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Sukkot arts and crafts: toddler-style

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Naomi

I read this on Kveller‘s website and thought it hilarious…

Judaism must believe in the old adage, “When it rains, it pours” — at least when it comes to the fall holidays. Just after Rosh Hashanah came and went, Yom Kippur was here ten days later. And, like clockwork, five days later and we find ourselves at Sukkot.

The harvest festival, which [began] this Wednesday at sundown, is a week-long celebration often spent outdoors in sukkahs, or temporary dwellings. So, prepare yourselves for what just might be your kids’ favorite holiday (I mean, you get to decorate a fort!).

[Enjoy it because] pretty soon it will be Simchat Torah and Sukkot will be so last week.

(OK this one is my playdough creation, not my daughter’s, and I apologize for the lulav that is bigger even than the table.) The most popular tradition of Sukkot is building, decorating, and spending time inside the sukkah. The sukkah is a temporary, flimsy, fragile outdoor structure that serves as a powerful reminder of our vulnerability to nature and a symbol of the huts our ancestors lived in as they traveled through the desert heading towards Israel. Eating and living in a temporary structure — called a sukkah — forces you to think about the important things in life, separating you from material possessions.

Because Sukkot is also a harvest festival, it is considered an especially happy and festive time. And since my daughter’s middle name should probably have been “arts and crafts,” we have been celebrating in fun and creative ways. So far, we’ve done lots of painting projects, made paper chains to decorate the house, and did a ton of projects involving glue and scissors (her favorite things). Left, you see a picture of our Q-tip painting project. I put tempura paints in an egg carton and we used small construction paper squares to create away. Below, you see an apple print painting and a honeycomb, symbols from Rosh Hashanah.

Above interpretation: it’s common to decorate the sukkah with fruit, so in this case we cut out grapes from fabric and glued them to paper.

For this one, we foraged in our front yard for nature objects we could glue onto a pumpkin.

For our next project, we made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies! My sweet girl ground the cloves, poured in most of the ingredients, and even left some chocolate chips to go in the recipe. I love her little hands in these photos.

Ta da!!! Delicious.

Posted in Creativity, Motherhood | Tagged art projects for toddlers, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, Sukkot | 4 Comments

Reminiscing about PA

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Naomi

While in PA this past weekend, I was entirely charmed by the surrounding landscape and the weather, probably because it is such a contrast from home. The lush green mountains filled with trees, the winding roads of the turnpike and back roads, the small farms along the way.

Driving through green hills and misty 40-degree rain, I couldn’t help but reflect about what our days were like when we lived in Pittsburgh. All the familiar streets, the cobblestone houses and slate roofs, the three-dimensional topography, the farms, rural businesses, and the mountains… Ah how I love it! It was familiar and yet entirely foreign, which is probably why I love it. Since it hasn’t rained much in Texas lately, and because I love the coziness that rain brings, I welcomed it all the more. I have to say, I was not eager to leave and return to the hot and humid, urban, flat ugliness that is Houston. (We live there because my family is there, but if they would move…) Still, I was very excited to return to my daughter and hubby and our new home.

Posted in Photography | Tagged Pennsylvania | Leave a comment

Macro-photography: fun with a grocery store bouquet

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Naomi

Posted in Photography | Tagged 50mm compact macro lens, macrophotography | 3 Comments

Awakening

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Naomi

I’m definitely on the cusp of something mind-blowing. I can sense it. Born out of self-protective struggle and a general sense of discontent, I am creating an internal space that is allowing myself to become more sensual.

First, practicing mindfulness is teaching me to focus on each task, one at a time, and fully immerse myself in what it is that I’m doing. I notice that when I am not doing this, like when I’m holding my daughter, trying to eat lunch, scheduling an appointment on the phone, opening the gate for the lawn guy, hearing my iphone ding again and again with new emails, and listening to the dishwasher repair man (yes, all at the same time… I’m an excellent multi-tasker), I get a bit, um, frazzled. So I’m cancelling appointments. I’m trying not to overschedule. When I’m drinking coffee, I focus on the taste, the heat, the feel of the cup in my hands. I am slowing down on purpose. Well, at least I’m trying to make life less difficult for myself. If thoughts create reality, then I need to be still more and notice the beauty around me.

