Drumming Up Fun in Katamon

The other day just after I picked up one of my young grandchildren from day care, I got a message from my daughter-in-law that there was going to be a "musical activity" for children in a park near their home.

I had just walked a few minutes in the wrong direction when I decided to go. That meant I'd be walking up hill pushing the stroller, wearing my backpack. Once I clarified the location, I consulted with Google Maps, which warned me that it would be a half hour walk. Yes, the shortest route was uphill. But should that frighten this intrepid savta (grandmother)? Gd forbid!

With both hands firmly on the stroller, the toddler who refused to wear a jacket "NO!" sitting and observing, my phone in my fanny pack loudly broadcasting Google Maps' directions, "turn left," then "take the second exit on the roundabout..." I must have looked like quite a nutty old lady.

Finally, after over half an hour of trekking through hilly Jerusalem, consulting with my daughter-in-law for the exact location I found the "musical activity" in a lovely park hidden away behind a grocery store and parking lot. Lots of children and parents, probably grandparents too, were sitting mesmerized watching the show.

I skillfully wheeled my grandchild next to the front row to get a birds eye view and hear the music and explanations. I covered him up with his jacket and blanket, no refusals this time. Within seconds someone gave me a chair, so I could sit, too.

We enjoyed the show, even though we had missed most of it. The "musical activity"  was perfectly geared to young children and didn't seem to bore the adults with them.

When it was over, a short walk to my son's apartment. The fun of grannyhood.

New Mug From My Granddaughter

At our big family Chanukah Party last week, I brought presents for absolutely everyone. I've continued with the custom I began when I was working in Yafiz clothing store, buying pajamas for all of the children. I managed to find them all in one big shopping session in the Pisgat Zeev Mall a few weeks before Chanukah. Sales had already begun, and there were all sizes. I had to get adult sizes for the oldest ones, who are all taller than I am. And in one of the big children's chain stores, Kiwi, I found cute sweatsuits for the younger ones. So far, reports are that they all fit.

For the grownups, I went to my favorite store, FOX Home, and I wasn't disappointed. They had a wonderful selection of mugs at discounted prices. To make life easier for myself, I got all the kids identical mugs and something else useful for my husband.

I was surprised at the party by a personal gift for me. One of my younger granddaughters bought everyone presents with her own money. This mug has praises written all over:

"My Grandma is THE BEST"
"My Grandma is Young at Heart"
"Beloved Dear Grandma"
"Grandma #1"
"Perfect Grandma"

and more wonderful words💖💝💟

Yes, she's a very special granddaughter!

Babysitting Help

One of our grandchildren is being raised with two rather hairy "older siblings," aka dogs. We have other grandchildren who get rather "nervous" around them, but they accept that visiting their cute little cousin requires that they accept the dogs in the bargain. Considering that I was rather phobic/terrified of dogs and cats as a child, I like the idea that there are now dogs in our family.

The other evening I was asked to babysit for the adorable little boy as he slept, and I had company to do it, too. Yes, they seemed pretty bored. No television, and I didn't share my phone with them.

Finally Wore My Hand-Painted Shirt

Months ago I did a project with my older grandchildren, or more accurately, I planned one. I came with a bunch of shirts and sweatshirts for myself* and their whole family. Some were even specially bought the occasion. I decided that we would paint/decorate them.

Photo taken by my husband just before I went to bed when I remembered that there was no photo of me in the shirt.

Well, it was a good idea, but only the youngest, age seven 7, was interested or willing to participate. I just came home with one shirt, which wasn't suitable to the winter weather. Yesterday, before getting dressed, I finally took out my iron, which I hadn't touched for at least a decade, and ironed the shirt to "set the paint." Then I wore it. I hope that is got hot enough, or it will wash out when laundered.

I don't know if my daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter have ever worn theirs. But I had always liked this shirt and am happy to have hidden the store logo so creatively. There's still some paint for more fabric projects.

*The idea came to me when I was trying to figure out what to do with all the shirts and sweatshirts I had with the "Yafiz" logo from my six years working there. I had returned the one shirt that I had signed for, but nobody wanted or would wear the others.

