Vibrant Moms

On the heels of the hacking excitement came this morning’s fun.  I was planning to leave for a day of shopping by 10:30, but was able to get an appointment with my chiropractor to do some work on me for the breathing issue so I didn’t get home until 11:15 am.  (BH, though it wasn’t entirely cleared up this was tremendously helpful.)  Then dd14 didn’t want to leave until she washed all the dishes in the sink (it’s my job but I haven’t been up to doing much more than sitting in one place for the last three days) because she didn’t want to come home to a mess.  The reason I’m mentioning this is that because of these delays, when dd14 finally finished the dishes and started to go outside to get a cooler to take with us for the raw milk, she saw someone in the middle of prying the lock off our garage with a crowbar. 

She didn’t register right away what he was doing, but he ran off the second he saw her (as she described it, ‘he looked up with guilt written all over his face’).  I called the neighborhood patrol to report it but if I had time to think about it would have called a different patrol that responds in the day and has a quick response time.  I did call them afterwards, but five minutes had already gone by and that’s too late to catch him.  I did go around and warn the few neighbors who were in to be careful and keep their eyes open.  

Isn’t it great that we happened to be home?  Since we were going to be out all day, there would have been nothing to have stopped him from totally cleaning us out - we don’t have much of value, but it took us months until we replaced the bikes and mower that were stolen last time and it would be very disheartening to have them all stolen again.

Since I didn’t know if he’d try to come back today and I knew we’d be out until tonight (I know, it seems stupid to go back to somewhere where you were spotted, but breaking into one of the better secured garages on the block belonging to one of the few homes that has someone home almost all day every day wasn’t exactly bright, either), I asked the kids to move all the bikes out of the garage into the house and then find a different place for the mower.  Joining all these bicycles in the living room are two bench seats from the van, removed to make space to bring all our groceries home.  Now that we’re finally home with the groceries, there really isn’t room to move anywhere. 

Tomorrow we’ll finish unloading the groceries from the van, clean out the van, put the bench seats back in, return the bikes to the garage, put away the groceries, and maybe even do some Rosh Hashana cooking. 

Avivah

>>You’re back, albeit missing some well-written content <<

Yes, I am back, and I’m so glad that I am!  If you checked my site after midnight last night, you probably saw the creepy message about my site being hacked (done by a radical Muslim group).  Within a couple of hours my host server deleted that message so the only message you you would have seen was that the site wasn’t accessible.  For those who didn’t know what was going on, now you know!

I was initally concerned that it was my personal site that was hacked into, but discovered my host server was hacked as well when I tried to get their phone number off their website and the website displayed the same graphic and message.  (I also discovered there were other large sites also hacked into by the same group around the same time, by googling when I was trying to figure out what was going on and what to do.)  I think I must have been one of the very first to call them to let them know.  So I think that all the sites connected to my server were hacked into.  I went to sleep with a lot more peace of mind knowing that it wasn’t going to be all up to me to figure it out!  First thing this morning they called me back and left a message that they know who did it, they’re fixing it, and it would be back to normal by this afternoon.  I was doing my monthly shopping today and didn’t get home until 8:30 pm, so I didn’t check until the house got somewhat quiet.

Unfortunately the two posts I wrote last night are gone.  One was posted for a very short while before the site was hacked (it was too new to have been included in the saved databases of my server), the second was lost when I pressed ‘publish’ - that was when I discovered the problem - it was lost the second I pressed the button so no way that could have been saved.  So if you happened to read whatever I read last night, I’m glad, because I don’t rewrite posts.  :)

I was really sad at the idea of losing all the posts I’ve written over the last three years, and you can’t imagine how grateful I feel to have them back. 

Avivah

We got home from our camping trip 1:30 on Friday afternoon and immediately got busy unpacking and cooking for Shabbos!  We once again had a wonderful time.  And maybe what was so remarkable about that is all the reasons that it could have turned out badly:

- initial delay of a day after finishing packing to go because of car trouble and the unexpected $820 repair bill.

- got to campsite and found out that the campsites ranger told us were right on the river, weren’t.  After choosing our first campsite discovered that there was a steep drop right behind it and had to repack up and find another site. 

- unpacked van and discovered that we didn’t have the necessary poles to assemble the tent we borrowed (we have one of our own that we use for me, dh, and baby, and borrowed a second large one with two rooms that are split between boys and girls).  Ds3 and ds2 (birthday was yesterday!) came into our tent, other kids decided to sleep out under the stars and woke up badly bitten by various bugs. 

