I Am Large, I Contain Multitudes

Car notes, 2023-2026

2026-04-09T14:37:58Z

In November of 2014, when I got my first real job after moving back here from NYC, I bought a 2004 Chevy Aveo (bright red). It was never as beloved as my 2001 Echo (dark green) that I bought in 2006 and sold in 2011, but it was functional and affordable and cute.

In June 2023, three jobs later, the Aveo slipped its timing belt and died while I was on my way to work (fortunately on a side street and not on the highway). I spent an aggravating month at aggressive car shopping, and finally ended up with a 2020 Chevy Trax. At first I was going to go with an older and crappier one, so as to stay within budget, but then my parents both volunteered to step up and contribute, and a newer one showed up at the dealership right at that moment that fit the new budget, so I grabbed it. It's been pretty trouble-free (apart from the lady who rear-ended me half a mile from my house when I was stopped to let some geese cross in front of me in April 2024). But recently the engine light came on and the reader says it's the exhaust (catalytic converter). Gotta get that dealt with, but it's a ginormous pain in the ass. I am so over these repair shops that are only open weekdays 8am-4pm.

At the end of May 2025, I decided we were in a secure enough position to go replace Mr. Y's 2005 Ford Focus before it hit end of life; he had had it from new, and it didn't have anything seriously wrong with it yet, but was generally starting to fall apart. I found a black 2019 Chevy Trailblazer for what looked like a decent price (about the same as my Trax) and condition despite the fairly high mileage. For this, we could technically have paid cash but it would have meant draining most of our reserves, so in these uncertain times, I thought the better part of valor was to take out a loan for half and pay it off as quickly as comfortable. However, then he got an engine light after less than 6 months, and the local shop that he likes told us there's a flaw in the transmission in these models - not severe enough to merit a recall or service bulletin, but nevertheless known. Or should have been known by the dealership when they sold it to us. He's continued to drive it, but just last week, he was regaling me with tales of how the janky transmission needs to be babied along almost every time to get the car into gear. Fortunately once it's in Drive it seems to be fine??

So that's looming over our heads too. On the plus side, if/when we spring to replace the janky transmission, he should be good to go for a while. Given that he had his previous car for a full 20 years, that's not terrible.

Depending on how it goes with that, we're on track to get the thing paid off this year - or were, but now there's the matter of Ms. A needing to start braces this summer, not to mention the newly manufactured oil crisis recession, and aaugh.

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Passover notes, 2026

2026-04-07T14:58:51Z

In recent years we have occasionally had seder for the 3 of us at home, but this year we had first-night seder for 10 - mostly Mr Y's non-Jewish bandmates, who are all lovely smart interested people, plus my synagogue friend David from the next town over, with his two no-longer-so-little kids (9 and 6 now, though they're still tiny compared to my towering 10yo). So we had a kids' table in the kitchen and 7 adults around the dining table, which is just about as full as we can get without starting to feel crowded. Ms. A was amazing at entertaining the kids and helping them find snacks, everyone enjoyed the matzah ball soup and overnight brisket to the fullest, and we were done by about 9:30pm, with still enough energy to do one load of dishes before we sacked out.

Thursday (second night) we went to the potluck community seder at the Other Shul, which we have attended before but not recently. It's a 90-person affair, of whom I only know maybe 20 (alas, my friend the rabbi was out of town with family, which was apparently a bone of some contention in the community, but that's another story). We sat with another young family, so Ms. A got to work her magic with the littles again. The seder portion was under half an hour (!), but it was nice to be able to sit back and not have to handle anything. They did hand me a reading as soon as I walked in the door, which actually felt nice to know they know me well enough to trust me. :-)

Sunday we had my mom over for what passes for Easter dinner. I had gotten a lamb roast at Costco for the occasion, and way too much chocolate, and I made parsley potatoes and green beans almondine and Rakott Krumpli. This last is a casserole recipe that my mother's family inherited from my Hungarian great-grandmother as simply "potatoes and eggs"; apparently the traditional Hungarian version also involves pork sausage, but the Hungarian Jewish community makes it with just potatoes, eggs, and sour cream (with a layer of butter for good measure). Just one more data point in the "crypto-Jewish" theory of the Rosenberg side of the family.

