the descent of the helicopter
ooh, here it comes
dropping eggs down for the kids
the little kids watching the eggs come down
searching for eggs
bypassing all of the eggs on the preschool playground because the slide is more fun than egg hunting
finally realizing we were on the playground to find eggs
they found golden eggs!
covered in eggs on the drive home
Well, I have actually made it to 200 blog posts. I wasn’t really counting but the other day I noticed that I was getting close thanks to the features on WordPress. Since I have been told that reaching 200 is somewhat of a milestone, I wanted to make sure that this post was about something important. As such, I want to share with you the recent events that my children were a part of for Holocaust Remembrance Day/Week (Yom HaShoah).
At school, my older son has been studying the artwork of the students of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, a Jewish art teacher at the concentration camp Terezin. One of Ms. Dicker-Brandeis’ students was Ela Weissberger. Ela is now 83 and is the subject of the famous book “The Cat With The Yellow Star”. 
Here is an short biography of Ela:
In 1942, at the age of 11, Ela Weissberger was sent with her grandmother, mother and sister to Terezin, a concentration camp in what is today known as the Czech Republic. Amidst hardship and duress, she received schooling organized/taught by talented adults who were also imprisoned. The arts were integral to her education. She sang in the opera, Brundibar, while at Terezin and studied visual arts with Friedl Dicker-Brandeis. Most of her classmates were eventually sent to death camps. Dicker-Brandeis saved her students’ work by hiding it in suitcases before she went to her own death at Auschwitz. Today Ela Weissberger travels across the United States to speak about her experience.
This week, we were fortunate enough to have Ms. Weissberger spend some time in our city and we were able to hear her speak. But, more importantly, my kids were able to be involved in special performances for and with Ela. My son was part of a condensed performance of Brundibar in honor of a speech Ms. Weissberger was giving to the community and was able to spend some time speaking to her before the program began.
meeting Ela
performing Brundibar
The next day, both my daughter and my son were able to perform “the Victory Song” from Brundibar with the children’s choir (AND ELA HERSELF!) at a special remembrance service at the temple.
singing with Ela
As my kids are the only brother/sister duo in the choir (and the play was about a brother and sister facing a tyrant), they were chosen to sing a special part together, present Ela with a special butterfly made out of the children’s handprints (butterflies became the symbol of freedom to those imprisoned so they have a special meaning to her), and they were even invited by Ela to sit by her during parts of the service. They were very excited about this honor, to say the least.
presenting Ela with the butterfly
getting a special hug
up close and personal
After meeting Ms. Weissberger and hearing her speak, there was no doubt that we were in the presence of a very special person. She was so charismatic and loving to everyone she spoke to and a gentle reminder of how much we all lost during that tragic time in history.
Whether you are Jewish or not (we are an interfaith family), the Holocaust and the lasting effects are something that should never be forgotten. I’m so glad my kids were able to meet such a special lady and learn more about their heritage and history on such a personal level.
I would like to dedicate my 200th post to Ela and all of the other survivors who dare to share their stories with us. May we never forget.
I want to say a special thank you to everyone who contributed to this blog “party”! I got some wonderful ideas and can’t wait to share them all with the head art teacher! Kick back and get ready to be inspired by all of these great recycled crafts!
First up we have Valerie from Atlanta Mom of Three who shared several ideas ranging from cardboard box bookmarks to clothespin magnets and more!
Atlanta Mom of Three
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Next, we have Lauren and Tami from Side By Side Design who offered some neat ways for the kids to recreate famous works of art using recycled household materials such as cereal boxes and soda bottles!
Side By Side Design
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Sarah at My Beautiful, Magic, Sometimes Dramatic – Life shared her idea for an easy homemade bird feeder made with items from nature.
My BMSD Life
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Here’s a cool idea from James at Dad’s Round Table on how to create your own comic book! This would be great for the budding artists out there, especially the boys, who seem to be a tougher sell when it comes to arts and crafts!
James Hudyma
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Motherhood Is An Art, aka the very artistic Melissa, offered new and fun ways to repurpose old furniture such as drawers, tables and a even a piece of wainscot left over from a remodel.
Motherhood is an Art
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Amber, an actual Elementary art teacher, suggested using ideas from famous artists (such as Matisse) and making them your own.
