Rosh Hashanah Soul Searching–Will You Be Ready?
On this Rosh Hashanah, don’t just show up. Be ready!
The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, is unlike the celebration of the secular New Year because the resolutions we make are not only to ourselves but to God. Whereas a typical New Year’s resolution on the first of January might be to go the gym and lose a few pounds, the Jewish New Year is a time to really work up a sweat and ask God as our personal trainer to help make us stronger and a better person in the year ahead.
Challah Making Club Brings Women Together
What do you get when you combine 150 pounds of flour, 16 dozen eggs, 128 ounces dry yeast, 25 pounds sugar, 24 ounces canola oil, and 4 pounds of Kosher salt?
The Jewish Women’s Society Challah Making Club!
Thirty women get together once a month for lots of love, laughter, and learning (and wisecracks about yeast—sorry I couldn’t resist). The long tables are filled with big bowls, measuring cups, spoons and we all have our own spot to combine, mix, and braid the ingredients into eight mini loaves (or fewer depending on the size and shape) of challah.
Some women are balaboostas, effortlessly rolling and stretching the dough in the palms of their hands into the perfect shape of a snake, while others like me still struggle to pinch and tuck the ends. It doesn’t matter; it’s not a competition. We are all there for each other and to have a good time. Sure, I admit I envy the intricate eight-braided challahs and round cinnamon bun designs that line the foil pans ready to take home and show off to their families. I’m still proud of myself for trying, and it all tastes heavenly when it comes out of the oven gold brown, crunchy on the outside, sweet and chewy inside. Honestly, the best part of the night is being a part of this sisterhood and doing an ancient mitzvah while I wear my blue “Keep Calm and Bake Challah†apron. Continue reading
Welcome Back To Old School
When it comes to parenting, there is no manual. Back in the day, my mom kept Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care paperback in her nightstand, next to the S&H Green Stamps and the TV remote. I never noticed any dog-eared corners on the faded brown pages so doubt if she ever referred to this “timeless bestseller.†Turns out she probably could have used some expert advice on how to redirect her high-spirited daughter because her idea of discipline was chasing me down the hallway with a flyswatter.
Last 1st Day of School
It’s almost Labor Day, and I’ve procrastinated to write this back-to-school blog. Maybe because my youngest is a high school senior and in 300-something days I will be an empty nester. (Yes, I obsess about it). For the last 12 years, I have taken my daughter’s first day of school photo in the front yard, with her holding our toy poodle Luci, next to the Chinese maple tree, which has grown from her shoulders to as tall as the two-story gutter.
My First Mother’s Day Without My Mom
Mom & I at Listen To Your Mother, 2015.
Last year, I knew it would be my last Mother’s Day with my mom. She had been going down hill for a couple years with a myriad of diseases and ailments…cancer, kidney failure, depression, back pain, a couple episodes of gout, you name it, she was dealing with it. And at the age of 91, she was done fighting. We talked openly about the end of her life, and she told us how grateful she was to have lived a full, happy life until she lost her independence and health. We didn’t want her to suffer anymore, physically or mentally, and she worried everyday that she was a burden to me. It was cathartic for me to write her eulogy a few days before she died. I wrote a lot about my mom over the years, and many of the stories appear in my book Mishegas of Motherhood. Where do you think I got the mishegas from? This piece was the most recent one I wrote about my mom, when her lymphoma came back on my 50th bday. I guess you could say I was prepared to lose my mom, my best friend. And then again, I wasn’t.
Book signing, 2012.
Learn How To Survive/Thrive Teen Years at Mom-Daughter Workshop
What if teenage daughters could see their mothers as a great ally as they grew up and became independent? What if mothers could create safety for a teen daughter’s experience of herself, consciously guiding her to be who she was born to be?
What?! Sign me up!
Being a mom of a teen daughter is challenging, especially in today’s culture with a barrage of social media, peer pressure, and everyday stress that forces girls to grow up too fast. Moms ride a rollercoaster of emotions with our mini me’s. We are each other’s worst enemy and then best ally in the time it takes to get a spa pedicure.
