Lionden Landing

For over a year and half, we have been slowly working our way through the Bright Beginnings Chumash Workbook and Parsha Lech Lecha.  My only serious complaint about the book is that it only covers the first three aliyot and there is no follow up workbook. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, we finally finished the workbook completing with competence and fluency the last passuk. This week, we continued working our turtle pace through Lech Lecha with a new technique.  With this new method, we are working more on comprehension of the sentences and less on grammar since Froggy has a pretty good handle on the basics. I copied the next passuk from this website (chosen specifically because I can cut and paste an individual passuk in a readable, editable fashion) to make her a special worksheet.  Froggy reads through it once in Hebrew without commentary or stopping.  Then we go back and work through it word by word.  All the words Froggy can easily identify/transl...

The door closed with a resounding slam on Sunday.  What was supposed to be a glorious joyous step forward in my observance level, was instead a concrete harsh slam of the door in my life.  The living waters that surrounded me felt like they were choking me instead of embracing me.  This was just the last and clearest piece of sealing the old life behind me.  I look in the mirror and don't even look like the old me anymore, why should I feel the same on the inside. I came home expecting to renew my relationship both symbolically and physically.  That did not happen, nominally due to uncooperative little people.  I suspect that it is at least as much due to people doubting my capacity.  I feel as though I am not trusted anymore because of the terrible terrible things that caused all this horror and broke reality. Supposedly when HaShem closes a door, he opens a new one somewhere, in some fashion.  I am looking for that new door to ope...

In an attempt to bring more art to our lives, I set out an Art Opportunity. It was just some watered down paints, a straw and a nice thick sheet of paper.   Froggy had an absolute blast blowing the paint around the page.    It was really neat to see how the colors moved and blended when they touched each other.  

We have tons and tons of leftover turkey.  So it is the major influence on our menu this week.  What do you do with your leftover turkey? Sunday - Turkey Noodle Soup Monday - Pizza and Salad Tuesday  Wushu Turkey Tacos , rice and beans Wednesday - Fish ala Jenn, rice and peas Thursday- Turkey Pot Pie - I make individual ones with a double crust and lots of veggies. I will make as many as we have meat for and freeze any extra Shabbat - Challah,  Mandu, miso soup, Maple Glazed Salmon, Green beans, rice, and Swiss Cake roll

After being cooped up for so long we are getting outdoors as much as possible before the snow hits.   Over the summer we went with some friends to the Virginia side of the falls.  Now we got to view the falls from the Maryland side  .  I like this view better because I think it gives a richer perspective with the addition of the locks  The first stop on the hike was the aqueduct at the top of the falls.   My only complaint was there was no sign explaining its creation.  It was a nice contrast between the flat water and the raging river below.   We got to see one of the riverboats that travel the locks currently in drydock. One of the mom's on the hike said that they actually got to ride in it.  When the weather turns nice, I will investigate if it is still running.  The high point of the hike.  The Falls themselves!  We actually got to cross out onto an island in the river which gives a great view. ...

I have posted our Thanksgiving Menu separately. I still need this menu for the rest of the week to keep me sane.  Shabbat is a light but elegant menu to balance the heaviness of Thanksgiving. Review -  The chicken and dumplings was a lose.  It was similar to Matza Ball Soup but the dumplings were gross. But the pumpkin cake was absolutely delicious. The monkey bread is good but the recipe needs some tweaking.  I would love to make a half batch.  The apples are definitely a plus. Menu Monday - Salad, Pasta, Marinara Sauce, Garlic Bread Tuesday - Dinner out in transit. Wednesday - Fish ala Jenn, peas, and rice. Thursday - Thanksgiving Shabbat - Challah (from Freezer), Mandu, Miso Soup, Salmon, Spinach Salad, rice, keem and chocolate peppermint brownies.

Froggy had her first concert with Kol NoVA yesterday.  It was actually two concerts.  The first just the kids and the second a couple of hours later in conjunction with the grown ups. Froggy had a great time.  She did OK in the first concert and tons better in the second one.    They even got a chance to dance their way in for the second concert.   I look forward to so many more perfomances and watching her grow as an artist.

For the first time in a super long time, I will be hosting Thanksgiving.  We will have 10 people total. I am putting together a bunch of fun activities for the kids to keep them engaged all day starting with breakfast.  Froggy is working on memorizing a poem to recite. We are doing either this or this as place cards for the guests.  We will have songs and craft options like this and this and this and this (prepped in advance to be managable) Herb Roasted Turkey - brined two days in advance.  I will use non-dairy yogurt in place of the Greek Yogurt homemade cranberry sauce Mashed potatoes Stuffing (two batches, one made in the bird and one vegan) Roasted Brussel Sprouts green bean casserole (parve) - From Auntie Fawn Roasted Cauliflower and Delicata Squash with Spinach Pumpkin pie - From Auntie Fawn Apple Pie

For our fieldtrip this week, we took advantage of the gorgeous weather and a day off for Abba to take a family trip to the zoo.  The new American Trail opened Labor Day and I have been waiting impatiently to go ever since.   For our family, any trip to the zoo starts with a visit to the big cats.  The tiger was much more active than usual This was good since the lions did nothing but sleep.  Still how often do you get to see a whole family of lionesses As we watched them sleep, this little guy came to visit.  I have no idea what he is other than an insect but he was fun to watch.     Froggy unexpectedly got to pet a donkey who was out for his morning stroll.  And on to the new trail.  It took some winding past abandoned habitats to find the proper section (we took a wrong turn) but finally we made it.  And we were well rewarded.  The seals were our first stop and pretty lame.  The sea lions came next ...

