we needed for the next several months (or at least the minimal amount of things needed,) and finishing getting the house ready for us to leave, and all boys going to shul, we finally made it out at about 5:30 pm. Happy Birthday 11th YY! Baruch Hashem for a place to eat out, bought lunch and supper and a little dessert for the birthday boy and we were off! Van packed to the hilt, 4 bikes on the back of the van, one INSIDE (1 had to be taken by the movers for there was just no room,) car top carrier filled, and so were laps, and we were off! We were missing one thing – our rocking chair on top with Granny. 😉
We left 5 hours later than we hoped to have left, but it was doable since we were driving. It was a long day. We finally made it to our destination in Columbus Ohio at about 1 am. We all crawled into bed. 6 am came too fast. Monday was our long day. Google maps said it was supposed to take 10 hours. It took 14 – and we only had one big stop (1.5 hours worth)! We have spent our days looking out the windows, coloring, reading, listening to Lipa (and others) and of course listening to shiurim. Technology can be really amazing. Just 10 years ago, DH complained that he could not listen to shiurim in the car for the quality was just not good. Now, we can listen to recordings from the 1970’s for the technology has come a very long way.
Tuesday was the day we were excited about. We surprised the boys by making our Monday stop in Branson, MO. Branson has been a big tourist attraction spot for many, many years. Grandpa takes one boy each year there to have fun. When they realized that is where we were going to stay, they just couldn’t stay in their seats as they pointed out the hotels they had stayed in and the other attractions they had been to. (One boy even recognized the driver of the Duck , an amphibious vehicle, as we passed by it – as well as making all the duck noises.) We decided to go see one attraction and we settled upon the Titanic. Afterall, we ARE a homeschooling family and we should make everything educational. 😉 The tickets were extremely reasonable in price and the museum was amazing! They had a lot of artifacts out for show, even some things for hands on experience (a glacier simulation, ship “deck” pieces at various angles to walk up to see what it was like as the ship was sinking, etc.) Each guest was handed a ticket with a name of a passenger and you could look at the list at the end of the museum to see if you survived… or not… And yes, I was conscious when I walked into the money trap and purchased the photo of our family that was taken, as well as when I purchased other souvenirs . I figured I could spend a little bit of money – afterall, this was an amazing journey and we were all having fun! I did purchase a wonderful book of facts recommended by a worker. Apparently all new employees are given that book to learn the initial facts.
Tuesday night we arrived at our new home – the Homewood Suites Hotel. For the first 5 days the 6 of us spent the time in a 1 bedroom suite before moving in the luxurious 2 bedroom suite with 2 ensuites (yeah!) Sukkos started Wednesday night. We have made this our home and even have our little “bookshelf” all set up! (Yes, a homeschool family!) Wednesday was spent trying to find our way around town and getting Texas inspection for the car, tags and the toll tag, and a PO Box, as well as going to the store to get a ready made meal for the one meal we had to make for ourselves over Yom Tov. Baruch Hashem, the community is very nice and by the time we arrived in town, we had 5 meals set up for the Yom Tov/Shabbos! The past few days have been busy as well, though we were able to get out and take a nice walk/hike at Oak Point Park and Nature Preserve. The weather is wonderful. It was a bit warm the first days with 95+ degree weather and we made the downpour on Friday night, but it is supposed to be about 80 through Shabbos.
This Sukkos does feel a bit strange for we do not have our own Sukkah, and being in a hotel, we usually opt to make food that does not need to be eaten in the Sukkah. What is special about a sukkah? It is considered an “easy” mitzvah to do for it is a “living” mitzvah – if you want to eat, eat in the sukkah, if you want to make a phone call, make it in the sukkah, etc, easy! We make the sukkah our home. Something we need anyways, just for 7 days a year we make our home in the sukkah. But what is it about the home? The home is the security of man. Even when we are out of the house, working, travelling, etc. when we have a home, we are secure. This really hit home this year and I can really relate. God willing, next year we will be in our own home and once again will have a Sukkah.
We are meeting a lot of new people, and visiting various shuls. And, I would say, the most important thing is that we met several other religious homeschooling families! My two oldest boys are the oldest, and we are the veteran homeschoolers, but it is so nice to have a nice group to do things with. Now, it’s erev Yom Tov again, and this time, we are making most of our own meals (with a stove top but without an oven!) and we are going for a walk before having to make one washing load and trying to figure out what we are going to eat for the next few days.
Wow, it’s that time again. I’ve barely had time to breath the last month that it is hard to internalize that in less than 24 hours it will be a new year again. Fresh starts are great. I didn’t think I really had a fresh start at the beginning of the school year this time for I did not feel ready. I did not seem to have the time to organize and clean. But Hashem has blessed us with a fresh start now – not just in the new year, but in a new place. We are moving. Across the country. All the way to Dallas! So, we have not been doing much learning, as you can imagine, and things have been quite stressful, but we are all excited about the move.