My mom showed up about 12:45, shortly after church. We hadn't really set a firm time for her to come over, and I was just thinking about taking a nap when she rang the bell, but I tried to rally myself to the table and be a good hostess. Apparently I didn't do a very good job, because she chased me upstairs to take a nap after all ("I'll just lie down on the couch too! Go rest!"), so I came back 2 hours later feeling miles better, and we had a good afternoon and early (for us) dinner.

Kiddo has been on break all last week and yesterday, but had to go to school today, matzah lunch in hand lovingly packed by Mama. Now just 3 more school/work days until pizza night!

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A tale of two weekend days

2026-03-30T13:02:41Z

Saturday: Woke up around 6:30. Lounged around in bed for too long even though my routine is to get up at 7 and learn my Torah reading for the 10am Shabbat service. Did the official Pesach shopping after shul (since the grocery store in Munster near the synagogue is the most reliable source of KFP). Stopped at the craft store to get the foam sheets I was out of for the tiny books. Went to Whole Foods just because, spent way too long browsing, came out with nothing but a wheel of Brie and some dandelion tea. Got home around 3:30, put the chicken stock in the instant pot, noodled around for a bit, then kiddo (who had successfully cleaned her room and purged her closet without being asked) asked for some snuggle-and-reading time. We lit the "Library" scented candle I got at Target recently ("leather and embers", you're speaking my love language) and got into bed, where it turned out I didn't get up until after 7pm. I just felt... knackered, lonely and tired. Got up eventually, stir-fried some green beans for dinner and we watched the Muppet Show. This is the day that felt like "did absolutely nothing" although that was clearly only true for a few hours in the middle.

Sunday: Slept until almost 7am. Lounged around in bed for a while. Got up at 8:30 and ACTUALLY went to the gym 9-10:30 since there's no Sunday school due to spring break. Spent the next several hours in an ADHD productivity fugue - you know the one - 15 things on my list, and every time I change locations to do one step, get sidetracked on another thing until I have all 15 open tabs in my brain around the house, then slowly close them all out. Changed the sheets, vacuumed, two loads of laundry including folding (!!), shipped several Etsy orders, called my mom, answered some synagogue emails, ate lunch, etc etc, which took until almost 5pm. Took kiddo for a walk on the bike path, then the big grocery shopping run. Got home at 7:30pm and suddenly felt like I'd been beaten with a stick. Mr. Y had made a very nice beef pot pie, I made guacamole and we had a late but chill supper. This is the day that felt like "DID ALL THE THINGS" (even though I never did make the tiny books) and it was pretty great.

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state of the chanaleh, March 2026 edition

2026-03-29T13:57:31Z

In general, things here are good, but lately I'm feeling more waves of "stressed and drained" or "lonely and sad" amid the normal "productive and high-energy" states. Work is intense, although at least they love and appreciate me and make it worth my while! Passover is coming, which is never my favorite, but it's good to feel that sort of renewal and spring-cleaning process.

If anyone else is still on Finch (self-care app) and would like to friend me, my code is BHRPQNLDPZ. I downloaded it last week because it seems a lot more fun to have a little round birb chirping "go do some things! you are great!" at me than it is to just sit there doomscrolling for an extra hour every morning while I tell myself "get out of bed, dumbass". I'm not sure it's actually gotten me out of bed any faster, but it is somewhat satisfying, and on the plus side, here I am writing a 5-minute journal entry for the first time in some years.

I'm also about to get out of my chair and go to the gym, but that's more a function of spring break, in the sense that it's the first Sunday in months I don't have to get up and/or roust child out of bed to be somewhere. I started up this gym membership in July of 2024 and I actually went faithfully 6 days a week for about 2 months that summer, but that fell off as soon as school started up. My therapist says "you have to make time for yourself" but my sleep has been so broken for most of that time, I didn't want to do anything to jeopardize it. It's been better in recent months, sleeping through til 6:30 instead of waking up 3:30 - so I really could get myself out of bed and use that time, but see previous paragraph about doomscrolling.

Also, the world is going to hell and it's terrifying. I am trying to plan out another visit to Boston exactly when airport security and jet fuel prices are both going insane, and I don't trust that either of these factors will blow over lightly. I am looking at bringing Ms A the first weekend of October for Simchat Torah at Tremont St., but if I could have my way, I would also come out by myself in June for a certain Beginning-of-Summer party. To say nothing of a bat mitzvah in late April and a friend's wedding over Labor Day, but those are looking less likely.

