Life with water

We still have swim lessons 3 times a week, and Xander is now a full-on strong swimmer.  Ari is getting there, the instructor thinks just another week or two. Connor does well at kicking and can monkey crawl along the side of the pool, but hates the concept of floating.

The last of the photos with my dad

One of Abba's gifts to us was a selfie stick.  Here we are trying it out.

It was Shula's idea to bring personalized signs for the kids' door.   No worries if you can't read the Hebrew, they say "Alexander's room," "Ari's room," and "Connor's room," with the appropriate picture for each boy.

"House geckos"

It is a term here for geckos that are... small, and little, and found all over your house.  They eat the bugs.

Ari holding one in his hand.

It's moving fast!

Xander looking at a gecko family outside the window: 2 adults and a baby on one of the adult's backs.

Birthday grandfather

"Are you really ALL THAT?!" Ari asked, when he saw the numbers.

Don't set the cake on fire!

I love my dad's smile on this one.

Sharing a moment.

Bedtime stories with my dad

Reading himself.

So many books.

Laughing at something.

God I look tired.  

Hangin' with Connor while Sabba reads to the older boys.

Loving his book with Mommy.

Okay, I know it's a lot of pictures of Connor, but he was especially cute that night.

More big boy reading.  While Sabba read Ari's book, Xander was picking which entries in the Marvel superhero encyclopedia he preferred.

Attempting a somersault like his big brother Ari.

4th of July

We only took pictures of the very beginning smokers this year, and none of the real fireworks.  There were too many kids to deal with!!

He's mid-air!

Xander discovered the selfie feature on my phone

Ari's photography

Going up the stairs to see Sabba

Turning back down toward Daddy

My dad very amused at the picture-taking process

Ari's still working on framing...

Brothers at play.

 Artsy shot of Xander

Me waking up

Connor playing with cars

The very last of the Sacramento pictures

The very last Caryn challot: black and white with chocolate chips, and apple cinnamon.

Caught red-handed.

5 things about my weekend

1) On Friday evening a congregant came up to me and shared that her 3 year old had realized something startling at the preschool Shabbat earlier that morning, which he had attended with my own children:  "The rabbi's a Mommy!!"

2) The teachers had been talking to the older boys' class about Community Helpers, and in that context brought up what the kids wanted to be when they grew up.  Xander of course wants to be "a scientist and an inventor."  Ari "a firefighter."  They talked about their mommy, how mommy is a community helper and helps people when they're sick, or sad, and is there for them when they're happy.  Then they asked Ari what his daddy did.  "Um... he cooks!" said Ari.  "That's what he does!"

3) On Saturday we met up with Rachel and Marc, colleagues from Cincinnati who are now based in Miami.  Our kids played, we went to dinner, and the adults played board games when the younger set fell asleep.  The perfect social outing.

4) Ari and I were both sick today so spent a lot of time coloring, doing puzzles, and watching Scooby Doo.  It was actually a really relaxing day off.

5) There is no better hot chocolate than milk with an entire melted Hershey's bar. That is all.

Weather

The constant question here is if I'm getting used to the Florida weather.

In all honesty, it's really not that bad.

Sacramento summers were horrible.  You stepped outside and were slapped in the face with an oven.  It went over 100 degrees regularly and dried out your skin.

Here it's in the 80s and 90s, and humid.  It's still not Long Beach gorgeous summer weather, but it's a different kind of heat than Sacramento.

I go outside more with the kids here now than I did the past few summers, for what it's worth.  I can deal with the weather, and it is kinda fun to go lizard catching, for catch and release.  They're everywhere!

Crazy crazy life

Wow, have I been busy.  Too busy even to download the 4th of July pictures, or the ones with my dad.  Next week I'll put up big picture posts.

But in the meantime:

- I spent a good part of my morning researching how to make our congregation more friendly to LGBTQ and interfaith families.  How awesome that inclusion research is considered work.

- Writing a sermon every week is getting easier.

- Ari and Xander play air hockey together really, really nicely.

- Connor was a tease and slept one night from 8pm-6am.  Then he woke up at 3am the two nights following.  So close and yet so far!

Have a lovely weekend.

Made my children's day

In my office I have a 3-way candy dispenser: M&Ms, peanut M&Ms, and jelly beans.

Connor knocked it over today.

Since I had to throw all the candy away anyway, I told them all to have at.

You'd think it was the first night of Hanukkah!

Reveling in the glory.  (Xander not pictured, he was being JFK Jr. eating candy below the desk.)

Best.  Dinner.  Ever.

Jonathan's description of the events:

Here is a picture of Connor after his candy heist. He saw Michal had a candy dispenser on her desk that he couldn't get into so he picked it up and threw it on the ground to get into it. He was successful and his brothers went in on the take.

Michal wasn't nearly as happy about it.

