It’s Tea Time!
“A woman is like a tea bag. You can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.â€
I didn’t make that up. Eleanor Roosevelt did. But the analogy is truer than ever. Women are a powerful force in the world today. We are no strangers to adversity, or hot water, either. When given the opportunity, women work together like an infusion of exotic teas to enrich the Jewish community and future generations. Nishmah is blending these two things—tea and purpose—at a stimulating get-together that you won’t want to miss.
Blacklisted Book Celebrates 1st Birthday
I admire authors who have chutzpah, and funny girl Lela Davidson is one of them. The cover of her book Blacklisted from the PTA shows her legs in hot pink stilettos dangling from a shopping cart. If that doesn’t peek your interest enough to read what’s inside I don’t know what does. Continue reading
Mom Offers Computer Camp
All these years I thought that my kids were wasting their time and their brain cells while they were glued to their video games and electronic devices. As a good parent, I constantly nagged them to do something more productive, like read a book, ride a bike, or help me fold the towels. Thankfully, they chose to ignore my advice, (although I still resent having to do all the laundry). Without their savvy technological skills that they developed at an early age, I’d be lost these days. You see, I recently made the monumental transition from a PC to a Mac, which is the equivalent of being dropped from an airplane into a foreign country where you don’t speak the language and can’t ask for directions to the nearest bathroom or coffeehouse without sounding like a total moron. Continue reading
Moms Lust Over 50 Shades
C’mon, am I the only mom who has not read 50 Shades?
I swear, everywhere I go, women are getting excited about erotica—dubbed romantica—like teens used to gush over Twilight. When I was in the middle school office signing out my daughter for an orthodontist appointment, a retired sixth grade language arts teacher asked out loud if I had read it yet. (She thought the writing was repetitive). At a recent soccer game, my in-laws quizzed me about S&M. Awkward. The other day in water aerobics where the average age is 77, they blushed about bondage in their bathing suits. TMI from ladies who cover their hairdos with shower caps. Continue reading
Imas on the Bima Seeks To Balance Personal and Professional Lives
As hard as they may try, moms who are rabbis or cantors can’t leave their work at the office. It’s impossible. These St. Louis Imas on the bima are so fully dedicated to both their clergy life and family life that their cup runneth over, literally, and hopefully the blessings that they bestow come back to them tenfold.
After all, these working moms redefine multitasking by what they can accomplish in one day, such as run a full marathon in the morning, officiate a funeral in the afternoon, read a story to their children at bedtime, write a sermon at night, and blog about it the next day. If it wasn’t for their supportive husbands, yoga sessions, silent meditations, and out-of-town retreats at the Institute of Jewish Spirituality, their hectic schedules that require them to lead a Shabbat service on Friday, conduct a bar or bat mitzvah on Saturday, and teach religious school on Sunday, would be their demise instead of their destiny.
Obviously, they don’t get weekends off, either. After devoting so many years to religious studies and helping people, it seems only fair that they be recognized for a job well done.
Maybe this Mother’s Day they’ll get to sleep in.
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Mishegas Mom Offers Organizational Advice
Thanks to Mom Colored Glasses for featuring me in your inspiring, information-packed website–a great resource for parents. Read my Q&A here.
What I Learned From Oprah
As I steam out the wrinkles in Jack’s blue confirmation robe, I’m feeling kind of melancholy. My 16-year-old son has completed another course of study in Judaism and is officially considered an adult member of the Jewish community—turns out he wasn’t quite a man yet at 13 when he became a bar mitzvah three years ago.
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A Mother’s Day Recipe To Remember
The last time that I remember being truly pampered was in 2008. That’s the year I had gallbladder surgery. I was incapacitated for five days with nothing better to do than lay on the couch, sip lemon lime soda through a straw, eat peanut butter crackers, catch up on People magazine, and watch television all day. Not that I’m complaining. I really enjoyed those drug-induced hallucinatory power naps.
This Mother’s Day I want to relax, only without the anesthesia. Continue reading
Chicago Mom-Author-Moviemaker Inspires Niceness Worldwide
When I think of good deed doers (as in mitzvah makers), I think of Amy Krouse Rosenthal. She’s a mom, a writer, a short film maker (as in both her height and length of her mini movies). She’s a visionary, an optimist, and a player (as in word juggling and positive pranking, more on that later). She happens to be Jewish, and she celebrates all walks of life by spreading niceness. In a world with so much negativity, Rosenthal is a positive force to be reckoned with (as in tikkun olam, repairing the world).
If you ask me, she’s the original “Happiness Project.†Continue reading
Share Your Confessions Here
Typically Jews don’t make confessions. Instead we carry our guilt like heavy bricks on our backs the way our ancestors did when they were slaves in Egypt.
So, I’ve created this sacred place in the blogosphere where moms everywhere can go and release their sins. Feel free to send me your’s at any time.
I’ll start.
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