Matisse inspired name panels
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Finally, here’s a sampling of some of the projects I found.
Look at this cute way to turn old dvds and cds into coasters.
You can also repurpose old, plain mugs or tea cups using only a Sharpie and the oven!
Think old wine bottles are trash? Try this instead!
Have a ton of old buttons laying around the house? Turn them into a bowl!
Need a new, uniquely designed clock? Try making one from an old record and some magazines!
These are just a few of the ideas I found on the internet. For a larger list of projects and websites with more ideas, please check out my Recycled Crafts Board on Pinterest.
Thanks again to everyone who contributed to this party! Be sure to click on the links to check out everyone’s official blog posts for more ideas and instructions!
As I have mentioned before, I have started trying to treat my two-year-old like an older kid and give him a little more running room when it comes to outings. I have extended this attempt (slightly) to the times when we are running errands and I can sense that he has no intention of staying quietly seated in the cart. This often makes these outings more difficult, but I can see with each new trip that he is slowly getting better at behaving and acting like a nice little boy rather than a tornado in a human body.
Case in point: the other day I needed to go pick up a coffee mug and a box of tea cookies for my kids to “donate” to their Sunday School’s basket of coffee goodies which will be raffled off for charity. I headed to a store right up the street because I knew it had both of these items at very reasonable prices. The goal was to go in, head straight to the appropriate departments, make a quick selection, pay and get out of there before Big Trouble could do any real damage. I had a plan! (famous last words)
Naturally, Big Trouble started making a fuss after approximately 45 seconds in the cart. “I get out….I stuck, Mom….OUT!” Oh, are you not happy sitting in the cart where you can’t reach anything on the shelves? Poor baby is what I was thinking sarcastically. But, I knew I had a very short window of time before he figured out how to wiggle his way out of the seat belt (as he always does) and hurl himself onto the ground a la Superman. So, instead of getting worked up, I calmly turned to him and asked if he would like to walk. “Ok. I walk.” Great.
Now, he knows very well that if he is walking somewhere, then he is holding my hand the whole time, I don’t care where we are. This may seem a bit extreme, but he is FAST and I am only semi-fast these days. It’s just safer for all parties involved if I never let go. He happily obliged my demand for hand holding and we started our march toward the housewares department. I knew this was risky seeing as though I was going to look at mugs (breakable) which were located right by plates (breakable) and vases (breakable) and weird sculptures that I don’t understand (again, breakable). You get the picture. It was very daring of me. I like to live life on the edge.
We made it to the department without incident. I started to check out the silly mugs because I prefer things that make me laugh. My little guy told me he would sit while I looked so I said ok…until I watched him go over to the neighboring shelf and try to sit on a mini chest of drawers because it looked like stairs to him. Not great. Luckily, I caught him before any damage occurred and I brought him back to a little alcove one foot away from where I was browsing. He sat down and then looked at me suspiciously. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him scooting forward on his butt in an attempt to sneak over to the weird ceramic sculptures. I pulled him back. Two seconds later, he started scooting again. I pulled him back. He scooted again. We went through this groundhog’s day of tug of war for about 5 minutes. I listened to him tell me, “I gentle, mommy” repeatedly as if saying that phrase over and over again would save the weird frog planter from being destroyed at his tiny, but powerful hands. No one believes you, kid. Sorry. Back to the corner.
Why didn’t I just give up after the first few attempts, one might ask? Because I am not a quitter! And because I am stupid. I finally decided that I had found the perfect cup (aka, the one closest to my hands the final time he tried to pet the 3 foot glass giraffe) and I led him away from the breakables to the coffee aisle where the tea biscuits could be found. “COOKIES!” he shouted excitedly as he tried to convince me to buy every box available. I spied a small box that looked exciting and appropriate on the top shelf, grabbed it and handed it to him to hold as we quickly made our way off of that aisle before he reduced the products to crumbs.