- were told by ranger in advance that there’s a problem with bees if food is left out; weren’t concerned since we don’t leave food around when camping.  Found out very quickly that bringing out even a small bite of food attracted large numbers of yellow jackets (ds got stung when eating a plain piece of bread within 15 minutes of arriving).  They come out at the first sign of daylight and were still flying around when it started getting dark.  Several kids were stung, including ds2, and ds3 got stung twice. 

- had lots of beautiful deer in this state park, and lots of not so nice deer ticks.  We discovered this when dd8 took off her socks on the second day and asked a couple of siblings what was on her legs -lots of tiny ticks.  Other kids got them, too.

- ds16 and dh couldn’t sleep the first night because of congestion and wheeziness.

- I had my first asthma attack ever, totally unexpected and for which I was totally unprepared, on the second night which was beyond scary and for a very long couple of minutes couldn’t breathe no matter how hard I tried.  I begged H-shem to help me - and He did.  When I could breathe again somewhat, spent the next few hours sleeping upright on a chair inside the shower stall area of the restroom.  Then moved to the drivers seat of the van for another couple of unrestful hours.  And on the last night I sat in the van again, with the whine of mosquitoes in my ears, waiting for morning to come and periodically dozing off for short periods.

- we had to drive to an area for ds16 and ds10 to fish, and they discovered there was nothing to catch but seaweed. 

- the swimming area was also not in walking distance; had to drive seven minutes to get there (remember, dh told a ranger what we were looking for and were clearly told we could camp on the river and have fishing and swimming right there).  We got there and discovered that was mainly filled with seaweed, and the sand on the beach was packed down hard like a rock, not comfortable to rest on at all. 

But fortunately we get to choose how we think about things, and I told the kids on day 2 that we were going to use this as an opportunity to focus on what we liked and practice accepting reality as it is, not being annoyed about things that weren’t as we expected them to be.  We actively reframed everything.  So here’s the flip side of the above:

- mechanic got our van fixed in time for us to still have a camping trip, and charged a lot less than we were quoted at a different shop.

- because our first site wasn’t good for us because of the drop, drove around different loops of the state park and found one that was right across from the water pump and bathrooms.  Since this was furthest from access to the water, no one was choosing this section and we were the only ones in the entire loop, except for the campground host (who didn’t show up).  We had lots of privacy, so we didn’t have to worry about our noise bothering other people.  

- the older kids got the experience of sleeping under the stars for the first night, and we had a second tent so we weren’t totally stuck.  Went shopping for a tent the next afternoon and in spite of when you need to buy something it generally being the least economical way to shop, got a good buy.  The next two nights the kids enjoyed the tent and for our next trip we won’t have to borrow one!

- when we got there, the kids were very leery of the yellow jackets.  They got so used to them that they’re quite casual and almost impervious to them, now - they enjoy flicking them away.  That will come in handy for Sukkos!

- now the kids know what deer ticks look like; had them read the flyer posted where the announcements were about dangers of deer ticks, what to do, etc, - got an early start on the school year since that counts as science! :)  Learned that deer like miso, since one came into our campsite while I was resting and ate a chunk out of a container that hadn’t been closed well, apparently!

- there was hot water in the showers there, and ds16 was able to take a shower for 1 1/2 hours in the middle of the night until he felt better.  Dh joined him (though he was only in the shower for half an hour), and they had some late night bonding, chatting together from their individual shower stalls.

- I started breathing again.  There was a sheltered building for me to stay in at night.  There was a perfect amount of space between the bench and the curtain that closed off the shower area for my chair to fit.  We had one chair shaped a bit differently than the rest that allowed me to partially lean my head back, and my snood when pulled down over my nose did a great job blocking out the fluorescent lights.  No one else was there so I didn’t have to worry about anyone coming in, and it was a very short walk to the bathroom in the middle of the night.  :)  Got to take a nap both mornings and one afternoon, so that refreshed me.

- got a fun picture of ds16 with the seaweed he caught.  :)  And ds said it was relaxing for him to go fishing even if he didn’t catch anything.

- the beach area had a really nice park near by.  We met a nice family there, an older couple with several of their adult kids and grandchildren.  I chatted with one of the married kids, dh with the grandmother - when he told me afterwards they were homeschoolers, he was surprised when I told him I was pretty positive about that before he mentioned anything.  Strong extended families, friendly and open, and their kids played nicely with mine at the play area - all key markers for homeschoolers. 

