בס''ד

Spring has Arrived in Israel















Welcome back!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable and meaningful Pesach.

A couple of week before Pesach, Spring arrives in Israel. Actually, Israel has only two seasons, winter and summer, but Pesach is known as a spring [Aviv in Hebrew] holiday. Children sing a song about Pesach being a spring holiday. Trees are in bloom and their blossoms are beautiful and some smell so sweet. My grandchildren, Chen and Nadav, bring their gan [kindergarten class] to their garden to see their almond trees in bloom.

Soon we will see many of the native wild flowers of Israel, with their beautiful sharp colors growing all over Israel.

My favorite Israeli flower is the Calanit. This flower grows wild and has the most beautiful deep red petals. The first time I saw a Calanit was on my daughter’s kibbutz in Gush Etzion. It was love at first sight. When my son-in-law told me that this wild flower is only a weed, I couldn't believe it. How could a weed be so beautiful?

http://www.sbc.co.il/mba/photo/victor1_calanit_big.jpg

To see some of the beautiful flowers that grow in Israel, check out this link.

http://www.flowersinisrael.com/plant_list_alpha-a.htm

Flowers are a very special gift to the world. They brighten up our day and bring a smile to our lips. Sending flowers to a loved one, sends a message of love. A bouquet of flowers on the Shabbos table adds to the dignity and grace of the table. And of course on a beautiful day, planting your favorite flowers in the garden or a balcony flower box is a great way to relax and spend the day. Whether you plant with seeds or seedlings, caring for your flowers and watching nature in action is a precious sight.

I wrote this poem A Precious Flower a couple of years ago.

A PRECIOUS FLOWER

Look at these flowers
so beautiful and dainty.
With just enough colour
and a faint smell of scent.

Oh Master of the Universe
You created a masterpiece.
So wonderful, so special
for young and old to enjoy.

We thank-you for Your gift
that brightens up our day.
These little flowers
so precious in every way.

Please feel free to pass my blog around.

Miriam

בס''ד

Delicious Salads to Adorn Your YomTov Table.

After you have served all the traditional Seder foods from the Hagada, it is now time to serve the Seder meal.

In Israel, it is customary to serve several different types of salads at Yom Tov meal with the entrée or first course. The salads go great with matza and chraine.

Colorful salads will dress up your Yom Tov table. Israelis love to make salads using cucumbers, tomatoes, different color sweet peppers and some chopped purple onion. When preparing an Israeli vegetable salad use fresh vegetables and cut the vegetables in very tiny pieces. Your salad can be dressed with an oil, vinegar and lemon mixture. Eggplants and colorful peppers both hot and sweet are very popular vegetables used when preparing salads.

Preparing cooked salads can be time consuming, but when you are preparing food for YomTov, it becomes a pleasure.

These salads are also wonderful to serve on Shabbos.

My daughter, who is a great cook and married to a Tunisian, has shared some of her Israeli salad recipes with me over the years since my family and I made Aliyah almost 15 years ago. Usually I make my salads a few days before I want to serve them so that they can marinate.

Here are a several salad recipes.

Eggplant and Tomato salad.
1 large or 2 small eggplants
1 small and ripe tomato
1 large onion
1 small red pepper
2 garlic teeth pressed
oil – for frying
¼ cup vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons tomato paste
¼ cup hot water
salt to taste

1] Cut all the vegetables into small pieces and fry until golden brown. Drain the oil well.
2] Place fried vegetables in a large bowl and add
sugar, garlic, tomato paste, salt and mix well.
Add vinegar, hot water and mix well.
3] Store in container and chill before serving.

Imitation Israeli Chop Liver salad.
1 large eggplant cut in small chunks
2 very large onions
3 raw eggs
oil – for frying
salt and pepper to taste
2 pressed garlic teeth [optional]


1] Fry eggplant and onions until they are golden brown.
Remove from fry pan and drain well.
DO NOT pour out the oil left in the fry pan.
2] Put the eggplant back into the fry pan and add beaten
eggs. On a low heat, stir constantly so that the mixture
does not stick to the bottom of pan.
3] When the mixture is dry [no more raw egg] place in a
container, add salt, pepper.
4] When cooled, put thru grinder to look like chopped liver.

Sweet Pepper Salad
6/7 roasted red/ yellow/orange peppers [mixture]
2 pressed garlic teeth
¼ cup oil
¼ cup vinegar
2 tablespoons hot water
1 tablespoon lemon
salt to taste

1]Roast peppers on a bar b’que or gas stove fire until well done. 2]Place in plastic bag for 1 hour [to make peeling easier]. When cooled, peel, slice and put peppers into a container.
3]Add all the other ingredients. Mix very well. Chill before serving.

Mushroom Salad

½ cup oil
½ cup vinegar
¼ cup water
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. garlic powder or 3 teeth of garlic
¼ tsp. white pepper
¼ cup sugar
Combine all of the ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil.

Add
2 small cans of mushrooms or 1 large can
1 cup diced red peppers
1 cup diced yellow peppers
1 cup diced green peppers
1/2 cup onions sliced in circles.
Simmer for 5 minutes

Remove from heat and add 2 tsp. basil [optional]
Chill overnight for the best taste.

And now for those who are not faint of heart. This next salad is very HOT. If you are not used to eating hot salads, taste with caution.

Nishweya salad [Hot pepper & tomato salad]
NOTE: cooked hot peppers can burn your skin. Hold by the stem and use a knife and fork.

10 straight hot peppers [mixture of red and green]
2/3 ripe tomatoes
2 tablespoon olive oil
6 sliced garlic teeth
juice from whole lemon
salt to taste.

1]On each hot pepper make a small x with a knife to keep the peppers from exploding and then roast on all sides on a bar b’que or stove fire.
2]Repeat with tomatoes.
3]Place all the cooked vegetables in a plastic bag for 1 hour. [makes peeling easier]
4]When cooled, carefully peel and dice the peppers and grate the tomato.
Add all the other ingredients and mix well. Chill overnight for best taste.

There are many delicious salad recipes and if you would like any additional recipes, please contact me thru the comment section at the end of this article.

Enjoy the salads. Feel free to pass the recipes around.

Have a good Pesach!

Miriam

בס''ד

Erez Yisroel is Calling You!

Israel is in the news everyday. We are just a small country surrounded by enemies who want to see our destruction. I fear for my country. Our precious homeland has known many wars in our short 60 years of the modern state. Politics is the most popular discussion, every citizen and non citizen has an opinion....and of course all kids play soccer and/or basketball.

Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people and we must always be the majority.

Israel has too double its population. We have room for every Jew. Aliyah is the only answer.

On May 31st, 1994, my family made Aliyah. During the past fifteen years our lives have been enriched in many ways.

We notice things that we never noticed before, even though they were in front of our face. We don’t have any more money than we had in the ‘old country’, but we always have B"H what we need. We have an appreciation for rain. We appreciate the quiet. We just went through a war. I love to look at the perfect blue sky sometimes with soft white clouds.

When you walk the streets of the old city in Jerusalem or Beer Sheva....you know this is where Avraham Avinu walked. I live in Netivot and the original old city where Avraham Avinu lived is just 5 kms. away. Today, it is a nature park with a small stream where families go to picnic, hike and just relax. My grandchildren love to go to the ‘forest’. Sometimes if you are lucky and dig down a little in the earth you will find artifacts from biblical times.

There are many only in Israel stories.... interesting things that happen only in Israel.

-like the time when my brother was living at the Merkaz Klita in Kiryat Arba. He was sitting in the front seat of the bus when the bus was rocked by arabs throwing boulders. My brother had is arms crossed across his chest when a boulder flew through the front window and broke both his arms. After receiving medical attention, my sister-in-law asked if there was any compensation he could claim as he couldn’t work....the clerk said nonchalantly, “are you crazy, just be happy it wasn’t his head.”