DH and I went for a house hunting trip the last two days. It was quite an adventure and we learned that in Dallas you have to water your houses. My boys looked at me funny and started laughing. 🙂 Yes, that is right, you have to make sure you water your house (the foundation really) once or twice a week depending on the season or your foundation will crack and your house will shift. We are always learning new things!
My oldest is doing his college courses still and as long as he is doing them, he is off the hook for any cleaning or repairs that are needing to be done on our house to get it ready to sell. Boy, this is not an easy task. Painting, throwing out, painting, putting away and painting. I was woken up at 1 am last week one night and could not go back to sleep and then had only 5-6 hours of sleep most other nights, and the trip did not help much that I went back to bed at 6:40 this morning after sending DH out to work and I didn’t wake up until 10. I think I was tired. We had been doing some of our limudei kodesh until last week when things got quite hectic. Ouch. I need to remember to get back into it tomorrow morning – if nothing else, it is Erev Rosh Hashanah.
But I believe this is good for us. We will miss all our friends here and will miss the quiet atmosphere, and yes, we will miss some of the snow (only some!) but it is time to move on. We all had our last night at scouts – me as the Cub leader, DH as the Scoutmaster, Mr. Big as the Senior Patrol Leader (the scout who leads the troop,) and the other boys as active members. It was very hard to go. However, there are many positives to look forward to. We are looking forward to having other Jewish religious homeschoolers around. I hear there are at least 6 or 7 others in the area. That will be something new for us! It is a good time of year. It is the New Year. A change in location means a change in mazal (“luck”) and what better time than at the beginning of the year when the Creator is ready to plan for the next year.
It has not been an easy decision. The hour long commute (opposed to an 8 minute drive) was a big factor, and leaving a quiet place and all the wonderful people is going to be hard. It took a lot of talking, along with davening (praying), emunah (faith) and bitachon (trust) in Hashem to help guide us along the right path. We want to go along the best path for us, no matter what we personally might think. We do not know what really is best, only He knows. We have found that when we want to do something for the right reason, it will usually be easy to make the right decision. No need to worry or second guess. And when we sometimes find ourselves second guessing, we restrengthen our emunah and we are shown again that we did right. We have talked about this with our boys, but they are still little (yes, even the 13 year old college boy,) and it is hard. Though with our constant talking, hopefully in the not so distant future they will start to understand what we are able to see now.
Everyone is excited, and the movers are most likely coming next week. We are hoping to drive all the way down the country, though not stopping to see much for we are racing time between Yom Kippur and Sukkos!
I am going to sign off here, but before I do, I just want to wish everyone a Kesiva V’Chasima Tovah – may you all be written in the books of Health, Wealth, Success and Happiness. We can always want to start fresh at any time of the year, but this is the time where it is the easiest time to accomplish it and with just a little bit of determination and lots of praying may Hashem grant you all a nice fresh start and a wonderful Yom Tov!
Wow, is it really that time of year again? Wait, isn’t summer still here? I’m not ready. Usually I have a schedule ready 2-3 weeks before we start our learning again. Well, let me rephrase that for we are always learning; before we officially start our new school year. I tried to sit down and work on our schedule multiple times this past month, but something always took me away, including somehow being tagged as the parent who drove boys and friends to a nice creek that had a nice waterfall on an 80+ degree day last week. (Note to self: When you want to spend only an hour at the water in nice weather, don’t let boys go into water. Somehow they just won’t want to leave, and unless you actually go into the water to have them look at you, you can bet on them all of a sudden having selective hearing issues.) I finally wrote down what they are going to do, but it was not until last Thursday/Friday that I finally got to sit down and come up with a schedule. I don’t feel ready to start.
One thing I did keep in mind this year is that even though I love all of Ambleside Online’s schedule, we just will not go through all of the books. For example, there are always 3 bibliographies or similar kind of books a year, however, we usually only get through one. That was a hard thing to admit for it is hard to decide which books to leave out, they are all good sounding and I really would like to do them all. But, after doing this for 4 years now, I realize that we were not necessarily meant to complete ALL the books on the list, but it is a list of great stuff to choose from. My oldest was able to get through almost all the readings but some of the other boys are slower readers or the narrations just take a long time so it takes longer to do so the readings are split up sometimes into multiple weeks. (Yes, I know some people will split up each reading into multiple days, but we just don’t seem to have enough time to do that.)
This past week was busy. Other than finally finding time to make a schedule, Mr. Big has officially started school as a college student. (Yikes!) Last Monday was his first day. Right now, all his classes have to be online for even though he might be mentally ready for the material (he did have to take a placement test to get in,) I am not letting him go to a physical class. He is still a child (at 13!) and is not ready for the college environment (at least that is what I say and I’m sticking to it.) It is a new experience for all of us. Us seasoned university graduates are trying to guide him in what he needs to be doing, and even though I did take an online course several years ago, it does seem to be very different than what us old folks experienced, though with being old comes wisdom and that makes up for all of it. 🙂 So his AO classes are limited and made up for with all the work he will be doing in his two classes.
