Pictures from Amona Vigil

I Had No Idea, This Would Be So Popular

You may know that I write a daily, except Shabbat, #morningcoffeehaiku and since a haiku is a poetic form based on syllables, 5, 7, 5, I needed some advice.

Would you consider "tired" one syllable or two? Need to know asap, thanks.

The answers, OK, debate are continuing. Here are a few:

• 2
• One.
• In the south it's at least 3.
• Definitely region dependent
• Yeah I was born in Brooklyn. There the question, "Did you eat yet?" has only one syllable: "Jeet?"
• That depends on just how tired I am! 
• one for me. Depends on where you live :-)
• Two. But my South African husband says it in one. Tahd.
• See a dictionary entry. 2 syllables.
• 1 your jaw drops only once.
• why not 2? there are 2 separate vowel sounds-check in a good old-fashioned dictionary /it shows the separation
• it's not ty-red. It's ti -erd can't you trust a teacher with 40 years experience.

What do you think?

Another EFL Teaching Trick

Modern pedagogy aka teaching methods stresses that people/children everybody learns differently. When I was doing my teachers license, we were told that there were three basic methods:

• visual
• audial
• kinesthetic

As an EFL Teacher who specializes in "mild" remedial classes, who is also a CPA's daughter and, as my sister likes to say, from a family of artists, I've sort of expanded that. I also use numbers whenever I can connect them to the meanings of words. 

This is how I teach basic "frequency words." As you can see, besides the fact the the words are written in a logical order, they are in a triangle. And I've assigned percentages to the words. "Always" is at the bottom, the largest part of the triangle and 100%.  On the top, the tiny tip of the triangle is "never," 0%.

What do you think about this? Do you agree that it should help students to picture and "calculate" the meanings of the  "frequency words?"

Big Reason I Need New Kitchen

My plans for this summer is to, Gd willing, design/order and enjoy and new kitchen. Besides the fact that after over thirty years of constant and even heavy use, things are falling apart, I find my two mini-ovens totally unsuited for my present way of cooking. The "stove-oven" niche is much too small to get any decent-sized replacement. It's so small that my present "stove-oven" blocks the sliding door by a fraction of an inch. The good news about that is that since we've survived fine without using that doorway, I will have it filled into part of the wall which will give me more closet/appliance space.

As you must know if you read my blog and the recipes I post, a great amount of my cooking is done in the oven. At present, I can barely bake/cook one thing at a time. That means that even preparing food for one meal can a be a complicated logistical, long drawn out waste of time.  

I dream of two large ovens that can work simultaneously. That's an efficient way to cook. And for years already, I've had trouble with my stove top. Not only haven't the burners all worked, but there would frequently be a gas smell. So now we're using a small two-burner hotplate. At least it doesn't smell.

Gd willing...

Report on the New Heater/Cooler Airconditioner

• I absolutely adore the new feel of the house.
• I love coming in on a cold day and actually feeling warmer inside than I had been outside all bundled up. 
• It's so nice that our rather small living-room and even smaller bedroom no longer has to be cluttered by a radiator.

Everyone keeps asking:

"Aren't you sorry you didn't get them ten (or more) years ago?"

Well, in all honesty, maybe not ten or more years ago, but certainly five or so when prices began to drop drastically. I remember that the earlier ones, which we would have certainly been replaced a couple of times by now, weren't a fraction as good as today's standard models. It's sort of like the "advantage" of a baby walking a bit "late" and saving her/his parents money on shoes, since those early walkers need more pairs of the more expensive ones.

Today's models also have better motors and thermostats, so they go off a lot, and the house stays comfortable.

Our neighbors had a very early model, and everytime it went on our lights dimmed, because the neighborhood electricity supply was connected and insufficient. I'm not the type to keep berating myself for something in the past that can't be reversed. Let's just enjoy what we have today.