This past week was the 2026 JoCo Cruise; several people I know were on it, and I think it's fair to say that I was experiencing JoCo FOMO. I actually find that I fantasize a lot lately about traveling, not just to Boston but to other places - and that's making the above factors feel even more wistful.

I did get to Arisia this past January, for the first time since 2014, this time with 10yo Ms A in tow. It was a delight for both of us, but I'm going to punt that to (hopefully) a separate post as my timer is up.

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What is a legacy? It's planting seeds in a garden that we never get to see.

2026-03-06T13:55:16Z

Like many of you, I'm opening the door on DW for the first time in a long time due to the passing of minoanmiss. I think if even one good thing could come out of that universe-dimming tragedy, it would be for this corner of online community to come back to life a little bit.

Hi, all.

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Aria's turning 10

2025-07-21T14:20:41Z

Aria's 10th birthday is this coming Saturday. She didn't want to "use up" her actual birthday having her party (we always have a special day of doing whatever she wants), so we had it this past weekend. She wanted a slumber party, so we invited all the kids in her class for a pizza party 5-8pm and then girls to stay for a sleepover. Last year, we tried a similar format and only had 1 friend who actually showed up - though it was her BFF so that was the most important one. This year, she had 10 kids for the beginning part and 6 girls for the sleepover, which fortunately was about the most we could have crammed into her room.

Notes:

* To make this happen, we had to deep-clean the house, and particularly her room, which has been in a hazmat state for a couple of years and required a few months' intervention. We started out in early May saying "we're going to have a garage sale! let's start purging stuff down to the garage!" and by a week ago I was going "ok, still totally not ready but it's now or never" so we did that a week ago Sunday. Did not get rid of much stuff but cleared $100 (for my 12-hour day). Still have a garage full of crap that has to go somewhere!

* Aria and Mr. Y have been playing Ocarina of Time this year, so she wanted a Legend of Zelda themed party. Needless to say, there is not a lot of commercially available Legend of Zelda partyware at this point in time (RIP Party City), but we grabbed internet graphics and made signage and homemade party games, including Pin the Shield On Link, a Heart Pieces scavenger hunt, the boss level Ganondorf Swordfight Pinata, and the highlight: Kakariko Village Cucco Round-Up, which consisted of throwing rubber chickens up into her swingset playhouse. For this purpose we obtained a box of 20 x 6" rubber chickens which make an actual "bawk" noise when you squeak them. I don't think any of the other kids got why this had anything to do with Zelda, but they were all game.

* Only 1 girl took the "sleep-under" option wherein she hung out in her jammies until her mom picked her up at 11pm. I guess that means the group is getting to actually be old enough for sleepovers.

* The first activity on the sleepover agenda was Aria's homemade Kahoot quiz game, in which she prepared 10 trivia questions about herself. "What is Aria's favorite color? [lavender] What is Aria's SECOND favorite animal? [deer - the bunnies were the red herring, being her well-known FIRST favorite animal]" This worked out great since every single child had brought her own phone or tablet from which to ring in (the one exception, the 8yo, got to borrow my phone for a few minutes).

* The second activity was YouTube Karaoke, in which they take turns looking up YouTube videos with lyrics to any song in the world and stand up front to sing along. This was way more of a success than I expected. Aria kicked it off with "Guns and Ships," which she has been practicing hard. :-) At some point I snuck in between songs with bowls of M&Ms and Reese's cups, and one of them said admiringly "Aria, your mom came in clutch," which is an accolade I will treasure forever.

* Aria got peopled out around 10pm and escaped up to her room with her cousin, where they sat quietly playing 99 Nights in the Forest (a Roblox game) for the rest of the evening. The rest of the girls stayed in the living room and watched KPop Demon Hunters once they got bored of karaoke. I would actually have liked to see that myself (I've been hearing good things since Aria watched it the first day it was out), but I couldn't see trying to sit down long enough, let alone squeeze into the living room.

* Did I mention that Mr. Y had been recruited to play a gig that night and was out of the house after 6:30pm? By 11pm I was making my 4th batch of popcorn and pondering the wisdom of a double vodka tonic with an ibuprofen chaser.

* By about 11:45pm everyone was in the bathroom brushing their teeth at the same time, which I have to admit was super adorable.

* We got everyone settled into Aria's room and I was out cold in my own bed by 12:30am. Around 4:30am I heard some sort of kerfuffle across the hall, had to go in and intervene. It turned out that no one had actually been to sleep yet at all (that, too, is traditional), it's too hot, she's kicking me! etc etc, but I made them all put their tablets away and try to sleep.

