Improving My Miserable Afternoons
I’ve mentioned many times that my afternoons are often quite miserable. After all those hours inside, I start feeling the walls of my house are closing in on me, like Luke Skywalker in that trash compactor. And dealing with the kids’ bickering and whining on top of chasing after my adorable/non-stop toddler who has somehow […]
Read MoreThe Birthday Gifts I Got Today
I’ve been religious and living in Israel for 23 years now. But some things are hard to let go of. Like making the switch from Jenny to Chana, which I did only last year. And like moving over from celebrating my December 29th birthday to the 11th of Tevet, which happened a few years ago. […]
Read More10 Gems from Henny (25-Minute Mommy Peptalk)
My 10 favorite quotes from the new book Emuna with Love and Chicken Soup about Rebbetzin Henny Machlis.
Read MoreMy Postpartum Nightmare by Ariella Schulman Razak
My whole week has been spent, like many mothers in Israel, in the shadow of the tragedy involving a mother who many now believe was suffering from postpartum psychosis. I do not think any benefit can come from sharing the details of what happened in this article or in your comments. But the whole week […]
Read MoreThe Very Last Time
This morning, I took 2-year-old Yonatan for a vaccination at the Tipat Chalav baby clinic. But this wasn’t just any trip to the baby clinic, this was Yonatan’s last vaccination, and therefore my last trip ever to Tipat Chalav. I’ve never enjoyed going to Tipat Chalav. No matter when the appointment is, it’s always inconvenient. […]
Read MoreMeeting the Knesset Member and Mom
Yesterday I traveled almost 2 hours on a bumpy bus along winding back roads to a place Israelis would call “The End of the World, and then Turn Left.” That’s where my daughter’s high school is, and when I finally got off the bus, and asked a group of soldiers by the bus stop where […]
Read MoreThe Truth about my Chanukah
The definition of a nudnick, someone once quipped, is a person who, when you are passing him on the street and throw him a casual “How ya doin’,” actually stops you to tell you the truth. So this morning, when Yaakov’s ganenet asked me in passing how my Chanukah was, I told her, with as […]
Read MoreLearning from Henny (17-Minute Mommy Peptalk)
How the Henny Machlis biography Emuna with Love and Chicken Soup by Sara Yocheved Rigler has been changing me.
Read MoreOnly in Israel, Only on Chanukah
Taken by my husband, Joshua, while cheese shopping this Chanukah at the Machaneh Yehuda market.
Read MoreMy Menorah Miracle
My Grandma Florence passed away 23 years ago, and when she died her antique menorah got placed in a closet in my parent’s home. This summer, my parents very very generously gave us the menorah, and this Chanukah we lit it for the first time in several decades. Lighting this menorah, in Jerusalem, the 8 […]
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