Anything Everything Omelets

When I was growing up, we weren't all that creative with our omelets. About the only things I remember being added were onions, tomatoes and cheese. And rarely were they all in the same omelet.

I have an omelet almost every day for breakfast, and my omelet making is getting more and more creative. I'm always trying different vegetables, but davka cheese isn't included. There's a simple reason for the lack of cheese. It's fatty, processed and unnecessary. I get sufficient protein from my two eggs, which are much healthier.

As you may know from previous posts, I've been adding fresh ginger to my omelets recently. Here are some of my latest.

Celery, tomato, onion, garlic, ginger...

Tomato, squash, onion, garlic and ginger.

Onion and carrots. I wasn't home.

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #14, Mega Yuck!

This is a continuation in my ongoing series about public toilets in Jerusalem. See #13, #12, #11, #10, #9,  #8, #7,  #6,  #5, Saved by The First Station aka #4a, #4, #3, #2 and #1

MEGA B'IR מגה בעיר is one of Israel's supermarket chains. According to the news, it has been struggling financially of late, but that's still no excuse not to have toilet paper in the WCs public restrooms. A few days ago, I was near their Arnona-Derech Hebron branch and rather desperately needed "facilities," which are called שירותים Sherutim, Services, in Hebrew. There is also a "TEREM," Medical Emergency Center nearby, but I wasn't in the mood for getting past a medical receptionist by saying:

"At my age needing a toilet is an emergency."

I've discovered and reported that quite a few of the Supermarket chains here in Israel have perfectly proper and well-kept, well-supplied public toilets, so in this fancy neighborhood I was pretty confident that the "services" would be acceptable.

Actually, I was very optimistic, because at the entrance I quickly noticed the sign they had pointing the way to the WCs. I didn't have to waste any time asking workers. I quickly followed directions, plus an additional sign to the very back of the store. I should have been wary when I found myself walking through the same sort of clear heavy plastic "curtains" that they have in the Shaar Binyamin Rami Levy to the "workers only" area. But I was too much in a rush to turn back.


I entered an area with three doors, each to a toilet. One was labeled "Handicapped," one said MEN and the other nothing. None were lit inside, and none had toilet paper. I entered the "unlabeled" stall and a discovered a suspiciously wet floor, but it was too late to turn back. Luckily I had some tissues in my pocket. And I must admit that it didn't smell.

Surprisingly, one of the soap dispensers was actually full. That was a relief! But, you guessed it, there weren't any paper towels.

If any of you frequent that supermarket, I'd appreciate updates. But in the meantime, unless I hear of serious improvements, I'll have to check out the TEREM nextdoor.

PS There's also a Superpharm nearby. Do they have public toilets?

An Evening at The Israel Museum

Tuesday evening I was at the Israel Museum, which is the perfect place for me to "hang out" in Jerusalem. I hadn't been there for quite awhile, so I tried to see some new exhibits. And then I ended my time there with a perfect Spinach Quiche in Mansfeld Cafe.

I was amazed at how many young families were at the museum with little kids and babies. One of the great things about this museum is how child-friendly it is. My children have great memories of our visits when they were growing up. And the renovations done a few years ago have made it even more fun and handicapped accessible than it had been.

Here are some photos:

Photography Fun!

I've been having great fun with the photography groups I'm in 52Frames, Instagram and 365 Project. Each is different. If you're involved with any of them, then please check out my photos, follow me where relevant etc.

The latest 52Frames challenge was Negative Space, and here's mine:

"Work of Gd"
Sunrises and sunsets here in Shiloh are totally amazing. All I needed to do was a drop of cropping. That's the real color you see.

In 365 project I used a different sunrise the other day. You can find me by looking for shilohmom.

Sun Peeking

As the sun rises....

You may notice that this is the same view but a different day and time.

On Instagram I'm shilohbatya and I post at least a couple a times a day.

This is my latest mosaics project made in the Senior Citizens activity program.

Each group has a different emphasis, which I enjoy.