If only there was a parenting manual on how to navigate our way through middle school, high school, and beyond. A resource that is as relevant and timely for moms as it is to our impressionable daughters so that we are both thinking on the same page. Wait a minute…there is such a book that speaks to us. It’s called Mothering and Daughtering. Keeping Your Bond Strong Through The Teen Years. Better yet, the co-authors are mom-daughter duo Sil and Eliza Reynolds, who live in The Big Apple and will be here in St. Louis next weekend as part of the Girls In The Know (GITK) mom-daughter empowerment celebration. Girls, it’s about to get real!
For sure, the mother-daughter relationship is the most complex one of all, and perhaps no one understands the dynamics of this erratic dance better than Sil and Eliza who collaborated on this bestseller. When it comes to surviving and thriving the rocky adolescent years and into adulthood, this mom-daughter duo has been there, done that. For the last 10 years, they have travelled the country, from the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in New York to the Esalen retreat center in California, inspiring moms and their preteen daughters to “meet in the middle†and create a deeper, more meaningful relationship. And they also know girls just wanna have fun—so they have planned an engaging weekend of ritual, storytelling, art, and exercises in communication that will no doubt create special memories. Through creative strategies and games, moms and their daughters will learn new ways of being together in mutual respect and love—and have a blast!
Submissions Open for 3rd Annual LTYM STL
WHAT’S YOUR STORY? Do you have a story or words to share about being a mom, having a mom, or know someone who raised you that make your story unique? Join the national live-reading series giving Motherhood a Microphone since 2008, now in 39 cities!
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You’re Invited To A Bracha Party!
Bracha parties bring friends and food together.
With Hanukkah around the corner, now is the perfect time for a gift exchange, especially when the presents are filled with love, spirituality, and delicious snacks and drinks. The upcoming Bracha party—which is like a prayer gift exchange– is all about sharing blessings over special foods with our “sisters†who are part of the St. Louis Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project (JWRP) and Jewish Women’s Society (JWS) family.
A Bracha is a blessing that is recited at specific times during services and rituals, and this is how a Bracha or Amen party works:
First, women sit around a big table filled with a delicious spread that fits into five symbolic food groups. Stop right there. You had me at women and food.
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My House on Mackinac
My House on Mackinac Drive, 2014.
My big backyard.
Situated on a private cul-de-sac in West St. Louis County, this charming ranch style house on Mackinac Drive is no ordinary property for sale. It’s my childhood home, built rock solid on a half-acre lot and filled with memories that now echo throughout the empty rooms.
My brother Steve & I, watching cartoons in the den.
In the den with my mom Char, 1976.
Hanging out on the front porch, 1967.
Neighborhood kids playing on the swing set, 1961
A few months ago, my mom moved out of the house on Mackinac and into The Hallmark, a senior living community that she will never call home, but it will have to do. Since then, I meticulously packed up every single piece of furniture, artwork, dish, glass, utensil, vase, photo album, clothing, down blanket, towel, flowered paper napkin, whatever I could find. Â My mom took with her whatever she wanted, and I divvied up the rest to family, Â friends, and charity. I kept for myself what meant the most to me, including a mink coat, a lucite coffee table, cookie sheets, and my mom’s wedding dress with a blue silk bow. I also grabbed a sparkly pink hoola hoop that Sari used to twirl around her waist and neck, and I brought home the nearly 3,000 slides that my dad documented our entire childhood.
Celebrating Hanukkah by the electric fireplace in the rathskeller, 1974.
Announcing Listen To Your Mother 2015!
Well, the 2015 LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER (LTYM) season has officially kicked off with last week’s announcement of 29 returning cities and 10 new cities giving motherhood the microphone! This national celebration of motherhood is quite an accomplishment, considering LTYM’s Founder Ann Imig started out with one single show in 2010 in Madison, Wisconsin.
Not since Kate Middleton wore a blue and white polka dotted maternity dress and introduced the royal baby on the steps of the London hospital has there been so much buzz in social media. Okay, so maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit,  but I promise there’s gonna be a lot of LTYM excitement in your news feed and just about everywhere else on the web during the next seven months.
You can find us everywhere:  on our national website , our local blog , FB , Twitter, Instagram, and, of course, our own LTYM YouTube channel. My gosh, we’re even on Pinterest!
This is STL’s third year as part of the national ensemble, and I can honestly say that LTYM has made me a better person, personally and professionally. This project is a labor of love, and I consider everyone involved to be part of the family, including the cast, the director/producers, the local and national sponsors, the audience, and everyone who has opened their heart and submitted stories along the way.
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