-or the time when Avraham & I were sitting on a very full bus. A lady we didn’t know got on from the back door with an infant. She plopped the baby in my arms, yes literally plopped her baby and said she was going to the front to pay. Just imagine if this would happen in North America?

-or the time when we were living in Modi’in and across the street from a very large supermarket in the middle of the city was an empty field. We watched in amazement as the Bedouins' brought their goats, sheep and cows to graze in the field. The animals would sometimes break away and run along the busy thrufare. One time there was a posting on the Modi'in e-mail list. The subject line simply was... this is not a joke posting. The city is looking for people to help round-up the cows because they ran away and were seen on different city streets.

-where Christmas lights and tinsel are used to decorate the Sukka.

But the best only in Israel story is.....traffic lights everywhere in the world are red, yellow and green. Red means to stop, yellow slow down and green to go. Only in Israel does yellow mean to speed up before the light turns red. I guess that is why Israelis are horrible drivers.

Making Aliyah is a difficult decision. It affects every member of your family. Living in Israel is both a honour and priviledge.

I wrote a short poem called Erez Yisroel is Calling You!

Jews of the world......
Erez Yisroel, the land of our people
is yearning for you.
This Holy land, a gift from Hashem
needs it’s children to come home.

You say, “how can I leave my city,
my job, my home, my security.
My family and friends will miss me so much
to go to a land with such uncertainties.”

“Where will I live?
Where will I work?
And to learn a new language
oy vay, oy vay
this pressure, I do not need.”

Our Holy land needs more Jews
to settle and populate.
The world thinks Israel is a puppet on a string
and our bitter enemy deserves our land.
Jews of the world, your country is calling YOU!

The One Above gave us this land
not to give away.
G-D forbid,
if we don’t populate
in years to come
we will be a minority in own homeland.

It’s up to you
Jews of the world
to fulfill the prophecy
Erez Yisroel, the homeland of the Jewish people
is here for now and all eternally.

Feel free to comment and pass around.

Miriam

בס''ד

Cookies, Cakes, Pies & More.

There nothing as pleasurable as a house where the smell of freshly baked cakes, cookies and pies is emerging from the kitchen. The aroma gives the house a very warm and inviting feeling.

Over the years I have accumulated many wonderful recipes, and with Purim just around the corner, I would like to share some of my families favorite baked goods.

All of my recipes are very easy, inexpensive to make and will bring loads of compliments.

Hamentashen Cookie Dough

3 eggs + 1 single egg to use at the end.
1 cup oil
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
½ cup water
½ cup orange juice
1/8 tsp salt
4 cups flour plus 2 more cups on the side for rolling etc.

Combine ingredients in order, using enough flour to make a soft but not sticky dough. Let sit 20 minutes before handling. Divide into 4 parts. Roll ¼ thicknesses on a floured board. Cut in 4 inch circles. [use a coffee mug]. Place a spoonful of filling in the center of each circle. Form triangles by folding sides into the middle. Brush with beaten egg. Bake at 350F or 180c on a lightly greased baking sheet or use baking paper for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Makes about 5 dozen.
Preparation time: appox. 45/60 minutes.

Fillings for hamtentashen.

1. Prune filling.

1 lb. or 460 grams prunes, stewed, pitted & chopped
1 cup raisins chopped
¼ cup chopped nuts [optional]
½ lemon juice & rind
½ cup sugar
1tbsp. honey

Combine all ingredients and mix well.

2. Poppy seed filling

½ lbs. or 230 grams poppy seed
4 tbsp. honey
2 tbsp sugar
juice of ½ lemon

Soak the poppy seeds in boiling water overnight. Drain well, dry and grind in food chopper using finest blades. Add remaining ingredients and mix well.

Apple muffins

½ cup water or apple juice
1 egg
¼ cup oil
1 cup chopped apple
1 ½ cup flour
1 package baking powder [3 tsp.]
½ cup brown sugar
coconut [optional]

Combine egg, water & oil. Beat well.
Add dry ingredients and beat.
Mix in the chopped apple and mix well.
Grease muffin pan and fill ½ full.
Sprinkle muffin tops with coconut
Bake 180c for 30/35 minutes or until done.
Preparation time: 10 minutes

Raisin and Pomegranate Juice muffins.

2 eggs
½ cup brown sugar
1/3 cup oil
1 package of baking powder
1 tbs. vanilla
1 tbs. lemon juice
½ cup pomegranate juice
2 cups flour
¾ cup raisins [soak for 1 hour so they won’t burn]
1 cup chopped apples [optional]

Beat eggs, sugar, oil, vanilla and lemon juice.
Add dry ingredients and pomegranate juice and continue beating.
Add apples and raisins and mix.
Grease muffin tins and fill ½ full [makes 18 muffins]

Topping

2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons oil
5 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons brown sugar
Mix well and sprinkles on muffin tops.
Bake 180c 30/35 minutes.
Preparation time: 15 minutes.

My husband and I have been blessed with 12 grandchildren. When the grandchildren come to our house the first thing they want to know is “where is Rocky” [our dog]? Next question is “are there any cookies”, even though they know that the cookie jar is always full. Safta’s cookies are their all time favorite. Even the big kids, their parents enjoy my cookies with coffee.

Safta’s Special Cookies

1 cup sugar [or ½ cup white & ½ cup brown sugar]
7/8 cup oil
2 eggs
1 package baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon orange or lemon juice
2 ½ cups flour

Beat sugar, eggs, oil, vanilla & juice. Add baking powder and continue beating.
Add flour and mix together until well blended.
Line baking pans with baking paper. Using 2 teaspoons, drop cookie mixture.

Topping

Sprinkle a mixture of cinnamon and sugar [optional coconut, colored candy sprinkles, sesame seed or drop of jam in the center of cookie.]
Bake at 190c for 10/12 minutes or until brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before removing from the pan. Makes 5 dozen medium size cookies.
Preparation time: 15 minutes.

We always like to end the Shabbos meal with dessert. Two of the favorites in our house are fruit cocktail upside down cake and lemon meringue pie.

Fruit cocktail upside down cake [optional- you can use pineapple chunks]

Topping

¼ cup oil
½ cup brown sugar
1 can of fruit drained, save juice
Mix oil and brown sugar and stir into a large round baking pan.
Place fruit in pan and arrange so that the bottom of the pan is covered.

Cake

1/4 cup oil
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup of saved juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 package of baking powder
Combine oil, sugar, eggs and beat well.
Add dry ingredients alternately with juice.
Pour batter evenly over fruit mixture. Bake 180c for 40/45 minutes.
Cake should be dry when tested with toothpick.
Remove from oven and allow to stand 5 minutes before flipping cake onto a cake plate. [tip: to remove cake easily, place cake plate over the pan, flip gently and cake will left out perfectly]
Preparation time: 15 minutes

Lemon meringue pie

Crust:

1 ½ cups flour
½ teaspoon salt [optional]
½ cup oil
3 tablespoons cold water
Combine all the ingredients in a large round slightly greased pie plate.
Gently knead with your hands until you have a ball.
Cover the bottom of the pan with the mixture.
Bake 15/20 minutes 180c or until dough is dry. Remove and let cool 5 minutes.

Filling:

1 ¼ cups water
¼ cup lemon juice
1 cup sugar
Bring to a boil.
Separate bowl:
3 egg yokes separated [save whites for meringue
¼ cup cold water
¼ cup corn flour [optional corn starch and potato starch]
Beat together and on a very low fire, add mixture to boiling liquid.
Continue stirring until lemon fill become desire thickness. Filling will burn if you stop stirring.
Pour lemon filling into pie crust. Top with meringue.

