Have you ever found yourself in the situation where there are so many cool things going on in life that you want to blog about, but your so busy living it, you can't actually get around to blogging it. That's the last few weeks. This is going to have to be semi-superficial so that I can give a 10 ft. down view of what we have been doing. I still haven't gotten my stuff together enough to work with my pictures, so those will still have to wait.
We have had a plethora of Jewish holidays lately. If you don't know them, here is the quick list.
Rosh Hashanah - Jewish New Year
Yom Kipur - Holiest Day, Get Written into the Book of Life
Sukkot - Celebration of the Tabernacle and Harvest
And coming up next week:
Simchat Torah - Translated Joy of the Torah, Too hard to explain fast
On top of these holidays, my husband and I took another one night away vacation to San Francisco one of these past weekends. It was great and we were able to see his brother and sister-in-law.
We have some new memberships to local attractions that I would highly recommend. Ari is in love with Legoland and Sea Life. If you live anywhere nearish to Carlsbad, CA, I highly recommend getting a membership. If you have not seen Sea Life yet, I also highly recommend checking it out. This new aquarium put the Birch Aquarium in San Diego to total and complete shame. It may as well be a puddle compared to Sea Life. We are there at least once a week now.
Another great membership is to the Natural History Museum. Ari is a girl in love with Thomas the Train, rockets, helicopters, Go Diego Go, and lately, lots and lots of dinasours. We took her there recently and had so much fun for the whole family. They also have a mommy and me event there that we might try to make some time.
The last membership is to the new Children's Museum in downtown. She had a blast with painting the volkswagon, blowing bubbles, and creating streets with tape all over the lower floor.
Besides all of this, Ari has been having a really hard time sleeping lately. Who knows why and does it really matter? In the end, whether it is teething or growth spurt or nightmare or something else, no matter what, I'm going to comfort her and try to help her through it and be tired as a dog the next day. So... I've realized I can stop guessing and just focus on getting through whatever it is. The hardest part isn't the waking up over night, though that is no fun either, but it is trying to get her to sleep. She has been having a really hard time unwinding into sleep and we have been starting at 8 with 2 bed time shows in the hopes that 2 will unwind her more, then at 9 she goes up to brush her teeth and read books and then we struggle to get to sleep until after 11. Again, like I said, I'm sure we'll get through it, but I'm not getting a lot of extra time to do much of anything except catch up on sleep.
Oh... almost forgot... in the time I've been away, Ari started preschool and I've pulled her out of preschool. Hehe... That is a story for another time. I'll post again soon with the details. :)
I'm sure there is more, but I'll have to write that later as well. :)
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
War Wounds
It is taking me a decent amount of time getting things together, especially all my picture things so I can make another update, so we interrupt your regularly scheduled update with an OpEd piece.
War wounds... That is what one of my friends who recently had a baby used to describe the damage she is going to have to live with from her babies birth. It really got me thinking because that is a perfect description of ALL of what we deal with after having a baby. It doesn't matter if it is damage to a certain area, the scar running along the underside of your belly from having a c-section, the loose skin, stretch marks, floppy breasts, extra pounds, wider hips, or emotional damage. These are all our war wounds that we acquired taking on the most important job that exists in the world... producing life. What nobler cause could we possibly have undertaken than to put our bodies through hell so that a little being can get to live. Are we brave? You bet. Not only are there the things that you know about going into it, but there is always a list a mile long of things you don't know about that you might have to face so we are brave in the face of the known AND the unknown. Especially, those of us who do it more than once, having gone down the path, seeing how our bodies have changed, we still want to face all of it again to bring another little bundle to life.
So... if these are our war wounds, why is it that society makes us feel that ALL of our war wounds are ugly and disfiguring while a man's scar from taking a life, protecting a life, or just being manly and getting into a brawl, is sexy. You know... the whole, "Oh, nice scar. There must be a great story behind that, Mr. Dangerous." Or, bullet wound scars for being so brave as to protect a life. My body protected life and then fought for it. The C-section scar after 40+ hours of labor, is proof that I did what I had to do to protect my babies life. She and I were both going to die if this hadn't been an option. It is risking death to have a baby. Not as much now, but things do go wrong sometimes.
Also, what about our emotional damage. Even if you don't suffer from post-partum depression (ppd), you still take away some emotional baggage and almost EVERYONE I know has had the baby blue's at the very least, since our hormones and flying high. These are war wounds too. Even if you get over it, the feelings/memories linger and are a part of you forever. The days of crying after Ari was born are there forever etched into my mind. Without a basic support system (meaning stay close to home and good friends which we weren't) you just don't know how to cope with it all. Then you feel guilty for having negative feelings and it all spills over into baby blue's/PPD.