Granny/Savta/Grandma Project With The Kids

I'm one of those annoying grandmothers who tries to keep the kids "busy" and "productive. The idea of just hanging around the house drives me crazy. 

You may remember some of my other "projects," some successfully done when they come to me, like soap-making and jewelry making.

As you can see in the pictures, I decided that painting on sweatshirts would be a great idea. I got the idea, because I have all these "souvenirs" from my time working at Yafiz, where I had to wear shirts and sweatshirts with the logo. Since I'm not the most talented in the artistic realm I thought that I could get my grandchildren to paint over the logo, so I could wear some of the clothes.

There ended up being just a couple of problems with it.

1. It's not cheap.
2. Only the youngest one out of the four grandchildren I was visiting even bothered trying to decorate/paint their new clothes.

At least she was enthusiastic, as you can see. She painted my old shirt, her mother's, father's and her own.

I left the special fabric markers with her and hope that she has fun decorating more clothes. Why not? She's named after an aunt of mine, an artist who had studied textile design.

Too bad the older kids weren't interested. Maybe they'll paint their clothes when I'm not around...

Retirement... Yes, We're Officially Retired -Eeks!-

There are two real difficulties for me in being half of a "retired couple."

1. I need to have something to do to get me out of the house every single day.
2. It's really hard sometimes to remember not only my varying schedule but also my husband's.

I have gone through times of unemployment, when I had little to do and even less money to do it. But maybe it was because we, including the kids, were younger, I don't remember an almost depression on days when nothing was scheduled. What did I do then to keep myself busy and happy?  During those days, my husband would be at work everyday.

Now, neither of us have "jobs" which get us out on a regular basis. 

We are now officially "small businesses." We can both legally "work" at small jobs and give receipts. I guess I ought to make a blog post specifically about that. I still have to get receipts and cards printed. I guess they will be my very first business expense. If anyone would like to volunteer to help me with the graphics, I'd appreciate it, thanks.

Every week has a different schedule for us, especially for my husband. We generally help out with the grandkids on different days and attend different events. I study now twice a week in different places.

It is reasonably complicated for each of us to keep track of our own schedules, but sometimes we need to do something together. That's a bigger challenge. We scheduled an evening out with my cousin and her husband, and in the end my husband had to make changes to fit the enjoyable evening in. Today, for instance, I'll be going down later than planned to the Tefillat Chana in order to make time to tutor. 

Now that the local pool has closed until next summer, I really make a point of getting out to walk once or twice a day. אחרי החגים... Acharei hachaggim... After the Holidays, I'll make a decision as to what pool and fitness program I'll join. In the meantime walking is my chief fitness mode. Whether solitary or with friends, it's a nice way to see what's new in the neighborhood.

"Handmade*" Cake

When I found myself with the grandkids on a Thursday afternoon, I decided to "kill two birds with one stone" and do some of my Shabbat preparations with them. I also loved the idea of baking in my daughter's nice big oven. So we made cakes.

I used my fantastically easy no-fail basic cake recipe to which I added chocolate chips.

The youngest of that crew was very enthusiastic about helping, so I took advantage of the opportunity. We also did some basic math in English, since there are lots of numbers when baking cakes:

"We need 10 half-cups of flour. Two were from the now finished bag of flour, so how many more do we add from the full bag of flour?"

Even though the Second Grade had started barely a week before, she could calculate it all in her head. NO FINGERS!

We made 4 1/2 cakes. And I guessed the temperature correctly. If there's a dial, cakes generally do well when the dial almost points directly down, just slightly cooler. The "display" showed it as 270 degrees centigrade. Then I double-checked by googling on my phone. The numbers on my oven haven't been visible for years.

When the cakes were finished, we served the small one as a treat to all the kids. I just had a couple of "crumbs" to sample. Calories! Even though, rather inexplicably, most of those grandkids aren't noshers, it's hard to resist a cake straight out of the oven.

Once the cakes had cooled sufficiently, I packed up three, leaving my daughter one for Shabbat. The grandkids reported that the visit was fun.