Second, I’m trying very hard to be more selfish. Huh? Well, it dawned on me that I can’t give love unconditionally to others if I don’t have that same love for myself. So I am beginning to consciously pay attention and be curious about my dislikes and pleasures, and listen to my heart and my body. In short, I am going to be self-indulgent, bubble baths and all.

Of course I will begin slowly. Step one: curiosity. What deliciousness have I been missing by protecting myself so?

(Photos taken at Nemacolin Resort)

Posted in Mindfulness, Photography | Tagged intimacy, marriage, mindfulness, senses | 4 Comments

A love letter to myself

Posted on October 11, 2011 by Naomi

Through Karen’s daily prompts for the Path Finders course, I have created:

a Love List — a list of things that I love to do
three Light Words, which represent the activities which light me up
a vision board, visually representing what I hope for myself over the coming year
my Word of the Year
a mind map of ideas to help me actualize my Word of the Year using my Light Words
an extensive Life List Menu, with all kinds of awesome in store for the future
a collection of nightly notes, describing what I’ve been grateful for each day
a collection of countless Morning Pages, doodles, to-do lists, and heaven knows what other ephemera, and finally
some notes on identifying my “oxygen masks”

That is a lot of work. More importantly, that is a lot of work to have completed in just 4 weeks (and may I add, while packing and moving and unpacking and all that mess). To gain a little perspective, we were encouraged to give ourselves some loving advice in the form of a letter, written as if from our best friend. Since I have wanted to do this for a few days now, the timing was perfect.

Posted in Creativity, Home | Tagged letter to myself, Path Finder class | 6 Comments

The reasons I’m exhausted

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Naomi

It really is always something, of course, and I realize it’s a matter of perspective. I’m lucky to have to have any of these “problems,” I know. That said, I’m TIRED! Capital T tired. I am starting to see why moving is so high on the list of life stressors.

I fell asleep the other night immediately after my daughter did, at 7:50pm, because it was a day full of constant activity. Caring for a toddler is exhausting enough, but I was in and out that day due to the sprinkler repair guys being here, the lawn and garden guy, remembering at the last minute that I needed to prepare a Yom Kippur dinner for my family, various visitors, the plumber coming to fix our faucets, etc, etc, etc.

It’s all the little things. My daughter doesn’t go for waking up and letting me lay in bed for a few minutes. She loves to repeat, “Get up!” until I obey, and it’s not worth fighting. I try finding my slippers because I hate stepping on kitty litter, and it’s all over the house, but I still don’t know where they are. I make my way to the kitchen and my daughter is already asking for a popsicle. Yesterday, she dripped on our newly clean floor and now it’s sticky. So we go outside with the popsicle and I’m trying to watch the birds but all I see are undone tasks. The swingset I have yet to assemble; we haven’t treated the yard for ants yet; I forgot to ask the lawn guy about those little white flying bugs; we need to replace those two rose bushes that died from lack of water; the garage has all sorts of clutter waiting to be unpacked/donated/sorted; my car needs new rear brakes; etc, etc, etc.

We go in because the mosquitoes are awful. I decide to take a shower and get dressed. Just doing this is too much for me right now because I don’t know where anything is. I would rather crawl back into bed than figure out where my razor has gone. Getting dressed, I try on several pairs of pants that end up in the “to be donated” pile because they are too big or fit funny. (I would love to get my closet in shape, but that’s a task for another day. There are so many things that I just can’t get to right now.) My jagged nails are ripping something… ugh. I switch gears and decide to get my daughter dressed instead of myself. Just about everything I’ve put on her lately has been too small. I must get to her dresser and closet and sort through her clothes to see what she has that fits her!

Out the door, to synagogue, and finally we are sitting and I am just watching my sweet girl sing the prayers and “read” the prayer book so intently. I will appreciate this even more if I can have a nap.

Update: I got a lovely nap after synagogue (thank you, dear hubby), unpacked my daughter’s closet and sorted through her dresser drawers, got myself out for a mani/pedi, and I even started filling the living room bookshelves. I feel much better!