* The first parent pickup came at 9:30am. It was an adventure trying to get one half-asleep kid (the 8yo) extricated from the puppy pile, and we never did find her shoes, let alone the rest of her belongings; they're going to have to come back for them later this week. Everyone else started lurching downstairs like zombies around 10:30am, until they hit critical mass and suddenly it was peak squealing time again. :-)

* Overall a success, and it's nice to have a mostly clean house now, but OMG all of us need to sleep for a week to recover.

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Arisia 2025

2024-12-16T12:14:59Z

When I found out that Arisia 2025 was going to be back at the Ziggurat (a.k.a. the Hyatt Regency Cambridge), I was super excited at first. Visions of getting the Ziggurat Labs band back together for a comeback party, that sort of thing.

But the reality is, no one has had time or energy to pull that together, including myself at a thousand miles' distance. And we were grappling for a while with the question of whether I should travel alone or try to bring the whole family. But now it turns out there's also no Fast Track kids programming... due to lack of staffing, which again points to a shortage of time and energy.

And now of course, the main hotel is sold out. (No word on whether that includes the party suites, though I hope so, for the convention's sake.)

So, like... should I try to come out? Anyone with a room reservation looking to split it?

Or would it make more sense to hold off and visit in the spring?

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mic check

2024-11-15T14:30:23Z

*tap* *tap*

... is this thing on?

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First quarter update, 2023

2023-04-19T13:19:49Z

Trying to get a little more back into the habit.

( outings, mom, kid, work, media consumption )

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End-of-2022 recap

2023-04-17T00:40:28Z

Heyyy, friends.

Here are some more things that happened in 2022. (Some of these were covered in my midyear update in early August, which I thought meant I was doing tolerably well at writing more than one entry per calendar year. However, when I started drafting this update in January 2023, I then let it languish unfinished until April, so... fresh start.)

For the record, I used to be super good with tagging all the livejournal usernames, but now that I've completely lost track of who ported their accounts over to Dreamwidth and whether they have the same or different usernames... it's a lost cause. If I mentioned you, and you comment here, I will update. :-}

( pets, travel, health, family, creative, etc. )

( goals for 2023 )

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Goodbye, LiveJournal, goodbye, goodbye

2022-08-07T19:38:11Z

I did not realize until I looked at my Dreamwidth notifications that the last few entries I posted here, which I had blithely assumed would cross-post to LJ as they always have, did not. Because there are "technical issues" causing LiveJournal to reject Dreamwidth crossposts (more info here and here), and after enough silent failures and lack of progress in attempting to resolve the issues, Dreamwidth gave up and decided to just turn off crossposting to LJ altogether.

So... that LJ account has been a shell for years already, and presumably anyone still reading me is already here now? But I just syndicated my Dreamwidth RSS to LJ as https://chanaleh-dw.livejournal.com/ so once it fetches out the feed, you should be able to read from there. Not sure how friendslocked entries work there, but it's a start.

For that matter, I've never really gotten the friends-locked circles thing working properly here on DW. I am sure I never replicated the old LJ topic permissions for most people who are following me here now. Basically, ping me if you want to be able to look back (or forward) and see more from me than you're seeing. :-D

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Hello, friends

2020-10-28T12:43:04Z

Not a day goes by that I don't think of how I would write up a particular experience in my LJ/DW, but the truth is, I haven't even been reading in a couple of years. Meanwhile, I waste at least an hour a day reading Facebook, usually from 4:30-5:30 in the morning - between the time I unwillingly wake up and the time I actually get out of bed. Somehow LJ never felt like a waste, even when I used to spend that much time on it.

Anyway, but as it's now 2020, here is a top-10 snapshot of my current life.

1. By some mysterious alchemy, we now have a 5yo kindergartener. Due to COVID, kindergarten so far has been entirely in "virtual" mode, but they are now announcing plans to reopen in-person school for the second trimester, starting November 16, possibly even sooner for the kindergarten classes. Parents can opt out, but we will send her if they have it. However, I'm skeptical that it will even last more than a few weeks before they have to shut it down again.

2. OK, well, COVID, obviously. Also the election. I cast my ballot early last weekend so I could stop thinking about getting to the polls.