Why is this post titled "Handmade*" Cake? Very simple. My granddaughter had never heard of mixing a cake by hand before. She called it "handmade." My daughter uses a mixer, and I don't. Of course, you can certainly mix the cake batter with an electric mixer, but I haven't had a functioning mixer for decades. It's just another thing to wash after baking, so I'm not interested. This one-bowl cake comes out perfectly fine when mixed by hand.

Craft Kit Rip-off

 You may have read my post from a few days ago about the lovely work, design and assembling, my not yet seven year old granddaughter had done with the beading supplies I had picked up in a Jerusalem Hobby supply store.  Not only had she chosen the beads I had bought for her teenage sisters, but I had looked forward to making necklaces from them, too. There was nothing at all childish in her taste and designs.

When I went over yesterday to spend time with the kids, I thought of bringing the bag of beads and clasps along with me, but since they have an arts & crafts supply closet at home, so I didn't.

I found a "necklace" kit, which had never been opened/used.

It wasn't quite as creative as the variety of beads I had purchased, but it looked interesting. So we opened it and checked the possibilities. We carefully followed instructions, and she used up all the usable* supplies making necklaces. We pasted what needed to be pasted with the enclosed glue and left everything to dry.

No surprise of course the glue didn't stick, and everything just fell apart. It did keep her busy for awhile, but that is all the kit accomplished. I just have to get more supplies from the regular hobby places. And while I'm there, I'll look for projects to suit her cousin, the young manicurist, too.

*One necklace clasp didn't work, glitter glue had dried out, and there weren't enough backings for the tiles.

Perfect Manicure

The most adorable and talented three year old rushed to get me the lilac nail polish she had picked out for me when in New York, and she painted my nails so perfectly. Not a single drop on my skin. She does a better job than I do.

I'm not going to redo my nails for a long time!

Beading and More at "Camp Saba-Savta"

As my friend Debbie wrote, here in Israel it's very common for grandparents to conduct what are known as Kaytanat Savta, Camp Grandma to help entertain the grandchildren over the summer. When we do it, my husband also helps, so I'll call our camp "Camp Saba-Savta," Camp Grandpa-Grandma."

Even before my husband was retired from work, he had been working part-time and has been going weekly to be with the grandkids in Ofra, which is more than I'd managed the past few years while I was working in Yafiz and then teaching in Yeshiva Tichonit Ahavat Chaim. When they come to us in Shiloh for our "Camp Saba-Savta" both of us do things with the kids.

Of course, one of the big reasons is that our pool has separate swimming hours, male and female. That means that I take our granddaughters, and my husband takes our grandson. And when the females are at the pool, the "men" have to figure out something fun to do. I always look for a nice craft to do with the girls when the "men" are enjoying the pool. I must say that the three girls all swim well and absolutely love the water.

Two years ago my next door neighbor gave me soap molds to use, so we grated bars of soap and made fancy gift soaps. They remember it well.

This year I decided to do a beading project with them. That's how I ended up buying the nice red, black and white beads to make myself a new necklace. I set all the equipment up on the dining room table with a lot of plastic plates so the beads wouldn't roll all over the place. And the plates were also used for planning the necklaces.

I must admit that I was impressed at the speed, design-making abilities and how quickly the going to the 2nd grader caught on to the instructions. She ended up making two necklaces! My oldest granddaughter, who's about to enter high school, also had fun with the beading, though I think that I didn't buy the right style beads for her. None of the beads inspired the second one to even try. I have so many beads leftover... I guess I'll be doing more beading. Stay tuned.

Visiting The Grandkiddies After Their Trip to NY

I don't get to see my grandkids all that often. Until the end of June I had been working, and it was very hard to find the right time. Remember that I also study in Matan, and I have my "senior citizen arts & crafts club." And then as soon as I finished working, the four who live the closest went abroad with their parents for a few weeks.

Now they're all back, so I went over yesterday afternoon. They were doing their usual, school vacation plus jetlag relaxing... So, I did a little "testing."

"I presume that now after three weeks in New York your English is perfect."