For the other boys, we are almost set with our books. I would just like to get a different version of the King Arthur that they will be doing this year for I would like to get the version that has Librivox recordings to listen to. Librivox is a site that had free public domain audio books that are read by volunteers. Since many of the books used by AO are now out of copyright and in the public domain, there are many of the books we can listen to instead of having them read it or having me read to them. Last year we chose to listen to Robinson Crusoe. The reader was pretty good and the boys liked it. They followed along in their book and got to listen to someone other than their mother. It also gave me a break from having to read it for them (it is a very wordy book, something they are not quite used too yet and therefore harder for them to read on their own,) and I got to work with other brothers during that time.
Oh, I can’t forget the Big Mr. 5 Year Old. I have his schedule as well. He would not let me forget to make him one! Hebrew, phonics (Hooked on Phonics), math (Khan Academy, yes, they now have beginning math,) and one reading book a day of science, language arts or a free book of his choosing. When asked what phonics was, I told him it was learning to read. Oh my goodness, he was jumping out of the seat we were sharing with excitement! Before he would go to bed tonight I had to teach him to read. He wanted to read. I told him it was too much and he would not learn it in one day, but I did teach him a little of what we are going to learn tomorrow – A, “a”, apple. 😀
So, are we actually going to start our new school year tomorrow? I’m not mentally prepared to start school, and I don’t think the 2 middle ones are either, especially since one boy ended up today with 6 staples on his head from an accident, and the other came to me as he was headed to bed and asked if we were starting school tomorrow for he just didn’t know. We spent the entire weekend painting the house and not thinking about much else. So, other than helping one boy with his online Spanish and the math and biology we are doing, and teaching the ABC’s to another, I think we will start the learning with play-dough. Someone posted a great site that teaches about the chemistry of how play-dough works. There are a few chemistry words with definitions and good graphics to go along with it all. We can end the lesson with testing out how starch reacts to the different temperature of waters. I think they will all like it. I also saw a great site that goes into the science of chocolate chip cookies. I really want to do that one as well, though I think I will save it for something fun to do over Chol HaMoed Sukkos…I won’t feel too bad about having the hard part of testing out all the variations then!
Or, I can just take them all back to the creek with the waterfalls. 😀 I’m so glad we can homeschool!
A Freilichen Purim everyone! I just looked and it has been well over a month since I have posted. Wow, time flies. We have been quite busy over the last 4 weeks. From (finally!) purchasing a home in our new place to celebrating a Bar Mitzvah the next week. Baruch Hashem, our Beautiful Boy #2 has now become a “Man.” 😀 We merited to have almost all our family over here that weekend. We were still in our apartment, but ate at the new house. It was so nice! 17 people. The weather was even nice. The Oldest-Sister-In-The-Family Club met before everyone started leaving. I must say, it was pretty cool to have all the Oldest Sisters there.
all had a hand in actually painting the house (and really painting, not just painting pictures on the walls. :D) It was a hard 2 weeks. We ended up getting someone to do a lot of the painting for we bit off too much. Even the hired painters are taking a while (at least 2 weeks now) to do three rooms, but it is looking nice. Last Shabbos we moved the beds into the house and finally got to “move in,” even though most of our stuff is still at the apartment.
Movers came on Sunday, we were so excited! But, we only got 2/3’s of our stuff. Apparently they did not have a truck big enough for our stuff – they were all stuck in snow. That is what they say. We got most of our sefarim, the guitar, paino and some of our bookcases. Among the rest of the stuff that did not come, we did not get all our bookcases, our two big exercise machines and the big organ. We were told they were going to arrive a few days later, so we spent two days working and moving things around, emptying boxes and trying to find temporary homes for things, but they never arrived. When we called, we were told they were not coming and they did not know when they would have someone available. 😐 A little frustrating and annoying, but we keep telling ourselves, and our children, we have the most important things – most of our sefarim, and our beds (though not all sefarim and not all our beds came, but we bought some of both when we moved here,) and I can start teaching again.
Most of my kitchen boxes are labeled, “sewing stuff.” Hmm… I don’t remember putting most of my sewing goods in my kitchen. We scrounged around and Baruch Hashem were able to find Purim costumes for boys – one boy was missing his strimel (hat) but when I picked up the box labeled “lamp shades,” I just knew it was in there before I opened the box. (And yes, there actually were two lamp shades in there.) I just needed to spend $15 on costumes for the rest of the boys and we were all set.
I think I will take a quick break in between delivering the rest of the shlach manos and going to the seuda to take out Saba’s piano music which was the one thing I wanted and break in the piano at our new place. Wishing everyone a Freilichen Purim!