3. Two years ago (literally, I think Monday was my 2-year anniversary) I took a job as Director of Communications & Programming for our local Jewish Federation. It's been both good and bad and really deserves its own post, if I ever get that far. It does mean I've continued to work in-person in the office this entire year, because we are considered essential human services, even though most of my functions could theoretically be done from home.

4. My Etsy shop has continued to grow steadily, to the point where I generally see 1-3 orders a week. I had 111 orders in all of 2019 and have seen 134 already this year in just 10 months. It's not rent money, but it's gratifying.

5. Mr. Y (on bass) has gotten involved with a Grateful Dead cover band, which isn't his first choice of music but is shockingly marketable around here for some reason, so they are playing out a few times a month, even now.

6. I'm still active in my synagogue, the only Conservative place in the area. I've been leading their Friday night services for years now - formerly they only took place every one or two months, but since COVID, they've decided to hold an abridged Zoom service every week, so I do that. Also, I started leading High Holiday Shacharit in fall 2018, and now they've finally talked me into taking on the rest of the High Holiday davening for 2021 (ritual committee meeting this Thursday night to discuss further, but pretty sure it's a done deal). Also also, the rabbi who came shortly before we did is now retiring when his contract ends next July, so I'm also going to sit on the rabbi search committee. If you know anyone good, send them my way.

7, I've had horrible insomnia for the last, I don't know, few years? Usually I fall asleep when Aria does (around 9pm), get up and move to my own bed, go back to sleep, then wake up at 3am (still exhausted) and try for 2 hours to go back to sleep, until I give up. It's getting to where waking up at 4:30 is a good-case scenario, because I've gotten 6+ solid (if not continuous) hours and can consider getting up and doing something useful.

8. In spring of 2019 we lost 1 cat and 1 dog, both elderly, so since then we have been down to a 1-dog household. Mr. Y talks idly about getting a puppy but Aria is lobbying for a kitten, so negotiations are at an impasse thus far.

9. The house is still standing, although it's a nearer thing than it used to be. We seem to have finally sorted out the last paperwork pertaining to the transfer from the late Mom Y (only three years later), so that's a relief.

10. Still driving the 2004 Aveo I bought in fall 2014. Mr. Y is still driving the 2005 Focus he drove new off the lot, so there's that. My daily commute is a 30-min drive each way, which gives me a lot of time to look longingly at other people's cars, but fortunately the ones we have are perfectly serviceable for now.

How are you?

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Passover 2018 notes

2018-04-21T13:47:30Z

Backdated because it will make me crazy not to have these notes in another year, or two, or 10.

( first seder )

( second seder )

Aria, at this stage, is usually content to sit through dinner for at least an hour once belted into her chair. Unfortunately, at the seder, that hour runs out before we even get to the actual meal. But she was as well-behaved as could be expected, and even started to chime in on the Four Questions a little bit. Next year we'll work on them in advance and I think she'll be ready!

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Year in review, year in preview: 2017/2018

2018-01-12T14:20:59Z

10 goals from 2017 (cf original list: LJ | DW): ( Read more... )

More things that happened in 2017: ( Read more... )

10 goals for 2018: ( Read more... )

In general:

Invest half an hour a day in doing something actually productive, instead of wasting 45+ baby-free minutes (before and after sleep) dicking around on Facebook &c.

The biggest problem there is Aria's still-unpredictable sleep schedule; the second biggest is that once I get up in the morning and sit down at the computer, I end up spending half an hour just to clear the decks (check email, pay bills etc) and then suddenly it's time to get in the shower and start my day. But, the last couple weeks at least (when she wasn't fluey and miserable), she's been sleeping through the night better, and that's been fantastic.

I would love to say things like "Get more exercise", "Drum up more freelance work" and "Rebuild my personal/professional website". But for now I don't feel I would prioritize those above doing more art, really. "Have a monthly date night", maybe that's something to strive for. :-)

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December in review

2018-01-12T14:09:21Z

Happy 2018!

... See, this is why I never post, because all I wanted to do was make some quick notes about the fun things from the past month-plus. And by the time I get it all out, it's taken like 3 hours (cobbled together in 10-minute chunks).