That's what I said to the three younger ones. The eldest already understands everything and speaks beautifully. From the "you must be crazy" looks the two middle ones gave me, it was clear that they understood exactly what I had said. And the youngest, reacted with her usual question to her siblings:

"What did savta say?"

She'll catch on. Actually, she does understand most of what I say. And the others know more English than they would have if I hadn't been speaking only English to them all their lives.

Actually, I had a nice conversation with the second one. I spoke in English, and she answered in Hebrew. She understood everything without even once asking me to repeat or explain. The eldest speaks to me in English rarely trying to sneak in Hebrew.

Once the weather cooled down a bit, I was able to bribe the youngest with a trip to the grocers to buy ice cream. And then we went to the playground. I'm looking forward to seeing more of them... And then maybe I'll convince the younger ones to speak English, even just a few words...

Formica Table of My Childhood, They Don't Make Them Like They Used To!

When I was a little girl, in the mid-1950's, my parents had their "blonde wood" dinette table covered in Formica, which they wisely realized would stand up better to the use of a family of five, including three little children.

We lived in a small garden apartment in Bell Park Gardens, Bayside, NY, and there was no "family room" or large kitchen for the type of normal activities, arts & crafts etc that were part of life for us. Also, we didn't go to preschool, and my mother had to keep us and our friends occupied when we couldn't be outside playing. We used the table for lots more than formal meals. The kitchen wasn't large enough for a table either.

The table came with us to the house in Great Neck, but it wasn't used there much, except maybe downstairs in the "playroom."

And then when my husband and I moved to Israel and sent "a lift" which had a few things we hadn't brought when we first came to Israel, my parents added the table. That became our dinette table. Yes, it fit into the small dining area in our Bayit Vegan, Jerusalem apartment, and then came with us to Shiloh and later was demoted or promoted to the status of "desk" for some of our kids.

In recent years, we've had it stored in the basement, very rarely taken out. Some neighbors did borrow it for a few months.

Now my son has moved and decided to rescue it and give it a place of honor in his new apartment.

I can't get over how new and unscathed it looks. This Formica is at least sixty 60 year old.

Formica was first invented just over a hundred years ago, but it wasn't until after World War Two when it became a popular top and cover for furniture.

This table has been used by two active families, lots of children, guests, meals, parties, games and crafts. It has survived a lot better than any newer furniture. I had it longer than my parents actually did, and now it has gone to a third generation. What stories it could tell....

A Day With The Grandkids

Yesterday I spent the day with most of my grandkids going to museums in Jerusalem. The older ones spent the entire day in the Israel Museum with their aunt, my eldest. And for a few hours I took a couple of younger ones to the Bloomfield Science Museum, which they had enjoyed last year. It's a short walk from there. It was a good choice. They loved it and specifically looked for the exhibits and sections they remembered from the earlier visit. This time they had more confidence and knew how to get to "play" with the exhibits and games. It was good that the teen and preteen stayed at the Israel Museum. I saw other kids their age looking as bored and miserable as they had been last year when I had them all in that children's museum.

Here are a few photos, specifically chosen as not to make the kids recognizable.

On My Mother's Yartzeit

As per Jewish custom, I have a 24 hour light burning in her memory.

I have no set custom as to what to do on these memorial days for her. When my husband has them for his parents, he brings herring and maybe schnapps to synagogue in the morning to make a "Lechaim," in their memory. But even though I do pray the morning (and also afternoon) prayers, I do it all quietly alone at home or wherever I happen to be.

I don't really do anything special to commemorate my mother, and I'm still in the first year of mourning for my father, who passed away just a few days before Passover.

In a sense my whole life is a reflection on my parents, for good and for bad. We all are the results of how we are raised and what we make of it.

Even though both of my parents ended up extremely dependent in the period before they died, I still think of them as a generation of giants. There's nothing I can do or accomplish that can compete with the powers they had. We were taught to treat them with awe and respect. And from what I understand, their parent, too treated them that way. They were the "American generation," the first in their families to be born and raised in America. They paved the way. They were also very strong and influential grandparents, in a way I can never be. And in a sense I wouldn't want to be, since I had to stand aside when my parents (and in-laws, too) visited and were with my children.