We skipped to the front of the store (I pulled a muscle in my leg because I am old but it was worth it) so that we could finally make our purchases and get out of there. Unfortunately, there was a line. This is the fear of all mothers just trying to make it through a “quick” shopping adventure. And, I had no cart! “Open it, open it” could be heard by everyone in line as my little guy kept trying to get into our to-be-donated box of cookies. I was too busy praying that the people in front of us would spontaneously combust so that we could move to the front of the line to answer him right away. He didn’t understand why we had to wait when he was ready to go so I also got a few “Come on, mom. You ready? I ready! Let’s go!”
Got it, kid. Believe me, nobody wants to get out of here faster than I do (except maybe the people in line with us who were tired of hearing him too). At this point, he threw himself on the floor in protest of the situation and the fact that the cookies we were getting were not for his enjoyment. I kept my feet wrapped around him so he couldn’t get away and I would have just stood there but I noticed people were looking so I decided to pretend that I was nervous about how dirty the floor was in there. That’s what good moms do, right? Ooh, honey, don’t lay on the floor! It’s dirty! (No one needs to know that he had already spent a good 10 minutes rolling around in the housewares department so the dirt part is moot). Come on now, get up and hold my hand.
As I attempted to hold his hand and keep him with me as the line progressed, he threw himself on the floor again. Not my favorite action, but at least he wasn’t screaming very loudly. The woman behind us started chuckling and said, “if it was me, I would just leave him there and step over the body.” This was my kind of woman. She wasn’t judging or giving useless tips, she was making light of the crazy situation in a very blase’ tone. She was supporting me with an attitude very similar to my own, something I had never experienced from a stranger before! I laughed back and said that I would totally do that if not for the fact that he was a runner and my adroitness is not on par with his.
She started laughing again at the now huge ball of dust known as my son still rolling around on the ground and muttered, “little brat”. She then stopped laughing immediately, realizing that she had just called a stranger’s kid “a brat” straight to the mother’s face. She then started the long road to ejecting one’s foot from one’s mouth by trying to switch it to “beast” as though that’s what she said the first time (and as if beast is much better than brat); then she started giggling nervously and changed beast to “beastoid” because apparently she just couldn’t think of any words to make her faux pas any less offensive so she made one up and then she just stopped talking. This entire onslaught of unintentional insults happened in about 5 seconds and I have to tell you that I found it to be the FUNNIEST thing I have ever witnessed in my life. I may have actually snorted while trying not to laugh at the mess that kept coming out of her mouth.
approximate visualization of a beastoid
Obviously, I, too, was thinking what a little brat my son was being and I often refer to him as a beast (although he will now be referred to as a beastoid because I really like that word better) but she was a stranger and she didn’t know that. Under any other circumstance, my mama bear instinct might not have taken so kindly to someone outing my son as a beastoid, but I could tell that she didn’t mean any harm. She was just speaking out loud as a mother who has probably called all of her kids beastoids at some point in their lives. And, she had the good grace to realize the mistake and be embarrassed about it, even while just burying herself deeper and deeper into the “I can’t believe I said that so I better fix it but it’s just getting worse the longer I keep talking” hole.
If we hadn’t been called up to the next register right after that (THANK GOD), this woman and I might have become life long friends, all because she called my son a brat! She will hold a special place in my heart from this moment on as I will forever remember the day my son was christened “beastoid” by a total stranger. It suits him and I never would have been so imaginative.
Moral of the story, if you approach a bratty kid and engage the struggling mother, have a good attitude and a sense of humor and you may actually get away with calling her kid names (or at least give her a laugh)! And, if some well-intentioned stranger accidentally calls your kid a beastoid, give her a break; she’s probably just having flashbacks from rearing her own children.
Now I must run because my brat beast beastoid is trying to climb into the tub fully clothed.
a beautiful day to run at Lake Ella
hello Mr. Duck, want me to spwash with you?
The ducks wisely ran away (we left them some bread to apologize for the noise my little guy was making)
checking out the “knees” of the trees
who wants to look at the beauty of nature when there are rocks to climb on?!
mama duck guarding her new little babies who were snuggling together in the sun
turtle sunbathing
I’m the first to admit that my youngest son is “all boy”; this is code for just a little crazy. He is literally running from the moment he wakes up until the moment he finally crashes into sleep.
This has been a tough adjustment for me seeing as though neither my older son nor my daughter was ever like this when they were two (it seemed like it was tough at the time, but looking back, dealing with the two of them together – they are only 17 months apart – was easier than dealing with my little guy).