Nevertheless... ( December 2017 highlights )

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[backdated] Thanksgiving weekend

2018-01-12T14:00:20Z

( notes for posterity )

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Still catching up from October

2017-11-20T17:08:19Z

My outing to etrace's Dead gig on 10/28 was fun. I was surprised to find that the room was more like a medium-sized coffeehouse than anything; the building is an enormous pole barn, but most of it is the brewery of course, so the tap room in front is just a small space with a bar, a dozen tables, and a couple of couches. I sat at the bar and drank their delightful Mad Cow Coconut Milk Stout (!) and had a bar burger, which was good, although not quite as awesome as I was expecting from etrace's previous rave review. Etrace had gone to set up earlier in the day, so he got to come sit and eat dinner with me right up until showtime - almost like an actual date. :-) They played from 8 til 9:20ish and then had a break until almost 10pm, so I stayed to hang with Etrace through the break and left at the beginning of the second set to go pick up Aria. She had fun at the babysitters' too, so, win all around. <3

( Costco )

( Netflix )

( self-care )

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The saga of the kitchen sink

2017-11-11T23:05:51Z

Our kitchen sink was out of service for a week. ( stupid homeowner stuff )

In the end, it was about $270 for each of the two service calls, which I would have felt fine about if we had only had to pay it ONCE for the one that actually worked. But, oh well. It's delightful to have things in working order again.

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Owies

2017-11-06T23:07:22Z

I've managed to incur several minor injuries lately. Nothing really gory in the details, but I'm putting them behind a cut (SO TO SPEAK) anyway, ( to spare the squeamish )

On the one hand (SO TO SPEAK), enough already. On the other hand, I have to feel like maybe this sequence is serving as some kind of proxy, drawing off the evil eye in tiny doses to forestall some far worse calamity that might have come down in an alternate timeline. Which makes me able to almost feel grateful about it. No permanent damage done, and so far everyone else is safe.

Ironically, Aria is in the stage of being super interested in boo-boos and Band-Aids (the ultimate toddler delight, being the intersection of boo-boos and stickers), to the extent of producing different phantom boo-boos every day. ("I got a boooooo-boo on my kneeeee! I need a Baaaand-Aid! A circle Band-Aid! No, a rectangle Band-Aid, Mama!"... even though when she gets real scrapes or bruises, she barely seems to register them.) So she's kind of fascinated when she sees one of us sustain an actual minor injury. But let me tell you, there is nothing sweeter than when your 2-year-old sees your Band-Aid and immediately insists on kissing it to make your boo-boo better. It almost helps.

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45th birthday

2017-10-24T21:52:42Z

I get my birthday as a paid holiday off work, so here is what I did this year:
( Friday 10/6, also known as Sukkot Day 2 )

Saturday night, the three of us went out for ceremonial birthday pizza dinner. And Sunday night, my dad came over and took us out for birthday dinner #3 (Indian food) and then, at last, we had cake. Cake!

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Rosh Hashanah 5778 prep

2017-09-20T16:02:25Z

Overall I've been too crazed to journal, but today is weirdly slow* at work so I am taking a few minutes.
*(Edited to add: I suspected it was too good to be true. Of course the shit hit the fan on about 3 different projects as soon as I finished posting this, so, we'll hope I get out on time.)

Cards: mostly sent; I ordered 50, and carefully winnowed down my list to that number, but they actually sent me extras so I still have a dozen or so I can send (probably next week; gmar chatimah tovah!).

Honey cake: baked last night.

Challah: 4 small loaves (2 raisin, 2 plain) currently on second rise to bake later today. This year, I used the King Arthur recipe that I printed out last year but decided against for some reason. I made a double batch since it claims to make 1 9-inch round, let the dough rise overnight, and it looked beautiful this morning. Aria was super interested in the dough as I was rolling it into strands for coiling. "Cookie! Pizza! I hold it? I hold it?" I told her she'll be big enough to help me next year.

12lb. brisket in fridge, waiting to prep for Thurs afternoon. Sorry, ablock, I fear my brisket-recipe allegiance is permanently switched! even though the simmered-in-wine version will forever smell like the essence of Rosh Hashanah to me.

Matzah ball soup: also tomorrow (using stock from freezer)

Vegetables:
- brisket potatoes & carrots
- tzimmes (I actually found frozen diced butternut squash at Not-Our-Usual-Supermarket)
- salad

Guests: 1 (maybe 2?) Thursday night, 1 Friday night

Shul: by myself tonight (6:30pm) and tomorrow morning (9am); with Aria on Friday. She saw me put on a skirt this morning (since I'm going straight from work) and said "Mama you go shul today! I go shul!"

