Lionden Landing

Summer swim team starts this week. That means we have entered the three least favorite weeks of the menu planning year.  Summer swim meets at 6pm until school gets out.  It is the worst time for me, especially with the little guy staying with us.  Add to that Abba is gone until Wednesday and it makes for an interesting menu.  Monday - Mac and Cheese and veggie sticks Tuesday - Chicken Nuggets for the kids - salad for Ima Wednesday - Abba home -early dinner before swim- Fish ala Jenn rice and broccoli Thursday - Picnic at the pool - Deli wraps and strawberries Shabbat - Mandu,miso soup, Asian salad, sweet salmon, rice, keem, snow peas, and something for dessert but I have no idea what.  I am lucky I got this far Shalosh seudah - apple egg salad, green salad, tuna fish, crackers two kinds of hummus, fruit and same desserts as Shabbos dinner (whatever that may be)

So I ran across this article about the "important" events in American history.  It did not sit well with me.  I feel like it is missing many critical events.  Now I will grant that the objective is highlights not comprehensiveness.  Even with that caveat, I still disagree with their choices.  For instance, they completely leave out the Great Depression and both World Wars yet they put in the Manhattan Project.  So what do you think?  Are there other choices that you disagree with?

This weekend Froggy and I get to go to the wonderful Jewish Homeschool Conference .  They are even going to have vendors this year. I have some things I have been thinking about using for our Limudi Chodesh subjects such as this or maybe something from here .  But I am waiting to see what the convention has to offer. There is no reason to wait though for our secular subjects.  We are very pleased with Ambleside Online and booklist for Year 3 to see what I needed to order.  It turns out there really are not any.  One of the great things about the Ambleside booklist is that we can read many of the books online.  Those that we cannot are often for history and used for several years.  Froggy will begin Year 3 in the Fall.  To that end, I finally got around to looking at the I do need to decide what we are going to do about Marco Polo.  His travels are supposed to form the basis of our geography studies for Year 3.  Usually my de...

After a week of almost constant cooking both for us and for shul,it feels great to have a week of minimal easy gentle foods. Sunday - Pizza and Salad Monday - tofu stirfry (since we have so many yummy veggies leftover from Shavuot) , rice and keem Tuesday - No Abba = Mac and Cheese and  veggie sticks Wednesday - pulled chicken, mashed potatoes and peas Thursday -Brinner - Scrambled eggs and Pancakes. And then we leave for our Shabbos retreat/homeschool weekend.  So it is a breath of calm between the chaos.

Our synagogue was highlighted in this past week's Jewish Weekly. Our synagogue is amazing and vibrant, a fantastic community.  It is nice to see other people recognize it.

Our family was invited to participate in a pilot program through the JCC that pairs American and Israeli families.  The program emphasizes that all the families, both American and Israeli, are under "the same moon".   The Israeli families are from our sister region, Beit Shemash,about halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Froggy is excited about it. Right before Shavuot, we wrote our third letter to our match family telling them all about our favorite holidays and we celebrate them here as directed by the book. Each page of the book shows way in which are similar and different.  It suggests a topic for the letter and gives a place to record/ keep the letter from the partner family.  We have received two letters so far from our partner family.  He is an only child as well and lives on a kibbutz with his mom.  He will be in first grade in the Fall.  I think it will be super neat to hear his perspective on the holidays. This is the Israeli g...

Sunday - Salad, Pasta, homemade sauce and garlic bread Monday - A Simple Brinner of Pancakes and eggs so I can focus on Shavuot prep Tuesday - Shavuot Challah - done like this if I get my act together (make enough for all the chag and shabbat at one time) spinach salad with strawberries and vegan feta stuffed dates tomato spinach soup Maple Salmon noodle kugel roasted aparagus peach crisp and parve homemade peach icecream Wednesday Kiddush - A potluck with friends I am bring Blintz casserole (aparve version of this) Quinoa Salad cheesecake cupcakes Wednesday Dinner - An dairy antipasto spread Challah rolls crusty french rolls Quinoa salad veggie plate (carrots, celery caulifower, peapods) hummus a cheese plate lox rolls tuna salad fruit plate including - strawberries, kiwi, mango and melon cookies (not sure what kind yet) Thursday Kiddush - fresh homemade blintzes, fruit and a reading of A mountain of blintzes Thursday Dinner  - Pizza and salad (w...

I was informed this week that Bamidbar is one of Froggy's absolute most favorite parshiyot. It is a cool parsha with lots of neat stuff including the census.  But no, what Froggy likes about it are the descriptions of the degalim each camp as well as the degalim of each shevet.  Froggy made representations of the flags for the four camps. 

Our family volunteers extensively with the Children's Science Center .  This endeavor holds a special place in our hearts.  These are the people who provide the Mobile Science Nights I have talked about before.   Today, Froggy was able to participate officially for the first time.  She was a Youth Ambassador for the Founders Society Fundraising Event .  She greeted the guests as they arrived and then pass out the presents during the reception.  I was so proud of her.  She bounced all week in preparation.  She does not look like a little girl anymore particularly when she gets dressed up for events like this.  I was so proud of her.  She was so mature and responsible.  She used polite manners and actually talked to strangers in an audible voice while greeting them.  My only regret is that I did not take any pictures.  I am hoping the CSC posts some so I can share them as well.