Meringue:

3 egg whites
1/3 cup of sugar
Beat egg whites until thick adding sugar slowly.
Brown meringue in hot oven 200c for 5 /10 minutes.

Option:

Prepare the same recipe in a large square pan and cut as squares.
Preparation time: 20 minutes.

Baking is fun whether you are a new baker or an experienced baker. It is fun to experiment and see what else you can do with the recipe. Happy baking and enjoy the recipes.

Chag Purim Sameach!

Feel free to comment and pass my blog around.

Miriam

בס''ד

Our Precious Miracle

The theme of my blog Miriam’s Words is family. In this blog, I would like to tell a story about how a medical miracle brought happiness to our family.

The medical section of newspapers and magazines are full of articles pertaining to medical advances that have been discovered by this lab or that lab. We read about the drugs that have the potential to prevent cancer and alzheimers or the controversy concerning stem cell research.

Articles on how to prevent heart attacks, lower cholesterol and tips on good health are found in most magazines. The question is, would all of these wonderful medical discoveries have been discovered without The Hand of The One Above guiding the researcher and research? And the answer is a resounding no! Each medical advancement is a miracle that glorifies Hashem.

The medical miracle that I want to write about is In Vitro Fertilization also known as I.V. F. This medical miracle was discovered many years ago and has been improved over the years.

When the first talk about In Vitro Fertilization was taking place, I remember the controversy pro and con over this procedure. I.V.F. is a procedure in which the eggs from a woman’s ovary are removed and fertilized with sperm in a petri dish or test tube [hence test tube baby] and after several days the fertilized eggs are returned to the woman’s uterus.

Many people and I was included in this group, argued that man was taking nature into his own hand and playing G-D. Imagine a child being conceived in a small glass test tube. When the first little girl was born in 1978 and she was very healthy, it was something to behold. Little did I understand then, that it is Hashem that decides who, when and where a child is conceived.

Many write about the pain, personal suffering and disappointment, but hardly ever do you read the success stories, the stories that give hope to a childless couple going thru treatments. I decided to write about I.V.F. to tell a positive story.

You see, many years after IVF was discovered, my husband and I were blessed with a grandson, born from a frozen egg. My daughter jokes and calls him her 'Sanfrost' [an Israeli band of frozen vegetables] baby, because her egg was implanted after being defrosted.

After many years of marriage, my daughter and son-in-law made the decision to try I.V.F. in order to have a family. After some failed procedures, I won’t forget the day she called and said the pregnancy test was positive. She was laughing and crying for joy so hard it was difficult to understand what she was saying. On the 27th day of Tishri, 5758 [October 23rd 1997], our miracle grandson was born.

Today, our grandson Gilad is eleven years old. He is a gifted child, a Ben Torah, who would have never been born, if this medical technology had not been discovered. Our family would never have had the pleasure of shepping nachas listening to him discuss a parsha or his writing and delivering of a D'var Torah. Gilad, the oldest child in his family is the brother of five siblings, 4 sisters and one brother.

Gilad will be graduating from his elementary school in June and has been accepted to the southern branch of ”Yeshivat Yashlatz”, in Kfar Maimon, which is the high school of the prestigious “Yeshiva Mercaz Ha Rav”.

My understanding in this medical miracle has grown since our daughter first talked to us about their decision to try to have a family thru IVF. I have seen first hand the fears and disappointment, when a procedure doesn't work and I have seen the exhilarating happiness when the results of a procedure are positive.

Though this miracle, childless couples now have a chance to fulfill their dreams and know the joy of becoming parents. And we in the older generation are also blessed with a grandchild.

So next time we hear about a medical discovery, let's not be so quick to argue its downfall. We need to remember that each medical discovery is The Hand of The One Above at work. Your family's happiness may depend on it.

Our Gilad




















Thank-you Devorah for permission to tell your story.

Please feel free to comment and pass my blog around.

Miriam

Special Note:

I have been asked by the AACI Southern Branch to post this notice.

The AACI Southern Branch provisional committee has adopted its first fund-raising project.

We will be selling Purim cards in lieu of mishloach manot (shalach manos).
Our own talented artist, Ruth Gresser, http://ruthgresser-ruthart.com/home/ has kindly donated the card design. The cards, with envelopes, will sell for 10 for NIS 100 or 20 for NIS 180, plus postage, and we will provide a tax-deductible receipt. All proceeds will be earmarked for planned future programming and other activities to help facilitate the absorption of new olim to our region, as well as continued service to long-time Anglo residents of the South.

We ask you all to participate in this important project. You will have the satisfaction of helping to revitalize the Southern Branch of AACI, and to encourage new olim to make their home in the South.

For more information, to coordinate orders in your community, or for your personal needs, contact:

Barbara Goldman at barbarag@netvision.net.il, 08-6432843 or 050-8155681; or Tamar Iancu at mumwawa@bezeqint.net or 08-641-7560.

בס''ד

Shavua Tov!

Dedicated to the Cousins.


The computer is a wonderful invention. We can use it to better our lives, for information, entertainment or it can also be used for garbage. We all have free choice on how and why we use the computer.

This new entry on my blog is dedicated to my husband and his cousins. Using the computer, my husband and I have been able to find and reconnect with his entire family from his father’s side, who we hadn't seen in years.

My husband Avraham’s extended family, aunts, uncles and cousins were an average size family. The family was originally from Montreal. Over the years, for one reason or another, everyone went their own way and most lost touch with each other.

Unfortunately, all the aunts and uncles and my husband’s parents a”h have passed away.

Their children, our cousins are spread out all over... Florida, Toronto, Montreal, Iowa and us in Israel.

One day, several months ago, my husband and I were talking about the family and how it was too bad and sad that we lost touch. I suggested to Avraham that we try a search on Facebook.

We started with his oldest cousin Stan, typed in his name and two fellows with the same name, popped up. One had a picture the other didn’t.

After looking and looking at the picture, it had been forty years since we last saw him, I sent a note asking if his parents were so and so.

A few hours later, we received a note back. Yes! Those were my parents. Back and forth, he and Avraham wrote and sent pictures of children and grandchildren.

So much news to catch up on. As it turned out, our cousin and his wife were planning a trip to Israel in November. We arranged to meet and they came to visit us in Netivot. We took them to meet one of our daughters and some of our grandchildren. I can’t even start to describe what this reunion was like.

From Stan we got the e-mail address for his brother, Barry. He also gave us the address to another cousin, Bev but wasn’t sure it was still active.

Avraham sent a note and sure enough it was her. After writing about her family she sent us the e-mail addresses of her sister Ava and twin brother David.

Attached to her first note were several pictures of the cousins as children. Memories were flowing and more pictures were arriving.

After contacting the rest of the cousins, the correspondence and more pictures were going back and forth.

One day last week, my husband opened Google talk, saw that his cousin in Iowa was on, so Avraham sent a hello note. The two cousins must have ‘talked’ a half and hour maybe more when his wife joined in to say hello, nice to meet you. After speaking for a few minutes we discover that she had family in Israel. Our cousins asked what our phone number was and a minute later the two cousins were really speaking.

Avraham was so happy.

We sent all the cousins pictures of themselves from our wedding. Stan was an usher at the wedding. The others were children. We had a great picture of all the aunts and uncles sitting together. I always say, pictures are not for today, but for tomorrow.

So to Stan and Helen, Barry and Lori, Bev and George, David and Rachel and Ava, we are so happy to have you back in our lives.

Family is so important, even if the relationship is long distance.

Perhaps some time soon we can arrange a family reunion in Israel.

Miriam

בס''ד

Our Daily Bread............

