Ari at swim

His whole class goes free for two weeks!

May the Force be with all shoppers

Stopping outside the main doors of Target, Xander holds out his hand in front of him.

"Use the Force, Ari, use the Force!"

They approach the automatic doors with their right hands at a 90 degree angle, fingers splayed.

And the door... opens!

More Disney pictures

Poor Connor was deeply asleep.  But the other two were overawed to be in the presence of Kylo Ren!

Two siblings and five cousins.

I'm making small steps.

I am a night person.

I may have mentioned this once or a hundred times.

I write the best sermons at midnight.

My circadian rhythms are that of a vampire.

Unfortunately, that is not the way our house, or the world, works.

The alarm rings at 6:30am and Jonathan gets up, wakes up Xander, and starts to make lunches.  They need to be out the door by 7:10 in order to be at school on time.

Between 6:45 and 7am the other boys wake up and wake me up.  Depending on how annoyed I am that the sun is up, we either watch cartoons on my phone in bed, or I go downstairs and make them breakfast, say goodbye to Xander, and start the day.

This morning I was up and getting dressed before 7 and Ari asked me very hopefully, his eyes lighting up in anticipation, "Mommy, are you a morning person now?!"

"No," I replied.  "But I stopped yelling at people in the morning.  Does that count?"

The end of an era

We've now abolished dessert in our house, except for Shabbat.

We got really tired of "how many more bites do I need to eat before I get dessert?"  

Just eat your dinner, children!

Best story ever from Intro to Judaism

I've been teaching a three-part Intro course called the Taste of Judaism.  And one man just made my day, my week, my year.  He was asking me about the meaning of putting a mezuzah on the doorpost, and why you put it slanted: 

"Why don't Jews put it straight?  Is it because they're not very handy and don't have a level?"

I explained with a barely straight face that no, it was because of the compromise of the two rabbis (as explained in the link above).  Then I talked about the scroll that went inside it.

"Oh," he said.  "I didn't know that.  The package only came with the little box, and then I thought it was instructions in Hebrew that I couldn't read, so I threw it out!"

Disney World

Jonathan was amazing and took three kids by himself to Disney World last week to see his sister, who was visiting from Ohio.

Arriving at the hotel, the Wild Animal Lodge

Inside the Lodge

Looking at the animals from their room

Bigger boys on the top bunk

Little boy on the bottom bunk

Loving his sticker.

Happy breakfast!

 

Carousel

Zootopia preview.  Ari was clever like a fox.

"Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" playground.  Connor attempts to conquer a giant ant while Xander runs up the webbing in the background in his red jacket (with Ari close behind).

One day was The Magic Kingdom.  Other day, the land of Star Wars!

Jedi training

A real Snow Speeder

As close as Ari would get to the Storm Troopers