I am going to start thinking of the various issues within my soul and on the outside of my body as the war wounds my friend described and remember to look at them as such. They aren't ugly, they are the signs that I fought a good fight to have my daughter and all the joy she brings into the world with her.
I raise my blog glass to all the mothers and their war wounds. I salute you!
War wounds... That is what one of my friends who recently had a baby used to describe the damage she is going to have to live with from her babies birth. It really got me thinking because that is a perfect description of ALL of what we deal with after having a baby. It doesn't matter if it is damage to a certain area, the scar running along the underside of your belly from having a c-section, the loose skin, stretch marks, floppy breasts, extra pounds, wider hips, or emotional damage. These are all our war wounds that we acquired taking on the most important job that exists in the world... producing life. What nobler cause could we possibly have undertaken than to put our bodies through hell so that a little being can get to live. Are we brave? You bet. Not only are there the things that you know about going into it, but there is always a list a mile long of things you don't know about that you might have to face so we are brave in the face of the known AND the unknown. Especially, those of us who do it more than once, having gone down the path, seeing how our bodies have changed, we still want to face all of it again to bring another little bundle to life.
So... if these are our war wounds, why is it that society makes us feel that ALL of our war wounds are ugly and disfiguring while a man's scar from taking a life, protecting a life, or just being manly and getting into a brawl, is sexy. You know... the whole, "Oh, nice scar. There must be a great story behind that, Mr. Dangerous." Or, bullet wound scars for being so brave as to protect a life. My body protected life and then fought for it. The C-section scar after 40+ hours of labor, is proof that I did what I had to do to protect my babies life. She and I were both going to die if this hadn't been an option. It is risking death to have a baby. Not as much now, but things do go wrong sometimes.
Also, what about our emotional damage. Even if you don't suffer from post-partum depression (ppd), you still take away some emotional baggage and almost EVERYONE I know has had the baby blue's at the very least, since our hormones and flying high. These are war wounds too. Even if you get over it, the feelings/memories linger and are a part of you forever. The days of crying after Ari was born are there forever etched into my mind. Without a basic support system (meaning stay close to home and good friends which we weren't) you just don't know how to cope with it all. Then you feel guilty for having negative feelings and it all spills over into baby blue's/PPD.
I am going to start thinking of the various issues within my soul and on the outside of my body as the war wounds my friend described and remember to look at them as such. They aren't ugly, they are the signs that I fought a good fight to have my daughter and all the joy she brings into the world with her.
I raise my blog glass to all the mothers and their war wounds. I salute you!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Dang Hard Drives!
I know I have been absent for a long time. I'm sorry about that. I have been dealing with drama with my fridge and more recently, drama with my laptop. Turns out my hard drive is having some REALLY bad mechanical failure and we aren't sure if we will be able to salvage anything off of it or not. Until then, we did get me a new hard drive and recently installed it and hopefully I will be up and running smoothly soon. I just wanted to come in and let you know what has been going on that has been interrupting my updates and thoughts. I'll be back as soon as I get my bearings! I have so many posts to make!
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Safta Leah Turns 80
We had a party for my Grandma's 80th while we were in Israel. Her birthday is truly the only reason to go to Israel in August! Otherwise, choose a cooler month. :) It was held in a party room of a restaurant and had a DJ along with a trumpet player. We were worried that Ari would freak out having so many new people wanting to hold/play with her all in one room along with loud music. What really happened? She befriended EVERYONE and danced all night! Following is a sampling of the pictures from the party. Of course, most include my little angel or my grandma. :) Love you Safta Leah! Happy 80th! Oh... And everyone got up to say some nice things about my Grandma. I thought I would include the shot of me nervously public speaking. I hate talking in front of people!! I get so nervous, my stomach does flips, my hands start getting a little shaky and I drone on and on. Luckily, this time, while I got very nervous, especially having to speak in front of everyone in Hebrew, I made sure to keep it short.. Whew!
Monday, September 8, 2008
Beit Guvrin Caves and Tel Maresha Excavations
The day after Haifa, we went to Beit Guvrin Caves and Tel Maresha Excavations in the Latrun area of Israel. You park at in one of a few parking lots and then you hike around between the various caverns most of which weren't that extensive, but a few were really amazing. This was an ancient society and much of what we saw were either living quarters, cisterns, burial grounds, or the areas where they worked at olive pressing. You will also see Roadie the Raccoon in one of the pictures in this set. :) These are not the most flattering pictures of me, but I am an out of shape mom running around in 100+ degree weather through the desert climbing up and down a bunch of stairs. Please give me a little itty bitty break. :)
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Grrrr....
So... This is a quick post to share my frustration. I have been trying to post another installment of my Israel trip and pictures, but I am experiencing some technical difficulty with Flickr and have now contacted them to tell me what is wrong. I tried a few different times and ways to deal with my problem, but nothing has worked so... I can't do another installment until I get that figured out. I want to use the sideshow so that you can see all the photos without it taking up a lot of space.