I am always tired and usually exasperated by having to say “no” over and over again, or dealing with yet another epic meltdown, and boy can he have them. The real problem is that he looks much older than 2 because he is very tall and built like a linebacker (neither the pediatrician nor I can make sense of this because my other two are smaller and very thin). This makes it much harder on my back and makes people in public much less inclined to give him a break when he does have “a moment”. I don’t really care about our adoring public at this point, but my back cares a lot. Many days have ended with me in tears over ridiculous struggles. C’est la vie.
But, I have recently decided that instead of constantly complaining and pleading with God for a calmer kid, I would remind myself to be thankful that he is healthy enough to have the energy to be a little crazy and try to embrace this by doing new things with him where he can let it all out, while also working with him on reeling it in as much as he can when the time calls for it. I think if it were up to my husband, we would just sit at home or only go to outdoor venues until the phase passes (we are fervently praying that it does), but I am now seeing this as a challenge and a teaching experience. After a lot of whining and bitterness toward those families with calm kids (yes, I was/am totally jealous of the parents with shy kids who sit still for longer than .3 seconds – I’m human and I’m tired), I feel like I am ready to face it head on! My back? Not so sure, but willing to give it a try.
I have started to do new outings with him while my big kids are at school; some work, some don’t and that’s ok. It’s NEVER easy because he is still in constant motion and has a mind of his own, but I can tell he is loving life and that’s what’s really important, right? I know it is normal to test the boundaries when you are two and as far as that goes, he is extremely normal, perhaps above average even (not sure that is something to brag about, but there you have it). I want him to keep his spirit and show his sweetness off to others and I know the day is coming where he won’t always be the loud, crazy kid with the frazzled mom chasing slowly after him on her motorized scooter – that’s where I feel I may be headed, but hopefully that won’t actually come to fruition.
My baby is special and I am determined to keep him that way, even if he seems more determined to break me. Until the day comes when we reach a mutual understanding regarding acceptable behavior, I will enjoy the beautiful (and rare) moments like this!!!
snuggling – the only time my favorite little guy is still.
Please pray for me as I embark on this new outlook on life (and share secret tips if you have them)……and pray for lots of naps, too! 🙂
Guess what? My mom wrote a book! It’s something she has been wanting to do for a long time and her dream finally came true. It is a compilation of two short stories and is an easy, uplifting read about how God always has a plan for your life, even when you can’t see it and you feel like giving up hope.
Beyond the Mirror is available now at Cross Books, Barnes and Noble, Books A Million and Amazon. If you are looking for a light read, please check this out! Love you, Mom!
“Full of faith and hope, Beyond the Mirror is a heartwarming and captivating story of devotion, loss and love. Also, included in this volume is A New Beginning, the sequel to Beyond the Mirror that shares the continuing journey and the importance of family and faith.”
He prefers to watch his tv from above
he likes to sprawl out in the stroller (probably would do it naked if I let him)
he prefers to be squished amongst the groceries rather than sitting where he should
He prefers to share a nice box with his sister rather than the couch.
As you may or may not know by now, our family is an interfaith one. My husband is Jewish and I am a Christian. As such, we celebrate all of the holidays surrounding both religions (which basically means Christmas and Easter and then all of the Jewish holidays that I am still learning about).
I did know a thing or two about Passover prior to meeting my husband, however, as it goes hand in hand with Easter each year. As such, I came up with a tradition for our kids that incorporates a bit of fun representing both Passover and Easter. Instead of decorating eggs (which we would totally do if any of my kids would actually eat them instead of leaving them to rot, thus making my husband feel like he needs to get his year’s worth of cholesterol at one sitting), we decorate Matzo.
Eggs or Matzo? either way, you can decorate!
Now, as a shiksa, I am not a fan of the matzo. It reminds me of the paper-eque wafers we used to eat during communion at my Episcopalian Day School when I was little – in a word, BLECH (that’s a word, right?). But, I realize the significance of the matzo, and I realize that my husband actually enjoys the taste somehow, so we make it work. We get chocolate from the store and then the kids go and pick out a few colors of candy melts from Michael’s and we make chocolate matzo covered with “pretty” candy melt decorations. Then we let it set in the fridge for a few minutes and it is a cold and tasty treat that tastes nothing like cardboard.
