Remembering Ben

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Last Thursday night and Friday was Ben’s first Yahrzeit; the anniversary of his death on the Hebrew calendar. The kids and I got together with his sisters and their spouses on Friday morning to visit his grave and remember him. We haven’t gotten the official gravestone yet, and I don’t know if we’ll have another […]

Re-Learning to Pace Myself

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There have been a lot of changes in my life lately. Leah moved out to her own apartment on January 1st. She’s enjoying her newfound freedom and likes the community she’s moved into, but she’s still close enough to visit often. She’s still not quite done collecting things she wants from this house. And we’re […]

Hanukkah- the Festival of Latkes

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Hanukkah is the commemoration of when Judah Maccabee reclaimed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, but only found enough untainted oil to light the Menorah for one night. But there was a miracle and the oil burned for 8 nights; long enough to obtain more supplies. One of its names is The Festival of Lights. Jews […]

Not Being Creative With Leftovers

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I routinely cook with leftovers, and I make sure that very little food goes to waste in my house. I like making more food than we need for 4 of us on Shabbos. Partly that’s a holdover from when Ben used to join us every Friday night, and I’m not used to cooking less meat. […]

Pumpkins and Leaves

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As I was driving, I noticed how all the trees lining the streets are turning beautiful shades of red, orange, and yellow. This is my favorite time of year. It’s finally cool enough to go for walks outside, the foliage is beautiful, and lots of great vegetables are in season. I find it so interesting […]

Re-establishing a Routine. Again.

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It feels like I’m always blogging about starting a routine or getting organized- yet most of these routines seem to fall apart after a while. A few months ago, I blogged about making a family lunch instead of a family dinner. That worked really well- that one time. I did it one other time and […]

Family Lunch

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Years ago, we established family dinner time. But it’s been hard to work that out lately, because Leah has been working in the evenings for the past several months, and doesn’t always come home after work. Then this week, Hannah started taking one college class in the evenings. Since it’s summer session, this particular class […]

Recipes for Leftovers

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We often have leftover poultry, since I always want to make fresh for Shabbos dinner on Friday nights. I also want to make enough in case we have unexpected company. Then if we don’t have company, we’ll have enough left over for another meal. I used to make whole chickens every week, but since starting […]

Raisin Syrup

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This year, I was able to obtain a rather large quantity of Passover packaged foods from a kosher food pantry after I’d already done most of my Passover shopping. Plus, the shopping list already included a few treats for the kids, such as macaroons and marshmallows. I found myself in the unique situation of having […]