This park ended up being a highlight for the kids, as they turned one of the play structures into an obstacle course, and took turns running over it as fast as they could while being timed.  Trying again and again to beat their times had them all excited and enthusiastic.  We wouldn’t have discovered this park if we hadn’t gone to the beach.

Though we generally enjoy parking ourselves in one place for three days, we enjoyed singing together with a cassette during our short drives from place to place.   The weather was perfect the entire time, the food was great, and the nightly singing and talking around the campfire was so, so nice.  We had a family hike together to a historic lighthouse and the kids helped out with holding ds3 in their arms or on their backs, ds2 in the hiking backpack and the baby in the mei tai, enjoyed seeing some wildlife up close (deer, groundhogs, foxes, frogs and toads, interesting insects), and just generally enjoyed one another’s company.  For the first time we had to get two campsites because of our family size; this gave us a lot more room and felt very expansive, and the kids really enjoyed the independence of sleeping in their own site (the two sites were adjacent).

We may decide to go back to our old spot for next year’s trip, but we had a great time this year!

Avivah

Late last night my dd12 got back from camp visiting day.  This is the third year my dd14 has been to sleep away camp, and the last two years the entire family went to visit her.  I told her this year that I wasn’t going to go, since it’s a five hour drive and it’s too much for the family with the three littles in tow.  She said she didn’t mind, and I know she meant it.

But her younger sister and she are very close, so all last week dd12 was working on arrangements to get there to visit her.  It’s not so simple since it’s so far away, and no one we spoke to was going directly there.  Most were spending Shabbos in an area closer to the camp, and most were also not coming directly back for the same reason.  She found out that a friend of hers in NY who has an older sister in dd’s bunk would be going for visiting day, and they were happy to give her a ride from NY with them.  They live two blocks from my sister in law, so she made arrangements with my inlaws to go together with them for Shabbos to her aunt’s house (leaving her Thursday morning).  She spent Shabbos there, and went first thing Sunday  morning to her friend’s house (who was in camp).  Then coming home, we found a family from our city who was coming directly back who brought her.

Dd14’s friends couldn’t believe that she made all that effort just to come see her sister - they said half in disbelief, “You must really like your sister!”  It’s true, she really does.  Dd14 really appreciated her coming; she called me in the evening yesterday because she was feeling homesick, but said it would have been much worse if dd12 hadn’t come.  I think that’s the nature of visiting day - when you see everyone’s family visiting them but yours isn’t there, it makes you miss them more. 

My talk with her last night wasn’t very satisfying because she called me from her supervisor’s cell phone, and because campers aren’t supposed to be using cell phones, she was speaking very quickly and quietly so no one would hear her.  But it was nice to hear her voice - I don’t think it mattered if the conversation was meaningful or not because all she wanted was to connect with us. 

Whenever one of the kids is gone, it feels like something is missing.  It’s nice to have dd12 back with us (even though no one but dh and I have seen her yet - she got back after everyone was asleep).   For once she’s sleeping in - usually she’s the first one up in the morning! 

Avivah

Having a small business, I became aware of concerns with the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) a couple of months ago, but was sure that the legal legislation would be amended since it was so absurd.  I just couldn’t believe that something that would clearly harm so many people financially at a time when the economy is falling apart would be pursued.  http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/14/smallbusiness/toy_law_threatens_small_companies.smb/index.htm?postversion=2009011511 

But now I’m not so sure.  My belief that this would be changed was assumption based on a false notion that those who pass laws in this country actually think about the wider ramifications of what they’re doing.  Now I think that those involved are very out of touch with the average American and his needs, and the past two months has shown amazingly little receptivity to those concerns.  As time has passed, I’ve learned much more about it, and this has much, much wider ramifications than I initially believed, ramifications that will affect all of us. 

The Consumer Product Safety Commision and Congress passed a law that requires all makers of children’s products in the US to have their products tested for lead (that’s the CPSIA). Anyone who continues to sell their products without this testing will be in violation of law and subject to fines and possible jail time.  This is a seemingly positive bit of legislation that was initially greeted with enthusiasm and support by those who want to see more quality products in the marketplace.   After all, we don’t want toys from China making kids sick.  We want good, natural products that will help us keep our kids safe, don’t we? 

But this won’t have much of an effect on products coming from China, even though they were the source of the problem that initiated this bill (since due to technicalities they can do third party on-site testing).  Huge companies have big enough quantities of each product that they manufacture that the testing costs when spread out become insignificant per product line.  Who it will effect will be small businesses and the average consumer.  Here’s an overview of what’s happening.