Several years ago, we lived in Modi’in [between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv]. My laundry room window faced the parking lot, and after living there for a couple of days, I noticed that a flock of small birds would congregate each morning and look for food. ‘What can they find in a driveway I asked my husband?” He made some comment saying birds are dumb.

I took a slice of old bread, broke it into several small pieces and threw it out to the birds. Their initial reaction was to fly away, but a minute or two later they returned and pecked at the bread.

So started my daily routine of feeding the birds.

Early each and every morning, I would open my window wide, call “birdies” throw out my pieces of bread and before I knew it, my ‘bird friends’ were pecking away.

This ritual became sort of family experience. Everyone enjoyed watching the birds eat, even though they laughed at me for calling the birds. Even our dog got into the act. He would jump up on a chair, put his two front paws on the window still, look around and hope a piece of bread would fall his way. Somehow small pieces always ‘fell’ down to his chair.

After awhile, the bird population in my parking lot grew. It was if the small birds told their friends and neighbors how to get free and easy food. It was amazing to see nature at work.

Very early one morning, before I fed the birds, we heard the triss [shutters] in our laundry room rattle. At first we just ignored it, thinking it was the wind, but a few seconds later, the rattle was louder. I opened the triss a little, and to my shock, several birds were sitting on the window still. They knew where the bread came from and were looking for food.

I remember thinking, is this what it was like, when the Jews were walking through the desert and their only food was the manna that fell from the sky each night. Waiting and looking for your daily ration is a humbling experience.

Like the birds, we are dependent on Hashem for our needs. Today manna doesn’t fall from the sky. We need to work to provide for ourselves and our families. But it is Hashem who decrees our livelihood. He is our Father in Shamyim [heaven] watching over us and we are His children. He knows our joy, he knows our pain. He is always with us.

I don’t know where the minhag [custom] of not throwing any left over bread from the table into the garbage came from, but I do know, if we collect the old bread and put it outside to feed the birds and where I live the chickens, we will always have food on our table. Around our apartment even the cats enjoy the left over bread.

We now live in Netivot. The birds congregate behind our apartment. Now it is not me who feeds the birds, but my husband, who every morning as soon as he sees the birds, goes and scatters the pieces of left over bread and comes back to the apartment to watch them eat. When a cat comes around, the birds fly away, and as soon as the cat is gone, back come the birds. More than once, he has chased a cat away who was lingering around trying to catch a bird to eat.

One day, a neighbor of ours, who happens to be a Rav, saw my husband scattering the bread. He asked him what he was doing and when my husband said that he was feeding the birds, the Rav told him that feeding the birds was a very important mitzvah.

He reminded my husband that the Shabbos, on which the Torah parsha of Beshalach is read, is known as Shabbos Shira. One of the customs associated with this Shabbos is to place crumbs outside for the birds to eat.

The chirping of birds is not 'noise'. It is the way that birds praise Hashem for providing them with their needs. Because, on this Shabbos, we too sing praises of Hashem, we recognize the constant song of praise chirped by the birds by feeding them, as a form of reward.

After four years, on the last day that we lived in Modi’in, I finished throwing out my pieces of bread I asked my husband, “who will feed the birds tomorrow?” He told me not to worry, they’ll be fed.

I hope you enjoyed my blog. Feel free to pass it along.

Note: This coming Shabbos is Shabbos Shira

Shabbat Shalom

Miriam

בס''ד

Where, Oh Where is the Rain?




The weatherman is reporting another rainy day. Better to take with an umbrella if you plan to go out. This forecast could be given almost anywhere in North America or Europe

In Israel the story is different. Everyday I listen to the weather forecast and all I hear is above normal temperatures, no rain expected for several more days.

The Kinneret is Israel's largest freshwater reservoir and the nation’s primary source of drinking water. The standard of measure currently stands more than 3.3 meters lower than its favorable level. Soon we will not be able to pump anymore water from the Kinneret.

I read that in the Kinneret, every drop of water ten centimeters in height represents 17 million cubic meters of water, or roughly 3.5 times Israel's national consumption. Only 60% of our usual rainfall has been recorded. In the Negev, where I live , it is very dry. There is not a drop of water to waste anywhere in the country.

The winter months and rainy season in Israel is from after Succot [October] until Purim [March]. For the past couple of years, Israel has not received enough rain.

Our rabbis organize prayers for rain. Many people, men, women and children daven at the Kotel. We pray and pray for rain. Although some rain has fallen, it’s not nearly enough.

I find it hard to understand. Israel is the home of the Jewish people. The land that Hashem promised to Avraham Avinu, so why is He denying us rain?
In my opinion, could it be that we don’t deserve the rain because we are not prepared to protect our country and not give any land away? We allow other nations to convince us that for the good of mankind and peace in the area, we need to give away our precious land.

One of the lessons that we learn in the second paragraph of Shema Yisroel [Deuteronomy 11-13-21], is that Hashem tells us that if we keep His commandments, He will provide rain for our land in the proper time, the early rain and the late rain so that we can gather our grain, wine and oil. But if we go astray and follow other gods [the world] then the Heaven will be restrained and there will be no rain and the fields will be dry.

Our governments, past and present, have not been strong enough to say no to the world..this arrangement is not in Israel’s best interest. We want the world to love us. We want and need that pat on the back and the Noble Peace Prize.

Hopefully, Moshiach will come soon and save us from us.

I would like to end my thoughts with this poem that I wrote a year ago, pleading with Hashem to grant us rain.

The Rain

The wind is blowing
The sky is dark.
It looks like rain.

Anxiously, we wait
for the rain is needed.
The ground is dry.
The trees hang over
desperately wanting to drink.

The sun is shining brightly
fire burns the grass and fields.
Our precious land is being destroyed.
Oh rain, where are you?

We pray for rain
We need to be granted this Bracha
Hashem, are You listening?
Oh rain, where are you?

The dark sky lights up with lightning.
The quiet is broken from thunder.
It’s raining, it’s raining, it’s raining!

Baruch Hashem, our prayers have been answered.
May we be granted a plentiful rainy season.

Feel free to comment and pass my blog around.

Miriam

בס''ד
Shavua Tov!

Thank-You IDF

A ceasefire has been called. Our troops have left Gaza and have been redeployed on the Israeli side of Gaza or / and are returning to their loved ones. I am so proud of our soldiers. They did a magnificent job.

Our reservists, when called upon to serve their country, once again did so with pride. They dropped everything in their private lives and went to war.

Two soldiers were given time to get married and to return the next day. One young soldier became a father for the first time. He too was given some hours to go and visit his wife and new son and then eight days later returned for the bris.

To the soldiers who were injured, I wish you all a refua shelayma.

You should know that the residents of the South are grateful for your service. Hopefully we will now have some quiet and life can return to normal.

Our army is a Jewish army with a heart and compassion.

I wrote a little poem to thank our pilots and soldiers.......

Thank-you dear soldiers & pilots
of the Israel Defense Forces.

Thank-you
for your service
in defending our nation.

Thank-you dear reservist
for answering the call
to serve
so that our country will not fall.

To those who so bravely
fought the war in Gaza
our prayers were with you
for success and good health.

The Hand of the One Above
watched over you
night and day
to complete your goals
and return you safely to your family.

Click and listen to this video from all places the BBC. The interviewee is speaking about the IDF in glorifying words and will not let the interviewer speak badly about the IDF.

http://www.bicom.org.uk/videos/bbc-news--military-analysis

I hope you enjoyed my blog. Please feel free to comment and pass it around.

Miriam

בס''ד

Shavua Tov!

Kassams and Grads Part 3........
Not all doom and gloom.......

Most of the articles that have been written about the Gaza war, including some of the blogs that I’ve written, have a doom and gloom feeling about them.

