Tradition!

Judaism is full of traditions. Some cultural, some religious. Passover is a perfect mix of both. The holiday is a religious one, but there are many customs that are family specific. It's been so special to see the holidays through Noam's eyes now, too. Passing down traditions and seeing him learn about the holiday. 

He was a pro making charoset with me. "Mar Mar, this is for the seder, right?"

It was such a special treat to make such an important part of the seder with his help. He's talked about making it with me and love that even at 3, he was able to help prepare for the seder.

And this little guy? So special to be with him during his first Passover. Matzah is the perfect finger food, nice and crunchy. 

I remember Passovers from my childhood so well and to now see my mom read Noam the same books I poured over in pre-school - so, so special. 

Our seders this year were fantastic. Seeing Noam so excited to dip the karpas and eat the matzah and sing Dayenu. Even Ronan was loving it as we sang "who knows 1?"

I've always loved this holiday and have such memories of my childhood Passovers, and now, getting to watch Noam and Ronan partake in the traditions and customs is beyond special.

Happy Passover!

Exodusgram

One of the "pre-passover" blog/instagram/twitter "things" going around was Exodus-gram. A prompt for each of the 14 days leading up to the chag.

It was interesting to thing about the word and how it connected to the themes behind passover. It was a nice mental build up to the holiday - it's such a mad dash between work, life, cleaning, teaching, and such!

Here's my exodus-gram rundown for the year:
Believe: believing a new season has arrived
Tell: make your mark and tell how you'll impact the world
Enslave: what enslaves you?
Free: Free to swing and play
Prepare: weekend pancakes - one way to prepare for chag
Clean: clean car, inside and out
Bless: feeling blessed to spend 1:1 time with my class
Learn: expanding our minds and learning about factors
Ask: ask me what makes today special: no jacket!
Leave: ready to leave for Pesach break
Count: countdown until wheels up
Redeem: redeeming sister time after a few hectic weeks
Change: time to change over the kitchen, the last prep
Be: Boston Strong - may the victims' memories be for a blessing

As, my last picture shows, today Boston is on my mind. Somehow fitting the 1 year anniversary of the bombing is on the first day of Passover. As we celebrate leaving Egypt for freedom, I look back on the anniversary and see a city that is stronger, better, more united, and more free.

Happy Passover and Boston Strong!

The Good. The Random. The Fun. v. 15

The Good:

Last week I was able to leave my coat unzipped. This week I was able to leave it at home! SO freeing to not have to grab the coat on the way out the door for the first time since October! 

The Random:
I updated the "about me" section of my blog last weekend. I got creative and decided an infographic would be more fun. I used the free section on Piktochart.com and it was really fun and easy! I feel super trendy now too.

The Fun: 
Thursday morning, the weather was amazing and we had a special program that ended earlier than we thought. So I took the kids outside for some fresh air. I joined in the fun and got on a swing. I'm totally a 9 year old internally because I love getting as high as I can!

oh yeah...and how's this for fun:

I'm in Portland for most of Passover - fun and family!

   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Song-ography: Photo

Look at this photograph...

Every time I do it makes me...

Clearly, I love taking photos. But not just to capture the beauty around me, but also the memories.

I am a big believer in printing out photos. I love the framed pictures and albums that I have in my apartment.

From time to time, I love looking back on the memories I have preserved and see the fun times that that has occurred.

Photographs, they help memories last forever...

April Randoms v.1

 paint chip writing...finally...rainy day

sped humor...caje reunion...opening day

unzipped...tulips...make you mark

 ribbit...tweeting...tbt goofball

connected...feet first...recess

pancakes...simmering...car wash

ikea...book fair...factor rainbows

conferencing...no jacket...so close

swinging...lego egypt...dismissal

Hagaddah Project

When I was in third grade I had an amazing Judaics teacher and we created, for Passover, a Hagadah with lots of add ins and special pages to supplement our learning and our seder. I knew I had to do the same type of learning with my class - so I set to work recreating what Mrs. Weiss did with us so many years ago!

Yup. That is my hagadah, still "kosher for Pesach" and falling apart due to use and love. I took the framework and recreated the wonderful pieces we glued in in 1996. I was beside myself with excitement to share it with my class. 

For each part of the seder, we talked about the important parts and what the significance of each part is. We enhanced what they already knew and had some amazing discussions.