The CPSIA will make it an offense from Feb. 11 and on to sell anything that hasn’t been tested for lead and received certification.  This will include toys, clothing, books, baby carriers, bicycles, bedding, cloth diapers (and yes, nursing pillows :)), etc.  But this doesn’t mean only things that are manufactured after that date.  It means anything being sold after that date, so any company with any kind of inventory for this age range is right now either in the process of liquidating their inventory (and for many small businesses, choosing to go out of business since testing costs are so high as to be unrealistic for most), or trying to quickly get testing and GCC certification (general compliance certification - that’s what I’m in the middle of right now).  So at a time when the economy is falling apart and there are huge job losses across the country, thousands of small businesses (mostly home business, mom and pop operations) are being forced to close down - not because there’s any problem or risk with what they sell, but because they can’t afford to deal with the beauracratic testing requirements.  That means more people suffering economically, and it means cost increases for all of the other products (which of course will get passed on to the consumer). 

But that’s just the very beginning - because this legislation will affect the second hand market as well.  http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-thrift2-2009jan02,0,2083247.story  I’ve been waiting for a few weeks to see how this panned out, and it seems now that thrift stores are going to be exempt.  But the wording isn’t clear and there’s still a possibility of fines to those second hand stores that do sell these things. (”However, resellers cannot sell children’s products that exceed the lead limit and therefore should avoid products that are likely to have lead content, unless they have testing or other information to indicate the products being sold have less than the new limit. Those resellers that do sell products in violation of the new limits could face civil and/or criminal penalties.” ) Not surprisingly, many of these stores are also liquidating their children’s supplies rather than risk penalties ($100,000 per violation).  And not only is it illegal to sell anything not tested, it will be illegal to give it away - that technically means if you pass your baby clothes to a friend when you’re finished or have a yard sale, you’re committing an offense.  But I wouldn’t worry about that.  I’d be much more concerned about how people who are suffering economically or have a limited budget to work with are going to clothe their children when the options for buying second hand are drastically limited.  And now these stores won’t even be allowed to donate the clothes they already have stocked that are untested to the needy.

And that’s not all - it just  keeps getting more and more ludicrous.  Libraries will be subject to this, too.  So all of their books will have to be tested.  Or maybe kids won’t be allowed in the libraries?  Certainly library used book sales will have to come to an end. http://thephoenix.com/Boston/News/74940-Congress-bans-kids-from-libraries/

What about educational supplies?  Yes, this is affected, too.  Science kits, sewing materials - anything geared towards kids will need to do this certification process.  How much do you think this will affect the availability of what’s accessible to you in the stores?  Or even on the internet - since Ebay and Etsy sellers are now going to be subject to the same restrictions as retail establishments?  And it goes on and on…..

But there are some who will be benefitting.  The big box stores stand to gain, since their small competition is going to be demolished.  Retail stores will benefit if parents can’t buy used clothes or toys for their children and have no choice but to buy brand new.  And the many who will be hired to legislate and supervise all of this testing at the various levels will benefit.  Maybe this is the government’s way to create new jobs?

Watching the government at work isn’t pretty, is it? 

Avivah

In order to make it easier to navigate the archives, I’ve spent a few hours going through all of my old posts and moving them in the categories they best belong in, if that seemed helpful.  I still have to do more, but I’ve sorted through a lot of posts and I hope it will be easier for you to find what you’re looking for in the category you’re looking for it.  I’ve added a couple of new categories, but am still thinking that it would be helpful if there was a ’saving money’ or frugality category.  The problem with that is so much of what I write on that topic, in my mind pertains to basic homemaking, and that makes it hard for me to decide what category each post would be placed in.  And I can’t seem to think of a good overall name for that category.  I’m open to your thoughts on this!

It’s been interesting going through a couple of years of posts and seeing all that I’ve written about.  I go through stages of writing about different things - at some points, it’s been parenting, other times home organization, homeschooling, or saving money.  (Tonight my dh told my kids that I write a lot about food - and lately, he’s right!)  I get a lot of questions regarding parenting, which I haven’t written much about recently.  Please check the parenting section of the blog and see if your questions were answered there.  If you don’t see it, feel free to ask and when I have the chance, I’ll answer as best as I can.