But truthfully, all is not doom and gloom. First of all, for the first time in many years our country is united. Except for radical left Israelis, who personally I feel are misguided, everyone agrees that Hamas must be stopped and brought down.

Israeli flags are everywhere. One might think that Yom Haatzmaut) [Israel’s birthday] is around the corner. You see citizens proudly flying Israeli flags from their cars, on balconies, from windows, and in Sderot, the residents strung long banner of flags across all their streets. Everyone wants to show support for our country and our soldiers. Our flag is proudly waving in the breeze on our mirpestit [balcony].

Companies and organizations have shown what good citizens they are. Children of the South have been given respite days and taken to the large Biblical Zoo, to concerts and plays, the Kotel in Jerusalem, Ramat Gan Safari park, out to eat, just to name a few activities. My school age grandchildren went to Hadera to see The Israel Electric Power Plant.

Clowns are everywhere and when the children didn’t go on an outing and were in shelters all day long, the entertainment came to them.

Some of most popular children’s entertainers put on shows in the shelters. Entertainers who make balloon figures brought smiles and laughter to the children. The performances may have been for only an hour or two, but this was an hour or two that children forgot about the war.

Arts and craft teachers and art therapy experts spent time with children having them create magnificent art work and at the same time, worked out their fears.

Across the south and the rest of the country, beautiful things are happening. There are so many projects to provide warm clothes for our soldiers. Private people are preparing care food packages and are sending them to the front. Restaurants and pizza shops have been donating pizza, pop, sandwiches you name it.

Tehillim groups are everywhere. One group divided the Tehillim into sections and women are saying the entire Tehillim everyday. Prayers for a refua shelayma for our injured soldiers and prayers for the well being of our soldiers on the battlefield are recited privately and in shul. Everyone is doing their part.

Strangers in the rest of the country are opening their homes to the residents of the south. They have offered open invitations to come and stay with them for a few days or Shabbat.

Companies are giving large discounts on their services. Bank of Israel is helping people who can’t get out to do their banking, major allowances on their overdrafts.

Slowly life is coming back. Children are learning in fortified classrooms and bomb shelters. Residents are starting to go back to work. Shops that were closed for a week or two are now opened.

My husband was in downtown Netivot yesterday, and he told me that the center of the city was busy.

Even though people are doing what they have to do, everyone has in the back of their mind that a siren could go off at anytime and they only have fifteen seconds to seek shelter.

And guess what happened a half and hour after my husband came home.... you got it, we had an air raid siren.

G-D willing, our actions in Gaza will be successful and the raining of rockets will stop forever. Am Yisroel Chai!

בס''ד

Life In a War Zone...Personal Perspective...

Our oldest grandson was born in Jerusalem during Chanukah in 1990. Thirty days later was his Pidyon HaBen. It was also the start of the first Gulf war.

As a new Safta, I came from Canada to meet my grandson. Several days before the Gulf war, my daughter presented me with a gas mask. She told me that the government was expecting Saddam to start sending scuds any day and there were regulations to know and follow. So started my experiences with living in a war zone.

I remember the first time the siren went off. It was in the middle of the night. I was sharing a room with another daughter. I jumped out of bed so fast, grabbed my gas mask that was sitting on a table next to the bed and my Siddur. We had about 45 seconds to get into our safe room, my daughter’s tiny bedroom.

In this room were my daughter and son-in-law, my other daughter, and my newborn grandson in some sort of tent that was the protection for babies. I put on my mask and my son-in-law adjusted it for me. I felt like I was being smothered. The chin strap was cutting my throat and it was hard to speak. I tried to daven but couldn’t, because the part for the eyes was too wide and didn’t allow me to read.

The safe room was nothing like it is today. In those days all you did was cover the windows with heavy plastic and masking tape. On the floor you put a wet towel by the door. We spent hours in this room until we got the all clear siren.

In the meantime, my husband and son were in Canada, worrying day and night. It took several hours to call Israel or for me to call Canada and when we finally got thru, we were usually cut off a minute or two later.

This scenario repeated itself daily. When it was time for me to go back to Canada and leave my family in Israel, I was very scared for them. My son-in-law was expecting to be called up to the army and that would have left my daughter alone with a new baby. When my son-in-law drove me to the airport we had to travel with our gas masks. He gave me instructions not to sit near any windows in the airport.

Now it is many years later and we live in Netivot. Over the past couple of years Netivot has been on the receiving end of grad missiles. In the beginning, Hamas could only reach the outer outskirts of the city, so they didn’t send too many rockets, just enough to let us know that they were around. This was more of a nuisance than anything else. But today, the situation has totally changed.

Now that Hamas has perfected their missiles and can shoot them further, we are receiving more attacks. Netivot has had some serious injuries and damage. Netivot has also had one death.

It is very hard to explain the stress one feels living under the threat of the air raid siren going off, rushing to the safe room and waiting for the boom.

It is not scary to hear the siren, it’s the anticipation of if and when the siren will go off, that causes of the anxiety. Like waiting for the other shoe to drop.

My husband has been driving for fifty years. We come from Montreal and he has driven in the worst winter weather. Our son was in Gush Etzion visiting his sister and her family all week and the plan was for us to go for Shabbat and we would all come home together.

I can’t tell you how stressed out he was about driving. The main route to the Gush is through all the cities and towns where the kassams and grad missiles were landing. At one point, he considered sending a taxi to pick up our son. He changed his mind so many times about driving.

The fact that he was stressed out about driving made him more stressful. My husband has a heart condition and seeing him so stressful only made me stressful. It was really a catch 22

The kassams and grads have also cost me parnassa. I teach English at home and my students are not coming. What parent would want to risk taking their children out for a lesson when a siren could ring at any time?

Doing daily everyday activities are also a challenge. When my husband walks the dog a couple of times a day in an open area, he worries what he will do if the siren goes off when he is walking. He won’t let me walk the dog because he says he can run home faster.

Going shopping for groceries or just window shopping and having to wait for the bus is another stressful activity. We can’t even just go for a relaxing walk. On Shabbat, there are usually so many kids playing outside and families going for a Shabbat stroll. Today the streets are empty. Sometimes you feel like a prisoner in your own house.

A friend of mine, who also lives in Netivot, wrote on her blog Operation Cast Lead and Me, that she had a dilemma. How was she going to take a shower? She has two young children, five and eight, and what would happen if the siren went off when she was in the shower? She decided that the only answer was that she could only shower if her husband was home. An everyday occurrence becomes another stressful situation.

Her link is http://meandcastlead.blogspot.com/

I mention this dilemma because we had a discussion on this very topic in our home. My son asked me what he should do if the siren goes off while he is in the shower. I told him to close the water and stay in the shower area.

Last week, just as my husband was coming out of the shower, you guessed it, the siren went off. He rapped himself like a mummy in a large bath towel and ran into the safe room. An everyday occurrence becomes another stressful situation.

On Moetzi Shabbat, when we came home after being away for Shabbat, we decided to stop and pick up a pizza before going home. We called ahead but, when we arrived at the pizza shop it was not ready. My husband had to wait fifteen minutes while my son and I waited in the car. My son asked me what happens if the siren goes off. We both felt like sitting ducks. [We were parked to far to run into the pizza shop.]

Depending on how many rockets have been sent during the night, determines if there is going to be mail delivery in the morning.

Last week we were waiting for three very important envelopes. We hadn’t had any delivery for a day or two. Finally, my husband spoke to our mail lady and she told him that she had the three envelopes in the sorting office, but didn’t know if there would be any delivery that day. My husband arranged to go and pick up our mail at the post office. Just another stressful situation.

When you don’t sleep all night because your sleep has been disturbed by either the siren going off or the booming from the army, you feel “bugged out” all day. After this happens for many nights, it is difficult to function during the day. Lately, I have missed so many full nights of sleep.