I’m the first to admit that it is kind of a pain to cover the plain matzo in chocolate, especially with lots of little “helping” hands, so when I found pre-dipped chocolate matzo at our grocery store last week, I BOUGHT IT! It didn’t matter that it was twice the amount of the regular box and only contained 3 pieces (actually, it would have mattered if I had realized that there were only 3 pieces inside before I bought it, but since I was clueless, it seemed to be the perfect purchase).
It just so happened that my mom was coming into town for the day because she had to miss my daughter’s birthday party due to my grandma going into the hospital the night before and she wanted to make it up to her. So, while Big Trouble headed up to take his nap, I busted out our craft table and got out the goods so that my mom could help the kids this year. Sucker. (just kidding, mom, love you)
decorating is fun!
It started out great. I melted the candy melts (this year’s colors were purple and blue) and poured them into little decorating bags; I then found some hot pink sprinkles, and handed over the reigns to Gigi.
squeezing out the good stuff
Approximately 2.5 seconds into the project, Big Trouble decided that he was not going to go down that easily for his nap. We heard his big old feet on our stairs and my daughter, who spooks easily, tried to grab hers so that her little brother wouldn’t get it and in the process, dropped it all over the floor. This resulted in a broken plate, her creation all over the ground and many tears. Of course this is how things would go down. Meanwhile, the candy melts have immediately hardened onto our tile floor and Big Trouble is trying his best to play the role of family dog by picking up stray pieces of chocolate matzo and putting them into his mouth. Luckily, he is the 3rd child and I am beyond my fear of germs. It’s still gross though.
After we stopped decorating and started scraping the floor (literally scraping because using a knife was the only way to get that junk off), we managed to convince my daughter that the 3rd piece of matzo from the box could be hers, even though it was just a bunch of broken pieces. She seemed to be ok with this and got back to decorating, while I kept Big Trouble out of, well, big trouble.
she got to decorate 4 pieces instead of 1! (that’s how we had to approach this debacle)
My son finished his and he could tell me what each one was even though my unenlightened eyes couldn’t quite see it. Apparently the holes in my decorating bags were too big so it’s my fault the things came out blobby. We’ll just agree that Moses and Jesus had a great time playing ball together on the matzo court.
it’s a basketball hoop with a basketball – can’t you tell?
When all was said and done, this project was actually VERY tasty and it’s all about the memories, right? We’ll stick with our homemade chocolate matzo in the future (so that we have lots of extra pieces for the next time disaster strikes – because you know it will). Lesson learned. Happy Passover from our crazy house to yours! 🙂
Hello, friends! This Summer, I am going to be an assistant art teacher at a 2-week day camp that my children attend (they get to go free because I am sacrificing what was supposed to be my peaceful time – I am pretty awesome, right? Or insane – we’ll see).
While I like to consider myself to be a “creative” person, I am by no means “artistic”. So, when asked to try and find some fun “green” projects for the older kids, I felt a little panicked. Of course I went trolling on Pinterest (BLERG) because where better to find a ton of ideas, but we all know how my Pinterest ideas usually turn out so I thought I would try to enlist your help, too!
Does anyone have any recycled/green projects that tweens and younger teens might enjoy doing? This is a harder age than younger kids because most kids in this age bracket are over arts and crafts because they are so cool and totally grown (hey, I was young once, about a million years ago, so I still kind of remember that feeling). So, it can actually be a more sophisticated project, but has to use at least some recycled materials.
There are a few ideas that I have found so far and I will be sharing soon, but I am completely open (and slightly desperate) for some more, so please bring on the help!! Seriously. Please. Help. Me!
Here’s what to do (special thanks to the lovely Valerie at Atlanta Mom of Three because I am totally stealing borrowing her blog party outline here):
Once I collect all of the ideas, I will do a final post with everyone’s ideas (and links to their pages) which will also serve as a list of possibilities for me to present to the real teacher that I will be assisting!
Thank you in advance to everyone who is willing to help a sister out! Even if it is just by submitting a Pinterest idea, sigh. 🙂
embracingtheinsanity.wordpress.com 