Also regarding homeschooling, I’ve covered a number of topics pertaining to this and if you have questions on that, check those archives.  Hopefully you’ll find what you’re looking for, but if not, again, just ask.

If you have suggestions for a category that I don’t have but would help keep things more easily navigated for everyone, please let me know via the comments section below!

Avivah

Guess what?  Tomorrow I’m going away for the entire weekend - without my family!  I’ll be spending the weekend with over one hundred other women at a special retreat.  I know some of them already, some I’ve gotten to know over the phone in the last year or so, and it will be really fun to match voices with faces!  My husband really encouraged me to go, which helped me overcome my feeling that I should stay home with everyone.  My baby is 15 months and no longer nursing, and will be fine without me, since he’ll be surrounded by everyone else in the family so nothing will be too different in his life.  My toddler is more likely to notice my absence, but again, it makes a big difference to be part of a big family in situations like this - almost everyone else he’s used to spending all day long with will still be there.   

About seven years ago, my grandfather was very ill and I flew to visit him, and was gone for the weekend.  My kids still talk about the food my husband made that weekend - the biscuits that had so much baking powder that they were really bad, and the cholent (Sabbath stew) he made with hotdogs.  As soon as they heard I was going, they turned to my husband with excitement and asked, “Can we have hot dog cholent?!?”  They’re looking forward to a weekend with a different flavor while I’m gone. 

As soon as my now 14 year old (she had a birthday a week ago) dd heard I was going three hours away for this convention, she immediately wanted to know if I could take her to friends in that state for the weekend.  :)   I told her that I couldn’t chauffer her to any city in the state, but if it was within a reasonably short distance, I’d be willing to drop her off.  When she gave me the address to mapquest, we were both delighted to find out that her friend lives ten minutes from the hotel! 

Then my 12 year old dd wanted to come along when she heard about the plans - one of her favorite friends in the world is the younger sister of the friend my older dd asked about going to.  So I said, sure, the more the merrier.  Turns out my older daughter’s friend (and four other friends she has in that neighborhood) all have a school Shabbaton (activity/trip) planned for that weekend, so she’ll stay with another friend who lives just a couple of minutes away instead.  And now the other girls are arranging their schedules so they can come see her on Friday afternoon, after school ends and before they leave for their trip.   I kind of marvel at how many people she’s friendly with that she feels comfortable spending the weekend with.  I’m so grateful that the hotel is so close and it will be easy to accomodate both of my daughters.  All of my kids are very undemanding and appreciative of what they get, so it’s a pleasure to do things for them, and I’m really glad that I can make this happen for them, particularly for my 12 year old dd.

The plan is to drop them off on the way to the hotel, and then the other four women who are coming along with me and I will head off for a weekend of adult conversation.  (It’s good I have a large van to hold everyone!)  I am really, really looking forward to it!  It’s already midnight, and since I’ll be leaving soon after breakfast, I really need to get myself packed up.  I also have to take all the food I’ll need until Sunday afternoon when I get back, so I have plenty to still do until I’m ready to go!  Since I’ll be doing the driving (though one friend offered to drive for me if I get tired), I also need to get a decent night’s sleep in (particularly since my toddler was throwing up last night so I didn’t get to sleep until after 3 am).

Have a wonderful weekend, and I’ll try to update you Sunday night.

Avivah

In the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, the Chabad House (a religious Jewish center) was one of the targeted locations.  Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, hy”d, his wife, Rivka hy”d, and their toddler son were among the hostages taken.  Both parents were killed before the Indian commandos stormed the building. 

The small light in the middle of this horrible tragedy was that their little boy was saved.  The woman who cooked for the organization and often took care of their toddler was in the building when it was stormed, and she locked herself into a room as she heard the gunshots.  After twelve hours, it was quiet, and she heard the little boy crying.  She risked leaving her room - can you imagine the courage that took, to venture out, not knowing where the terrorists were, and to risk the safety of her undiscovered location? -and followed the sound to a different floor in the building, where she saw four unconscious bodies, and next to them, the crying baby with bloodstains on his pants.

She quickly grabbed him and managed to safely get out of the building.  The baby, Moshe, turned two years old today.  It horrifies me to think of a tiny child like that not only losing both parents, but for the rest of his life, his birthday will mark the anniversary of when he was saved, but when they were killed as well.

Moshe was the youngest of three children, the oldest who died of a degenerative disease earlier this year, and the second child is critically ill and in a hospital in Israel.  It’s hard for me to fathon the suffering of this young couple (they were 29 and 28), and I can only find the tiniest measure of comfort because of my belief that a merciful G-d runs the world and that there is a reason for everything, no matter how it seems to me.  But my heart is heavy.