As I have written before, when the siren goes off we have 15 seconds to get shelter. Not only do I worry about our safety, I also worry about the safety of our daughter and son-in-law and their 6 children. Let me tell you what you can’t do in fifteen seconds.

My daughter and her family live in Ma’agalim a Yishuv five minutes from us. Yesterday, she proved what she couldn't do 15 seconds. They live in a split level house. My daughter was in the basement doing laundry. Her 2 year old daughter was sleeping on the top floor of the house. The siren went off...my daughter ran from the basement upstairs to get her daughter [ about 20 stairs], grabbed her out of the crib and started back downstairs to the basement where their safe room is. She didn't make it. By the time she reached the first level, the siren stopped and she heard the boom. If G-D forbid the kassam had landed in Ma'agalim and hit her house, it is shattering to think what could have happened. By the way, a kassam landed last Shabbat in the back yard of her neighbors house 3 doors from her house.

We all have our own levels of stress and fear. We learn that Hashem never gives us more stressful situations than one can handle. I pray that Hashem helps me and my family handle this stressful situation.

May Hashem guide our government to make wise discussions, protect our brave soldiers and brings them home safely and protects Am Yisroel!

בס''ד

A Respite Shabbat in Gush Etzion

We spent this past Shabbat at our daughter and son-law’s home on their kibbutz on Rosh Tzurim in Gush Etzion. After a week of air raid sirens and booming from the grad missiles and kassams that the terrorists were attacking us with in Netivot, we decided to go away, even if it was only for a Shabbat.

Our son had been at the kibbutz for the entire week. We were going to join him and spend Shabbos with our family. We rented a car and left early Friday morning.

My husband said Tefillah HaDerech [traveler’s prayer]with much kevana and we put our lives in Hashem’s Hands.

Because the rockets were landing all along the regular route that we take to the Kibbutz, we had to take a round about direction. Otherwise we would have had to drive thru Sderot, Ashkelon, Kiryat Gat and Kiryat Malachi.

We had another possible problem area on the trip. Just out side of Gush Etzion is the arab village of Tzurif. These arabs are very pro Hamas and they don't need a reason to riot and throw rocks and boulders at Jewish cars passing by.

When we arrived at the check point, my husband asked the soldiers if it was safe to pass Tzurif. They gave us the okay, but said to not to travel past Tzurif at night. That’s when all the trouble was. Passing Tzurif, we could see all the rocks and boulders on the sides of the road. Fifteen minutes later we arrived safely at the kibbutz.

Coming home Moetzi Shabbat was another story. My son said Tefillah HaDerech and we started the trip home. This time we had to go to from Gush Etzion to Jerusalem in order not to pass Tzurif. This was way out of our way. We had the radio on and heard that during the day, Netivot had three sirens and that there were injuries and a house took a direct hit. We also heard the announcement that our IDF ground troupes had entered Gaza.

I couldn’t wait to get home. Our 1 ¼ hour trip took almost 2 ½ hours but B"H we didn't have any problem on the road and thankfully, we came home safely.

Thank-you dear Soldiers

Thank-you dear soldiers
of the Israel Defense Forces.

Thank-you
for your service
in defending our nation.

Thank-you dear reservist
for answering the call
to serve
so that our country will not fall.

Our prayers are with you
for success and good health.

May the Hand of the One Above
watch over you night and day
and bring you home safely
into the arms of your loved ones.

Please say Tehillim [Psalms] 121 and 142 for our soldiers, 130 for our country.

Feel free to comment and pass my blog around.

בס''ד

Kassams, Grads and Missiles......Part 2

To read Part 1 ... click Nov. in the archives and scroll down

On Wednesday, Dec. 25th, at 8:05 a.m., I was busy making breakfast for my family when the first air raid siren went off. Since we have only 15 seconds to get into the safe room or public shelter, I grabbed our dog and my family quickly went into our safe room. Within 20 seconds we heard a loud boom.

A safe room is a special room built in a house that is made with reinforced concrete and steel in between the walls. The outside walls are ten inches thick. In front of the window is a steel plate and the window closes to be air tight. The door is a very heavy door made of steel.

The Israel Home command recommends that we should stay in the safe room for five minutes from the time the siren rings or until we hear a boom. Sometimes Hamas send a cluster of rockets and they all land at the same time or the rocket is just going over Netivot and lands in another community.

That day, Hamas sent 100 kassams, grads and mortars to seam line communities along the Gaza border all the way to Ashkelon.

In Netivot, where I live, we had 4 sirens. Three kassams, one grad missile and one missile went over head.

One of the kassams landed in front of a children’s inside playground where they were having a Chanukah party. There weren’t any injuries only very frightened children.

Friday and Shabbat morning were relatively quiet.

Late Shabbat morning, we could hear jets in the distance.

At 11.30 a.m. just as we were sitting down for our Shabbat lunch the booming was unbelievable. For half an hour all we heard was boom, boom, boom. The windows and door rattled and the apartment shook. We knew the booming was coming from our jets. When you live in the Negev you become an expert on booming...what boom is from our jets and what boom are the terrorists attacking.

After lunch, I tried to lie down for my regular Shabbat afternoon nap, but that was not to be.

We spent the rest of Shabbat going in and out of our safe room. The air raid siren rang about nine or ten times. While husband was at Mincha, there was a siren and all of the men had to go into the stairwell of the shul. That was the only safe place.

In Netivot on Shabbat, the kassams made a direct hit on a house, landed in the shuk [outdoor market] and a man was struck and killed when he was standing outside. Other kassams landed in fields.

My daughter who lives five minutes from us had a kassam land in back of a house a few doors away from her. My grandchildren are having a hard time with the noise.

Sunday was mostly quiet in Netivot, but yesterday we received a couple of kassams. The first one was at lunchtime and it hit a house. The second attacked was at 11.50 p.m.

Although Netivot is on the receiving end on many rockets, the amount we have received is far less than other communities. Rockets are landing as far away as Ashdod.

On Tuesday late in the evening, I was in a very deep sleep, when the siren went off, my husband woke me up. Subconsciously, I walked into our safe room, I heard two booms and I went back to sleep. Scary........Am I getting used to the sirens and booms?

We have jets and helicopters over head all the time and the booming is another story.

As of yesterday, the military has designated the western Negev as a closed military zone. That means, only residents whose address on their Tuedat Zahut [identity card] says that they live in one of the communities can enter. Everyone else will be turned away.

All schools, kindergartens and day cares have been cancelled until further notice. Residents are told to only go out if necessary and know where the public shelters are. Many businesses are also closed.

Our brave IDF pilots are doing a magnificent job. Their accuracy is 98%. We certainly have the best air force in the world. We pray that they are successful in completing their missions and that everyone comes home safely.

May the Hand of Hashem guide our pilots and protect Am YISROEL!

בס''ד

Oh Chanukah, Oh Chanukah..........

At this time of the year, kids of all ages are busy making beautiful menorahs in school. Whether your family uses candles or oil to light the Chanukah menorah, every child loves to gather around the table and have their turn. At our gatherings, each child lights their own candles and recites the brachot, their sweet young voices brings a smile to my face and happiness in my heart. After candle lighting the family sings Maoz Tzur together.

Here is another popular children’s Chanukah song which can be sung in English, Hebrew or Yiddish.

Oh Chanukah, Oh Chanukah
come light the Menorah
let's have a party
we'll all dance the Hora.

Spin the whirling dreidels
all week long
eating the sizzling latkes
sing a happy song.

Now light them tonight
the candles all in a row
we tell the wondrous story of G-d in all His glory
the wonders of long ago.