To make the seder more fun (and the learning) some of the pages are "interactive" like a towel for the  part where we wash our hands and a door that opens for when we open the door for the Prophet Elijah.

Each child added their own flair to each page. It was so fun to watch them get so excited for that part of the seder or hear what their family does at that part. It's all about sharing traditions, right?

It was so special to recreate my memories from 3rd grade with my class this year. My kids were SO excited to get to the Judaics part of our schedule each day and were all bouncing out of their seats when I would ask a question.

I hope they cherish these hagadot as much as I have for so many years!

Stuff my 3rd grade say v.2

kid: I'm eating pretzels because it's snowing
me: those are two independent variables
kid: no they're only stick pretzels

me: what's do you when you want to do research?
kid 1: ask Siri!!
kid 2: she creeps me out...

kid: if you're inflexible and you write "ditch" it's a bad word…

me: you mean if you're dyslexic?

me: (after an insane morning) oy, the inmates are running the asylum
kid 1: we're not convicts!
kid 2: yeah, we've always been Jewish!
kid 1: convicts, not converts!

me: why do we praise G-d before asking for things

kid 1: We're buttering him up!

kid 2: um that's just wrong 

me: who can give an example of a noun and then make that noun plural?
kid 1: Tamar is one noun and more than one is Tamars
kid 2: now that's a scary thought!

me: read to yourselves please, I have a headache.
kid: is it a "we caused it headache"?

Me: Ok, it's time to talk about Jewish math!
Kid: What, like, 1 slave plus 1 slave = 2 sad Jewish slaves?
Me: well, yes actually...

me: (spelling assessment) gum: you are chewing gum. gum
kid: what about guar gum?

kid 1: you rolled the dice wrong
kid 2: there's no wrong way to roll dice!
kid 1: mmhmm, it's called palming the dice

me: Vayikra is also called Leviticus in English
kid 1: sounds like a spell in Harry Potter.
kid 2: no that's "ridiculous"!

me: there are feathers all over the floor, it looks like a chicken exploded
kid: maybe it did...

kid 1: Tamar! It's hard!
me: hard means you're working and learning, that's good!
kid 1: no, hard is hard!
kid 2: you can't use the word in the definition

kid: I have leftover pasta for lunch.
me: what kind?
kid: ravi...rabi...Rabbi-oli!!

and in honor of the never ending winter...

me: one week until Spring break!
kid 1: it's spring??
kid 2: It's March 4th!
me: it's April 4th...
kid 2: but it's so COLD still!

The Good. The Random. The Fun. v. 14

The Good:
I went to a Rick Recht concert (Jewish musician) on Sunday. It was beyond awesome to run into two friends I've known for years from a Jewish Ed conference I used to go to with my mom. We hadn't seen each other in years and it was beyond great to bump into each other and get to catch up! The concert was super fun too.

The Random:
I was marking Monday night's homework when I got to this paper. I asked the owner of the worksheet what happened to it. Her response, "my little brother took a bite out of it because he wanted dinner." My first "my brother ate my homework" - at least she turned it in, though!


The Fun:
Ok. I got hooked. Totally hooked on 2048. I downloaded the app and have spent a bit too much time trying to get to the 2048 tile. No dice...yet...

**I take no responsibility for any lost productivity you may experience after trying this game...

And a huge congrats to Kim Stevens for winning the book giveaway! Enjoy the book!

   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Song-ography: Happy

It might seem crazy what I'm about to say. Sunshine she's here, you can take a break.

Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof...

Because I'm happy!

Spring began to appear this week. Short sleeves were worn. Some extra time spent outside.

I smiled from ear to ear one afternoon on the drive home: sunglasses on, heat off, coat unzipped.

As I watched my kiddos spend some time on the playground I couldn't help but smile. They were happy, I was happy. Nothing like some time on the swings and game of tag with 9 year olds to remind you to just throw caution to the wind and just be happy!

Can't nothing bring me down...happy!

Industrial, softened

I hadn't had a photo walk in a while, all that snow and arctic air, and whatnot. So, I took a little stroll around the neighborhood this weekend. I thought it would be fun to play around with waterlogue app (better late than never). I decided to focus on industrial/architectural photos - an interesting contrast, to the softness the app adds, I thought.

Totally hooked. I just love how the app enhanced the linear, rough beauty of the SOOC images. A whole new way to "see" Boston now!

I also have a giveaway going on right now! Check it out here.