Still to review: Shacharit davening for first day (ack) and Haftarah. I went over the davening with the rabbi during Sunday school the last two weeks and it was OK - Yom Kippur is more direly in need of practice, but first things first.

Kittel: try on tonight, bring tomorrow morning.

Shanah tovah u'metukah!

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24 months, a.k.a. TWO YEARS OLD!

2017-08-04T21:05:21Z

It feels like Little Miss has been "almost two" for long enough already that actually having a birthday is a bit anticlimactic. But now it's official.

( birthday week festivities )

Based on roughly 500 more viewings of "Zoe Loves Rocco" (from Sesame Street, about Zoe's pet rock), she has taken up a fascination with rocks. Every time we go outside, she finds a new one that she has to pick up and bring inside. bluepapercup, you will be so proud. She has also picked up "jump in muddy puddles!" from watching Peppa Pig. Fortunately we don't have too many muddy puddles, at least as long as she stays out of the septic drainfield (!).

She has recently reached the toddler stage of Everything is Mine. Sometimes it's a simple descriptive, as in "Where my bunny?", but then as soon as you try to take something away from her, it becomes a protest. "Noooo! MY cup! MY book! MY tabwet! MYYYY toofbrush!" Classic.

The instant she sees me do something new, she immediately says "I do it, I do it, I do it, I do it!" until I let her try. etrace has also discovered that she can not only identify and open the cookie drawer, but pull out the package of Oreos, open the package, and consume most of a cookie before he even knows she's gotten to it. She is, in short, as smart and determined as ever, and getting more accomplished every day.

And OF COURSE she is also the most beautiful child that ever childed. :-)

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Self-care, tiredness, and getting things done

2017-07-17T21:59:21Z

I came home one night (a Thursday) a few weeks ago and promptly had a meltdown over the fact that I constantly feel like I'm too tired to do anything useful. That is, I only have one or two half-hour scraps of baby-free time in a day (at least on weekdays), and even though there are surely small pending tasks I could fruitfully accomplish in that half-hour, all I want to do is sit down and stare at the ceiling. Same on weekends during baby naptime: I think all morning about the things I want to work on when she goes down, and then once it happens, all I do is sit and veg.

( thinky )

Oh, and, technically I am taking a vacation next week, except that the occasion is a weeklong visit from my mom, so it's not exactly downtime even though it will be fun times! Hopefully some extra downtime for Etrace though, if he can chill at home while we take Aria and go run around/pay social calls.

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Eating in

2017-07-14T22:12:57Z

One of the best things etrace regularly does for me is roast me a chicken (over a bed of vegetables) every Friday night for Shabbat dinner. He's refined his technique over the past 3 years until he has it pretty much perfected. Which means it's kind of a pain in the ass relative to the "throw it in a pan and turn on the oven" I used to do, but he does it because he loves me, and it is fantastic. And while I love everything we do Friday evening -- lighting candles with Aria, opening a bottle of wine to go with dinner -- my hands-down favorite moment of the whole week is sitting down and pulling the beautifully roasted skin off my piece. NOM.

Hilariously: A few weeks ago he made a roast beef on some other weeknight, using the same pan he roasts the chicken in. And when it was done and Aria saw it resting on the counter under a sheet of tinfoil, she said "Candle time! Candle time!" No, lovey, I know it looks a lot like a chicken, but it's Tuesday!

Shul friends D (the lawyer) and R (also a lawyer) passed along some toys to us last weekend that their youngest grandchildren had officially outgrown... one of them being a little wooden Shabbat set: pretend candles, wine cup, and bread board with two loaves of challah "slices". I thought, Aria will get a kick out of the first two, but it's too bad I never make challah! Maybe I should get in the habit, just so she can have the full experience. Anyway, but we'll try them out tonight and see how it goes.

Shabbat shalom, y'all.

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High Holidays

2017-07-11T13:18:05Z

My two favorite friends from synagogue are MH, the president, and EHF (hereinafter SCO#4), the chair of the ritual committee. Between them, they have been talking to me for ages (since I was pregnant with Aria; possibly even before that) about training me up to lead High Holiday services.

( notes from the life of an amateur cantorial soloist )

I figure, if I memorized the entire Hamilton soundtrack in less than 2 months, I can do this. It's just Shacharit, right? Right? #17tammuz #tishreiiscoming

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