****************************************
For our family, Chanukah is an especially happy time. Our first born grandchild, Yoni, was born on Rosh Chodesh Tevet, the sixth night of Chanukah and is a tenth generation Israeli.

We were still living in the old country, Canada. Our daughter and son-in-law live on a kibbutz in Gush Etzion. It was a Monday evening. I had lied down to rest before heading out to my shiur. The phone rang, my husband answered and all I could hear was "mazel-tov, mazal-tov!" How is everyone?

One minute later, my husband came to me and said, “mazal-tov Safta, we have a grandson!”

I can’t describe the feeling that came over me. It was incredible. I was bursting with happiness and profound gratefulness to be granted this Bracha. I couldn’t wait to come to Israel and meet my little grandson. Three weeks later, I was holding my little grandson.

Yoni’s Pidyon HaBen and the start of the first Gulf War were thirty days later. Since there was a travel ban, my son-in-law's parents, who lived in B’nei Brak and his family in Jerusalem couldn’t come. Some of the food that had been ordered from Jerusalem also couldn’t be delivered.

My son-in-law didn’t know what to do. His Rav said that the Pidyon HaBen mustn’t be cancelled. All their friends and neighbors pitched in to help make the simcha. They raided the kibbutz fridge, baked some cakes and set up a beautiful table. One of the kibbutz’s kohens had the honour. Yoni was redeemed and the simcha was just wonderful. For a few minutes, everyone sang and danced outside on the lawn, forgetting about the siren and scuds that had landed during the night.

On the occasion of Yoni’s Bar-mitzvah I wrote this poem to him.

It was the seventh night of Chanukah,
Rosh Chodesh Tevet.
A kick or two you gave your mother
on that cold wintery night.
Let me out! Let me out! Let me out!

After some time
A beautiful boy emerged.
The nurse handed you to your Mother
Your Father phoned Saba Avraham.

“It’s a boy! It’s a boy!”
All choked up your father managed to say
“Naomi will call you later,
I want to go see my son.”

Eight days later a brit you did have
Yonaton David was the name called out.
Yonaton, the brave Macabee
David, your great-grandfather.

Thirteen years have passed quickly.
Where has the time gone?
Today you have reached a milestone
Saba and I are so very proud.

Mazel tov Yoni, your Mother and Father too.
May the whole family celebrate
many more simchot with you.

Our precious grandson, will G-D willing graduate from his Yeshiva in June and at the end of the summer will start his army service in a Hesder Yeshiva.

****************************************

In Israel, the most popular treat after candle lightning are donuts. Bakeries can’t bake them fast enough. Every type of donut and every topping you can imagine are produced.

My daughters make donuts with caramel filling. This is no time to watch the scale. One of my daughters is married to a Tunisian. She makes the most fabulous Tunisian donuts topped with a gooey sugar glaze. It’s a bit of a ‘patch’ to make...but the results are worth it.

Sfinja

1 kilo flour
3 level tablespoons dry yeast
¾ cup sugar
¼ tsp. salt
¾ cup oil
3 eggs.
warm water

Mix dry ingredients, add oil, eggs
Slowly add warm water until dough is soft.
Knead dough to form ball
Oil hands & rub top and sides of dough & bowl.
Cover with plastic wrap to seal
Let dough set until double in size [app.1/2 hour]

Knead dough again & cut 20 /25 even sized balls.
Shape each ball to look like a ring with a large hole in the center.

Allow to rise again on a greased tray or plastic tablecloth. Do not use flour, as the donuts will be heavy.

Deep fry in hot oil until golden brown. Drain on a paper towel.

Sugar glaze

1½ cup sugar
¾ cup water
2 packages of vanilla sugar or a good squirt of liquid vanilla
2 squirts of a lemon
Mix together and boil on medium to low flame for 7 minutes.

Cover donuts with glaze

ENJOY!

Please feel free to comment and pass the blog around.

בס''ד

Being a Mother..................

Reminiscing is a wonderful past time. Looking at old pictures of when my daughters were babies and growing up. Today they are each mothers of six children. Yesterday, my son was a toddler looking for cookies. Today, he is all grown up with broad shoulders and who towers over me. Where has the time gone?

I don’t really know why, but the other day I was thinking back to the early days of our marriage. I remember how much I wanted to be pregnant and start a family. I would dream about the little girls and little boys we would have.

One day, I wasn’t feeling so well and I went to the doctor. After a couple of test, the doctor told me I wasn’t sick, I was pregnant and going to be a mother. I was so excited I couldn’t believe my news. I told my husband that I was going to have the best pregnancy. I read every piece of pregnancy information that I could fine. No internet then! I had to rely on books. Just thinking that there was a miracle inside of me, a new little person, growing and developing would bring a smile to my face.

I would sit and wonder is my little baby a son or a daughter. Now, I am going back 39 years, before the days of ultrasound, when the doctor’s guess was as good as anybody else. The old thought that if you carried high and pointy, you had a girl and if you had major back pains and carried low, that was a boy. I wonder how many times these old tales were correct?

What would our child be like? Who would our child look like? Would my child be laid back or a ball of fire? What kind of mother will I be? Will I be anxious or relaxed? So many unanswered questions. Nine months is a very long time. You never stop thinking. There is so much to do. Looking, but not buying anything until our baby was born, thinking on possible names, dreaming on how I would fix up a nursery. Time moved very slowly.

I’m getting bigger and bigger. When I sit, I rest my arms on my stomach, while talking and patting my baby. I know my child so well and my love is indescribable.

Oops, was that a contraction? Not sure. I think I will go and lie down. There! It happened again and again. Oh, oh my water broke. My bed is drenched. Time to go to the hospital. The anticipation that first part of the journey is almost over. My husband calls my parents to come right away. He tells them he is too nervous to drive. I remind him to call the doctor and hospital.

Contraction after contraction and then it was time. The doctor said, “one big push,” and the lights went out. The anesthesiologist had put me out for the last couple of pushes. That was how they did deliveries in my day.

Waking up a few minutes later, all alone in a small room, a nurse entered and I asked about my baby. “You have a beautiful, healthy little girl and you can see her when we move you to your room,” she said so matter of fact. What was only a few minutes seemed like a lifetime. I felt so sad, here I was a mother for the first time in my life and I haven’t yet met my daughter. It was such a let down. This was not right. A mother should never be separated from her child. I promised myself, if I ever became pregnant again, the delivery would be different.

And so it was. Two years later. I experienced the most beautiful delivery. I was awake and from a mirror over my head, I could see my precious second daughter being born.

My daughter is crying and so am I. She is lying on my stomach still attached to the umbilical cord, a little snip and I hear the nurse saying “here Mom, hold your new baby.” All I can do is hug and kiss her. She feels so good. Soon she will have a bath and I will feel her soft pink skin next to my cheek. I tell my daughter how much I love her.

The old saying that a mother’s love is forever is such a true statement. We mothers may get annoyed at something our child has done and scold them, but we never stop loving our child.

Mothers have the responsibility and obligation to raise her children from newborn to adulthood.

There are all different types of mothers. Biological mothers, adoptive mothers, step-mothers, foster mothers. Regardless what type of mother you are, your child looks up to you and counts on you to have their best interests at heart.

I have had the privilege to be a biological mother and an adoptive mother. Let me tell you except for giving birth, the biological mom and the adoptive mom is one and the same. The love you have for your adoptive child is no different than the love you have for your biological child.

It is interesting to me how little girls like to play mother. It is almost like they are practicing for their future role in life. So carefully they dress their dollies, feed them a bottle and cover their ‘baby’ snug as a bug in a dolly stroller. When they take their dolly out for a walk, they look like proud mothers. If only motherhood was so simple.