My mother always encouraged my love for dance, and there was a summer, when I was twenty, when we actually worked together teaching an exercise class for women. Other women in a nearby community had requested that she give a summer class. I had just taken two years of "Dance Movement" lessons with an excellent, innovative instructor, Allan Wayne, in Manhattan, so she told them that she needed me to demonstrate the movements.

Basically, the truth is that I was the teacher. My mother would point to me and tell the women in the class to "follow" what I was doing.

And in many ways, after the original shock of hearing that I was going to live a Torah aka Orthodox Jewish Life and then move to Israel, she became quite supportive. And as the Great Neck Synagogue became more of an Orthodox community, she enthusiastically joined in the various chesed activities like comforting and bringing food to mourners besides running the Sisterhood Gift Shop and more.

My mother loved and participated in all of the arts, was a paid member of lots of museums, a docent in the nearby Nassau County Museum, performed and was stage manager in the Fresh Meadows and later the Great Neck Community Theater, loved dance and shows etc. She also tried her hand at painting. And she absolutely adored her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

לעילוי נשמתה

שפרה בת אברהם וחיה ריזיה

Easy and Fun Home "Chocolate Workshop"

As I had quickly blogged last night, now you'll see and hear about the chocolate workshop I made for my older grandchildren. Last week, when I asked my daughter what to bring for Shabbat, she replied that I should get some treats-sweets for the kids. That's not my specialty at all, as most people may know. For me personally, fruits, nuts and dried fruit would be the perfect treat, but I know that younger generation. They would not appreciate that food genre at all. So, I asked my daughter for a more specific suggestion, and she said "chocolate." Now, that wasn't helpful enough for me. They have chocolate in the house all the time, and there isn't much in cute children's parve (non-dairy) to get as a treat.

So as I was trying to figure out what to do, I noticed something new at the entrance to Rami Levy on display with the silicone cupcake and muffin pans, silicone pans/molds with tiny shapes for making chocolates. I picked up two of different types of shapes and then in the supermarket I got some 60% chocolate bars (parve of course,) and in my local grocery store I bought colored sprinkles and white chocolate chips. I figured that the kids could first put the sprinkles or white chocolate chips in the molds and then pour the melted chocolate over it, and the resulting chocolates would have fillings and toppings and whatever.

To keep the kitchen table from getting dirty full of chocolate, my daughter covered it with clear plastic, which could be easily gathered and dumped afterwards.

There are two basic ways to melt the chocolate, and you're best with a plain bittersweet which will give a little contrast to the "trimmings," whether sprinkles, fruit or nuts.

1. We made a  double-boiler of sorts by putting two metal jar lids in a pan of boiling water and then on top of them a heat resistant bowl which had the chocolate to melt. I added a bit of oil to make it easier to pour and guarantee that it would easily fill the molds. As you stir, you'll get the feel for it. 
2. Melt in a microwave on a very low short setting, stopping periodically to stir and add the oil. My daughter felt that we'd have more control by using the stove, which we did.

The kids aged 13 down to 5 1/2 all had great fun. They took turns waiting until a batch was ready and the mold emptied. They even asked to melt some white chocolate chips to make a black/white chocolate. To speed up the hardening, we placed the molds in the freezer. When each batch hardened, we took out the fancy chocolates by turning over the molds and pushing the pretty candies onto a plate covered with "baking paper." Then each child put his/hers into a container and in the fridge.

For a more taste-sophisticated Home "Chocolate Workshop" you can add mint extract or liquor to the chocolate or even a bit of strong concentrated orange juice or coffee. And of course, instead of the sprinkles and white chips, you can use fruit, nuts and/or seeds.

Here are some photos from our workshop: 

If you try it, please tell me how it turns out, thanks.

Coming Attractions: The Chocolate Workshop

Gd willing the plan for tomorrow's post here is to tell you how I put together a "homemade" Chocolate Workshop for the grandkids, so stay tuned....