I love to do handcrafts.  I always have.  When I was young I desperately wanted to learn to knit, crochet, cross-stitch, anything I could.  So why on earth can I not find anything that inspires Froggy?  All of my attempts to entice her into pursing some form of handwork have all met with eager beginnings and quick frustration and disgust. I finally decided to try again.  In an attempt to keep her motivated I did a couple of things.  First, we started a new project. It is still hand sewing just like the last time .  But this time it is going to be a matching dress to a new dress I am working on for her.  To make it even more fun for her it is part of a whole matching series.  I have a skirt in the same fabric.  The second thing I did was make the time while she is working on it special.  I am reading her Five Children and It while she sews.  I have a nice project bag for her with all her supplies and the book.  I am n...

Our Torah portion this week is Toldot.  We are using Little Midrash Says as our primary resource and it is great but I want to engage Froggy more.  So I went looking for some more resources.  And I was thrilled with what I found. We are going to make red lentil soup as a starter for Shabbat as a tribute to Jakov.  I am playing this song for Froggy.   I am also putting out the materials for Jakov and Esau puppets as an Art Opportunity.   In my search, I found two new blogs, Torah Family Living and Torah School which will be interesting resources in the future. They are both Messianic blogs but have done lots of research and pulled together a list of activities for each Parsha.

 Review - A soupy success!  Finally I have found a vegetarian soup that Abba actually liked.  The tomato spinach soup was a hit with all parties.  I need to add less orzo next time as it turns into almost a stew with the recommended amount.  I used frozen spinach because I did not feel like chopping the fresh but I think it would be much better with fresh. Our schedule is tricky again.  Sundays now mean I am gone from early morning to supper time so whatever we have has to be something Abba can put on the table.  Tuesdays mean either dinner without Abba or dinner out (restaurant or picnic style) Sunday - Salad and Turkey tetrazinni - From the freezer Monday -Fish ala Jenn, Peas and rice. Tuesday - Dinner Out Wednesday - Chicken and Dumplings (use leftover Chicken from Shabbos) Thursday - Salad, pasta, homemade sauce, garlic bread Friday - Challah, Gefilte Fish Loaf , Red Lentil Soup , Blackberry Balsamic Chicken (from Saving Dinner) , Roas...

Most of Froggy's writing is copy work and dictation.  Today we tried creative writing for the first time.  Froggy loved that I asked her to do it.  Her story reflects this.  She wrote "Once upon a time, there was a young girl who hated to do school.  But then her Ima found a way to it so she liked it. And they lived happily ever after. The End"  She asked how to spell some words (upon, young) which I told her, corrected other errors herself (found) and left some silly errors (school, hapily).  She said she was adding the extra capitals in "Once Upon A Time for effect even though she knew they should not be there. I hope to do this every week if we can do our required copy work early enough. I think it is good for her and we both loved it.

I haven't posted a book review in awhile and there are so many good ones I am excited about.  First my books. I am currently reading Raising Lifelong Learners.  It is really geared towards someone with younger children.  Still in addition to validating lots of the choices, we made with Froggy as a toddler, it does offer guidance and suggestions for the middle childhood years.  I recommend it for every parent especially homeschoolers. The other new book I am excited about is my Interlinear Chumash.  I have struggled long and hard during services to follow along with the Torah reading.  I have had to choose, either follow the Hebrew or read the English.  Now I don't have to choose any more.  My new Chumash has the translation directly under each word so I can read both at the same time.  It will actually help me improve my Hebrew as well as making the Torah reading section of services more meaningful.  Froggy is thrilled with a co...

We went on a fieldtrip to the "Dinosaur Museum" aka the Natural History Museum .  Most of the time we go on a fieldtrip of any sort I am content to just let the learning happen.  This time I took the opportunity to encourage a bit.  We have been learning tons about Order Rodentia in our Burgess Book .  So I suggested we start our adventures in the Mammal room where they have some exhibits on various rodents.   We s   Rodents are an evolutionary success story .   This is probably what Johnny Chuck looks like when he sleeps the ":big sleep"    "Who is he?  I bet he is a close cousin to Peter Rabbit."  Thanks to my new start point,we got to see other new exhibits including an origins of Man exhibit with cave paintings.  But soon everyone was clamoring for "whales" and we headed over to the Ocean exhibit.  Our friends took us to their favorite exhibit, a new one for Froggy who never makes it o...