And ya... I know. We're in trouble. :)

I'm honored by both the article, and the way it's exploded on Facebook!

Female rabbi is first for temple

Rabbi Michal Loving has joined Temple Beth Orr of Coral Springs as the synagogue’s first female rabbi.

 (Submitted photo)

By Marvin Glassman

Temple Beth Orr of Coral Springs recently hired its first female rabbi, Rabbi Michal Loving, to usher in a new era in which the temple is actively reaching out to unaffiliated Jews, foregoing the traditional annual membership fee structure.

It is appropriate that the new rabbi's surname is Loving because TBO hired her on the strength of her warm, charismatic character in their 18-month search to replace the retired Rabbi Mark Gross.

"Rabbi Loving rose to the top of our selection process because she exemplifies what our congregation expressed what were the most important qualities in our next rabbi," said Steve Feinstein, president of Temple Beth Orr.

"Rabbi Loving exudes warmth, wisdom, compassion, a strong sense of self and a sense of humor. Her passion for Judaism is both contagious and energizing. She is a rabbi for our young and young at heart."

Married with three young children aged 18 months to six, Loving also fits the profile of the many young unaffiliated Jewish families that TBO hopes will come to the Coral Springs congregation. 

"Being at Temple Beth Orr is a perfect fit for both me and the new era of the congregation in which it is important to engage everyone who enters our doors," said Loving.

Loving's parents divorced in California when she was three. Her father returned to Israel and remarried. Her mother came out as a lesbian. She married a woman when Michal was five. "I grew up an only child with two mothers in Long Beach, California. Every summer, I traveled to Holton, Israel to spend time with my father and his family where I ate bamba with my half-siblings and learned to speak Hebrew at Israeli summer camps."

"I came to my life's passion while accompanying my husband Jonathan through his conversion process in 2004. I want to provide the opportunity for everyone, no matter our backgrounds or differences, to embrace our own individual Jewish paths and find our own truths. I cherish teaching Torah because I love to impart the rich values and culture of our heritage and install a sense of rootedness in history and l'dor v'dor (from generation through generation)," said Loving.

Following her five years of study and ordination as rabbi at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Loving served as the rabbi-educator at Congregation B'nai Israel in Sacramento.

Feinstein emphasized that it was crucial in the hiring process that Loving would have approval as the new rabbi by all members of Temple Beth Orr.

"It was a unanimous choice to hire Rabbi Loving and that is the way the process had to work. Although the selection committee narrowed the field of candidates, the congregation voted unanimously to hire her after she spoke to us in February," said Feinstein.

 "TBO is and will continue to be more than a building. TBO is a tapestry of genuine relationships, threaded with laughter, tears and the everyday moments in between," said Loving.

"Together, we will find meaning and Jewish relevance in day to day life and ensure that everyone who comes through our doors considers us a second home and feels accepted and embraced for who they truly are."

Joining Loving as a new clergy member of Temple Beth Orr is Cantor Educator David Sislen. 

"Cantor Sislen has extensive experience and he will be an exceptional pulpit partner with Rabbi Loving. Their backgrounds and interests complement each other and their styles will combine to form an all-inclusive balance on the bimah and beyond," said Feinstein.

Since 1996, Sislen has been cantor and educator at congregations and schools in Florida, Maryland and New York. He has been director of Judaic Studies at Greenfield Day School in Miami.

For more information about Temple Beth Orr, 2151 Riverside Dr. in Coral Springs, call 954-753-3232 or go to http://www.templebethorr.org

My mom and grandmother

In Israel, July 13, 2015

To answer the queries

So how do you like your new congregation?
I love it.
It's the perfect fit.
People are amazing, and kind, and unbelievably helpful.
My coworkers are stellar.
It's definitely been keeping me busy: Two Torah studies and two Shabbat morning and evening services.  One Early Childhood Center Shabbat.  Lots of committee meetings.  Two funerals, and an upcoming baby naming.  Yummy food at all these meetings.  It's really, really good.  I couldn't be happier.


How is Jonathan doing?
He's good.  He's tired, since he's doing more childcare than before and our kids take all your energy.  But he loves the congregation too.  In fact, he just went with someone from temple to a place called Underground Reptiles, and all the kids had an amazing time.  He went with my dad to the beach, and we're thinking of going to a waterpark this weekend.  The only downside for him is the water from our tap; it's still green, and it's really irritating his skin.  He's planning on making a dermatologist appointment on Monday.


How do the kids like Florida?
The older boys think camp is great.  Connor is getting used to it, but would obviously still rather be home with Daddy.  They love swim lessons, and have fun going up and down the stairs, which is novel to them.  They miss their friends at home, but they're mentioning them less and less as time goes on.