*****************************************
Stay at home mothers take on different jobs. In a news article dated June 2nd/08 on CNN.com the headline read................ Mother's love worth $117,000 per year, study says.
Stay-at-home moms perform $117,000 worth of work per year Moms with outside jobs would receive $68,405 for motherly tasks, study says. Stay-at-home moms report working 94.4 hours per week “A lot of people think we sit and home and have a lot of fun," says mom of two.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/05/09/mom.salary.ap/index.html

**************************************

While surfing the internet, I found some profound mother quotes.

This is for all the mothers who have sat up all night with a sick toddler
In their arms, wiping up spit-up laced with hot dogs, birthday cake and fruit juice saying “it’s okay honey, Mommy’s here.......’’

For all the mothers who have run carpools and made dozens of cookies
for school teas and sewn costumes.......

And all the mothers who haven't because they are at work trying to
earn enough to keep on top of the bills....

This for the mothers who gave birth to babies they'll never see. And the mothers who took these babies and gave them homes and all their love.

*****************************************

My mother a”h did many things in her life time. She was a stay at home mom who felt her place was at home and ‘not to go to work’. She believed that taking care of her family, being home when her children came home from school and preparing a good meat super meal for her husband & children was her role in life.

With all this, my mother believed that you had to help your community. She volunteered delivering hot meals to the elderly, sewed costumes for my school and ballet plays and baked cookies, pies and cakes whenever she was asked.

My mother was famous for her cheese cake.

CRUST
2 tablespoons of butter [I use canola oil] 1 cup brown sugar
2 cups crushed cornflakes
1½ cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder [1 Israeli package]
Mix together and put aside

FILLING
-1 lb of wet cheese [I use 1 container of baking cheese from Tnuva]
-2 eggs separated
-¾ cup milk
-½ cup white sugar
-2 tablespoons flour
-squirt of vanilla

-Beat egg whites stiff. Combine all the ingredients except
egg whites and beat well.
-add egg whites and beat until mixture is totally combined

Using approx. 9x13 baking pan cover the bottom with half of the crust. Pat down. Pour the filling and cover with the remainder of the crust. Bake for 1 ¼ hours 160c. When finish baking leave the cheese cake in the over with the heat turned off for 30 minutes. This will set the cake and not allow it to fall. Cool and refrigerate for several hours before serving.

Toppings
Optional......strawberry yogurt, sour cream, strawberry sauce made from frozen berries.

Feel free to comment and pass my blog around.

בס''ד

Kassams, Grad Missiles and More......

Shalom and welcome back!

A loyal reader suggested that I write a blog about living in an area where kassams and grad missiles are landing. Since it has been very noisy for the past couple of days, I decided to write this blog.

My family & I live in Netivot, a city in the Western Negev. We are located 10kms from Gaza. Our neighboring communities are located within the regional councils of Sedot Negev, Eshkol, and Shaar Ha Negev. The community of Sderot is about 10 minutes from us by car.

We have grandchildren that live in Ma’agalim and go to school in Kfar Maimon, part of the Sedot Negev communities.

Each of the children's classrooms is a fortified bomb proof room with a security door. Before they moved into these classrooms, they had an unprotected classroom.

Children in North America have fire drills, these children have kassam drills. Every child knows that when the alarm goes off, they have to quickly go under their desk and roll up like a ball. They know that they have to stay away from windows and follow the teacher’s instructions. They understand this is not child’s play. With these new classrooms the children have protection from kassams

The army comes to the school to visit, teach and reassure the children. In the playground there are bomb shelters in case the siren rings during recess. Unfortunately, Kfar Maimon is on the receiving end of many Kassams.

We, in Netivot, have had over the past couple of years several grad missiles fall. Kassams can’t reach us, as they can not be aimed and can only go a few kms. Grads on the other hand are directed and can go 20kms. They usually land in or near the cemetery of the Baba Sali which is on the perimeter of the city.

We have had grads land in the center of town, near a gas station, in the shuk [market] and two have landed not far from our apartment. One was in a farmer’s field. We could see the smoke rising from our balcony. The other was a little to close for comfort. It landed in a construction site in back of our apartment. Fortunately, there were no injuries or damage from these attacks.

Netivot, as with other communities, is hooked up to a warning air raid siren. When the siren rings, you have 40 seconds to go into your safe room or a public bomb shelter.

When the kassam or grad missile lands it makes a very loud boom and the windows and sometimes the floor vibrates. The hole in the ground is deep and black.

Life goes on. We are not afraid to leave our apartment. We take buses, go where we have to go and do whatever we need to get done.

Living in this area, you get used to the different sounds. We sometimes have helicopters hovering and circling over our neighborhood for hours, waiting for orders. You learn the sounds of booming in the distance, which are the terrorists and which is the army responding.

By far, Sderot and the moshavim and kibbutzim close by, have had the most attacks. Sderot can be targeted up to 30 to 40 times a day. It is only 2kms from Gaza. The property damage is extensive. Many residents have been seriously injured. One child lost his leg. Children and adults are suffering from mental anguish. There have been deaths to both children and adults. Parents are afraid to send their children to school as the schools are not fortified. Kassams have landed near kindergartens and day cares. One kassam landed in a shul, beside the Aron HaKodesh, five minutes after a dedication of a new Sefer Torah and everyone had left. Unemployment is very high and dispair is everywhere.

But with every tragedy there is sunshine. Mitzvot are happening all the time.Everyone cares.

In Beer Sheva there is a Challah project where you can order your Shabbos challahs from Sderot. This past Pesach, buses filled with women from Jerusalem and area came to Sderot to do their Pesach shopping. During the summer, a convoy of cars from the North came to visit the residents and shop.

The Sderot Online Mall [link on side of blog] is a private initiative of people from the center of the country, trying to give new business opportunities to the citizens of Sderot & all the other moshavim and kibbutzim that are close to and surrounds the Gaza strip. The residents of Sderot have to know that they are not alone.

As I sit at my computer typing this blog, I hear a very loud boom in the distance. When will it end.....nobody knows.

May the Hand of Hashem protect us all.

Here is picture of a kassam.

Several months ago I wrote a poem about Sderot.

Sderot's Pain

The siren is blaring

people are shouting

red alert, red alert

kassams are coming!

Mothers and fathers

Hold on to their precious children

run to the shelters

Saying Tehillim, that all will be well.

The children are screaming.

The noise is deafening.

Their parents want to know

When will this all stop.

Suddenly, there is aloud boom!

Residents, still shaking

look for the injured and the damage.

B"H, this time there were no deaths.

Where is the government?

Why aren't they doing anything?

These are the questions on everyone's tongue.

Oh, why has our government abandoned us?

Hashem, Sderot is in Your Hands.

I pray the day will come

when our army

will be sent to do its job.

And Sderot will be once again QUIET!

I hope that you found this blog to be informative. Please feel free to pass it along.

Epilogue:-

It all started around 8:05 in the morning, the third day of Chanukah, Dec. 24th, when the first siren went off. We went to our safe room, my husband closed the metal window & then boom..... 10 minutes later we were in our safe room again.

This repeated 5 or 6 more times. In between, we could hear the siren from a distance goings off in other yishuvim.

My daughters live in Ma'agalim 5 minutes from me......She also had many trips to the basement of their house. Devorah spoke to the kids and told the 3 golder kids [11,7,6] that when they go downstairs they must bring one of the younger children with them. [2,3,4]

The 3 older kids are used to the siren going off because they go to school in Kfar Maimon, that borders Gaza and have sirens 3 /4 times a day. Even still Adi who is 7 was very upset. Home is supposed to be a safe place.

We are not leaving Netivot. The attacks are annoying, but I will never allow arabs to scare and make me run from our home. That's what they want. To rid Jews from the Negev.

I hope today will be quieter......but if we don't go and clean up Gaza this will be a rewinding story.