So... be back soon with that post.
So... be back soon with that post.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Baha'i Gardens
This post begins a series reviewing my trip in Israel and our return trip.
Our first stop was in Tel Aviv where we saw some family and tried to stay awake until night time and sleep as best we could through the night. Unfortunately, Ari didn't like the idea of sleeping through the night, so instead we slept part of the night and then spent a few hours in bed all together watching DVDs on our laptops and singing quietly in the dark until hours later, we all finally fell asleep again. This might well be the first time we have had a family bed. Maybe the second, but either way, it's rare and very sweet.
The next day we spent in Jerusalem and I didn't remember to take any pictures, but my sister-in-law did, so I'll have to update a post later on with pictures and information about this day.
The third day was a relaxing day and my Grandma's 80th BDay and again, I will update with this because while I have some pictures from the professional photographer there,I know my SIL got some good shots and I want to wait to add them to the group.
This brings us to my first post. It is about our next day which was a trip up to Haifa located in Northern Israel along the coast about an hour to an hour and a half away from Tel Aviv. We went to Elijah's Cave which I, again, don't have pictures of, but to be honest, other than being neat because it is Elijah's cave, it was nothing to interesting. It was literally a tiny hole in the wall type of cave near the coast of the city. So we'll just skip any pictures of it. The next stop, though, after lunch, was the Baha'i Gardens. Here is the link to their website for information about the religion if you are interested in learning more. And below are all my pictures of the gardens themselves. They are truly impressive and beautiful!
My parents and my husband decided to head back with Ari after this, but my brother, SIL, and myself continued exploring Haifa. We walked around this beautiful sculpture garden and then took some cable cars up to a monastery. I don't really have any pictures of the monastery because it was really dark and somewhat unimpressive. The views were great and the ride up was fun. :) Keep your eyes open for a raccoon in the pictures. My SIL and some friends, taking a note from Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, created a group the Sisterhood of the Traveling Roadie (raccon's name). When each of them takes a vacation they get to take Roadie with them and need to take pictures of him on his vacation. It was rather fun thinking up cool/funny places to put Roadie. I'm going to probably be stealing this idea for our kids when they get old enough to enjoy it. Make sure you take note of Roadie being used as a tennis ball between two sculptures. :)
Speaking of my SIL and brother, here is a beautiful pictures of them when we stopped to get something to drink. It was D*MN hot there! Hehe...
I'll post more about the trip soon. :) Organizing all these photos.
Our first stop was in Tel Aviv where we saw some family and tried to stay awake until night time and sleep as best we could through the night. Unfortunately, Ari didn't like the idea of sleeping through the night, so instead we slept part of the night and then spent a few hours in bed all together watching DVDs on our laptops and singing quietly in the dark until hours later, we all finally fell asleep again. This might well be the first time we have had a family bed. Maybe the second, but either way, it's rare and very sweet.
The next day we spent in Jerusalem and I didn't remember to take any pictures, but my sister-in-law did, so I'll have to update a post later on with pictures and information about this day.
The third day was a relaxing day and my Grandma's 80th BDay and again, I will update with this because while I have some pictures from the professional photographer there,I know my SIL got some good shots and I want to wait to add them to the group.
This brings us to my first post. It is about our next day which was a trip up to Haifa located in Northern Israel along the coast about an hour to an hour and a half away from Tel Aviv. We went to Elijah's Cave which I, again, don't have pictures of, but to be honest, other than being neat because it is Elijah's cave, it was nothing to interesting. It was literally a tiny hole in the wall type of cave near the coast of the city. So we'll just skip any pictures of it. The next stop, though, after lunch, was the Baha'i Gardens. Here is the link to their website for information about the religion if you are interested in learning more. And below are all my pictures of the gardens themselves. They are truly impressive and beautiful!
My parents and my husband decided to head back with Ari after this, but my brother, SIL, and myself continued exploring Haifa. We walked around this beautiful sculpture garden and then took some cable cars up to a monastery. I don't really have any pictures of the monastery because it was really dark and somewhat unimpressive. The views were great and the ride up was fun. :) Keep your eyes open for a raccoon in the pictures. My SIL and some friends, taking a note from Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, created a group the Sisterhood of the Traveling Roadie (raccon's name). When each of them takes a vacation they get to take Roadie with them and need to take pictures of him on his vacation. It was rather fun thinking up cool/funny places to put Roadie. I'm going to probably be stealing this idea for our kids when they get old enough to enjoy it. Make sure you take note of Roadie being used as a tennis ball between two sculptures. :)
Speaking of my SIL and brother, here is a beautiful pictures of them when we stopped to get something to drink. It was D*MN hot there! Hehe...
I'll post more about the trip soon. :) Organizing all these photos.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