Where do you get your energy?
Caffeine!  And I know that I'm only in my 30s once... I'm trying to take advantage of it before 8 hours  of sleep becomes a true requirement. :)

Stair boys

Taken when we got back from last week's Shabbat service.  They wanted to show us how long (tall) they were. :)

Children as fish

Xander swam across the width of the pool!  By himself!  On his third lesson!

Ari made it about 2/3 of the way across.

And Connor stopped screaming and started cuddling the instructor, even letting him put his head underwater.

Amazing progress all around.

Abba left today

I'm sad. :(

Shiva, shopping, and swim lessons: a day in the life of a Florida rabbi

The funeral on Friday for the young woman was exceedingly difficult.  As have been the shivas, the mini-services at the family's home in the week following the funeral.  I come home and hug my kids tighter.

Speaking of my kids, Xander is doing better.   I think.  Ari alternates very quickly between being utterly adorable and creative and amazing to wanting to yell at him and put him on time-out until he's 10.  And Connor is finally night-weaned, hooray, he only nurses once a day now, in the morning.  He even slept from 8pm-3am straight last night!

Today was the first real day off I've had since I've moved here, where I didn't spend the day away from temple unpacking something.  (Though since I lead shiva, the "full day off" label was a misnomer.)  But I had fun doing something uncharacteristic - I went to the outlet mall!  I fixed my watch, fixed my eyeglasses, bought X's uniform clothes from The Children's Place since it was a 4th of July sale, and decided that as my previous two Target handbags have fallen apart, I should consider it part of my professional wardrobe to get a nice one.  So I bought an insanely expensive black professional-looking handbook at half the retail cost, which was still more insanely expensive than I thought would have been possible.

What else?  Coral Springs has a distinct lack of charging stations for our Leaf (we're not in California anymore, Toto!), so we bit the bullet and installed a quick charger in our garage.  It's amazing.  Instead of taking 29 hours to fully charge the car, it now takes 2.

It was much more cost-effective, and better learning, to hire a private swim instructor to come to our house than to pay 3 tuitions at the swim club, and have to abide by their schedule with each kid in a different class.  We found the downside today: the swim club has an indoor pool.  We, obviously, do not.  The instructor cancelled today's lesson because of the "lightning alarm," the siren that went off in the area telling everyone to get out of their pools, lightning was spotted within 3 miles and you don't want to be electrocuted.  I'd never known such an alarm existed before I moved here.

My office still isn't finished and it's bugging me, grr.  One more cabinet needs to be moved in and then I can unpack the last box.  And have I mentioned that we're missing my beautiful tree of life tapestry that Cathe made me?  I'm so sad.  I have the moving company tasked to find it, and I don't want to put anything up on the walls until it's for sure I'm not getting it back.

Oh yes, and 4th of July has like a gig of pictures.  I'll upload them eventually, promise.

Lilah tov, nighty-night.

Adding flair to my parking spot

Real life

Friday was a mixed bag.  It was my first Shabbat at TBO, and I worked really hard on my sermon and service prep.  It was a lovely evening.  Everyone was beyond welcoming.

But... an hour before I was due to leave for temple, Xander had a meltdown.  His first full meltdown of his big-kid life.  Crying, not wanting to be touched, curled into a ball.  Then laying his head in my lap sniffling.

Why did we have to move to Florida?
I want to go home.
I miss Mateo.
I'm mad at YOU!  YOU made me move.  You could have stayed a rabbi in California.  I didn't want to go.

It went on.

Twist that knife a little deeper.

He's been really difficult lately, not listening, being rude and mean to his brothers and new friends.  Obviously it's related.  We're trying to figure out how to handle it.

My sermon last night was about the difficulty and the opportunity inherent in change, and how we as a community can handle anything as long as we stand together.

It worked well in the context of the congregation.

Not so much when you're six.

Our mailbox...

is straight from a movie.  It's white, on a post outside our front door, and it has a little red lever that you move you when you have mail to be sent, and down when the mail has arrived.

I explained the concept to the kids tonight and they were in awe.  Secret code with the mail carrier!  You don't have to walk to the neighborhood mailbox!  It comes right to your door!

I love looking at the world through their eyes.

My first day

What a beautiful welcome. 

It was really my second day, technically... yesterday I made a hospital visit to an ECC (Early Childhood Center) mom on her deathbed, and she died last night.  The funeral is on Sunday.  I feel so badly for the family.  People kept apologizing that this was my first official act as their rabbi, to be involved in these arrangements, and I kept saying no, don't apologize - obviously it's a horrible situation, but I was privileged to be in that room, as I am to be able to honor her memory in the days following.

In other news, the two bookshelves and my monitor are supposed to arrive tomorrow.  And the kids had their first swim lesson today.  So all is well.  I'm very blessed.

Nothing like the tragic end of a life to make you appreciate the beauty of your own.