May their memories be a blessing, and may H-shem give the parents, relatives, and friends of this very special young couple comfort.

Avivah

I had such a busy day yesterday, with so much to tell you but no time!  It’s very hard to go back even a day to recap, though, since there’s always so much going on here, so I’ll just share with you one of the highlights.

A dear friend was turning 69, and invited me to her birthday party.  Yes, she’s twice my age, but she really is my friend.  She has a beautiful spirit and joy for life, and I always enjoy chatting with her - we speak about once a week.  She was doing something unusual and fun for her party - since she was a teenager in the 50s, she decided to make her birthday party theme the 50s.  And she requested that all of her guests wear at least one item in accordance with the theme.  She told me her goal was for everyone to have fun, since we tend to take life too seriously and not laugh enough. 

Oh, gosh.  I knew I didn’t have anything to wear, couldn’t think of how to adapt what I had, didn’t want to go buy something just for a party, and kept procrastinating about doing some research to get new ideas.  I was getting kind of uptight about it, and even very briefly toyed with the idea of not going just so I wouldn’t have to come up with something.  But that was ridiculous.

Finally, two hours before the party, I called my mom for ideas.  I was feeling desperate.  My hair wasn’t teasing, and I had been counting on that to create my look.  Once I started brainstorming with my mom, things started getting fun!  I ended up wearing my straightest shortest skirt (which for me means 2 or 3 inches past the knees), a fitted t-shirt with a cardigan on top, brushed my bangs flat over my forehead, stuck a headband on, and tried to tease the hair behind the headband. That was an utter failure.  I was a teenager in the late 80s so I should know how to tease hair, but we only teased our bangs, and my arms got tired long before my hair got that beehive look.  I tied a scarf around my neck, put on some bright lipstick that came as part of a set (I would never have bought it!), and was ready to go. 

My kids and the visiting friend looked up at me when I came down the stairs and asked me if I was really going to go out looking like that.  :)  (I think the lipstick might have been the most shocking part.)  Yes, I told them, I was.  I’m not naturally good at doing spontaneous fun stuff that requires me to leave my comfort zone, so this was a conscious effort for me.  A friend picked me up, we got to the party, and found the room decorated with 50s nostalgia and the birthday girl dressed from head to toe as a teenager of the 50s and women of all ages there to share in the celebration, some totally dressed to the theme, others less so. 

When the music went on, it was all fifties hits.  The women were invited onto the dance floor(it was all religious women), while I sedately sat on the sidelines, eating my fruit and cheese.  Dancing isn’t my strong point; I tend to feel self-conscious and I really have no idea how to do any 50s dances (maybe because I was born long, long after that!).  Someone else who wasn’t dancing turned to me and asked me my name, and did a double take when I told her. It turns out she’d been wanting to meet me for a while (she knew about me from a relative I was able to help get started looking into alternative healing), and I was glad to be able to put her face to her name, too.

Then there were several talks and presentations (which were so beautiful), and a hula hoop game began. We linked arms in a circle, and had to pass the hula hoop from one to another without letting go of the circle, while music played.  When the music stopped, whoever was at the left of the hula hoop had to go into the circle and dance together.  That forced me to lighten up a little, lol!  It actually was really fun to let go and not worry about knowing the steps, just having pure fun.  When you’re looking silly with other people, it’s not something you need to think so much about, you know?

It was a lot of fun, but it was more than anything a celebration of life by and for a wonderful woman, and it was really a privilege to have been invited to participate.

Avivah

On Friday morning, I attended a celebration in honor of a newborn boy; on Saturday, we attended a bar mitzva; Sunday was the funeral that I wrote about, and tonight we attended two weddings.  So many significant events in just a few days, and so much emotion. 

Going to the weddings was very poignant, coming so soon after the funeral and because both of the brides were very young, just two or three years older than the boy who was killed in the accident.  At each of the weddings I met people I had seen at the funeral, and I know that they all shared the same mixed emotions that I had.  It was strong enough to sense, as we looked at each other and remembered where we last were when we saw one another just two days ago.  Some of us spoke about it together, about the very fresh feelings of sadness mixed with a strong sense that life moves on, that life is truly a cycle.  With all of it’s joys and sadnesses, it’s a cycle that keeps circling around. 

May we all share in only good things!

Avivah